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Recommendations based on The Ballad of Black Tomby Victor LaValle
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The Changeling
by Victor LaValle
A young man's journey of self-reflection and acceptance, confronting the truth of his traumatic past.
One man’s thrilling journey through an enchanted world to find his wife, who has disappeared after seemingly committing an unforgiveable act of violence, from the award-winning author of the, The ... (Goodreads)
The Fisherman
by John Langan
A small-town family's supernatural encounter with an ancient evil lurking in the woods.
In upstate New York, in the woods around Woodstock, Dutchman's Creek flows out of the Ashokan Reservoir. Steep-banked, fast-moving, it offers the promise of fine fishing, and of something more, a ... (Barnes & Noble)
The Haunting of Hill House
by Shirley Jackson
A group of people investigating a mysterious and haunted house, uncovering its secrets.
It is the story of four seekers who arrive at a notoriously unfriendly pile called Hill House: Dr. Montague, an occult scholar looking for solid evidence of a "haunting"; Theodora, the lighthearted ... (Goodreads)
The Library at Mount Char
by Scott Hawkins
A group of orphans with supernatural abilities must battle for control of a mysterious library.
An unexplained catastrophe destroys part of a town, but twelve children survive. The survivors are "adopted" and raised by a powerful, god-like figure called Father. Together they live in "the ... (Wikipedia)
Neverwhere
by Neil Gaiman
A mysterious journey through a hidden realm of London, filled with danger and unexpected allies.
Neverwhere is the story of Richard Mayhew and his trials and tribulations in London. At the start of the story, he is a young businessman, recently moved from Scotland and with a normal life ahead. ... (Wikipedia)
All Systems Red
by Martha Wells
Murderbot navigates a dangerous world while struggling to maintain its own autonomy.
"As a heartless killing machine, I was a complete failure." In a corporate-dominated spacefaring future, planetary missions must be approved and supplied by the Company. Exploratory teams are ... (Goodreads)
A Head Full of Ghosts
by Paul Tremblay
A family's descent into darkness when their teenage daughter is suspected to be possessed.
The lives of the Barretts, a normal suburban New England family, are torn apart when fourteen-year-old Marjorie begins to display signs of acute schizophrenia. To her parents' despair, the doctors ... (Goodreads)
We Have Always Lived in the Castle
by Shirley Jackson
A family isolated from society, struggling to cope with prejudice and tragedy.
My name is Mary Katherine Blackwood. I am eighteen years old, and I live with my sister Constance. I have often thought that with any luck at all I could have been born a werewolf, because the two ... (Goodreads)
Monstress, Vol. 1: Awakening
by Marjorie M. Liu
In a world of magic and war, a young woman with a dark past seeks revenge and uncovers secrets about her own identity.
Set in an alternate matriarchal 1900's Asia, in a richly imagined world of art deco-inflected steam punk, MONSTRESS tells the story of a teenage girl who is struggling to survive the trauma of war, ... (Goodreads)
Bird Box
by Josh Malerman
A family's fight for survival in a post-apocalyptic world, where creatures lurk in the shadows.
Something is out there, something terrifying that must not be seen. One glimpse of it, and a person is driven to deadly violence. No one knows what it is or where it came from. Five years after it ... (Goodreads)
The Fifth Season
by N.K. Jemisin
A world where seismic and magical disasters ravage the land, and a woman's journey to save humanity.
In a prologue, an extraordinarily powerful orogene discusses the sad state of the world and laments the oppression of his race. He then uses his enormous power to fracture the entire continent along ... (Wikipedia)
The Stone Sky
by N.K. Jemisin
A climactic finale to a trilogy, featuring a powerful woman's journey to save her world from destruction.
Following the events of, The Obelisk Gate, , the former inhabitants of Castrima-under are moving north after damage by rival comm Rennanis has compromised the mechanisms of the geode and made it ... (Wikipedia)
Through the Woods
by Emily Carroll
Dark, surreal tales filled with mysterious creatures and eerie landscapes.
Discover a terrifying world in the woods in this collection of five hauntingly beautiful graphic stories that includes the online webcomic sensation “His Face All Red,” in print for the first time. ... (Barnes & Noble)
All the Birds in the Sky
by Charlie Jane Anders
Two childhood friends, a witch and a scientist, grapple with an impending apocalypse.
All the Birds in the Sky is set in the near-future and is about Patricia and Laurence, a witch and a techno-geek . Patricia discovers, when she is six, that she has magical abilities, like talking to ... (Wikipedia)
Artificial Condition
by Martha Wells
Murderbot, a rogue security unit, investigates its past and uncovers a conspiracy. Action-packed sci-fi adventure with a relatable protagonist.
A, USA Today, bestseller,The "I love Murderbot!" —Ann Leckie, Artificial Condition, is the follow-up to Martha Wells's Hugo, Nebula, Alex, and Locus Award-winning,, New York Times, bestselling, All ... (Barnes & Noble)
My Favorite Thing Is Monsters, Vol. 1
by Emil Ferris
A young girl in 1960s Chicago investigates the murder of her neighbor, while navigating her own identity and imagination through her love of monsters.
Set against the tumultuous political backdrop of late ’60s Chicago, My Favorite Thing Is Monsters is the fictional graphic diary of 10-year-old Karen Reyes, filled with B-movie horror and pulp ... (Goodreads)
Black Leopard, Red Wolf
by Marlon James
Tracker, a hunter, is hired to find a missing child in a fantastical African world. His journey is filled with magic, violence, and shape-shifting creatures.
In the first novel in Marlon James's Dark Star trilogy, myth, fantasy, and history come together to explore what happens when a mercenary is hired to find a missing child. Tracker is known far and ... (Goodreads)
Her Body and Other Parties: Stories
by Carmen Maria Machado
Collection of surreal stories exploring the complexities of gender, sexuality and identity.
In Her Body and Other Parties , Carmen Maria Machado blithely demolishes the arbitrary borders between psychological realism and science fiction, comedy and horror, fantasy and fabulism. While her ... (Goodreads)
Annihilation
by Jeff VanderMeer
A team of four women venture into a mysterious, surreal landscape in search of answers.
A team of four women cross the border into an uninhabited area known as "Area X", an unspecified coastal location that has been closed to the public for three decades. The group consists of a ... (Wikipedia)
Kindred
by Octavia E. Butler
A modern woman is thrown back in time, forced to confront the harsh realities of slavery.
Kindred scholars have noted that the novel's chapter headings suggest something "elemental, apocalyptic, archetypal about the events in the narrative," thus giving the impression that the main ... (Wikipedia)
Sing, Unburied, Sing
by Jesmyn Ward
A family's journey through the Mississippi Delta, confronting a traumatic past.
It is Jojo's thirteenth birthday. To step into his new role as a man, Jojo tries to bravely help his grandfather, Pop, kill a goat. Jojo ends up throwing up at the sight although Pop is sympathetic. ... (Wikipedia)
The Lathe of Heaven
by Ursula K. Le Guin
An exploration of the power of dreams, with the potential to reshape reality.
The book is set in Portland, Oregon , in the year 2002. Portland has three million inhabitants and continuous rain. It is deprived enough for the poorer inhabitants to have kwashiorkor , a protein ... (Wikipedia)
The Left Hand of Darkness
by Ursula K. Le Guin
A diplomat's mission to a distant planet, exploring themes of gender and identity.
The protagonist of the novel is Genly Ai, a male Terran native, who is sent to invite the planet Gethen to join the Ekumen, a coalition of humanoid worlds. , Ai travels to the Gethen planetary system ... (Wikipedia)
The Girl Next Door
by Jack Ketchum
A teenage girl is subjected to horrific abuse by her aunt and cousins, while her neighbors turn a blind eye.
Suburbia. Shady, tree-lined streets, well-tended lawns and cozy homes. A nice, quiet place to grow up. Unless you are teenage Meg or her crippled sister, Susan. On a dead-end street, in the dark, ... (Goodreads)
The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making
by Catherynne M. Valente
A young girl embarks on an adventure across a magical land, learning lessons about the power of stories.
Twelve-year-old September lives in Omaha, and used to have an ordinary life, until her father went to war and her mother went to work. One day, September is met at her kitchen window by a Green Wind ... (Goodreads)
Disappearance at Devil's Rock
by Paul Tremblay
A mother searches for her missing son, uncovering strange occurrences and unsettling secrets in Devil's Rock.
A thirteen-year-old boy goes missing after spending time with his friends at Borderland State Park . His family is thrown into disarray as strange events begin occurring; a mysterious apparition ... (Wikipedia)
The Cabin at the End of the World
by Paul Tremblay
A family vacation turns into a nightmare when a group of strangers arrive, claiming the end of the world is near and they must make a horrific choice.
A gay couple named Andrew and Eric and their adopted daughter, Wen, are taking a vacation in a secluded cabin in New Hampshire. Their dwelling is invaded by four strangers named Redmond, Leonard, ... (Wikipedia)
Rosewater
by Tade Thompson
Kaaro, a government agent with psychic abilities, navigates a mysterious alien biodome in Nigeria.
Tade Thompson's, Rosewater, is the start of an award-winning, cutting edge trilogy set in Nigeria, by one of science fiction's most engaging new voices. Rosewater is a town on the edge. A community ... (Goodreads)
Lovecraft Country
by Matt Ruff
A thrilling and terrifying journey through 1950s America, where a young black man and his family face supernatural horrors and racism.
The book consists of eight interconnected stories: Atticus Turner, working in Florida after leaving the army, returns home to Chicago after receiving a mysterious letter from his estranged father, ... (Wikipedia)
Heart-Shaped Box
by Joe Hill
A retired rock star's haunted purchase leads to a terrifying confrontation with death.
Aging, self-absorbed rock star Judas Coyne has a thing for the macabre – his collection includes sketches from infamous serial killer John Wayne Gacy, a trepanned skull from the 16th century, a used ... (Goodreads)
