100 Books Like Djinn

Vera and Daniel are expecting their first child. To help supplement their income, Vera decides she can sell vacuum cleaners door-to-door. She’s very good at it, too. She plans to stop...after just one more house. Unfortunately, this particular house belongs to The Slob and things are about to get very, very ugly.

Beauregard puts the “gross” in “engrossing!” This may be the most disturbing book that I have ever read. What sets Beauregard apart from many other writers of extreme horror is his immense talent for creating well-developed, relatable characters within an actual horror story. I grew to care for Vera and Daniel. When you sympathize with and connect so well with the characters, the horrors become magnified and the tension grows palpable. This book is absolutely horrid—chock full of the worst atrocities. Yet, you will find yourself loving it nonetheless. It is truly unforgettable.

Sarah Temple has ended her relationship with an abusive boyfriend and is now stuck in a dingy apartment living next to some very peculiar people. When her ex is unsuccessful in his attempt at reconciliation, he hooks up with her neighbor. Several days later he emerges as a strange new man. Sarah decides to investigate. And so the adventure begins.

Sometimes extreme horror stories fall short because the authors just want to shock and disgust readers. That’s fine for some, I suppose. But when an author can create a truly good, horrific story and make it disturbing, to boot, It’s a truly winning combination. Harvey Click does just that in The Bad Box. This story is creepy, suspenseful, mysterious, full of action, gory, imaginative, and masterfully written with rich, descriptive language and great imagery:

"A stench of damp dirt and worms and fungus and rotting animals belched up from… show more.

Some might say that this is a really crappy story. I will agree only to the extent that this book does, in fact, center on feces. Sara Todd is pregnant and she’s not craving pickles and ice cream!

This book is brilliantly written. McCluskey presents a most vile and disgusting story—one that is ripe with imagery and depravity. There’s not much that shocks and disturbs me, to be honest, but this book had me muttering, “No, oh no, no, no” in anticipation of the nasty deeds. Each one seemed progressively worse. It will likely turn your stomach and surely disgust you!

Suzey suffered physical and psychological abuse at the hands of her deplorable grandmother, who used the Stork fairytale to convince her that she was a worthless, evil creature without a soul. Years later, Suzey is still battling the stork, convinced that it is responsible for her inability to have a baby.

McKenzie is another great author who can weave elements of gore and depravity into an engrossing story full of great, well-developed characters. This one was especially superb and will keep you on the edge of your seat as you witness Suzey’s downward spiral.

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.

The development of both of these characters was amazing. Sometimes, you read a book where you relate to one character and not as much to the other. Not with this book!

Both voices and stories were gripping by themselves. Then, when they met, the explosions happened and you saw two “people” with the same background (but under vastly different circumstances), merge. 

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… show more.

Now here is a fantasy mixed with Rom-Com like you’ve never known before. I laughed and felt my heart throb the entirety of this book.

Sometimes it’s good to step away from the morally gray love interest and fall for the sweet one. Velis is a hot genie who becomes attached to his “master” (the conjurer of his genie lamp). Dolly is a heavily self-disciplined girl with a tragic story. With a deep need of mending her struggle, Velis is the supportive, compassionate, and respectful love interest perfectly capable of such a task.

Add in a hot genie bad boy brother and you have a dramatic story worth reading.

While some people may not think of genies (or jinn) as monsters in the same category as Bigfoot or dragons, from a cultural and folkloric point of view they definitely are.

Most Americans probably think of the wisecracking genie in Disney’s Aladdin, but belief in genies is both serious and widespread. In his book Legends of the Fire Spirits journalist Robert Lebling describes how the creatures appear in the Koran (hint: it’s closer to the recent film Three Thousand Years of Longing).

They are in some ways the Muslim equivalent of Christian angels, imbued with magical powers and viewed by the devout not as real and tangible as you or I. What I love about this book is how Lebling reveals the real stories of jinn—in both their wonder (granting wishes) and terrible vengeance (mass murder).

As with all monsters, whether you believe in them or not is… show more.

There is a fine line between silly and slapstick. This book manages to stay just barely on the good side of that line. Basically, we have two kids with genies being chased by bad guys. The danger motivates the kids to make wishes. The wishes are unlimited, but so are the consequences. Little wishes have little consequences while a big enough wish comes with death. Reading about the kids being forced to hop up and down, clap their hands and make weird noises as a result of the wishes is highly entertaining. But there are also a lot of openings for serious discussion as the kids try to negotiate smaller wishes to achieve similar results.  Which consequences would you accept?