84 books like The Wicked Unseen

It doesn’t take much beyond the term “sapphic witches” to get me really excited about a book. Additionally, we’ve got elemental magic, blood rituals, and the store in Salem where the main character works is called the “Fly by Night Cauldron” and I was completely sold. This is a light, fun read that I thoroughly enjoyed. I was drawn in by the conflict, not only with the main villain, but a tense history with an ex, and a potential new romance. I really enjoy finding fantasy books where the queerness of the character is not an “issue” or questioned at all. It was something I badly needed as a teen, and it's a relief to be finally getting this kind of thing in literature. I wish I could send it to my younger self!

I found the magic system to be delightful as well, with the elemental powers reminding me… show more.

With a dash of sapphic romance and a heartbreaking final twist, this book imagines a sinister, sentient darkness lurking in a small town and egging its residents on into terrible acts. It cuts right to the core of a troubled family and the petty resentments that have built up between them. I totally cried.

This is a story about a contract killer who only kills bad people and what is an assassin if not a paid serial killer? This is not Stephen King’s traditional fayre, but it is unmistakably a Stephen King story. Essentially, the book explores Summer’s past, waiting for his next hit and his life after the job is complete. King effortlessly takes us into a world of war, injustice, revenge, and love, all the while unravelling the complexities that comprise Billy Summers. It really was one of those books I didn’t want to end. I will definitely explore further crime-themed books by Stephen King.

I have always loved literary thriller queen Daphne Du Maurier's complex and resilient characters, and Mary Yellan is no exception. Everything’s looking pretty miserable for her after her mother’s death forces her to give up the family farm and her hometown to live in a creepy inn with her miserable aunt and aggressive drunk of an uncle.

So I really enjoy how brave and resourceful she is in getting past violence, danger, miserable living conditions, a desolate setting, and bad taste in men to find out whether something more sinister than smuggling is going on at the empty inn.   

I love how much Mercy learns about herself. I also really admire the time and space and, above all, respect Briggs's investments in Mercy's witting and unwitting explorations of her powers and heritage. And how Mercy reacts to revelations about her mother and mostly unknown father. I, at least, admire when Mercy is allowed to get cranky and try to pick and choose what she wants to keep or discard, approve or disapprove.

All this, and it's a heck of a roller coaster ride. I rode the slow build-up, increasingly bracing myself for the first big drop, and then whoop-whoop-whoop, I whirled up and down and sideways to the end.

I loved this series because it took a person who was struggling in life and brought them into a new and more deadly world where her struggles became more intense and real. She had to grow, trust herself, and learn how and who to trust in this new world. It was filled with Runes magic and though character driven it had a plot that pulled you along. 

I’ve read this book twice, once as a paperback and more recently as an audiobook, which added a wonderful extra layer to this luscious novel.

Primarily a love story, the tale is told in beautiful prose that made my skin tingle with both appreciation and envy. Love, memory, the nature of books, the nature of self, characters that jump off the page, there is so much to appreciate in this deeply immersive story.

But for me, it was the characters’ sense that there is something unknown missing in themselves, something just out of reach, that resonated most strongly, a feeling that comes so close to my experiences of depression that it almost took my breath away. A book of wonder and magic that reached deep into my soul.

Elizabeth Knox plunks her protagonists into the middle of an ongoing mystery that crosses the veil between this world and the world of Faerie, with no explanation, so the reader has to follow the same few clues that the heroine is given. I love an author who assumes that her readers are that intelligent! As she unravels the mystery, Taryn Cornick also must face up to the consequences of a great sin she once committed and do all she can to atone for it, while accepting that it may not be enough. Knox weaves in aspects of Dante’s Purgatorio, Celtic and Norse mythology, our current ecological crisis, and the psychology of trauma to create an epic fantasy that invites multiple re-readings.

This was one of the first fiction books I read that set before me a world that is ordinary interrupted, and affected by another world that is supernatural.

In this book, when the main character goes to sleep, he wakes up in another world populated by mysterious beings and people.

Perhaps most interesting about this set up, is that events in this “dream world” affect events in the waking one.

While the main character only retains a passive ability (entering this other world and healing) the whole traveling between both spaces, his interactions with both divine and malevolent beings, and his race to stop his world from destruction all pulled me into the story in such a way that I could not put down.

I loved this book because it blends many religions and faiths and churns out an amazing explanation of the universe and how our realities are created.

I think this was not only an incredibly entertaining book full of fascinating characters and realities, but its spiritual questions and answers just captivated my soul and imagination and expanded my view of life and the universe. I also felt really connected to so many characters in this book and that really made it special.