Here are 96 books that The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye fans have personally recommended if you like
The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye.
Shepherd is a community of 12,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.
Maurice Sendak said, "Children do live in fantasy and reality, they move back and forth very easily in a way we no longer remember how to do." In other words, children do the impossible. Growing up, stories where the real and imagined collided were like fresh air when I felt like I couldn't breathe. They've always been important to me, and for many reasons, hold a special place in our literature. Now, as a full-time teacher, writer, and daddy, I get to be on the other side of that joy equation, guiding new readers and writers as they become travelers of the fantastic.
I love this book because it really erases the line between the real and the fantastic. I’ve been a Neil Gaiman fan since Sandman. This is a middle-grade book written for me. The path I took through this book led me back to my childhood and reminded me of Where the Wild Things Are, with its nearly seamless transition between the “real” world and the imagined.
Neil’s done this before with Caroline and the Graveyard. But Ocean is different. Here, I never lose touch with the real world. The turn to fantasy just makes the real world more dangerous. I think that’s an important change. When I was a child, when I daydreamed or pondered the things and people and dark corners that I didn’t understand, when I added the additional layer of the fantastic, it wasn’t really an escape.
'Neil Gaiman's entire body of work is a feat of elegant sorcery. He writes with such assurance and originality that the reader has no choice but to surrender to a waking dream' ARMISTEAD MAUPIN
'Some books just swallow you up, heart and soul' JOANNE HARRIS
'Summons both the powerlessness and wonder of childhood, and the complicated landscape of memory and forgetting' GUARDIAN
---
'My favourite response to this book is when people say, 'My childhood was nothing like that - and it was as if…
I’ve loved weird horror from a young age, and that passion only grew as the years went on. It all started when I was ten, and I got an anthology of classic horror for my birthday. Inside I read The White People by Machen, Cast the Runes by MR James, and The Colour Out of Space by Lovecraft, and I was hooked. Ever since then I chased that same thrill of the horror that is so out there and strange it just breaks your brain and changes you inside out. I have a feeling I’ll be chasing that obsession until the end of my days.
Another fun bit of psychedelic folk horror, combined with a really cool history of the experimental films of Canada.
The narrator is compelling, and the whole time you feel the pull of her obsession to the film she’s looking into, even if it unsettles her and terrifies her at the same time. Love that pull of danger, wanting to look, to see, but knowing that doing so will probably kill you…
The award-winning author of the Hexslinger Series "explores the world of film and horror in a way that will leave you reeling" (Jeff VanderMeer, author of the Southern Reach Trilogy).
Former film teacher Lois Cairns is struggling to raise her autistic son while freelancing as a critic when, at a screening, she happens upon a sampled piece of silver nitrate silent footage. She is able to connect it to the early work of Mrs. Iris Dunlopp Whitcomb, the spiritualist and collector of fairy tales who mysteriously disappeared from a train compartment in 1918.
I have always been enamored with myth and the fantastic, even as a child. They offer an escape from the mundane, but also deliver a fine method to guide our moral compasses, learn about other cultures, and assign meaning to those things that vex us. I studied literature and history in college and found myself delving more and more into theology and mythology as I went because literature is filled with their essence. My exploits have guided me to the desk as a language arts and special education teacher, but my heart always whisks me back to the bookshelf or the desk to visit these fantastic worlds of the supernatural.
The supernatural category often flirts with horror and Welch’s novel, Within the Fog, dives into the deep end of that relationship. With hints of Phantoms, this story harkens to early American folklore surrounding the disappearance of the Roanoke Colony in the late 1500s. This occurrence, and many like it, has capitated us and led us to wonder about these mass disappearances from around the globe. Welch draws on the human psyche to deliver his suspense and reading this book will have you thinking twice about venturing too close to the cloudy ichor we call fog.
Throughout history, around the world, there are many examples of the mass disappearance of people living in small towns. Easter Island in 1718, Hoer Verde, Brazil, in 1923, Lake Anjikuni, Nunavut, Canada in 1930, Roanoke Island, Virginia in 1587, all were found deplete of humanity. Meals remained rotting on dinner tables, pets wandered aimlessly, not a soul to be found. The same ancient evil that devastated these places has arrived in a small eastern Colorado town. A fog covers the small town and closes in on Tom Benton and his family. Susan Benton watches the day turn to night from…
I have always been enamored with myth and the fantastic, even as a child. They offer an escape from the mundane, but also deliver a fine method to guide our moral compasses, learn about other cultures, and assign meaning to those things that vex us. I studied literature and history in college and found myself delving more and more into theology and mythology as I went because literature is filled with their essence. My exploits have guided me to the desk as a language arts and special education teacher, but my heart always whisks me back to the bookshelf or the desk to visit these fantastic worlds of the supernatural.
This history of myths, folklore, and legend is a must-own for any reader who fancies themselves a fan of the supernatural genre. Written in the form of a field guide to help travelers traversing the landscape pocked with these entities, A Field Guide is a phenomenal read and lends insights into the myths and religious entities of various cultures. Equipped with a section for how to ward off each, this guide may prove to be more useful to the reader than just a bit of reference material.
“Scouring the face of the earth, Carol and Dinah Mack have come up with an array of the most dreaded demons mythology has to offer.” —Robert L. Carniero, former Curator of South American Ethnology, American Museum of Natural History
If you met a werewolf on the eve of a full moon, would you know how to tell what he really was? Could you resist the dark charms of a vampire or the lure of a fallen angel? Did you know the Mbulu of South Africa has a razor-sharp tail with a mind of its own? Or that the Kuru-Pira of…
I’ve always been fascinated by folklore and religious myth. A passion further inspired by my path as an Eclectic Pagan, and my pursuit of a Masters in Mythological Studies. My interest in mythology was first inspired by my mother as she told us bedtime stories filled with the exploits of heroes, of gods, and angels. My upbringing in Christianity introduced me to the mythologies of Judaism, which eventually led me into the greater world of Paganism and an entire universe filled with a multitude of pantheons filled with their own gods, heroes, and legends.
The start of an epic fantasy adventure. Filled with djinn, magic, and myth, Dalen Pax and the Beads of Fire pulls you into an engaging fantasy world where time unravels and reforms a world of wild imagine. The protagonist begins his adventure as a normal teenager trying to find his place in the world. A world that expands with the revelation that magic exists, that time is a construct. Joined by a band of engaging characters I highly recommend joining the adventure.
Dalen Pax and the Beads of Fire is a delightfully inventive Fantasy novel, a remarkably touching and insightful coming-of-age story, and a philosophical tour de force.
Dalen Pax is a typical high school misfit who has always wished that magic was real. One fateful night, he found that it was when he risked his life to save Mathias, a man he didn't know. A man with the ability to wield real magic. After their meeting, Mathias enlists Dalen to help him retrieve a powerful artifact known as the Beads of Fire, which connects its wearer to the Fire Jinn, a…
Graeme Davis has been fascinated by myth and folklore ever since he saw Ray Harryhausen’s creatures in Jason and the Argonauts as a child. While studying archaeology at Durham University, he became far too involved with a new game called Dungeons & Dragons and went on to a career in fantasy games. He has written game sourcebooks on various ancient cultures and their myths, and worked as a researcher and consultant on multiple video games with historical and mythological settings.
This is an early example of mythology being used for a deliberate purpose: in this case, the promotion of Christian chivalric virtue. Full of dreamlike images and allegories, it also had a great influence on early fantasy writing, even if those creating early fantasy tales had never read it. And then, of course, there’s Monty Python.
Composed by an unknown author in early thirteenth-century France, The Quest of the Holy Grail is a fusion of Arthurian legend and Christian symbolism, reinterpreting ancient Celtic myth as a profound spiritual fable. It recounts the quest of the knights of Camelot - the simple Perceval, the thoughtful Bors, the rash Gawain, the weak Lancelot and the saintly Galahad - as they journey through danger and temptation to reach the elusive Holy Grail. But only one of them is judged worthy to see the mysteries within the sacred vessel, and look upon the ineffable. Enfused with tragic grandeur and an…
Historical fantasy is my favorite genre, combining my twin passions of history and mythology/folklore. I especially like to read about unfamiliar times, places, identities, and cultures. What I love best about the fantastical is that it allows me to think and write about deep matters symbolically. As someone still discovering my asexuality in middle age, I’ve always identified best with coming-of-age stories, which is why there are so many young protagonists in both my reading and my writing.
There’s not enough Muslim historical fantasy in the world, and this one is so lavish and full of aching romance—my favorite kind! It takes us from 18th-century Cairo, where con-girl Nahri accidentally summons centuries-old deava warrior Dara, to the fabled City of Brass, its walls covered in enchanted statues, home to rival clans of djinn.
I love how the tribes of Deavabad reflect different parts of the Islamic world and its pre-Islamic culture. For example, the main djinn faith reflects Islam, whereas the deava faith with its fire temple reflects the Zoroastrianism of ancient Persia. It’s a complex, believable world in which I can immerse myself, full of revelations, betrayals, tugs of loyalty, and dilemmas of love.
Nahri has never believed in magic. Certainly, she has power; on the streets of eighteenth-century Cairo, she's a con woman of unsurpassed talent. But she knows better than anyone that the trades she uses to get by-palm readings, zars, and a mysterious gift for healing-are all tricks, both the means to the delightful end of swindling Ottoman nobles and a reliable way to survive.
But when Nahri accidentally summons Dara, an equally sly, darkly mysterious djinn warrior, to her side during one of her cons, she's forced to reconsider her beliefs. For Dara tells Nahri an extraordinary tale: across hot,…
I am a fiction writer and currently live in Cairo, where I have lived for over twenty years. I noticed that the way I started telling stories was influenced by learning Arabic and by listening to the stories of the people in the city. My interest in Arabic also led me to read Arabic literature, like A Thousand and One Nights.
This is a fun, playful novel that completely breaks all of the boundaries—time, gender, country, and fact—not
surprising from Salman Rushdie! It is a dizzying ride, going from the
Ferris wheel, to bumper cars, to the house of mirrors in a theme park.
Rather
than relying so much on the strict frame narrative, Rushdie experiments
with the idea of characters who are overtaken by “the jinn”—a wild,
irrational impulse that perverts existing norms. It is Dunyazad,
Shahrazad’s sister who marries Ibn Rushd, the great philosopher who was
marginalized in 1195 by the Caliph. Rushdie tells the stories of all of
Dunyazad or Dunia’s descendants, as well as the eternal war between Ibn
Rushd and Al-Ghazali, eight hundred years beyond the grave. A fan
of the wacky and weird, Rushdie outdoes himself with the characters in this story.
After a
super-storm, the line between humans and the jinns blurs…
Blending history, mythology and a timeless love story, this is a satirical, magical masterpiece.
In the near future, after a storm strikes New York City, the strangenesses begin. A down-to-earth gardener finds that his feet no longer touch the ground. A graphic novelist awakens in his bedroom to a mysterious entity that resembles his own comic book creation. Abandoned at the mayor's office, a baby identifies corruption with her mere presence, marking the guilty with blemishes and boils. A seductive gold digger is soon tapped to combat forces beyond imagining.
Unbeknownst to them, they are all descended from the whimsical,…
I love mythological creatures! I grew up gravitating toward fantasy books but because I have a narcissistic parent, I got teased for reading them. To avoid the teasing, I ended up reading a lot of mythology because that was a “safe” fantasy option; reading mythology was “educational” rather than “silly.” When I got older, I discovered that there’s a whole category of fantasy books that retell myths from alternative points of view. This subgenre opened new doors of understanding and empathy for me. Reading old stories from new perspectives opens my eyes to a myriad of different types of people and broadens my view of the world. And I’ve been reading them ever since.
The story of two mystical creatures stuck in 1899 New York who have to make their own way in the world. Despite their different natures, they become unlikely friends and have to work together to survive.
While I enjoyed the perspective of both supernatural beings in this book, I found the golem especially engaging. Through her eyes, the reader gets an amazingly detailed view of turn-of-the-century New York as well as the intricacies of human behavior.
The jinni faces different challenges—he’s lost a chunk of his memory—but he also has to adapt to life among people. Wrapped in a rich tapestry of historical details, the story walks us through their processes of acclimating to human society and facing the dangers of their pasts.
'One of only two novels I've ever loved whose main characters are not human' BARBARA KINGSOLVER
For fans of The Essex Serpent and The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock.
'By far my favourite book of of the year' Guardian
Chava is a golem, a creature made of clay, brought to life by a disgraced rabbi who dabbles in dark Kabbalistic magic. When her master, the husband who commissioned her, dies at sea on the voyage from Poland, she is unmoored and adrift as the ship arrives in New York in 1899.
There was a time when women had to use pseudonyms or otherwise pretend to be men to get published. These days, especially in the urban fantasy genre, it seems like there are more female authors and female main characters than male ones! I love dynamic main characters, male or female, and every one of these books has stellar characters with a great story. I wanted to mention so many other authors, but I have narrowed it down to these five. I hope you enjoy my list.
There are a few good men out there who fight for the underdog. The main is bound by a powerful overlord. He’s good at his job but doesn’t have a choice. His only friend appears to live inside a ring he wears (djinn). The bad work environment doesn’t mean he doesn’t fight for what is right, even as he tries to figure out a way out of his predicament.
This is a thriller-level urban fantasy with solid plotting and lots of twists and turns. It is about as far from romantasy as you can get, and the hero has a great story to tell. McClellan is better known for his fantasy, but I absolutely love this urban fantasy series.
Alek Fitz is a reaper, a collection agent who works for the supernatural elements of the world, tracking down debtors and solving problems for clients as diverse as the Lords of Hell, vampires, Haitian loa, and goblins. He’s even worked for the Tooth Fairy on occasion. Based out of Cleveland, Ohio, Alek is the best in the game. As a literal slave to his job, he doesn’t have a choice. When Death comes looking for someone to track down a thief, Alek is flung into a mess of vengeful undead, supernatural bureaucracy, and a fledgling imp war. As the consequences…
