Fans pick 93 books like The Heart of a Devil

Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre follows the format of a romance novel: a governess falls in love with her employer, they overcome impediments, and they live happily ever after. Add a madwoman in the attic, Thornfield Hall in flames, and Mr. Rochester’s voice calling to Jane across the winds, and you have an unforgettable romance novel.

I admire Jane immensely. Her journey from being a suffering student at Lowood School to an independent woman is as relevant as ever. Through every experience, she asserts her autonomy but never wavers in her moral compass.

In Brontë’s world, love involves every fiber of one’s being, not just emotions or desire. Mr. Rochester is a complex, conflicted man who proves himself worthy of Jane’s love. For me, they have set the standard of the romantic heroine and hero. 

Though this book is divided into different perspectives, the main character is a writer, someone filled with imagination, who often questions his sanity and is being haunted. As a matter of fact, most of the characters in Peter Straub’s book are. But what exactly they are being haunted by becomes the question.

I love Straub’s portrait of the town of Milburn through the eyes of his guilt-ridden protagonists, The Chowder Club, who torture their guilty consciences by telling each other ghost stories. The way Straub time jumps around in this book is dizzying but truly gorgeous. Right at the prologue, I was pulled in as the haunting mystery unfolded, and the question hangs in the air: who and what is the real villain?

The main reason I’m recommending this book is “The Little Mermaid” (the original version, not a sanitized later edition or off-the-mark Disney interpretation). I loved fairy tales as a kid and “The Little Mermaid” is my favorite because it doesn’t have a happy ending. (Not for the mermaid, at least.) I loved that just because we think things should happen a certain way doesn’t mean they will. The mermaid thought she was fated to be with the prince. But all her planning and sacrifice and suffering didn’t change the possibility that the prince was fated to be with the woman he chose. It was an early and valuable lesson for me on seeing things from a different perspective, and inspiration for one of my own short stories.

As a speculative fiction fan, I love to read horror, science fiction, and fantasy, and Spaceling is one of my favorite science fiction escapes. I first read it as a teenager and immediately connected with the idea of having a power that could literally transport me to another world. I was already a bit of an outsider, but I wanted to be an outsider like Daryl—wisecracking, resourceful, and fearless when it came to taking the leap and letting Fate’s cards fall where they may. This book is sometimes labeled YA fiction, but Doris Piserchia once said she wrote what she liked and had no specific aged audience in mind. I re-read it whenever I want to feel that rush of endless possibilities.

I was first acquainted with the works of MR James through the BBC Christmas Eve dramas, though I did not note his name. In later life while reading from a collection of supernatural stories by various authors I recognised an odd familiarity with a tale that centered on what at first appeared to be an unremarkable etching. 

As a child I recall being so terrified by an illustration, drawn in the manner of an etching, of the hideous witch in Hansel and Gretal in a book of fairy tales that I refused to sleep in my bedroom in its company, even though the book was firmly shut. Hardly surprising that the idea of a picture changing in the way recounted in the Mezzotint would resonate with me

I read this a few years ago, thought it was cute, and moved on. I recently reread it on a much deeper dive, and I found a story that was so much more than it appeared initially.

Gidwitz’s humor is excellent—I laughed out loud reading this. But he also touches on so many themes that are present throughout fairy tales while not shying away from either the darkness or the light.

I loved the way he combined some of the lesser-known tales with Hansel and Gretel to make something that was more than any one story had been before. It was something I wanted to replicate in my own way, and he does it so well.

It’s quite possibly the scariest book ever written. Much scarier than most adult horror books. Adult horror books rely on cheap shock value to elicit cheaper scares. It provides the same (or greater) level of unease without resorting to the gratuitous.

I cannot fathom how this book managed to pull that off. But I can say that this book has more to offer adults than it can give to children. An adult can see the subtext of a story where a child disappears because a stranger offers them candy and toys, as well as the implication that such strangers may not be entirely human.

And I can’t tell you what makes it so great without spoiling the whole story. I was so engrossed in this story that it practically kidnapped me. I can’t recommend it enough.

The Magic Circle is a retelling of Hansel and Gretel from the witch’s point of view. (I absolutely adore all of Donna Jo Napoli’s fairy tale retellings, so it was hard to pick just one!) I love how she is able to take an evil character from the original fairy tale and completely humanize her, writing her backstory and making her so sympathetic that by the time we get to that fateful scene with the oven, I was in tears. Not only are the characters brilliantly drawn, but the book is set in Medieval Europe and meticulously researched, bringing this time and place to life.

Who’s ever been blamed at work for something they didn’t do?  Well, the Office of Preternatural Affairs takes it to a whole new level when they suspect one of their agents, Cèsar Hawke, of murdering a woman. I mean, she was found dead in his home…but he claims he’s innocent. And he’s going to hunt down a shaman who can speak to the dead to prove it.

This wickedly fun story takes the urban fantasy detective trope and infuses it with humor, danger, and twists & turns.

If you are witch-curious or trying to reclaim the word from the long-nosed, wart-faced, evil images that have been forced upon us by a misunderstanding society, Witch is a fun read, filled with wit and wisdom for beginning witches. “Witch” is a powerful woman, a wise healer, who lives with the cycles of Mother Earth. This book helps women remember, reconnect, and reclaim the word “witch” and the power that comes with it.