Books like The Devouring Gray — picked by fans

I adore reading atmospheric adventures of mystery, supernatural, and ghostly powers; this book has these values in abundance. Noemi’s alluring character is smart, savvy, and admirably vulnerable. Loved her. At High House in the Mexican countryside, Noemi discovers ghostly entities repeatedly forming blisters across the walls. How mysterious and threatening; I was fascinated.

The best part of the novel for me was the emotional intelligence of the characters because their behavior is both suspiciously rational and heart-stopping clever. Gripping as all heck. This family was obsessed with a relentless desire to rule and control their destiny at all costs via Otherworld powers. Absolutely compelling. I was breathless along with Noemi at every step as she was drawn into the dangers and treacherous family secrets that threatened to kill her.

Anne Rice is a wonderful poet disguised as a novelist who creates dreamy and eerie landscapes in this book. She paints backdrops of multiple settings and weaves those landscapes with the mood of her characters: modern and bustling San Francisco to mysterious and moody New Orleans.

The plot involves an analytical science girl who is suddenly immersed in a mysterious past that includes witches and other supernatural beings. It explores the roots of societal misogyny by recapping the history of the Mayfair clan and an unleashed demon spirit that haunts the family, all with a romance lurking in the subplot.

It is written like a dark fairy tale that weaves a contemporary world with supernatural elements. Don’t miss this!

The shocking twists alone are enough to satisfy readers eager for turmoil and drama in an unsettling Gothic environment, but Marshall deftly creates a shadowy world with its own rules, with a sure hand.

As mist settles over the landscape as well as our protagonist’s memories, something rotten in this ancestral home calls to her through a labyrinth of architecture that is slightly off. The antagonistic distant family intimidates Helen as the house settles into her bones and dreams, steeling readers for a stunning final act that will keep their hearts pounding well after setting this book down.

This is one of the most thoroughly enjoyable books I’ve read in recent memory.

This book by Ann Radcliffe was published in 1794, and I read it in the spring of 2020 (yeah, we all remember). It was a welcome respite from my book club books as I sat on my lawn chair accompanying the main character, Emily Saint-Aubert, as she journeyed through the Languedoc. It was a long and arduous journey with long and arduous descriptions, and while I am averse to these, the narrative and language fascinated me. The story pulled me into a moonlit graveyard abutting an ancient convent, then into the languid beauty of 16th-century Venice, the gloomy castle Udolpho, and Signor Montoni's villainous schemes.

This book is the epitome of classic Gothic fiction, a genre of literature that started with Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto. But Udolpho sets the bar even higher with its narrative's light and darkness and winding twists. 

I love the story, the setting,… show more.

Calling all Phantom of the Opera fans!

Kallia wants to be the most famous magician in the world, but she’s been kept hostage all of her life. She escapes her prison to join the competition to become the headliner for the Conquering Circus. She’s got talent, but there is magic woven into the city streets, and it’s hard to know who to trust, because her long-time mentor and captor, isn’t what he seems. He may not even be human.

Kalia is ruthlessly ambitious and I love that about her. This story is dark, decadent, and took me places I didn’t expect.

This lesser-known gem was my favorite book of 2019. You take a World War II-style submarine war but throw in horrifying new supernatural powers, and then pitch it against Cthulu-style interdimensional monsters and you start to have an idea of the gloriously-insane trajectory of this book. That may sound over-the-top at a glance, but I promise this is a grounded read that’s flush with complex interweaving relationships, and an unrelenting pace that constantly throws new, bigger dangers at the characters before they’ve had a chance to catch their breath. This book is far better than it has any right to be.

I relate so much to how Alina initially feels about the claim that she’s the sun summoner. How can I be special? I’m no one. And her connection to Mal is so intense. It reminds me of my connection to my childhood friend, who was my everything.

When we were separated, I was so unsettled. I wrote letters constantly, just like Alina, and I doubted we would ever be together again. When Alina takes control of her powers, I understand her reluctance to embrace her new life and her resistance to becoming a Grisha. After all, why would any of that matter if she couldn’t be with Mal anymore? 

I love seeing how contemporary authors can move vampires into the modern age. The Coldest Touch does this with a cast of very flawed characters dealing with complicated feelings (i.e. a budding romance between a human and a vampire). As if that wasn’t enough, there is a Death Oracle. I mean, who doesn’t love a doomed future with some characters trying to change the odds? 

He’s the only author on this list that I know personally. And here is what I want you to know: William Vanderbloemen is the real deal. He values data. He values principles. He values you. Having watched him build his business from the ground up and provide a service to not-for-profit leaders across the United States, I can’t help but let you know that you have to pay attention to William’s message in this book.

He is the unicorn, and his book gives leaders key habits that will help separate them from everyone else around them. William does a great job making these habits accessible and achievable. Do you need to be faster, more authentic, more curious, or purpose-driven? If so, grab this resource and grow.

For a grounded take on superheroes in novel form, it’s hard to go wrong with Zeroes. This one isn’t about its bright costumes or cackling villains. It’s about a motley group of superpowered teens who can occasionally be called friends, and who do their best to become the superhero team that some of them feel they should be. The results are about as polished and stable as you’d expect. Not from a book, but from your actual high school clique given superpowers. What I love about this one is that it doesn’t re-hash the conflicts that go with the usual powers like strength and speed. These kids have some really original abilities, which get them into some accordingly interesting scrapes.