Books like 'Fortune Box'
Readers who enjoyed Fortune Box by Madeleine Swann also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
fantasy horror humor magical-realism
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The City of Dreaming Books by Walter Moers
Rated: 4.35 of 5 stars · 39 ratingsIn this new Zamonian adventure, Optimus Yarnspinner, a young writer, inherits from his beloved godfather an unpublished short story by an unknown author. His search for the author’s identity takes him to Bookholm the so-called City of Dreaming Books. On entering its streets, our hero feels as if he has opened the door of a gigantic second-hand bookshop...Categorized as:
humor magical-realism 21st-century action-adventure audiobook book children children-books -
Serious Moonlight by Dave Turner
Rated: 4.63 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsIt’s the weekend! After stopping the destruction of London, Dave and Melanie have earned a romantic getaway in the country. Even though they’ve left the stresses of the city behind, they’re soon up to their necks with paranormal researchers, witches and the ghosts of star-crossed lovers. Not to mention the lack of broadband and the unspeakable horror lurking in the woods... -
The Collected Tales by Nikolai Gogol
Rated: 4.35 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsCollected here are Gogol's finest tales - from the demon-haunted St John's Eve to the strange surrealism of The Nose and the heartrending trials of the copyist in The Overcoat.St... -
Battle of the Boss-Monster: A Branches Book by Troy Cummings
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsPick a book. Grow a Reader!This series is part of Scholastic's early chapter book line, Branches, aimed at newly independent readers. With easy-to-read text, high-interest content, fast-paced plots, and illustrations on every page, these books will boost reading confidence and stamina... -
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March of the Vanderpants by Troy Cummings
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsPick a book. Grow a Reader!This series is part of Scholastic's early chapter book line Branches, aimed at newly independent readers. With easy-to-read text, high-interest content, fast-paced plots, and illustrations on every page, these books will boost reading confidence and stamina. Branches books help readers grow!In book 12, the S.S.M.P... -
Arbitrate or Die by Sarah Noffke, Michael Anderle
Rated: 4.37 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsDragons are almost extinct. Eggs are rare. The dragons alive are in danger. All because of one man. Thad Reinhart doesn’t just want dragonriders gone because their role as adjudicators threatens his businesses. His grudge is personal. But there’s one thing he didn’t anticipate. S. Beaufont isn’t like any dragonrider before. She is modern. She thinks differently... -
Creepy Crayon! by Aaron Reynolds
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsA #1 New York Times bestseller!From the team behind the New York Times bestselling Creepy Carrots! and Creepy Pair of Underwear! comes the third in this hilariously spooky series about a young rabbit and his peculiar encounters—featuring a sinister crayon!Jasper Rabbit has a he is NOT doing well in school. His spelling tests? Disasters. His math quizzes? Frightening to behold... -
Odd Thomas: You Are Destined To Be Together Forever by Dean Koontz
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe singular journey of Odd Thomas is approaching its unforgettable conclusion in Saint Odd. But before Odd’s destiny is revealed, this exclusive eBook short story looks back — way back — to where it all began for Odd Thomas and Stormy Llewellyn, two souls who are destined to be together forever... -
Dragon's Plight by John P. Logsdon, Orlando A. Sanchez
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsWhat do you call an unarmed PPD officer in the middle of the Badlands? A victim. Chief Zeke Phoenix survived his funeral party…barely. Now survival turns into mayhem management as he works to turn his team's begrudging respect into a force that’ll keep the Badlands in check. When an unmarked package hits his desk, mayhem turns to chaos... -
Monster Notebook by Troy Cummings
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsCalling all future members of the Super Secret Monster Patrol! Kids love reading about the wacky monsters that attack Stermont in Troy Cummings' bestselling The Notebook of Doom series. Now fans can own Alexander Bopp's S.S.M.P... -
Unbinding Love by Carolyn Ridder Aspenson
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsWhen Atlanta-based psychic medium-turned amateur sleuth Angela Panther teams up with her best friend Mel and celestial super sleuth—and Angela's dead mother—Fran to help Detective Aaron Banner find a lost boy, the trio heads into ghostly territory they’ve never experienced. The mob and magic aren't part of the psychic medium handbook, and the trio's not sure they'll make it out of it alive... -
Kill All Angels: The Vicious Circuit, Book Three by Robert Brockway
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThe concluding volume in the humorous punk rock adventure that began with The Unnoticeables and The Empty Ones. After the events of the first two books of the Vicious Circle series, Carey and Randall reached LA during the early '80s punk scene, which was heavily mixed up with Chinatown... -
Get Witch Quick by Louisa West
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsShe should have known better than to put all of her eggs in one basket.Rosemary Bell has begun a new life in Mosswood, Georgia. But when the town’s annual Easter Fair is ruined by a spell gone wrong, the townsfolk are hopping mad, and it could have grave consequences for her daughter Maggie... -
Demon Dentist by David Walliams
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsThis New York Times bestseller from David Walliams, the UK’s #1 bestselling children’s author and “the heir to Roald Dahl” (The Spectator), launched his books stateside in a big way!Walliams makes going to the dentist a wacky adventure with his signature humor—this is one dentist appointment you don’t want to miss.Something strange is happening in Alfie's town...Categorized as:
humor magical-realism action-adventure audiobook book children children-books comedy -
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The Overcoat and Other Short Stories by Nikolai Gogol
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsFour works by great 19th-century Russian author - "The Nose," a savage satire of Russia's incompetent bureaucrats; "Old-Fashioned Farmers," a pleasant depiction of an elderly couple living in rustic seclusion; "The Tale of How Ivan Ivanovich Quarrelled with Ivan Nikiforovich," one of Gogol's most famous comic stories; and "The Overcoat," widely considered a masterpiece of form... -
Who's a Good Boy? by Joseph Fink, Jeffrey Cranor
Rated: 4.49 of 5 stars · 11 ratingsFrom the authors of the New York Times bestselling novels It Devours! and Welcome to Night Vale and the creators of the #1 international podcast of the same name, comes a collection of episodes from Season Four of their hit podcast, featuring an introduction by the authors, a foreword by Jonny Sun, behind-the-scenes commentary, and original illustrations... -
Tiny Deaths by Robert Shearman
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsAnalyzing the complexity, absurdity, and blessedness of seemingly ordinary people, this debut collection examines the metaphysical assumptions surrounding death... -
Styx & Stoned by Boone Brux
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsLas Vegas! All expenses paid! Normally, a trip like that would be a dream come true for a widowed, mother of three, who just happens to be grim reaper. Here’s the thing though, situations rarely work out as I imagine they should. And usually not in my favor. This time isn’t any different... -
Blood Gifts by Becca Andre
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsSeventeen-year-old Ian is used to pressure. Born into a necromancer family, he and his twin brother Lex exhibited uncommon magical potential at an early age that led their father to expect great things—from them both. That is until Lex’s blood gift fails to manifest. Or so everyone believes. For the past five years, Ian has been keeping a secret... -
The Kite of Stars and Other Stories by Dean Francis Alfar
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThis book collects sixteen wondrous stories of fantasy, science fiction, horror and things in between from the imagination of award-winning fictionist Dean Francis Alfar... -
The Buying of Lot 37 by Joseph Fink, Jeffrey Cranor
Rated: 4.47 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsFrom the authors of the New York Times bestselling novels It Devours! and Welcome to Night Vale and the creators of the #1 international podcast of the same name, comes a collection of episodes from Season Three of their hit podcast, featuring an introduction by the authors, a foreword by Dessa, behind-the-scenes commentary, and original illustrations... -
Ballistic Kiss: A Sandman Slim Novel by Richard Kadrey
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 25 ratings"I loved where Kadrey started with this series, but I love where he's going even more."-- NYT Bestselling author Cory DoctorowSandman Slim is back in Los Angeles and kicking more supernatural ass in this inventive, high-octane page-turner—the next to last volume in the popular and acclaimed fantasy adventure series from New York Times bestselling author Richard Kadrey... -
Dark is Her Nature by Judith Berens, Martha Carr
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsFor Hire: Teachers for special school in Virginia countryside. Must be able to handle teenagers with special abilities. Cannot be afraid to discipline werewolves, wizards, elves and other assorted hormonal teens. Apply at the School of Necessary Magic. Alison is a young Drow princess whose power is just beginning to grow inside of her – too bad for the dark forces after her... -
The Man Behind the Monster by Sarah Noffke
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsHe is the most powerful man to ever live, and therefore doomed to misery. Sherlock Holmes meets House for a combination that makes for a brilliant anti-hero. Ren Lewis was born with the power to control minds, hypnotize others, and read thoughts. Therefore he is certain of one thing. God made a mistake. No one should be born with so much power... -
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Tricky Witch by Nikki Dean
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsKeep hiding your magic.Never admit to what you can do.And that hot guy with the gun? Still don't trust him. Or his friends.Forced into the Academy of the Dark Arts against her will, all witch-in-hiding Mallory Serra wants is to keep her head down and graduate as soon as possible... -
Open House on Haunted Hill by John Wiswell
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsAuthor’s Note: At the World Fantasy Convention in 2018, I went to dinner with some lovely people who let me babble about Horror. I read, watch, and play Horror every week, but I barely ever write it. Instead I tend to put Horror-y things back out as humorous stories or heartwarming stories... -
Baby of the Family by Tina McElroy Ansa
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsAn evocative, delicately comic story of a girl’s coming of age. From the moment of her birth in a rural black hospital in Georgia, Lena McPherson is recognized as a special child, with the power to see ghosts and predict the future. Named a Notable Book of the Year by the New York Times... -
Fancies and Goodnights by John Collier, Ray Bradbury
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsJohn Collier's edgy, sardonic tales are works of rare wit, curious insight, and scary implication. They stand out as one of the pinnacles in the critically neglected but perennially popular tradition of weird writing that includes E.T.A. Hoffmann and Charles Dickens as well as more recent masters like Jorge Luis Borges and Roald Dahl... -
All My Witches by Amanda M. Lee
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsLife in the Winchester world is about to get turbulent. Aunt Tillie is on a rampage – what else is new, right? – and she’s about to teach her nieces a lesson about messing with her. Bay and her cousins believe Aunt Tillie is a little too involved with her soap operas, so she curses them into a world that’s one big soap opera … and it’s one created in Aunt Tillie’s convoluted mind... -
The Complete Short Stories: Volume One 1944-1953 by Roald Dahl
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThe Complete Short Stories of Roald Dahl in the first of two unsettling and sinister volumes.'They are brutal, these stories, and yet you finish reading each one with a smile, or maybe even a hollow laugh, certainly a shiver of gratification, because the conclusion always seems so right' Charlie Higson, from his introduction... -
The Complete Stories of Leonora Carrington by Leonora Carrington
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsSurrealist writer and painter Leonora Carrington (1917-2011) was a master of the macabre, of gorgeous tableaus, biting satire, roguish comedy, and brilliant, effortless flights of the imagination. Nowhere are these qualities more ingeniously brought together than in the works of short fiction she wrote throughout her life...Categorized as:
humor magical-realism 20th-century adult anthologies audiobook classics female-author -
Terms May Apply by Keith A. Pearson
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsWhat would you give for a wish to come true? Your left arm? Your most cherished possession? Your last crumb of integrity?Kyle Hammond is suffering a surprise birthday party he really didn’t want. As he blows out the candles on his cake, he makes a token wish. Three days later, to his utter astonishment, that wish comes true... -
The Substitute Teacher from the Black Lagoon by Mike Thaler
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA brand-new edition in the bestselling Black Lagoon series!THE SUBSTITUTE TEACHER FROM THE BLACK LAGOON is a brand-new edition in the bestselling Black Lagoon series! Mrs. Green is out sick and Hubie's class is going to have a sub! The students are ready to party all day...until they meet Mr. Frank N... -
The Five Masks of Dr. Screem by R.L. Stine
Rated: 4.16 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsWelcome to the Hall of Horrors, HorrorLand's Hall of Fame for the truly terrifying.It's Halloween and Monica Anderson is out Trick-or-Treating with her younger brother. They knock on the door of an old, creepy house and are met by a strange woman who pleads for their help. Every year she must battle for the control of five sacred masks with the evil Dr. Screem... -
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The Overneath by Peter S. Beagle
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsAn odd couple patrols a county full of mythological beasts and ornery locals. A familiar youngster from the world of The Last Unicorn is gifted in magic but terrible at spell-casting. A seemingly incorruptible judge meets his match in a mysterious thief who steals his heart. Two old friends discover that the Overneath goes anywhere, including locations better left unvisited... -
Night of the Giant Everything by R.L. Stine
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsWelcome to the Hall of Horrors, HorrorLand's Hall of Fame for the truly terrifying.When 11-year-old Steven Sweeney is tricked into drinking a strange mixture of chemicals by his classmates, things begin to get strange... -
Dead Clown Barbecue by Jeff Strand
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsLibrarian's Note: Paperback Edition, Same isbn numbers as Hardcover.isbn: 1937128458 isbn 13: 9781937128456Dark Regions Press is excited to be launching a new collection from author Jeff Strand, read more about the book here: http://www.darkregions... -
Gifts For the One Who Comes After by Helen Marshall
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsHelen Marshall’s second fiction collection offers a series of twisted surrealities that explore the legacies we pass on to our children. A son seeks to reconnect with his father through a telescope that sees into the past. A young girl discovers what lies on the other side of her mother’s bellybutton. Death’s wife prepares herself for a very special funeral... -
We're Off to Find the Witch's House by Richard Krieb, R.W. Alley
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIt?s Halloween night, and as the moon rises, four children set off to find the witch?s house. on their way they encounter a host of silly, spooky characters, from a skittle-skattling skeleton to a shirking, lurking Dracula. Can they make it all the way to the witch?s house? or will their fears get the best of them? this humorous take on a favorite holiday begs to be read aloud again and again... -
The Yark by Bertrand Santini
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA very funny and cheerfully subversive chapter book about a monster who eats children—until one day he makes a friend... -
A Pretty Mouth by Molly Tanzer
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsRe-Animator meets The Secret History in this Tale of Sex and ScienceHenry Milliner thinks his days of being the school pariah are over forever when he attracts the attention of Wadham College's coolest Fellow Commoner, St John Clement, the Lord Calipash. St John is everything Henry isn't: Brilliant, graceful, rich, universally respected... -
Remember Why You Fear Me by Robert Shearman
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsDeliciously frightening, darkly satirical, and always unexpected, Robert Shearman has won the World Fantasy Award, the British Fantasy Award, the Shirley Jackson Award, and the Edge Hill Reader's Prize. Remember Why You Fear Me gathers together his best dark fiction, the most celebrated stories from his acclaimed books, and ten new tales that have never been collected before... -
Instruction Manual for Swallowing by Adam Marek
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA new North American edition of an acclaimed short story collection, Instruction Manual for Swallowing explores what happens when ordinary people collide with bizarre, fantastical situations... -
Grey Magic by JT Lawrence
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsAn eccentric modern-day witch, accused of murder, must explore her past lives in order to keep her freedom -- and find her way back to magic. No one appreciates the irony of her situation more than Raven Kane: she's a burnt-out witch. Raven is a hip, hexing-and-texting sorceress - or at least, she used to be... -
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Last Stand in Lychford by Paul Cornell
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 11 ratingsCelestial beings and human witches clash for the future of the human and fairy worlds in this exciting conclusion to the Witches of Lychford seriesThere are changes in the air, both in Lychford and in the land of fairy.The magical protections previously employed by the town are gone, and the forces of darkness are closing in – both figuratively and literally... -
Orange World and Other Stories by Karen Russell
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsFrom the Pulitzer Finalist and universally beloved author of the New York Times best sellers Swamplandia! and Vampires in the Lemon Grove, a stunning new collection of short fiction that showcases Karen Russell's extraordinary, irresistible gifts of language and imagination...Categorized as:
humor magical-realism adult anthologies audiobook contemporary dystopia female-author -
Outside the Dog Museum by Jonathan Carroll
Rated: 3.93 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsHarry Radcliffe is a brilliant prize-winning architect---witty and remarkable. He's also a self-serving opportunist, ready to take advantage of whatever situations, and women, come his way. But now, newly divorced and having had an inexplicable nervous breakdown, Harry is being wooed by the extremely wealthy Sultan of Saru to design a billion-dollar dog museum... -
Man V. Nature by Diane Cook
Rated: 3.93 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsA refreshingly imaginative, daring debut collection of stories which illuminates with audacious wit the complexity of human behavior, as seen through the lens of the natural worldTold with perfect rhythm and unyielding brutality, these stories expose unsuspecting men and women to the realities of nature, the primal instincts of man, and the dark humor and heartbreak of our struggle to not only... -
Snivel: The Fifth Circle of Heck by Dale E. Basye
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsDale E. Basye sends Milton and Marlo to Snivel, the circle reserved for crybabies, for their latest hilarious escapade in Heck. Snivel is a camp—a bummer camp—a dismal place where it's always raining, and Unhappy Campers are besieged by swarms of strange mosquitoes that suck the color right out of them. Soon the Fausters discover that some Unhappy Campers have been disappearing...Categorized as:
humor magical-realism action-adventure book children children-books dystopia fiction -
Flax-Golden Tales by Erin Morgenstern, Carey Farrell
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsErin wrote flax-golden tales (ten sentence stories inspired by photographs taken by her friend Carey Farrell) from July 2009 to July 2014. They are all archived and can be read at the link attached. She started them for her birthday to make her blog look more like an actual writer (direct quote). Five years and 261 stories later she decided it was time to stop...
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