Here are 22 books that Private Rites fans have personally recommended if you like Private Rites. Book DNA is a community of 12,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of Discount Dan

Ephiny Gale Author Of Pick Your Potion

From Ephiny's 3 favorite reads in 2025.

Why am I passionate about this?

Author

Ephiny's 3 favorite reads in 2025

Ephiny Gale Why Ephiny loves this book

Super fun. Unique world. Weird in the best way.

By James A. Hunter ,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked Discount Dan as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Noclip In, No Way Out... All Dan wants is to find a way home. He'd settle for a beer, a bite to eat, and a place to sleep off his hangover.But, in an endless, ever-changing dungeon cobbled together from twisted carnivals, abandoned shopping malls, janky laundromats, and condemned insane asylums, getting a bit of shut-eye is harder than it sounds.Dan has accidentally "Noclipped" into the Backrooms—a bizarro, extra-dimensional Alice-in-Wonderland world, overrun with horrific nightmare creatures known as the Dwellers. No one ever gets out. Hell, forget about leaving, if Dan wants to survive the week, he's going to need to…


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Book cover of Aggressor

Aggressor by FX Holden,

It is April 1st, 2038. Day 60 of China's blockade of the rebel island of Taiwan.

The US government has agreed to provide Taiwan with a weapons system so advanced that it can disrupt the balance of power in the region. But what pilot would be crazy enough to run…

Book cover of Judicator Jane 2

Ephiny Gale Author Of Pick Your Potion

From Ephiny's 3 favorite reads in 2025.

Why am I passionate about this?

Author

Ephiny's 3 favorite reads in 2025

Ephiny Gale Why Ephiny loves this book

A fresh take on litRPG stats and worldbuilding that continues to surprise and delight me.

By Brian Rouleau ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Judicator Jane 2 as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

As Jane uncovers Alur's secrets, she learns a terrible truth.After the monumental events in the Wastelands, Jane now embarks on a mission to discover who built the enigmatic System and why it brought her to Alur. On top of that, she needs to take care of the demonic horde she is now responsible for, along with helping any others she can along the way.However, there is an insidious evil here, festering in the most unexpected of places. Can she unravel the mystery in time? Or will the allure of power pull her down a path of darkness?Ancient forces, deadly monsters,…


Book cover of Our Wives Under the Sea

Elizabeth Mitchell Author Of Joyce

From my list on magical realism books that’ll stick to your ribs.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m chronically ill. Whether I’m swept up, terrified, swooning, or trying to solve a mystery, I love my fiction to take me elsewhere. The dichotomy of wanting to share my experiences, discuss disability, open up the conversation around the topic, and have others lose themselves in story has been a fine line I’ve walked with all of my work. With Joyce, I wanted to bring grief and disability to life in a more resonate way. The words pain and fatigue mean drastically different things to different people. When magic is involved, it transcends your definition or mine, allowing us to focus on the experience with less personal context. 

Elizabeth's book list on magical realism books that’ll stick to your ribs

Elizabeth Mitchell Why Elizabeth loves this book

Some say this book is horror. I recommend it not as a horror book, but as a glimpse into illness, grief, and uncertainty through the lens of magical realism.

I see the moments along the way that are scary, but for me, those are just jump pads to the action of living, of existing, of the complicated state of being unwell, and how love will allow you to accept more than you thought you were capable of.

Does Julia know she showcased the slow decline of a chronically ill person in the way she did? I do not know. But as a chronically ill person myself, I saw poignant vignettes of tenderness around the topic.

Though the dual storylines, the unknown, the fear, are interesting and creative, it’s the quiet moments between two women who love each other, just wondering what’s next, that will stay with you.

By Julia Armfield ,

Why should I read it?

9 authors picked Our Wives Under the Sea as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Named as book to look out for in 2022 by Guardian, i-D, Autostraddle, Bustle, Good Housekeeping, Stylist and DAZED.

Miri thinks she has got her wife back, when Leah finally returns after a deep sea mission that ended in catastrophe. It soon becomes clear, though, that Leah may have come back wrong. Whatever happened in that vessel, whatever it was they were supposed to be studying before they were stranded on the ocean floor, Leah has carried part of it with her, onto dry land and into their home.

To have the woman she loves back should mean a return…


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Book cover of The Year Mrs. Cooper Got Out More: A Great Wharf Novel

The Year Mrs. Cooper Got Out More by Meredith Marple,

The coastal tourist town of Great Wharf, Maine, boasts a crime rate so low you might suspect someone’s lying.

Nevertheless, jobless empty nester Mallory Cooper has become increasingly reclusive and fearful. Careful to keep the red wine handy and loath to leave the house, Mallory misses her happier self—and so…

Book cover of This Is How You Lose the Time War

Jett Harriss

From Jett's 3 favorite reads in 2025.

Unknown Author Why Jett loves this book

The writing was just absolutely beautiful.

By Amal El-Mohtar , Max Gladstone ,

Why should I read it?

29 authors picked This Is How You Lose the Time War as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

WINNER OF The Hugo and Nebula Awards for Best Novella, the Reddit Stabby Award for Best Novella AND The British Science Fiction Association Award for Best Novella

SHORTLISTED FOR
2020 Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award
The Ray Bradbury Prize
Kitschies Red Tentacle Award
Kitschies Inky Tentacle
Brave New Words Award

'A fireworks display from two very talented storytellers' Madeline Miller, author of Circe

Co-written by two award-winning writers, This Is How You Lose the Time War is an epic love story spanning time and space.

Among the ashes of a dying world, an agent of the Commandant finds a letter. It…


Book cover of Dracula

eric3

From Eric's 3 favorite reads in 2025.

Unknown Author Why Eric loves this book

The classic tale that everyone knows but there is a lot more depth to the novel than in the many adaptions. There is high Victorian melodrama here but also interesting social details and an ingenious writing style combining diary entries, letters and newspaper reports. A real page turner but with psychological depth.

By Bram Stoker ,

Why should I read it?

31 authors picked Dracula as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 17.

What is this book about?

'The very best story of diablerie which I have read for many years' Arthur Conan Doyle

A masterpiece of the horror genre, Dracula also probes identity, sanity and the dark corners of Victorian sexuality and desire. It begins when Jonathan Harker visits Transylvania to help Count Dracula purchase a London house, and makes horrifying discoveries in his client's castle. Soon afterwards, disturbing incidents unfold in England - an unmanned ship is wrecked; strange puncture marks appear on a young woman's neck; a lunatic asylum inmate raves about the imminent arrival of his 'Master' - and a determined group of adversaries…


Book cover of A Monster Calls

Uma Krishnaswami Author Of Birds on the Brain

From Uma's 3 favorite reads in 2024.

Why am I passionate about this?

Author Writer Knitter Ex-child Daydreamer Bird-watcher

Uma's 3 favorite reads in 2024

Uma Krishnaswami Why Uma loves this book

I first read this soon after it was published in 2011. I reread it this year because I wanted to see how well it would hold up after so many years. I wasn't disappointed. To begin with, it remains a moving tribute to the wonderfully talented Siobhan Dowd (author of Bog Child and Solace of the Road), who died far too soon of cancer. Ness paints the character of his protagonist, Conor, with admirably spare prose, and the story builds by accretion, so that the monster's tales become gradually intertwined with Conor's own path towards acceptance and mourning. Solidly YA in focus with much for this adult reader to appreciate.

By Patrick Ness , Siobhan Dowd , Jim Kay (illustrator)

Why should I read it?

15 authors picked A Monster Calls as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 12, 13, 14, and 15.

What is this book about?

The bestselling novel and major film about love, loss and hope from the twice Carnegie Medal-winning Patrick Ness.

Conor has the same dream every night, ever since his mother first fell ill, ever since she started the treatments that don't quite seem to be working. But tonight is different. Tonight, when he wakes, there's a visitor at his window. It's ancient, elemental, a force of nature. And it wants the most dangerous thing of all from Conor. It wants the truth. Patrick Ness takes the final idea of the late, award-winning writer Siobhan Dowd and weaves an extraordinary and heartbreaking…


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Book cover of That First Heady Burn

That First Heady Burn by George Bixley,

Don’t mess with the hothead—or he might just mess with you. Slater Ibáñez is only interested in two kinds of guys: the ones he wants to punch, and the ones he sleeps with. Things get interesting when they start to overlap. A freelance investigator, Slater trolls the dark side of…

Book cover of Gideon the Ninth

Alexis Cerritos

From Alexis' 3 favorite reads in 2025.

Unknown Author Why Alexis loves this book

Muir does an amazing job at mixing humor with the morose, and knows exactly when to double down on serious emotional moments.

By Tamsyn Muir ,

Why should I read it?

28 authors picked Gideon the Ninth as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

15+ pages of new, original content, including a glossary of terms, in-universe writings, and more!

A USA Today Best-Selling Novel!

"Unlike anything I've ever read. " --V.E. Schwab

"Lesbian necromancers explore a haunted gothic palace in space!" --Charles Stross

"Brilliantly original, messy and weird straight through." --NPR

The Emperor needs necromancers.

The Ninth Necromancer needs a swordswoman.

Gideon has a sword, some dirty magazines, and no more time for undead nonsense.

Tamsyn Muir's Gideon the Ninth, first in The Locked Tomb Trilogy, unveils a solar system of swordplay, cut-throat politics, and lesbian necromancers. Her characters leap off the page, as…


Book cover of The Shadow of the Wind

Elizabeth Mitchell Author Of Joyce

From my list on magical realism books that’ll stick to your ribs.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m chronically ill. Whether I’m swept up, terrified, swooning, or trying to solve a mystery, I love my fiction to take me elsewhere. The dichotomy of wanting to share my experiences, discuss disability, open up the conversation around the topic, and have others lose themselves in story has been a fine line I’ve walked with all of my work. With Joyce, I wanted to bring grief and disability to life in a more resonate way. The words pain and fatigue mean drastically different things to different people. When magic is involved, it transcends your definition or mine, allowing us to focus on the experience with less personal context. 

Elizabeth's book list on magical realism books that’ll stick to your ribs

Elizabeth Mitchell Why Elizabeth loves this book

Truly magical realism at its finest, Carlos Ruiz Zafón weaves a sweeping story into the most breathtaking setting.

I’ve not read anything like Shadow of the Wind. I was so immersed that my review in 2016, the minute after I read it for the first time, I wrote that I was a ten-year-old boy discovering books for the first time.

I fell in love and grew up and solved a mystery. I experienced it, not just read it. I got lost in the pages and came out gasping, having just been through so much. It was a gift that you should give yourself too.

By Carlos Ruiz Zafón , Lucia Graves (translator) ,

Why should I read it?

13 authors picked The Shadow of the Wind as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The New York Times bestseller

"The Shadow of the Wind is ultimately a love letter to literature, intended for readers as passionate about storytelling as its young hero." -Entertainment Weekly (Editor's Choice)

"One gorgeous read." -Stephen King

Barcelona, 1945: A city slowly heals in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War, and Daniel, an antiquarian book dealer's son who mourns the loss of his mother, finds solace in a mysterious book entitled The Shadow of the Wind, by one Julian Carax. But when he sets out to find the author's other works, he makes a shocking discovery: someone has been…


Book cover of Follow Me to Ground

Elizabeth Mitchell Author Of Joyce

From my list on magical realism books that’ll stick to your ribs.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m chronically ill. Whether I’m swept up, terrified, swooning, or trying to solve a mystery, I love my fiction to take me elsewhere. The dichotomy of wanting to share my experiences, discuss disability, open up the conversation around the topic, and have others lose themselves in story has been a fine line I’ve walked with all of my work. With Joyce, I wanted to bring grief and disability to life in a more resonate way. The words pain and fatigue mean drastically different things to different people. When magic is involved, it transcends your definition or mine, allowing us to focus on the experience with less personal context. 

Elizabeth's book list on magical realism books that’ll stick to your ribs

Elizabeth Mitchell Why Elizabeth loves this book

Like some other powerhouse books I’ve read, it would take hours to fully discuss the brilliant storytelling, the compelling characters, the descriptions that have you smelling the damp earth, and to truly explain the awe I felt when reading this book.

When I say, “I’ve never read anything like this,” I usually mean that wowed me this much or that one aspect was unique or clingy. In this case, I mean it in every sense. It was chewy and raw and rare, unique and visceral, sumptuous and dark, devastating and lyrical.

Dealing with illness in magical realism is something I’m familiar with, clearly. To see it being handled in the way Sue Rainsford does is spine-tingling and refreshing, if one can call a book so guttural as this one such.

By Sue Rainsford ,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Follow Me to Ground as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

'A tangled, gnarled, wonderfully original, strange, beautiful beast of a book'
DAISY JOHNSON, author of Everything Under

'Beautiful and terrifying' SUNDAY TIMES

'Seethingly assured debut fuses magical realism with critical and feminist theory' GUARDIAN

In house in a wood, Ada and her father live peacefully, tending to their garden and the wildlife in it. They are not human though. Ada was made by her father from the Ground, a unique patch of earth with birthing and healing properties. Though perhaps he didn't get her quite right. They spend their days healing the local human folk - named Cures - who…


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Book cover of My Book Boyfriend

My Book Boyfriend by Kathy Strobos,

Lily loves her community garden. Rupert wants to bulldoze it. When feelings grow, will they blossom or turn to rubble?

"It literally had everything! - Bookworm Characters - Humor - Banter - Swoon-worthy lines."  - Book Reviewer.

Book cover of Like Water for Chocolate

Elizabeth Mitchell Author Of Joyce

From my list on magical realism books that’ll stick to your ribs.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m chronically ill. Whether I’m swept up, terrified, swooning, or trying to solve a mystery, I love my fiction to take me elsewhere. The dichotomy of wanting to share my experiences, discuss disability, open up the conversation around the topic, and have others lose themselves in story has been a fine line I’ve walked with all of my work. With Joyce, I wanted to bring grief and disability to life in a more resonate way. The words pain and fatigue mean drastically different things to different people. When magic is involved, it transcends your definition or mine, allowing us to focus on the experience with less personal context. 

Elizabeth's book list on magical realism books that’ll stick to your ribs

Elizabeth Mitchell Why Elizabeth loves this book

Have you ever read a book that makes your mouth and eyes water at the same time? That makes you laugh and takes your breath away and pisses you off and has you telling your partner every single detail of it, assuring they’ll never need to read it, but they want to anyhow? That’s Like Water for Chocolate.

The opening scene sets the whole tone of the book, and from then on, it sways between emotional heartbreaker, hilarious romp, devastating family drama, and magical realism that is so brilliant it feels real. What I’m saying is, it’s a delight.

By Laura Esquivel ,

Why should I read it?

11 authors picked Like Water for Chocolate as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

THE INTOXICATING INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER ABOUT LOVE, COOKING AND MAGIC. PERFECT FOR FANS OF JOANNE HARRIS AND ISABEL ALLENDE.

'This magical, mythical, moving story of love, sacrifice and summering sensuality is something I will savour for a long time' MAUREEN LIPMAN

Like Water For Chocolate tells the captivating story of the De la Garza family. As the youngest daughter, Tita is forbidden by Mexican tradition to marry. Instead, she pours all of her emotions into her delicious recipes, which she shares with readers along the way.When Tita falls in love with Pedro, he is seduced by the magical food she cooks.…


Book cover of Discount Dan
Book cover of Judicator Jane 2
Book cover of Our Wives Under the Sea

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