Here are 93 books that The Girl in a Swing fans have personally recommended if you like
The Girl in a Swing.
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An avid reader, I began a project in 2012 to read one short story a week in supernatural mysteries, ghost stories, and quiet horror genres. I began with the classic authors: Poe, MR James, Lovecraft, Shelley, Stoker, du Maurier, etc. I began a blog, Reading Fiction Blog, and posted these free stories with my reviews (I’m still posting today). Over the years, it turned into a compendium of fiction. Today, I have nearly 400 short stories by over 150 classic and now contemporary authors in the blog Index. I did this because I wanted to learn more about writing dark fiction and who better to learn from than the masters?
Even though this is a period novel, I read this story for its Gothic horror and literary acumen. Repression of memories, feelings, and guilt struck me throughout. Dr. Faraday discovers ghostly mysteries at Hundreds Hall, and his romance with Caroline is spooky enough, but this ghost story is grounded in reality.
Who is the little stranger haunting the premises? I sunk deeply into this story, drinking up the beauty. But the ending! Wow. Brilliantly revealed and aptly placed on the final page. Sarah Waters hides the ghost in plain sight, and yet I was surprised at the conclusion—delightfully so. I’m a sucker for one-liners that grab the reader by the throat, metaphorically speaking, at the last line. I plan to read it again because it’s that good.
After her award-winning trilogy of Victorian novels, Sarah Waters turned to the 1940s and wrote THE NIGHT WATCH, a tender and tragic novel set against the backdrop of wartime Britain. Shortlisted for both the Orange and the Man Booker, it went straight to number one in the bestseller chart. In a dusty post-war summer in rural Warwickshire, a doctor is called to a patient at Hundreds Hall. Home to the Ayres family for over two centuries, the Georgian house, once grand and handsome, is now in decline, its masonry crumbling, its gardens choked with weeds, the clock in its stable…
The Victorian mansion, Evenmere, is the mechanism that runs the universe.
The lamps must be lit, or the stars die. The clocks must be wound, or Time ceases. The Balance between Order and Chaos must be preserved, or Existence crumbles.
Appointed the Steward of Evenmere, Carter Anderson must learn the…
I am a conflict resolution coach. I have a master's degree in conflict and am an ICF professional coach. I like my clients to live “clean” between their ears—even when life is not going their way. My book is light and fun. Deep and meaningful. And a flashlight to help those who are in the clouds of conflict get “good with themself.” Conflict becomes less scary when you identify the words that caused the issue. There is no use surviving a bad situation and then replaying it over and over again. Keeping the past alive in your mind keeps the past alive. Bury it with honor and grace.
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.
'One of only two novels I've ever loved whose main characters are not human' BARBARA KINGSOLVER
For fans of The Essex Serpent and The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock.
'By far my favourite book of of the year' Guardian
Chava is a golem, a creature made of clay, brought to life by a disgraced rabbi who dabbles in dark Kabbalistic magic. When her master, the husband who commissioned her, dies at sea on the voyage from Poland, she is unmoored and adrift as the ship arrives in New York in 1899.
I’ve loved weird horror from a young age, and that passion only grew as the years went on. It all started when I was ten, and I got an anthology of classic horror for my birthday. Inside I read The White People by Machen, Cast the Runes by MR James, and The Colour Out of Space by Lovecraft, and I was hooked. Ever since then I chased that same thrill of the horror that is so out there and strange it just breaks your brain and changes you inside out. I have a feeling I’ll be chasing that obsession until the end of my days.
Another fun bit of psychedelic folk horror, combined with a really cool history of the experimental films of Canada.
The narrator is compelling, and the whole time you feel the pull of her obsession to the film she’s looking into, even if it unsettles her and terrifies her at the same time. Love that pull of danger, wanting to look, to see, but knowing that doing so will probably kill you…
The award-winning author of the Hexslinger Series "explores the world of film and horror in a way that will leave you reeling" (Jeff VanderMeer, author of the Southern Reach Trilogy).
Former film teacher Lois Cairns is struggling to raise her autistic son while freelancing as a critic when, at a screening, she happens upon a sampled piece of silver nitrate silent footage. She is able to connect it to the early work of Mrs. Iris Dunlopp Whitcomb, the spiritualist and collector of fairy tales who mysteriously disappeared from a train compartment in 1918.
Magical realism meets the magic of Christmas in this mix of Jewish, New Testament, and Santa stories–all reenacted in an urban psychiatric hospital!
On locked ward 5C4, Josh, a patient with many similarities to Jesus, is hospitalized concurrently with Nick, a patient with many similarities to Santa. The two argue…
In 1998, I met H.P. Lovecraft's corpse-reanimating doctor, Herbert West. I found him intriguing, but HPL's story didn't tell me enough about what lay behind his bizarre interests. Why did his friend help and support him? To answer those questions, I wrote four genre-blending novels, of whichThe Friendship of Mortals is the first. Through West's librarian friend, Charles Milburn, I explore their friendship, the choices they make, and how they deal with the consequences of those choices. The setting is a college town in early 20th century New England, but with a supernatural twist.
At first, I thought this was a historical mystery similar to the Sherlock Holmes stories. Nineteenth-century city, maybe in Russia? But what about the weird Bone Forest and the house on stilts? The detective, Konrad Savast, carries out his investigations in distinctly unorthodox ways. Then there are his spirit-serpent helpers, Eetapi and Ootapi. Sherlock never had anything like them! And in addition to the four mysteries to be solved in this book, there's the question of Konrad's relationship with apothecary Irinanda Falenia. Will it ever develop into something more than friendship?
There's a realm. Wreathed in ice and snow, drowning in the dark, Assevan needs a different kind of hero.
There's a god. Merciless and cold, and quick to anger, the Lord of the Dead insists upon one thing only: vengeance for a murdered soul.
And there's a man. A ruthless killer, Konrad is detective, judge and executioner in one. Dauntless, relentless, monstrous, he stands alone against the dark.
Meet the Malykant. Justice will be served.
Four cases. Four killers. Four executions. Dark fantasy and murder mystery collide in this first collection of the…
With a professional background in medicine and psychiatry, I enjoy the kind of mystery novels that involve personal relationships and family secrets, such as unexplained deaths, disputed parentage, and concealed crimes. They may deal with some dark material, but I like it to be explored subtly, without explicit descriptions of violence towards people or animals. I have lived in New Zealand for many years but grew up in the south of England, so books set in places that I remember from my early life have an added appeal.
After reading this book three times, I still find it fascinating–and I still have to concentrate to follow the complex plot. The death of a young British army officer during the Battle of the Somme in the First World War lies at the root of a mystery that involves three generations of an aristocratic family living in a decaying country house in Hampshire’s Meon valley.
With its skillful interweaving of past and present, I think this early book by Robert Goddard is one of his best.
Six months after the sudden death of her husband, Leonora Galloway sets out on a trip to France with her daughter Penelope. At last the time has come when secrets can be shared and explanations begin... Leonora takes her daughter to the battlefields of WW1, where her father is commemorated on the Thiepval Monument. But the date of his death is surprising, and reveals that Captain John Hallows cannot possibly have been Leonora's real father.
This is only the start of a series of revelations that span three generations of a distinguished aristocratic family who are not what they seem.…
With a professional background in medicine and psychiatry, I enjoy the kind of mystery novels that involve personal relationships and family secrets, such as unexplained deaths, disputed parentage, and concealed crimes. They may deal with some dark material, but I like it to be explored subtly, without explicit descriptions of violence towards people or animals. I have lived in New Zealand for many years but grew up in the south of England, so books set in places that I remember from my early life have an added appeal.
I was intrigued by the first chapter, in which a terminally ill woman is writing a confession about an event in her past. The content of that confession is not revealed till the end of the book, and meanwhile, the suspense is maintained with a clever interweaving of past and present told from different characters’ points of view.
After the woman has died, her husband, a retired schoolmaster, his children, and grandchildren visit their holiday house in Devon, intending to scatter the ashes of their beloved matriarch. But panic ensues when the baby of the family disappears.
A heart-stopping tale of twisted obsession from the author who gives us “everything we love in a thriller” (O, The Oprah Magazine)
The MacBrides lead a cozy life of upper class privilege: good looks (more or less), a beautiful home, tuition-free education at the prestigious private school where Rowan is headmaster, an altruistic righteousness inherited from magistrate Lydia.
But when Rowan and his three grown children gather for the first time since Lydia’s passing at the family’s weekend home—a restored barn in the English countryside—years of secrets surface, and they discover a stranger in their midst. A stranger who is…
A Duke with rigid opinions, a Lady whose beliefs conflict with his, a long disputed parcel of land, a conniving neighbour, a desperate collaboration, a failure of trust, a love found despite it all.
Alexander Cavendish, Duke of Ravensworth, returned from war to find that his father and brother had…
With a professional background in medicine and psychiatry, I enjoy the kind of mystery novels that involve personal relationships and family secrets, such as unexplained deaths, disputed parentage, and concealed crimes. They may deal with some dark material, but I like it to be explored subtly, without explicit descriptions of violence towards people or animals. I have lived in New Zealand for many years but grew up in the south of England, so books set in places that I remember from my early life have an added appeal.
I love reading novels set in Oxford, where I spent some of the happiest years of my life, and this book includes some vivid descriptions of the city and its environs.
The narrator is an eccentric woman, a mathematician with a troubled past, who works for academic families as a nanny. She takes a post with an unlikeable couple in the hope of befriending their withdrawn 8-year-old daughter. But when the little girl goes missing, the nanny comes under suspicion. This is an unusual story with some quirky characters.
With a professional background in medicine and psychiatry, I enjoy the kind of mystery novels that involve personal relationships and family secrets, such as unexplained deaths, disputed parentage, and concealed crimes. They may deal with some dark material, but I like it to be explored subtly, without explicit descriptions of violence towards people or animals. I have lived in New Zealand for many years but grew up in the south of England, so books set in places that I remember from my early life have an added appeal.
In the 1970s, I worked in a large old English mental hospital, which was soon to be closed and replaced by community care services. This novel is set in an Irish hospital where the same process is underway. It concerns the developing relationship between two characters.
One is the psychiatrist tasked with assessing the long-stay patients prior to relocation. The other is a woman of about 100 years old who has spent all her adult life in the hospital and kept a secret diary. The book is beautifully written and serves as a reminder that aged people in institutions should not be undervalued.
Recording the events of her life from a mental hospital as her hundredth birthday approaches, Roseanne McNulty considers returning to society when she learns that the hospital is about to close, but her situation is complicated by the possibility that Roseanne remembers her life quite differently from what is documented in her patient records. 15,000 first printing.
I don’t believe in ghosts, but fascination with the supernatural has been with me since childhood, my inquiring mind constantly seeking answers. Research through books and documentaries and talking to people on the subject leads me to conclude there has to be a scientific and rational explanation for every paranormal happening. Theories abound, none are conclusive, but one accepted theory stands out, and this is explored and expanded upon in my novel White Stones. The books chosen here are excellent examples in the world of the supernatural and paranormal and are worth reading whether you believe in ghosts or not. Some just might make you change your mind.
Many might class this as a horror novel. I don’t. For me it’s a beautiful, spellbinding story of a cottage in the country that has feelings, both good and bad. How many of us have walked into a house and felt its vibe? That moment you know something’s not right or conversely, is perfect. A feeling Mike is not sure about but his wife is. Combining magic with mystery, fear with fantasy, it is one of those stories that defies a scientific, logical explanation and one of the few books I have read several times, each time coming up with a different theory of how it could even be possible. Sometimes we simply have to suspend belief.
Step inside The Magic Cottage, another chilling classic from the Master of Horror James Herbert.
A cottage was found in the heart of the forest. It was charming, maybe a little run-down, but so peaceful - a magical haven for creativity and love. But the cottage had an alternative side - the bad magic. What happened there was horrendous beyond belief . . .
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…
I have loved the supernatural world since my dad took me to see The Lost Boys in the theater. There’s just something about the unbelievable that drags me into this genre. I enjoy the escapism aspect because real life is hard enough. Plus, what girl wouldn’t want to be taken to a castle and live happily ever after with her prince? I know I would.
Kristen Ashley is known for her contemporary books with heroines that rock and commanding alphas. In this book, you have the same, but with a supernatural twist. Wildest Dreams gives you the raw emotion you’d expect from a KA book, while adding a fantastical story and some hilarity to boot.
Seoafin “Finnie” Wilde was taught by her parents that every breath was a treasure and to seek every adventure she could find. And she learns this lesson the hard way when they perish in a plane crash. But she never forgets and when she discovers there is a parallel universe where every person has a twin, she finds a witch who can send her there so she can have the adventure of a lifetime.
But upon arrival in the Winter Wonderland of Lunwyn, she realizes she’s been played by her twin and finds herself walking down the aisle to be…
