Here are 100 books that Angela Carter's Book of Fairy Tales fans have personally recommended if you like
Angela Carter's Book of Fairy Tales.
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I’ve always been fascinated by books that explore the slow, painful unraveling of the human psyche. In part, I think because it’s something so many more of us either fear or experience (at least to some degree) than anyone really wants to admit—but it’s also just such rich material for literary unpacking. I also love books with strong, angry female protagonists who fight back against oppression in all of its forms, so books about pissed-off madwomen are a natural go-to for me. Extra points if they teach me something I didn’t know before-which is almost always the case with historical novels in this genre.
I love this book first and foremost because it is essentially the OG of madwomen narratives. Written in 1892, it is a super-creepy, sensory, trippy exploration of one woman’s sanity slowly being shredded by male medical “expertise”—in this case, a doctor’s prescription for postpartum depression: utter isolation in a bedroom with no intellectual stimulation... in order to alleviate postpartum depression (?!). Unsurprisingly, rather than “recovering,” the heroine drags readers down a terrifying rabbit hole of hallucination, self-destruction, and—ultimately—murder.
It’s a masterful, Hitchcockian deep dive into psychosis written over a half-century before Psycho. But it’s also an extremely satisfying example of feminist revenge-writing; Perkins not only drew on her own experience after suffering this “treatment” but sent a copy directly to her practitioner after its publication. Pow!
The Yellow Wallpaper (original title: "The Yellow Wall-paper. A Story") is a 6,000-word short story by the American writer Charlotte Perkins Gilman, first published in January 1892 in The New England Magazine. It is regarded as an important early work of American feminist literature, illustrating attitudes in the 19th century toward women's health, both physical and mental.
Presented in the first person, the story is a collection of journal entries written by a woman whose physician husband (John) has rented an old mansion for the summer. Forgoing other rooms in the house, the couple moves into the upstairs nursery. As…
I so love thrillers because they delve into that area of ourselves that can be ‘safely’ afraid and give you that adrenaline rush that nature taught us is fight or flight. Thrillers teach us lessons, too, about people and the psychology of the most dangerous ones in our society. Through reading into this genre, I learned a lot about life before I even lived it, and I learned to recognize the less wholesome traits that humanity can have. What’s fascinating to me most is exploring those dark sides of the human psyche in order to make comparisons on what is right or wrong with some people’s behavior.
This was the very first thriller book I read, and it terrified me. I was 11 years old when I picked this book up and delved into the world of Fred (who calls himself Ferdinand) and his kidnap victim, Miranda. Approaching this from a young mind, I saw something of romance in the obsessive tale, but that romance soon revealed itself to be a terrifying story of abduction, stalking, and murder.
Why do I still love this book? Maybe it was the first time I realized I wanted to be a writer. But it was stunningly written, provocative, and left me thinking about the characters. It is a classic that should always be in print.
The Collector (1963) is disturbing, engrossing, unforgettable -- the story of an obsessive young man and the girl he kidnaps and holds prisoner in his cellar.
I’ve always had an interest in art, growing up a military brat and constantly moving, left me time to doodle and read. I spent the first part of my life as an art professor and artist. I began writing three years ago when my manuscript was chosen for RWA’s Ramp program in 2021. With my art, my interest leans more towards the bizarre and unexplained. I believe the romance stories I write follow suit, dark and gothic romance my primary interest, but always with spiritual and hopeful undertones. I also write some non-fiction for a local magazine where I live, The Greenville Stroll and on substack a newsletter for romance writers.
Skye Warren is one of my favorite romance authors. HerEndgame Trilogygot me hooked on romance. However, I love Wanderlust even more.
It chronicles the story of a budding photographer who leaves her overbearing mother to work in another city. On her way there, a trucker kidnaps and holds her in the back of his truck as they cross the country. This book has a similar theme as my book and some of the others I've listed and deals with captivity and power.
I've read this book several times, once as a reader and then as a writer, analyzing how to transform a morally gray character or someone despicable into someone readers could care about. Turning hatred for an abductor into pity and wanting him to be with the heroine is no easy feat. I'm still impressed with her skill.
"I loved the story! I loved that it made me feel, that it turned me on, turned me off, made me pause and think, twisted my stomach into knots..." - Haydee's ReviewsCan love come from pain?Evie always dreamed of seeing the world, but her first night at a motel turns into a nightmare. Hunter is a rugged trucker willing to do anything to keep her--including kidnapping. As they cross the country in his rig, Evie plots her escape, but she may find what she's been looking for right beside her.Wanderlust is a full-length dark romance novel that explores captivity and…
I’m completely obsessed with dark romance books! Seriously, after more than fifteen years of diving into these wild novels, I’ve uncovered so many gems that I can’t get enough of. I’m not here for stories about happy-go-lucky people; I want all the drama, all the angst, and all those swoon-worthy anti-heroes who make my heart race! These books are like a delicious escape, where every plot twist keeps me on my toes, and every character is delightfully flawed. It’s a rollercoaster ride of passion and drama. I love getting lost in the emotional chaos and gripping stories where anything can happen.
This is one of the most intense and gripping dark romances I've ever read. The story follows Caleb, a damaged man seeking revenge, and Livvie, the innocent girl he kidnaps. From the start, I was pulled into their twisted, complicated dynamic. It’s dark, raw, and pushes boundaries, but I couldn’t stop reading. Caleb is a character you both hate and feel for, while Livvie’s journey from fear to something more complex kept me glued to the pages.
He’s the morally greyest character, and I hated to love him, but that’s what made him unforgettable. This book will definitely leave a mark. Caleb will always be one of my favorite anti-heroes, making this an unforgettable dark romance that still stands as the best I’ve ever read.
Please heed all warnings. ****This is a series about captivity in a FICTIONAL and EROTICIZED setting. It contains very disturbing situations, dubious consent, strong language, and graphic violence.****
OVER 150,000 COPIES SOLD!
This edition of CAPTIVE IN THE DARK features a new cover that when combined with the other books in DARK DUET: Platinum Edition series makes a lovely addition to any bookshelf.
It is NO DIFFERENT in content from previous editions of the series.
CAPTIVE IN THE DARK (BOOK 1): Caleb is a man with a singular interest in revenge. Kidnapped as a young boy and sold into slavery…
My very intelligent, very (self-described) un-literary father taught me all about the complexities and beauty of God. My librarian mother gave me the literature that would introduce me to the most profound descriptions of those complex beauties. As the author of Marvelous Light, numerous metaphor-dependent blog posts, and future allegorical novels, I hope to introduce each of my readers to the divine realities on which I depend daily.
Lewis considered George MacDonald his spiritual father, having never met the man. He said that MacDonald introduced him to the gospel through his stories before he even knew that that’s what was happening. How? Metaphor. George MacDonald knew of God’s love more than most and did his best to share it with the world, deeply hidden in fairy tales, the kind of folklore that Lewis, Tolkien, and the rest of the Inklings loved so dearly.
George MacDonald occupied a major position in the intellectual life of his Victorian contemporaries. This volume brings together all eleven of his shorter fairy stories as well as his essay "The Fantastic Imagination". The subjects are those of traditional fantasy: good and wicked fairies, children embarking on elaborate quests, and journeys into unsettling dreamworlds. Within this familiar imaginative landscape, his children's stories were profoundly experimental, questioning the association of childhood with purity and innocence, and the need to separate fairy tale wonder from adult scepticism and disbelief.
I’m an American author and writing teacher both at Harvard and Oxford’s online programs. I've mostly written poetry and nonfiction, then in 2021 I published my first novel, She Never Told Me about the Ocean. I started writing the book when my daughter was born as a way to explore the complicated feelings and fears that suddenly washed over me. The book—like a daughter—outgrew my plans and expectations for it. It became, unexpectedly, a mythology of mothers and daughters. For two decades I've studied fairy tales and myths. Fairy tales deal in fears and the stories we tell ourselves to feel safe—which is why I read them and use them in my writing.
I just discovered this book and want to teach it in every one of my classes! Folkis a series of stories about the villagers in a tiny, closed-off island filled with strange rituals and a cacophony of alliances and grudges. Her language is simply thrilling, and the fairy tales are shocking in all different ways. We hear a different perspective in each story, so the book results in a fairy tale about how small communities work and what the ‘folk’ in them must do—and believe—in order to get along.
A captivating, magical and haunting debut novel of breathtaking imagination, from the winner of the 2014 Costa Short Story Award
LONGLISTED FOR THE 2019 INTERNATIONAL DYLAN THOMAS PRIZE
'That rare thing: genuinely unique' OBSERVER
'Will win you over ... Magical' THE TIMES
'Absolutely stunning. I loved it' MADELINE MILLER, AUTHOR OF CIRCE
On the remote island of Neverness, the villagers' lives are entwined with nature: its enchantments, seductions and dangers. There is May, the young fiddler who seeks her musical spirit; Madden Lightfoot, who flies with red kites; and Verlyn Webbe, born with a wing for an arm. Over the…
I don’t read books with explicit scenes, and I don’t write them either. I’ve read hundreds of novels in this genre and written several of my own. I believe closed-door romances can be just as tension-filled and fun as those with spice. I love the closed-door romance community and have a passion for sharing books that make me laugh, cry, and swoon.
I absolutely loved the way that Emma wrote these characters. I related to Seraphina and fell for Rafe’s charm time and time again. They’re a couple that’s perfect for each other.
Some book couples you read and think they may not make it past the last page, but I could see these two together forever. The whole book made me swoon and laugh.
I’ve always read Sci-Fi and Fantasy. It’s my comfort place and haven’t we all needed that in the roaring '20s? It took a long while to clock that the books that stuck with me longest were all in that odd space where fantasy and sci-fi collide, (like Helliconia or Fire Upon the Deep or Dune) When I started writing, the ideas just poured out of me but after I realised I’d written a book like those I loved to read.
I love, love, love this book, for so many reasons. My top two are: 1) It sits squarely in that odd ‘fantasy in a technological world’ niche (Imagine 1984’s world filled with fairies!) 2) It has an odd, dark humour feel to a book that I like (think Gaiman or Pratchett) And oh! The characters? Funny, clever, nuanced. Bum that was three wasn’t it? I’ll come in again.
"What would happen if Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman, Emma Newman and K.E. Mills (in her Accidental Sorcerer mode) got together and had a fairy tale themed writathon? This, my friend, is probably what would happen."
Bea is a lowly cabbage fairy, but she dreams of being an official fairy godmother. Of course, no one thinks a cabbage fairy could run a story, least of all the other fairy godmothers. Until, one day, someone offers Bea a chance to prove herself. One heroine, one week, one marriage at the end of it. Easy, right?
I’ve been reading fantasy since before I could read (thanks, Mom and Dad!). I certainly never outgrew my love of fairy tales. But over the years, I discovered I also love historical romance. Then, I stumbled across books that combined the two. They were the best of both worlds. The comfort of a well-fitted waistcoat with the whimsy of an enchanted jewel. Naturally, I gravitated to writing what I loved: books full of magic and manners, castles and balls, romance and intrigue.
I am a sucker for fairy tale retellings. Beauty and the Beast especially. Throw in the fae, magic based on a flower language, and an assassin who just wants to be a very proper lady, and it’s really no wonder that I was hooked.
The characters are what really made this book shine. I may not be languishing alone in a sentient castle or trying to find my place in high society, but I could still relate to Briannis and the fae king. A perfect romance to showcase that, sometimes, proper manners are the villain.
Killing a fae king is hard. Doing so politely is even harder.
Briannis Iavi – well-bred lady and accidental assassin – is so close to securing the life of her dreams. All she needs to do is complete one last job: make her way into fae territory, sneak into the enchanted halls of Rosethorn Keep, and kill the king of Faerie.
But her plan goes disastrously wrong, and Briannis finds herself a captive at her target’s mercy instead.
Cursed to a life of loneliness and slow decay, the monstrous fae king seems hell-bent on revenge – and if he can’t…
I have a passion for fairy tale stories especially ones for adults because they are often the first stories we learned as kids. The ability to look back at how we interpreted them and how our understanding changes over time and culture makes for something that is truly timeless, and therefore like a beloved trope is never the exact same thing twice. Each time only builds on our enjoyment and the many possibilities we can imagine. Not only in worlds of magic, but our own.
Sometimes you simply want all, I get it. That’s part of the reason why so many fairy tale characters know each other in my series, so why not try a brand-new fantasy romance anthology? Featuring 20 different short stories and authors, Once Upon A Forbidden Desire is bound to be magical. If you are anything like me, you have a long to-do list and there never seems like enough time. Short stories are the perfect thing for that in my opinion. I always savor them like an advent calendar’s candy.
When it comes to true love, rules are meant to be broken …
Dark forests and locked doors, poisoned apples and forbidden lovers ... Bold heroines and swoon-worthy heroes break all the rules in this enchanting anthology of the fairy tales you thought you knew.
Once Upon A Forbidden Desire features 20 enticing fairy tale retellings by a diverse selection of fantasy romance authors. From sweet true love’s kisses to sizzling passion, from modern streets to enchanted forests, and from a mage Rapunzel to a winged Prince Charming ...
If you enjoy captivating romance, enthralling new worlds, and stories with…
