Fans pick 73 books like The Beast within

Ordinarily, a werewolf novel with a strong emphasis on the romance angle wouldn’t rate so highly with me, but Kelley Armstrong’s book was the right one at the right time. Elana, our heroine, is the world’s only female werewolf; her job has been killing rogue shapeshifters. She gets tired of that and tries to retire and live as a normal human, but that doesn’t work out.

What I liked about this was that it was my first exposure to a werewolf novel that really dealt with the political and social dynamics of a worldwide werewolf pack. Fortunately, Armstrong is a great storyteller, so there is more here than politics or romance. Her worldbuilding is fantastic, as evidenced by the fact this became the first in a long series of Otherworld novels.

Whenever I’m asked to recommend a werewolf novel, I kick myself again for waiting so long to get around to McCammon’s take on the lycanthrope. This book isn’t just my favorite werewolf novel; it’s one of my favorite novels. Holy cow! It’s got everything! If you could fuse James Bond and Indiana Jones together, then turn that into a werewolf with roots in the Russian royalty, you’d have our hero, Michael Gallatin.

McCammon has always kind of lived in the shadow of Stephen King, but honestly, he’s ten times the writer, and his endings don’t suck. This book pulled me in, and I could not wait to return to it when silly things like the day job pulled me away. I really liked that McCammon gave us Gallitan’s back story and made the pack that turned him into a sympathetic group.

There were some loose ends, but those were resolved… show more.

Little Red Riding Hood may have been a prostitute who chose the wolf. I love how thorough Zipes is in his collection of (nearly) all things related to Red. The story is much older than the Brothers Grimm and as new as…well, this was published in 1993 and featured pretty new cartoons.

Unlike so many modern stories where the werewolf is simply a monster “out there” hunting and killing people, the story of Little Red Riding Hood is full of symbolism and metaphor and has been endlessly retold and reinterpreted across all mediums. Was she an innocent girl tricked and eaten by the wolf? Was she a curious young woman lured into the world of prostitution? Was she saved by a woodcutter? Did Grandma escape, or was she also a prostitute? The answer is almost always yes in some form of the story, and Zipes includes it here. This was… show more.

Werewolf stories are my favorite sub-genre of horror, whether it be books or movies. Brandner’s book set the stage for one of the greatest werewolf movies ever. The writing, the characters, and the setting are all top-notch.

For a fun experiment, watch the movie and then read the book, or vice versa, and compare what was changed and whether the movie made improvements. In my opinion, it did, but the book absolutely stands on its own.

As the late 1970s popularity of fantastic creatures continued to spread, professor Malcolm South edited a research guide that follows twenty imaginary animals and creatures through time. The substantial 1987 book is highly schematic in South’s earnest attempt to sum up what was known about particular mythical beasts and imaginary creatures during their recent surge in popularity. Illustrations, a glossary, and even a taxonomy supplement specialists’ articles and bibliographies about creatures from the unicorn and other major mythical animals to the vampire and werewolf, giants, and fairies. 

All my previous recommended books are cited in South’s sourcebook. I’ve been much indebted to it for research leads over the years and highly recommend it as a standard source for any reader following mythical beasts and other creatures.

This is the first book I remember feeling so immersed into that I forgot I was reading. Many of Riordan’s books have that effect on me, but The Titan’s Curse especially brought me into the modern era of Greek Heroes and mythological characters. I remember this book as if I’d been there and lived through it.

For everyone who lost their love of reading while drowning in homework and chores, this is the book to revive it. I have never felt so intimately drawn into a book and never wanted to remain in the world as badly as when I first finished this book and raced to the nearest location of the next in the series.

Have you ever felt out of place? Like you don’t belong in this world? 

That’s how Lily Monroe used to feel—until she discovered she was right. 

When Lily is thrown into a parallel world filled with magic, mythological creatures, and people with amazing superpowers, she embarks on a rollercoaster of a journey and takes you along. 

She finds family. She finds loyal friends. And maybe even love.

I highly recommend all three books of the Realm Saga. In fact, after you read the first one, you’ll definitely want to read the rest, and you won’t regret it.

Fern the unicorn likes fixing and inventing more than prancing and dancing, a fact that gets her teased. When things fall apart at the party, her friends learn to see the value in her gifts. But will she want to help them after they call her names? 

I love this book because it pushes back on the idea that feminine can’t mean smart. Even better, it honors Fern’s reaction to the bullying rather than pushing the normal narrative of easy forgiveness. I admire its emotional honesty.

This book was the first time I saw elements and mythical creatures mentioned together, and I grew up loving both. Although I read this as a kid, I still think about this series frequently.

The main character is unique because she is a companion to all mythical creatures and regular animals instead of just one type, and I found that super cool. The descriptions and storyline of her power made me wish I had it, too. I liked how many mythical creatures I got to read about in this book, and it helped spur my interest in them even more.

I also like it when the MC in books is oblivious to the magical world but gets dragged into it because I get to learn about it alongside them.  

As a child, we loved to read a Golden Book story before bedtime every night and this book is just as inspiring. Children will fall in love with the little unicorn who is magical, brave, and strong. They will enter a fantastical world of magic and fantasy where everything is possible, all you have to do is believe!