Books like 'Becoming Abigail'
Readers who enjoyed Becoming Abigail by Chris Abani also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
contemporary horror europe british-isles united-kingdom england urban literary-fiction dark family
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Carnage by Shayne Silvers
Rated: 4.74 of 5 stars · 23 ratingsThe gods never should have opened Pandora's Box...Nate Temple has been abducted by Zeus and is thrown into the middle of an Olympian family feud that could very well kick off the Omega War all by itself.There is one weapon that Zeus believes will turn the tide. Pandora's Box. But his neglect left it on earth for far too long, and Pandora has found a new master to serve. Nate Temple... -
A Good Girl's Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 50 ratingsThe case is closed. Five years ago, schoolgirl Andie Bell was murdered by Sal Singh. The police know he did it. Everyone in town knows he did it.But having grown up in the same small town that was consumed by the murder, Pippa Fitz-Amobi isn't so sure... -
Career of Evil by Robert Galbraith
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 44 ratingsCormoran Strike is back, with his assistant Robin Ellacott, in a mystery based around soldiers returning from war.When a mysterious package is delivered to Robin Ellacott, she is horrified to discover that it contains a woman’s severed leg.Her boss, private detective Cormoran Strike, is less surprised but no less alarmed...Categorized as:
british-isles dark england europe united-kingdom urban 21st-century action-adventure -
Starry Skies Over The Chocolate Pot Cafe by Jessica Redland
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsA few minutes of courage might change your life… Emotionally, Tara Porter finds the festive period a challenge. Christmas Day is a reminder of the family she lost, and New Year’s Eve holds bitter memories of the biggest mistake of her life: marrying Garth Tewkesbury. Shunning invitations to celebrate, she seeks refuge in her flat with only her giant house bunny, Hercules, for company... -
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Of Foster Homes and Flies by Chad Lutzke, Alberto Plumed
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA neglected 12-year-old boy does nothing to report the death of his mother in order to compete in a spelling bee. A tragic coming-of-age tale of horror and drama in the setting of a hot New Orleans summer. "Original, touching coming of age." ~Jack Ketchum, author of THE GIRL NEXT DOOR "With OF FOSTER HOMES & FLIES, Lutzke is firing on all cylinders. It's a lean mean emotional machine... -
Sul lato selvaggio by Tiffany McDaniel
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsSix women—mothers, daughters, sisters—gone missing. Inspired by the unsolved murders of the Chillicothe Six, this harrowing novel tells the story of two sisters, both of whom could be the next victims, from the internationally best-selling author of Betty."Capture[s] what goes horribly wrong when women don’t fit a customary victim profile.. -
Idlewild by James Frankie Thomas
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsJames Frankie Thomas’s Idlewild is a darkly funny story of two adults looking back on their intense teenage friendship, in a queer, trans, and early-Internet twist on the Manhattan prep school novel.Idlewild is a tiny, artsy Quaker high school in lower Manhattan... -
Once There Were Wolves by Charlotte McConaghy, Eva Meckbach
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 29 ratingsFrom the author of the beloved national bestseller Migrations, a pulse-pounding new novel set in the wild Scottish Highlands.Inti Flynn arrives in Scotland with her twin sister, Aggie, to lead a team of biologists tasked with reintroducing fourteen gray wolves into the remote Highlands...Categorized as:
british-isles dark europe family literary-fiction united-kingdom abuse action-adventure -
Small Spaces by Sarah Epstein
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsWe don’t pick and choose what to be afraid of. Our fears pick us.Tash Carmody has been traumatised since childhood, when she witnessed her gruesome imaginary friend Sparrow lure young Mallory Fisher away from a carnival. At the time nobody believed Tash, and she has since come to accept that Sparrow wasn’t real. Now fifteen and mute, Mallory’s never spoken about the week she went missing... -
The Dead Won't Sleep by Anna Smith
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe body of a young teenage hooker is found washed up on the beach near Glasgow. This stark event barely captures a headline in the cynical world of tabloid newspapers. This is Glasgow in the 1990s and she's just another dead heroin addict. But Tracey Eadie was only fourteen years old and came from a children's home in Glasgow... -
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars · 86 ratingsUnder the streets of London there's a place most people could never even dream of. A city of monsters and saints, murderers and angels, knights in armour and pale girls in black velvet. This is the city of the people who have fallen between the cracks.Richard Mayhew, a young businessman, is going to find out more than enough about this other London...Categorized as:
british-isles dark england europe united-kingdom urban 20th-century action-adventure -
The Calling by Neil Cross
Rated: 4.18 of 5 stars · 17 ratingsMeet DCI John Luther.He's brilliant. He's intense. He's obsessional. He's dangerous.DCI John Luther has an extraordinary clearance rate. He commands outstanding loyalty from friends and colleagues. Nobody who ever stood at his side has a bad word to say about him. But Luther seethes with a hidden fury that at times he can barely control... -
The Scarlet Dress by Louise Douglas
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsAlice Lang was wearing her favourite scarlet dress when she disappeared twenty-five years ago, and her memory still casts a long shadow.'The past was like water. Once the tide turned, you couldn't hold it back.'In the long, hot summer of 1995, twenty-two-year-old Alice Lang rents a caravan on a holiday park on the outskirts of the lively holiday resort of Severn Sands... -
Playing Nice by J.P. Delaney
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsWhat if you found out that your family isn't yours at all? How far would you go to protect them? A gripping new psychological thriller from the bestselling author of The Girl Before. . . .Pete Riley answers the door one morning and lets in a parent's worst nightmare... -
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Cemetery Nights by Stephen Dobyns
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsFrom the fabulous storytelling of our dreams to the mute passions of domestic life, Stephen Dobyns explores a full range of human experience in these narrative poems... -
Wallflower by Chad Lutzke
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsAfter an encounter with a homeless man, a high school graduate becomes obsessed with the idea of doing heroin, challenging himself to try it just once. A bleak tale of addiction, delusion, and flowers."Bleak as hell and honestly horrific."~John Boden, author of JEDI SUMMER"Using his strong narrative, he (Lutzke) conveys the everyday realistic horror and pulls the reader right into the ugliness...Categorized as:
coming-of-age dark literary-fiction horror fiction psychological substance-abuse mental-illness -
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 85 ratingsNobody Owens, known to his friends as Bod, is a perfectly normal boy. Well, he would be perfectly normal if he didn't live in a graveyard, being raised and educated by ghosts, with a solitary guardian who belongs to neither the world of the living nor the world of the dead...Categorized as:
british-isles coming-of-age dark england europe family united-kingdom action-adventure -
In Her Shadow by Louise Douglas
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsWhat would you do if your past came back to haunt you? A dark, thrilling novel for fans of Kate Morton and Victoria Hislop From the author of THE SECRETS BETWEEN US, part of the 2012 Richard and Judy Summer Reads, comes this dark, thrilling novel that is perfect for your book group... -
Ensnared by A.G. Howard, Nathalia Suellen
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 38 ratingsAfter surviving a disastrous battle at prom, Alyssa has embraced her madness and gained perspective. She's determined to rescue her two worlds and the people and netherlings she loves. Even if it means challenging Queen Red to a final battle of wills and wiles . . -
His & Hers by Alice Feeney
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsThere are two sides to every story: yours and mine, ours and theirs, His & Hers. Which means someone is always lying. When a woman is murdered in Blackdown, a quintessentially British village, newsreader Anna Andrews is reluctant to cover the case. Detective Jack Harper is suspicious of her involvement, until he becomes a suspect in his own murder investigation... -
Nine Elms by Robert Bryndza
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsKate Marshall was a promising young police detective when she caught the notorious Nine Elms serial killer. But her greatest victory suddenly turned into a nightmare. Traumatized, betrayed, and publicly vilified for the shocking circumstances surrounding the cannibal murder case, Kate could only watch as her career ended in scandal... -
The Enemy by Charlie Higson
Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars · 40 ratingsCharlie Higson's The Enemy is the first in a jaw-dropping zombie horror series for teens. Everyone over the age of fourteen has succumbed to a deadly zombie virus and now the kids must keep themselves alive. When the sickness came, every parent, police officer, politician - every adult fell ill. The lucky ones died. The others are crazed, confused and hungry...Categorized as:
british-isles coming-of-age dark england europe united-kingdom urban action-adventure -
Just Another Judgement Day by Simon R. Green
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 34 ratingsGod's own enforcer, the righteous engine of destruction known as the Walking Man, has come to the Nightside. His sole purpose is the elimination of the wicked and the guilty, which means no one will be left in the Nightside once he gets started. So the Authorities have hired P.I. John Taylor to stop him. Legend has it that he can't be killed. Taylor is very much hoping that the legend isn't true... -
The Rook by Daniel O'Malley
Rated: 4.09 of 5 stars · 50 ratings"The body you are wearing used to be mine."So begins the letter Myfanwy Thomas is holding when she awakes in a London park surrounded by bodies all wearing latex gloves. With no recollection of who she is, Myfanwy must follow the instructions her former self left behind to discover her identity and track down the agents who want to destroy her...Categorized as:
british-isles england europe female-mc united-kingdom urban action-adventure amnesia -
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Lamb to the Slaughter by Roald Dahl
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsLamb to the Slaughter is a short, sharp, chilling story from Roald Dahl, the master of the shocking tale.In Lamb to the Slaughter, Roald Dahl, one of the world's favourite authors, tells a twisted story about the darker side of human nature. Here, a wife serves up a dish that utterly baffles the police.. -
The Book of X by Sarah Rose Etter
Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsThe Book of X tells the tale of Cassie, a girl born with her stomach twisted in the shape of a knot. From childhood with her parents on the family meat farm, to a desk job in the city, to finally experiencing love, she grapples with her body, men, and society, all the while imagining a softer world than the one she is in... -
Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 78 ratingsGod is dead. Meet the kids.Fat Charlie Nancy's normal life ended the moment his father dropped dead on a Florida karaoke stage. Charlie didn't know his dad was a god. And he never knew he had a brother. Now brother Spider's on his doorstep -- about to make Fat Charlie's life more interesting... and a lot more dangerous... -
Royal Blood by Debra Dunbar
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsWinter weather can spell death for the homeless, but the bodies found on Baltimore’s streets aren’t homeless and they didn’t die from the cold... -
Weremage by Garrett Robinson
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsLoren searches across Underrealm for the merchant traitor Damaris, under the orders of the High King herself. But even with a party of Mystics now under her command, the search proves fruitless, for the merchant is crafty and knows her life is forfeit.But even as she tracks Damaris into the Yerrin’s homeland of Feldemar, Loren becomes aware of someone dogging her heels... -
Vessels by Kealan Patrick Burke
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsOn a remote island off the coast of Ireland, an unpiloted boat drifts ashore, watched by a man to whom the dead are something to be feared…In a small stone chapel that stands hunkered against the vicious island winds, a woman whispers a frantic prayer to the gathering dark as something pale and dreadful scratches at the window... -
The Essential Clive Barker: Selected Fiction by Clive Barker, Armistead Maupin
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratings"I wonder if the reverse is not also in some way true. That the artist is constantly working on anelaborate and fantasticated self-portrait, but at the end has drawn, unbeknownst, a picture of the world... -
Rontel by Sam Pink
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsFrom the author of 'person' and 'the ice cream man and other stories.' Follow our narrator as he attempts to make it to the end of a journey most magical... -
The Wrong Boy by Willy Russell
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe hilarious, bittersweet novel from the playwright behind EDUCATING RITA, SHIRLEY VALENTINE and award-winning musical BLOOD BROTHERS.Dear Morrissey,I'm feeling dead depressed and down. Like a streetlamp without a bulb or a goose at the onset of Christmas time.Anyroad, I thought I'd pen a few lines to someone who'd understand...It's 1991...Categorized as:
coming-of-age literary-fiction action-adventure audiobook book contemporary fiction horror -
The Past Is Never by Tiffany Quay Tyson
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsA compelling addition to contemporary Southern Gothic fiction, deftly weaving together local legends, magical realism, and the search for a missing child.Winner of the Willie Morris Award for Southern Fiction, the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize, the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Fiction Award, and Mississippi Author Award for Adult fiction... -
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Com més profunda és l'aigua, més lleig és el peix by Laia Font i Mateu
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsEn quin moment l’amor esdevé obsessió, i què passa llavors? Una història captivadora sobre vincles emocionals complicats.Sinopsi:És l’Edie, de 16 anys, qui troba la seva mare Marienne penjant d’una vella corda de saltar enmig de la sala, un bassal d’orina a terra, gairebé morta...Categorized as:
coming-of-age family literary-fiction adult audiobook book contemporary domestic-drama -
People Like Them by Minka Kent
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsNobody’s perfect—although one beautiful couple certainly comes close. Discover the cracks beneath the polished surface in this unsettling short story from bestselling author Minka Kent.Veronica and Ryan Hartley are the envy of Auburn Drive. When the exclusive neighborhood hosts its annual progressive dinner party, the couple’s perfection is on display... -
The Midnight Mayor by Kate Griffin
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsIt's said that if the ravens ever leave the Tower of London, then the Tower will crumble and the kingdom will fall. Resurrected sorcerer Matthew Swift is about to discover that this isn't so far from the truth...One by one, the protective magical wards that guard the city are falling: the London Wall defiled with cryptic graffiti, the ravens found dead at the Tower, the London Stone destroyed...Categorized as:
british-isles dark england europe united-kingdom urban 21st-century action-adventure -
The Lies We Told by Camilla Way
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsThe highly acclaimed author of Watching Edie returns with a new novel of dark psychological suspense that explores how those closest to us have the most to hide...When Clara's boyfriend, Luke, disappears, everyone believes that he's left her, but Clara thinks she knows the truth. Recent evidence suggests that Luke had a stalker, and Clara worries that he's been kidnapped... -
The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
Rated: 4.01 of 5 stars · 85 ratingsSussex, England. A middle-aged man returns to his childhood home to attend a funeral. Although the house he lived in is long gone, he is drawn to the farm at the end of the road, where, when he was seven, he encountered a most remarkable girl, Lettie Hempstock, and her mother and grandmother...Categorized as:
british-isles coming-of-age dark england europe family literary-fiction united-kingdom -
The Collector by John Fowles
Rated: 3.99 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsWithdrawn, uneducated and unloved, Frederick collects butterflies and takes photographs. He is obsessed with a beautiful stranger, the art student Miranda. When he wins the pools he buys a remote Sussex house and calmly abducts Miranda, believing she will grow to love him in time...Categorized as:
british-isles dark england europe literary-fiction united-kingdom urban 20th-century -
The First Day of Spring by Nancy Tucker
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 20 ratings"So that was all it took," I thought. "That was all it took for me to feel like I had all the power in the world. One morning, one moment, one yellow-haired boy. It wasn't so much after all."Meet Chrissie... Chrissie is eight and she has a secret: she has just killed a boy. The feeling made her belly fizz like soda pop... -
The Shadows in the Street by Susan Hill
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsSerrailler has just wrapped up a particularly exhausting and difficult case and is on sabbatical on a far-flung Scottish island when he is called back to Lafferton by the Chief Constable. Two local prostitutes have been found strangled. When the wife of the St... -
Clean by Alia Trabucco Zerán, Sophie Hughes
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsINTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER!From a global star and International Booker Prize finalist, a razor-sharp, unforgettable novel about a maid who’s seen too much and a family at a breaking pointA young girl has died and the family’s maid is being interrogated. She must tell the whole story before arriving at the girl’s death... -
The Antarctica of Love by Sara Stridsberg
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThe international star Sara Stridsberg returns with The Antarctica of Love, an unnamed woman's tale of her murder, her brief life, and the world that moves on after she left itThey say you die three times... -
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A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 84 ratingsTold by the central character, Alex, this brilliant, hilarious, and disturbing novel creates an alarming futuristic vision of violence, high technology, and authoritarianism...Categorized as:
british-isles coming-of-age dark england europe literary-fiction united-kingdom 20th-century -
The Unnatural Inquirer by Simon R. Green
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 34 ratingsJohn Taylor's the name. I'm a PI, working that small slice of mystical real estate in the hidden centre of London that's called the Nightside. It's a place where the sun refuses to rise, where monsters and men walk side by side, and where you can fulfill your every dark and depraved desire... -
Quicksilver & Shadow, Volume 2: Collected Early Stories: Contemporary, Dark Fantasy, and Science Fiction Stories by Charles de Lint
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsQuicksilver & Shadow is the second volume (of a projected three) of Charles de Lint's Collected Early Stories. At nearly 150,000 words it's even larger than volume one, A Handful of Coppers, and includes the very obscure 20,000 word novella, "Berlin," and its over 30,000 word counterpart "Death Leaves an Echo... -
Season of the Witch: A Novel by James Leo Herlihy
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsBy the author of Midnight Cowboy: A teenage girl runs away to the East Village in “one of the best and most convincing novels . . . of the Woodstock generation” (Publishers Weekly). As she explains in her diary, seventeen-year-old Gloria Random is running away from her Midwest childhood home. It’s the fall of 1969, and her best friend John has been called up for the draft...Categorized as:
coming-of-age female-mc literary-fiction book contemporary fiction friendship historical-fiction -
Weathercock by Glen Duncan
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe confession of Dominic Francis Hood - Roman Catholic, sadist, conspirator to murder, witness to a miracle. His childhood had the usual benefits, but after watching a miracle performed by Father Malone, Dominic realises a part of him is skewed, and that mere fantasy will never be enough... -
Sticky Fingers 2 by J.T. Lawrence
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsDiverse, dark-humoured, and deliciously bite-sized, this compelling collection of 12 short stories by JT Lawrence include:GATSBY'S DOUBLEAn artist's Pomeranian has been replaced by an imposter.COURT, MARRY, KILLWhose body ends up being unzipped by fish on the ocean floor?ROCKABYE BABYA female-only cult has a very dark side...
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