78 books like Preacher Book One

At the time, when I read this book, I’d just become a father. Naturally, the story about a father trying to protect his son in a harsh dystopian world was captivating for me and still is to this day.

I loved the book's gritty realism and felt as if I were walking beside the characters during the entire journey. I also found McCarthy’s writing style unique and something new from the best-selling paperbacks I’d often read before picking up his book.

Legends are made of powerful stuff, and nothing has greater power than a total flip in perspective. I still recall the gut-punch end to this book, though it’s been decades since I read it. 

Robert Neville is a vampire hunter by day and a tormented man by night. As seemingly the only living human in post-apocalyptic Los Angeles, Robert faces depression, isolation, alcoholism, and his undead neighbor, Ben Cortman, who appears outside Robert’s front door each night chanting, "Come out, Neville."

But when Robert is finally captured, and the truth of his situation is revealed, he gets a good look at the world through the eyes of the undead and is forced to ask himself, who am I? What have I become? 

First, I found the writing in this book phenomenal, especially the dialogue. I feel like each bit of dialogue revealed something new about the character or pulled me deeper into the plot. It’s witty and dark. Honest would be a good word to describe it.

The characters felt so human to me–simultaneously loveable and deplorable, true to human nature. But it was the twist midway through the novel that really drew me in—the shift in reality. It changed the book for me, molding it into something unique, something I’d never read before.

It’s a novel I come back to time and time again, especially when I need inspiration.

Time to put aside the history and cultural analysis. How could I understand the modern Batman phenomenon without delving into Miller’s classic reimagining of Batman? By his own account, Miller wanted to take Batman and the whole superhero genre out of the realm of kid stuff. Boy, did he ever! This Batman has been called dark and gritty, though Miller supposedly didn’t care for that description. But there’s no question Miller’s work influenced the movies that followed. The book includes the four issues that were originally published separately. 

This book is a great choice for artists that are interested in drawing humanoid fantasy characters or superheroes. It takes a close look at drawing action poses and includes many sketches and example drawings. It also includes photo references to use. It isn’t as much of a step-by-step tutorial book, but a great reference with lots of advice on creating your own dynamic characters.

Probably one of my favorites and in my opinion best written for the series. Not surprising that my love for this book spawns because of its similarity to another book I have on this list. Once again we have cool mythology, vampire lore, an ornery hero paired with a kind-hearted but smart heroine, and moments that’ll make you want to cry, throw things into a fire, and cheer. This book spoke to my need for retribution. Throughout the book, it’s what I wanted for my mc more than anything. A need for justice, a supernatural world you want to know more about, and funny, lovable, but also broken characters that you just want to protect, I found this all and more in just this one book. 

Based on a real historical figure, Hotel Transylvania tells the story of the Compte de Saint-Germain who arrives in the Court of Louis XV in 1743 and falls in love with a young woman named Madelaine de Montalia. The historical Saint-Germain was rumored to be an alchemist who never aged, and some speculated he was a vampire. Yarbro gives us a heroic vampire who must step in and save the woman he loves when she becomes a target for devil-worshiping Paris nobility. I loved how Yarbro spun characters from a historical setting into a suspenseful, thrilling tale leaving us wanting more. Lucky for us Yarbro delivered over twenty sequels.

I wanted to be Elena! The chemistry was everything between her and the Archangel Raphael.

Not only does the book play with the trope of human and angel seduction, but there are vampires too!

Slow burn. Urban fantasy. Dark-edgy, hero. After reading this book, I became a Nalini Singh fan for life!

The graphic novel is one rush of scares and thrills. Set in the city of Barrows, Alaska where the sun doesn’t rise for thirty days during winter, the place becomes the perfect grounds (feasting, that is) for a group of vampires. And these monsters aren’t sparkling and pretty by any stretch. It’s up to Sheriff Eben Olemaun to survive with a group of townspeople, but the how and they why they do is one great story, aided by atmosphere illustrations.

In this Japanese light novel, vampires are an oppressed people living in a country adjoining a Soviet Union-like country, the Republic of Zirnitra. In this world, almost all of the stories you've heard about vampires being evil and hunting humans are Zirnitran propaganda, but vampires do drink blood and are sensitive to sunlight. Irina is a young vampire woman who volunteers to be a test subject for the Zirnitran space program so she can get closer to the moon, which she loves. The story is based on the real Soviet space program of the 1960s and I rooted for Irina as she overcame her own fears and Zirnitran oppression to fly in orbit and see her beloved moon up close before any human went into orbit.