Books like 'Cursed: A Wish is a Terrible Thing'
Readers who enjoyed Cursed: A Wish is a Terrible Thing by Marie O'Regan, Paul Kane, Angela Slatter, Neil Gaiman, Alison Littlewood, James Brogden, Tim Lebbon, Charlie Jane Anders, Christina Henry, Christopher Golden, Catriona Ward, Lilith Saintcrow, Margo Lanagan, Maura McHugh, Jen Williams, Jane Yolen, Christopher Fowler, M.R. Carey, Karen Joy Fowler, Adam Stemple & Michael Marshall Smith also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
fantasy horror urban fantasy supernatural mystery dark fantasy retellings magic fairy-tale paranormal
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Lies Ripped Open by Steve McHugh
18 ratingsOver a hundred years have passed since a group of violent killers went on the rampage, murdering innocent victims for fun. But even back then, sorcerer Nate Garrett, aka Hellequin, knew there was more to it than simple savage pleasure—souls were being stolen.Nate’s discovery of the souls’ use, and of those supporting the group’s plan, made him question everything he believed... -
The Neil Gaiman Reader: Selected Fiction by Neil Gaiman, Marlon James
10 ratingsAn outstanding array—52 pieces in all—of selected fiction from the multiple-award-winning, #1 New York Times bestselling author Neil Gaiman, curated by his readers around the world, and introduced with a foreword by Booker Prize-winning author Marlon JamesSpanning Gaiman’s career to date, The Neil Gaiman Reader: Selected Fiction is a captivating collection from one of the world’s most beloved... -
I Am Grimalkin by Joseph Delaney
21 ratingsFrom the publisher:"I'm coming for you, and nothing living or dead can stop me."One witch is the most feared, the most ruthless, and the most deadly of all the witches in the county. If she hunts for you, she will find you. If you have crossed her, you don't stand a chance. She is the witch assassin, and her name is Grimalkin.Grimalkin's one alliance is with Tom Ward, the Spook's apprentice... -
Pan's Labyrinth: The Labyrinth of the Faun by Guillermo del Toro, Cornelia Funke
24 ratingsFans of dark fairy-tales like The Hazel Wood and The Cruel Prince will relish this atmospheric and absorbing book based on Guillermo del Toro’s critically acclaimed movie... -
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The Spook's Sacrifice by Joseph Delaney
25 ratingsAs the Spook's apprentice Tom's first duty is to protect the County from the dark. But now Mam needs his help in her homeland of Greece. One of the most dangerous of the old gods, the Ordeen, is about to return there, bringing slaughter and devastation. Meanwhile, the Devil himself is still loose and if he and the Ordeen join forces, a new age of darkness will descend... -
Working for Bigfoot by Jim Butcher
20 ratings"B is for Bigfoot" takes place between Fool Moon and Grave Peril. "I Was a Teenage Bigfoot" takes place circa Deadbeat. "Bigfoot on Campus" takes place between Turn Coat and Changes.Chicago wizard-for-hire Harry Dresden is used to mysterious clients with long hair and legs up to here... -
The Ringmaster by Kathryn Ann Kingsley
11 ratingsAs above, so below…who was once friend is now a foe.The Faire is alive. It’s alive, it’s sentient, and it wants more from Cora Glass. Reeling from the revelations that Clown left her with, she struggles once more to find her footing. She never gets the chance.Harrow Faire wants Cora for murder. She assumed it was her death that it was after. She was wrong. It wants her to kill…to save them all... -
An Artificial Night by Seanan McGuire
25 ratingsChangeling knight in the court of the Duke of Shadowed Hills, October "Toby" Daye has survived numerous challenges that would destroy fae and mortal alike. Now Toby must take on a nightmarish new assignment. Someone is stealing both fae and mortal children—and all signs point to Blind Michael... -
The Spook's Mistake by Joseph Delaney
25 ratingsAs danger increases in the County, Tom is sent far north by his master to be trained by Bill Arkwright, another Spook. Arkwright lives in a haunted mill on the edge of a treacherous marsh and his training methods prove to be harsh and sometimes cruel. But he has toughened up many previous apprentices and now he must do the same for Tom and prepare him for the gravest dangers of his life... -
In an Absent Dream by Seanan McGuire
28 ratingsThis fourth entry and prequel tells the story of Lundy, a very serious young girl who would rather study and dream than become a respectable housewife and live up to the expectations of the world around her. As well she should.When she finds a doorway to a world founded on logic and reason, riddles and lies, she thinks she's found her paradise... -
Memory and Dream by Charles de Lint
18 ratingsFrom World Fantasy Award-winning author Charles de Lint, a tale of love, courage, and the transforming power of imagination Isabelle Copley's visionary art frees ancient spirits. As the young student of the cruel, brilliant artist Vincent Rushkin, she discovered she could paint images so vividly real they brought her wildest fantasies to life...Categorized as:
fairy-tale low-fantasy magic magical-realism myths paranormal retellings action-adventure -
Unhinged by A.G. Howard, Nathalia Suellen
27 ratingsAlyssa Gardner has been down the rabbit hole and faced the bandersnatch. She saved the life of Jeb, the guy she loves, and escaped the machinations of the disturbingly seductive Morpheus and the vindictive Queen Red. Now all she has to do is graduate high school and make it through prom so she can attend the prestigious art school in London she's always dreamed of... -
The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins
32 ratingsA missing God.A library with the secrets to the universe. A woman too busy to notice her heart slipping away.Carolyn's not so different from the other people around her. She likes guacamole and cigarettes and steak. She knows how to use a phone. Clothes are a bit tricky, but everyone says nice things about her outfit with the Christmas sweater over the gold bicycle shorts... -
Tales of the Peculiar by Ransom Riggs
26 ratingsBefore Miss Peregrine gave them a home, the story of peculiars was written in the Tales. Wealthy cannibals who dine on the discarded limbs of peculiars. A fork-tongued princess. The origins of the first ymbryne... -
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The Green Man's Foe by Juliet E. McKenna
6 ratingsWhen you do a good job for someone, there’s a strong chance they’ll offer you more work or recommend you elsewhere. So Daniel Mackmain isn’t particularly surprised when his boss’s architect brother asks for his help on a historic house renovation in the Cotswolds. Except Dan’s a dryad’s son, and he soon realises there’s a whole lot more going on... -
Fairytales for Wilde Girls by Allyse Near
12 ratingsA deliciously dark bubblegum-gothic fairytale from a stunning new Australian talent.‘He's gone the same way as those little birds that bothered me with their awful songs! And you will too, you and your horrible heart-music, because you won't stay out of my woods!'There's a dead girl in a birdcage in the woods. That's not unusual. Isola Wilde sees a lot of things other people don't... -
Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things by Martina McAtee
12 ratingsThree reapers. Two worlds. One prophecy.Seventeen-year-old Ember Lonergan has made an art of isolating herself. She prefers the dead. She spends her days skipping school in old cemeteries and her nights hiding from her alcoholic father at the funeral home where she works. When her own father dies, Ember learns her whole life is a lie... -
The Neon Court by Kate Griffin
16 ratingsWar is coming to London. A daimyo of the Neon Court is dead and all fingers point towards their ancient enemy - The Tribe. And when magicians go to war, everyone loses.But Matthew Swift has his own concerns. He has been summoned abruptly, body and soul, to a burning tower and to the dead body of Oda, warrior of The Order and known associate of Swift... -
Curse the Dawn by Karen Chance
27 ratingsCassandra Palmer may be the all-powerful Pythia now, but that doesn’t mean people have stopped trying to kill her. Most of the supernatural power players don’t want the independent minded Cassie as chief clairvoyant—and they’ll stop at nothing to see her six feet under... -
Never Have I Ever by Isabel Yap
8 ratings“Am I dead?”Mebuyen sighs. She was hoping the girl would not ask.Spells and stories, urban legends and immigrant tales: the magic in Isabel Yap’s debut collection jumps right off the page, from the joy in her new novella, 'A Spell for Foolish Hearts' to the terrifying tension of the urban legend 'Have You Heard the One About Anamaria Marquez'... -
Chapel of Ease by Alex Bledsoe
10 ratingsThe latest installment in Alex Bledsoe's critically-acclaimed Tufa series that Kirkus Reviews calls "powerful, character-driven drama...a sheer delight." (starred review)When Matt Johanssen, a young New York actor, auditions for "Chapel of Ease," an off-Broadway musical, he is instantly charmed by Ray Parrish, the show's writer and composer... -
Playing with Darkness by Susan Illene
10 ratingsThere’s no avoiding it. Melena must keep her promise to return the fae device that opens the portal to Purgatory. Except there’s one problem—Kerbasi. How can she go when she has one of heaven’s minions practically attached to her hip? One who will strike fear in the hearts of the fae the moment they realize who he is... -
The Gurkha and the Lord of Tuesday by Saad Hossain
12 ratingsWhen the djinn king Melek Ahmar wakes up after millennia of imprisoned slumber, he finds a world vastly different from what he remembers. Arrogant and bombastic, he comes down the mountain expecting an easy conquest: the wealthy, spectacular city state of Kathmandu, ruled by the all-knowing, all-seeing tyrant AI Karma... -
Sleeping in Flame by Jonathan Carroll
14 ratingsWalker Easterling is a retired actor turned successful screenwriter living in the Vienna of strong coffee, fascinating friends, and mysterious cafes. When he falls in love with Maris York, a beautiful artist who creates cities, his life becomes alive in fantastic and unsettling ways... -
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Jilo by J.D. Horn
16 ratingsAged Mother Jilo is wise in the ways of magic…but once upon a time, she was just a girl.1950s Georgia: King Cotton has fallen. Savannah is known as the “beautiful woman with a dirty face,” its stately elegance faded by neglect, its soul withering from racial injustice and political corruption...Categorized as:
dark low-fantasy magic magical-realism paranormal witches-wizards audiobook black-mc -
House of Hollow by Krystal Sutherland
26 ratingsSeventeen-year-old Iris Hollow has always been strange. Something happened to her and her two older sisters when they were children, something they can’t quite remember but that left each of them with an identical half-moon scar at the base of their throats. Iris has spent most of her teenage years trying to avoid the weirdness that sticks to her like tar... -
Embrace the Night by Karen Chance
27 ratingsRecently named the world’s chief clairvoyant, Cassandra Palmer still has a thorn in her side. As long as Cassie and a certain master vampire - the sizzling-hot Mircea - are magically bound to each other, her life will never be her own …The spell that binds them can only be broken with an incantation found in the Codex Merlini, an ancient grimoire... -
Slither by Joseph Delaney
19 ratings"My name is Slither, and before my tale is finished you'll find out why."The dark is full of terrifying creatures. And Tom Ward—the seventh son of a seventh son, and the Spook's last apprentice—hasn't seen all of them. Far from the county, one named Slither has lived for hundreds of years, hunting blood.But a dying father binds the monster to a bargain... -
Mercenary Magic by Ella Summers
18 ratingsThe alternate cover edition for this book can be found here.Long ago, the Dragon Born were hailed as the most powerful mages in the world. Today, they are condemned as abominations and have been hunted to near extinction. Sera Dering has spent her entire life hiding her forbidden magic from the supernatural council who would kill her for the crime of being born... -
Tales From the Hinterland by Melissa Albert
18 ratingsA gorgeously illustrated collection of twelve fairy tales by the author of The Hazel Wood and The Night Country!Journey into the Hinterland, a brutal and beautiful world where a young woman spends a night with Death, brides are wed to a mysterious house in the trees, and an enchantress is killed twice―and still lives... -
Demon Road by Derek Landy
18 ratingsThe mind-blowing new supernatural thriller from bestselling author DEREK LANDY, creator of international sensation Skulduggery Pleasant.Full of Landy’s trademark wit, action and razor-sharp dialogue, DEMON ROAD kicks off with a shocking opener and never lets up the pace in an epic road-trip across the supernatural landscape of America... -
Silver Birch, Blood Moon by Ellen Datlow, Garry Kilworth
14 ratingsThe four previous volumes in Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling's anthology series of fairly tales retold with a distinctively modern edge have been hailded by reviewers as "brilliant," "provocative," and "disturbing... -
Wildwood Whispers by Willa Reece
10 ratingsA heartwarming novel of hope, fate, and folk magic unfolds when a young woman travels to a sleepy southern town in the Appalachian Mountains to bury her best friend. Mel Smith has always known life isn’t easy. After all, she was abandoned as an infant and raised in foster care... -
Dark Awakened by H.D. Smith
8 ratingsLast spring Claire’s seemingly normal—if not totally screwed up—life was tossed on its head. For five years she’d been one of the damned—a human that knows the truth about the otherworldly among us. She’d worked for The Boss—the Demon King himself—as his administrative assistant, handling everything from early retirements, to Maintenance’s incessant requests for dental.No one gets dental... -
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Dark Ladies: Conjure Wife/Our Lady of Darkness by Fritz Leiber
6 ratingsConjure WifeWitchcraft. Norman Saylor considered it nothing but superstition, until he learned that his own wife was a practicing sorceress. Even still, he refuses to accept the truth that every woman knows...that in the secret occult warfare that governs our lives, witchcraft is a matter of life and death...Categorized as:
dark low-fantasy magical-realism paranormal witches-wizards adult anthologies classics -
The Memory Eater by Rebecca Mahoney
6 ratingsA teenage girl must save her town from a memory-devouring monster in this piercing exploration of grief, trauma, and memory, from the author of The Valley and the Flood.For generations, a monster called the Memory Eater has lived in the caves of Whistler Beach, Maine, surviving off the unhappy memories of those who want to forget... -
The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly
39 ratingsHigh in his attic bedroom, twelve-year-old David mourns the death of his mother, with only the books on his shelf for company. But those books have begun to whisper to him in the darkness. Angry and alone, he takes refuge in his imagination and soon finds that reality and fantasy have begun to meld... -
Indexing by Seanan McGuire
19 ratings“Never underestimate the power of a good story.”Good advice...especially when a story can kill you.For most people, the story of their lives is just that: the accumulation of time, encounters, and actions into a cohesive whole... -
Cuckoo Song by Frances Hardinge
18 ratingsWhen Triss wakes up after an accident, she knows something is very wrong. She is insatiably hungry, her sister seems scared of her, and her parents whisper behind closed doors. She looks through her diary to try to remember, but the pages have been ripped out... -
The Lighthouse Witches by C.J. Cooke
18 ratingsTwo sisters go missing on a remote Scottish island. Twenty years later, one is found--but she's still the same age as when she disappeared. The secrets of witches have reached across the centuries in this chilling Gothic thriller from the author of the acclaimed The Nesting... -
Redemption by R.K. Ryals
16 ratingsA fateful car accident, a strange Abbey ruled by an even stranger Abbess, an insane Demon, a world where right and wrong becomes dangerously twisted, and a confident, rebellious teenager . . . .Dayton Blainey is a foul-mouthed, grief-stricken young woman forced to live with a religiously eccentric aunt who favors her moral older sister... -
The Cold Kiss of Death by Suzanne McLeod
12 ratingsGenny Taylor works for Spellcrackers.com ±Making Magic Safe. But her own life is anything but safe!‘The ghost grasped her shift and ripped it open. The three interlacing crescents carved red-raw and bleeding into her thin chest didn’t look any better than the last dozen times I’d seen them... -
Children of the Night by Mercedes Lackey
19 ratingsRock band Wanderlust is about to hit it big, guitarist Dave Kendall is sure of that. They're playing better venues, in front of bigger crowds-and the people showing up at the after parties are increasingly good-looking and cool. Some even radiate power, like "Master" Jeffries, the tall, saturnine man who seems to have some sort of weird control over Dave's fellow bandmates... -
Vigil by Angela Slatter
8 ratingsVerity Fassbinder has her feet in two worlds. The daughter of one human and one Weyrd parent, she has very little power herself, but does claim unusual strength - and the ability to walk between us and the other - as a couple of her talents. As such a rarity, she is charged with keeping the peace between both races, and ensuring the Weyrd remain hidden from us... -
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The Hollow Gods by A.J. Vrana
8 ratingsA perfect story for contemporary fantasy readers who love their narratives razor-sharp and their secrets dark and deadly. Black Hollow is a town with a dark secret. For centuries, residents have foretold the return of the Dreamwalker—an ominous figure from local folklore said to lure young women into the woods and possess them... -
Vault of Glass by Candace Robinson
6 ratingsSome see it... Some don't...People in the town of Deer Park, Texas are vanishing. There is a strange museum, known as Quinsey Wolfe's Glass Vault, that appears overnight. Perrie Madeline's best friend and ex-boyfriend are among the missing. Perrie, along with her friend August, go on a pursuit to search for them in the mysterious museum... -
Trigger Warning: Short Fictions and Disturbances by Neil Gaiman
32 ratingsMultiple award winning, #1 New York Times bestselling author Neil Gaiman returns to dazzle, captivate, haunt, and entertain with this third collection of short fiction following Smoke and Mirrors and Fragile Things--which includes a never-before published American Gods story, "Black Dog," written exclusively for this volume... -
Sparrow Hill Road by Seanan McGuire
19 ratingsRose Marshall died in 1952 in Buckley Township, Michigan, run off the road by a man named Bobby Cross—a man who had sold his soul to live forever, and intended to use her death to pay the price of his immortality. Trouble was, he didn’t ask Rose what she thought of the idea.It’s been more than sixty years since that night, and she’s still sixteen, and she’s still running... -
Under My Hat: Tales from the Cauldron by Jonathan Strahan, Diana Peterfreund
16 ratingsBroomsticks.Black Cats.Pointy Hats.They can mean only one thing - somewhere nearby, there must be a witch. From fairy tales to fims to fiction, witches cast their spells and capture our imaginations.Now the biggest names in fantasy and young adult literature have come together to make a little magic of their own. Neil Gaiman, Holly Black, Diana Peterfreund, Margo Lanagan, Peter S...Categorized as:
dark fairy-tale low-fantasy magic magical-realism paranormal retellings witches-wizards -
Red as Blood and White as Bone by Theodora Goss
15 ratingsRed as Blood and White as Bone by Theodora Goss is a dark fantasy about a kitchen girl obsessed with fairy tales, who upon discovering a ragged woman outside the castle during a storm, takes her in--certain she’s a princess in disguise...
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