Books like The Sight — picked by fans

We are in the Scottish Highlands and rewilding!

Reintroducing the wildlife into their natural habitat to flourish. Wolves! These gray wolves that are transported back into the wild changed my perspective about the beastly wolf vs. the gentle wolf who truly understands the wilderness within.

Inti Flynn is a young woman and the protector of wolves. She does this remarkably by giving all her love to them. And is love returned? Yes. I became fascinated and envious to be loved by a wolf after reading this beautiful story.

The prose in this book felt like a wolf bite. Stories of destiny and power are juicy, and this has it in abundance. A young woman, Red, sacrifices herself for the good of all to the Wolf of the Wood. The woods are magickal, with haunted trees and shadows, creating an intense atmosphere that held me throughout. So moody! Murderous realms, too, which I sunk into easily.

Not quite like "Little Red Riding Hood," but the suspense certainly had me turning the pages. I admired how the author weaved in the emotional elements among the empowerment and disempowerment themes. The myth and folklore elements brought me back to my childhood nostalgia of curling up in bed, secretly turning the pages without regard for bedtime. 

Oh, what a delightfully chilling and decadent tale written by one of the most celebrated female gothic writers of the 20th century.

Carter leads us into the manor of a wealthy and powerful businessman who has recently been widowed, yet has chosen to take another young bride quite quickly. As he guides his new wife through each luxurious room at his estate, she is devoured by all its opulence and given the keys to each room. She may roam and play wherever she desires and conduct herself as she wishes, save for the one key to the one room that is forbidden.

A modern and mysterious take on the classic Greek myth, Pandora’s Box, with echoes of “The Robber Bridegroom” by The Brothers Grimm. It is a delicious read. 

Absolutely thought-provoking. Lots of shudders. Real chills. Famous fairy tales like Jack and the Beanstalk, Cinderella, and Goldilocks are wild, dark, and grim. I was haunted long after I closed the book. If it’s true that fairy tales are embedded in our subconscious minds, these stories pretty much ripped the darkness up so that I was cringing.

Some of it went a bit far into madness and disturbing, but the reach struck me as highly inventive. Macabre, yes indeedy. I actually don’t read this level of horror, but the experience of these extreme fairy tales was a new adventure. Blazing. This is a one-of-a-kind adult fairy tale book, for sure. 

If any contemporary detective writer is the heir to Dorothy L. Sayers, it has to be Fred Vargas.

Trained as a historian and archaelogist, she writes well-plotted mysteries with complex, flawed characters. But most of all, her books are bristling with fascinating, arcane facts. In this novel, the inhabitants of a rural, mountainous region of France are being terrorized by what seems to be a huge wolf – or is it a werewolf?

The resolution is entertaining, but what I really loved was learning about everything from medieval legends to the contemporary politics of reintroducing wild wolves in Europe – not to mention sheep-farming, wildlife photography, and plumbing.

For anyone who loved Sayers’ deep dives on bell-ringing or the advertising business, Vargas is for you.

This graphic novel is composed of three hauntingly beautiful stories written and drawn by Becky Cloonan. It’s a book that I have found myself returning to many times and it often sits on my desk as a point of inspiration when I am lettering my own work (lettering is the process of creating the word balloons and design elements in a graphic novel). Becky Cloonan’s art is something to behold and captures a spirit of dread, foreboding, and beauty. These are dark, moody tales of cursed love that would appeal to anyone who enjoys the poetic and melancholic. They are stories that will sit with you long after you’ve put the book down. If you are able to get the hardcover edition, the book itself is a work of art. Perfectly constructed and wonderfully designed.

This book is for teens and older.

This book is about the early modern cooking revolution. Basing her investigation on a ground-breaking recipe book from 1651, Peterson examines the fundamental shift in European food tastes from the medieval preference for fragrant, heavily spiced dishes that combined sweet and savoury to the salt-acid followed by sweet that forms the basis of modern European cookery. This book was not written for an academic audience, so although it is well-informed it is not a demanding read for non-experts. The book contains a few recipes that are worth trying, and as a whole it’s a colourful and compelling story.

Patrick Wormald’s early death was a tragedy for early medieval studies as a whole.

Thankfully his former student, Stephen Baxter – an exceptional scholar in his own right – had the energy to carry some of his mentor’s projects over the line, including this collection of some of Wormald’s best essays, articles, and book chapters relating to Bede and his world.

Patrick was also my tutor for several undergraduate courses at Oxford as well as being the supervisor for my Master's Thesis and I too owe him a great debt. This edited collection – with the advantage of updated references and comments – showcases the searing brilliance which made Wormald such a prized commentator on everything connected to the early Middle Ages.

Coupled with Campbell's Essays in Anglo-Saxon History, readers will quickly gain nuanced perspectives on elements and themes crucial in comprehending the conversion of the early English.

As someone who loves history, particularly Celtic history, this one hit me in a really special place in my heart. This little-known history of the Celtic Saints, and particularly Saint Patrick really opened my eyes. It details how Celtic monks quietly saved the written word while barbarians and Vikings burnt Roman literature—which would have made all western thought—even the bible on the threat of extinction. It dazzled me to be given a much bigger perspective on the infamous Book of Kells, and even how schools throughout the western world originated because of these men that hid behind the chaos of the times. All this history by itself was amazing to learn, but even more, the author wrote with wit and charm that made it a fun read.

I love this classic study in which Huizinga vividly portrays the colorful era in which my heroin, Christine de Pizan, lived. Huizinga shows that late medieval society was full of striking contradictions, among them chivalry vs cruelty, courtly love vs vengeance, blissful visions of heaven vs horrific visions of Hell.