Books like 'Heat and Light'
Readers who enjoyed Heat and Light by Ellen Van Neerven also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
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They Call Her Dirty Sally by Amy Matayo
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsFor years, the town of Silver Bell, Arkansas has quietly mourned the hospital fire that claimed the lives of nine of its residents—the town doctor, a young expectant mother, and seven infants...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction fiction mystery contemporary womens-fiction small-town drama -
![A Page in Your Diary by Keith A. Pearson]()
A Page in Your Diary by Keith A. Pearson
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsTen insane days. One miraculous opportunity to re-write the past."If you lived through the 1980s and love time travel novels, you'll struggle to find a more addictive read than Pearson's latest gem." - Joanna JamesIn May 1987 Jackie Benton received a heartbreaking phone call from her boyfriend, Sean Hardy, bringing an end to their five-year relationship...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction adult book contemporary fiction paranormal time-travel -
![Logic Beach: Part I by Exurb1a]()
Logic Beach: Part I by Exurb1a
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsMathematician Polly Hare is missing. She leaves behind: one cat, one scarf, and a hypergeometric theory of everything with the potential to end physics. Her husband Benjamin is determined to bring her home. Papers will be read. Cults will be infiltrated. Cats will be petted. Benjamin Hare cannot tie his shoes, but he may well steer the course of human history... -
![天橋上的魔術師 by Wu Ming-Yi, 吳明益]()
天橋上的魔術師 by Wu Ming-Yi, 吳明益
Rated: 4.43 of 5 stars · 7 ratings...Categorized as:
literary-fiction historical-fiction fiction young-adult magic family contemporary children -
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![Secrets of the Highlander by Janet Chapman]()
Secrets of the Highlander by Janet Chapman
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsHe is the father of her child, but the secrets they are hiding are tearing them apart.... Megan MacKeage escaped the smothering protectiveness of the Highland MacKeage clan to work as a scientist on the Canadian tundra. But when fellow researcher Wayne Ferris breaks her heart by rejecting her, Megan returns to Maine alone... -
![Infect Your Friends and Loved Ones by Torrey Peters]()
Infect Your Friends and Loved Ones by Torrey Peters
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsIn the future, everyone will be trans. So says Lexi. She's a charismatic trans woman furious with the way she sees her trans friends treated by society and resentful of the girl who spurned her love... -
![Throwback by Maurene Goo]()
Throwback by Maurene Goo
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsBack to the Future meets The Joy Luck Club in this YA contemporary romance about a Korean American girl sent back to the ’90s to (reluctantly) help her teenage mom win Homecoming Queen.Being a first-generation Asian American immigrant is hard. You know what’s harder? Being the daughter of one...Categorized as:
historical-fiction poc-mc romance young-adult contemporary time-travel sci-fi fiction -
![The Free People's Village by Sim Kern]()
The Free People's Village by Sim Kern
Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars · 13 ratingsIn an alternate 2020 timeline, Al Gore won the 2000 election and declared a War on Climate Change rather than a War on Terror. For twenty years, Democrats have controlled all three branches of government, enacting carbon-cutting schemes that never made it to a vote in our world. Green infrastructure projects have transformed U.S... -
![Sooner or Later Everything Falls Into the Sea by Sarah Pinsker]()
Sooner or Later Everything Falls Into the Sea by Sarah Pinsker
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 17 ratingsThe baker's dozen stories gathered here (including a new, previously unpublished story) turn readers into travelers to the past, the future, and explorers of the weirder points of the present...Categorized as:
lgbtq literary-fiction adult anthologies apocalyptic audiobook contemporary dystopia -
![Last of the Curlews by Fred Bodsworth]()
Last of the Curlews by Fred Bodsworth
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratings"The story of this migration is magnificent, informative, breathtaking and exotic". Los Angeles TimesMore than three million readers around the world have been touched by this conservation classic, the story of a solitary Eskimo curlew's last perilous migration and search for a mate. The lone survivor comes to stand for the entirety of a lost species...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century adult animals anthropomorphism book classics -
![Active Memory by Dan Wells]()
Active Memory by Dan Wells
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsFrom Dan Wells, author of the New York Times bestselling Partials Sequence and the John Cleaver series, comes the third and final book in the dark, pulse-pounding, sci-fi neo-noir series that began with the acclaimed novel Bluescreen... -
![Czarne oceany by Jacek Dukaj]()
Czarne oceany by Jacek Dukaj
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsDukaj od nowa skonfigurował klasyczną twardą fantastykę naukową.Mroczna, sugestywna, boleśnie realistyczna wizja społeczeństwa posthumanistycznego.Czarne oceany – przerażająca otchłań myśli ludzkiej.Nicolas Hunt kieruje tajnym projektem rządowym, badającym komercyjne zastosowania telepatii. Rezultaty tych badań zmienią nieodwracalnie nie tylko jego życie, ale także losy całego świata... -
![Jollof Rice and Other Revolutions: A Novel in Interlocking Stories by Omolola Ijeoma Ogunyemi]()
Jollof Rice and Other Revolutions: A Novel in Interlocking Stories by Omolola Ijeoma Ogunyemi
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratings6 hrs. 10 min.Nigerian author Omolola Ijeoma Ogunyemi makes her American debut with this dazzling novel which explores her homeland's past, present, and possible future through the interconnected stories of four fearless globe-trotting women...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction poc-mc fiction contemporary audiobook female-author friendship -
![The Marriage Act by John Marrs]()
The Marriage Act by John Marrs
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsWhat if marriage was the law? Dare you disobey?Britain. The near-future. A right-wing government believes it has the answer to society’s ills — the Sanctity of Marriage Act, which actively encourages marriage as the norm, punishing those who choose to remain single... -
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![The World Keeps Ending, and the World Goes On by Franny Choi]()
The World Keeps Ending, and the World Goes On by Franny Choi
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsFrom acclaimed poet Franny Choi comes a poetry collection for the ends of worlds--past, present, and future. Choi's third book features poems about historical and impending apocalypses, alongside musings on our responsibilities to each other and visions for our collective survival.Many have called our time dystopian... -
![The Vanished Birds by Simon Jimenez]()
The Vanished Birds by Simon Jimenez
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsA mysterious child lands in the care of a solitary woman, changing both of their lives forever in this captivating debut of connection across space and time."This is when your life begins."Nia Imani is a woman out of place and outside of time...Categorized as:
lgbtq literary-fiction poc-mc action-adventure audiobook book coming-of-age contemporary -
![Tunneling to the Center of the Earth: Stories by Kevin Wilson]()
Tunneling to the Center of the Earth: Stories by Kevin Wilson
Rated: 4.09 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsKevin Wilson's characters inhabit a world that moves seamlessly between the real and the imagined, the mundane and the fantastic. "Grand Stand-In" is narrated by an employee of a Nuclear Family Supplemental Provider—a company that supplies "stand-ins" for families with deceased, ill, or just plain mean grandparents...Categorized as:
lgbtq literary-fiction 21st-century anthologies audiobook contemporary fiction humor -
![Apex Magazine Issue 99 by Jason Sizemore, Rebecca Roanhorse]()
Apex Magazine Issue 99 by Jason Sizemore, Rebecca Roanhorse
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsApex Magazine is a monthly science fiction, fantasy, and horror magazine featuring original, mind-bending short fiction from many of the top pros of the field. New issues are released the first Tuesday of every month.This month we celebrate Indigenous American fantasists with guest editor Amy H. Sturgis... -
![Soft Science by Franny Choi]()
Soft Science by Franny Choi
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsSoft Science explores queer, Asian American femininity. A series of Turing Test-inspired poems grounds its exploration of questions not just of identity, but of consciousness―how to be tender and feeling and still survive a violent world filled with artificial intelligence and automation... -
![Not Fade Away by Jim Dodge]()
Not Fade Away by Jim Dodge
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsGeorge Gastin is a Bay Area tow-truck operator who wrecks cars as part of an insurance scam. One of the cars he is hired to demolish is a snow-white Cadillac that was supposed to be a present for the Big Bopper, who died in the Iowa plane crash that killed Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens. Gastin has a change of heart and takes off in the car, heading for Texas where the Bopper is buried...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction action-adventure adult book contemporary dark-humor fiction -
![The Works of Rudyard Kipling (500+ works) by Rudyard Kipling]()
The Works of Rudyard Kipling (500+ works) by Rudyard Kipling
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsWith A to Z Classics, discover or rediscover all the classics of literature... -
![Invisible Planets: Contemporary Chinese Science Fiction in Translation by Ken Liu, Chen Qiufan]()
Invisible Planets: Contemporary Chinese Science Fiction in Translation by Ken Liu, Chen Qiufan
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsAward-winning translator and author Ken Liu presents a collection of short speculative fiction from China. Some stories have won awards; some have been included in various 'Year's Best' anthologies; some have been well reviewed by critics and readers; and some are simply Ken's personal favorites... -
![The Names by Florence Knapp]()
The Names by Florence Knapp
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe extraordinary debut that Can a name change the course of a life?In the wake of a catastrophic storm, Cora sets off with her nine-year-old daughter, Maia, to register her son's birth. Her husband, Gordon, a local doctor, respected in the community but a terrifying and controlling presence at home, intends for her to name the infant after him...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction fiction contemporary sci-fi family female-author breakup -
![Unwieldy Creatures by Addie Brook Tsai]()
Unwieldy Creatures by Addie Brook Tsai
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 7 ratingsA tale of doom and ambition, loss and revenge, love and murder... -
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![Bug Week by Airini Beautrais]()
Bug Week by Airini Beautrais
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA science educator in domestic chaos fetishises Scandinavian furniture and champagne flutes. A group of white-collar deadbeats attend a swinger’s party in the era of drunk Muldoon. A pervasive smell seeps through the walls of a German housing block. A seabird performs at an open-mic night... -
![Portable Curiosities by Julie Koh]()
Portable Curiosities by Julie Koh
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA biting collection of stories from a bold new voice. A young girl sees ghosts from her third eye, located where her belly button should be. A corporate lawyer feels increasingly disconnected from his job in a soulless 1200-storey skyscraper... -
![Clip by Charity Parkerson]()
Clip by Charity Parkerson
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsLuka was nothing more than a job to Brady… until he wasn’t. When the owner of the Phoenix Ice Rays starts receiving death threats, the first thing he does is hire Brady to protect his son, Luka. It’s a move that leaves Luka less than thrilled. Ever since moving out on his own six years earlier, he’s come to embrace the silence of his workaholic ways... -
![Cool. Awkward. Black. by Amerie, Kalynn Bayron]()
Cool. Awkward. Black. by Amerie, Kalynn Bayron
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA multi-genre YA anthology of bestselling, critically acclaimed Black authors challenging the concept of the geek, featuring contributions from Amerie, Kalynn Bayron, Terry J. Benton-Walker, Roseanne A. Brown, Elise Bryant, Tracy Deonn, Desiree S. Evans, Isaac Fitzsimons, Lamar Giles, Jordan Ifueko, Leah Johnson, Amanda Joy, Kwame Mbalia, Tochi Onyebuchi, Shari B. Pennant, K... -
![Pay As You Go by Eskor David Johnson]()
Pay As You Go by Eskor David Johnson
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsNew to town and delusionally confident, Slide imagined himself living in a glossy building with doormen and sweeping views of the skyline. Instead he's landed in a creaking, stuffy apartment with two roommates: a loping giant who hardly leaves his room, and a weight-obsessed neurotic who keeps no fewer than forty-seven lamps throughout the house, blazing at all hours... -
![Through the Night Like a Snake: Latin American Horror Stories by Tomás Downey, Mariana Enríquez]()
Through the Night Like a Snake: Latin American Horror Stories by Tomás Downey, Mariana Enríquez
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA boy explores the abandoned house of a dead fascist…A leaked sex tape pushes a woman to the brink…A sex worker discovers a dark secret among the nuns of the pampas…The mountain fog is not what it seems…Kermit the Frog dreams of murder…In ten chilling stories from an ensemble cast of contemporary Latin American writers, including Mariana Enriquez (tr. Megan McDowell), Camila Sosa Villlada (tr...Categorized as:
literary-fiction poc-mc horror fiction anthologies contemporary paranormal latinx-mc -
![Every Version of You by Grace Chan]()
Every Version of You by Grace Chan
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsIn late twenty-first century Australia, Tao-Yi and her partner Navin spend most of their time inside a hyper-immersive, hyper-consumerist virtual reality called Gaia. They log on, go to work, socialise, and even eat in this digital utopia. Meanwhile their aging bodies lie suspended in pods inside cramped apartments...Categorized as:
literary-fiction lgbtq sci-fi fiction dystopia mental-illness contemporary pollution-climate-change -
![A Guardian and a Thief by Megha Majumdar]()
A Guardian and a Thief by Megha Majumdar
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsOPRAH'S BOOK CLUB PICK • FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD“Wondering if there’s a novel out there that gives Cormac McCarthy’s The Road a run for its money? Here you go. [A Guardian and a Thief is] an indelible piece of writing, in equal parts dazzling and devastating...Categorized as:
literary-fiction historical-fiction fiction sci-fi dystopia contemporary mystery book -
![Gonzalez & Daughter Trucking Co.: A Road Novel with Literary License by María Amparo Escandón]()
Gonzalez & Daughter Trucking Co.: A Road Novel with Literary License by María Amparo Escandón
Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsFrom the author of L.A. Weather comes “a whimsical, humorous, and passionate mystery that explores the love and hurt of a father and daughter on the run” (Jorge Ramos, News Anchor for Univision).“1,001 nights in a Mexicali women’s prison . . . González and Daughter Trucking Co. is about our compulsion to make events into stories and stories into bridges of understanding...Categorized as:
poc-mc literary-fiction historical-fiction fiction contemporary young-adult womens-fiction family -
![Vida by Marge Piercy]()
Vida by Marge Piercy
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsOriginally published in 1979, this piece of revolutionary fiction is a bestselling author’s classic paean to the 1960s. At the center of the novel stands Vida Asch, who has lived underground for almost a decade...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century adult book classics contemporary female-author -
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![From the Fatherland, with Love by Ryū Murakami]()
From the Fatherland, with Love by Ryū Murakami
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsFrom the Fatherland, with Love is set in an alternative, dystopian present in which the dollar has collapsed and Japan's economy has fallen along with it. The North Korean government, sensing an opportunity, sends a fleet of rebels in the first land invasion that Japan has ever faced. Japan can't cope with the surprise onslaught of Operation From the Fatherland, with Love... -
![Event Factory by Renee Gladman]()
Event Factory by Renee Gladman
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsA “linguist-traveler” arrives by plane to Ravicka, a city of yellow air in which an undefined crisis is causing the inhabitants to flee. Although fluent in the native language, she quickly finds herself on the outside of every experience. Things happen to her, events transpire, but it is as if the city itself, the performance of life there, eludes her... -
![A History of the Island by Eugene Vodolazkin]()
A History of the Island by Eugene Vodolazkin
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsMonks devious and devout – and an age-defying royal pair – chronicle the history of their fictional island in this witty critique of Western civilization and history itself.Eugene Vodolazkin, internationally acclaimed novelist and scholar of medieval literature, returns with a satirical parable about European and Russian history, the myth of progress, and the futility of war... -
![Walking on Cowrie Shells by Nana Nkweti]()
Walking on Cowrie Shells by Nana Nkweti
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsNana Nkweti draws on myth, horror and graphic novels as well as literary fiction, gritty realism and noir as she vaults into the vibrant intersection of Cameroonian and American cultures. A teenage adoptee leverages her new parents to fast-track her fortunes. A jaded PR man spins a zombie outbreak in West Africa. And a Mami Wata sacrifices her power for the fisherman she loves... -
![Bending The Landscape: Science Fiction by Nicola Griffith, J.K. Potter]()
Bending The Landscape: Science Fiction by Nicola Griffith, J.K. Potter
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsEdited by world-renowned lesbian fantasy author Nicola Griffith and fantasy publisher Stephen Pagel, this groundbreaking anthology of all-original science fiction stories brings together some of mainstream's and science fiction's most notable writers -- gay and straight -- creating worlds where time and place and sexuality are alternative to the empirical environment... -
![Gift of Time by Robin Alexander]()
Gift of Time by Robin Alexander
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsLeah Marks has no idea what is missing from her quiet, uneventful life until a simple change in her daily routine alters her existence. From the moment she meets antique dealer Reagan Montgomery, Leah's world is turned upside down. A unique gift given to her by Reagan leads them on a journey that defies logic and the laws of time... -
![The Invented Part by Rodrigo Fresán]()
The Invented Part by Rodrigo Fresán
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratings“A kaleidoscopic, open-hearted, shamelessly polymathic storyteller, the kind who brings a blast of oxygen into the room... -
![The Lake Wobegon Virus by Garrison Keillor, Richard Dworsky]()
The Lake Wobegon Virus by Garrison Keillor, Richard Dworsky
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsBestselling author and humorist Garrison Keillor returns to one of America's most beloved mythical towns, beset by a contagion of alarming candor. A mysterious virus has infiltrated the good people of Lake Wobegon, transmitted via unpasteurized cheese made by a Norwegian bachelor farmer, the effect of which is episodic loss of social inhibition... -
![Love at First Hate by J.L. Merrow]()
Love at First Hate by J.L. Merrow
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsFirst impressions can doom second chances.Bran Roscarrock has been living in the closet all his life. As heir to an expansive family legacy in the town of Porthkennack, old-fashioned ideals of respectability and duty were drummed into him since childhood, and he’s never dared to live—or love—openly... -
![American Estrangement: Stories by Said Sayrafiezadeh]()
American Estrangement: Stories by Said Sayrafiezadeh
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsSaid Sayrafiezadeh has been hailed by Philip Gourevitch as "a masterful storyteller working from deep in the American grain." His new collection of stories—some of which have appeared in The New Yorker, the Paris Review, and the Best American Short Stories—is set in a contemporary America full of the kind of emotionally bruised characters familiar to readers of Denis Johnson and George Saunders... -
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![Shaken and Stirred by Aiden Bates]()
Shaken and Stirred by Aiden Bates
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsOmega Sam Marlowe hasn’t always had an easy life, but he’s got everything he needs now. He co-owns a biker bar with his brother, Silas. They live upstairs, and they rent out the other apartments upstairs. He’s got his bike, and he doesn’t have much else that he could ask for. He doesn’t have a steady alpha, but he doesn’t need that. It’s just him and Silas, and they’re happy with that... -
![The Rivals by Jane Pek]()
The Rivals by Jane Pek
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA prescient literary mystery about corporate espionage, family dynamics, and the follow-up to Jane Pek’s “thoroughly modern twist on classic detective fiction,” The Verifiers (New York Times Book Review)“Exhilaratingly well-written. I loved it so much that I didn’t want it to end.” —Emily St... -
![The Measure by Nikki Erlick]()
The Measure by Nikki Erlick
Rated: 3.80 of 5 stars · 5 ratingsIt seems like any other day: You wake up, pour a cup of coffee, and head out. But today when you open your front door, waiting for you is a small wooden box. This box holds your fate inside: the answer to the exact number of years you will live.From suburban doorsteps to desert tents, every person on every continent receives the same box... -
![Prime Meridian by Silvia Moreno-Garcia]()
Prime Meridian by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Rated: 3.96 of 5 stars · 15 ratingsLove, life, dreams, and a world beyond reach.Amelia dreams of Mars. The Mars of the movies and the imagination, an endless bastion of opportunities for a colonist with some guts...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction poc-mc adult audiobook book contemporary dystopia -
![Gliff by Ali Smith]()
Gliff by Ali Smith
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsFrom a literary master, a moving and genre-bending story about our era-spanning search for meaning and knowing.An uncertain near-future. A story of new boundaries drawn between people daily. A not-very brave new world. Add two children. And a horse.From a Scottish word meaning a transient moment, a shock, a faint glimpse, Gliff explores how and why we endeavour to make a mark on the world... -
![Beauty Salon by Mario Bellatin]()
Beauty Salon by Mario Bellatin
Rated: 3.86 of 5 stars · 14 ratings"Like much of Mr. Bellatin’s work, Beauty Salon is pithy, allegorical and profoundly disturbing, with a plot that evokes The Plague by Camus or Blindness by José Saramago."--New York Times"Including a few details that may linger uncomfortably with the reader for a long time, this is contemporary naturalism as disturbing as it gets."--BooklistA strange plague appears in a large city...
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