Here are 75 books that The Widow of Pale Harbor fans have personally recommended if you like
The Widow of Pale Harbor.
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I have always been fascinated by stories where faith, myth, and the human condition collide in unexpected ways. The kinds of books that don’t just tell a story, but make you question God, morality, suffering, and what remains of humanity when everything collapses. These are the kinds of stories that stay in your head long after you finish reading. They mix faith, myth, and the end of the world in ways that feel strangely personal and unsettling. They are not simple fantasy, not traditional horror, and not religious fiction in the usual sense. They sit in a strange space where belief, suffering, and human nature all collide.
I love this book because it turns the biblical idea of good versus evil into something frighteningly human and tangible.
What stayed with me was not the plague or the supernatural elements, but how ordinary people reveal who they truly are when the world collapses. I felt constantly unsettled by how thin the line is between morality and survival.
This story made me reflect deeply on faith, corruption, and the fragile nature of civilization in ways that few novels ever have.
Stephen King's apocalyptic vision of a world blasted by virus and tangled in an elemental struggle between good and evil remains as riveting and eerily plausible as when it was first published.
Soon to be a television series.
'THE STAND is a masterpiece' (Guardian). Set in a virus-decimated US, King's thrilling American fantasy epic, is a Classic.
First come the days of the virus. Then come the dreams.
Dark dreams that warn of the coming of the dark man. The apostate of death, his worn-down boot heels tramping the night roads. The warlord of the charnel house and Prince of…
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…
I am fascinated by crows and ravens and their incredible abilities, including facial recognition and gift-giving. So I knew from the start that they would factor into my novel about a superstitious woman who interprets wild animal sightings as omens meant just for her (a habit I admit might be pulled from my own behavior…). For this list, I found five excellent novels that do more than give lip service (beak service?) to the noble creatures. Crows and ravens are integral to these plots. Not surprisingly, some present the birds as sinister and foreboding, others as prophetic and insightful. All, rightly so, acknowledge their intelligence.
I loved that crows’ fascinating abilities are described in detail and woven into this mystery/thriller’s plot. Sloan’s mother is an ornithologist who studied crows and taught her children how the amazing birds form strong bonds, recognize faces, hold grudges, and mimic human voices.
When Sloan returns to her hometown as her mother is being released from a psychiatric facility and her father from prison, she repeatedly hears a crow calling Ridge, the name of her brother who went missing years before. This eerie echo of the past drives her to learn the truth about her brother’s disappearance, even as she is sucked back up into the childhood trauma that put her parents away. PTSD, double lives, and creeping insanity make this a riveting read, enriched by the crow imagery.
In 1988, Sloan Hadfield's brother Ridge went fishing with their father and never came home. Their father, a good-natured Vietnam veteran prone to violent outbursts, was arrested and charged with murder. Ridge's body was never recovered, and Sloan's mother—a brilliant ornithologist—slowly descended into madness, insisting her son was still alive.
Now, twenty years later, Sloan's life is unraveling. In the middle of a bitter divorce, she's forced to return to her rural Texas hometown when her mother is discharged from a mental health facility.
Overwhelmed by memories and unanswered questions, Sloan returns to the last place her brother was seen…
I am fascinated by crows and ravens and their incredible abilities, including facial recognition and gift-giving. So I knew from the start that they would factor into my novel about a superstitious woman who interprets wild animal sightings as omens meant just for her (a habit I admit might be pulled from my own behavior…). For this list, I found five excellent novels that do more than give lip service (beak service?) to the noble creatures. Crows and ravens are integral to these plots. Not surprisingly, some present the birds as sinister and foreboding, others as prophetic and insightful. All, rightly so, acknowledge their intelligence.
I loved this psychological thriller for its inclusion of ravens in the plot, its well-developed characters, and its all-too-real gut-wrenching situations. A pair of ravens are integral to this intense, dark and tragic story. We meet them on page one, in the abandoned mill where the main character, Ria, hides. Her “friendship” with the raven couple is realistic, based on mutual respect and the occasional feeding. The fact that Ria showed the sensitivity and patience needed to develop that relationship tells us she is relatively healthy. Until she isn’t.
In the second half, Ria and two other troubled teens spiral from various traumas. At that point, the ravens become background to the plot but return in one heart-breaking, villainous moment further in.
When you're being dragged under, the choice is fly or die...
The Raven Wheel follows three troubled teenagers as they struggle to seize control of their lives.
Wayward Tye wants to finally make his father proud. Bright but awkward Kian is desperate to reconnect with his estranged mum. Impulsive rebel, Ria, harbours a secret desire to murder her father. Their lives intertwine as they strive to succeed and find themselves in too deep, too late...
Stealing technology from parallel Earths was supposed to make Declan rich. Instead, it might destroy everything.
Declan is a self-proclaimed interdimensional interloper, travelling to parallel Earths to retrieve futuristic cutting-edge technology for his employer. It's profitable work, and he doesn't ask questions. But when he befriends an amazing humanoid robot,…
I am fascinated by crows and ravens and their incredible abilities, including facial recognition and gift-giving. So I knew from the start that they would factor into my novel about a superstitious woman who interprets wild animal sightings as omens meant just for her (a habit I admit might be pulled from my own behavior…). For this list, I found five excellent novels that do more than give lip service (beak service?) to the noble creatures. Crows and ravens are integral to these plots. Not surprisingly, some present the birds as sinister and foreboding, others as prophetic and insightful. All, rightly so, acknowledge their intelligence.
I loved how crows play an important role in this Southern thriller, first as witnesses, then as historians, and finally as heroes. In 1828, crows observed a mass murder that set in motion almost two centuries of witchcraft by a coven operating under the cover of a college sorority. In the present day, the main character, Annabeth, assumes the ever-present crows at her new college hate her when, in fact, they are watching over her. Finally, crows play a major role in the climax.
I loved the supernatural aspect of the crows, which is based in the natural world, and how this very enjoyable, eerie story wrapped in witchcraft has elements of coming of age, family trauma, and Native American mysticism.
They couldn't escape the dead noise. After her father’s death, Annabeth flees from her old life in Memphis to reinvent herself and heal at Chesterbrook College, a sprawling private institution nestled in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. Students say that Chesterbrook Valley is cursed.
A dead body is unearthed on move-in day, and Annabeth and her roommate discover a century-long pattern of campus disappearances. When crows settle on the roof of her dormitory, Annabeth is sure they’re trying to tell her something.
On this sultry southern campus, appearances are never as they seem. Can Annabeth save her friends, or…
I’ve always been a lover of enchanted items—particularly brooms. Maybe this is because my grandfather used to handmake his own brooms (I can still remember that magical and musty smell of his workshop). It took me a long time to write my own “broom book,” with something different and distinctive to say. The books on my list are some that inspired me along my journey. In addition to being a writer, I teach creative writing and art therapy, which means I’ve logged many hours leading lit circles with kids. I feel it has given me a pretty good handle (pardon the pun) on what makes a child’s imagination soar.
It jerked back, and there was a sickening feeling in her stomach as the stick curved away towards the mountains.
There are five books in the Tiffany Aching series, but this one, Book 2, is my favorite because it’s when Tiffany really rolls up her sleeves as a witch—it also marks her first time riding a broom, but, in a delightful twist, Tiffany doesn’t like it. It’s not because she’s afraid of heights, it’s because she’s afraid of falling. Not to worry, even though she’s not an expert broom flyer, Tiffany has plenty of magical friends to rely on throughout the series: a lawyer who has been permanently transformed into a toad and has a penchant for cursing (“croap”), Horace the cheese, Miss Level (a witch of two bodies and one mind), and the ever-delightful Wee Free Men (they can escape from anywhere . . . except a pub).…
Of the 16 books I have written, to date, every single one of them features strong women. I like to think I'm channeling a little bit of myself in there, or perhaps I'm simply projecting the sort of strength I'd like to possess. I don't know. What I do know is that with all that's going on in the world, it's more important now than ever before to remember how strong we can all be. To be strong women, to support strong women, to seek inspiration from strong women, and to inspire the next generation of women to do the same. And that's why I've chosen to recommend books on this subject.
This was a Plot Twist book club pick, and it turned out to be one of my favorites of the last year. Based on three different women from the same lineage, one from the 1600s, one from the 40s, and the third in our current time, it follows their unique struggles with who they are against what society and the people around them expect.
Altha, in the 1600s, has been shunned from society for being different and is then accused and tried for witchcraft. She's thrown in jail and starved to the brink of death, but she perseveres through the trial, doing what she needs to do to survive. Violet, in the 40s, has her life torn apart at just sixteen, the fall out of those events leaving her cast out, pregnant, and terrified. But somehow, she gets up, carries on, and forges a new path for herself. Kate, in…
An Indie Next March 2023 Pick • A LibraryReads March 2023 Pick • An Amazon "Best Books of the Year So Far" 2023 Pick
"A brave and original debut, Weyward is a spellbinding story about what may transpire when the natural world collides with a legacy of witchcraft." ––Sarah Penner, New York Times bestselling author of The London Séance Society
I am a Weyward, and wild inside.
2019: Under cover of darkness, Kate flees London for ramshackle Weyward Cottage, inherited from a great aunt she barely remembers. With its tumbling ivy and overgrown garden, the…
Nature writer Sharman Apt Russell tells stories of her experiences tracking wildlife—mostly mammals, from mountain lions to pocket mice—near her home in New Mexico, with lessons that hold true across North America. She guides readers through the basics of identifying tracks and signs, revealing a landscape filled with the marks…
I’m a historian who wants to know: Why did people burn other people at the stake for what we think was an impossible crime? It seems so unjust; indeed it was unjust. I mention Amnesty International in my book; as well as being a professional historian, I’ve been writing letters for Amnesty for many years, trying to rectify injustice. Yet witch-hunting made sense to the perpetrators; they weren’t simply ‘wicked’ or ‘crazed’ or ‘ignorant’. We need to understand them on many levels, from the most erudite demonology, all the way down to psychological processes by which we identify enemies. The five books I’ve chosen move gradually downwards, in order, from the highest to the deepest level.
As well as the village witch, we have what might be called the ‘folkloric witch’, and other folkloric traditions.
When interrogators asked witchcraft suspects about the Devil, the answers sometimes surprised them. They uncovered beliefs about nature spirits, practices of magical healing and divination, and visionary experience of otherworlds.
Some of this material fed into ideas about the witches’ sabbat, but these beliefs, practices, and visions were not necessarily about ‘witchcraft’ at all. Ronald Hutton’s ambitious book surveys these beliefs, practices, and visions.
He ranges far back into the ancient history of Europe – and adjacent regions, exploring traditions of ceremonial magic from ancient Egypt. If the idea of the witch is frightening, it is partly because of the folklore brought together in this book.
Why have societies all across the world feared witchcraft? This book delves deeply into its context, beliefs, and origins in Europe's history
"Traces the idea of witches far beyond the Salem witch trials to beliefs and attitudes about witches around the world throughout history."-Los Angeles Times
The witch came to prominence-and often a painful death-in early modern Europe, yet her origins are much more geographically diverse and historically deep. In this landmark book, Ronald Hutton traces witchcraft from the ancient world to the early-modern stake.
This book sets the notorious European witch trials in the widest and deepest possible perspective…
As a cozy-style mystery writer, I get to live in a world where I know that everything will work out as it should in the end. I look for this in the books that I read and recommend. Do they give the reader something interesting to ponder as they go along with the sleuth (amateur or “real detective)? My father was a police captain, and I grew up looking at things through the eyes of “the law”, I admit. Most people find comfort reading about a small town where nothing will go too wrong. The bad stuff and the bad people are kept at arm’s length, and all is well.
Wallace puts a new spin on witches and witchcraft as she introduces us to a family of witches living in a small New England town.
The Warren witches have used their magic for good and have devoted their skills to protecting and helping the citizens of Evenfall for four hundred years. But when a guest dies at the family B & B, one of the witches becomes a prime suspect.
The main character has a rare talent that lets her commune with ghosts. But her skills are rusty, so she tries using her investigative techniques hoping that her witchy skills will be there if she needs them.
Magical thinking is fun, but the reader can see it’s love and family that’s the true story and the magic here.
When a guest dies in the B&B she helps her aunts run, a young witch must rely on some good old-fashioned investigating to clear her aunt's name in this magical and charming new cozy mystery.
For four hundred years, the Warren witches have used their magic to quietly help the citizens of the sleepy New England town of Evenfall thrive. There's never been a problem they couldn't handle. But then Constance Graves--a local known for being argumentative and demanding--dies while staying at the bed and breakfast Brynn Warren maintains with her aunts. At first, it seems like an accident...but it…
When I was a kid, my father bought a boat, a Boston Whaler. It wasn’t all that big, but it was enough to take our family of six out on the Pacific Ocean—to Catalina Island, and to some of the smaller and uninhabited islands off the California coast. With flashlights, we explored Channel Island sea caves, listening to the echoing barks of hidden sea lions bouncing off the cavern walls. We snorkeled in the clear waters off Catalina—past schools of fish, manta rays, and dolphins. It was magical. It’s been years since I’ve lived anywhere near the ocean, but I’ve never forgotten the adventures we had, especially the encounters with the captivating creatures of the sea.
It takes place on a small, rocky island, but its themes are huge: revenge; desire; love; jealousy; power; bondage, and transformation. It’s a multi-generational tale that traces an infinitesimally slow-bending arc toward compassion, catharsis, and the restoration of order.
There is a witch who can summon beautiful women out of their bodies as seals; there are the seal-women, themselves, and the men who love them; there are the children, part-selkie, part human.
I loved that, though much evil is done, none of the principal characters are purely evil or good. The prose itself is so beautiful, I sometimes had to stop and reread passages; I didn’t want to let them go. Many spells are cast within this story, and the story itself cast a spell on me. I felt larger after having read it. Maybe a bit wiser, too?
Rollrock is an isolated, windswept island; a wild and salty landscape where fishermen and their families must wring a living from the stormy seas. But Rollrock is also a place of eerie magic, and of powerful desire.
Down on the beach, the outcast witch of Rollrock casts her spells, and draws mysterious girls from the sea. These are girls with long, pale limbs and faces of haunting innocence - the most enchantingly beautiful creatures the fishermen of Rollrock have ever seen.
The island is envied, and many a man is lured to Rollrock with the promise of a sea wife.…
The Bridge provides a compassionate and well researched window into the worlds of linear and circular thinking. A core pattern to the inner workings of these two thinking styles is revealed, and most importantly, insight into how to cross the distance between them. Some fascinating features emerged such as, circular…
Each summer when I was small, I visited my gram. During the day we would go off on one adventure or another—and at night, she enticed me to sleep with the promise of a story. Most often, she read Grimm’s fairytales to me. Full of darkness and also hope (!), they were, and still are, some of my very favorites. And they inspire what I most enjoy writing and reading.
This eerie tale centers on the most lovable of characters, Eden Leopold, who I would follow anywhere—even into a land of eternal night. Spooky and strange, this story brims with magic and will also be sure to tug at your heartstrings (as it did mine) with its lovely portrayal of family.
Hailed by Newbery winner Kelly Barnhill as "stunning, moving, and marvelously strange," this tale of a young girl who stumbles into a magical realm ruled by a wicked witch is a haunting and ultimately uplifting middle grade novel about grief, family, and decades-old magic.
Still grieving the loss of her mother, Eden visits Safina Island, her ancestral home, as a healing balm. But when she discovers an old sketchbook that belonged to her mother, she's haunted by the images she sees drawn there. A creepy mansion covered with roots and leaves. A monstrous dog with dagger-sharp teeth. And a tall…
