Here are 100 books that The Blonde Dies First fans have personally recommended if you like
The Blonde Dies First.
Book DNA is a community of 12,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.
I’ve loved all things spooky and scary ever since stealing my first Stephen King from my mom’s bookshelf (I was eleven—it was the first of many.) I now primarily write mysteries, thrillers, and horror for young adults. At the same time, I consider myself to be a massive nerd. I’m super into video games, comic books, all things horror, puzzles, cosplay, and the list goes on eternally. The combination of the two means that I’m especially passionate about thrilling fiction that also feels relatable to me as someone who is terrified by things like social interactions and internet creepypasta.
It's one of the greatest “be gay, solve crimes” books around! I love how the core murder mystery is not only exciting to uncover but hilarious as well (very Scooby Doo vibes).
While high-schooler Bianca chases down a bird-masked killer and has a relatable gender identity crisis to go along with it, I found myself geeking out over the punny humor, clever puzzles, bird-watching lore, anime references, and so much more.
Murder most fowl? In this sardonic and campy YA thriller, an anxious, introverted nonbinary teen birder somehow finds themself investigating a murder with their neighbor/fellow anime lover, all while falling for a cute girl from their birding group...and trying not to get killed next.
Sixteen-year-old Bianca Torre is an avid birder undergoing a gender identity crisis and grappling with an ever-growing list of fears. Some, like Fear #6: Initiating Conversation, keep them constrained, forcing them to watch birds from the telescope in their bedroom. And, occasionally, their neighbors. When their gaze wanders to one particular window across the street, Bianca…
"A haunting YA mystery. Touching on everything from police ineptitude and community solidarity to the endless frustration of being patronized as a young person, this paranormal thriller confidently combines timely and relatable themes within a page-turning storyline." - Self-Publishing Review
"Biel's writing is fast-paced and sharp!" - author Christy Wopat…
I’ve loved all things spooky and scary ever since stealing my first Stephen King from my mom’s bookshelf (I was eleven—it was the first of many.) I now primarily write mysteries, thrillers, and horror for young adults. At the same time, I consider myself to be a massive nerd. I’m super into video games, comic books, all things horror, puzzles, cosplay, and the list goes on eternally. The combination of the two means that I’m especially passionate about thrilling fiction that also feels relatable to me as someone who is terrified by things like social interactions and internet creepypasta.
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.
After spending the summer wracked with guilt about causing the accident that killed her little sister, ambitious gamer and chronic liar Viv returns to Twitch streaming. She never told her parents the truth about the accident, but she hopes that maybe making it big in streaming and giving the money to them is penance enough for her mistakes.
The weekend before school starts, Viv finds the perfect horror game to make her Twitch comeback, and during an offline practice run, an NPC asks Viv for a secret. She decides to tell them the truth about her sister's death since a…
I’ve loved all things spooky and scary ever since stealing my first Stephen King from my mom’s bookshelf (I was eleven—it was the first of many.) I now primarily write mysteries, thrillers, and horror for young adults. At the same time, I consider myself to be a massive nerd. I’m super into video games, comic books, all things horror, puzzles, cosplay, and the list goes on eternally. The combination of the two means that I’m especially passionate about thrilling fiction that also feels relatable to me as someone who is terrified by things like social interactions and internet creepypasta.
Jay lives in a *magical* theme park resort town where everything’s supposed to be perfect—until his friend disappears overnight, and things start to get terrifying and dystopian really quickly.
I imagine Disney and theme park lovers enjoying this one, but as for me, I nerd out an unhealthy amount over immersive experiences and weird tyrannical corporations. In summary, this is a brilliant social horror that will have you on the edge of your seat (I read most of it on a plane and nearly flew out the window.)
'Timely, thrilling, and gripping from start to finish. An absolute page-turner.' -KAREN M. MCMANUS, BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF ONE OF US IS LYING
NO ONE HAS EVER DIED IN KARLOFF COUNTY Welcome to the funnest place around . . . Jay is living his best life inside Karloff Country, home of the world's most epic amusement park. He's got his family, his crew, and a dope after-school job at one of the parks. Outside Karloff Country, things aren't so great for the rest of the world. But when people come here to vacation, it's to get away from all that to…
Kindle Book Award Finalist. Readers' Favorite Book Award Finalist. Gotham Writers' YA Novel Discovery Contest Finalist. B.R.A.G. Medallion Honoree
Brigit Quinn has always felt like an outsider. Growing up in a small town where her mom’s pagan practices are the stuff of local gossip, she’s spent her whole life trying…
I’ve loved all things spooky and scary ever since stealing my first Stephen King from my mom’s bookshelf (I was eleven—it was the first of many.) I now primarily write mysteries, thrillers, and horror for young adults. At the same time, I consider myself to be a massive nerd. I’m super into video games, comic books, all things horror, puzzles, cosplay, and the list goes on eternally. The combination of the two means that I’m especially passionate about thrilling fiction that also feels relatable to me as someone who is terrified by things like social interactions and internet creepypasta.
K-pop horror. That should be enough said already, but it somehow gets even better. Disgraced popstar Sunny enters an idol competition in the hopes of making a career comeback, but things become complicated in the wake of a mysterious death and terrifying visions that begin to plague her.
Obviously, anyone who loves idol culture will enjoy this one, but so will those who have experienced the perils of fandom in general or who get a kick out of intense reality competitions.
Squid Game meets Wilder Girls in this debut sapphic supernatural thriller set in the glittering, cut-throat world of K-pop rivalry. A disgraced idol comes face-to-face with the demons of her past when the competition she enters turns out to be a deadly trap.
"The sweetest spot between horror and romance." Chloe Gong, #1 bestselling author of These Violent Delights
After a shocking career-ending scandal, eighteen-year-old Sunny Lee spends her days longing for her former popstar life and cyberstalking ex-groupmate Candie. They were inseparable - before leaving tragedy and heartache in their wake. Now Candie is chasing stardom in a new…
In my poetry, stories, novels, and scripts, I have long been drawn to the workings of chance: how it can charm characters by the opportunities it appears to offer; how it can turn attractive prospects inside out; and how it can so often force characters to confront realities which, perhaps for a long time, they have sought to avoid. Through different genres—science fiction, mainstream literary, lyric poetry, and realistic drama—I have, over the years, explored the notion of the fork in the road. Will a character choose their path wisely? Will they choose foolishly but press on against all odds? In literature, in lfe, such questions are crucial.
On the surface, this is a comedy of mistaken identity with identical twins, Sebastian and Viola, at its heart. It concerns members of the nobility: Orsino, Olivia, and Viola (disguised as Orsino’s serving-man, Cesario). But there are other characters, too, who drive the sub-plot. Key among these is the jester, Feste, who knows that all of life is uncertain, a matter of ‘the wind and the rain,’ and that so much of existence is to do with confronting forks in the road. At the end of the play, the ’toffs’ dutifully pair off: Olivia marries Sebastian and Orsino marries Cesario (or rather, Viola, unmasked in the nick of time). And Feste is on hand to pronounce on the mutability of life and on how its choices aren’t always ours to make.
Named for the twelfth night after Christmas, the end of the Christmas season, Twelfth Night plays with love and power. The Countess Olivia, a woman with her own household, attracts Duke (or Count) Orsino. Two other would-be suitors are her pretentious steward, Malvolio, and Sir Andrew Aguecheek.
Onto this scene arrive the twins Viola and Sebastian; caught in a shipwreck, each thinks the other has drowned. Viola disguises herself as a male page and enters Orsino’s service. Orsino sends her as his envoy to Olivia—only to have Olivia fall in love with the messenger. The play complicates, then wonderfully untangles,…
I am an Associate Lecturer and Adjunct in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Alberta. After being a piano teacher, working in communications for an NGO, and heading up the children’s department at a public library, I returned to university. While in graduate school, I underwent treatments for breast cancer, leading me into researching and teaching medical narratives, while focusing on works by breast cancer survivors. Introduced to graphic literature by a colleague, I began exploring a whole new world of literature. I now teach courses on graphic literature: memoirs, histories, speculative fiction, and the occasional comic.
This compelling graphic novel adaptation captures Butler’s Afrofuturist science fiction in its dark-toned palette and relentless movements in and across panels, with pages crammed with characters traveling within and outside of an urban enclave surrounded by gangs and criminals. The red of apocalypse and the California desert saturate pages, signaling current and immanent violence and danger and a landscape in environmental crisis. Through it all, Lauren reflects on how a new vision is required to liberate the oppressed without reproducing the conditions that brought it about. Amidst the bleak and violent scenes, we read excerpts from her Earthseed journaling of an unfolding religion where God is Change.
A futuristic world portrays the ongoing struggles of Black Americans for equity, racial justice, and economic and cultural futures. Its spirituals and Black culture form a new platform for Lauren’s exodus to a new land, a journey fraught with danger and difficult decisions,…
The graphic-novel adaptation of Octavia E. Butler's groundbreaking dystopian novel, Parable of the Sower, the follow-up to Kindred, a #1 New York Times bestseller
In this graphic-novel adaptation of Octavia E. Butler's Parable of the Sower by Damian Duffy and John Jennings, the award-winning team behind Kindred: A Graphic Novel Adaptation,
the author portrays a searing vision of America's future. In the year
2024, the country is marred by unattended environmental and economic
crises that lead to social chaos. Lauren Olamina, a preacher's daughter
living in Los Angeles, is protected from danger by the walls of her
gated community. However,…
A hair-raising, side-splitting supernatural adventure!
In the idyllic town of Pine Port, Kelsey was on the cusp of realizing her dreams. In weeks, she'd clasp her high school diploma and beauty license. Or so she thought, until her life took a supernatural detour, far removed from the ordinary path she'd…
I have always had a greater interest in supernatural horror compared to the other subgenres of horror. Another way to describe it is fantasy horror. However, sometimes the fantasy can take away from the overall story. I find the best stories with supernatural elements also have a lot of real-life horror to balance with the fantasy. Magic realism is also a trope of Post-Modern Culture and I find myself drawn to stories with post-modern elements versus those that don’t. These are my top five pics for the best “Real-Life Horror Meets Supernatural Horror” novels.
I’ve read several of Christina Henry’s books. I enjoyed them all, but this one is my absolute favorite. Mattie lives in the mountains with her abusive husband, and she has no memory beyond the last few years, and she lives in fear of her husband’s wrath. An unknown, large creature appears and makes things more complicated. Mattie has to escape her husband and a monster in the woods and try to remember her past. This novel is one of the best horror stories I’ve ever read. It’s suspenseful and you never know what will happen next. One of my favorite things about this novel is, despite the supernatural creature, it’s not over-the-top and everything feels real including the actions and choices of the characters. This is definitely a must-read.
Mattie can't remember a time before she and William lived alone on a mountain together. She must never make him upset. But when Mattie discovers the mutilated body of a fox in the woods, she realizes that they're not alone after all.
There's something in the woods that wasn't there before, something that makes strange cries in the night, something with sharp teeth and claws.
When three strangers appear on the mountaintop looking for the creature in the woods, Mattie knows their presence will anger William. Terrible things happen when William is angry.
I worked as an industrial electrician for over two decades. At one point during a meeting to discuss an upcoming project, a question was posed about the delivery time of a specific piece of equipment. When the answer was given that it would be about a year away, it got me thinking: what if a specialized piece of equipment—critical to the grid and with an equally long lead time—was destroyed, how would the grid survive? More importantly; how would we survive? That single statement was the spark that ignited the fire in me to learn all about the grid, and to write Dark State.
I chose Outage by Ellisa Barr because it came from a unique viewpoint with regards to an attack that brings down an electrical grid; namely, a young person’s perspective. While other novels about grid attacks primarily have adults as a protagonist, Outage tackles the topic from a younger person’s frame of reference, along with all the unique adolescent problems that come with it.
And while the temptation would be for the main character, an adolescent girl, to become a courageous and seasoned adult overnight, the author wisely takes her time and sets us on a journey of a slower evolution. While not containing any revelatory information about what elements of a society beset with no electricity would have to endure, I still liked this book as it reminded me to not always see things from my adult perspective.
When fifteen-year-old Dee is left at her grandpa's farm in rural Washington, she thinks her life is over. She may be right.
An electromagnetic-pulse attack has destroyed the country's power grid, sending the United States back to the Dark Ages. Now Dee and Grandpa must face a world without electricity and clean water-let alone cell phones and the Internet-as well as the chaos brought on by this sudden catastrophe. Soon their town begins to collapse as disease and lawlessness run rampant. With handsome, troubled Mason and friendly boy-next-door Hyrum at her side, Dee fights to survive and deals with a…
I am a huge fan of logic puzzles and can find myself wasting hours on these. A locked room mystery is similar to a logic puzzle. We are presented with a limited number of characters and a setting where no one can arrive or leave. Thus, the killer must be one of these characters, leaving the reader to try and find the guilty person before the end of the book. As Sherlock Holmes said, "Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth." I love to try my hand at being Sherlock both as a reader and a writer.
During lockdown I was invited to take part in an online event with three other authors, one of whom was Phoebe Morgan.
I read all three authors’ books in preparation and was quickly drawn into The Wild Girls. The locked room in this case is a luxury lodge in Botswana, the cast of characters four friends who have avoided each other for the past couple of years.
And then one of the four invites the others to celebrate her birthday with a trip to Africa, all expenses paid. But when the trio arrives the hostess is nowhere to be seen. Nor are there any staff and the lodge itself is isolated.
And then the promised party becomes a nightmarish fight for survival.
FOUR FRIENDS. A LUXURY RETREAT. IT'S GOING TO BE MURDER.
'An exhilarating, read-in-one-sitting ride' Louise Candlish
'A deadly cocktail of lies, secrets, obsession' T.M. Logan
'A heart-stopping rollercoaster of a read' B A Paris
'This is great. Kept me gripped!' Jane Fallon
'Hold your breath!' Jane Corry
In a luxury lodge on Botswana's sun-soaked plains, four friends reunite for a birthday celebration...
THE BIRTHDAY GIRL Has it all, but chose love over her friends...
THE TEACHER Feels the walls of her flat and classroom closing in...
THE MOTHER Loves her baby, but desperately needs a break...
An Heir of Realms tells the tale of two young heroines—a dragon rider and a portal jumper—who fight dragon-like parasites to save their realms from extinction.
Rhoswen is training as a Realm Rider to work with dragons and burn away the Narxon swarming into her realm. Rhoswen’s dream is to…
I’ve always been fascinated by the strangeness of human character when tested to the limit by overwhelming catastrophe. I’ve always wanted to write a story that brings into stark relief the courage, fear, ambition, tragedy, absurdity, and the ecstatic. In other words, a disaster. And if character is destiny, then an apocalypse maybe the best way to show us who we really are and where we’re going. My debut novel, Delirium focuses on these extremes of character. And after writing it I reached one indelible conclusion: that the human being is the most disturbed creature, but also the most hopeful.
I’ve always preferred those stories of great global catastrophes that remain in a single small location.
In the case of Alas, Babylon the small town of Fort Repose survives the nuclear holocaust because it’s small. Written at the height of the cold war when there were several and very real moments of brinkmanship between the Soviets and Americans.
It’s a great read for another reason: this is a well-informed writer. For instance, here we find that salt is as vital for survival as water? And what good is a doctor if he has no medicine? These are things this little community has to face, but the author is hopeful.
This is one of those books that is a lens into a period in time but is at the same time easily readable and to the point. How Fort Repose deals with nuclear Armageddon is the same story of how all…
“An extraordinary real picture of human beings numbed by catastrophe but still driven by the unconquerable determination of living creatures to keep on being alive.” —The New Yorker
“Alas, Babylon.” Those fateful words heralded the end. When the unthinkable nightmare of nuclear holocaust ravaged the United States, it was instant death for tens of millions of people; for survivors, it was a nightmare of hunger, sickness, and brutality. Overnight, a thousand years of civilization were stripped away.
But for one small Florida town, miraculously spared against all the odds, the struggle was only just beginning, as the isolated survivors—men and…
