The Best Modern Mystery Novels

From Argentina to Japan, here are some of the finest mystery novels that are revitalizing the genre right now, all of which deserve your attention. Get ready to scratch your head and remark on the ways in which these mystery writers are blending genres and casting aside the rulebook to achieve great things. Let’s dive in.

The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

Few modern mystery novels lean as hard on the definition of “mystery” as The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle does. There are countless mystery novels that present an answer that reveals a dozen new questions, but this puzzle box of a novel actually pays all of that off with aplomb.

We begin halfway through a word that has just left the mouth of our nameless, amnesia-stricken protagonist. It is as though he has just woken up in his own body. He is in a forest, shouting a name he doesn’t know, and he is alone. He walks and eventually arrives at a manor house. The people there tell him he is their friend and that he is a doctor.

The next morning, he wakes up as a different person in the house, and it is then that he learns that he will continue to flit from body to body for eight days, tasked with solving and preventing the death of the titular Evelyn Hardcastle.

The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle is a dizzying novel, masterfully crafted and thrilling at every turn. Stuart Turton showed absurd and admirable confidence in writing such a mystery masterpiece as his debut novel. Incredible work.

Buy a copy here!

If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio

One of the novels that stands at the summit of the dark academia genre, If We Were Villains is also an excellently crafted murder mystery story. What sets this apart from other mystery novels is the fact that its mystery sits quietly at the back of the room. You can’t forget about it but are encouraged not to look at it.

We begin with a man named Oliver, who has just been released from prison for a murder he didn’t commit. We then flashback to the year of that fateful murder. Our cast is a group of college students, all studying theatre at a specialist arts academy. They live in the minds and works of Shakespeare, and one of them will soon die.

We don’t know who the victim will be until it happens, and we know that Oliver didn’t do it. The drama of this dark academia novel is at its forefront, with the murder mystery sitting like a ghost offstage. The blend of these two genres is what makes If We Were Villains one of the great modern mystery novels.

Buy a copy of If We Were Villains here!

The Last Murder at the End of the World by Stuart Turton

Forget your typical whodunnit. Turton’s newest novel throws you headfirst into a genre-bending whirlwind of dystopian sci-fi, pulse-pounding thriller, and classic murder mystery, all set against the idyllic backdrop of a seemingly perfect island untouched by the world’s deadly fog.

With multiple POVs and the omnipresent AI Abi whispering in everyone’s ear, the narrative unfolds like a puzzle box slowly clicking into place with Emory, a would-be detective, at the heart of it.

This is no ordinary murder mystery. The memory-wiping security system adds a mind-bending twist, forcing suspects to grapple with the possibility of being a killer without any recollection of the act. It’s a constant dance of uncovering and rediscovering, keeping you guessing at every turn. Each revelation feels like a victory, propelling you further into the heart of the island’s secrets.

If you’re looking for a book that will bend your brain and keep you guessing until the last page The Last Murder at the End of the World is it.

Buy a copy of The Last Murder at the End of the World

Helle & Death by Oskar Jensen

Helle & Death is a loud and proud homage to the golden age of crime fiction; a rekindling of the cosy vibes and puzzle-box structure that made Agatha Christie a cherished household name. Jensen’s novel follows a group of eight friends in their early thirties who all studied at Oxford together ten years ago. One of those friends made his fortune straight out of uni by developing an app. He has now sold it and lives a reclusive life in a large country manor.

Out of the blue, Dodd has invited the other seven to visit his home for a reunion dinner, and we primarily follow Danish art historian Torben Helle as he and the rest spend an evening catching up, dining, and then being hit by the bombshell that Dodd is dying, and in his will he has left each of them £50,000. A large sum to many, and a pittance to others. The group drown their sorrows, and in the morning Dodd is found dead in his bed.

From here, the game is afoot. Made to look like suicide, it surely couldn’t have been. Right? Helle puts on his sleuthing hat and starts asking questions, piecing together motives and means. Whodunnit? You’ll have to read on to find out. It’s a doozy of a tale that echoes the best Christie stories, and cements Jensen as a stellar writer of the modern mystery novel.

Buy a copy of Helle & Death here!

The Three Dahlias by Katy Watson

Katy Watson’s The Three Dahlias is a love letter to the golden age of crime fiction, led by the Queen of Crime, Agatha Christie. It’s a murder-mystery story about murder-mystery stories. Our protagonists are three actresses from three generations who have all played (or are about to play) the role of an iconic detective.

Created by the author Lettice Davenport — Princess of Poison — Dahlia Lively was a Miss Marple-esque sleuth who featured in many of Davenport’s novels and was brought to life via TV and Film. To celebrate those adaptations, a celebration is being held at the stately home of the late Lettice Davenport. There, our three Dahlias will be brought together by blackmail, then by theft, and at last by murder.

This stately home inspired Davenport’s writing; most of her mystery stories were based on her own home, and now someone is using her works to inspire their own very real murders, and our three actresses must summon their inner Dahlias to solve this crime, all while fearing exposure by whomever is blackmailing them.

The Three Dahlias pays homage to the traditions of the murder mystery while also leaning into the genre’s tropes in order to break its rules and take the reader on a fresh, original journey.

Buy a copy of The Three Dahlias here!

The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward

This genre-blending gothic horror mystery thriller wasn’t Catriona Ward’s debut, but it was the novel that broke her into the mainstream and landed her on every reader’s lips. The Last House on Needless Street is a rare book that pushes the world of mystery novels forward, mixing terror and strangeness into its formula to create an unforgettable experience.

Our main protagonist is a man in his thirties named Ted. More than a decade ago, he was the prime suspect in the disappearance/murder of a girl at a nearby lakeside. Now, Ted lives a secluded life with his cat and his daughter. We sometimes see things from the cat’s perspective, and the daughter is not always there.

Assumptions can very quickly be made, but they are all so telegraphed, so predictable, that they can’t be true. This is a novel that wrongfoots the reader constantly and has fun doing so. The gothic and horror themes and tropes that have been mixed in make for an atmosphere that you feel as though you’re drowning in. The Last House on Needless Street set Catriona Ward up as the new queen of mystery novels.

Buy a copy here!

Looking Glass Sound by Catriona Ward

With The Last House on Needless Street, Catriona Ward turned the genres of mystery, thriller, horror, and gothic into Lego bricks to play with in new and experimental ways. With Looking Glass Sound, she takes that approach several steps further, writing a book within a book that examines the very concepts of fact and fiction, of memoir and narrative, of lives and lies.

Our protagonist, Wilder, first provides us with a memoir about two teenage summers spent on the coast of Maine, about the two friends he made there, and about the dangerous Dagger Man haunting the town. This doesn’t last long, however; soon, we move with Wilder to college in Pennsylvania and the strange roommate who calls himself Sky.

We watch Sky steal Wilder’s memoir and publish it as his own novel, propelling him into fame and leaving Wilder alone with nothing. Now, Wilder is an aging man going blind who has returned to coastal Maine with the aim of setting the record straight, of writing his memoir at last, and of exposing the now-dead Sky as the thief he was.

Looking Glass Sound is a dizzying modern thriller that examines the genre and its implications for readers, writers, and storytellers.

Buy a copy of Looking Glass Sound here!

Scorched Grace by Margot Douaihy

Scorched Grace is a very different kind of mystery novel. Not so much because it breaks convention in a genre sense, but certainly in a tonal one, and in terms of what we expect from a mystery novel protagonist. Sister Holiday was a punk kid; a young lesbian from Brooklyn, covered in tattoos, playing in a band, doing drugs, and tangling with her parents.

She’s also a devout Catholic. After escaping to New Orleans, she was taken in by the progressive nuns of Saint Sebastian’s School, where she has worked as a teacher ever since. A tattooed, chain-smoking, filthy-mouthed nun isn’t your typical sleuth.

The mystery she becomes tangled up in is a series of arson attacks targeted at her school — arson attacks which also lead to the deaths of people she knows and cares about. When the police prove all but useless, Sister Holiday takes things into her own hands, especially when she feels prying eyes on her, and all signs point to her being set up for the crime.

Set against the backdrop of a scorching, sweltering, oppressive summer heat, with a supporting cast of angry nuns, punk teenagers, and unreliable cops, this is one of the most unique and compelling mystery novels in a long time.

Buy a copy of Scorched Grace here!

The Readers’ Room by Antoine Laurain

Translated from the French by Jane Aitken

The Readers’ Room is a delightful French murder mystery novel, very much in the vein of Agatha Christie and her compatriots. This is a bright yet twisted mystery that grows and tangles as it goes.

The Readers’ Room is set in a Paris publishing house. The head of the publishing house has been sent a manuscript that she sees as something truly unique and special. It’s fresh, daring, and exciting, and she has big plans for it. Meanwhile, the novel also remarks on the mechanics of publishing houses in a very intimate and satisfying way.

That new novel is published, but the identity of the author remains a mystery. When it is nominated for a prize, the prize can only be given if the identity of the author is revealed. Our publishing director is now caught up in the investigation of real-world murders tied to the events within this strange new mystery novel.

The cozy, warming note of The Readers’ Room is so at odds with its content, and that’s often the pleasant paradox of so many beloved murder mystery novels.

Buy a copy of The Readers’ Room here!

The Tattoo Murder by Akimitsu Takagi

Translated from the Japanese by Deborah Boehm

The honkaku genre of Japanese murder mysteries is a broad and beloved thing. Many talented authors have added small masterpieces to this genre over the past century. The genre has a legacy so grand that it is difficult to pick one that stands above the rest, but what makes 1948’s The Tattoo Murder unique is its dedication to character drama.

Translated by Deborah Boehm, The Tattoo Murder was honkaku author Akimitsu Takagi’s debut mystery novel. Set in the aftermath of World War II, after the fall of the Japanese Empire, The Tattoo Murder is a locked-room murder mystery novel that satisfies as much as it surprises.

Our protagonist is a medical student who becomes enamoured with a young woman: the heavily tattooed daughter of a late legend of the Japanese tattooing world. She tells him that her brother and sister were both lost to the war, and that she believes she herself is not long for this world.

Her prediction proves true when she is found dead in her own home’s locked bathroom, the water still running. Her torso, the canvas for her stunning tattoo art, is missing. This is a classic Agatha Christie-esque murder mystery but with added emphasis on blood, gore, and character drama.

Buy a copy here!

How to Kill Your Family by Bella Mackie

Here is one of those modern mystery novels that had every kind of reader sitting up and paying attention, likely in part because of its delightfully cheeky title. Reminiscent of Emerald Fennell’s daring 2020 film Promising Young Woman, How to Kill Your Family is an angry mystery novel about class disparity, selfishness, and cruelty.

Our protagonist is a young woman who was raised by a poor, single French woman in London. Grace’s mother was knocked up by a philandering playboy billionaire who cast her aside and refused to even look in her or their daughter’s direction.

After the death of her mother, Grace decides to head out on a killing spree, murdering the members of her father’s rich family one by one, and we get to sit back and watch.

The mystery is revealed in the prologue, however. The novel’s framing device: Grace is in prison, writing her memoir. Here, she tells us that she actually got away with all of these murders, and was locked up for the only murder she didn’t commit. There’s our hook; there’s our mystery.

This is a wonderfully funny, grim, and satisfying book that stands out amongst other great modern mystery novels.

Buy a copy here!

The Decagon House Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji

Translated from the Japanese by Ho-Ling Wong

The Decagon House Murders is another masterpiece of the Japanese honkaku genre of murder mystery novels, and one that uniquely and specifically pays homage to the legacy of Agatha Christie. Many (including myself) consider Christie’s magnum opus to have been her novel And Then There Were None, a story that has inspired so much art and media in the decades since its publication.

One of those writers inspired by it was Yukito Ayatsuji, and his novel The Decagon House Murders proudly echoes Christie’s novel in brilliantly inventive ways. Our protagonists are a group of university students who are all members of their college’s mystery club.

These students have headed out to an island which, only a few months prior, was the site of an as-yet-unsolved murder. The honkaku genre is a pool of fantastic mystery novels, and even amongst all these great books, The Decagon House Murders stands out as a mystery masterpiece.

Buy a copy here!

The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix

Grady Henrix is an author of horror novels, all of which have brilliant titles and subvert the tropes of the genre in fun ways. This particular novel, however — The Final Girl Support Group — is as much a murder mystery as it is a horror novel. Maybe moreso, honestly.

Our protagonist is Lynette, a middle-aged woman who was once a final girl (a term used to describe the last victim left alive at the end of a slasher movie). For years, Lynette has been attending the titular therapy support group for massacre survivors, but now one of these final girls stops turning up to their sessions, and is found murdered in her home.

Someone is targeting final girls, it seems. And to make things stranger, a new final girl has just appeared, having survived a fresh massacre. Lynette makes for a great protagonist; as something of an outsider and an incredibly paranoid person, she is an unlikely hero. This adds a lot to the fun and the tension.

Buy a copy here!

The Key in the Lock by Beth Underdown

Here is an exciting piece of historical drama that doubles as a compelling murder mystery story. The Key in the Lock is a narrative that is split chronologically. We follow both the adult Ivy, who lost her son in the Great War, and the younger Ivy of the past, scarred by a dreadful fire.

The mystery of the novel surrounds the fire itself, the boy who died in that fire, and the reasons behind it. As a child, Ivy was the daughter of the village daughter. When the fire broke out, she and her father were called to the big house, and are tangled in the web of lies surrounding the cause of the blaze.

As an adult, Ivy has not only lost her son but her husband is also incredibly sick, and as we flit back to the past we see how she and her husband’s relationship initially began. The Key in the Lock is a shining example of both historical British fiction and the legacy genre of murder mystery novels.

Buy a copy here!

The Leviathan by Rosie Andrews

Set in 1643, during the English Civil War, The Leviathan is a creeping, gothic piece of historical fiction that will have you gripping the pages like the wheel of an out-of-control car. Our narrator-protagonist, Thomas Treadwater, is a young man who has returned from war to his father’s farm.

His younger sister is all out of sorts because she believes that their new servant has been seducing and manipulating their ageing father. On occasion, chapters shift forward to Thomas as an old man, married and comfortable but haunted by something in his house. Something he must periodically feed and watch over.

The Leviathan is, frankly, delicious. It is a camp piece of mystery and melodrama. It has all the insane beats of a gothic horror B-movie, while also leading us by the nose with its ridiculous puzzles and problems.

It’s wonderful to see a piece of historical fiction be so lively and campy, as opposed to the more typical slow-burn approach to the genre. This is gothic historical fiction at its finest, while also being a shining example of the mystery genre.

Buy a copy here!

The Confessions of Frannie Langton by Sara Collins

Here is one of the most impactful mystery novels of the past decade; all the more impressive considering it is a debut novel. Sara Collins is a Black British writer and ex-lawyer. Her debut novel The Confessions of Frannie Langton has also been adapted into a beautiful TV show.

The Confessions of Frannie Langton begins with our protagonist on trial for murder. It’s 1826, she was born and educated on the plantations of Jamaica, and she has since worked as a maid for Benham family. Mrs Benham, a woman Frannie dearly loved, is dead, and it’s Frannie who stands to hang for the murder. But did she do it? And if so, why?

The Confessions of Frannie Langton isn’t only one of the best historical novels of today; it is also a twisting, turning, tantalising murder mystery novel. A mind-bending tale of race, class, empire, love, queerness, and so much more. It is a true modern classic of historical fiction and mystery fiction.

Buy a copy here!

Elena Knows by Claudia Pineiro

Translated from the Spanish by Frances Riddle

Though Claudia Pińeiro is most famous for her crime fiction, Elena Knows is a slightly different beast. This heavy yet short literary mystery novel tackles big themes of religion, sexism, responsibility, and fantasy vs reality.

The novel’s titular, Elena, is a woman in her sixties who is suffering from Parkinson’s. It’s hard for her to move around, yet she is on a journey across Buenos Aires to meet and talk with someone she hopes will understand her situation.

The situation in question concerns Elena’s daughter, Rita, who, three months prior, was found dead at their local church. Rita was found hanging from a rope in the belfry; the death was immediately written off as suicide, but Elena refuses to believe that.

Her only evidence is that it was raining on the day of Rita’s death, and Rita had always avoided the church on rainy days for fear of lightning strikes. Elena Knows takes place over a single day as she journeys across Argentina’s capital, and we are treated to flashbacks to Rita’s death and funeral and their life together as mother and daughter before that.

This is an Argentinian novel that heavily explores the effects of religion on women and children; it asks us to consider our relationships with the people around us vs the relationships we have with the invented versions of them that our minds have cooked up.

There is more to Rita, more to Elena, more to everything than is first laid out, but this is not a crime novel. It’s a mystery story with a laser focus on religion, gender, and family dynamics.

Buy a copy here!

Bad Cree by Jessica Johns

Blending the tone and tropes of horror fiction and mystery novels, Bad Cree tells the story of a young cree Canadian woman whose dreams are following her into reality. When Mackenzie wakes up on page one, she has the freshly severed head of a crow in her hands, and this isn’t the first time a thing from her nightmares has appeared in her waking world.

The dreams themselves are guiding her back to a lakeside forest, a place where her older sisters once briefly disappeared before emerging, disheveled and shaken up but safe. That is, until one of these twin sisters, Sabrina, suddenly died of a brain aneurysm, and now she seems to be haunting her little sister’s nightmares.

The memories, the haunting, and the blurring of dreams and reality all make for some really disturbing and chilling horror and a very compelling supernatural mystery story. Twisted and chilling as a horror novel and utterly compelling as a mystery thriller, Bad Cree is a unique spectacle of a novel.

Buy a copy of Bad Cree here!

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What you’ll find here are two kinds of Greek mythology books: compendiums of Greek myths and legends by some of the most renowned authorities on classics writing today; and the best novels that make up the genre of “Greek myth retellings”

The Best Greek Mythology Books (Retellings & Collections)

Retellings of beloved Greek myths have become very popular amongst writers and readers alike over the past few years, beginning with The Song of Achilles, and for good reason!

Whether you’re looking for the best Greek mythology books that give you an overview of the gods, titans, heroes, and events of Greek mythology, or you’re looking for full novels that take Greek myths and legends, and breathe new life into them, you’ll find them both here!

Greek Myths: A New Retelling by Charlotte Higgins

The stories of Greek mythology — whether they be about gods, heroes, or monsters — have a nasty habit of focussing on the exploits of men.

Almost all the books on this list focus on correcting this. But the only book that is taking on this challenge in the form of a complete compendium, rather than a novelised single story, is Greek Myths by Charlotte Higgins. The gods and heroes of Greek mythology are all here; their stories are all retold beautifully by Higgins.

If you’re looking for the best Greek mythology books that cover everything from the creation myths, the titans, and the gods, all the way to the events of the Trojan War, this is the book you need. Greek Myths puts the women of Greek mythology at the front, using a framing device of tapestry weaving to tell its narratives.

Buy a copy of Greek Myths here!

Clytemnestra by Constanza Casati

Clytemnestra, the debut novel by Costanza Casati, is the new gold standard for Greek mythology retellings, pushing the genre even further forward.

This is a dark, angry, intimate, epic novel that follows the life of the titular Clytemnestra, a Spartan princess who is known for being the wife and murderer of Agamemnon, king of Mycenae.

Clytemnestra begins with our protagonist’s youth, growing up alongside her sister Helen, falling in love with a decent man, and eventually having his son.

But we know that, eventually, she will be married to the bloodthirsty tyrant king Agamemnon; her sister Helen will marry his brother and be stolen to Troy by Paris, thus beginning the Trojan War.

This masterpiece of a Greek retelling covers all of this and more, sparing none of the tragedy that befalls our protagonist. A tense, angry feminist masterpiece of a novel, Clytemnestra is a must-read for all fans of Greek mythology retellings.

Buy a copy of Clytemnestra here!

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

Arguably the book that kicked off this entire genre of novels that retell Greek myths and legends, and the reason we’re talking about the best Greek mythology books at all!

The Song of Achilles rewrites the story of ancient Greece’s most treasured hero, reinjecting into it the queerness that academic history has gradually removed. This is the tragic story of Achilles and his lover, friend, and brother-in-arms Patroclus.

In the first half, we are told the story through the eyes of Patroclus. We see his childhood, his banishment, his teen years spent training with — and falling in love with — Achilles.

The second half retells the Trojan War from an intimate perspective, as Patroclus and Achilles speed to Troy, and to the fates we all know are waiting for them both.

This is a story many of us know, but Madeline Miller has made sure to put the romantic and fraternal relationship between Patroclus and Achilles at the forefront. A true modern masterpiece of queer literature and one of the best Greek mythology books out there.

Buy a copy of The Song of Achilles here!

An Arrow’s Flight by Mark Merlis

This award-winning novel masterfully blends the timeless epic of the Trojan War with the vibrant and gritty reality of 1970s gay culture. It tells the story of Pyrrhus, son of the legendary Achilles, who has traded his warrior’s armor for the life of a go-go dancer and hustler in the city.

An Arrow’s Flight is more than just an exciting retelling of a classic tale. It’s a profound exploration of gay identity, the dynamics of power, and the very essence of human liberation. The characters are richly developed, grappling with destiny, sexuality, and legacy in ways that resonate deeply with readers.

Merlis’s masterful interpretations of figures like Skyros, Lemnos, and Troy add depth and complexity to the narrative, while his vibrant portrayal of the 1970s gay scene provides a captivating historical context.

While the story touches upon the AIDS crisis, its impact isn’t solely somber. Instead, it celebrates resilience and the enduring beauty of love. The combination of humor, tragedy, and poignant social commentary makes An Arrow’s Flight an unforgettable reading experience.

It’s a must-read for anyone seeking a captivating and thought-provoking story that seamlessly blends historical fiction, mythology, and contemporary themes.

Buy a copy of An Arrow’s Flight here!

Circe by Madeline Miller

After the success of The Song of Achilles, Madeline Miller turned her attention away from heroes and instead to the Greek gods. This is, loosely, the story of The Odyssey with a feminist twist, and we are here for it.

Beginning on Mount Olympus, in the House of Helios the sun god, Circe is born a witch, not a goddess. As a result, she is banished to an island on Earth, alone, but fated to cross paths with recognisable gods and heroes of Greek mythology.

Circe has always been a minor god; a footnote in many stories of Greek myth. Here, Madeline Miller rights this wrong by telling Circe’s story in full, featuring her at the centre and making heroes like Odysseus the footnotes instead.

Buy a copy of Circe here!

The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker

Published around the same time as Madeline Miller’s Circe, Pat Barker’s The Silence of the Girls takes a similarly feminist, but far more grounded, approach to Greek myths and legends, and the result is one of the best Greek mythology books ever written.

Also like Circe, which was inspired by The Odyssey, this novel focuses on retelling The Iliad from the perspective of ordinary people, not heroes. The Silence of the Girls retells the story of the Trojan War from the perspective of Briseis — queen turned captive turned prize for Achilles as a spoil of war.

Pat Barker has a knack for taking eras and stories that typically focus on the masculine and the heroic, and putting the focus instead on the tragedy of it all.

She did it with Regeneration and World War I, and she’s done it here with The Silence of the Girls. This is one of the most powerful books about Greek mythology you’re ever likely to read; a novel that highlights the darkest, most desperate, most deplorable acts of warfare. A feminist retelling of the highest caliber.

Buy a copy of The Silence of the Girls here!

Till We Have Faces by C.S Lewis

Till We Have Faces is not your typical retelling. It’s a raw and unflinching exploration of the human condition disguised as a retelling of the Eros and Psyche myth. The novel’s focus is Orual, Psyche’s older sister, whose envy, self-deception, and possessive love consume her life.

This book is a masterclass in character writing. Orual is so intricately drawn and full of flaws and contradictions that she becomes a mirror reflecting our hidden complexities. Witnessing her descent into self-pity and delusion is frustrating, yet strangely captivating. Lewis’s skill lies in his ability to capture the insidious nature of these emotions, making them feel painfully real.

As a retelling, Till We Have Faces remains largely faithful to the original myth, but with a crucial twist: the story is told entirely from Orual’s perspective. This shift gives us a unique insight into a character’s motivations often relegated to the shadows. We see her resentment fester, her self-deception deepen, and her capacity for love slowly wither away.

The book’s theological underpinnings are undeniable. Lewis, a devout Christian, uses Orual’s journey as a metaphor for the human struggle towards spiritual enlightenment. Orual’s journey is one of confronting her own darkness and ultimately finding redemption, a story that resonates with readers of all backgrounds.

While Orual may be the heart of the story, the supporting characters are no less compelling. Fox, Psyche, and Ungit each offer their own unique perspectives on love and sacrifice, adding depth and texture to the narrative. Lewis’s portrayal of Aphrodite is fascinating, highlighting the complex and often contradictory nature of love itself.

Till We Have Faces is a Greek mythology book that will stay with you long after you finish the last page, prompting you to question your own assumptions and reflect on the true meaning of love.

Buy a copy of Till We Have Faces Here

The Women of Troy by Pat Barker

Following on from her amazing success with The Silence of the Girls, Pat Barker kept her momentum up with The Women of Troy. The Greeks have won the war and Troy has fallen.

Now we see the aftermath of war from former queen Briseis’ perspective as she forges alliances in a desperate bid to survive a brittle landscape and an era of enraged gods.

Nobody writes war like Pat Barker does. Her depiction of Briseis is amongst the best of any done by authors of Greek myths retold. Pair this with The Silence of the Girls and you have some of the best Greek mythology books ever written.

Buy a copy of The Women of Troy here!

Read More: More books on Greek, Norse, and Japanese mythology

A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes

Natalie Haynes’ A Thousand Ships brilliantly places itself somewhere between the more fantastical and god-focussed Circe and the more grounded and raw The Silence of the Girls by once again focussing on the Trojan War but featuring the gods of Greek myth as well.

Most of the best Greek mythology books featured here focus on one solo protagonist: Patroclus, Circe, Briseis, etc. A Thousand Ships takes a more ensemble approach by giving space and voice to many different women during the Trojan War.

Like in Barker’s novels, Briseis is mentioned. The goddess Calliope also comes and goes. Then there’s Gaia herself, and the legendary Penelope, who writes letters to her darling Odysseus as he is off doing his exploits.

This is a fractured and broad exploration of the lives and experiences of the women of Greek Mythology. We get many different voices, both god and mortal alike, and A Thousand Ships is all the richer for it.

We wrote a full review of A Thousand Ships for BookBrowse, which you can read here!

Buy a copy of A Thousand Ships here!

Stone Blind by Natalie Haynes

Stone Blind shows Natalie Haynes taking control of the narrative around monsters, and showing us how a monster is nothing more than what a man tells us it is.

This is the story of Medusa and her sisters, the gorgons. It is the story of her birth, abandonment, and the care with which her sisters raise her.

It is also the story of Perseus, the hapless and reckless boy who is sent on a quest to kill a gorgon, as well as that of the goddess Athena, who curses Medusa out of spite and jealousy and nothing more.

Stone Blind is an angry book written by someone at her wits end with the patriarchy and the narratives it spins around women and things that are not themselves patriarchal.

Multi-layered, written from various perspectives, and bubbling over with rage, Stone Blind is one of the best Greek Mythology books for fans of great retellings.

Buy a copy of Stone Blind here!

Ariadne by Jennifer Saint

Of all the best Greek mythology books on this list, Jennifer Saint’s Ariadne is one of the finest. It is another retelling of a specific Greek myth, but this one steers clear of the Trojan War and also manages to feature a nice selection of classic Greek myths in its telling.

Ariadne begins by retelling the origin story of the Minotaur: brother of the titular Ariadne, son of Crete’s king Minos, and locked away at the heart of a labyrinth built but genius inventor Daedalus, father of Icarus.

From here, we are introduced to Theseus, prince of Athens, and so the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur begins. And then it ends, but Ariadne’s story continues, with so much left to tell.

It reframes Theseus as an egomaniac, Minos as deluded and dangerous, and the god Dionysus as layered and broken. Ariadne is a playful, impactful, and beautiful novel that takes another fascinating woman of Greek mythology and puts her in the role of protagonist.

Buy a copy of Ariadne here!

Elektra by Jennifer Saint

Jennifer Saint’s second novel, Elektra, is another sharp and angry feminist retelling of a tale from Greek mythology.

Spanning an entire lifetime, and with a narrative shared by three women, Elektra is a tale of heredity, of curses, and of revenge. The titular Elektra was the daughter of Agamemnon, king of Mycenae, who waged war against Troy in order to return the beautiful Helen to his brother, Menelaus.

But Elektra is only one of our heroes; another is her mother, Clytemnestra, and the third is the cursed Trojan princess Cassandra. The lives of these women, governed by powerful men, are intertwined by blood and curses. We watch them grow, face tragedy, and become embittered while the men wage war against one another.

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Atalanta by Jennifer Saint

Jennifer Saint only gets better. Her third novel, another Greek mythology retelling, is a sweeping epic adventure that moves at a breakneck pace, but never sacrifices emotional depth or breadth.

Atalanta tells the story of the titular heroine, abandoned on a hillside by her royal father, nurtured by a bear, and then saved and raised by Artemis herself — goddess of the hunt.

But this is only the beginning of Atalanta’s life. When she reaches adulthood, she is warned never to marry, and is then sent to join Jason and his band of Argonauts on the greatest adventure the ancient Greeks had ever seen.

A legendary runner and archer, Atalanta proves herself an invaluable Argonaut, and along her adventure we come to know and enjoy the company of heroes and icons like Heracles and Orpheus.

Atalanta is a true adventure story. Monsters are hunted, temptations overcome, beasts slain, kings conquered, and eventually the legendary Golden Fleece must be obtained.

This ancient tale, told from the perspective of a naive but admirable outcast — a survivor and a future heroine — is captivating from page one. A fantastical epic and an astonishing work of mythological retelling.

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Ithaca by Claire North

Renowned author of science fiction novels Claire North turned her attention to Greek mythology to bring us a feminist retelling with Penelope, wife of Odysseus, at its heart.

Odysseus has been absent for eighteen years. He sailed with an army to fight in the Trojan War, and while other leaders and warriors returned, he never has. And so, the suitors have come knocking. As she sits and weaves a funeral shroud, Penelope is inundated with suitors looking to marry her and take Odysseus’ place on the throne of Ithaca.

Her son, Telemachus — who never knew his father — insists that Odysseus will return, and raiders are threatening the delicate peace of Penelope’s kingdom. The story of Ithaca is told by the goddess Hera, and she provides us with a host of colourful, mostly female, characters, fleshing out the world of Ithaca and the life of Penelope.

Her narrative is snarky, charming, occasionally bloated, but largely entertaining.

Ithaca is an excellent piece of Greek mythology retold with a feminist twist; one of the finest Greek mythology books we have.

Buy a copy of Ithaca here!

Psyche and Eros by Luna McNamara

There is a lot of love and romance in Greek mythology books, and a lot of jealousy and betrayal, too. Psyche and Eros stands out, however, by being a love story first and foremost.

This is the story of a god and a human falling in love, against all likelihood. Psyche, princess of Mycenae, trained to fight and hunt by the argonaut Atalanta, is swept up in a romance with the god of love himself, Eros.

The novel’s opening chapters establish who our two protagonists are, and Eros’ chapters in particular paint a picture of how the gods came to be. The story of Gaia, Kronos, Zeus, and all the messiness they wrought.

When Aphrodite, who has forced Eros into her servitude, orders him to curse a beautiful human woman, the god of love makes a careless mistake and curses himself by mistake. That curse causes him to love Psyche.

Not just love her, but to have her wrenched from him if ever she looks at him. Psyche and Eros pits the cursed titular protagonists against an entire world of gods and humans.

Greece and Troy are on the brink of war; the gods are, as usual, committing cruelties our of jealousy and bitterness, and our lovers must wade through all of this while dealing with a curse that will destroy their love forever.

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Daughters of Sparta by Claire Heywood

Helen and Klytemnestra, Agamemnon and Menelaos, Sparta and Troy. Most of us have read about these people and places in other stories but here, in Daughters of Sparta, Claire Heywood breathes new life into their myth.

Much like the other best Greek mythology books here, Daughters of Sparta puts a clean and clear focus on the women of legend, who suffered at the hands of men, women relegated to trophy status, and women known for their beauty.

After being married off to foreign kings, Helen and Klytemnestra are treated with bitterness and cruelty, and that’s when their own stories truly begin.

Buy a copy of Daughters of Sparta here!

Mythos by Stephen Fry

Like Charlotte Higgins’ Greek Myths, Stephen Fry’s Mythos is an excellent compendium of Greek myths, and one of the best Greek mythology books for children, specifically.

While anyone of any age can read Mythos and thoroughly enjoy it, it’s clear from the tone and language that Fry employs in this book of Greek myths that it is intended for younger readers.

There is a playful and sweet tone of voice here, and it encourages a wide-eyed fascination from its younger readers who are eager to become enthralled by the tales of Greek gods and titans.

It’s those gods and titans who take centre stage here. This is truly a book about impossible, magical people, not the heroes and humans of legend. This is about myths, monsters, gods, and their parents.

Buy a copy of Mythos here!

Heroes by Stephen Fry

Following on from the runaway success of Mythos, which, as mentioned, focussed on the gods and monsters of Greek mythology, Stephen Fry then brought us Heroes. As its name boldly states, this book is about Greek mythology heroes: Herakles, Achilles, Odysseus, Theseus (I could go on).

Much like its predecessor, this is a book geared more towards younger readers but remains educational and entertaining for all. While many of the best Greek mythology books on this list retell the stories of “heroes” from more feminist perspectives, Heroes refocusses us on those core hero tales.

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Pandora’s Jar: Women in the Greek Myths by Natalie Haynes

Natalie Haynes saw huge success with her fractured novel A Thousand Ships, and rightly so. This led to the successful publication of a more traditional compendium style of book: Pandora’s Jar.

Much like Charlotte Higgins’ Greek Myths, Natalie Haynes’ Pandora’s Jar puts the focus on the women of Greek mythology (as its subtitle makes clear). As the tales of heroes got retold again and again, the women were left by the wayside.

This borderline chauvinistic, and sickeningly patriarchal, approach to Greek mythology is historically unfair. And so, Haynes fixes it by reminding us of the great tales of Greek myth that focus on its women, beginning with the titular Pandora.

Buy a copy of Pandora’s Jar here!

The Odyssey by Homer

Translated by Emily Wilson

Many of the best Greek mythology books recommended here are retellings by contemporary authors, and more than a few hone in on The Odyssey and The Iliad. But the originals already exist, and you can read them!

Translator Emily Wilson made a huge splash as the first woman to bring us a fresh translation of Homer’s epic poem, The Odyssey, and in keeping with the female focus of this list, it’s the version we recommend you read.

Buy a copy of The Odyssey here!

The Greek Myths: Stories of the Greek Gods and Heroes Vividly Retold by Robin Waterfield and Kathryn Waterfield

This was the first book on Greek mythology that I ever read. I remember picking it up at a little independent bookshop in London one day and almost missing my stop on the train after opening it later that afternoon.

This is an enthralling compendium of Greek mythology, from creation myths to the tales of gods, monsters, and heroes. It has everything you’re familiar with and far more besides. An essential read and one of the best Greek mythology books out there.

Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

If you are, or if you know, a young reader with their eye on Greek mythology, start with Stephen Fry’s Mythos but also point them to the children’s book sensation that is Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson series.

This beloved series of books begins with Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief and, as a former school teacher, I can attest to its staggering popularity amongst young, voracious readers.

Buy a copy of Percy Jackson here!

The Wolf Den by Elodie Harper

While not set in Greece, but rather Italy, and not about mythology, The Wolf Den is still up the alley of everyone who enjoys retellings of Greek myth and legend.

When we think of Pompeii, most of us think of its destruction by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, but here in The Wolf Den, Elodie Harper presents us with the Pompeii that was.

Harper is also taking the Pat Barker approach to Greek mythology, legend, and history by focussing on the people on the ground, the ordinary and the overlooked.

Specifically, The Wolf Den tells the story of a brothel and a woman named Amara, sold after the death of her beloved father. This is a story of one woman’s survival; Amara uses her own wits, wiles, and strengths to live against the odds.

The Wolf Den is a staggeringly successful piece of historical fiction that explores the unique strengths of a woman, rather than painting her as strong by the archetypal male standards and frameworks.

Buy a copy of The Wolf Den here!

Pandora by Susan Stokes-Chapman

While this novel is actually a piece of British historical fiction, it is also (as you can tell by the title and cover) inspired by Greek mythology. Any fan of Greek mythology will likely enjoy and respect Pandora.

Set during the Georgian period, Pandora follows a protagonist of the same name. Daughter of two famous antiquarians who died at a dig site in Greece, Dora now lives with her poisonous uncle, who has just come into possession of a mysterious Greek jar (or pithos).

Dora is an aspiring jewellery artist, and she wishes to find inspiration for her jewellery in the world of Greek art. She also wishes to know what this jar is and how her uncle came to own it. To do so, she enlists the help of a young antiquarian named Edward Lawrence.

Buy a copy of Pandora here!

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For mystery fans looking to dive into the brilliant mind of Agatha Christie, the Queen of Crime herself, Reddit, Goodreads, and numerous best-seller lists offer a treasure trove of recommendations. But how do you choose where to start?

Whether you’re a newcomer seeking the best Agatha Christie books for beginners or a seasoned fan hunting for top 10 rankings, navigating her extensive catalog can feel daunting. Some of her most popular titles, like And Then There Were None and Murder on the Orient Express, frequently top charts of best-selling Agatha Christie books.

Meanwhile, passionate Poirot enthusiasts fiercely debate his finest cases, and Miss Marple’s devotees do the same for the deceptively sweet old lady’s adventures.

The Best Agatha Christie Books Ranked (Worst to Best)

This ranked list aims to be a comprehensive guide for tackling Christie’s remarkable library. Drawing from our own experience, our friends’, Goodreads’ highest-rated mysteries, and Reddit communities’ heated discussions, we’ve curated what we think are the 19 best Agatha Christie books.

Whether you crave ingenious impossible crimes or psychological studies of human nature, there’s something for every fan here. Let’s delve into the cases that solidified Agatha Christie’s legacy as the unparalleled Mistress of Suspense.

Read More: Stephen King’s Books Ranked (Worst to Best)

By the Pricking of My Thumbs

This is the fourth Tommy and Tuppence novel (a pair of protagonists who feature in five Agatha Christie novels). By the Pricking of My Thumbs is just as engrossing and intricately woven as we have come to expect from the best Agatha Christie books.

We begin with Tommy and Tuppence visiting Tommy’s aunt Ada in a retirement home. There, Tuppence meets a strange woman named Mrs Lancaster. Mrs Lancaster cryptically says to Tuppence: “Was it your poor child? There behind the fireplace.” A chilling question.

After Ada passes away, they return to the home to find that Mrs Lancaster has been taken away by a relative. Before Ada died, Mrs Lancaster gifted her a painting of a house that feels oddly familiar to Tuppence.

This particular Tommy and Tuppence novel puts the spotlight on Tuppence, which is great to see since she’s the more interesting of the two protagonists. This is a dark, gothic-inspired tale of past and present colliding, of whispers and rumours and paranoia.

The fact that it’s not one of the very best Agatha Christie novels shows just how strong of a writer she is when this novel is still so good.

Buy a copy here!

A Murder is Announced

A Murder is Announced is the fifth Miss Marple novel, and one of the best of the bunch. When an ad in the local paper boldly announces an upcoming murder, curious residents flock to the site, most of them expecting a silly game or prank to occur.

What happens instead is that the lights go out, a gunshot rings out, and someone drops dead. A fantastic setup for a murder mystery, even by Christie standards. From here we enter a complex web of lies and secrets in pursuit of the killer. However, while it has a wonderful setup and opening, the novel is weighed down by a series of awkward coincidences and a heavily expository info dump of a conclusion.

This is a great example of a brilliant setup and decent execution that doesn’t quite stick the landing. The lively language that we come to expect from Christie is also largely missing here. While it’s not one of the best Agatha Christie books, it remains a worthwhile read, especially for its ingeniously simple and engaging initial setup. For that reason, it deserves a spot on this list of Agatha Christie books ranked.

Buy a copy here!

Hallowe’en Party

Halloween Party is a Hercule Poirot detective story, and was the third Christie novel to be adapted to the big screen by Kenneth Branagh (with its title changed to A Haunting in Venice). The novel also features Ariadne Oliver—a fictional crime novelist who appears in a number of Poirot books including Cards on the Table and Dead Man’s Folly).

The novel begins with Oliver visiting her friend Judith Butler (not the philosopher) and helping her set up a Halloween party in her neighbourhood. While Oliver is there, a young girl reveals to her that she once witnessed a murder in the area. Shortly after, the girl is found dead, and so Oliver calls on her friend Poirot to solve the murder of the girl and uncover the truth of this place and its dark past.

The story unfolds as most Poirot novels tend to do, with more deaths stacking up, clues being found, interviews taking places, and a path to the truth gradually becoming clear. But what sets this one apart from many others is its setting and atmosphere. While not nearly as gothic as Christie’s masterpiece Endless Night, the Halloween spirit gives this book a spookiness that is very welcome and appreciated.

The Body in the Library

The Body in the Library is probably one of the two most famous Miss Marple novels (the other being The Murder at the Vicarage, which we’ll come to). The titular library is not a public one, but rather the personal library of Colonel and Mrs Bantry, who awake to find a dead woman on the hearth rug. Luckily, Mrs Bantry is an old friend of Miss Marple, who comes — along with the police — to investigate the scene.

The Body in the Library opens with many questions: Who is the woman? Who killed her and why? And why was her body left in someone else’s home?

While this isn’t the best Miss Marple story, the slew of questions it poses really keep the reader pressing forward, as they do for Marple herself. One thing missing from this one, however, is the expected wit and humour. In that sense, this is a slightly blander Marple novel. It also relies on a few jumps of logic and “intuition” that come across as a little contrived. But this isn’t the first or only Christie novel guilty of that.

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The Mysterious Affair at Styles

It would feel odd for a list of Agatha Christie books ranked not to feature her first-ever novel. Luckily for us, it’s also a good one. The Mysterious Affair at Styles marks another first: this novel introduced Christie’s most famous character: renowned Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. This novel was also originally written during World War I and published two years after it ended.

The Mysterious Affair at Styles opens with the death of Emily Inglethorp, the elderly owner of the titular Styles Court. She was poisoned with strychnine.

A soldier who was staying at the house heads into the local village to ask for the help of his friend to solve the murder mystery. Enter: Hercule Poirot. While this is certainly not one of the best Agatha Christie books, it’s a very cool book to turn to after you’ve read a few of her very best works. In it, you can see early traces of her craft before she sharpened it to a deadly edge.

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The ABC Murders

While it is certainly one of the more famous Poirot murder mystery novels, The ABC Murders is neither the best nor the worst. It is, however, quite unique. Most of the best Agatha Christie books have a murder at their centre, and someone — often Poirot or Marple — to solve it. Here, however, we have the Belgian sleuth on the trail of a serial killer.

Told from the perspective of Poirot’s long-term friend and confidante, Hastings, who is visiting from his new home in South America, The ABC Murders begins with Poirot having received a taunting typewritten letter. A killer is planning a series of murders, and there is an obvious pattern: each death will occur in a town beginning with a letter of the alphabet, and the victim’s name will begin with that same letter.

The killer is confident, excitable, and having fun taunting our arrogant genius detective. It’s a thrill to see Hercule being wrong-footed and having to act with some patience as people die in order to see the pattern emerge. Hastings’ perspective also adds some comedy to the narrative, as his banter with Poirot is always welcome.

All of this said, The ABC Murders lacks some of the camp charm and colour seen in many of the other Poirot mysteries. At times, this novel is closer to a gritty thriller than a cozy murder mystery.

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The Murder at the Vicarage

The Murder at the Vicarage was not only the very first Miss Marple story, but it also remains the best and most famous of them all. While The Body in the Library was conspicuously light on the Christie wit that we come to expect, The Murder at the Vicarage is chock full of it. The humour here is really great. As for what it’s about, The Murder at the Vicarage is told from the perspective of Reverend Leonard Clement, the local vicar.

His churchwarden and local magistrate is the dreadfully unlikeable Colonel Lucius Protheroe, whose death, the reverend one day offhandedly remarks, would benefit everyone. Clement soon learns first-hand that Protheroe’s wife is having an affair, and promises not to tell a soul. However, soon enough, Protheroe is found dead at his writing desk.

It works out very nicely that the book which introduces the legendary Miss Marple is also not only the best Marple tale, but also one of the best Agatha Christie novels.

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Three Act Tragedy

When we hear the phrase “murder mystery” one scene that many of us will immediately picture is a dinner party hosted at a fancy house, like in the movie Clue. That’s exactly how Three Act Tragedy begins, which is enough to earn it a spot on this list of Agatha Christie books ranked.

The best Agatha Christie books all have something unique about them — often a twist on, or a blending of, genre — but this one is just a very solid whodunnit.

The dinner party that opens the novel is hosted in Cornwall by a famous stage actor named Sir Charles Cartwrigh. One of the guests is our beloved Hercule Poirot. At the party, someone drops dead of (presumed) poisoning, but with no proof. Later, someone else who was at the party also dies from being poisoned.

These two connected deaths lead Poirot on the hunt to find the killer. There isn’t much to say about Three Act Tragedy that’s good or bad. It’s just a fantastically well-paced, classic murder mystery with all the tropes and trappings that are fun to see.

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N or M?

This is another really solid Tommy and Tuppence story from Agatha Christie. Following these books chronologically, you get to see the characters grow from ambitious youngsters to middle-aged retirees with kids of their own. The two ageing through the books actually plays into a theme in N or M? about how our worth often diminishes over time with society being so ageist and dismissive of older people.

N or M? is one of the best Christie books for experiencing a little more thematic and political oomph, touching on war-time racial tension and the aforementioned ageism. But, of course, the mystery is what we’re all here for, and this one has such a solid ending that wraps things up beautifully, without any overblown exposition or stretching.

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The Secret Adversary

The Secret Adversary was the first ever Tommy and Tuppence novel, and just like how The Murder at the Vicarage is Miss Marple’s best, this is Tommy and Tuppence’s best as well. Tuppence is arguably the most exciting and underrated Christie protagonist of the bunch. She is enigmatic and immediately likeable. In many ways the antithesis of Hercule Poirot.

This is the Christie novel that demonstrates the full force of Tuppence’s intelligence, bravery, resourcefulness, and her snark. Compared to Poirot and Marple, one of the best things about the Tommy and Tuppence books is the dynamic and snappy dialogue they share.

Their books often have a lighter and more adventurous tone than the whodunnits of Poirot and Marple fame; ths one being perhaps the best of the bunch.

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Death on the Nile

Alongside Murder on the Orient Express, Death on the Nile is not only one of the most recognisable Poirot books, but one of the best Agatha Christie books. It’s certainly not a perfect murder mystery novel, but it remains strong even against the other Agatha Christie books ranked here.

Death on the Nile is an unusually long book for Christie, and its pacing suffers as a result. The titular death doesn’t actually occur until the halfway point. In fact, if you’ve seen the Kenneth Branagh film and thought the pacing was poor, it mimics that of the book perfectly!

All of this aside, you have a wonderful and eclectic cast of characters that work off one another perfectly, making this one of the most memorable Poirot stories of all. The gorgeous setting, the dynamic cast, and the fact that Poirot is at the height of his Poirot-ness here makes this one of the best Agatha Christie books.

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Ordeal by Innocence

Many of the best Agatha Christie books are considered the best because they’re entirely unique; they break away from the mould in an interesting way. That is certainly the case with Ordeal by Innocence, which is a much more sombre Christie novel with an everyman as its protagonist, rather than a detective.

This might turn some readers away, but there is real value in Christie doing something different with this one. Her daring and bravery hugely pays off. The whole premise is predicated around clearing an innocent man’s name; an innocent man who has already died in prison.

The fact that he’s already dead means that some characters in the novel don’t see the value in digging up the past. Tonally and narratively, this is such a stand-out novel. Figuring out where to place it in a list of Agatha Christie books ranked is hard, but it deserves a high spot for being so daringly different.

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Murder on the Orient Express

Murder on the Orient Express is easily Agatha Christie’s most famous novel. Whether or not it’s her most celebrated is up for debate but it’s definitely the one everyone knows. It’s likely you know the basic premise, or you’ve seen one of the many adaptations.

Despite its popularity, Murder on the Orient Express is not her best novel, but it’s also not overrated. It’s just that good, and most of this is due to the incredible twist.

Christie novels live and die on their twists being built up to and executed perfectly, with just the right kind of weighty payoff, and this is one of the best in that regard. The claustrophobia of this novel adds an exciting tonal element as well, as Poirot interviews suspect after the suspect while they’re all trapped on a train.

Despite not being written to be likeable, this is Poirot at his most compelling and admirable as a protagonist. He gets tested and stretched here, which is very fun to read. If you haven’t read Murder on the Orient Express and have always wondered if it lives up to the hype, it certainly does. That said, other books make it higher on this list of Agatha Christie books ranked.

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Sparkling Cyanide

This is a Christie novel with a great title (though it was originally published in the US under Remembered Death). Beyond its title, this is just a perfectly-crafted murder mystery novel. What makes it so perfect is that every character has a very strong motivation for killing the victim. Quite often, even with the best Agatha Christie novels, there are obvious red herrings or staging moments that the reader can see through.

Here, however, there is a real tightness to the situation that makes you question and second-guess everyone and everything. For that reason, Sparkling Cyanide crackles with dangers on every single page.

The premise, as with all of the best Agatha Christie novels, is tight and simple: at a dinner party, a woman drops dead from poisoning. Her death is ruled as suicide, but her husband soon receives an anonymous note telling him that it was murder, and so he recreates that same dinner party with those same guests.

He hires an actress to play his late wife, but during this second party he himself drops dead, also from cyanide poisoning. Dinner parties, multiple murders, and a solid core cast of suspects make this one of the most satisfying reads amongst all the best Agatha Christie books ranked here.

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Five Little Pigs

Five Little Pigs is a Hercule Poirot novel with a unique structure: a young woman calls up the now aging sleuth and asks him to dig up the sixteen-year-old murder case for which her mother went away. When Carla turned twenty-one, she was given a note from her mother, who died in prison, declaring her innocence (despite the fact that she confessed to the crime in court all those years ago).

The murder was that of Carla’s father, and it happened on a day when several people were gathered at his home. And so Poirot reaches out to those five little pigs to interview them and discover who really killed Carla’s father and why exactly her mother confessed to the murder.

This is a very fun Agatha Christie novel to follow and keep track of, as the story of that fateful day is repeated from different perspectives, and we search for cracks in the narrative. The structure, plotting, build-up, and unravelling of this story make it one of the most finely constructed mystery stories the queen of crime ever wrote and one of the best Agatha Christie books, full stop.

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Peril at End House

Peril at End House is one of those Christie novels that is more famous than most but not as celebrated as it should be (especially for so high on this list of Agatha Christie books ranked).

Murder mystery novels like Christie’s often make great cosy winter reads, curled up by a fire in a dimly lit room. This one, however, has a delightful summer vibe. The Cornish setting certainly helps with that, as Peril at End House takes place while Poirot is staying at a summer resort in Cornwall.

Christie was a true master of establishing characters quickly; giving even a large cast very explicitly clear personalities and behaviours within only a few pages. One of the best characters she has ever written is Nick Buckley, a woman whom Poirot believes has been targeted for murder.

This belief is quickly confirmed when she narrowly avoids being shot. Poirot believes the wannabe killer is someone close to Nick, and so the character roster steadily gets filled out. While all the suspects here are good, as they always are, Nick remains a stand-out character in this novel. Peril at End House’s summery charm and brilliant character writing make it one of the best Agatha Christie books ever.

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The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

One of the most famous Hercule Poirot stories is also one of the best Agatha Christie books ever. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is perhaps most famous for its astonishing twist ending; easily one of the most memorable and impactful twists in Christie’s catalogue.

Our protagonist is Dr Sheppard, friend of the titular Roger Ackroyd. One night, after leaving Ackroyd’s big, expensive house, he receives a call from the butler. In the single hour after Sheppard left the house, Ackroyd was stabbed and killed in his office.

Fortunately, the retired Belgian sleuth, Hercule Poirot, has just moved in next door and takes an interest in this murder mystery. We learn early on that the butler never called — in fact, the call didn’t even come from the house — so where did it come from, and why?

This novel has many moving parts, and Poirot is, of course, the most entertaining game piece on the board. Sheppard, his gossiping sister, and the rest of the cast make for a frantically engaging story, and the journey to the end feels like a race that, of course, Poirot will win. When looking at Agatha Christie books ranked, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd isn’t only the best Poirot novel but one of the best Agatha Christie books, full stop.

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Crooked House

Crooked House is one of the best Agatha Christie books, and here’s why — it’s not a Poirot or Marple novel like the best Christie novels. It is a standalone story about a young British man named Charles. When we meet Charles, he’s working in Cairo. There, he meets Sophia: a fellow Brit who comes from a big suburban family in London: the Leonides Family.

When they reunite in London, Charles wishes to be married to Sophia, but her family’s patriarch has just suddenly and mysteriously died, and she refuses to be married until his death is solved. Fortunately, Charles’ father is an inspector, and so the two of them spend time at the titular crooked house, investigating the death and interviewing members of Sophia’s family.

If the concept of a big family house full of unlikeable misfits, a wealthy patriarch suddenly dying, and a series of interviews and investigations sounds familiar, then you’re probably a fan of Knives Out. Knives Out happen to be this writer’s favorite film, and that has probably colored my love for this novel. But it remains, in my eyes, perfect; especially the incredible twist ending.

Buy a copy here!

Endless Night

Endless Night is a strange novel in terms of public consciousness. For people who know her name or have watched a few film adaptations, this novel may not be familiar. But for diehard fans, Endless Night is one of the best Agatha Christie books.

It’s not a household name like Murder on the Orient Express or And Then There Were None, and yet it is easily one of the best books she ever wrote. This is why Endless Night was unanimously placed at number two on the list of Agatha Christie books ranked by everyone who helped put this list together.

What makes Endless Night so unique is that it’s not really a murder mystery novel. It’s a piece of gothic fiction. This is Agatha Christie going full gothic, and it’s incredible. Endless Night is told from the perspective of Mike, a wandering soul and a far-from-perfect person.

When Mike ends up in a quaint English village, he takes a liking to a big, beautiful house that the locals believe to be cursed. Death is attracted to this house. On the same day, Mike meets a young American girl; the rich heiress to a great American business and fortune. The two, naturally, fall in love, and with her money they are able to renovate and move into this cursed house.

To say any more would be to spoil it but Endless Night is a fantastic gothic novel. It’s still Christie, which means it remains mysterious and trusting people is a bad idea. Blending her mystery chops and the gothic genre is a recipe for one of the best Agatha Christie books ever.

Buy a copy here!

And Then There Were None

And Then There Were None is the best Agatha Christie book. This is not a contentious statement. Countless fans consider it her magnum opus, and for good reason. This is one of the few Christie novels that doesn’t feature iconic characters Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple. It is a standalone Christie novel set in her coolest isolated location.

Ten mostly unrelated people have been lured to an island off the coast of Devon — Soldier Island — by letters or telegrams. These people are varied: a policeman, a judge, a secretary, a boy racer, and more. When they all sit down for dinner, a record plays, and a voice tells them that they have all committed murder and, one by one, they will die here on the island.

The title And Then There Were None comes from a nursery rhyme that hangs above the mantel. The deaths in the rhyme match those in the book.

It’s a wonderfully simple premise, which is one of the novel’s greatest strengths. And the fact that we have no detective gives it an air of claustrophobia and tension. These are all complex people, bad in their own way, and they are all vulnerable victims, trapped together on an island.

And Then There Were None inspired works like Grant Morrison’s Batman: The Black Glove and The Decagon House Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji.It is a hugely impactful murder mystery novel and Agatha Christie’s definitive masterpiece. Most fans will agree that, when you rank the best Agatha Christie books, And Then There Were None is going to be number one.

Buy a copy here!

Essential Dark Academia Books

As you’ll see here, some dark academia books can be fantastical, others science-inspired; some are very grounded and literary, others far from it. We’ve added a wide range of dark academia books by classic and contemporary writers, some in English, and others in translation.

Note: Some readers might be expecting to find The Betrayals on this list. Due to Bridget Collins’ alleged transphobia, you won’t find The Betrayals on any of our lists.

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

Written when she was only 29 years old, Donna Tartt’s debut novel The Secret History is, for many of us, the definitive dark academia novel. It may not feature dark magic and witchcraft, but that’s what makes it so frightening. The Secret History is a twisted yet grounded tale that, on the surface, is about cults and murder but, beneath it all, is an exploration of class privilege, youthful arrogance, and ordinary evils.

The Secret History follows Richard Papen, newly enrolled at a college in Vermont. Richard is originally from a small California town, poor and uninteresting, but talented at Greek. He quickly falls into a little class of hideously pompous and broken students who, considering themselves the school’s elite, gather with their teacher to discuss the Greek language, philosophy, and other pretentious topics. 

Slowly, this class reveals itself to be a mindless, murderous cult, projected forward by hedonism, carelessness, and arrogance. The Secret History is a masterpiece among dark academia books; glued together by the internal social politics of its characters, their strained and toxic relationships, dangerous behaviours, and unpredictability.

The Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

Leigh Bardugo is a darling of YA fantasy fiction, beginning with her Shadow and Bone trilogy and really put on the map by the Six of Crows duology. The Ninth House, however, is considered her first foray into adult fantasy fiction. Comparable to The Secret History, The Ninth House is a novel set on a college campus (this time Yale), follows a California girl from a rough background, and concerns itself with dangerous, cultish activity.

What sets The Ninth House apart from The Secret History — and, indeed, many other dark academia books — is its ties to reality. Bardugo went to Yale; she dabbled with that college’s very real, strange secret societies. She knew this world. The secret societies of Yale are known as houses, and there are eight. In this dark academic novel, Bardugo invents a ninth house that polices the other eight and the very real dark magic they toy with.

Our protagonist, Alex, is able to see ghosts. This is what got her into Yale in the first place. Other members of the ninth house can do the same, but only when properly prepared. Alex sees them all the time, and it tortures her. Her curse has thrown her into some difficult responsibilities. She must contend with those and the activities of Yale’s houses. The ghosts and the magic here are real, they are mysterious, and they are dangerous.

Buy a copy of The Ninth House here!

Read More: The Best Horror Novels Ever Written

Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo

In the highly anticipated sequel to The Ninth House, Hell Bent takes us back to Yale and Alex Stern as she attempts to rescue Darlington from purgatory, even if it jeopardises her future at both Lethe and Yale. Forbidden from seeking help from the Ninth House, Alex and Dawes form a team of questionable allies to save the gentleman of Lethe.

As faculty members die under mysterious circumstances, Alex must confront the monsters from her past and a darkness ingrained in the university’s foundation. With scenes in both Los Angeles and New Haven, Hell Bent has less of a dark academia vibe than the first book and is more focused on demons and hell over ghosts — some fans may find this departure a little jarring.

This book’s action is certainly amped up with a high-stakes, character-driven narrative that doesn’t let right to the last page. Hell Bent is a captivating tale filled with history, magic, violence, and Bardugo’s signature twists; unveiling a complex world inhabited by very real monsters.

Buy a copy of Hell Bent here!

Read More: 15 Best Books About Hell (Devils, Demons & Magic)

Babel by R.F. Kuang

R.F. Kuang’s Babel is a lot of things, all of them excellent. It is a dense piece of historical fiction, an urban fantasy novel, and one of the best dark academia books you’ll ever read. Set in an alternative Oxford of 1836, Babel follows a boy named Robin who was born and raised in Guangdong, China (what the novel and Europeans of old refer to as Canton).

When disease leaves Robin without a family, a rich and educated British man sweeps him away to London, educates and raises him, and sends him off to Oxford. There, he studies translation within the walls of Oxford’s tallest building, Babel. He forms a tight friendship with a boy from Calcutta, a Black Haitian girl, and a rich, white English girl.

Babel is the beating heart of not only Oxford University, but the entire British empire, the place where precious silver bars are infused with magic, created through the study and manipulation of language. Robin’s life at Oxford is made more complicated by the illegal actions of a radical group who aim to disrupt and dismantle the British Empire’s silver industry from the inside.

As he learns more about the Empire’s international crimes and evils, Robin becomes interested and works with Hermes as their inside man, helping them take small jabs at Babel and its silver-smithing industry. Babel is a phenomenal work of fantastical historical fiction; a piece of dark academia that exposes the rotting heart of Western educations systems and how they uphold imperialist traditions and power structures.

Buy a copy of Babel here!

If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio

If you’re looking for more books like The Secret History, If We Were Villains is certainly going to scratch that itch more than any of the other dark academia books on this list. When Oliver Marks is released from a decade of prison (for a murder he may not have even committed), he is immediately greeted by the detective who got him convicted. Now, the detective wants Marks’ truth from ten years back.

Marks is one of seven college students deeply entrenched in a love of The Bard. They are a small society of Shakespeare fanatics who live and breathe his works. They are also darkly obsessed with one another, shutting out the rest of the world.

When emotions run this high, however, it only takes a small glitch to throw their dynamic into catastrophe and, eventually, even death. While If We Were Villains is very reminiscent of The Secret History, it is also more grounded than Tartt’s novel, with characters feeling a lot more human and less absurd. They are youthful and careless and emotive.

The Experience of reading If We Were Orphans will also be enhanced slightly for anyone with their own love for the works of Shakespeare. It’s not required, but it certainly helps. One of the best Shakespeare-inspired murder-mystery dark academia books you’re likely to read any time soon.

Buy a copy of If We Were Villains here!

Graveyard Shift by M.L. Rio

Years after the publication of If We Were Villains, M.L. Rio returned with Graveyard Shift, a100-page novella of gothic dark academia goodness. And this short book serves as a useful reminder of what dark academia can be. Many novels within the genre are simply dark stories in an academic setting, but Graveyard Shift actually explores the dark side of academia, and it does so in a 100-page thriller.

Graveyard Shift jumps between multiple perspectives, and each of these protagonists is connected only through the nightly habit of meeting up for a smoke in the local graveyard, either because of their job or their insomnia. One night, while they all meet up as usual, they find a freshly-dug grave in a graveyard that has sat unused for around a century. Who dug it, and why?

When they have a chance to go after the gravedigger, a journey towards uncovering a conspiracy related to the university begins. Our first protagonist, editor of the college newspaper, is eager to find the truth, and her eagerness will uncover something very dark indeed.

The Cloisters by Katy Hays

The Cloisters offers a fresh take on the dark academia genre while also paying homage to its legacy. Rather than setting itself at a prestigious university, The Cloisters is set in a New York City museum, and concerns itself with a small and eccentric group of academics.

Our protagonist, Ann, was offered a summer position at The Met which fell through, but luck threw her in the path of Patrick Roland instead. Patrick is the curator of The Cloisters, a gothic museum and garden connected to The Met, and Patrick himself is obsessed with the history and power of tarot cards.

Ann spends her time working with and getting to know Patrick, as well as his colleague Rachel and the gardener Leo, all of whom harbour dark secrets of their own. The Cloisters is one of those dark academia books with layers upon layers of mystery, wrapped up in a gothic setting and a fog of paranoia.

The museum setting and obsession with occult beliefs and artefacts help The Cloisters stand out from the crowd of dark academia books.

Buy a copy of The Cloisters here!

Our Share of Night by Mariana Enriquez

Translated from the Spanish by Megan McDowell

Our Share of Night is a colossal book, both in terms of its sheer size and also its scope. This is an Argentinian horror novel that brilliantly blends the genres of cosmic horror, dark academia, and what might be called “Stephen King-esque” horror.

We begin with Juan, a man on the run from a cult that has been using him as a tool since childhood. Juan is a medium, and his son has begun showing signs of that same power. In order to spare his son the same fate, Juan is attempting to shadow Gaspar from the Order’s watchful eye.

The Order — through the power of a medium — is able to connect itself to a cosmic god known as the Darkness, and therein lies the cosmic horror. However, beyond the novel’s halfway point, it shifts into the realm of dark academia books, as the narrative rewinds to Juan’s childhood and we see the Order from the inside.

This section of Our Share of Night has all the trappings of dark academia: rich and powerful people studying the occult, abusing their privilege, and tampering with things that should be left alone.

Blood Over Bright Haven by M.L Wang

Blood Over Bright Haven is an immaculately radical work of dark academic fantasy that aggressively tackles themes of colonialism and capitalism through staggeringly well-realised worldbuilding and allegory. The novel is set in a post-industrial city where electricity is created through a magic system which siphons energy from another realm of existence. Our protagonist, Sciona, is a young mage who dreams of advancing their magical science further.

Smashing the glass ceiling of her university, Sciona becomes the first female high mage, and she is given an assistant to help with her research. But this assistant is a member of the Kwen community—refugees from outside the city’s magical barrier. Thomil escaped the mysterious blight that infests the land beyond the city, and his people are treated as underclass citizens. With his help, Sciona will uncover grave secrets about her world.

This is a city of magic and technology, but also one of strict religious doctrine, and Sciona will need to reckon with that doctrine in order to discover and accept the dark truths of her city, its ecosystem, and its history. This novel presents deep metaphors about the real-world history of colonialism and its relationship to the church, to patriarchy, and to capitalism. Blood Over Bright Haven is a masterpiece.

Bunny by Mona Awad

Bunny is a novel that threads itself through multiple genres: horror, comedy, mystery, and dark academia books. It’s a dizzying narrative, of which you will often feel in no control of. You have to simply trust that Awad knows what she’s doing (she does).

This is another novel that falls into the “books like The Secret History” camp, especially given how it is set on a Vermont university campus, and features a scholarship student who is very much out of her depth.

Bunny is also reminiscent of the classic 80s movie Heathers, with a group of toxic, unlovable, rich girls who all call one another “Bunny”. Our protagonist, Samantha, is in a creative writing group with these girls and hates every one of them — until she doesn’t.

Gradually, Samantha falls into the Bunny clique, which includes off-campus cultish rituals known as “Workshops”. It’s dark to the point of being absurd and sometimes funny. It’s twisted, dizzying, and thrilling in equal measure. For fans of The Secret History, Bunny is an absolute must-read in the genre of dark academia books.

Buy a copy of Bunny here!

An Education in Malice by S.T. Gibson

Inspired by Sheridan Le Fanu’s Carmilla—widely recognised as the first vampire novel—S.T. Gibson’s second novel, An Education in Malice is a masterful and thrilling piece of sapphic, vampiric dark academia. Our protagonist, Laura Sheridan (get it?) has moved to rural Massachusetts to attend Saint Perpetua’s College, and in her poetry class she meets the professor she will quickly become obsessed over and the girl who will become her rival.

This rival is Carmilla (get it?), a young Austrian woman and loyal pet of their poetry teacher, De Lafontaine. But while Carmilla is an impressive poet, Laura proves to be a real match for her, and De Lafontaine’s attention becomes split between them. This competition for the professor’s affections grows more complicated with the revelation that De Lafontaine is a vampire, and soon the rivalry will morph into something else entirely.

An Education in Malice is an enemies-to-lovers narrative done right; a sapphic work of erotica full of blood and taboo relationships. This is a wonderful piece of dark academia that will appeal to anyone who enjoys dark fiction and forbidden romances.

Buy a copy of An Education in Malice here!

Ink Blood Sister Scribe by Emma Törzs

Ink Blood Sister Scribe is a wonderful example of when the borders between genres blur so beautifully, it’s difficult to know where to shelf it. Holding true to the dark academia genre, this novel is a thriller with a dark mystery at its heart; a mystery that propels the reader across four hundred exciting pages.

But this is also an urban fantasy novel with an emphasis on old magic and secret spell books. Set in the modern day, this dark academia novel begins with two estranged half-sisters in their twenties. The oldest, Esther, has been moving from place to place every year, and right now she’s on a research base in Antarctica.

Joanna, the youngest sister, has been locked away in her Vermont home for years, in a house full of magical books. When the novel opens, her father Abe has every drop of blood drained by a spell book and dies on their lawn. Soon enough, a third protagonist is introduced: Nicholas, a young English nobleman who has been raised in a similarly isolated world of magical books. A library hidden in plain sight.

With their father suddenly dead and Esther sensing danger breathing down her neck in the most remote place on Earth, our sisters must search for the truth. There is so much to uncover, so much to learn. Part thriller, part fantasy, this is one of the most exciting and fresh dark academia books you’ll ever read.

Buy a copy of Ink Blood Sister Scribe here!

The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake

In many ways, The Atlas Six feels like he culmination of the genre; where all dark academia books were headed. An eccentric, loud, campy, and hilarious YA fantasy novel dripping with dark academic themes. The Atlas Six is not for everyone, but any reader who loves exaggerated language, characters, and events is going to get such a kick out of this brilliant YA novel.

We begin with the knowledge that the works found in the Library of Alexandria are actually in safe hands, looked after by magical caretakers known as the aptly named Alexandrian Society. In an alternate Earth, where some people are born with magical abilities and go to magical universities, the Alexandrian Society selects new initiates every ten years.

This year, we have six initiates, hand-picked by the titular Atlas Blakely. Six will enter, five will pass, one will fail. Along the way, there will be plenty of sex and fighting. Magic, secret societies, subterfuge, backstabbing, the corrupting temptation of knowledge itself. The Atlas Six is about as much fun as dark academia books can be.

Buy a copy of The Atlas Six here!

Catherine House by Elisabeth Thomas

As campus novels and dark academia books go, Catherine House manages to stand out as wholly original by the unique qualities of its protagonist — a young woman entirely dispassionate towards academia and social belonging.

Darkly gothic right down to its setting; Catherine House is a place located deep in the woods of rural Pennsylvania. It’s a school that selects very few students, and those lucky few go on to become brilliant thinkers, inventors, writers, and artists.

To guarantee this future for themselves, however, each student must sacrifice themself entirely to Catherine House. No family or friends, no hobbies, no contact with the outside world. Only the school.

Ines, however, is a young girl who (like Alex of The Ninth House) has come from a world of danger, drugs, and disaster. Now, Catherine House is her home but it is a dark place that she cannot trust, especially after what happens to her roommate.

Like Bunny and If We Were Villains, Catherine House is one of those perfect dark academia books like The Secret History set in a gothic world of education, mystery, and death.

Buy a copy of Bunny here!

These Violent Delights by Micah Nemerever

These Violent Delights has been called The Secret History meets Call Me By Your Name. And while I haven’t read (or seen) Call Me By Your Name so I can’t comment, more dark academia books like The Secret History are never a bad thing.

Beginning in 1970s Pittsburgh, These Violent Delights follows the relationship of Paul and Julian. Paul is grieving, sensitive, artistic, and a mystery to his own family. Julian is at once arrestingly charming and violently cruel in a rich boy kind of way.

The friendship between Paul and Julian grows into an unhealthy kind of love. They are obsessed with one another, but their relationship is toxic and dangerous. They are bad for one another but impossibly bound, and that is bad news for anyone who stumbles into their path.

Buy a copy of The Violent Delights here!

A Lesson in Vengeance by Victoria Lee

Like many great gothic novels, the location, the building, the house itself is a character. This is true for Dalloway, the old college campus nestled in the hills of the Catskills. Dalloway is also a place said to be haunted by the ghosts of five witches.

While studying at Dalloway, Felicity Morrow suffered the tragic loss of her girlfriend. After a year away, she is back and ready to graduate. She even has her same room in the supposedly haunted halls of Dalloway. But then there’s the new girl.

This new girl is Ellis, a prodigal yong novelist who wishes to build a story around the ghosts of the Dalloway Five — the witches who are said to haunt the school — and she wants Felicity’s help in digging for clues. This is a queer novel filled witch ghosts, witchcraft, death, and intrigue. One of those all-encompassing dark academia books that gives the reader everything they could possibly want.

Buy a copy of A Lesson in Vengeance here!

The Maidens by Alex Michaeledis

Mariana was once a student at Cambridge University. Now a therapist, she gets a call from her niece Zoe, who herself is a Cambridge student. Zoe’s friend was a member of a secret society of all-female students known as The Maidens, and now she’s dead.

Caught up in her niece’s plight, and driven by an empathetic need to help, Mariana places her sights on the university’s professor of Greek Tragedy: Edward Fosca. He did it, she is sure of it. And soon another body will be found.

Unlike many other dark academia books, which are often set in the US, and also often in made-up academic spaces, The Maidens is set at Cambridge University: one of the most prestigious and beautiful universities on Earth. This Cambridge setting adds both weight and character to the gothic mystery of this tale. What also helps is the compelling and building mystery at the heart of The Maidens.

In many ways this is a murder mystery that uses the dark academia setting and tropes to enhance its plot and atmosphere with staggering results.

Vita Nostra by Marina Dyachenko & Sergey Dyachenko

Translated from the Russian by Julia Meitov Hersey

A clever subversion of the Harry Potter mythology and the classic hero narrative, Vita Nostra is a dark, twisted, and strange piece of dark academia. Written by Ukrainian couple Marina and Sergey Dyachenko, Vita Nostra is like nothing else.

Vita Nostra follows Sasha, a sixteen-year-old girl on a seaside vacation with her mother, who finds herself followed by a mysterious man with pale skin and dark glasses. When this stranger finally confronts her, he entreats her to complete a shocking task: she must wake up at 4am, go to the beach, and swim out to a buoy and back.

Completing this task (and several others equally bizarre in nature) eventually gains Sasha admittance to the Institute of Special Technologies, a remote university whose classes are unlike anything Sasha has ever known.

The Harry Potter comparison lies not only in the magical boarding school setting, but in how utterly spellbinding this novel is. It sweeps the reader up into a setting much darker, stranger, and more menacing than Hogwarts — but every bit as enchanting for the right reader.

Buy a copy of Vita Nostra here!

A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik

Naomi Novik has made a popular name for herself by using the fairy tale formula to create fantastical tales that are at once subversive and nostalgic.

With A Deadly Education, Novik turns her talents to the genre of dark academia books. Set at a magical school called Scholomance (also the series title), A Deadly Education blends the Harry Potter formula with the deadly, gothic themes present in dark academia.

Monsters lurk in the halls of Scholomance. Death is real and ever-present. Graduation is predicated on survival and, seemingly, little else. Our protagonist is El, a young girl with incredible strength. She lacks allies but she, alone, has enough power to survive the trials and tortures that Scholomance promises each and every one of its students.

Blending YA fantasy, gothic fiction, and the Harry Potter mythology, this is one of the most popular modern dark academia books on the shelves.

Buy a copy of A Deadly Education here!

Vicious by V.E. Schwab

V.E. Schwab is one of the most popular and beloved authors of fantasy fiction in the world right now (The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue is a particular favourite of mine). Schwab explores the world of urban fantasy and magic realism with deftness and imagination.

In Vicious — the first books of the Villains series — she takes us to a college at which two boys, Victor and Eli, are roommates. Soon enough, after discovering a potential formula for superhuman powers, things turn… Vicious as they go from friends to… Villains.

Vicious has a story and tone inspired by both superhero comics and Shelley’s Frankenstein (possibly why one character is named Victor). It’s a story both thematically dense and campy, like any good gothic novel or superhero comic should be.

In the present, Victor has escaped prison and is on the hunt for Eli. In the past, Victor and Eli are young geniuses sharing their college experience as friends. We move between these periods as their feats and actions become clear, as do their consequences.

Ambitions, betrayal, hubris, jealousy — these dark emotions are at the thematic forefront of this brooding, scheming story. A tale of dark academia, gothic behaviour, and comic book tropes. Edgy, imaginative, and heaps of fun.

Buy a copy of Vicious here!

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

I’m sure this will be a controversial choice to some. Others might be nodding their heads in understanding. From where I’m standing, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein could easily be considered where dark academia books began (sorry Donna Tartt).

The titular Frankenstein is a young man, scarred and offended by the death of his mother. While studying natural philosophy at university, he takes it upon himself to invent a way to halt or reverse death itself.

Victor’s actions involve exhuming the pieces of various bodies from the local cemetery (a practice that universities have actually practised in the past). After stitching them together, Frankenstein gives life to his creature before fleeing and leaving it abandoned.

Frankenstein is my favourite novel; it represents the peak of gothic fiction for so many reasons. It is considered by many to be the first science fiction novel. It is also a true piece of dark academia, featuring a university student meddling with dark science. Is Frankenstein where dark academia books began? Feel free to agree or disagree.

Buy a copy of Frankenstein here!

Four by Four by Sara Mesa

Translated from the Spanish by Katie Whittemore

Four by Four is a Spanish gothic novel, reminiscent of Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go. It is set in a boarding school, far removed from its nearby towns and cities, and the narrative subtly suggests that its story takes place as society is crumbling. One nearby city has fallen to dust; the other has been consumed by violence and lawlessness. But this school remains intact.

The first part of Four by Four deals with a group of children as they attempt to escape the school. They are afraid and paranoid and claustrophobic. The gothic academic setting seems to be closing in on them. In part two, the perspective shifts to that of a new teacher who is telling his story as a series of diary entries, and it’s here that we see how Sara Mesa is exploring themes of power and hierarchies in a darkly academic setting.

While Four by Four isn’t one of the most on-the-nose dark academia books, like The Ninth House, it instead makes academia itself feel dark through its gothic setting and themes of power manipulation. A brilliant Spanish novel.

Buy a copy of Four by Four here!

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

Considered by many to be Kazuo Ishiguro’s masterpiece, Never Let Me Go is a piece of dark science fiction about the purpose of our lives as individuals, and as members of a larger society. The novel also considers the value of knowledge, learning, and the schools in which we study, thus making it one of the smarter, subtler dark academia books.

Never Let Me Go begins with Kathy, a young woman who works as a carer — of whom and how, we don’t yet know. Kathy reminisces about her time at Hailsham: a boarding school our in the English countryside.

Hailsham was a perfect kind of place, where students were taught painting and mathematics, and they lived close to one another, forming tight bonds. But there is something awful going on beneath the surface that we don’t yet understand.

Never Let Me Go is about a lot of things: class and privilege, love and friendship, purpose and meaning, memory and narratives. It is also about the purpose of academic life; the purpose of the knowledge and skills we nurture as we grow.

Buy a copy of Never Let Me Go here!

The Promised Neverland by Kaiu Shirai and Posuka Demizu

The Promised Neverland is, without a doubt, one of the most captivating and original shonen manga to have been published in the last several years. Set in a suspicious paradise of a school, this manga takes frequent twists and turns to shock and terrify its readers.

Grace Field House is perfect. A big school that resembles an English stately home, full of happy children aged twelve and under, lorded over by the kind and jolly Isabella; a woman whom the kids all call mom. Every day, the children take an exam to demonstrate their aptitude. They don’t know why; they just do it. They play, eat, clean, and sleep. They all have numbers tattooed on their necks and wear white all of the time.

At the very beginning, a young girl is selected to leave Grace Field House. She and all the others believe she is being adopted. When she leaves her favourite toy behind, our protagonists run to the gate to give it to her. At the gate, they discover her body, lifeless and with a flower growing out of it. The things driving the truck that hides her body are not human at all; they are monstrous demons. Grace Field House is no school; it’s a farm.

The Promised Neverland is a lot of things: dystopia, science fiction, mystery, gothic fiction, and more. As dark academia books go, it only remains one for a little while before mutating into something else. Nevertheless, how could I resist adding a manga to a list of dark academia books.

Buy a copy of The Promised Neverland here!

Wilder Girls by Rory Power

While academia itself usually plays a part in the “dark academia” genre, Wilder Girls still earns its place on this list in spite of being something else entirely. This is because, at its heart, this is a YA novel about schoolgirls fighting for their survival, about the staff being corrupt and shady, and about the academic setting being key to its atmosphere.

This YA dark academia novel is set on an island off the coast of Maine. This island is home to the Raxter School for Girls, which has been put under quarantine after the breakout of a virus called the Tox. The Tox has taken the lives of several students and teachers, and those who haven’t died have been physically mutated in painful and gruesome ways.

These mutations are described with rawness and grit, making the reader squirm with discomfort. Our protagonist, Hetty, leads us on a journey to uncover the mysteries of this virus, and the quarantine itself, after her best friend Byatt disappears following a “flare-up” of the virus.

There is more going on here than meets the eye, and Hetty is willing to endanger herself (and her friend Reese) to find answers, and to find Byatt.

Even though the world isn’t ending, we are in uncertain times and people like to know they’re not alone. Or maybe they just want reassurances that others have it worse.

As the name suggests, post-apocalyptic fiction is about a civilisation that has collapsed. Often this is due to some pandemic (Station Eleven), natural disaster (The Drowned World), nuclear war (On the Beach) or aliens (The Day of the Triffids).

Not surprisingly, post-apocalyptic novels often intersect with fantasy, sci-fi, dystopian and horror.

Outstanding Post-Apocalyptic Novels

Commercial post-apocalyptic fiction first emerged in the late 19th century with Mary Shelley’s The Last Man, although arguably it has been around much longer if you include folklore, such as the biblical story of the flood.

Following WWII and the very real and sudden fear of a nuclear war, post-apocalyptic fiction found itself on the rise in popularity.

Although these are fears shared by people the world over, the books available and widely known within the sub-genre continue to be largely from white, English-speaking authors. So, let’s change that. 

Here are some of the best post-apocalyptic novels, many of which have been translated, or were written by people of colour, because there is no better time than now to come together!

To the Warm Horizon by Choi Jin-young

Translated from the Korean by Soje

In this harrowing post-apocalyptic novel that brings to mind others of its kind — The Road, Oryx and Crake, I Am Legend — Korean author Choi Jin-young shows us how, against all odds, love can win out in the end.

Set after a disease has ravaged the planet, To The Warm Horizon follows two young Korean women who have met on the road in the cold wilds of Russia.

Dori has lost her parents to the disease and is now in charge of her deaf and mute sister. Jina is travelling with her extended family and childhood friend Gunji.

Dori and Jina’s encounter leads to some raw and chilling events, exactly the kind you’d expect to see in a disease-wrought, post-apocalyptic wasteland.

But against all of this, the love and dedication that these two women find for each other keeps the reader hopeful.

This is a beautiful lesbian love story that uses this hook to set it apart from the less hopefully novels that populate the genre of post-apocalyptic fiction, making it one of the most unique post-apocalyptic novels out there.

Buy a copy of To the Warm Horizon here!

The Last Children of Tokyo (The Emissary) by Yoko Tawada

Translated from the Japanese by Margaret Mitsutani

Conceptually, The Last Children of Tokyo (known in the US as The Emissary) is one of the most unique post-apocalyptic novels of recent years.

As The Last Children of Tokyo begins, Yoshiro, a retired author, has passed his hundredth birthday and still spends every morning out jogging with his rent-a-dog (there are few animals left in Japan, and certainly no wild ones).

His great-grandson Mumei, however, was born, like every member of his generation, with grey hair and failing health. His life expectancy is poor, and his bones will likely fail him before he exits his teens.

Yoshiro and Mumei exist in the book as fascinating examples of their society: a Japan in which the cities have mostly been abandoned, ties with the outside world have been cut, all other languages are no longer taught or spoken.

Many of the middle-aged people have moved to Okinawa, where they work on fruit farms which are almost completely the sole providers of food for the other islands of Japan. Yoshiro’s daughter is one such farmer.

Tawada takes the time to hold a mirror up to not only pollution but also the average person’s fear of GM crops, pharmaceutical corporations, and so on.

She wonders where contamination of our food and water may lead us, but also the crippling power of irrational fear. And she does this with gall, discomfort, and more than a little humour.

By a copy of The Last Children of Tokyo here!

Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor

Onyesonwu, whose name means Who Fears Death, is the product of a brutal sexual assault, named so by her mother in hopes her name would inspire courage.

As a mixed-race child, Onye is rejected by both the whites (Nuru) and blacks (Okeke). She is an Ewu, children whose skin colour is believed to be the result of violence.

Who Fears Death introduces us to a post-apocalyptic Africa following a nuclear holocaust rampant with genocide and wanton violence.

Although it is seemingly set in the very distant future, many of this world’s problems are easily recognisable today, particularly the sadistic sexism and racism many of the characters are subjected to.

Okorafor has created a world full of sorcery, folklore and heroism. It is equal parts terrifying and bewitching, and you’ll never be the same again after reading it.

Buy a copy of Who Fears Death here!

Metro 2033 by Dmitry Glukhovsky

Translated from the Russian by Natasha Randall

If you want unsettling, post-apocalyptic fiction, the Russians have you covered.

Following a nuclear holocaust, what little remains of Moscow’s population have been forced underground into the city’s extensive metro system.

Whole communities have developed around the different stations, wars are waged over resources and differing governing strategies.

To make matters worse, mutated creatures stalk the land above, ensuring those beneath will never see daylight again.

20 years after the nuclear war that drove the survivors underground, a young man named Artyom is tasked with delivering a message that could have unimaginable consequences.

Metro 2033 was also turned into a successful video game franchise with a dedicated fanbase which really nailed the tone and atmosphere of an unsettling, gruesome, and nightmarish post-apocalyptic world.

Buy a copy of Metro 2033 here!

The Girl With All the Gifts by M.R. Carey

The Girl With All The Gifts was Carey’s first foray into prose, after writing many award-winning comic books, and what a breakout hit it was.

Blending sci-fi and horror to create one of the fiercest and best post-apocalyptic novels, this book is a dazzling exploration of human connection.

Our protagonist, Melanie, lives in a cell. Every day, she is strapped into a wheelchair and wheeled into a classroom full of other young children where they learn subjects like maths and English, like in any other school.

Melanie loves one teacher in particular, and hates the military sergeant who treats her with fear and disdain.

Soon enough, we learn that the world outside this military base is infested with zombie-like things that have been infected with the fungal cordyceps (just like in The Last of Us).

Melanie and the other children are infected with the fungus, and yet they remain calm and lucid and intelligent. That is, unless they are given the chance to taste human flesh, in which case they become feral and dangerous.

Sergeant Parks and the scientists at the base believe that Melanie is dead, and that what they are talking to each day is the fungus talking through her body. She is simply a test subject.

Beginning in a cramped prison cell and eventually opening up into a dangerous trek across the southeast of England, The Girl With All The Gifts is a frantic page-turner and one of the finest modern sci-fi books around.

Buy a copy of The Girl With All the Gifts here!

The Slynx by Tatyana Tolstaya

Translated from the Russian by Jamey Gambrell 

This dystopian fantasy is often compared with Anthony Burgess’ A Clockwork Orange.

Set two hundred years after the end of civilisation, The Slynx follows Benedikt, a lower member of a somewhat middling class who transcribes old books written before “The Blast” and presents them as the words of the new leader.

Benedikt considers himself to be leading a satisfactory life, being neither privileged nor a serf, and is happy to own a house and not have any mutations that are now commonplace in society.

So far he has managed to avoid both the Saniturions, who come for those who show any unwanted sign of Freethinking, and the legendary screeching Slynx that lurks in the wilderness beyond. But is it only a matter of time?

Buy a copy of The Slynx here!

American War by Omar El Akkad

In 2074, the world is in crisis. Most coastal cities are at least partially submerged in the oceans,  certain regions are now wastelands and the United States is in the middle of the second civil war over a few Southern states’ unwillingness to abandon fossil fuels.

The war is vicious, forcing many into refugee camps as the south is sealed off from the north.

One of these camps is Camp Patience, where Sarat Chestnut and her family wind up after her father’s death.

Although she is barely six years old when the war breaks out, through a series of unfortunate events, Sarat grows into an angry and radicalised young woman.

Told from even further in the future by a historian documenting the second civil war, American War is a terrifying glimpse at our future.

Buy a copy of American War here!

Severance by Ling Ma 

An offbeat, satirical novel that’s one part office slice-of-life and two parts wryly funny cataclysm.

Severance follows the story of Candace Chen, a first-generation American millennial who spends her days in New York overseeing the manufacture of Bibles for a publishing company.

Then comes a pandemic of “Shen Fever” – a fictional, fungal infection that causes fever and saps at the consciousness until victims are reduced to a drone-like state and then die.

The city quickly stalls, then grinds to a halt, and before long Candace is left alone in New York, unfevered and seemingly immune, taking pictures of the now abandoned ghost town.

Eventually a group of survivors sweep through, led by former IT technician Bob, who bring Candace along on their way to “the Facility”, which Bob promises to be a haven where society can begin anew.

But Candace has a secret that will cause her serious trouble. Should she stay with this group of “saviours”?

Buy a copy of Severance here!

I Am Legend by Richard Matheson

I Am Legend is a 1954 novel that defined the concepts of global plague and post-apocalyptic fiction, and this novel’s particular plague has wiped out untold numbers of people and turned the rest into vampires.

One man survives, locked away in his LA home. And over the course of the novel, he, the last human in a society of vampires, becomes the titular legend. He is now the vampire in a society that has normalised vampirism.

This is a clever inversion of vampire mythology. In a world where every surviving person is now a vampire, the one human is, himself, the vampire; the legend; the other.

Of all the post-apocalyptic novels here, I Am Legend is one of the most wholly unique, while also wonderfully adhering to the traditions of vampire lore: blood-sucking, garlic, and crucifixes.

Buy a copy of I Am Legend here!

The Wall by Marlen Haushofer

Translated from the German by Shaun Whiteside

Originally published in Germany, The Wall stands as a meditation on isolation, humanity, and the practicalities of self-sufficient survival.

Our protagonist, an unnamed middle-aged woman on holiday at a remote hunting lodge in Austria, awakens one day to find that her two companions have disappeared and that she is alone.

Completely alone, it seems, as she appears to be trapped in her environment by an invisible wall of unknown origin.

The Wall follows the woman’s trials and troubles as she adjusts to solitude and learns to make the most of the land she has been left seemingly in charge of.

As she gradually begins to forget arbitrary concepts, such as the taste of sugar or the use of her own name, she is left wondering if she will ever meet another human being again.

Buy a copy of The Wall here!

Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice

When infrastructure falls to pieces and resources run out, will your society endure? This is the subject of Moon of the Crusted Snow, as we follow a small northern Anishinaabe community through times of strife and hardship.

When food reserves become scarce, and community members struggle to maintain order, outsiders from the south begin to arrive; refugees from their own defunct nation.

With more people come more problems, and soon the former leaders are replaced by the newcomers. But the tensions, and the death toll, keep rising.

Will those frustrated by mounting chaos be able to take control and return to tradition, turning the tide for the better? As one society dies, another takes its place.

Buy a copy of Moon of the Crusted Snow here!

War with the Newts by Karel Čapek

Translated from the Czech by M and R. Weatherall

War with the Newts is a dark satire that sends up the political ideologies and practises present in the pre-war Europe of 1936, and is considered by many to be classic work of science fiction and dystopia.

On a small island near Sumatra, mankind discovers a species of giant, intelligent Newts (sometimes translated as Salamanders), and begins to exploit and manipulate them for the benefit of humanity.

However, over time the Newts learn and progress to such an extent that they begin to rival the humans’ place at the top of the animal kingdom.

Told at times in the style of an anthropological study, all of society’s many aspects are up for ridicule here, and Čapek pulls no punches with fascism, journalism, capitalism and even Hollywood all in the firing line.

The novel was blacklisted by the Nazis in 1940 in Germany.

Buy a copy of War With the Newts here!

The Blood of Angels by Johanna Sinisalo

Translated from the Finnish by Lola Rogers

Technically not post-apocalyptic, however, the world that unfolds in The Blood of Angels is certainly on the brink of total collapse. Why?

Because all the bees are disappearing. Some are dying, typically the queens, but whole colonies of bees are simply vanishing into thin air.

Crops can no longer be effectively pollinated and most country’s crops are in decline. Only the essentials are available, while the world fights over resources.

In remote Finland, which has yet to be hit by the crisis, beekeeper Orvo, discovers that his hives are suffering from colony collapse. At the same time, he is reeling from another unfathomable personal tragedy.

Told in alternating perspectives between Orvo and his son’s eco-blog, The Blood of Angels explores the themes of social responsibility and grief.

It also veers into sci-fi when Orvo makes an incredible discovery about the disappearances.

Buy a copy of The Blood of Angels here!

From timeless classics to modern love stories, and spicy tales these romance books cater to every taste, whisking you away on unforgettable journeys through the complexities of human connection. As you immerse yourself in these enchanting tales, you’ll discover why these romantic novels (including queer romance novels) have earned their place among the most beloved and cherished works of fiction.

The Best Romance Books from Around the World

Make yourself comfortable, let the warmth of these stories from around the world envelop you, and prepare to embark on a literary adventure that will leave you yearning for more.

North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell

As classic romance novels go, North and South is an oft-overlooked masterpiece of the genre. A 19^th Century love story set against the very prominent backdrop of the British Industrial Revolution.

In the northern factory town of Milton, the love story follows a refined young southern woman named Margaret Hale who arrives in Milton and struggles with the town’s industrial way of life.

One of the captains of the industry, and our love interest, is Mr Thornton, a crass and aggressively spoken northern man who owns a cotton factory.

The love story here is very reminiscent of that between Elizabeth Bennett and Mr Darcy in Pride and Prejudice, only with the added political vigour that examines the class divide between, well, north and south – a divide that still continues to this day.

North and South also has one of the best TV miniseries adaptations ever filmed, starring the smouldering Richard Armitage as Mr Thornton. Definitely give it a watch!

Beach Read by Emily Henry

From the author of Book Lovers, Beach Read follows the story of two struggling writers, Augustus Everett, a literary fiction author, and January Andrews, a bestselling romance novelist, who find themselves as neighbors in beach houses for the summer.

With their careers stalled by writer’s block, they strike a deal to break free from their creative ruts: Augustus will write a happy story, while January attempts the next Great American Novel.

As they embark on unconventional field trips and challenge each other’s writing styles, they try to stick to their pact that no one will fall in love.

This heartwarming and witty tale explores the unexpected paths to creativity and the power of embracing new perspectives while offering a satisfying enemies-to-lovers romance.

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Predictable as it might be, Jane Eyre is undeniably one of the greatest romance novels ever written and bound.

The Bronte sisters were a unique flavour amongst their contemporaries, providing us with raw, often brutal, always sublime gothic and romance novels that stood head-and-shoulders above the rest.

Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre is an absolute treasure, and a classic romance novel that, in terms of its pacing, hasn’t aged a day. A punchy love story fraught with aggression and tempestuous shifts in tone, Jane Eyre is flawless.

Our titular narrator Jane Eyre is a girl orphaned at a young age, living with her uncle’s family. Her childhood is not pleasant, but when she eventually finds a chance at work as a governess.

The job takes her to Thornfield Hall and the enigmatic Mr Rochester, master of the house. Their story is not a smooth one; instead it is intense, fiery, and at times frightening – filled with twists and turns that make it a true classic and one of the very best romance books – indeed one of the very best Western novels – ever written.

Read More: 14 Books like Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca

A Dowry of Blood by S.T. Gibson

If you like your romance novels to be heavy on the lust, and to have a fantastical element to them, you need to read A Dowry of Blood.

This gothic romance is written from the perspective of Dracula’s bride, Constanta; how he saved her, how she fell in love with him, and how (centuries later), she killed him.

A Dowry of Blood is gothic romance done perfectly. These are people driven by love and lust and a thirst for blood. They hate and curse each other but cannot live without each other.

Cursed love, burning desire, sensuality — these things drive the novel forward and it is glorious to watch.

Read More: 15 Best Modern French Novels

The Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham

Kitty Garstin has gone through several failed attempts at love and marriage before arriving in a sudden and loveless marriage with the bacteriologist Walter Fane.

Most of the novel is set in mainland China, where Fane has placed himself in the thick of a cholera epidemic with a view to studying the disease and helping its dying victims.

It’s a tragic setting, and it doesn’t tick any boxes regarding typical romance books. But the beauty and genius of the romance in this novel comes in the form of Kitty learning to love her new husband through observing his actions and the risks he takes, and he likewise learning to appreciate the help that she offers.

It’s not a love story for the faint of heart, and certainly not a typical romance novel, but The Painted Veil is nonetheless a unique and incredible work of fiction, and one of the great romance books of its time.

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

I don’t care what you say; there is no way to have a discussion about the best romance books and not mention Pride and Prejudice.

In fact, confession time: I only read this book recently, shortly before turning 30, which might be illegal – I haven’t checked. But it was reading Pride and Prejudice that inspired this list, so here we are.

Pride and Prejudice is as good as everyone says. In fact, it’s better. A lot of the discourse gets lost in a loop of praise being helped on it for being one of the great romance novels.

But it’s more than that: Pride and Prejudice is a sharp, witty, sarcastic, biting, scathing, sardonic gem on a novel that relentlessly pokes fun at everything from the class system to patriarchal values; from stuffy English tradition to family life.

There are few books of their time as funny, clever, and scathing as Pride and Prejudice. And what makes it even more perfect is that there lies a truly perfect romantic tale beneath all of this scorn.

The story of Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy really is as compelling, engaging, and captivating as everyone says.

If you’ve been put off from reading Pride and Prejudice due to too much hype, let all of that go and read it.  It is one of the best romance books, classic or otherwise.

Read More: 10 Great Books for Fans of Normal People

At the End of the Matinee by Keiichiro Hirano

Translated from the Japanese by Juliet Winters Carpenter

At the End of the Matinee is a curious romance novel. Written by a man with a view to being international, while also evoking the tone and tropes of 19th Century English novels like Jane Eyre and the works of Jane Austen, there’s nothing quite like this Japanese romance novel.

The story follows two protagonists: a man approaching forty who works as an internationally celebrated classical guitarist, and a woman in her early forties who is a respected journalist living in Paris.

He is touted as a musical genius, and she is the daughter of a Japanese woman and a Croatian film director. Both are fascinating people.

They meet after one of his concerts in Tokyo and, while she is engaged to an American man whom she has known for many years, the two become infatuated with one another.

They travel, work, and find their fates entangled.

At the End of the Matinee is a will-they-won’t-they love story that uses classical romance tropes while also innovating with its characters and setting.

Gorgeously translated by the outstanding Juliet Winters Carpenter, this is a modern classic of a Japanese romance novel.

The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood

When it first came out, the hype around this book could not be ignored, particularly as it originally started as a Reylo (Rey/Kylo Ren) AU fanfic.

The Love Hypothesis revolves around Olive Smith, a third-year Ph.D. candidate who doesn’t believe in lasting romantic relationships.

To convince her best friend Anh otherwise, Olive impulsively kisses the first man she sees: Adam Carlsen, a young, attractive, and notoriously difficult professor.

Surprisingly, Adam agrees to be her fake boyfriend and maintain the charade.

However, when a critical science conference threatens Olive’s career, Adam’s unwavering support brings their pretend relationship dangerously close to combustion.

In this charming and addictive story, Olive learns that love is far more complicated than any scientific hypothesis, and understanding her own heart proves to be the most challenging experiment of all.

Psyche and Eros by Luna McNamara

There is a lot of love and romance in Greek mythology, and a lot of jealousy and betrayal, too. Psyche and Eros stands out, however, by being a love story first and foremost.

This is the talle of a god and a human falling in love, against all odds. Psyche, princess of Mycenae, trained to fight and hunt by the argonaut Atalanta, is swept up in a romance with Eros, the god of love himself.

The novel’s opening chapters establish who our two protagonists are, and Eros’ chapters in particular paint a picture of how the gods came to be. The story of Gaia, Kronos, Zeus, and all the messiness they wrought.

When Aphrodite, who has forced Eros into her servitude, orders him to curse a beautiful human woman, the god of love makes a careless mistake and curses himself by mistake. That curse causes him to love Psyche.

Not just love her, but to have her wrenched from him if ever she looks at him.

Psyche and Eros pits the cursed titular protagonists against an entire world of gods and humans.

Greece and Troy are on the brink of war; the gods are, as usual, committing cruelties our of jealousy and bitterness, and our lovers must wade through all of this while dealing with a curse that will destroy their love forever.

Buy a copy of Psyche and Eros here!

Strange Weather in Tokyo by Hiromi Kawakami

Translated from the Japanese by Allison Markin Powell

On its surface, this Japanese novel concerns an odd and unique slowly blossoming romance between a disenchanted salary woman in Tokyo and an older man: a former schoolteacher whom she chances to meet once again as an adult.

The story of Tsukiko and Sensei is truly one of the ages: a rough and turbulent story that is often battered by the winds of change.

This is because, on a deeper level, Strange Weather in Tokyo is about finding an equilibrium between the lost Japan of old – the pre-war Japan of ancient traditions which Sensei hailed from – and the modern, fast-paced, fast-paced, neon-lit Japan of today which Tsukiko represents.

What makes their love story work so elegantly is how each protagonist supports and teaches the other: Tsukiko is exhausted by modern life, and her love for Sensei helps her appreciate a slower, calmer pace.

Meanwhile, Tsukiko ensures that Sensei doesn’t get washed away by the waves of modern life.

Read More: Our Review of Strange Weather in Tokyo

Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto

Translated from the Japanese by Megan Backus

One of the best things about Kitchen – something that stands out amongst other romance books – is that it was so ahead of its time. Or, at least, it was courageously of its time when most other books and movies fail to be.

Kitchen follows the tragic life of Mikage Sakurai, a young woman raised by her grandmother who, after the loss of said grandmother, finds a home with a young man: Yuichi Tanabe.

What makes this novel so ahead of its time isn’t the romance between these two characters, but rather the role of Yuichi’s transgender mother, who is easily the novel’s most complex and compelling character.

The love story in this Japanese novel is not an easy one. Death obstructs love at every turn, and Yoshimoto never loses sight of her protagonists being young, growing, and grieving people.

Read More: Our Review of Kitchen

XOXO by Axie Oh

This wholesome YA novel XOXO centres on Jenny, a dedicated cellist who unexpectedly falls for Jaewoo, a K-pop idol, after a chance meeting in Los Angeles.

Their paths cross again in Seoul when Jenny attends an elite performing arts academy.

With Jaewoo’s dating restrictions as a K-pop star, they must decide if their love is worth risking their careers and friendships.

A contemporary forbidden romance, XOXO will immerse you in the K-pop industry and make you fall in love with Seoul through sumptuous descriptions of food and surroundings,

Read More: 12 Best K-Pop Novels

The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa

Translated from the Japanese by Stephen Snyder

This choice is perhaps a bit of a sneaky one, because while The Housekeeper and the Professor can and should be called a novel about love, it is not a love story.

The titular professor is an aged mathematician who is incapable of retaining long-term information. He goes through housekeepers like toilet paper because none can stand the stress of working for him for long.

His newest housekeeper, and our protagonist, is a single mother with enough kindness and patience to form a bond with this difficult and troubled genius.

Thus, in the professor, our protagonist finds an indispensable friend, and her son finds a pseudo-father figure in a man who forgets him from one day to the next. Romantic, no, but a story about love. Absolutely.

Read More: Our Review of The Housekeeper and the Professor

Love in the New Millennium by Can Xue

Translated from the Chinese by Annelise Finegan Wasmoen

Consider Love in the New Millennium the wild card of this list. A deeply satirical, surreal, and subversive novel about modern life for a group of women in today’s China.

In writing a book that so confidently satirises daily life in China, Can Xue took some bold risks.

While it isn’t a book about a single romance, Love in the New Millennium is nevertheless a book about love, romance, sex, and relationships.

It examines how we love one another in an age of surveillance and transience. It looks at what shapes romance and love can take in the modern age.

A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J Maas

Sarah J Maas is the queen of YA fantasy. Whether you’re a fan of the genre or just someone with a passing knowledge of it, you’ll know the name Sarah J Maas.

Skyrocketed to fame by her series Throne of Glass, she has worn the crown ever since. Her series A Court of Thorns and Roses (which begins with the novel of the same name) begins with protagonist Feyre — a forest-dwelling hunter — fighting and killing a wolf for its prey.

The wolf, however, turns out to be a faerie, and Feyre must pay for its murder. This event thrusts Feyre into the twisted and mythic faerie world which she must help save from an ancient curse.

An intense love between two dark characters; a folklore-inspired world of fairies, magic, and curses, a young and beautiful but deadly protagonist. What more could you ask for?

The Court Dancer by Kyung-sook Shin

Translated from the Korean by Anton Hur

The Court Dancer is, in many ways, a modern Korean response to the classic European romance novels.

The Court Dancer is a book that, on the surface, celebrates a chance encounter and the blossoming love and passion which emerges from it, but look a little deeper and you’ll find a book that deals with the scars of colonialism and a warning sign against the exoticism and sexualisation of other cultures.

The romance of this clever Korean novel is front and centre: a French diplomat of the 19^th Century has journeyed to Korea during the later years of the Joseon Dynasty.

There, he has fallen quickly and passionately for a young woman who has already seen so much upheaval and personal tragedy – a young woman now serving as a court dancer.

Whisked away to France with her new love, our court dancer must learn to understand her place in the world, her newfound romance, and what home means. And all of that is before the scathing exploration of European colonialism takes centre stage.

Essential Queer Romance Novels

Diversity and representation in literature have never been more important, and the realm of romance novels is no exception.

Our selection of the best queer romance books showcases the beauty and complexity of love in all its forms, transcending boundaries and celebrating the power of connection.

These stories capture the hearts of readers with their unforgettable characters and heartwarming relationships

Love in the Big City by Sang Young Park

Translated from the Korean by Anton Hur

Love in the Big City could fall under the “Asian Romance Novels” and “Queer Romance Novels” since it’s both. But, like many of the romance novels on this list, actually calling it romance is a little messy.

Though, make no mistake, this is a Korean novel about love.

First, it’s about platonic love — the love between two hedonistic best friends at university, enjoying all the flavours of life: food, alcohol, cigarettes, and sex.

But, after a time, one grows up and gets married, leaving the other — our protagonist — to choose how he is going to live his own young, gay, good life.

Love in the Big City also explores familial love through the relationship between Young and his mother, before finally leaning into romantic love as he lets himself fall in love in his own way.

This love is difficult, rocky, and harsh, but it is still love and it is still romance. Sometimes.

This novel does not shy away from the shadows of love and romance, which is what makes it so earnest and beautiful as a queer romance novel.

There is so much here that is cruel and nasty, but a love for life and for people wins out in the end.

This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

This is a beautiful, poetic piece of science fiction lesbian romance. A short and tender novel that blends intense sci-fi world-building with lyrical moments of romantic expression between two agents of warring factions.

Our protagonists, Red and Blue, are two women working for different agencies of a far future, in which they fight for control of time itself.

The two agents leave letters for one another, at first as flirtatious taunts, and soon as bold declarations of their love for, and addiction to one another.

This is How You Lose the Time War shifts between chapters detailing what Red or Blue is up to and letters written from one to the other. These letters express passionate, loud statements of adoration that melt your heart.

The fun and complex world-building of this far future only supports the concept that love, the simplest thing to understand, conquers even the most complex ideas.

Wolfsong by TJ Klune

Wolfsong, the first in TJ Klune’s Green Creek series of fantasy books, is a novel that answers the question, “What if Twilight was gay and also good?”

Klune is known for blending queer romance with urban fantasy, and this is his most expansive queer romantic fantasy story yet, spanning four lengthy books.

Wolfsong is the first book in that series, and it is predominantly a gay romance between a boy named Ox — who grew up in a small, rural Oregon town — and the youngest son of a pack of werewolves.

Around the time Ox turns sixteen, the Bennett family moves in next door. They are a mother, father, three boys, and the father’s brother.

Ox, whose own father abandoned him, soon learns that the Bennetts are not only shapeshifters, but that his friend and boss, Gordo, already knows them. and that Gordo is also a witch.

Ox and Joe, the youngest of three boys, become tethered together in an intense friendship that soon blossoms into a vicious, feral kind of romance.

Wolfsong is a queer fantasy romance full of bloodshed, revenge, cruelty, and savage love. One of the most intense and best romance books of recent years.

Buy a copy of Wolfsong here!

Let’s Talk About Love by Claire Kann

This is a uniquely important novel. A queer romance, this is a book that centres around a sexuality often criminally underexposed but nevertheless part of the queer canon: asexuality.

Let’s Talk About Love introduces us to Alice, our asexual protagonist, who is all but done with love and relationships until she meets the handsome and endearing Takumi.

Sweet, approachable, endearing, and fun; Let’s Talk About Love is a fantastic queer romance novel that deserves even more love and attention than it’s already getting.

Read More: Best Queer Graphic Novels and Manga

The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune

A slow-burn gay romance, The House in the Cerulean Sea, Linus Baker, a solitary Case Worker at the Department in Charge of Magical Youth, is tasked with a top-secret assignment: assessing the potential threat posed by six unique children living in Marsyas Island Orphanage.

As he uncovers the island’s secrets and grows closer to the enigmatic caretaker, Arthur Parnassus, Linus discovers an unexpected family and must choose between destroying their home or risking the world’s end.

This heartwarming tale highlights the power of found family and the profound impact of love and acceptance.

One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston

From the author of the highly successful Red, White & Royal Blue, we have another light-hearted and witty romance novel that successfully captures the fizzing energy of meeting someone for the first time and knowing that they are your person.

Unfortunately, when August meets Jane on the subway, it is not a straightforward romance since Jane is displaced in time from the 1970s and August has to help her.

The interesting concept of One Last Stop offers a lot of insight into historic queer culture across the US during the 70s and keeps you hooked as you get more and more invested in a happy ending for these cute lesbian lovers.

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

“I spent half my time loving her and the other half hiding how much I loved her.”

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo follows the story of Monique Grant, an unknown magazine reporter chosen by reclusive Hollywood icon Evelyn Hugo to write her biography.

As Monique delves into Evelyn’s glamorous and scandalous life, she uncovers tales of ambition, friendship, and forbidden love spanning from the 1950s to the 1980s.

As the two women form a connection, it becomes apparent that their lives intersect in tragic and irreversible ways.

This captivating novel takes readers on a journey through old Hollywood, exploring the harsh realities of fame and the struggle of confronting the truth, no matter the cost.

Call Me By Your Name by Andre Aciman

This is perhaps a controversial choice, especially given that its author is not gay, but it is nonetheless one of the most celebrated modern gay romance novels.

Call Me By Your Name exploded in popularity thanks to its recent film adaptation, but the novel is also beloved by fans worldwide.

The novel follows a summer romance between two young men in 1980s Italy, and the lives of these protagonists over the subsequent fifteen years.

It’s a story of young love and self-discovery that received enormous critical acclaim, as did its film adaptation.

While I have my reservations about a gay romance novel being penned by a straight man, it is nevertheless a novel that resonates with so many, and will surely be heralded as a future classic among gay romance novels.

Red, White, and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

Casey McQuiston’s captivating story demonstrates that true love transcends diplomacy. Red, White & Royal Blue explores the unlikely romance between America’s First Son, Alex Claremont-Diaz, and the Prince of Wales, Henry.

As charismatic and charming as Alex is, his rivalry with Henry threatens to damage U.S./British relations when a tabloid photo exposes their altercation.

In an attempt to control the situation, a staged truce turns into a blossoming secret romance that could derail political campaigns and upend both nations.

This delightful and witty queer romance novel poses the question: can love save the world, and how do we find the courage to embrace our true selves?

Delilah Green Doesn’t Care by Ashley Herring Blake

Delilah Green Doesn’t Care is a witty and steamy queer romantic comedy that follows Delilah Green, a successful photographer who reluctantly returns to her hometown, Bright Falls, to photograph her estranged stepsister Astrid’s wedding.

Upon her return, Delilah encounters Claire Sutherland, Astrid’s reserved best friend and a single mother running a bookstore.

As Delilah becomes entwined in wedding preparations, including a scheme to save Astrid from her terrible fiancé, she discovers unexpected chemistry with Claire.

Despite their differences and Claire’s initial reluctance, the two find themselves drawn to each other, challenging their preconceptions about love and relationships.

If I Was Your Girl by Meredith Russo

We previously mentioned If I Was Your Girl on our list of trans books by trans writers, and it bears repeating it here on a list of the best romance books for the same reason: it’s spellbinding.

Meredith Russo is a trans woman who took her own experiences and funnelled them into the protagonist of If I Was Your Girl.

In this delightful trans novel, Amanda has moved to a new school and has fallen for a boy named Grant. She has disclosed to no-one, including Grant, the secret that she is trans, and lives in fear of that secret coming out, and what it will mean for her life at her new school and her blossoming romance with Grant.

This is a queer romance story for the ages; a book written by a trans woman about a trans woman, and a book that can help both young trans and cis people alike.

Read More: 9 Transgender Stories by Trans Writers

The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee

It might still be a very new novel, by The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue is a delightfully hedonistic romp of a gay romance novel.

What sets it apart from so many of its contemporaries is how much it enjoys itself; this book is less concerned with sorrowful pining or unrequited love.

Instead, it’s a celebration of romance wrapped up in one of the most delightful historic romance novels of today.

Telling the story of an 18^th Century British lord touring Europe with his best friend for whom he harbours an intense lust.

Over the past few years, however, there has been a colourful shift to queer fantasy and sci-fi books, and books of that genre written by incredible women and authors of colour.

Now, the genres of sci-fi and fantasy are gloriously diverse, with so many novels pushing the boundaries of gender and sexuality in exciting and liberating ways.

Queer authors are bringing new perspectives, new ideas, and fresh eyes to sci-fi and fantasy literature.

So, here are some incredible queer fantasy and queer sci-fi books by LGBTQ authors for you to check out!

Read More: Essential Modern Fantasy Books

Queer Fantasy Books

These queer fantasy books range from alternate histories to mythological retellings via fresh takes on classic fantasy tropes.

These LGBTQ authors are taking new steps into uncharted territory with their amazing queer fantasy books and we all need to be paying attention.

Not only should we be paying attention; we should be revelling in the variety, beauty, and vibrancy of these amazing queer fantasy worlds and characters.

Fantasy books are all about magical spaces, and these queer novels are all, indeed, magical. Enjoy this amazing queer fantasy books.

Read More: The Best Fantasy Books of All Time

She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker Chan

She Who Became the Sun is a queer fantasy retelling of the life of the first emperor of the Ming Dynasty in late 14th Century China.

Shelley Parker-Chan’s novel reimagines this founding emperor’s origin story and turns it into something beautifully queer and excitingly clever.

Zhu Yuanzhang was, famously, a peasant before rising to power. He was a monk, then a rebel leader, and finally an emperor. His army defeated the Mongols This is all true.

In She Who Became the Sun, we begin with a peasant family; a father and son are killed, and only the daughter remains.

The son was prophesied to become a legend, and yet he has died, and so the girl takes up that destiny for herself, disguises herself as a man, and becomes a monk.

As her life goes on, her disguise becomes part of her identity; she no longer sees herself as a girl or a boy; both gender identities are true.

This is a beautiful genderqueer exploration of legacy, destiny, and triumph, and one of the most exciting queer fantasy books of recent years.

Buy a copy here!

Sistersong by Lucy Holland

Sistersong is Lucy Holland’s debut novel, and it toes the line between historical fiction and queer fantasy.

Here is a mediaeval British novel set during the Saxon invasion of Britain.

We have three siblings: two girls and a third who spends the course of the novel coming to understand his identity as a transgender man.

Their father is king of a small region of England, and the Saxons are knocking at their gates.

While this is, in some ways, a grounded piece of historical fiction, it also features very literal magic and sorcery that brings the fantasy genre to this novel’s pages in a very welcome way.

The exploration of our young trans protagonist is expertly done; given its fantastical and historical setting, words like “trans” and “binary” are not used, but his journey is taken with tact and elegance.

This really is a stunning piece of fiction that blends queer fantasy with the setting and events of a historical epic.

Buy a copy here!

Read More: LGBTQ Bedtime Stories for Children

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

Samantha Shannon’s fantasy epic, The Priory of the Orange Tree, is one massive self-contained story. It’s a queer fantasy novel that brings dragons back to the forefront of fantasy novels.

This is an intricately plotted, perfectly woven narrative with a broad cast of deep and dynamic characters. It also has a stunning title and cover, which always helps, even superficially.

A truly epic 800-page fantasy novel, The Priory of the Orange Tree follows a colourful collection of diverse characters who are spread far and wide across a massive landscape.

World-building, lore, and language are all expressed beautifully here, just like in Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, and the epic geographic scale is reminiscent of Game of Thrones.

The characters that we follow are queer and colourful, brooding and salacious, twisted and calculating. There is vibrancy and pomp and splendour in abundance here.

Easily one of the great queer fantasy novels of all time.

Buy a copy here!

Wolfsong by TJ Klune

Wolfsong, the first in TJ Klune’s Green Creek series of fantasy books, is a novel that answers the question, “What if Twilight was gay and also good?”

Klune is known for blending queer romance with urban fantasy, and this is his most expansive queer romantic fantasy story yet, spanning four lengthy books.

Wolfsong is the first book in that series, and it is predominantly a gay romance between a boy named Ox, who grew up in a nowhere Oregon town for which the series is named, and the youngest son of a pack of werewolves.

Around the time Ox turns sixteen, the Bennett family (whose matriarch is genuinely called Elizabeth Bennett), move in next door.

Ox soon learns that the Bennetts are not only shapeshifters, but that his friend and boss, Gordo, already knows them. and that Gordo (protagonist of the series’ second book) is also a witch.

Ox and Joe, the youngest of three boys, become tethered together in an intense friendship that soon blossoms into a vicious, feral kind of romance.

Wolfsong is a queer fantasy novel full of bloodshed, revenge, cruelty, and savage love.

Buy a copy of Wolfsong here!

Read More: 16 Must-Read Cozy Fantasy & Found Family Books

The Unbroken by C.L. Clark

The Unbroken is an epic modern fantasy novel set in a world of empire and rebellion.

The Empire of Balladaire has conquered the land of Qazāl, and our protagonist, Touraine, was one of many children taken by the empire’s army to be raised as a soldier.

Twenty years on and Touraine is a lieutenant who has been sent back to Qazāl, along with other conscripts and the empire’s princess Luca, to quell a rising rebellion against the empire.

Getting closer to the rebels means learning that her mother is still alive, and so Touraine’s loyalties will inevitably be tested.

When she is invited into the princesses inner circle, a romance between the two — a lesbian soldier and a bisexual princess — has a chance to blossom.

But the relationship between these two queer protagonists is far more fraught and enticing than a simple romance. After all, this is a fantasy book about colonisers and rebels.

This is a queer fantasy novel that brilliantly explores themes of colonialism and rebellion with style and savvy, and with two queer women as its protagonists.

Buy a copy of The Unbroken here!

The Sun and the Void by Gabriela Romero Lacruz

A sapphic fantasy novel set in a world inspired by South American history, folklore, and landscapes. The Sun and the Void is an epic novel that tackles colonialism and deep-seated prejudices.

Our protagonist, Reina, is a girl with a tail, a mixed-race daughter of a revolutionary who received a letter from her grandmother, which sets her out on a journey across mountains.

Gravely injured along the way, Reina is nursed back to health by her witch grandmother. From there, she lives and works at the house of a great lord and begins to fall for his daughter.

This is a world of myriad gods, traditions, races, and alliances. Reina is lured into dark magic while fearing the cruel prejudices of those around her.

An epic queer fantasy novel about sapphic love, and a confident sign that the future of fantasy is bright and diverse.

Buy a copy of The Sun and the Void here!

Phoenix Extravagant by Yoon Ha Lee

Phoenix Extravagant is a thinly-veiled fantasy allegory for the Japanese occupation of the Korean peninsula in the early 20th century. In this standalone novel, the people of Hwaguk have been invaded by the Razanei Empire, who have access to robotic automatons thanks to the trade of technology with the people of the Far West. Our protagonist, Jebi, is a nonbinary painter who has tried and failed to stay out of politics and keep their head down.

However, when the fail an art exam—and thus are unable to find work as a result—they are all but kidnapped to work on Razanei automatons. Specifically, their ultimate weapon: an enormous robotic dragon. These automatons are brought to life by a magical paint with mysterious pigments. The dragon is malfunctioning, and Jebi is ordered to find out why and fix the dragon so that it can be used as a deadly weapon of war.

In doing so, Jebi learns to speak with the dragon, and their conversations will uncover the truth as to why it is faulty and has caused the Razanei Empire so many problems. The truth is not what Jebi expects, and they are no longer able to pretend indifference and good behaviour in the face of foreign occupation.

Buy a copy here!

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

The story of Achilles and Patroclus is one of the great tragic tales of love and warfare in the Western canon, but it’s also one that has been whitewashed by Christian conservatism over centuries.

The legendary warrior Achilles and his brother-in-arms Patroclus were a gay couple, but their romance has been “purified” in a fearful and pathetic way.

That is until Madeline Miller came along and rewrote their story, reinjecting the queerness back into their story and writing something truly beautiful in the process.

While not strictly fantasy, The Song of Achilles features on this list of queer fantasy novels because mythology has inspired fantasy; we wouldn’t have one without the other.

In that sense, this iconic and gay tale of Greek mythology deserves a spot on this list of colourful queer fantasy books.

Buy a copy here!

Queer Sci-fi Books

If there’s one genre that has always, since its inception, pushed at the edges of ordinary life, looking upwards and outwards and into exciting new worlds and spaces, it’s science fiction.

Much like with gothic fiction, sci-fi and queerness have a long history, even when the authors themselves haven’t been explicitly queer.

But now, LGBTQ authors are taking sci-fi literature in wild and wonderful new directions, to new frontiers where no one has gone before (enjoy that).

Queer sci-fi books are vital for the genre to continue shifting and changing and evolving, and these stories really are something special.

A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers

Becky Chambers is considered by an increasing number of sci-fi readers to be the modern queen of science fiction, and the evidence for why is clear.

Chambers comes at the genre of sci-fi with wide-eyed wonder, positivity, hope, and an expansive imagination.

In her Monk and Robot series, beginning with A Psalm for the Wild-Built, Chambers introduces us to a young non-binary monk who leaves their city to explore the wilderness.

They are a tea monk, someone who brings tea to people and listens to their problems. They live on a moon that once created AI and eventually freed its robot slaves.

Those robots vanished to live out in the wilderness and were never seen again, until our monk meets one on their journey, and the two spend the novel discussing big philosophical and existential questions.

This is a calm, quiet, reflective little novel about the nature of being. It’s a warming comfort and proof of Chambers’ hopeful and healthy outlook on the nature of life, human or otherwise.

A Psalm for the Wild-Built is one of the most beautiful, comforting, welcome queer sci-fi novels ever written.

Buy a copy here!

Light From Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki

American author Ryka Aoki’s Light From Uncommon Stars is a blending of genres that mixes queer science fiction with urban fantasy.

Here, we have three protagonists: a transgender violin prodigy, a space alien who sells donuts at a California diner, and a woman who made a faustian deal with the devil.

This is a wonderful queer sci-fi novel that emphasises migration and found family. Our three protagonists are all running from something: an abusive home, hell itself, or a galactic empire.

It’s an experimental novel about love and music and kindness and growth. It reminds us to love one another and, maybe even more importantly, to love ourselves.

Ryka Aoki celebrates music with this novel, emphasising its power, its healing properties, its ability to bring us together and bring out the best in us.

It’s also a sci-fi novel with a focus on everyone who isn’t a white man. Set in California, its protagonists are all from other places: Japan, Vietnam, outer space.

In this way, it is a perfect American novel; one that reminds us of who and what created the US as it exists today.

Buy a copy here

Read More: The Best Sci-Fi Books Ever Written

Gideon the Ninth by Tasyn Muir

To be clear, Gideon the Ninth and its sequels have been labelled science-fantasy. In terms of their structure and tropes, they are queer fantasy novels. But in their setting, they are sci-fi. This is reminiscent of works like Dune and Star Wars, sci-fi stories with deep and intrinsically fantastical elements.

Gideon the Ninth is also an unbridled celebration of queerness. In part, this is thanks to its explicitly lesbian characters and storylines, but also in its setting and aesthetics. Queerness has forever been tied to the gothic, to alternative fashion, to vampires and blood and dark things. This novel really leans into that gothic edge to the nth degree.

Gideon the Ninth begins with the titular Gideon, an angry young swordswoman who was born into a life of servitude. She serves Harrowhark, princess of their planet. They despise each other, but they have been invited by the leader of their planetary system to take part in a contest.

This contest may, if they succeed, lead to immortality and immense power. This is a novel that is at times laugh-out-loud funny; one that doesn’t always take itself too seriously; one that revels in the absurd, the queer, and the camp. It’s an incredibly fun and frantic queer sci-fi novel that cannot be recommended highly enough.

Buy a copy here!

The Seep by Chana Porter

Chana Porter’s short novel, The Seep, is a unique kind of queer sci-fi that pushes the genre in new directions while also harkening back to the golden age of the genre.

In spite of how modern and boundary-pushing this queer sci-fi novel is, it also has strong John Wyndham vibes, which is fun.

The titular Seep is an alien lifeform which invades Earth in a very quiet way. It literally seeps into our water supply, into our minds, and our lives. It causes capitalism to fall and life to become far more hedonistic for all.

Under the thrall of the Seep, all is possible. People live longer, pursue their dreams, change their physiology, and live free.

Our protagonist is a fifty-year-old trans woman who, after many years of living with the Seep, creating art, and retraining as a doctor, is suddenly floored when her wife says she wants to use the Seep to be reborn afresh, as a baby with no memory of her life.

The Seep is a novel about what a world of infinite possibilities might look like, when we still retain our need for companionship and love and kindness.

It’s a book of uncomfortable juxtapositions and a real twist on the alien invasion concept.

Buy a copy here!

On A Sunbeam by Tillie Walden

Every page of this queer sci-fi graphic novel is more breathtaking in the last, notably the full-art pages which are fully deserving of being framed.

The use of red and blue throughout On a Sunbeam is a feast for the eyes and forces you to linger and reread for full impact.

Our main protagonist, Mia, is part of a diverse crew of queer characters that rebuilds beautiful and broken-down structures throughout space, piecing the past together.

As Mia gets to know her team, who are each well fleshed out with their own stories that become relevant later, we flashback to Mia’s time in a boarding school where she fell in love with a mysterious new student.

Mia finally reveals that she’s joined their ship to track down her lost love. This is a queer and colourful sci-fi epic that’s not to be missed, especially for fans of comics and graphic novels.

Buy a copy here!

This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

An abstract and beautifully lyrical sapphic love story unfolding through unique letters sent across time and space.

Two rival agents named Red and Blue come from opposite sides of warring factions of a time war and fall in love through the course of this novella.

This is How You Lose the Time War is highly poetic and may not be for you if you prefer a structured plot and world-building, but this unstructured approach lends itself well to emphasising the fractured yearning and tenderness between these two agents.

The co-writing of This is How You Lose the Time War also means that the two agents have very distinct voices and personalities which makes their love all the more endearing.

A truly unique narrative amongst queer sci-fi novels, and one not to be missed!

Buy a copy here!

The Best Queer Horror Books

The authors covered here are all imaginative, daring writers who are bringing the queer experience to the world of horror, and with that come unique terrors and monsters.

Fear is different for everyone, and the voices of gay and trans writers and characters bring forth new fears and ways of exploring them. And so, here are the best queer horror books out there right now, written by authors who are breathing new life into the horror genre.

Read More: Essential Horror Novels (Not by Stephen King)

Tell Me I’m Worthless by Alison Rumfitt

Written by British transgender author Alison Rumfitt, Tell Me I’m Worthless is a Shirley Jackson-esque haunted house novel fuelled by political and social rage.

This queer horror novel follows a pair of opposing protagonists who were once friends: a young, vulnerable trans woman who is being haunted, and a jaded, twisted transphobe. During their time at university, these two women spent a night at an abandoned and haunted house called Albion, and left the house very different and damaged people.

Tell Me I’m Worthless tracks the present-day lives of these women and gently unravels the history of the house Ablion, as well as what exactly happened on that fateful night. Full of anguish and terror, Tell Me I’m Worthless is one of the most haunting and raw queer horror books you’ll ever read.

Buy a copy of Tell Me I’m Worthless here!

Patricia Wants to Cuddle by Samantha Allen

Patricia Wants to Cuddle has one of the best horror novel titles of all time. The blurb explains that our protagonist, Renee, is one of four finalists on a Bachelor-esque reality show called The Catch, and the catch in question is a tech bro named Jeremy. So, who is Patricia? The question sends shivers down the spine! As it turns out, the season finale of The Catch is being filmed on an island where people have been known to go missing.

This is Otters Island, off the coast of Washington State. Hosting the show’s finalists and its crew is a widowed lesbian who knows more about the island than she’s willing to share. And during their first few hours on the island, members of the crew are sure they keep catching glimpses of an ape, or perhaps an enormous naked man, wandering the tree line and on the winding roads at night.

Patricia Wants to Cuddle isn’t just a queer horror-comedy; it is a daring novel that demands from the world a queer paradise where cishet people either die or stay far away.

Buy a copy of Patricia Wants to Cuddle here!

Queen of Teeth by Hailey Piper

American transgender author Hailey Piper has penned an incredible number of horror stories in her time, and her first horror novel was Queen of Teeth. This is a gnarly book about bodily autonomy, the American healthcare system, and self-control.

The morning after a one-night stand, protagonist Yaya wakes up with the sheets soaked in blood, and assumes her period has come early and unexpectedly. In actual fact, a full set of human teeth has grown at the entrance to her vagina, and the corporation AlphaBeta Pharmaceutical is to blame.

As she continues to transform in monstrous, terrifying ways, and the mouth in her nethers takes on a mind of its own, Yaya must fight against and run from the people who did this to her. With a lesbian protagonist, a trans author at the helm, and a story about changing bodies, as well as corporate and governmental control over our lives, this is one of the most deeply queer horror books you’ll ever read.

Buy a copy of Queen of Teeth here!

Manhunt by Gretchen Felker-Martin

Unapologetically angry, bloody, and harrowing, Manhunt is not for the faint of heart. Written by an American trans author, this is a disgusting and punk horror novel.

Manhunt is set in a post-apocalyptic world ravaged by a virus that specifically targets testosterone, and cisgender men have been reduced to ravaging, cannibalistic zombies. These man-zombies aren’t the only threat that our protagonists — a pair of trans women journeying along the USA’s east coast — face, however.

Amongst the survivors of this plague, most of whom are cisgender women, there are those who wish to hunt and kill the trans people who have managed to also survive the plague.

Manhunt is as viscerally bloody as a horror novel can possibly be, and is also very blunt in its aggression towards toxic masculinity and transphobic women. Both a clever twist on the post-apocalypse formula and a reaction to modern-day bigotry towards the trans community, Manhunt is one of the most daring queer horror books ever written.

Buy a copy of Manhunt here!

Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield

Our Wives Under the Sea is the debut novel by British author Julia Armfield; a gothic novel about a married lesbian couple whose lives are tragically upended.

Leah spent six months at the bottom of the ocean on a research trip which should have lasted only a few weeks. Her time trapped in a submarine has changed both her mind and her body. Her wife, Miri, is relieved to have her wife back but quickly comes to realise that there is actually very little left of her wife at all.

We follow both of these narratives as the novel progresses, learning what eldritch horrors Leah encountered in the depths and watching on as Miri figures out what she should do next. Claustrophobia is, appropriately, everywhere in this gothic horror novel, as both women are trapped in one way or another: in their homes, in their minds, and in their memories.

Our Wives Under the Sea is a powerful gothic story of grief and loss, and one of the most harrowing queer horror books you will ever read.

Buy a copy of Our Wives Under the Sea here!

Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon

Written by UK-based non-binary American author Rivers Solomon, Sorrowland is a politically-charged piece of American gothic fiction.

This is a novel about the history of the USA’s relationship to Black people, specifically Black bodies. Our protagonist, Vern, is an albino Black teenager who has escaped an isolated cult commune. She gives birth to twins alone in the forest and then continues to run.

The story of a Black commune that rejects modernity and Americanisms eventually leads to bleak and harrowing revelations about White America’s treatment of the Black community. Written by a non-binary author, this is a novel featuring lesbian love, cult behaviour, possession, and so much more.

A truly startling and poetic piece of frightening American gothic literature, and one of the most politically powerful queer horror books on the shelves.

Buy a copy of Sorrowland here!

The Spirit Bares its Teeth by Andrew Joseph White

Written by queer, trans American author Andrew Joseph White, The Spirit Bares its Teeth is an enthralling and unsettling blend of historical fiction, horror, and urban fantasy. This is a YA novel filled with piss and vinegar. It lashes out against the history of cruelty dealt by white western patriarchy onto those considered to be “other”, cruelty that was often disguised as something just, necessary, and even scientific.

Our protagonist is a young man named Silas. Silas knows he’s a man, but society and his family have raised him as a girl. Born with the purple eyes that indicate to the citizens of Victorian England that he is in touch with the spirits of the dead beyond the Veil, Silas is raised to become the wife of a noble who will sire more spirit mediums.

After disguising himself as a boy at a gala, in order to obtain a seal that says he is a certified medium, Silas is caught and sent to a sanatorium for sick girls, overseen by an abusive headmaster and his subservient wife. There, Silas finds himself in contact with the spirits of the place and will uncover the true darkness of it.

Buy a copy of The Spirit Bares its Teeth here!

Bury Your Gays by Chuck Tingle

Chuck Tingle’s follow-up to the savvy, moving, and wildly successful Camp Damascus takes us to the messy and unethical world of modern Hollywood, and it’s a novel which once again showcases Tingle’s unique vision of humanity: as something bleak, corrupt, cynical, but ultimately redeemable. Misha is a closeted screenwriter of queer-coded horror movies and TV shows, and he will soon play victim to his own creations.

When the novel begins, Misha’s boss breaks the news to him that the two female protagonists of his hit TV show Travelers can either have their queerness abandoned by the narrative or they can declare their love and die in a blaze of glory. Misha calls this what it is: burying the gays, and he is sick of it. He fights back. And as soon as he does, the various monsters and villains from his stories appear in his life to threaten and attack him and his loved ones.

Bury Your Gays works as a wonderful critique on the ethics of intellectual property, artificial intelligence, and turning lives and cultures into storytelling tropes. It’s also a novel about authenticity and truth, both in fiction and in real life. Funny, heartwarming, and also often terrifying.

Cuckoo by Gretchen Felker-Martin

Felker-Martin’s follow-up to her debut horror novel Manhunt surpasses that novel in a number of ways, while also having a mouth full of just as many—and just as sharp—teeth. Cuckoo is separated into two parts, with Part 1 being set in 1995 and following a group of queer teens who have been abducted and taken to a conversion camp in the heart of the Utah desert. In Part 2, we learn what happened to these kids when they grew up.

Cuckoo reads like the monster child of Stephen King’s IT and the 1970s movie Invasion of the Body Snatchers (which is referenced more than once in the novel. In this desert lives a strange and dangerous thing that can wear the skin of those it preys upon, and it is hungry for these kids. They must band together to survive this monstrous predator, all while being tortured and “reeducated” by the just-as-monstrous people who run the camp.

Like Manhunt before it, Cuckoo is a visceral, raw, and nasty work of horror, drenched in copious amounts of blood (and plenty of other bodily fluids besides), but unlike Manhunt it’s a horror novel with a focus on love and companionship—our protagonists continue to love themselves and trust one another in spite of everything.

Managing and Other Lies by Willow Heath

Managing and Other Lies is a collection of six unsettling LGBTQ horror stories which opens with the titular Managing: a gothic novella about a nameless protagonist keeping a journal as they work at their new job cleaning a large and labyrinthine house at the edge of an English village. As they work, they reminisce about lost love and explore the corners of the house. Before long, they learn that they are not alone.

The house is occupied—though nobody told them it would be—by a woman who offers our protagonists gifts and the temptation of a better life, all in exchange for a few bits and piece of who they are. Another story follows a YouTuber dealing with an obsessive fan; one is written as a play script about a young trans woman coming out to her cruel mother; and another is a work of body horror about a baby born wrong.

These are twisted, uncomfortable tales echoing the styles and themes of Franz Kafka and Shirley Jackson. They creep under your skin and there they remain, making you feel itchy and nauseated. They’re not all easy reads, but they are all worth it.

Buy a copy here!

Parallel Hells by Leon Craig

This is a collection of horror stories that spans multiple styles and genres, inspired by mythology, folk horror, and modern popular culture. While not all of the stories in here are explicitly queer (such as the shortest tale, which recounts the experiences and feelings of a bunch of wooden antiques), many of them are.

One stand-out story is that of a viking man and his forbidden love with a pacifist friend, told from the perspective of the viking’s jealous and murderous wife.

Another is the sinister story of a succubus who works amongst a diverse queer cast in a world of sex and kink. Then there’s the endless party which takes place in a house that offers people their deepest desires, and one man’s true desire is to transition.

There is a wonderful breadth of diversity in the queer representation and narrative stylings of Parallel Hells, one of the most unique queer horror books out there.

Buy a copy of Parallel Hells here!

What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher

Written by American horror author T. Kingfisher, What Moves the Dead is a daring and masterful retelling of Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher.

This short novel tracks its protagonist as they visit the home of a pair of old friends after receiving a letter from them, but this house is hardly a home any longer. Taking the bones of Poe’s original story and building upon it in savvy and imaginative ways, What Moves the Dead is a twisted and terrifying short horror novel.

What makes it refreshingly queer is its protagonist’s non-binary identity, hailing as they do from a place in which soldiers give up their gender when choosing to serve their land. The non-binary twist in the tale, as well as the protagonist’s dedication to their country, adds significant personal depth to the character that helps to elevate this classic gothic horror story to new heights.

Buy a copy of What Moves the Dead here!

Read More: The Best Horror Novels Ever Written

The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul Tremblay

The novel which inspired M. Night Shyamalan’s Knock at the Cabin, Paul Tremblay’s American horror masterpiece is an exercise in tension and terror.

Taking place entirely on the grounds of a New Hampshire cabin, The Cabin at the End of the World follows a gay couple and their adopted daughter as their time together at the cabin is disturbed. An enormous man approaches the cabin and insists that he and his three friends must be let inside. They wield makeshift weapons which they insist won’t be used on the family.

After managing to force their way inside, these four invaders explain that they need the family’s help with stopping the end of the world. What follows is a story all about faith, cult behaviour, and trust, as the reader spends the entirety of the novel wondering what, if anything, is real.

Bloody at times, with shocking and eye-opening twists and turns, The Cabin at the end of the World is one of the most taut tales of suspense you’ll ever read.

Buy a copy of The Cabin at the End of the World here!

Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke by Eric LaRocca

Part of the three-story collection of the same name, Eric LaRocca’s story Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke is an epistolary tale about emotional control. Set around the year 2000, this story is written as a series of emails and instant messages between two women, one of whom is struggling to pay her rent and is selling off precious heirlooms.

The other woman makes her an offer: she’ll pay her rent for her, but only if they enter into a dominant/submissive relationship in which one does whatever the other says. Despite the fact that these women never meet in person, and all of this is read through email correspondence, the terror is visceral and incredibly unsettling.

The places this queer horror story goes are as unexpected as they are frightening. A brilliantly imaginative exercise in fear.

Buy a copy of Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke here!

The Trees Grew Because I Bled There by Eric LaRocca

Following on from the huge success of Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke comes this disgusting and depraved collection of short queer horror stories from Eric LaRoccca. These stories often focus on gay men and women and have a tense and uncomfortable focus on body horror.

For example, one story is a diary from the perspective of a woman whose wife has been diagnosed with cancer. However, her wife is also obsessed with experimental performance art that includes body mutilation and self-mummification.

Or a story about a gay couple who get chatting to an older straight couple at the park before realising their child has vanished, and was in fact stolen. To win their child back, they must play a cruel and insidious game of truth-telling that will tear their relationship apart. These are daring and deeply discomfiting queer tales of horror and terror, not for the feint of heart.

Buy a copy here!

This Skin Was Once Mine by Eric LaRocca

Eric LaRocca is the king of the horror short story, and of the horror title. This collection is no exception in both regards. Four twisted tales, prominently featuring queer protagonists, each deliver a nauseating gut-punch of horror. The title story—and longest in the collection—tells the tale of a woman whose mother sent her off to a boarding school when she was nine. She hasn’t been home since, but the death of her once-beloved father has lured her back.

When she arrives home, she is shocked to find the state that her mother has been living in for so long, and we are also privy to flashbacks which reveal the truth about her relationship to her father. In Seedling, a young man’s father calls him to tell him that his mother has passed. When he goes home to help his father sort through everything, they both notice that they share identical wounds that reveal only blackness beneath their skin.

In All the Parts of You That Won’t Easily Burn, a man is asked by his husband to buy a special knife for a dinner party. The salesman at the store offers him the knife in exchange for a sadistic act: cutting his skin and slipping a piece of glass inside the wound. This leads him down a dark path of obsession. And in Prickle, two elderly friends reunite and decide to play a dark game they once enjoyed. The game goes to darker places than you can imagine.

It Came From The Closet, Edited by Joe Vallese

This is a non-fiction book; a collection of essays by various queer writers who are tackling the world of horror cinema. Each essay focuses on a film, or a theme which several films share, and examines that film of theme through a queer lens.

Many of these stories are personal and full of anecdotes; others are more analytical and academic in their approach to queer interpretation. If you’re a fan of horror cinema, this essay collection will reframe many of the classics in a fun, engaging, and thought-provoking way.

Buy a copy of It Came from the Closet here!

For that reason, we’ve done our best to provide as much variety as possible here (and, to that end, this list will be periodically updated).

What does variety mean here? Well, you’ll find a good mix of books about life by women and men; by white writers and writers of colour; by English-language authors and writers in translation from German, Spanish, Korean, Japanese, and more.

Variety also means a good range of themes and topics explored. These are all life-changing books (or, at least, books with the potential to change your life), but not all of them will be each reader’s cup of tea. And so, variety is necessary.

Some of these books are about living free, without constraint. Some are warnings against living a bad life (and what that means). Others are about life’s meaning and life’s purpose.

Some of these books are positive, hopefully, hedonistic. Others are dark and bleak, but with important lessons to teach.

All of these are books about life, but very much in their own unique way. They’re about work, family, parenthood, friendship. They’re about structure and purpose and motivation. They’re about politics and economics and race and class and feminism.

One final note: this is a list of good books about life. For that reason, you’ll find nothing toxic here. No Jordan Peterson. We’ve also avoided the useless and the over-worshipped. No Paolo Coelho and no Matt Haig.

These are all potentially life-changing books; useful, actionable, inspiring books about life. Enjoy.

Fiction Books About Life

Fiction has the power to teach us great lessons. It uses language and character and tone to inspire empathy and encourage big ideas.

These are all books about life, but each in their own unique way. We’ll discuss here their themes and ideas and characters, and how these things relate to life.

Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata

Translated from the Japanese by Ginny Tapley Takemori

The book that put Sayaka Murata on the map as one of the biggest names in Japanese literature, Convenience Store Woman is one of those potentially life changing books that gets readers thinking about what success and personal satisfaction actually mean.

The novel’s protagonist is a woman who has worked for eighteen years at a convenience store. She enjoys her existence as a cog in the machine. She has no aspirations for love and marriage, nor for money and fame.

She does not wish for more responsibilities. She is content with her lot in life, much to the confusion of everyone else in her life, from family to friends to colleagues.

Convenience Store Woman is one of the sharpest books about life, in that it asks us to consider why we want the things we desire. Who are we making happy when we seek promotions, money, and relationships?

How do we find happiness and contentment? These things look different for each of us, and that’s okay. Convenience Store Woman asks big questions about the search for happiness and life satisfaction, making it one of the most truly potentially life changing books of today.

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

Few books about life in existence are as raw and smart as Kazuo Ishiguro’s magnum opus: Never Let Me Go.

Written by one of the UK’s most beloved and literary authors, Never Let Me Go is a subtly science fiction novel about a woman who grew up in a seemingly peaceful boarding school, and now works as a carer or some kind.

As we search through her memories, we see that she was taught about art and literature, taught to make art and play with others, but life at Hailsham is insular and private, with the outside world remaining a mystery.

Never Let Me Go is, inarguably, one of the biggest and best examples of life changing books ever written. It explores the theme of purpose in myriad ways: the purpose of education, of work, of art, of learning, of discovery, and even the purpose of the human body.

As books about life go, few are as far-reaching and heavy-hitting as Never Let Me Go.

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

The original science fiction novel, written by a young woman who had not yet hit twenty years of age. An undisputed masterpiece of classic literature and early sci-fi. But Frankenstein is also one of the best books about life you’ll ever read.

I’m a little biased here; Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is my favourite novel. But it’s that for a reason: Frankenstein is a novel about human responsibility and hubris.

Frankenstein tells the story of the titular Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who, upon losing his mother, seeks to cure death itself. He forms a new being from body parts and reanimates it, only to run from it in terror.

And here is where the themes come into play. Frankenstein is one of those life-changing books that invites readers to consider our responsibility to one another, as parents and friends and teachers and givers of life.

Frankenstein has the power to resonate with anyone who is responsible for anyone else: parents, older siblings, doctors, teachers, caregivers. It asks us to consider one human’s duty to another; our duty to educate, support, comfort, and guide one another.

There aren’t many books about life as powerful as Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.

The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

If you know anything about Franz Kafka, this may seem like a strange choice for a list of best books about life. At first. What does a novella about a poor man who turns into a bug have to teach us about life? A lot, actually.

The Metamorphosis is Frank Kafka’s most famous story. It begins with Gregor Samsa, a Czech man who lives with his family. One day, he wakes up to find that he is now a big, ugly beetle.

Samsa’s first thought, however, is fear and frustration. He’s going to be late to work. How will he call his boss? How will he explain this? What if he gets fired?

While it might be absurd and darkly funny, Kafka’s The Metamorphosis has a lot to teach us about our relationship to work; about being servants to capitalism and bureaucracy.

For many who first read The Metamorphosis, it proves to be one of those truly life-changing books; one that has us reevaluating our mental and physical relationships to money and work. A very worthwhile read as books about life go.

Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi

Yaa Gyasi’s second novel is a piece of literary fiction about the migrant experience in the US. But it’s also a book about science and religion, about family and addiction and survival.

Told from the perspective of Gifty, a Black American woman born of migrant parents from Ghana, Transcendent Kingdom flits between Gifty’s current life as a neurobiologist studying addiction and her childhood, one defined by religion and race and poverty.

Transcendent Kingdom is one of those life-changing books that asks us to consider the migrant experience, the effects of racism and prejudice, and the impact of capitalism on the poorest and most marginalised people.

Using Gifty, her mother, her father, and her late big brother as examples, Transcendent Kingdom examines the comforting and corrupting effects of religion on individuals and families. It looks at how the most vulnerable of us turn to addiction.

By being grounded, topical, and relevant to racist, capitalist American life in the 20th and 21st Centuries, Transcendent Kingdom hails itself as one of the best books about life you can read right now.

My Brilliant Life by Ae-ran Kim

Translated from the Korean by Chi-young Kim

While My Brilliant Life might be one of the lesser-known Korean novels in translation, it remains one of the most quietly impactful and life-changing books you could read right now.

My Brilliant Life tells the story of Areum, a boy struck with a degenerative disease. Areum is sixteen and probably won’t live to see eighteen.

Raised by two loving parents in small-town South Korea, Areum has a plan to document his life and that of his parents, then present his finished journal to his parents on his seventeenth birthday.

While this is an undeniable tear-jerker of a Korean novel, it’s also one of the most powerful potentially life-changing books on the shelves. It teaches us to appreciate our days, our experiences, and our families.

My Brilliant Life teaches us how to love well. And, for that reason, it is one of the most incomparable and valuable books about life.

The Adventures of China Iron by Gabriela Cabezón Cámara

Translated from the Spanish by Fiona Mackintosh and Iona Macintyre

The Adventures of China Iron is a very different kind of novel, especially as books about life go. This is an Argentinian novel all about hedonism. It’s also a queer novel about how to love unapologetically and loudly.

Set in the wilds of 19th Century Argentina, The titular China Iron is a young woman who has already been married, had a child, given that child up, and been abandoned.

All of that quickly changes, however, when she is picked up on the road by a Scottish woman driving a horse and cart. Liz gives China Iron a name and invites her to wander, live, love, and laugh with aplomb.

The Adventures of China Iron is one of those life-changing books that serves as a reminder to enjoy yourself. Whatever your gender or sexuality, you deserve happiness. You deserve to enjoy love and sex and passion and adventure, just as China Iron does.

Here’s an anti-patriarchy book that, quite literally, laughs in the face of oppressive masculinity and heteronormativity. For that reason, it’s one of the most glorious books about life.

Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-joo

Translated from the Korean by Jamie Chang

This is not one of those books about life that will inspire you. It’s more of a wake-up call to the disparity and cruel imbalances of our world. To put it bluntly, it’s a book about systems of sexism and patriarchy.

But a book like Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 has its place on a list of life-changing books by merit of the lessons it can offer. This is a novelisation of your average woman’s life: a life dictated by unfair disadvantage, societal rules, family pressures, and threats of violence.

While not a pleasant book, Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 remains one of those books that change your life for the better. It teaches us to be kinder to women, to fight inequality, to be good feminists, to call out sexism, to march for women’s rights, to be good and righteous.

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

This one is a bit of a cliche. It’s certainly not uncommon — and pretty expected — to find Slaughterhouse-Five on a list of books that will change your life, or best life-changing books. But that’s, admittedly, for good reason.

Like most World War I & 2 fiction, Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five is a kind of parable; an anti-war novel full of loud and clear themes and motifs that beg us to consider the value and meaning of human life.

Admittedly, Slaughterhouse-Five does this in true Vonnegut fashion: through odd symbolism, wacky science fiction, and often funny surrealism. Nevertheless, the themes are striking and the lessons vivid.

Slaughterhouse-Five is one of the strongest and best books about life, as it explores the meaninglessness of war and the futility of fate and choice. A powerful novel, to say the least.

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

While this is a book that so many (maybe most) of us were made to read in high school (I was also made to teach it), Of Mice and Men remains one of the most poignant books about life ever written. As relevant today as it was a century ago.

Telling the story of two wandering white men in early 20th Century America, Of Mice and Men is a story that debunks and deconstructs the infamous American Dream. It proves the cyclical nature of the capitalist trap, and shows us a life not worth living.

George and Lenny have a plan to cheat the system, to break the cycle, to live free and smart and proud. But capitalism comes for us all, in the end. For this reason, Of Mice and Men is one of those truly life-changing books of the 20th Century.

Nonfiction Books About Life

Written by women and men from all over the world, these nonfiction books about life have the power to change your way of thinking, to inspire compassion and empathy and a different approach to life.

Some of these books inspire action, others inspire thought. Some are about how we live, others about why we live. Some are about the body, others about the mind. But they are all, in some way, nonfiction books about life.

Dear Friend, from My Life I Write to You in Your Life by Yiyun Li

Nobody in the English language today writes like Yiyun Li. This fact is made all the more impressive when you consider that English is her second language, having moved from Beijing to New York City years ago.

With these writing skills, Yiyun Li has penned several excellent novels, but her most impressive work is the nonfiction Dear Friend, from My Life I Write to You in Your Life.

This book, which blends essay and memoir together, reflects on childhood, love, mental health, and death. It was begun after a pair of failed suicide attempts and took two years to complete.

Dear Friend is a meditation on life, death, reading, and writing, as perhaps best demonstrated by this quote from the book:

“Writing is an option, so is not writing; being read is a possibility, so is not being read. Reading, however, I equate with real life: life can be opened and closed like a book; living is a choice, so is not living.”

By being a book on death, Dear Friend also doubles as one of the best books about life you’re ever likely to read.

Read More: Essential Nonfiction Books About China

A Field Guide To Getting Lost by Rebecca Solnit

Rebecca Solnit is a veteran nonfiction writer and essayist. A fierce and electrifying feminist, political activist, and social commentator. From a book on the history of walking to a manifesto against mansplaining, she’s done it all.

In A Field Guide to Getting Lost, Rebecca Solnit blends meditations on life, art, and loss to create something truly profound. She begins the book with an essay that includes this pearl of wisdom:

“Leave the door open for the unknown, the door into the dark. That’s where the most important things come from, where you yourself came from, and where you will go … Love, wisdom, grace, inspiration — how do you go about finding these things that are in some ways about extending the boundaries of the self into unknown territory, about becoming someone else?”

Humankind: A Hopeful History by Rutger Bregman

Men who write big, bold books on human history are a dime a dozen these days, but I promise that Dutch historian Rutger Bregman’s Humankind is something different; something worth your time.

Its title being a play on words, Humankind sets out to teach us that humanity — culturally, historically, politically, socially, genetically — is far kinder than we often give it credit for. The breadth of scope in Humankind almost beggars belief.

The book debunks psychological experiments built on lies by liars; it finds a real-life example of Lord of the Flies to demonstrate that the novel is cynical nonsense; it rewrites a more truthful and optimistic history of humanity.

For anyone whose faith in humanity often wavers, Bregman’s book is a balm. It is a light in the dark, and a soothing tonic. One of the best life-changing books you’ll ever read.

Constellations: Reflections From Life by Sinead Gleeson

Irish writer Sinead Gleeson is a beloved and respected woman in many ways, and for many good reasons. In Constellations, Gleeson turns the focus of her writing on her own life — and specifically her own body — as inspiration for discussion about life and love.

In a pure, almost figurative sense, this is one of the best books about life, as it is quite literally about a life: her body, her health, her mind and experiences.

It’s a book about the things that make a life: people, places, thoughts, experiences, the things we love and lose.

Constellations is a tough book, hard-hitting and raw. That’s what makes it one of the best life-changing books you can read.

goodbye, things by Fumio Sasaki

Translated from the Japanese by Eriko Sugita

Going from a life of excessive spending and self-abuse, Fumio Sasaki decided to part with all of his possessions, except for some very basic things needed for day to day living.

While Fumio Sasak’s approach is a little extreme in some areas, every single lesson he shares in goodbye, things is actionable such as his tips on taking pictures of things you’d like to remember.

We spend more money on buying or renting bigger homes, not to put extra people in but simply to fit in more stuff, which also costs more money.

There are real, practical life lessons in here, making it one of the most visceral life-changing books to read if you want to enact real change in your real life. Truly one of the best books on minimalism out there.

The Power of Ritual by Casper Ter Kuile

Casper Ter Kuile is a British-born, US-based fellow of Harvard Divinity School, and his book explores the importance of religious ritual in a secular world.

The Power of Ritual begins by considering what church-related practices are lost in an increasingly secular world.

The two most prominent things are community-based practices, in which a group of likeminded people share time and support one another, and personal rituals like prayer.

The Power of Ritual invites secular readers to explore their own habits, hobbies, and personal behaviours, looking at how we can add a spiritual sense of ritual to the everyday, thus enhancing the importance of what we do.

He considers how our favourite novels can become sacred texts. How a community space like Crossfit can become church-like community spaces. It’s a simple concept with an immense amount of potential impact.

This is one of those books that change your life in more ways than one. It can change your attitude to ritual and religion, while also bringing meaning to your hobbies and habits in a way you never would’ve expected.

Read More: 12 Books like Atomic Habits

How to Stay Sane in an Age of Division by Elif Shafak

A world traveller and award-winning author, Elif Shafak’s voice is one worth listening to, regardless of the topic, whether her writing takes the form of fiction or nonfiction.

How to Stay Sane in an Age of Division is a lesson in optimism. It has the power to rekindle our hope and our faith when we all feel so exhausted by climate change, the rise of populism, and more.

It’s a book that can be read over a coffee, with the lyrical strength of poetry and the wisdom of a hundred lifetimes. It has a simple message but it presents that message through personal examples and grounded, cautious optimism.

A beautifully written book that may just help to alleviate some anxiety. And, in this world, that is worth everything. One of the great life-changing books of our time? Very likely, yes.

Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl

Translated from the German by Isle Lasch

Of all the nonfiction books that will change your life, Man’s Search for Meaning is perhaps one of the most obvious. You’re likely to find it alongside The Alchemist on many other lists. 

The difference is that The Alchemist is full of worthless, empty pseudo-wisdom, while Man’s Search for Meaning actually deserves to be on these lists of life-changing books.

Written in 1946, after the end of World War II, Man’s Search for Meaning is separated into two halves. The first half is a biography of Frankl’s time as a concentration camp prisoner.

This first half uses this space to examine how people find meaning in their suffering and devise a purpose for living. How do they cope? How do they make sense of their situation? How do they find meaning in their life?

In the book’s second half, Frankl lays out his own psychological invention: logotherapy, which was inspired by the events of the book’s first half. Logotherapy encourages people to find meaning in their suffering, in order to better cope with it.

Of all the overly-relied-upon life-changing books out there, Man’s Search for Meaning is a genuinely important one.

Why Marx Was Right by Terry Eagleton

Here’s a book that will likely make a lot of people cringe, roll their eyes, or worse (depending on what kind of audience this list has drawn in. But it’s not my job to care. Terry Eagleton is a fantastic critic and philosopher, and Why Marx Was Right is an important book.

I haven’t just added this book to a list of books that will change your life for the hell of it. I’ve done it because this is a book about modern life; it is relevant to right now. It looks at the atrocities thrust on us by capitalist economies and fascist, right-wing leaders.

It then applies the economic and political philosophies of Karl Marx to everything, proving how an application of marxism could, and would, fix so much of our current political climate, in ways that even the staunchest socialist (myself included) would be surprised by.

If you’ve ever suffered at the hands of a conservative government or a capitalist economic system (which, if you’re alive today, you have), then this book is for you. It’s about life and how to make it better as a community, as voters, and as people.

Behave by Robert Sapolsky

Even though it’s irrelevant, I still think it’s important to know: Robert Sapolsky sounds exactly like Adam West, and that’s super neat.

Robert Sapolsky is also a very cool scientist. In Behave, Sapoksly looks at the habits, rhymes, and reasons of human behaviour from a neurobiological angle.

In Behave, Sapolsky asks the question: why do we behave with aggression or compassion at any given time? He then plies his own expertise and research in order to answer that enormous and daunting question.

The results of this are fascinating. Behave is an enormous and dense book, but one that is worth every second of your time. This is a book about life in the truest, purest sense. It’s about life from the inside out.

You’ll find all three kinds of books on this list. Some of these winter books are simply books set in the snow and the cold; set during Christmas or the January chill. Others are books that feel like a hug, like a companion sitting beside you while you warm yourself at the fireside.

And then there are the books that feel like winter. Gothic, isolating, lonely, and creepy books. And, of course, plenty of mystery stories.

Must-Read Winter Books

So, from warm and cosy reads to the bleakest horror, these are the winter books that fit every kind of vibe that the coldest season conjures. If you’ve come here looking for books to keep you happy during the darker nights, you’ll find them here. And you’ll also find books that dare to feel like the bleakest parts of winter.

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

A Christmas Carol is the most obvious story to appear on a list of winter books, and for good reason! This is a great little classic to read when winter begins. It gets you in the mood for Christmas like nothing else can. It is also nice and short, so it can be enjoyed in one sitting on Christmas Eve (a tradition for many of us).

What’s also wonderful about Dickens’ classic novella is that it isn’t overtly Christian, even though he was. This is a ghost story and a tale of kindness and community. It’s Christian in spirit, but far from biblical. The focus is on family and on human connection; of putting people before our own greed. Wholesome Christian messages.

And, of course, there is something particularly wintry about a Victorian setting. The cobbled streets of Victorian London look particularly romantic in the snow. A Christmas Carol remains a must-read Christmas classic to read when the nights have drawn in and the lights get hung. One of the quintessential winter books.

Buy a copy of A Christmas Carol here!

Midwinter Murder by Agatha Christie

Agatha Christie is perhaps the one author who is essential reading during the winter months. There is a long tradition of murder mysteries being entwined with the cold and the snow. So many murder mystery stories are set during the winter, and there is something so wonderfully cosy about reading one by the fireside as the snow falls outside.

For this reason, any Agatha Christie novel would do! But why not lean into the winter theme as hard as possible and read the Midwinter Murder collection. Every one of these is a story set at Christmas, and you’ll find an impressive number of them here, including The Clergyman’s Daughter, A Christmas Tragedy, and The Mystery of Hunter’s Lodge.

For sheer quality and quantity alike, you can’t do much better than this collection of winter stories. Agatha Christie always, always guarantees to reel in every reader with a unique setup, only to then floor them each time with a twisted plot and an exciting reveal. There’s something satisfying and irresistible about a murder, a mystery, or a murder mystery set in the chill of winter.

Perhaps it’s the juxtaposition of joy and tragedy, or the perfect pairing of dark and cold with death and blood. Whatever it is, Christie understood it, and Midwinter Murder is a must-read winter book for any bookworm, especially during the festive period.

Buy a copy of Midwinter Murder here!

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

Little Women is another one of those essential winter books. Winter (and especially Christmas) is a time of family and connection. Little Women epitomises this. Not only that, but this is a novel predominantly set during the winter period. It beautifully romanticises a snowy, rural New England winter.

Little Women is also a novel aimed at younger readers, meaning it is playful, simple, sweet, but certainly not without its tragedies and difficult moments. This is the perfect winter novel to read with your own children, or to reawaken the cosy inner child of your own.

There are also several fantastic film adaptations of Little Women that make for great viewing on Christmas Day or Christmas Eve. A coming-of-age story set mostly in the winter, which focuses on the growth of, and bonds between, a family of sisters. One of the most perfect winter books.

Buy a copy of Little Women here!

Northern Lights by Philip Pullman

Many of us grew up on Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy, and the first novel Northern Lights makes for one of the best winter books for children. And for adults, of course — especially if you grew up on these fantastical stories, as I did. Or if you really want to get the most appreciation out of Pullman’s antireligious themes.

Though we begin in an alternate Oxford, Northern Lights (as its title suggests) soon takes us far to the north, to a snowy land of witches and armoured bears. This arctic setting, which takes up much of the book, makes for a wonderful winter read. And the fact that it’s a children’s story means that there is adventure aplenty.

Given how bleak and dark January can feel, when Christmas is over and the days are dark, this is a great novel to read after Christmas. It will keep your spirits high and instil in the reader a sense of grand adventure, hope, and excitement during the darkest month of the year. A perfect winter read for children and adults alike.

Buy a copy of Northern Lights here!

Hogfather by Terry Pratchett

The twentieth Discworld novel is another perfect winter read, especially in the lead-up to Christmas. We follow Death as he attempts to fill in for the Discworld’s version of Father Christmas: the titular Hogfather. The Discworld books are wonderful for so many reasons: clever worldbuilding, political satire, allegorical stories, fun twists on fantasy tropes, and even more besides.

For this reason, they all make for lovely reading during the cold winter months. However, this particular Discworld novel is Christmas-themed. What could be better!

Buy a copy of Hogfather here!

The Shining by Stephen King

Winter is a time for horror. Aside from Halloween, there really isn’t a better time to enjoy some chilling horror novels. So, let’s turn first to the master of American horror: Stephen King, and his iconic novel The Shining.

Telling the story of an alcoholic, Jack Torrence, who takes a job as caretaker of an empty hotel while it’s closed during the winter period, this is a tale of isolation and mental instability. The winter setting, the large and looming hotel setting, the isolation of the place, and Jack’s fragile mental state all add up to the perfect horror novel to read in the darkest depths of winter.

Buy a copy of The Shining here!

The Honjin Murders by Seishi Yokomizo

Translated from the Japanese by Louise Heal Kawai

Seishi Yokomizo was the Agatha Christie of Japan. A honkaku mystery writer of genius setups, perfect payoffs, and campy characters. His debut murder mystery, The Honjin Murders, is even set in an isolated cabin, out in the Japanese wilderness, surrounded by several feet of snow.

Murder mystery novels, as already mentioned, are the perfect genre to be read in the winter, but this one really takes the cake with its snowy setting. And of course, it’s not just the snow but the crisp air, the empty space, the isolation, and the fact that the cast of characters are a family and the death comes during a wedding ceremony.

The Honjin Murders also marked the debut of Yokomizo’s answer to Poirot: Detective Kindaichi. Young, arrogant, and flamboyant, Kindaichi is the ideal campy character to add some colour to those dark winter evenings. Murder mysteries are cosy; they’re wonderful winter books. And beyond Christie’s library, it’s Yokomizo’s books you should be turning to.

Buy a copy of The Honjin Murders here!

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Frankenstein is this writer’s favourite novel, and there isn’t a better time to read Shelley’s masterpiece than in the darkest depths of winter. The most obvious reason is that Frankenstein begins and ends in a cold, isolated, icy setting. A ship trapped in the arctic ice and a creature on the hunt beyond the mist.

This setting invokes the feeling of winter not only for its coldness, but also for its sense of isolation, emptiness, and vulnerability. Beyond that particular setting, Frankenstein is also a gothic tale about a selfish and neglectful man and the intelligent creature he builds and abandons.

Frankenstein is a revenge tragedy, and that kind of heavy, weighted gothic storytelling makes it one of the best winter books to be enjoyed when the world is quiet. Winter is still and lonely, and the rage of Frankenstein’s creature lights all of that up. And his isolation also so beautifully mirrors the tone and feeling of winter itself. For my money, Frankenstein is another of those essential winter books to enjoy as the snow falls.

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The Forest of Wool and Steel by Natsu Miyashita

Translated from the Japanese by Philip Gabriel

The Forest of Wool and Steel is a great winter read for two reasons. One: it’s a Japanese novel set in Hokkaido, a snowy and rural paradise. Two: it is a coming-of-age tale about friendship and art and music and self-discovery.

The Hokkaido setting really makes this a wonderful winter read. Aside from the neon-lit city of Sapporo, Hokkaido is a wide open wilderness of small towns, forests, and lakes. And during the winter, this large northern island is buried under so much snow. There’s no better setting for a winter novel!

But the story of a young piano tuner refining his craft, making friends, learning from his mentor, and building a group of friends and colleagues as he grows is also a heartwarming one. This is a short, sweet, and simple novel. It isn’t taxing or dark. It lifts your spirits and holds them high during a difficult and often lonely time of year.

Buy a copy of The Forest of Wool and Steel here!

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

While it isn’t particularly wintry in its setting, Tolkien’s The Hobbit has become a mainstay amongst winter books; one that is enjoyed by children of all ages, especially around Christmas time. The Hobbit is an imaginative adventure; a novel that did so much for the fantasy genre and for children’s literature.

Commonly enjoyed during the Christmas period, The Hobbit is a colourful adventure that matches the pomp and splendour of Christmas. If you enjoy it after Christmas has passed, however, The Hobbit has the power to light up those dark and drab January nights with its playful language and curious cast of colourful characters.

As adults, this is a novel that reignites our childish imaginations. As children, it’s one that takes us on bold and wild new adventures. A must-read amongst winter books.

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The Shape of Darkness by Laura Purcell

Given the ways in which nature itself turns against us during the winter (the biting cold, the vulnerability we feel, the long nights and short days), there aren’t many horror novels set during winter. One of the few that is also happens to be a stand-out book amongst modern British horror novels: The Shape of Darkness.

Laura Purcell has been the queen of UK horror for some time now, beginning with her breakout haunted house novel The Silent Companions. Her fourth novel, The Shape of Darkness is a blend of terror and mystery set in the English city of Bath during a Victorian winter.

Bath is a beautiful city any time of year, but its beauty really stands out during the autumn and winter months. That beauty is soaked with blood in The Shape of Darkness, however, as the deaths start to pile up.

The Shape of Darkness is a horror mystery about paranoia and secrecy. It takes familiar tropes of both the horror and mystery genres and twists them into strange new shapes. A gorgeous historic city; a snowy winter setting; a blend of horror and murder-mystery. You can’t ask for more out of your winter books.

Buy a copy of The Shape of Darkness here!

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

Gothic novels deserve to be enjoyed in the autumn and winter seasons. These are the times when they come to life. Given how Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights features on our autumn books list, it only feels right that her sister’s Jane Eyre be enjoyed in the winter months.

This gothic romance is a fantastic choice; a classic amongst winter books, as we follow the titular Jane make a home for herself in a big, echoing country estate. This is a novel of cursed people, of poisoned love, of secrets and treachery and deceit. It’s loud and quiet all at once.

Jane Eyre is a lesson in gothic romance, with hateful people falling in love and finding their own kind of peace, while the lonely rural setting keeps them trapped together. Few novels feel better when read during the winter months, making Jane Eyre another one of the essential winter books.

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The Shadow of the Gods by John Gwynne

Fantasy novels are epic things, and that epicness can be a wonderful companion during the lonely winter months. Heading off on a grand adventure, facing down mighty foes, and making friends and companions along the way — these things are all a great comfort during winter.

But all of this can be made even better by an appropriately wintry setting, like that of The Shadow of the Gods. This is a Norse-inspired fantasy epic that takes place in a wild and snow-covered world in which humans have made their homes amongst the corpses of gods.

Those gods engaged in a great war centuries ago, and now they are gone. The humans that we follow are hunters and mercenaries. We follow their quests, bond with them along the way, and enjoy the snowy landscape as we go. Amongst winter books, this is one of the best fantasy books you could enjoy.

Buy a copy of The Shadow of the Gods here!

All The White Spaces by Ally Wilkes

Like Frankenstein, The Shining, and The Terror before it, Ally Wilkes’ All The White Spaces is a fantastic horror adventure to take during the winter period. This novel tells the story of a young trans lad who stows away on an exploration vessel bound for the south pole. He always dreamed of seeing it and now, with his brothers having died in the trenches of the Great War, he has no reason not to make his dream a reality.

But there is something travelling with him. Jonathan is seeing visions, and when they arrive in Antarctica, so will the rest of the crew. This is a dark and desolate world that reminds us of the isolation and discomfort that the cold and the winter period can bring.

All The White Spaces acts as a metaphor for the winter. A period of excitement leading to a drawn-out time comprised of short days, long nights, discomfiting cold, isolation, and misery. A wonderful companion novel for the winter period that empathises with the struggles of the season.

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The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

Erin Morgenstern’s debut novel was an astonishing breakout hit, and remains a favourite for so many readers who love fantasy and fairytales. This is a novel spilling over with magic and mystery. Stunningly written, theatrical, Shakespearean, and bursting with imagination.

A Victorian world is always a good one to get lost in during the winter period, but one that is mostly set at night and is full of strange magic and devilish deals really is peak as winter books go.

Buy a copy of The Night Circus here!

The Gospel of Loki by Joanne M. Harris

Joanne Harris is a legend of British literature, and The Gospel of Loki represented a very exciting shift in her canon: a rip-roaring fantasy adventure inspired by Norse mythology. What Harris does here, in a genius way, is take all of the legendary tales of Loki, and thread them together into one single narrative to make for a wonderfully fun novel.

This is a fun and funny novel that is at once respectful of its legacy and also doing something entirely fresh and exciting. What makes it such a perfect winter read is the fact that it is Norse (therefore cold and snow) but also that it’s a wild and thrilling adventure that follows the most exciting of all the gods. It’s hard to have a more fun time during the winter period than reading The Gospel of Loki.

Buy a copy of The Gospel of Loki here!