Books like Dark Entries — picked by fans

This is the book that taught me how powerful loneliness can be.

Every time I return to it, I feel one character’s ache settle into me, that desperate want to belong somewhere, even if it’s a house that doesn’t love you back. I recommend it because it still feels as if I’m attempting to figure out what is happening alongside the characters, the way only great writing can.

Jackson makes you realize that the scariest hauntings aren’t in the walls, they’re the ones we carry within us.

I am a huge fan of the very-brief gothic. It’s so hard to do well; trivial jump-scares are easy, but to produce a meaningful effect in only a few pages takes real precision. Shirley Jackson holds the crown with "The Lottery," but my second favorite instance of a surprisingly quick read that produces a real gasp is Angela Carter’s mini-treasure, "The Werewolf."

It manages to be a fairy tale, feminist critique, a witch, and a werewolf story all at once—and, like the beast in the title, it may not be what it appears. Also wonderful to me are "The Company of Wolves," "The Snow Child," and the eponymous "The Bloody Chamber," that one a revisioning of "Bluebeard"—essentially, Carter updates all kinds of dark fairy tales, bringing out their subversive shadows for a savvy reader. Still so fresh to this day.

Are there any ghosts in the most famous ghost story of all time, "The Turn of the Screw"? Fans have been debating that for over a century. I am awed and frequently challenged by James’ prose style, in which so much is rendered carefully ambiguous.

In his greatest offerings—"The Jolly Corner," "The Real Right Thing," and, a personal fave, "The Friends of the Friends"—he was able to elevate Gilded Age ghost stories to the realm of high art. Among his most central gifts was a Hawthorne-inspired interest in the nature of guilt, self-deception, and the spectral world inside our minds.

I recently visited Henry James’ grave in Cambridge and found that anonymous fans continue to leave him little tributes to this day.

She’s more famous for novels like Ethan Frome and The Age of Innocence, but I love Edith Wharton above all for her ghost stories. I especially admire "Afterward," which, for my candy corn, is the greatest literary ghost story ever written. It both chills me and makes me ponder; the emotions inside this complex tale of secret lives are so real that, after I’ve put it down, I find I want to talk to anyone else who has read it about what just happened.

Wharton handles both language and imagery with a deft touch, all while drawing the reader into a haunting that has more than one dimension.

This is an easy-to-read introduction to magic for people who don’t want to join organized groups or participate in spiritual traditions in order to learn. It allows readers to experiment with practices and techniques on their own and includes everything a beginner needs to know about the art and craft of magic, including visualization, ordinary ethics, ritual practices, and vital safety measures.

One of the reasons I read this genre is because so many of these stories include strong, fierce heroines and Calla Tor from Nightshade is one of the strongest. In a society and culture that imposes rules and oppression on their people, Calla is forced to test the limits and figure out who she really is and what she’s made of while still being a strong leader to her pack. This story is on my top 5 list because Calla is an unforgettable character, but so much of why you’ll love her is thanks to the world this author creates. Nightshade is another unique, fresh take on werewolves that you won’t want to put down.

Mya Spalter is a New York witch who learned the ropes by way of her ancestors as well as the Enchantments occult shop. Learning from both guides and NYC witches, I love the way this book shows how Spalter’s magic was conjured by personal connections to survival and home.

Gaining knowledge on both our magic and ancestral practices can be a difficult journey for queer folks, navigating the ultra-conservative laws of mainstream spirituality. However, magic is not conservative nor heterosexual—it is universal and a tool we can all access. This book showed me the divine connections between Wiccan history, self-care, and surviving as a queer person of Color in America.

This book shifted how I view the energetic universe, helping me realize its true nature and the principles that govern it. I love how this book breaks down the seven Hermetic principles which literally dictate our physical reality.

These teachings helped me understand how we have the power to shape our reality through our thoughts and actions. By aligning with these universal laws, I can now manifest more intentionally and accurately, enjoying better results. Before, it felt like the laws were using me, but now I’m using them to create harmony in my life. 

This book chronicles the changing landscape of Western spirituality as it encounters “the wisdom of the East,” primarily India’s religious heritage, alongside its fascination with and assumed similarity to the archaic and “pagan” European past.

The ideas of the primacy of solar worship are entertained side by side with the notions of the importance of phallic worship and fertility cults. The title of the book is a tip of the hat to Frances Yates’ study of Rosicrucian Enlightenment–in both cases, the suggestion is that the project of Enlightenment does not consist of the “cult of reason” exclusively but that it contains important undercurrents best described as esoteric, which in Godwin’s book have their focus on the Theosophical Society of Madame Blavatsky and its many associated propagators. 

After years of practicing yogic-based meditation and qigong, I felt called to seek out spiritual Earth connection practices from my own European ancestral lineages.

This book stood out to me because it opens a path directly to the deep consciousness of the Earth, through journeys based on Celtic and pre-Celtic symbols. Each exploration has opened new insights and transformations, leaving me feeling a greater attunement with nature and with my own being.

There is a deep-time metaphysics underlying this book, connected to the ancient mysteries yet without the heavy trappings of elaborate outer ritual. This bare-bones simplicity makes the practice accessible in the midst of a full life.