Books like 'Before'
Readers who enjoyed Before by Paul Kane also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
horror urban fantasy dark fantasy supernatural dark epic spirituality magical-realism
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City of Miracles by Robert Jackson Bennett
Rated: 4.42 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsRevenge. It's something Sigrud je Harkvaldsson is very, very good at. Maybe the only thing. So when he learns that his oldest friend and ally, former Prime Minister Shara Komayd, has been assassinated, he knows exactly what to do — and that no mortal force can stop him from meting out the suffering Shara's killers deserve... -
![War of Gods by Dyrk Ashton]()
War of Gods by Dyrk Ashton
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsWar of Gods is the highly anticipated conclusion to the critically acclaimed, award winning epic urban fantasy series, The Paternus Trilogy... -
![Imajica: The Reconciliation by Clive Barker]()
Imajica: The Reconciliation by Clive Barker
Rated: 4.41 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsThe magical tale of ill-fated lovers lost among worlds teetering on the edge of destruction, where their passion holds the key to escape. There has never been a book like Imajica... -
![Dawn and Quartered by Hunter Blain]()
Dawn and Quartered by Hunter Blain
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsRevenge is mine, so saith the John. After more than 500 years, Commander Godwin is dead and John’s family is finally avenged. Of course, actions have consequences and now those consequences demand payment from debt collectors in the form of demons below, and now, angels above. Great. Super. Could things possibly get any worse? Funny you should ask; yes, yes they can... -
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![The Thirteenth by L.A. Banks]()
The Thirteenth by L.A. Banks
Rated: 4.45 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsThe entire Neteru Guardian team is on the run, having now been labeled as America’s most-wanted terrorists following the gruesome demon battle that felled the Washington Monument and crashed the front doors of the White House. The Antichrist is positioned for emergence, the powers of darkness have released the pale horse of the apocalypse, and half of the Neteru team is pregnant... -
![The Ringmaster by Kathryn Ann Kingsley]()
The Ringmaster by Kathryn Ann Kingsley
Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars · 11 ratingsAs above, so below…who was once friend is now a foe.The Faire is alive. It’s alive, it’s sentient, and it wants more from Cora Glass. Reeling from the revelations that Clown left her with, she struggles once more to find her footing. She never gets the chance.Harrow Faire wants Cora for murder. She assumed it was her death that it was after. She was wrong. It wants her to kill…to save them all... -
![The Forsaken by L.A. Banks]()
The Forsaken by L.A. Banks
Rated: 4.35 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsThe Chairman of the Vampire Council is dead, and Lilith, the consort of the Unnamed One, and the Unnamed One himself are out for revenge against Damali Richards, the Vampire Huntress, and her lover, Carlos Rivera. A ruthless and carefully planned strategy---one that not even Damali will anticipate---has been developed... -
![Matt Archer: Redemption by Kendra C. Highley]()
Matt Archer: Redemption by Kendra C. Highley
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratings“There’s more to me than you know…”When Matt Archer’s sister, Mamie, said those words to him three years ago, he had no idea how prophetic they were, or what this would mean for his family.Now, he knows. And it changes everything, bringing the war right to Matt’s doorstep.In the epic conclusion to the Matt Archer series, the endgame is near... -
![The Astonishing Strande Brothers by Kathryn Ann Kingsley]()
The Astonishing Strande Brothers by Kathryn Ann Kingsley
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsSome bonds are too strong to be broken. Even by death.“The Astonishing Strande Brothers” is a short story/extended epilogue that tells the tale of the reunion between Julian Strande and his long-lost brother Louis on a snowy holiday at the Strande Estate.It combines characters from both my Harrow Faire and Impossible Julian Strande series... -
![Vultures by Chuck Wendig]()
Vultures by Chuck Wendig
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 13 ratingsIn the sixth and final thriller of the “wildly entertaining” (Kirkus Reviews) Miriam Black series, Miriam tries to break the curse of her powers, but first she must face The Trespasser a final time... -
![The Faerie Games by Michelle Madow]()
The Faerie Games by Michelle Madow
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsI’m Selena Pearce, and in the past few days I’ve been kidnapped by faeries, gifted with powerful magic, and forced by the gods to compete in a twisted game to the death. Growing up on the magical island of Avalon should be great... but I have no magic to speak of. And my parents forbid me from leaving... -
![American Gods by Neil Gaiman]()
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 99 ratingsFirst published in 2001, here is the New York Times bestselling novel that became an instant classic and was hailed by USA Today as “a powerful, searing force that makes readers confront what is real and what is not…”—now a TV series from FremantleMedia North America is coming to STARZ with Bryan Fuller and Michael Green as showrunners, and starring Ricky Whittle, Ian McShane, Crispin Glover,...Categorized as:
dark magical-realism spirituality 21st-century action-adventure audiobook book classics -
![Imajica by Clive Barker]()
Imajica by Clive Barker
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 39 ratingsImajica is an epic beyond compare: vast in conception, obsessively detailed in execution, and apocalyptic in its resolution. At its heart lies the sensualist and master art forger, Gentle, whose life unravels when he encounters Judith Odell, whose power to influence the destinies of men is vaster than she knows, and Pie 'oh' pah, an alien assassin who comes from a hidden dimension... -
![The Talisman by Stephen King, Peter Straub]()
The Talisman by Stephen King, Peter Straub
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 66 ratingsOn a brisk autumn day, a twelve-year-old boy stands on the shores of the gray Atlantic, near a silent amusement park and a fading ocean resort called the Alhambra. The past has driven Jack Sawyer here: his father is gone, his mother is dying, and the world no longer makes sense. But for Jack everything is about to change...Categorized as:
dark epic magical-realism 20th-century action-adventure alternate-universe audiobook book -
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![King's Crusade by A.D. Starrling]()
King's Crusade by A.D. Starrling
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe exciting, action-packed follow-up to Soul Meaning and the second installment in the award-winning thriller series Seventeen. The perfect immortal warrior. A set of stolen, priceless artifacts. An ancient sect determined to bring about the downfall of human civilization...Categorized as:
dark magical-realism action-adventure adult audiobook book dark-fantasy female-author -
![Heaven's Door by John G. Hartness]()
Heaven's Door by John G. Hartness
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsAWARD-WINNING DARK FANTASY TO READ WITH THE LIGHTS ON He's finally found something to care about after a century of searching, but will he lose it all at the hands of his most dangerous foe yet? Seven years ago, Quincy Harker vanquished the demon Orobas and saved the city of Charlotte, NC from his evil plans. Or so he thought... -
![Breaking Chaos by Ben Galley]()
Breaking Chaos by Ben Galley
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe endgame has begun. The battle for the emperor’s throne grows ever fiercer. The City of Countless Souls cowers behind locked doors as the whims of the downtrodden and the powerful bring the great game of Araxes to its chaotic conclusion.With the soulblade at his hip and magic in his soul, Caltro’s freedom is almost within reach... -
![The Lord of the Sabbath by Mariana Palova]()
The Lord of the Sabbath by Mariana Palova
Rated: 4.18 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsThe abyss watches him. Nightmares hunt him. And now, a battle begins.Terrifying creatures, unseen to all around him, have tormented Elisse since he was a little boy. These “night terrors” and the cruel life as a young Westerner in a refugee camp have left him isolated and alone... -
![Twilight Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko]()
Twilight Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsThe third book in the bestselling Russian trilogy that is part fantasy, part vampire story, and part detective story, tells of an ancient race of humans who have supernatural powers and swear allegiance to either the Dark or the Light. In Twilight Watch, they face their greatest threat yet... -
![Judgement Day by Joseph Nassise]()
Judgement Day by Joseph Nassise
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsCade Williams’ worst nightmare has come true. The Necromancer’s black magick has not only released the Adversary from the infernal realms where Cade imprisoned it, but allowed the fallen angel to possess the body of Cade’s beloved wife, Gabrielle, in the process. When the Templars interrupt the ritual and kill the Necromancer, the Adversary sprouts wings and escapes into the darkness... -
![Grim Solace by Ben Galley]()
Grim Solace by Ben Galley
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsNothing is certain in Araxes. Not even death. Stolen from the widow’s clutches, master thief and ghost Caltro Basalt must learn new ways to survive the cutthroat society of the Arctian Empire. His one hope for freedom and justice? A gift from the dead gods, who continue to beg for a saviour. Breaking a soul takes time, and Caltro’s spirit is far from broken... -
![As Above, So Below by Dana Isaly]()
As Above, So Below by Dana Isaly
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsBranwen is about to become her coven’s youngest ever High Priestess. At the ripe age of twenty-seven, she is the only one with a full range of power.And everyone is looking to her to set things right.Yet on the night of the ritual, everything goes wrong. Branwen is betrayed, cast out, and stripped of her powers.Left to wander in the human world alone, she loses herself and her faith in the Gods... -
![Of Truth and Beasts by Barb Hendee, J.C. Hendee]()
Of Truth and Beasts by Barb Hendee, J.C. Hendee
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsYoung journeyer Wynn Hygeorht sets out with her companions, the vampire Chane Andraso and Shade, an elven wolf, in search of a dwarven stronghold that may well be the last resting place of a mythical orb- one of five such mysterious devices from the war of Forgotten History. And now, a direct descendant of that war's infamous mass murderer-the Lord of Slaughter-is tracking Wynn... -
![Queen of the Dark Things by C. Robert Cargill]()
Queen of the Dark Things by C. Robert Cargill
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsIt is half a year since the wizard Colby lost his best friend to an army of fairies from the Limestone Kingdom, a realm of mystery and shadows beyond our own. But in vanquishing these creatures Colby sacrificed the anonymity that protected him. Now, word of his deeds has spread, and powerful enemies from the past - including one Colby considered a friend - have resurfaced to exact their revenge... -
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![Glass Predator by Craig Schaefer]()
Glass Predator by Craig Schaefer
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsFor Harmony Black, practicing witch and government agent, defeating criminal masterminds and eliminating supernatural threats are all in a day’s work. She’s ready to fight, as long as she can count on her partner, Jessie Temple; her team at off-the-books special FBI unit Vigilant Lock; and her magic. But her latest case threatens it all... -
![Skeleton Song by Seanan McGuire]()
Skeleton Song by Seanan McGuire
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 15 ratingsChildren have always disappeared under the right conditions—slipping through the shadows under a bed or at the back of a wardrobe, tumbling down rabbit holes and into old wells, and emerging somewhere . . . else. Adventures are always interesting, but they’re not always happy.From the worlds of Wayward Children comes a story of love, of devotion, of bones wrapped in flesh... -
![Jilo by J.D. Horn]()
Jilo by J.D. Horn
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsAged Mother Jilo is wise in the ways of magic…but once upon a time, she was just a girl.1950s Georgia: King Cotton has fallen. Savannah is known as the “beautiful woman with a dirty face,” its stately elegance faded by neglect, its soul withering from racial injustice and political corruption... -
![The City Beautiful by Aden Polydoros]()
The City Beautiful by Aden Polydoros
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 24 ratings"The City Beautiful is the haunting, queer Jewish historical thriller of my darkest dreams." —Dahlia Adler, creator of LGBTQ Reads and editor of That Way Madness LiesDeath lurks around every corner in this unforgettable Jewish historical fantasy about a city, a boy, and the shadows of the past that bind them both together. Chicago, 1893... -
![Rain of Shadows and Endings by Melissa K. Roehrich]()
Rain of Shadows and Endings by Melissa K. Roehrich
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 5 ratingsOf all the worlds and life they created, the gods favored their children the most. But with that favor came the fear that their Legacy would one day become too powerful and overthrow them. Devram was created. A realm hidden amongst the stars. The gods gave their Legacy the best of all the worlds, and then they left, a sworn agreement to never return and to never interfere... -
![Horns by Joe Hill]()
Horns by Joe Hill
Rated: 3.98 of 5 stars · 43 ratingsIgnatius Perrish spent the night drunk and doing terrible things. He woke up the next morning with a thunderous hangover, a raging headache . . . and a pair of horns growing from his temples.At first Ig thought the horns were a hallucination, the product of a mind damaged by rage and grief... -
![ReVamped by J.F. Lewis]()
ReVamped by J.F. Lewis
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsREVIVED. REFRESHED. AND READY FOR REVENGEEric has lost his strip club, his Mustang, and even Marilyn, the elderly love of his (mortal) life. Even his body was obliterated. In short, they almost got him. But when you're a vampire, "almost" is a very important word... -
![Everville by Clive Barker]()
Everville by Clive Barker
Rated: 4.03 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsOn the borderland between this world and the world of Quiddity, the sea of our dreams, sits Everville. For years, it has lived in ignorance of the gleaming shore on which it lies. But its ignorance is not bliss... -
![The Book of the Beast by Tanith Lee]()
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![Nightmare Magazine 37: October 2015. Queers Destroy Horror! Special Issue by Wendy N. Wagner, Chuck Palahniuk]()
Nightmare Magazine 37: October 2015. Queers Destroy Horror! Special Issue by Wendy N. Wagner, Chuck Palahniuk
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsNIGHTMARE is an online horror and dark fantasy magazine. In NIGHTMARE's pages, you will find all kinds of horror fiction, from zombie stories and haunted house tales, to visceral psychological horror... -
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![Briar Queen by Katherine Harbour]()
Briar Queen by Katherine Harbour
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThe dark, moody, and mystical fantasy begun in Thorn Jack, the first novel in the Night and Nothing series, continues in this bewitching follow up--an intriguing blend of Twilight, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Alice in Wonderland, and A Midsummer Night's Dream--in which Finn Sullivan discovers that her town, Fair Hollow, borders a dangerous otherworld . . -
![Dark Ladies: Conjure Wife/Our Lady of Darkness by Fritz Leiber]()
Dark Ladies: Conjure Wife/Our Lady of Darkness by Fritz Leiber
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsConjure WifeWitchcraft. Norman Saylor considered it nothing but superstition, until he learned that his own wife was a practicing sorceress. Even still, he refuses to accept the truth that every woman knows...that in the secret occult warfare that governs our lives, witchcraft is a matter of life and death... -
![I Knocked Up Satan's Daughter: A Demonic Romantic Comedy by Carlton Mellick III]()
I Knocked Up Satan's Daughter: A Demonic Romantic Comedy by Carlton Mellick III
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsJonathan Vandervoo lives a carefree life in a house made of legos, spending his days building lego sculptures and his nights getting drunk with his only friend-an alcoholic sumo wrestler named Shoji. It's a pleasant life with no responsibility, until the day he meets Lici. She's a soul-sucking demon from hell with red skin, glowing eyes, a forked tongue, and pointy red devil horns.. -
![Watcher of the Dark by Joseph Nassise]()
Watcher of the Dark by Joseph Nassise
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA spine-tingling new Jeremiah Hunt dark fantasy thriller.New Orleans was nearly the death of Jeremiah Hunt, between a too-close brush with the FBI and a chilling, soul-searing journey through the realm of the dead that culminated with a do-or-die confrontation with Death himself... -
![Year's Best Weird Fiction; Volume 2 by Kathe Koja, Michael Kelly]()
Year's Best Weird Fiction; Volume 2 by Kathe Koja, Michael Kelly
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsAcclaimed author Kathe Koja brings her expert eye and editorial sense to the second volume of the Year's Best Weird Fiction. Contributing authors include Julio Cortazar, Jean Muno, Karen Joy Fowler, Caitlin R. Kiernan, Nick Mamatas, Carmen Maria Machado, Nathan Ballingrud, and more. No longer the purview of esoteric readers, weird fiction is enjoying wide popularity... -
![Sleeping in Flame by Jonathan Carroll]()
Sleeping in Flame by Jonathan Carroll
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsWalker Easterling is a retired actor turned successful screenwriter living in the Vienna of strong coffee, fascinating friends, and mysterious cafes. When he falls in love with Maris York, a beautiful artist who creates cities, his life becomes alive in fantastic and unsettling ways... -
![Brother Odd by Dean Koontz]()
Brother Odd by Dean Koontz
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 54 ratingsLoop me in, odd one.The words, spoken in the deep of night by a sleeping child, chill the young man watching over her. For this was a favorite phrase of Stormy Llewellyn, his lost love, and Stormy is dead, gone forever from this world. In the haunted halls of the isolated monastery where he had sought peace, Odd Thomas is stalking spirits of an infinitely darker nature...Categorized as:
dark magical-realism spirituality 21st-century action-adventure audiobook book california -
![A Kiss With Teeth by Max Gladstone]()
A Kiss With Teeth by Max Gladstone
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsFrom the award-winning author Max Gladstone comes a dark fantasy tale, "A Kiss with Teeth, a Tor.com Original short storyVlad has grown distant from his wife. His son has trouble at school. And he has to keep his sharp teeth hidden.At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied... -
![House Infernal by Edward Lee]()
House Infernal by Edward Lee
Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsA CITY, BUILT WITH BLOOD AND BONES... Three things are about to join a crypt in Hell with a house on Earth... Nuns molested and drained of blood. A virginal student seduced by the perverse and taunted by things worse than ghosts. And six Angels, imprisoned in Hell and made pregnant by God knows what... — A HOUSE, BUILT FOR THE CHURCH, BUT DESIGNED BY SATAN... When Venetia Barlow begins work at St... -
![Saffron and Brimstone: Strange Stories by Elizabeth Hand]()
Saffron and Brimstone: Strange Stories by Elizabeth Hand
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsWidely praised and widely read, Elizabeth Hand is regarded as one of America's leading literary fantasists. This new collection (an expansion of the limited-release Bibliomancy, which won the World Fantasy Award in 2005) showcases a wildly inventive author at the height of her powers...Categorized as:
dark magical-realism adult anthologies contemporary dark-fantasy female-author female-mc -
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![The Satanic Mill: Evil Lurks Within by Otfried Preußler]()
The Satanic Mill: Evil Lurks Within by Otfried Preußler
Rated: 3.97 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsIn seventeenth-century Germany, a boy desperately wants to escape from a school for Black Magic where he is held captive by demonic forces... -
![Mean Streets by Jim Butcher, Simon R. Green]()
Mean Streets by Jim Butcher, Simon R. Green
Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsJim Butcher delivers a hard-boiled tale in which Harry Dresden’s latest case may be his last.Nightside dweller John Taylor is hired by a woman to find something she lost—her memory—in a noir tale from Simon R. Green.Kat Richardson’s Greywalker finds herself in too deep when a “simple job” goes bad and Harper Blaine is enmeshed in a tangle of dark secrets and revenge from beyond the grave...Categorized as:
dark magical-realism spirituality action-adventure adult angels anthologies audiobook -
![Vigil by Angela Slatter]()
Vigil by Angela Slatter
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsVerity Fassbinder has her feet in two worlds. The daughter of one human and one Weyrd parent, she has very little power herself, but does claim unusual strength - and the ability to walk between us and the other - as a couple of her talents. As such a rarity, she is charged with keeping the peace between both races, and ensuring the Weyrd remain hidden from us... -
![The Hollow Gods by A.J. Vrana]()
The Hollow Gods by A.J. Vrana
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsA perfect story for contemporary fantasy readers who love their narratives razor-sharp and their secrets dark and deadly. Black Hollow is a town with a dark secret. For centuries, residents have foretold the return of the Dreamwalker—an ominous figure from local folklore said to lure young women into the woods and possess them... -
![The Book of the Dead by Tanith Lee]()
The Book of the Dead by Tanith Lee
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThe ambience of fin de siecle France imbues these eight gothic tales in the third volume in Lee's Secret Books of Paradys tetralogy, tracing the tortured lives once led by those buried in the crypts and cemeteries of the mythical (or forgotten) city of Paradys... -
![King of the Dead by Joseph Nassise]()
King of the Dead by Joseph Nassise
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsA Jeremiah Hunt Supernatual ThrillerJoseph Nassise shook up the urban fantasy genre with Eyes to See, a novel New York Times bestselling author Jonathan Maberry called "heartbreaking, deeply insightful, powerful and genuinely thrilling...
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