Top Ten Tuesday: More Books Like These, Please!

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly book blog meme now hosted by Jana over at The Artsy Reader Girl!

This week's topic is: Books I Loved that Made Me Want More Books Like Them 

This week's post was both easy and hard–easy because I always want more books like books I've loved, and hard because I've found a lot of "read-alikes" of some of my favorites already, haha. But there are always ones with specific tropes or styles or atmospheres that I will never stop wanting to read more like them, so I did my best to narrow it down to ten books for this list, as we're supposed to (as if that has ever stopped me before).  If you have any recommendations for books like the ones listed, please do recommend them to me!

The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch

What I want more of: Locke, Jean, Calo, Galdo, Bug, and Sabetha are all one of my favorite friend/heist groups of all time. Even if it's just Locke and Jean, I can't get enough of their interactions with one another. I also can't get enough of the style of humor Lynch uses in this series, which is often entirely inappropriate, dry, sarcastic, and basically everything that I love. I want all the heist stories with witty and sharp casts (and yes, I do love Six of Crows already!). In addition, the world-building and sheer detail that goes into the heists and everything Locke and Jean do are things I would love to see more of as well.

Night Film by Marisha Pessl

There are quite a few books out there that play with mixed media, but I really enjoyed how well Pessl's books pulled this off. Combined with that was how she mixed the dark, ominous atmosphere with a compelling plot that was both slow- and fast-paced at the same time. I want to read many more books like this one!

The Councillor by E.J. Beaton

I really like the quiet plotting of this book and the focus on a morally grey character who is forced to make a lot of difficult decisions. I'm a suck for an atmosphere like this one where you constantly feel like you are stuck on your toes not knowing who to trust or what political move someone is going to make. I am always looking for more high stakes politics with less of a focus on action.

The Terror by Dan Simmons/The Hunger by Alma Katsu

I absolutely love history and learning about intense historical events, and after learning about those events it can be fun to add some sort of twist– supernatural or otherwise–like they do in The Terror and The Hunger! I would love more books in this vein that turn things that are already horrifying into something a bit more horror-y... but for other reasons, this time.

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters

Sarah Waters' historical fiction is stunning and has this very specific suspense in them that I would really love to find more of. She's very poetic in how she crafts her stories and the sheer layer upon layer upon layer of deception and twists that she develops make it impossible to put her books down. She's also not afraid to tackle a huge variety of intense issues, which I like. Sarah Waters easily writes some of the best historical fiction, and I would love to find these elements in more books!

 

The Thickety by J.A. White

I love books that are a bit on the darker side, and I also love middle grade–the two don't always go together a lot, but when they do and are done well, they're incredible! The Thickety is one of my favorite dark fantasy middle grades and I would absolutely love to find more books like these.

 

Master Assassins by Robert V.S. Redick

This is a hard one to specify what in particular I'm looking for more of, but I love the literary fantasy aspect of this series so far. Redick really has a special way of telling this story that feels like a literary fiction/fantasy mash-up with stunning world-building, the most well-written and developed characters, and a great non-Western setting. There is definitely humor as well, and its the perfect dry, depressing form that fits me perfectly.  Just give me more like this book and we're good!

Catherine House by Elisabeth Thomas

Most of us always want more academia settings, but I think Catherine House's setting was particularly compelling for me. I know it's a huge hit or miss one for people, but I loved the sort of lack of structure and general weirdness about it mixed with the dark atmosphere and struggles of the protagonist. I will happily take more like this one. 

 

A Cavern of Black Ice by J.V. Jones

Epic grimdark fantasy is a favorite and I adore this series so much (as most of you probably already know and are tired of hearing), but I just have a hard time finding something that fits exactly what I'm looking for when I look for more like this series. I think I want more of the ice-cold setting, the darkness, the character cast that I love, and perhaps how classic it feels while also feeling like it is taking a step forward in fantasy. Like it has the epic, classic fantasy feel akin to Wheel of Time, etc., but it has a such a different form of darkness in it and grim aspects that I adore. If you know anything like this, please send a recommendation my way!

Alice by Christina Henry/Hook by Christina Henry

I love any dark retelling of a favorite classic story like Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Peter Pan, which is sort of why Christina Henry's books work so well for me. In particular, I love how she takes these stories to incredibly dark places in such careful and nuanced ways. I've read a lot of dark tellings/inspired stories, but if you have read Christina Henry and know of any that match the atmosphere of her books and the quality, once again, please let me know. :)

Have you read any of these books? What books do you want to read more books like? And most importantly–do you have any recommendations for me?