Books like 'The Devil: A Very Short Introduction'
Readers who enjoyed The Devil: A Very Short Introduction by Darren Oldridge also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical fantasy horror religion christian myths spirituality retellings
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The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis
Rated: 4.27 of 5 stars · 78 ratingsThe story takes the form of a series of letters from a senior demon, Screwtape, to his nephew, a junior "tempter" named Wormwood, so as to advise him on methods of securing the damnation of a British man, known only as "the Patient".Screwtape holds an administrative post in the bureaucracy ("Lowerarchy") of Hell, and acts as a mentor to Wormwood, the inexperienced tempter... -
Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 65 ratingsThe birth of Jesus has been well chronicled, as have his glorious teachings, acts, and divine sacrifice after his thirtieth birthday...Categorized as:
christian myths religion retellings spirituality 21st-century action-adventure adult -
Odyssey, Books 13–24 by Homer
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsHere is a new Loeb Classical Library edition of the resplendent epic tale of Odysseus's long journey home from the Trojan War and the legendary temptations, delays, and perils he faced at every turn... -
All of a Winter's Night by Phil Rickman
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsIt begins in the fog, with a bleak village funeral. In the early hours of the following morning, Merrily Watkins and her daughter Jane are made aware that Aidan Lloyd, son of a wealthy farmer, will not be resting in peace. A rural tradition is displaying its sinister side as an old feud re-ignites... -
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For He Can Creep by Siobhan Carroll
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 13 ratingsA Tor.com original, Siobhan Carroll's For He Can Creep is a dark fantasy story of poetry, devilry, and cats in a battle of good vs. evil for the fate of humanity. Nineteenth century poet Christopher Smart has been committed to St. Luke's Hospital for Lunatics believing God has commissioned him to write The Divine Poem... -
Unfaithful by Elisa S. Amore
Rated: 4.32 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsDESPERATE DECISIONSA Secret that Should Never Have Been RevealedA dark reality lies hidden under our very eyes.Since their creation, the Màsala have enforced the destiny of humankind on Earth through the Subterraneans, Angels condemned to carry the weight of death on their shoulders in order to please Fate... -
Fragile Empire by Christopher Mitchell
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe Empire has lived in peace for 16 years, but trouble is brewing behind the Grey Mountains, where the renegade nation of Rahain prepares; arming itself for a long-awaited war of vengeance.Karalyn, the 18 year old daughter of two war heroes, is trying to find a place for herself in the world. Her own powers were deemed so dangerous she spent much of her childhood in exile... -
Midlife Magic & Medusa by Meredith Carlisle
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsAlex has barely strapped on her magical training wheels when a gorgon slithers into town! Medusa isn’t just seeking asylum, either. She expects Alex’s help in breaking her own family’s infamous curse.Old hatred runs deep in creatures with such long memories, and keeping the entire town from going after Medusa with their own torches and pitchforks may prove impossible... -
The Devil's Pawn by Oliver Pötzsch
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA showman’s fate is in the hands of the devil in an enthralling novel inspired by the Faust legend from the bestselling author of the Hangman’s Daughter series.Rome, 1518. The church is tarnished by greed. Peasants are rebelling. Tumultuous times demand drastic recourse—before the devil gets his due... -
Duncton Quest by William Horwood
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsWhen Tryfan, son of Bracken and Rebecca, returns to the sacred Burrows of Uffington, he finds dreadful signs of death and destruction. For out of the chilly North have swarmed the grikes, a fanatical tribe of warrior moles bent on destroying all believers in the powers of the Stone...Categorized as:
myths retellings spirituality action-adventure animals anthologies anthropomorphism coming-of-age -
Wise Child by Monica Furlong
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 33 ratingsIn a remote Scottish village, nine-year-old Wise Child is taken in by Juniper, a healer and sorceress. Then Wise Child's mother, Maeve, a black witch, reappears. In choosing between Maeve and Juniper, Wise Child discovers the extent of her supernatural powers - and her true loyalties... -
The Ghosts Omnibus One by Jonathan Moeller
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsHere for the first time in one volume are the first four books of the internationally bestselling THE GHOSTS saga - CHILD OF THE GHOSTS, BLADE OF THE GHOSTS, GHOST IN THE FLAMES, and GHOST IN THE BLOOD. When her life is torn apart by sorcery and murder, young Caina Amalas joins the Ghosts, the legendary spies and assassins of the Emperor of Nighmar... -
Secrets in the Mist by Morgan L. Busse
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsWhat’s lurking in the Mist is the least of their worries… In a world where humanity lives in the sky to escape a deadly mist below, Cass’s only goal is survival. That is, until she finds a job on the airship Daedalus as a diver. Now she explores ruined cities, looking for treasure and people’s lost heirlooms until a young man hires her to find the impossible: a way to eradicate the Mist... -
Duncton Found by William Horwood
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThe first trilogy of the Duncton Chronicles now reaches an inspiring and triumphant conclusion… Under the ruthless leadership of Henbane of Whern, the grikes have taken over moledom. Soon their ascendancy is to be consolidated by Lucerne, her son by Tryfan, and the last followers of the Stone rooted out and killed...Categorized as:
myths retellings spirituality action-adventure adult animals anthologies anthropomorphism -
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Angels Before Man by rafael nicolás
Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars · 13 ratingsA queer retelling of Satan's fall that's part cozy coming of age and part fast-paced tragedy, with a little love story in between –In an eternal paradise, the most beautiful angel, Lucifer, struggles with shame, identity, and timidity, with little more than the desire to worship his creator.It isn't until the strongest angel, Michael, comes into his life that Lucifer learns to love himself... -
Jacob T. Marley by R. William Bennett
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratings"Marley was dead to begin with . . ."These chillingly familiar words begin the classic Christmas tale of remorse and redemption in A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Now R. William Bennett rewinds the story and focuses the spotlight on Scrooge's miserly business partner, Jacob T. Marley, who was allowed to return as a ghost to warn Scrooge away from his ill-fated path... -
The Little Match Girl by Hans Christian Andersen
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsThe wares of the poor little match girl illuminate her cold world, bringing some beauty to her brief, tragic life... -
Leviathan by Robert McCammon
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsIt is August of 1704, and Matthew Corbett and his companions have narrowly escaped the island of Golgotha and are recuperating in the town of Alghero on the northwestern coast of Sardinia, currently under Spanish rule. Hudson Greathouse is at his limits, both mentally and physically, after their harrowing ordeal...Categorized as:
christian spirituality historical-fiction horror fiction mystery action-adventure fantasy -
Sword of Avalon by Diana L. Paxson
Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsFiery visions, a lost king, and a forthcoming destiny.A boy raised in secret after traitors kill his parents returns to Avalon faced with a formidable task: to prove his worth as a son of the kings and priestesses of his land and lead his followers to victory, wielding the newly-forged sword Excalibur... -
The Portable Dante by Dante Alighieri
Rated: 4.23 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsDante Alighieri paved the way for modern literature, while creating verse and prose that remain unparalleled for formal elegance, intellectual depth, and emotional grandeur. The Portable Dante contains complete verse translations of Dante's two masterworks, The Divine Comedy and La Vita Nuova, as well as a bibliography, notes, and an introduction by eminent scholar and translator Mark Musa... -
The Telltale Lilac Bush and Other West Virginia Ghost Tales by Ruth Ann Musick
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratings" West Virginia boasts an unusually rich heritage of ghost tales. Originally West Virginians told these hundred stories not for idle amusement but to report supernatural experiences that defied ordinary human explanation. From jealous rivals and ghostly children to murdered kinsmen and omens of death, these tales reflect the inner lives-the hopes, beliefs, and fears-of a people... -
Orpheus & Eurydice: A Lyric Sequence by Gregory Orr
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsHow can I celebrate love/ now that I know what it does? So begins this booklength lyric sequence which reinhabits and modernizes the story of Orpheus, the mythic master of the lyre (and father of lyric poetry) and Eurydice, his lover who died and whom Orpheus tried to rescue from Hades... -
Apparition Lake by Doug Lamoreux
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsSomething is terribly wrong in the nation's oldest national park.Horrific deaths have occurred throughout Yellowstone and everyone believes that a monstrous grizzly bear is on a rampage. Scientific evidence suggests another terrifying conclusion... -
The Cthulhu Mythos Megapack: 40 Modern and Classic Lovecraftian Stories by John Gregory Betancourt, H.P. Lovecraft
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThis volume assembles no less than 40 stories set in H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos. Ranging from Lovecraft's own tales (including classics such as the novel At the Mountains of Madness, The Shadow Over Innsmouth, and The Colour Out of Space) to works by his friends and contemporaries (Clark Ashton Smith, Robert E... -
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The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Volume 2: Purgatorio by Dante Alighieri
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsEdition bilingue... -
When The Crows Cry: A fantasy romance: Fall Of Kingdoms by Andy Lee Barnes
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsBorn with dark powers inside, I am forced to keep them hidden. If anyone finds out about what I am, my entire family will be slain. And I will lose Fallon. The man I’ve fallen irrevocably in love with.After suffering horrific torture at the hands of King Northbert of Guerra, Sapherone struggles to forget about the horror and adapt to her new life in Krysland... -
Inferno by Dante Alighieri, Anthony Esolen
Rated: 4.02 of 5 stars · 66 ratingsOf the great poets, Dante is one of the most elusive and therefore one of the most difficult to adequately render into English verse. In the Inferno, Dante not only judges sin but strives to understand it so that the reader can as well... -
Priestess of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley, Diana L. Paxson
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsLong-awaited final volume in the Avalon series by bestselling fantasy author, Marion Zimmer Bradley. As the Merlin of Britannia keeps his vigil atop the Tor of Avalon, Rian, the High Priestess of Avalon, dies giving birth to her fifth child. The girl, named Eilan with her mother's dying breath, takes life...Categorized as:
christian myths religion retellings spirituality 21st-century action-adventure arthurian -
The Tombs of Anak by Frank E. Peretti
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsWhen Jay and Lila Cooper enter the cave-tombs of Anak with their archaeologist father, they hope to find a co-worker who has unaccountably disappeared. Instead, they stumble onto a frightening religion and new mysteries that soon put them all in incredible danger. The third book of the Cooper Kids Adventures...Categorized as:
christian religion spirituality 20th-century action-adventure audiobook book children -
The Celtic Twilight by W.B. Yeats
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsNotice: This Book is published by Historical Books Limited (www.publicdomain.org.uk) as a Public Domain Book, if you have any inquiries, requests or need any help you can just send an email to publications@publicdomain.org... -
The Way of Wyrd: Tales of an Anglo-Saxon Sorcerer by Brian Bates
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsSent on a mission deep into the forests of pagan Anglo-Saxon England, Wat Brand, a Christian scribe, suddenly finds his vision of the world turned upside down. The familiar English countryside is not what it seems: threatening spirits, birds of omen and plants of power lurk in this landscape of fallen terrors and mysterious forces... -
The Paper Grail by James P. Blaylock
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsCurator Howard Barton goes to Mendocino, California, to get a 19th-century woodcut sketch for his museum back home. But other, rather strange, people want the sketch for their own dubious purposes. Now Howard's caught in the middle of a secret war that somehow involves a piece of paper that is much more than it seems... -
The Brothers Grimm Volume II: 110 Grimmer Fairy Tales by Jacob Grimm
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsWe all know the stories — or do we? We know who Snow White is, but what about Rose Red? And what happens to an all-too willful child? Learn more intriguing stories about "Wise Folks," "The King's Son Who Feared Nothing," and . . . well . . . "Donkey Cabbages"--to name a few... -
The Heavenward Path by Kara Dalkey
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsMitsuko is being haunted by ghosts and bad luck. An angry spirit commands her to keep a forgotten promise and assigns her a series of impossible tasks. She turns to the mischievous shape-shifter Goranu for help. Together they journey through a landscape of Japanese myths and legends made real...Categorized as:
myths religion spirituality book female-author fiction historical historical-fiction -
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The Girl with No Hands and Other Tales by Angela Slatter
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA stunning, emotional and eclectic collection of fantasy and dark tales. These are the stories told to warn children, entertain adults and beguile all... -
Playing Saint by Zachary Bartels
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsRising mega-pastor Parker Saint was wrapped up in his ratings and his book deal. But that was before the cops and the serial killer, the Vatican operatives, and the centuries-old plot to conceal an ancient relic. Now he's just trying to stay alive.Parker Saint is an up-and-coming superstar pastor on the verge of achieving everything he's wanted--including a national TV program and major book deal... -
The Man of Legends by Kenneth C. Johnson
Rated: 4.01 of 5 stars · 35 ratings“Johnson takes a big gamble by telling such a complex tale invoking every genre imaginable while juggling distinct and deep characterizations. The bet pays off, resulting in a story that will be popular with book clubs and fun to discuss.” —Associated PressNew York City, New Year’s weekend, 2001... -
Not Wanted on the Voyage by Timothy Findley
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsNot Wanted on the Voyage is the story of the great flood and the first time the world ended, filed with an extraordinary cast of remarkable characters. With pathos and pageantry, desperation and hope, magic and mythology, this acclaimed novel weaves its unforgettable spell... -
Descent into Hell by Charles Williams
Rated: 3.93 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe key to Williams' mystically oriented theological thought, Descent into Hell (arguably Williams' greatest novel) is a multidimensional story about human beings who shut themselves up in their own narcissistic projections, so that they are no longer able to love, to 'co-inhere.' The result is a veritable hell... -
Bitter Greens by Kate Forsyth
Rated: 3.98 of 5 stars · 29 ratingsA Library Journal Best Book of 2014: Historical Fiction The amazing power and truth of the Rapunzel fairy tale comes alive for the first time in this breathtaking tale of desire, black magic and the redemptive power of loveFrench novelist Charlotte-Rose de la Force has been banished from the court of Versailles by the Sun King, Louis XIV, after a series of scandalous love affairs... -
Many Dimensions by Charles Williams
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 10 ratings...One of the most gifted and influential Christian writers England has produced this century. - Time MagazineReading Charles Williams is an unforgettable experience - Saturday ReviewIt is satire, romance, thriller, morality, and glimpses of eternity rolled into one... -
Patrick: Son of Ireland by Stephen R. Lawhead
Rated: 3.98 of 5 stars · 23 ratingsSlave, soldier, lover, hero, saint,—his life mirrored the cataclysmic world into which he was born. His memory will outlast the ages. Born of a noble Welsh family, he is violently torn from his home by Irish raiders at age sixteen and sold as a slave to a brutal wilderness king... -
Rudyard Kipling's Tales of Horror and Fantasy by Rudyard Kipling, Neil Gaiman
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsFrom ghost stories to psychological suspense, the complete horror and dark fantasy stories of Rudyard Kipling.Rudyard Kipling, a major figure of English literature, used the full power and intensity of his imagination and his writing ability in his excursions into fantasy. Kipling is considered one of England's greatest writers, but was born in Bombay... -
Among the Thorns by Veronica Schanoes
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsAmong the Thorns, by Veronica Schanoes, is a dark fantasy taking place in seventeenth century Germany, about a young woman who is intent on avenging the brutal murder of her peddler father many years earlier, by a vagabond with a magic fiddle... -
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A Gathering of Ghosts by Karen Maitland
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsPagans tackle the Knights of St John with terrible consequences in the new medieval thriller by Queen of the Dark Ages, Karen Maitland. Set on the wilds of Dartmoor, this is a ghostly tale for fans of The Essex Serpent, C. J. Sansom's Shardlake series and The Burning Chambers by Kate Mosse. 'A dark read.. -
The Testing by Jonathan Moeller
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsRachaelis is an Initiate of the Conclave, the powerful order of mighty mages. But to become a full Adept of the Conclave, she must first survive the Testing. Those who survive the Testing never speak of the trials they endured.Those who fail the Testing are never seen again. And now the Magisters of the Conclave have come to take Rachaelis to undertake the Testing... -
Burning Girls and Other Stories by Veronica Schanoes
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA Most Anticipated in 2021 Pick for The Independent Buzzfeed The Nerd Daily When we came to America, we brought anger and socialism and hunger. We also brought our demons. In Burning Girls and Other Stories, Veronica Schanoes crosses borders and genres with stories of fierce women at the margins of society burning their way toward the center... -
Apparitions: Ghosts of Old Edo by Miyuki Miyabe
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIn old Edo, the past was never forgotten. It lived alongside the present, in dark corners, and in the shadows. In these tales, award-winning author Miyuki Miyabe explores the ghosts of Japan, and the spaces of the living world they inhabit. Written with a journalistic eye and a fantasist’s heart Apparitions bring the restless dead, and those who encounter them, to life... -
Bone Harvest by James Brogden
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsStruggling with the effects of early-onset dementia, Dennie Keeling now leads a quiet life. Her husband is dead, her children are grown, and her best friend, Sarah, was convicted of murdering her abusive husband. After Sarah's tragic death in prison, Dennie has found solace in her allotment, and all she wants is to be left to tend it in peace... -
The Book of Obeah by Sandra Carrington-Smith, Dave Fennoy
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsUpon the passing of her beloved grandmother, Melody Bennet receives startling instructions that she is to take the ashes of Grandmama Giselle to southern Louisiana. Melody must step far outside her comfort zone in the suburbs of North Carolina to fulfill this dying wish...
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