100 books like The Thirteenth Tale

I adored this book because it was not of the typical Stephen King variety. I did, of course, enjoy the rich kingdom that King weaves, but the very ingenious escape of one of the main characters nailed it for me.

I like it when things are not easily guessed, and I love it more when books are so creative that you remember details 30 years after you’ve read them.

E. Lockhart's book is a really stunning blend of tragedy and mystery, set against the backdrop of a seemingly perfect, affluent family.

The story revolves around Cadence Sinclair, a young woman who spends her summers on her family's private island. After suffering a traumatic head injury, she struggles with amnesia and is desperate to piece together what happened during the summer of her accident.

The narrative is both haunting and beautifully poetic. It makes the shocking truths that slowly unravel feel even more impactful. What I love most about this book is its deep dive into themes of family, privilege, and the lies we tell ourselves and each other to uphold appearances. The Sinclairs are a family that seems to have it all, but beneath the surface lies greed, selfishness, and manipulation.

The story is told in a series of choppy, fragmented recollections that mirror Cadence's own disjointed memories, creating… show more.

My first experience reading a book with dual storylines, this novel held me spellbound cover to cover. McMahon has since become an auto-buy author for me, thanks to this fantastical story that puts a magnifying glass on the life of two sisters, a childhood friend, and an unexplained disappearance. The story moves between past and present and revolves around the Tower Motel in Vermont, now a ruined shell that refuses to yield its secrets. Secrets the girls discovered while playing games there as children. 

An unexpected splash of the paranormal and the use of letters from one sister to Mr. Hitchcock (yes, that Hitchcock) add the perfect touch to this disturbing gem.

A fellow New Englander, Tremblay took me by complete surprise with this novel. In the past, I saw horror defined by slashers, gore, and jump scares. This novel helped me understand that modern horror is a bit savvier and more nuanced, with a stronger focus on emotional suffering.

I really connected with the struggling working-class family and sympathized with their decision to let a documentary film crew create a series about their clearly struggling daughter. The film crew intended to market the girl as possessed by a demon, which the family signs off on in order to collect a desperately needed financial boost.

It expertly explores the hardships of the middle class, sibling love, and the societal hush-hush of mental illness. Plus, it’s got some twists and turns to that made my blood run absolutely cold.

Dean Koontz doesn’t need an introduction, nor does he need a shout-out, but this book stuck out to me in my younger days. While it may not fall into the same classifications as my previous recommendations, it may have been the first book I read about an average, not entirely special, person with a unique ability he doesn’t understand.

I read this book 20 years ago and still think about it often. The concept of seeing death and knowing when someone is about to die is just an intriguing—and terrifying—prospect. How do you deal with that? Especially knowing there’s nothing you can do to stop it? And then, what do you do when you start seeing Death everywhere? Do you fight it or run for the hills?

Before her mega-hit Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn penned this diabolical noir set in the deep South. It’s an edgy story, presenting a gallery of disturbed characters—including the deeply troubled protagonist, a journalist who returns to her hometown to report on the murders of two young girls.

Some books I forget a week or two after reading, others just stick with me for a year or more, and some leave bootprints in my mind forever. This is one of the latter.

Ninth House is a bit of a departure from my normal choice of genre. This is a fantasy novel, but it takes place at Yale.

Focusing on the well-known “secret” societies that have been an institution at Yale for generations, Bardugo asks the question, what if there was more to these groups than just influence? What if they actually trafficked in black magic? Narrated by Galaxy (Alex) Stern, we see the school through the eyes of an outsider - Alex, a high school dropout, who was recruited by Yale because she has a very special gift.

The way Bardugo writes, you can feel the cold, gray winter of New Haven as though you are living it. No spoilers, but if you haven’t read this novel because it falls into the fantasy genre, read it immediately.

While not perhaps a “romance” novel in the established-formula sense, this book is achingly romantic. This epic story truly focuses on the gradual development of the two protagonists’ relationship and how time travel both created and challenged their love. This book ignited my passion for magic-realism romantic novels and remains one of my top books of all time.

I adore the contrast of romantic love between two seemingly destined souls and the brutality of some events caused by Henry’s uncontrolled time travel. There’s also the tricky angle of the age gap (only sometimes, depending on where Henry and Clare are in their lives, but it is occasionally extreme), which the author doesn’t shy away from. And I confess this is probably the book that made me sob the most!

The first line had me hooked: “It would be inaccurate to say that my childhood was normal before they came.”

That one sentence fired up my imagination, and the story kept me turning the pages late into the night. Libby, an adoptee, unexpectedly inherits a once-grand mansion in London’s Chelsea, only to discover it comes with a grim family history that’s nothing like the fanciful one she’d imagined.

I’m particularly drawn to novels like this one, with multiple narrators and intertwining timelines.

The Girls Are All So Nice Here uses one of my favorite literary devices: dual timelines.

We bounce back and forth between Ambrosia (Amb) Wellington’s freshman year of college and her ten-year college reunion, where she is confronted by the secrets she has been keeping for the last decade. I’m a sucker for dark academia, and this book’s setting felt so real, it could have been my own alma mater.