Books like 'The Octopus Man'
Readers who enjoyed The Octopus Man by Jasper Gibson also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
contemporary psychological fantasy literary-fiction family
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Dark Mother Earth by Kristian Novak
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsAn amnesiac writer’s life of lies and false memories reaches a breaking point in this stunning English-language debut from an award-winning Croatian author.As a novelist, Matija makes things up for a living. Not yet thirty, he’s written two well-received books. It’s his third that is as big a failure as his private life... -
![Iliad, Books 1–12 by Homer]()
Iliad, Books 1–12 by Homer
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsHere is a new Loeb Classical Library edition of Homer's stirring heroic account of the Trojan war and its passions...Categorized as:
literary-fiction adult ancient-civilization audiobook book classics contemporary epic -
![The Good Egg by Jory John]()
The Good Egg by Jory John
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsIn this follow-up to Jory John and Pete Oswald’s popular picture book The Bad Seed, meet the next best thing: a very good egg, indeed!The good egg has been good for as long as he can remember. While the other eggs in his carton are kind of rotten, he always does the right, kind, and courteous thing... -
![The Next Person You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom]()
The Next Person You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 41 ratingsThe Next Person You Meet in Heaven: (B&N Exclusive Edition) The Sequel to The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch AlbomThis special edition contains an extra chapter and is available exclusively at Barnes & Noble... -
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![I Was So Mad by Mercer Mayer]()
I Was So Mad by Mercer Mayer
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsMercer Mayer’s Little Critter is having quite the grumpy day in this classic, funny, and heartwarming book. Whether he’s cranky on the slide or stubborn in the sandbox, both parents and children alike will relate to this beloved story... -
![A Day Like This by Kelley McNeil]()
A Day Like This by Kelley McNeil
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsWhat if everything you’ve ever loved, ever known, ever believed to be true…just disappeared?Annie Beyers has everything—a beautiful house, a loving husband, and an adorable daughter. It’s a day like any other when she takes Hannah to the pediatrician…until she wakes hours later from a car accident. When she asks for her daughter, confused doctors tell Annie that Hannah never existed... -
![The Loft by Bette Lee Crosby]()
The Loft by Bette Lee Crosby
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratings50 YEARS OF MEMORIES ARE HIDDEN IN THE WALLS OF THE LOFT... Annie only needs to find one... the one that will save Oliver's life. On the day of their wedding, Annie saw nothing but happiness ahead, but when an accident calls her back to Memory House, her world is changed forever... -
![The Betrayed by Jana Deleon]()
The Betrayed by Jana Deleon
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsOne day on the job and contractor Zach Sargent is ready to believe the dilapidated old LeBeau mansion is haunted. Some intruder – earthly or not – is threatening the youngest LeBeau sister, back to claim her inheritance. And though Danae keeps her distance from the sexy hired hand, he falls for her in a heartbeat... -
![A Spell of Rowans by Byrd Nash]()
A Spell of Rowans by Byrd Nash
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsRaised by a narcissistic mother, the Rowan children’s magical talents were twisted to fit her needs. When Rachel dies, her children must confront the past to have a future.Rachel Rowan could sniff out secrets and her antique shop, Rosemary Thyme, was a front to torment the residents of Grimsby. When she dies, her children are faced with the deadly fallout of blackmail, murder, and magic...Categorized as:
family literary-fiction romance fantasy mystery fiction magical-realism contemporary -
![What Lies Beyond The Stars by Michael Goorjian]()
What Lies Beyond The Stars by Michael Goorjian
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratings“Something in me knows of a life I was meant to live but for whatever reason, I have not . . . ”Words that ring painfully true for Adam Sheppard, a San Francisco programmer who has spent the vast majority of his 30-something years lost in the dim glow of a computer screen...Categorized as:
literary-fiction action-adventure adult book contemporary fiction humor magical-realism -
![For One More Day by Mitch Albom]()
For One More Day by Mitch Albom
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 65 ratings"Every family is a ghost story..."Mitch Albom mesmerized readers around the world with his number one New York Times bestsellers, The Five People You Meet in Heaven and Tuesdays with Morrie. Now he returns with a beautiful, haunting novel about the family we love and the chances we miss.For One More Day is the story of a mother and a son, and a relationship that covers a lifetime and beyond... -
![Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend by Matthew Dicks]()
Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend by Matthew Dicks
Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars · 42 ratingsImaginary friend Budo narrates this heartwarming story of love, loyalty, and the power of the imagination—the perfect read for anyone who has ever had a friend . . . real or otherwise.Budo is lucky as imaginary friends go. He's been alive for more than five years, which is positively ancient in the world of imaginary friends...Categorized as:
family literary-fiction 21st-century action-adventure audiobook book children children-books -
![The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki]()
The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki
Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsAfter the tragic death of his beloved musician father, fourteen-year-old Benny Oh begins to hear voices. The voices belong to the things in his house - a sneaker, a broken Christmas ornament, a piece of wilted lettuce... -
![Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi]()
Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsAn extraordinary debut novel, Freshwater explores the surreal experience of having a fractured self. It centers around a young Nigerian woman, Ada, who develops separate selves within her as a result of being born "with one foot on the other side...Categorized as:
family literary-fiction 21st-century action-adventure audiobook book coming-of-age contemporary -
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![The Midnight Library by Matt Haig]()
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 94 ratingsBetween life and death there is a library, and within that library, the shelves go on forever. Every book provides a chance to try another life you could have lived. To see how things would be if you had made other choices . .Categorized as:
family literary-fiction 21st-century action-adventure audiobook book contemporary death -
![Mystic Tea by Rea Nolan Martin]()
Mystic Tea by Rea Nolan Martin
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA community of quirky, mismatched, and endearing women struggle to find meaning and purpose on a ramshackle monastery in upstate New York. Having spent their lives in service to a church that seems to no longer serve them, they are confused about their own futures and the future of the entire monastery...Categorized as:
family literary-fiction action-adventure adult book christian contemporary female-author -
![The Force of Such Beauty: A Novel by Barbara Bourland]()
The Force of Such Beauty: A Novel by Barbara Bourland
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsAfter a failed escape attempt, the princess of a tiny kingdom begins to reevaluate her life. Caroline, a former marathon runner who dropped out of school at fourteen to pursue an Olympic medal, was the perfect candidate for a tiara: shapely, disciplined, accustomed to public attention, and utterly uneducated. When she meets Finn, the handsome prince of a small European kingdom, her fate is sealed...Categorized as:
literary-fiction family romance fiction contemporary fantasy historical-fiction audiobook -
![Man Tiger by Eka Kurniawan]()
Man Tiger by Eka Kurniawan
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA wry, affecting tale set in a small town on the Indonesian coast, Man Tiger tells the story of two interlinked and tormented families and of Margio, a young man ordinary in all particulars except that he conceals within himself a supernatural female white tiger. The inequities and betrayals of family life coalesce around and torment this magical being... -
![The Mires by Tina Makereti]()
The Mires by Tina Makereti
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA literary page turner that explores the intertwined lives of three neighboring families in a small coastal New Zealand town—a blend of Little Fires Everywhere and The Island of Missing Trees, combining domestic drama, suspense, indigenous folklore, and the threat of extremism on ordinary lives.Three women give birth in different countries and different decades...Categorized as:
literary-fiction family fiction audiobook contemporary female-author multi-pov female-mc -
![Purplicious by Victoria Kann, Elizabeth Kann]()
Purplicious by Victoria Kann, Elizabeth Kann
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsIt's purple Pinkalicious! Pinkalicious loves the color pink, but all the girls at school like black. They tease her, saying that pink stinks and pink is for babies. But Pinkalicious doesn't think so that is, until her friends stop playing with her. Now Pinkalicious has a case of the blues... -
![A Collapse of Horses by Brian Evenson]()
A Collapse of Horses by Brian Evenson
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsA stuffed bear's heart beats with the rhythm of a dead baby; Reno keeps receding to the east no matter how far you drive; and in a mine on another planet, the dust won't stop seeping in. In these stories, Brian Evenson unsettles us with the everyday and the extraordinary—the terror of living with the knowledge of all we cannot know...Categorized as:
literary-fiction 21st-century adult anthologies contemporary dystopia fiction horror -
![My Death by Lisa Tuttle]()
My Death by Lisa Tuttle
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsA widowed writer begins to work on a biography of a novelist and artist—and soon uncovers bizarre parallels between her life and her subject’s—in this chilling and singularly strange novella by a contemporary master of horror and fantasy.The narrator of Lisa Tuttle’s uncanny novella is a recent widow, a writer adrift... -
![Windeye by Brian Evenson]()
Windeye by Brian Evenson
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA woman falling out of sync with the world; a king's servant hypnotized by his murderous horse; a transplanted ear with a mind of its own. The characters in these stories live as interlopers in a world shaped by mysterious disappearances and unfathomable discrepancies between the real and imagined... -
![The Assembler of Parts by Raoul Wientzen]()
The Assembler of Parts by Raoul Wientzen
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsFrom the start of this extraordinary first novel, eight-year-old Jess finds herself in heaven reviewing her short life. She is guided in this by a being she calls the Assembler of Parts, and her task, as she understands it, is to glean her life's meaning. From birth, it was obvious that she was unlike other children: she was born without thumbs... -
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![Séances are for Suckers by Tamara Berry]()
Séances are for Suckers by Tamara Berry
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsWhen something goes bump in the night . . . it’s most likely a plumbing problem, or something equally mundane. But fake medium Eleanor Wilde is happy to investigate and cleanse your home of spectral presences—for a fee. Hey, it’s a living . . . Ellie has an ailing sister to care for, and working as a ghost hunter who doesn’t believe in ghosts helps cover the bills for both of them... -
![A History of Wild Places by Shea Ernshaw]()
A History of Wild Places by Shea Ernshaw
Rated: 4.03 of 5 stars · 38 ratingsTravis Wren has an unusual talent for locating missing people. Hired by families as a last resort, he requires only a single object to find the person who has vanished. When he takes on the case of Maggie St. James—a well-known author of dark, macabre children’s books—he’s led to a place many believed to be only a legend... -
![Catastrophe: And Other Stories by Dino Buzzati]()
Catastrophe: And Other Stories by Dino Buzzati
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsIn Catastrophe, the renowned Italian short story writer Dino Buzzati brings vividly to life the slow and quietly terrifying collapse of our known, everyday world. In stories touched by the fantastical and the strange, and filled with humor, irony, and menace, Buzzati illuminates the nightmarish side of our ordinary existence...Categorized as:
literary-fiction 20th-century adult anthologies classics contemporary fiction horror -
![The Love We Share Without Knowing by Christopher Barzak]()
The Love We Share Without Knowing by Christopher Barzak
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsOn a train filled with quietly sleeping passengers, a young man’s life is forever altered when he is miraculously seen by a blind man. In a quiet town an American teacher who has lost her Japanese lover to death begins to lose her own self. On a remote road amid fallow rice fields, four young friends carefully take their own lives—and in that moment they become almost as one...Categorized as:
literary-fiction adult anthologies coming-of-age contemporary epic fiction magical-realism -
![For a Little While by Rick Bass]()
For a Little While by Rick Bass
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsA "New York Times Book Review" Editors' Choice "A literary titan...Bass is, hands down, a master of the short form, creating in a few pages a natural world of mythic proportions." -- "New York Times Book Review" Long considered one of the most gifted practitioners of the short story, Rick Bass is unsurpassed in his ability to perceive and portray the enduring truths of the human heart...Categorized as:
literary-fiction adult anthologies audiobook contemporary fiction outdoors psychological -
![The Lost Storyteller by Amanda Block]()
The Lost Storyteller by Amanda Block
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratings"A powerful novel about the bond between fathers and daughters, and how stories connect us all. I loved it" Jenny Colgan THE LOST STORYTELLER is the heartwarming and evocative debut novel from a stunning new voice in fiction, Amanda Block. Perfect for fans of Ruth Hogan, Jessie Burton and Diane Setterfield.Rebecca hasn't seen her father Leo since she was six... -
![Normal Rules Don't Apply by Kate Atkinson]()
Normal Rules Don't Apply by Kate Atkinson
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsA dazzling collection of eleven interconnected stories from the bestselling, award-winning author of Shrines of Gaiety and Life After Life which offer the gimlet eye and delightful social critique that have made Atkinson one of the most lauded writers of our time.In this brilliant volume, nothing is quite as it seems...Categorized as:
literary-fiction fiction fantasy contemporary audiobook mystery anthologies 21st-century -
![The Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud by Ben Sherwood]()
The Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud by Ben Sherwood
Rated: 4.01 of 5 stars · 50 ratingsThe Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud tells the haunting story of a young man who narrowly survives a terrible car wreck that kills his little brother. Years later, the brothers’ bond remains so strong that it transcends the normal boundaries separating life and death. Charlie St. Cloud lives in a snug New England fishing village...Categorized as:
family literary-fiction action-adventure afterlife audiobook book coming-of-age contemporary -
![At the Waterfall by Smardline S.]()
At the Waterfall by Smardline S.
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsTwo strangers. One cabin. A summer fling .Grief and fear aren’t strangers to Jake and Mia. Jake, a climber addicted to control, lives for the next thrill but avoids love at all costs.He has his Never sleeps with the same girl twice.No exchanging names.No staying over—can't risk anyone catching feelings.That is until he’s forced to share a cabin with princess and her no-noise-before-8-AM rule...Categorized as:
literary-fiction romance contemporary poc-mc multi-pov psychological fiction fantasy -
![The Whalestoe Letters by Mark Z. Danielewski]()
The Whalestoe Letters by Mark Z. Danielewski
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 23 ratingsBetween 1982 and 1989, Pelafina H. Lièvre sent her son, Johnny Truant, a series of letters from The Three Attic Whalestoe Institute, a psychiatric facility in Ohio where she spent the final years of her life... -
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![The Boy Detective Fails by Joe Meno]()
The Boy Detective Fails by Joe Meno
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 16 ratings"In the twilight of a childhood full of wonder, Billy Argo, boy detective, is brokenhearted to find that his younger sister and crime-solving partner, Caroline, has committed suicide... -
![All of It by Kim Holden]()
All of It by Kim Holden
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsSeventeen-year-old Veronica Smith has it all: a loving family, a funky car named Jezebel, and a plan to go to college after graduation. On the first day of senior year she meets Dimitri Glenn-a mysterious transfer student with gray eyes and a mischievous smile who seems determined to win her heart... -
![Time Dancers by Steve Cash]()
Time Dancers by Steve Cash
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsSteve Cash created “an absorbing [and] intriguing saga” (The San Diego Union-Tribune) in his debut novel, The Meq. Outwardly indistinguishable from human beings, but with abilities no human can claim, the Meq search for their lost history and face a mysterious prophesied reckoning. . . .It has been thirty-eight years since Zianno–known as Z–turned twelve. In appearance, he has not aged a day... -
![A Severed Wasp by Madeleine L'Engle]()
A Severed Wasp by Madeleine L'Engle
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsKatherine Forrester Vigneras, in a continuation of her story from The Small Rain, returns to New York City from Europe to retire. Now in her seventies, she encounters an old friend from her Greenwich Village days who, it turns out, is the former Bishop of New York. He asks Katherine to give a benefit concert at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine...Categorized as:
family literary-fiction book children children-books classics contemporary female-author -
![Pigeon Feathers and Other Stories by John Updike]()
Pigeon Feathers and Other Stories by John Updike
Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThe triumphant collection of short stories by America's most acclaimed novelist... -
![The Baggage Handler by David Rawlings]()
The Baggage Handler by David Rawlings
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsWhen three people take the wrong suitcase from baggage claim, their lives change forever. A hothead businessman coming to the city for a showdown meeting to save his job.A mother of three hoping to survive the days at her sister's house before her niece’s wedding.And a young artist pursuing his father’s dream so he can keep his own alive... -
![The Patron Saint of Ugly by Marie Manilla]()
The Patron Saint of Ugly by Marie Manilla
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsBorn in Sweetwater, West Virginia, with a mop of flaming red hair and a map of the world rendered in port-wine stains on every surface of her body, Garnet Ferrari is used to being an outcast... -
![Observatory Mansions by Edward Carey, محمد غفوری]()
Observatory Mansions by Edward Carey, محمد غفوری
Rated: 3.96 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsOnce the Orme family’s magnificent ancestral estate, Observatory Mansions is now a crumbling apartment complex, home to an eccentric group of misfits. One of them is Francis Orme, who earns his livelihood as a living statue. When not practicing “inner and outer stillness,” Francis steals the cherished possessions of others to add to his private museum... -
![Last Summer at Mars Hill by Elizabeth Hand]()
Last Summer at Mars Hill by Elizabeth Hand
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThis is Elizabeth Hand's long-awaited collection of short stories, centered around her Nebula and World Fantasy Award-winning novella The Last Summer at Mars Hill. There are 12 pieces in all here, ranging from those first published in places like Interzone and Pulphouse to a two-page poem taken from the pages of Asimov's...Categorized as:
literary-fiction action-adventure adult anthologies colonization contemporary dark dark-fantasy -
![Skeletal by Katherine Hayton]()
Skeletal by Katherine Hayton
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThree months before she died Daina Harrow faced a bully at school.Six weeks before she died Daina Harrow suffered an assault in the park.One week before she died Daina Harrow stole a secret people had killed to hide. That was ten years ago. Ten long years.Now, her bones have been found on a building site. A coroner's inquest has been reopened. A parade of witnesses is about to start... -
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![Don't Try This at Home by Angela Readman]()
Don't Try This at Home by Angela Readman
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA girl repeatedly chops her boyfriend in half but, while her other half’ multiplies, she is still not satisfied. Love transforms a mother working down the chippie into Elvis. Clary’s father puts antlers on stuffed rabbits to make jackalopes, but when her mother walks out on them, Clary has to help her father if they are to survive...Categorized as:
literary-fiction adult anthologies contemporary female-author fiction haunted-places humor -
![Here in Avalon by Tara Isabella Burton]()
Here in Avalon by Tara Isabella Burton
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsAn “enchanting” (Caroline Kepnes, author of You) New York City fairy tale about two sisters that fall under the spell of an underworld cabaret troupe that might be a dangerous cult—but one that makes the materialist world left in its wake feel like a sinister cult itself.Rose has come a long way...Categorized as:
literary-fiction fantasy fiction magical-realism contemporary 21st-century mystery urban-fantasy -
![Bear by Julia Phillips]()
Bear by Julia Phillips
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA mesmerising novel of two sisters on a Pacific Northwest island whose lives are upended by an unexpected visitor — a tale of family, obsession, and a mysterious creature in the woods, by the celebrated, bestselling author of Disappearing Earth.They were sisters and they would last past the end of time.Sam and her sister, Elena, dream of another life...Categorized as:
literary-fiction family north-america usa washington-dc washington fiction contemporary -
![The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom]()
The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 83 ratingsFrom the author of the phenomenal #1 New York Times bestseller Tuesdays with Morrie, a novel that explores the unexpected connections of our lives, and the idea that heaven is more than a place; it's an answer. Eddie is a wounded war veteran, an old man who has lived, in his mind, an uninspired life. His job is fixing rides at a seaside amusement park... -
![Festive Christmas Nights by Mimi Barbour, Susanne Matthews]()
Festive Christmas Nights by Mimi Barbour, Susanne Matthews
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsChristmas cheer and romance are sweet any time of year!This gift set of eight diverse holiday-themed love stories is loaded with hunks and honeys, cops and crooks, love at first sights and second chances, and a few surprise youngsters out to trick Mommy... -
![Summer Light by Luanne Rice, Laural Merlington]()
Summer Light by Luanne Rice, Laural Merlington
Rated: 3.86 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsAbandoned by the father of her child, May Taylor supports herself by her work as a gifted wedding planner with her best friend and great-aunt, carrying on the timeless traditions established by her grandmother and mother. She is a devoted mother to her daughter, Kylie - a very special child. For Kylie sees and hears things no one else can...
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