95 Books Like Septology

One of my favorite hair-raising tropes is the hostile doppelgänger, and this one really delivers! After sensing an intruder in the house, Molly, a young mother, encounters a menacing double who calls herself “Moll” and claims to be her from an alternate reality, one where she has no children—which prompts her to claim Molly’s.

What makes this book so tense and creepy is Molly’s unreliable POV as she wrestles with her anxiety, exhaustion, and protectiveness over her two young children. Is Moll the manifestation of a psychotic breakdown? Does Molly want to vanquish her or trade places? The prose is potent and spare, with short chapters alternating between past and present action, twisting the suspense all the way to its ambiguous—but for me, satisfying—conclusion. 

This novel’s protagonist, Pepper Rafferty was raised by two Lesbian mothers, who found her as a newborn on the doorstep of their vet practice.

But at 36, Pepper is still trying to find her footing in the world and understand things about herself, like her habit of imagining she’s living in different worlds, based on different choices she might have made.
Without being shown exactly why, the reader soon grasps that this has something to do with the fact that her birth mother is Ula Frost - a very famous portrait painter about whom fantastic claims are being made.

These come primarily from the models in her portraits, these are her clients, who say that her painting them brought forth their mirror selves from other universes, often with disastrous consequences. Outrageous as this claim seems, many in the art world believe it, and Ula's paintings sell for millions of dollars.… show more.

The stress of not knowing if someone is who they claim to be makes this book a fast, compelling read. I thoroughly enjoyed the way Finney introduced the problem as a possible medical or psychiatric condition. It’s stated so simply—Uncle Ira isn’t really Uncle Ira—and it turns into so much more.

I love the suspense of not knowing exactly what was going on and uncovering it along with the characters. Even better is the suspicion that increases throughout the book about who can be trusted. 

When Toronto bookstore owner Jean Mason hears she may have a doppelganger, it sets off a strange series of events that show how fragile our grip on reality really is. Equal parts psychological horror, ghost story, warm family drama, and literary look at mental illness, this dizzying and at times difficult novel asks if we genuinely know ourselves and the nature of our existence. It may leave you like its bewildered main character: full of questions about identity and struggling to distinguish between what’s real and what isn’t.

There are rules for living in the magical town of Aldermere, including the fact that the ravens must be fed. For Fin, it’s the first place she’s ever felt safe – especially since she can spend a memory for a cup of tea that will help her forget memories that feed her anxieties. But when a visit to the tea shop goes horribly wrong, Fin must confront the source of her fear before something sinister destroys the entire town. This is a heartwarming story about finding courage, facing your past, and trusting your friends. It’s a lovely, thoughtful, charming book steeped in unexpected magic (like doors that don’t always lead where you expect!) and deep truth. I think this could be a great book for families to read together because it offers the sort of comfort that readers of any age can appreciate. 

Gamers, wake up for this one! The moment I saw that there was a horror novel centered around a Twitch streamer, I had this book in my shopping cart. Viv’s trying to revive her channel with an exciting new game but makes the fatal mistake of downloading a mysterious file (we’ve all been there).

It seems like a normal-enough indie horror at first, but then, well… Things get not-so-fun. This book was, as expected, everything a fan of spooky games and livestreaming could ask for.

I loved Ghost Planet for its fascinating premise delivered with a zinger.

Colonists of a newly discovered planet are being stalked by doppelgängers of dead people they once knew. Psychologist Elizabeth Cole goes to the planet for a job and immediately bonds with her supervisor, the creator of the Ghost Protocol, which forbids acknowledging or interacting with the ghosts (in an attempt to get rid of them).

And then Elizabeth discovers she, too, is a ghost, having died on arrival to the planet when her ship crashed. It’s been seven years since I read this book, and the plot has stayed with me.

Larque is an unusual and sympathetic protagonist. She’s a wife, mother, and moderately successful businesswoman, but thinks of herself as a failed artist.

She also has the ability to create doppelgangers, temporary doubles of the people in her life. But this time, they’re a lot less temporary. Sky is her ten-year-old self, rebellious and contemptuous of the choices her adult self has made, and Lark is a young gay man dealing with life in the early 1990s.

And Larque is both of them, as well as herself and the menacing Virtuous Woman who lurks in the background, waiting for her chance to take over Larque’s life. It makes for a wild midlife crisis in which Larque has to decide who she wants to be and what she wants for her creations.

It’s been a while since I have read a book that I not only didn’t want to put down, but I wanted to speed through!

Ah, to be a young art student in Berlin in 2008 (or probably not!) It has it all: love triangles, murder mysteries, doppelgängers, crazy parties, and a lot of paranoia against a backdrop of the art of fashion.

Twisted and ingeniously plotted, it got me hooked until the very last word.

I found myself completely absorbed in the story from the beginning. It was incredibly difficult to put down. Suffice it to say that there were a few overcooked dinners for a few days!

I loved how the author combined elements of the story, supernatural/gangster, and the location, which took me back to my childhood days in London.

I had moments of breath holding anticipation, along with tears of sadness and joy, I found it to be a totally delectable read.