Books like 'Merciless Waters'
Readers who enjoyed Merciless Waters by Rae Knowles also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
fantasy horror mystery outlaws wlw witches-wizards lgbtq myths mermaids dark
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The Magnus Archives: Season 3 by Jonathan Sims
Rated: 4.80 of 5 stars · 15 ratingsThe Magnus Archives is a horror audiobook written by Jonathan Sims, directed by Alexander J. Newall and distributed by Rusty Quill. Sims narrates the stories in-character as the main character, Jonathan Sims, the newly-appointed head archivist of the fictional Magnus Institute; an institution based in London centred on research into the paranormal... -
The Unwanted Guest by Tamsyn Muir
Rated: 4.67 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsFeaturing Ianthe Tridentarius and Palamedes Sextus, this story was originally published in the trade paperback edition of Nona the Ninth... -
Call of Cthulhu: Horror Roleplaying by Sandy Petersen, Lynn Willis
Rated: 4.45 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsCALL OF CTHULHU is Chaosium's classic roleplaying game of Lovecraftian horror in which ordinary people are confronted by the terrifying and alien forces of the Cthulhu Mythos. CALL OF CTHULHU uses Chaosium's Basic Roleplaying System, easy to learn and quick to play. This bestseller has won dozens of game-industry awards and is a member of the Academy of Adventure Game Design Hall of Fame... -
Salty Dog by Shayne Silvers, Cameron O'Connell
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsAbductions rarely go as planned…but this is just ridiculous. Torn from the Faeling Games on the beaches of Scotland, Quinn MacKenna suddenly finds herself doggie-paddling in a turbulent sea of blood with no land in sight.And that’s the highlight of her day so far, because her abductors seem perfectly content to simply leave her in this strange Otherworld... -
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As Yet Unsent by Tamsyn Muir
Rated: 4.43 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsCulled from Judith Deuteros’ secret report on Blood of Eden activities, this story was originally published in the trade paperback edition of Harrow the Ninth... -
Nona the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
Rated: 4.32 of 5 stars · 43 ratingsHer city is under siege.The zombies are coming back.And all Nona wants is a birthday party.In many ways, Nona is like other people. She lives with her family, has a job at her local school, and loves walks on the beach and meeting new dogs. But Nona's not like other people. Six months ago she woke up in a stranger's body, and she's afraid she might have to give it back... -
The Language of Thorns: Midnight Tales and Dangerous Magic by Leigh Bardugo
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 53 ratingsLove speaks in flowers. Truth requires thorns. Travel to a world of dark bargains struck by moonlight, of haunted towns and hungry woods, of talking beasts and gingerbread golems, where a young mermaid's voice can summon deadly storms and where a river might do a lovestruck boy's bidding but only for a terrible price... -
Don't Let the Forest In by C.G. Drews
Rated: 4.44 of 5 stars · 9 ratingsAs alluring as it is unsettling, award-winning author CG Drews’ debut YA psychological horror will leave readers breathless and hesitant to venture deeper into the woods.Once upon a time, Andrew had cut out his heart and given it to this boy, and he was very sure Thomas had no idea that Andrew would do anything for him. Protect him. Lie for him. Kill for him... -
The Master's Apprentice: A Retelling of the Faust Legend by Oliver Pötzsch
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsA young man’s destined quest becomes a dance with the devil in a mesmerizing retelling of the Faust legend by the bestselling author of the Hangman’s Daughter Tales series.It’s the fifteenth century and only heretics are curious about the universe.Germany, 1494. Born under a rare alignment of the stars, Johann Georg Gerlach, “the lucky one” to his mother—is fated for greatness... -
Slewfoot: A Tale of Bewitchery by Brom, Бром
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsA spirited young Englishwoman, Abitha, arrives at a Puritan colony betrothed to a stranger – only to become quickly widowed when her husband dies under mysterious circumstances. All alone in this pious and patriarchal society, Abitha fights for what little freedom she can grasp onto, while trying to stay true to herself and her past... -
Dead Stream Curse by J.R. Erickson, Nicole Jatho Swanson
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA secret they intended to take to the grave. But the dead will tell.. -
Wicked Bite by Megan Montero
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsAll power lay with the House of Shade…The only kind of monsters I’d ever seen were the ones who drank too much at my bar. Chaos was a nightly occurrence I’d grown used to…and deep down I liked it. I lived in a city full of ghosts, magic, and the paranormal. A city with a haunted past. The darkness should have terrified me. But the only thing that scared the hell out of me…was love... -
Sworn to the Night by Craig Schaefer
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsMarie Reinhart is an NYPD detective on the trail of a serial killer. When she sleeps, though, she dreams of other lives; she dreams of being a knight, in strange wars and strange worlds. On the other side of the city, Nessa Roth is a college professor trapped in a loveless marriage, an unwilling prop in a political dynasty... -
Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology by Shane Hawk, Theodore C. Van Alst Jr.
Rated: 4.16 of 5 stars · 19 ratingsA bold, clever, and sublimely sinister collection that dares to ask the question: “Are you ready to be un-settled?” Featuring stories by: Norris Black • Amber Blaeser-Wardzala • Phoenix Boudreau • Cherie Dimaline • Carson Faust • Kelli Jo Ford • Kate Hart • Shane Hawk • Brandon Hobson • Darcie Little Badger • Conley Lyons • Nick Medina • Tiffany Morris • Tommy Orange • Mona Susan Power • Marcie R... -
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Fierce as a Tiger Lily by Kendra Moreno
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsTo die is no adventure. . .Tiger Lily knows that better than anyone. Death and the Tribes of Neverland have an intimate relationship, if only because their magic feeds the deity. Tiger has always walked in the darkness, and as a Daughter, she calls Death a friend.But Neverland is in trouble and Tiger finds herself in the middle of darkness she knows and a new insanity she doesn't... -
The Lamb by Lucy Rose
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsMargot and Mama have lived by the forest ever since Margot can remember. When Margot is not at school they spend quiet days together in their cottage, waiting for strangers to knock on their door—"strays," Mama calls them, people who have strayed too far from the road. Mama loves the strays. She feeds them wine, keeps them warm... -
Feral as a Cat by Kendra Moreno
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsWeapons don’t weep… Calypso is only trying to make it through life, raising her little brother and taking care of her ailing mom. She doesn’t have time for fairytales or pipe dreams, so when two men show up at her door talking about Wonderland, she sends them on their way... -
Fade by Claire Farrell
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsCara Kelly should have left the faery realm now that it has a king to rule all, but nothing is that simple. The real king is trapped in the Fade, and Cara’s journey is just beginning. Guilt-ridden by the fact Brendan’s soul was sacrificed for hers, she’s determined not to desert him after his one pure act of goodness... -
The Return Of The Sorcerer: The Best Of Clark Ashton Smith by Clark Ashton Smith
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThis work offers both readers and scholars a collection of short fiction and short novels by Clark Ashton Smith... -
House of Hollow by Krystal Sutherland
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 63 ratingsSeventeen-year-old Iris Hollow has always been strange. Something happened to her and her two older sisters when they were children, something they can’t quite remember but that left each of them with an identical half-moon scar at the base of their throats. Iris has spent most of her teenage years trying to avoid the weirdness that sticks to her like tar... -
Hansel by Christopher Coleman
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe evil witch's plague on the Back Country is over, but a new terror now lurks in a distant land.Years have passed since Marlene's death, and Gretel, unable to cope with her mother's descent into madness, has fled the Back Country for the solitude and anonymity of the Old World... -
Shallow Grave by E.A. Copen
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsDead men tell no tales...Unless you're a necromancer. Then they never shut up. Life is finally going right for Lazarus Kerrigan, necromancer and Pale Horseman. Business is booming, and no gods have tried to kill him for a whole month. But the past is catching up to him.There's a serial killer on the loose in New Orleans, one that targets children and leaves behind only bones...Categorized as:
myths outlaws retellings romantic-love witches-wizards action-adventure audiobook book -
Carmilla: The Wolves of Styria by David Brian, J. Sheridan Le Fanu
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIs it ever possible for the undead to find true love? You'll find no definitive answer here. Be aware of this much though: When werewolves and vampires clash; there can be no winners.When fate draws together the lives of two young women, their mutual attraction quickly flourishes into a bond which threatens the boundaries of social etiquette in 1860s Styria... -
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Legacy Witches by Cass Kay
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsComing from a long line of murderous witches hasn’t exactly been sunshine and rainbows for Vianna Roots. When she inherits the family’s haunted house after her mother dies, she decides flipping the rundown dump is her smartest move—but the ghosts that haunt her have a different plan... -
The Bayou by Arden Powell
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 7 ratings"Eugene didn’t know if he believed in the devil beyond the wicked things people did of their own accord, but if the devil had a face, it would look like Johnny Walker’s."Small-town Louisiana, 1935.When Eugene was twelve, a girl from town disappeared. Everyone said the gators must have got her when she strayed too near the bayou. No foul play, just a terrible accident... -
Never Have I Ever by Isabel Yap
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratings“Am I dead?”Mebuyen sighs. She was hoping the girl would not ask.Spells and stories, urban legends and immigrant tales: the magic in Isabel Yap’s debut collection jumps right off the page, from the joy in her new novella, 'A Spell for Foolish Hearts' to the terrifying tension of the urban legend 'Have You Heard the One About Anamaria Marquez'... -
The Curse of Eelgrass Bog by Mary Averling
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsDark secrets and unnatural magic abound when a twelve-year-old girl ventures into a bog full of monsters to break a mysterious curse.Nothing about Kess Pedrock’s life is normal. Not her home (she lives in her family’s Unnatural History Museum), not her interests (hunting for megafauna fossils and skeletons), and not her best friend (a talking demon’s head in a jar named Shrunken Jim)... -
The Whispering Muse by Laura Purcell
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsFrom the Sunday Times bestselling author comes a gripping tale of obsession, superstition and ambition, set against the atmospheric backdrop of Victorian London. Be careful what you wish for it may just come true.At The Mercury Theatre in London's West End, rumours are circulating of a curse... -
Songs of a Dead Dreamer by Thomas Ligotti
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsSongs of a Dreamer was Thomas Ligotti’s first collection of supernatural horror stories. When originally published in 1985 by Harry Morris’s Silver Scarab Press, the book was hardly noticed. In 1989, an expanded version appeared that garnered accolades from several quarters... -
A Dowry of Blood by S.T. Gibson
Rated: 4.09 of 5 stars · 44 ratingsA lyrical and dreamy reimagining of Dracula’s brides, A Dowry of Blood is a story of desire, obsession, and emancipation. Saved from the brink of death by a mysterious stranger, Constanta is transformed from a medieval peasant into a bride fit for an undying king... -
Her Heart Beats for Ancient Beasts by Calvin Demmer
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsAncient beings, merciless monsters, unearthly creatures, and other beasts roam these pages.A short story collection... -
Knock Knock, Open Wide by Neil Sharpson
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 11 ratingsKnock Knock, Open Wide weaves horror and Celtic myth into a terrifying, heartbreaking supernatural tale of fractured family bonds, the secrets we carry, and the veiled forces that guide Irish life.Driving home late one night, Etain Larkin finds a corpse on a pitch-black country road deep in the Irish countryside. She takes the corpse to a remote farmhouse... -
A Bouquet of Czech Folktales by Karel Jaromír Erben
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsErben compiled and wrote A Bouquet based on his studies of Slavic folktales and folk songs. First published in 1853, it is dotted with murder and mayhem : graves opening and the dead walking the earth, the animate becoming the inanimate and vice versa, ogres and monsters of lake and wood, human transformations reminiscent of Ovid's Metamorphoses... -
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Silver Birch, Blood Moon by Ellen Datlow, Garry Kilworth
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe four previous volumes in Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling's anthology series of fairly tales retold with a distinctively modern edge have been hailded by reviewers as "brilliant," "provocative," and "disturbing... -
The Ghost Woods by C.J. Cooke
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsLook out for C.J. Cooke's atmospheric new novel . . . In the midst of the woods stands a house called Lichen Hall. This place is shrouded in folklore—old stories of ghosts, of witches, of a child who was not quite a child. Now the woods are creeping closer, and something has been unleashed. Pearl Gorham arrives in 1965, one of a string of young women sent to Lichen Hall to give birth... -
October Dreams: A Celebration of Halloween by Richard Chizmar, Robert Morrish
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsClassic novellas, never-before-published stories, essays on the history, literature, and films of Halloween, and real-life memories of October 31st-from today's best practitioners of fear:Dean Koontz * Peter Straub * Poppy Z. Brite * Rick Hautala * Steve Rasnic Tem * Elizabeth Engstrom * Thomas Ligotti * Gary A. Braunbeck * Jack Ketchum * Thomas F. Monteleone * Hugh B... -
The Watchers by A.M. Shine
Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars · 13 ratingsThis forest isn't charted on any map. Every car breaks down at its treeline. Mina's is no different. Left stranded, she is forced into the dark woodland only to find a woman shouting, urging Mina to run to a concrete bunker. As the door slams behind her, the building is besieged by screams... -
Night of the Living Queers: 13 Tales of Terror & Delight by Ryan Douglass, Kalynn Bayron
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 11 ratingsNight of the Living Queers is a YA horror anthology that explores a night when anything is possible, exclusively featuring queer authors of color putting fresh spins on classic horror tropes and tales.No matter its name or occasion, Halloween is more than a Hallmark holiday, it’s a symbol of transformation... -
MARY: Unleashed by Hillary Monahan
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsMary in the mirror.Mary in the glass.Mary in the water.Mary lurks in the emptiness, in the darkness . . . in the reflection. That is, until Jess unleashes her into the world. Now Mary Worth is out and her haunting is deadlier than ever.No one is safe.Shauna, Kitty, and Jess must band together to unearth the truth about Mary's death to put her soul to rest for good... -
Creature by Hunter Shea
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThe monsters live inside of Kate Woodson. Chronic pain and a host of autoimmune diseases have robbed her of a normal, happy life. Her husband Andrew’s surprise of their dream Maine lake cottage for the summer is the gift of a lifetime. It’s beautiful, remote, idyllic, a place to heal. But they are not alone... -
I Shall Awaken by Kateřina Šardická
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThis young adult mystery horror takes us to a remote borderline village in an intentionally unspecified place and time where people still live by their own rules and still believe in old gods. Twelve years ago, four children suddenly disappeared without trace. Now during the winter solstice, three of them returned out of nowhere as adults with no memory of what happened to them... -
Fox Revenge by Robin Roseau
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsLara is pregnant with twins, and Michaela is fiercely protective. This turns out to be a very poor time to take in a refugee from a neighboring wolf pack, and things grow more difficult when the neighboring alpha demands the wolf's return.The resulting troubles put Michaela on the opposite side of the issue from Lara, Elisabeth and the rest of the pack, adding stress to all relationships... -
The Rain Dancers by Greg F. Gifune
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsHe arrives in darkness, in the middle of a violent downpour...an affable old man with tales to tell... When Will and Betty Colby return to Betty's hometown to settle her late father's affairs and prepare his house for sale, they assume they'll be faced with some cleaning, basic repairs and making runs to the local dump... -
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Before the Devil Knows You're Here by Autumn Krause
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsA deliciously dark folk horror for fans of Maggie Stiefvater and Erin Craig, blending the tall tales of Johnny Appleseed and Paul Bunyan with Faustian elements, and centering a fierce Mexican-American poet on a quest to rescue her brother.1836. Wisconsin Territory. All Catalina has left is her little brother—Mama died years ago, and Papa was buried just yesterday... -
Village of the Mermaids by Carlton Mellick III
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsMERMAID [mur-meyd] noun -- a rare species of fish evolved to resemble the appearance of a woman in order to attract male human prey. Mermaids are protected by the government under the Endangered Species Act, which means you aren't able to kill them even in self-defense... -
The Kingless Crown by Sarah M. Cradit
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA crown woven together by lies.A kingdom with the power to unravel them.Four Reaches. Four brides. Only a fortnight separates the young women from becoming reluctant queens of the usurper king, Eoghan Rhiagain... -
Knights, Witches, and Murder by R.M. Schultz
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIn a land where the wolf wind and mists roam like ghosts, the conflicted son of a witch was knighted by the king. Knighted to repay a debt to his father.His name is Calec.He alone holds knowledge from both the knighthood and the mysterious witches of the woods... -
Undercover by Tamsyn Muir
Rated: 4.09 of 5 stars · 17 ratingsWhen a stranger comes to town, secrets are sure to come out. New York Times bestselling author Tamsyn Muir spins a twisty—and twisted—short story of revenge and survival.A fresh-faced newcomer arrives in an isolated, gang-run town and soon finds herself taking a job nobody else wants: bodyguard to a ghoul. Not just your average mindless, half-rotted shuffler, though... -
All the Murmuring Bones by A.G. Slatter
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsLong ago Miren O'Malley's family prospered due to a deal struck with the Mer: safety for their ships in return for a child of each generation. But for many years the family have been unable to keep their side of the bargain and have fallen into decline. Miren's grandmother is determined to restore their glory, even at the price of Miren's freedom...
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