Ten modern fantasy novels that revitalize fairy tale tropes

Moorea Corrigan holds a bachelor’s degree with honors in English literature from the University of Edinburgh and a master of publishing degree from Simon Fraser University, Vancouver. She works at an academic press in Boulder, Colorado. When she is not writing, you can find her singing, spending time with her menagerie of pets, or attending Jane Austen conventions in full Regency regalia.

Thistlemarsh is her debut novel.

At The Nerd Daily she tagged ten books that twist fairy "tales in innovative ways that engage with both the original material and the modern day." One title on the list:

Starling House by Alix E Harrow

Set in contemporary Kentucky, Harrow’s gothic fantasy Starling House engages tropes from Beauty and the Beast, the myth of Hades and Persephone, and Southern mining folklore. It is a novel that seamlessly blends its story about corruption and injustice with its fairytale tropes, making it an extremely satisfying read. Standalone.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten titles where romance meets murder

USA Today bestselling author Letizia Lorini is an Italian writer who is passionate about heartwarming books with high cackling potential. Currently based in a Scandinavian country, she lives with her partner and their fluffy Japanese Spitz. She also has a degree in sociology and one in criminology, speaks three languages, and drinks the daily recommended dose of coffee before breakfast.

Lorini's novels include the murder romcom A Killer Kind of Romance.

At The Strand Magazine she tagged ten titles for "readers wanting sparks alongside murder weapons." One title on the list:

Finlay Donovan Is Killing It by Elle Cosimano

Writer Finn can’t catch a break: the nanny quits, her ex is awful, and now someone thinks she’s a contract killer. When she accidentally agrees to “take care” of someone, things spin out of control. It’s chaotic, fun, and the best kind of love‑story‑meets‑crime adventure.

Read about the other entries on the list.

Finlay Donovan is Killing It is among M.K. Oliver's seven great titles about bad moms and Darynda Jones's thirteen must-read laugh-out-loud mysteries.

--Marshal Zeringue

Six twisty dating app thrillers

Corinne Sullivan is the senior news editor at Cosmopolitan, where she covers celebrity and entertainment news. She graduated from Boston College in 2014 with a degree in English and creative writing. She went on to receive her MFA in fiction from Sarah Lawrence College. Her stories have appeared in literary magazines such as Night Train, Knee-Jerk, and Pithead Chapel, among other publications, and her 2018 debut novel, Indecent, was included on several “best of” lists.

Sullivan's new novel is Yours Always.

At CrimeReads she tagged six twisty dating app "thrillers that are filled with twists, turns, and very few happily-ever-afters." One title on the list:

Lisa Unger, Last Girl Ghosted

In Last Girl Ghosted, Wren is devastated when she finds herself ghosted by a man she connected with on a dating app, but then she learns that she isn’t the first match that Adam has ghosted. And what’s more: After being ghosted, those women then went missing. What follows is anything but your typical cat-and-mouse game.

Read about the other novels on the list at CrimeReads.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eight books about characters seeking community and connection

Wendy J. Fox is the author of five books of fiction, including What If We Were Somewhere Else, which won the Colorado Book Award; If the Ice Had Held, a top pick in audio from LitHub; and the newly released The Last Supper. She has written for many national publications including Self, Business Insider, BuzzFeed, and Ms. She authors a column in Electric Literature focusing on the big works of traditional small presses. A lifelong resident of the American West, she currently lives outside of Phoenix.

At Electric Lit Fox tagged eight books that "illustrate the complexity of finding our place in the world, all while showing that it really is possible." One title on the list:

Nadezhda in the Dark by Yelena Moskovich

Partners living in Berlin after having fled the Soviet Union as children—one from Ukraine and one from Russia—are in their apartment, not speaking on a long night. In this narrative in verse, there’s a sense of rootlessness for both women. Between Nadezhda and her unnamed partner, history surfaces and hurt surfaces. Both women process what it means to have lost a homeland. The narrator tries to understand what it means to love Nadezhda. As a writer, Moskovich places that ache the most, and she does it without apology and with a present lyricism that often leads her characters to a place of agency.

Read about the other entries on the list at Electric Lit.

--Marshal Zeringue

Nine titles about ordinary and everyday heroes

At Book Riot Megan Mabee tagged nine books about ordinary and everyday heroes, including:

Butterfly: From Refugee to Olympian, My Story of Rescue, Hope and Triumph by Yusra Mardini

This powerful memoir by Syrian refugee Yusra Mardini will stay with you long after you finish reading. Yusra and her sister Sarah’s heroism is incredibly inspiring. Yusra recounts the harrowing journey she and Sarah made as they fled Syria and traveled by boat with a number of other refugees to Greece. When their boat’s engine fails, the two teens jump into the water to help pull the boat to safety. The Netflix movie adaptation of Yusra’s story called The Swimmers is very much worth watching too.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five novels that feature queer domesticity

Like Family is Erin O. White's debut novel.

White is also the author of the memoir, Given Up For You, and essays that have appeared in the New York Times, The Kenyon Review, and elsewhere.

She lives in Minneapolis with her wife and two daughters.

At Lit Hub White tagged "five novels I love that tell the story of queer domestic life." One title on the list:

Spent by Alison Bechdel

In this year of grief, of worries and losses piling up for queer people, especially trans people, Bechdel delivered unto us a gift. In Spent Bechdel parts the curtains on the most delightful literary household in recent memory. Each panel is a two-dimensional diorama depicting the habits of that fascinating creature, the New England lesbian. There is visceral pleasure in the recognition, the familiarity, and the gentle teasing; an intimacy that is familiar yet foreign enough to sate my nearly infinite curiosity about the private lives of strangers. Other people’s bedrooms, indeed.

Read about the other entries on the list at Lit Hub.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten memorable horror stories featuring twins

Dana Mele is a Pushcart-nominated writer based in upstate New York. A graduate of Wellesley College, Mele holds degrees in theatre, education, and law.

Mele’s debut, People Like Us, was shortlisted for the 2019 ITW Thriller Award for Best Young Adult Novel and is an ALA Rainbow List Selection. Their sophomore novel, Summer's Edge, was a Barnes & Noble YA Book Club Selection and a New York Public Library Best Books for Teens title.

Mele's new novel is The Beast You Let In.

[Q&A with Dana Mele]

At CrimeReads the author tagged ten memorable horror stories from film and fiction that feature twins, including:

Luke and Nell
Shirley Jackson, The Haunting of Hill House

The Haunting of Hill House is both a novel and a Netflix adaptation, though the characters are only twins in the series. Luke and Nell each battle their own demons stemming from a haunting past, and they share an almost supernatural bond.

Though they drift apart over the years, it’s doubtful even death can drive a wedge between them. Loyalty, love, and realistic flaws make them relatable and lovable, whatever fate holds for the Crane twins.

Read about the other entries on the list.

The Haunting of Hill House also appears on Camilla Bruce's list of five novels featuring houses to die for, Jen Williams's list of the five best novels about hauntings, Sara Flannery Murphy's five top thriller and horror books with “House” in the title, Lisa Unger's list of five great horror novels that explore the darkest corners of our minds, Dell Villa's list of seven of the best haunted houses in literature, Kat Rosenfield's list of seven scary October reads, Michael Marshall Smith's top ten list of horror books, Carlos Ruiz Zafón's top ten list of 20th-century gothic novels,  and Brad Leithauser's five best list of ghost tales.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eight books of immersive dark gothic fantasy for horror fans

Carolina Ciucci is a teacher, writer and reviewer based in the south of Argentina. She hoards books like they’re going out of style. In case of emergency, you can summon her by talking about Ireland, fictional witches, and the Brontë family. At Book Riot she tagged eight titles of immersive dark gothic fantasy for horror fans. One title on the list:

The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

When grad student Minerva starts looking into Beatrice Tremblay, she doesn’t expect to find the real story behind The Vanishing, Tremblay’s famous novel. And she definitely didn’t expect to discover that the malevolent force that once haunted Tremblay and her roommate might still be present on campus.

Read about the other titles on the list.

The Bewitching is among Daphne Fama's eight folklore-inspired horror novels.

--Marshal Zeringue

Nine titles with short but rich interior journeys

Irena Smith is the author of the award-winning memoir, The Golden Ticket: A Life in College Admissions Essays and Troika: Three Generations, Three Days, and a Very American Road Trip. Her obsession with how words work began early (as a child growing up in Soviet Russia, she was known to occasionally stand on furniture and recite Pushkin poems), and her writing focuses on migration, memory, motherhood, generational expectations, the petty indignities of middle age, and the importance of embracing a broader, more generous vision of what it means to succeed.

At Electric Lit Smith tagged nine books that take "circumscribed journeys: across a parlor, through a single unruly sentence, back into a childhood bedroom.... But even when hemmed in by economic exigency, physical disability, or cultural constraints, these protagonists show us that nothing is more heroic than a consciousness finding a way forward on its own terms." One title on the list:

We Are Never Meeting in Real Life by Samantha Irby

Why go outside when you can hang out in your apartment with the internet, the TV, and your garbagemonster cat? Samantha Irby sees no reason for it. Her bowels are irritable, her arthritis is flaring, the dating scene is “fucking dire,” and her job skills are limited to—in her words—surly phone answering, playing the race card, and eating other people’s lunches in the break room. Also, her mind is a “never-ending series of shame spirals” leavened with depression and anxiety, which is why she’s staying home in her day pajamas, eating the snacks she ordered online, and spinning the dross of daily life into gold.

Read about the other entries on the list at Electric Lit.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five expansive horror stories set in New York City

Vincent Tirado is a nonbinary Dominican born and raised in the Bronx. They are a Pura Belpré Award winner, Bram Stoker and Lambda Literary award finalist known for their
books Burn Down, Rise Up (2022), We Don't Swim Here (2023), and We Came to Welcome You (2024). You Should Have Been Nicer to My Mom (2026) is their sophomore adult novel. When they’re not writing new spine-chilling horrors, they can be found making another pot of coffee and harassing their cat, Bugsy.

At CrimeReads Tirado tagged "five Big Apple horror novels to get a taste of what expansive terrors you can find in just one city." One title on the list:

Victor LaValle, The Changeling

Though this novel tells the tale of first-time father Apollo Kagwa–starting from his own childhood and all the way to the birth of his very own son–the story doesn’t really start there. It starts on a sloop, carrying fearful immigrants across an unforgivable sea to a new world. That new world later becomes New York City. This is the start of many people. Their history, culture, hopes and dreams intertwines, imbuing the city with a magic that is as unfathomable as it is transformative.

But as the Brothers Grimm are apt to tell you, not all magic is good. When tragedy strikes Apollo’s household, robbing him of both his wife and child, he comes to know the city’s sinister enchantments intimately. He travels all over, from Manhattan to Queens and even North Brother Island.

He meets both suspicious allies and honest enemies and learns how that little sloop did not just carry immigrants. It carried something powerful. Something that promised safe passage over an impossible ocean. Something that would come to collect its bloody due, time and time again.

Apollo’s story doesn’t really start from himself–it starts from those who came before him, a long chain of people who have laid the foundations he walks upon. It takes him time to dig deep inside and find his own great power, and when he does, it’s a reckoning that was always a long time coming. Beware–this gothic horror is one that would rival any Grimm’ fairytale.

Read about the other entries on the list at CrimeReads.

The Changeling is among Andrew DeYoung's eight top sketchy-spouse domestic thrillers, Lucy Foley's six stunning tales of folk horror, Brittany Bunzey's twenty-five "must-read, truly bone-chilling" horror books, Nat Cassidy's eight top unconventional coming-of-age horror novels, Benjamin Percy's top five novels about dangerous plants, James Han Mattson's five top dark and disturbing reads, A.K. Larkwood's five tense books that blend sci-fi and horror, Leah Schnelbach's ten sci-fi and fantasy must-reads from the 2010s, T. Marie Vandelly's top ten suspenseful horror novels featuring domestic terrors and C.J. Tudor's six thrillers featuring missing, mistaken, or "changed" children.

--Marshal Zeringue

The best historical fiction titles of the century so far

The lit pros at Book Riot tagged the best historical fiction books of the century so far. One of Vanessa Diaz's picks:

A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes

I've loved just about everything that writer, classicist, and comedian Natalie Haynes has ever written, but this is the book that made a fangirl out of me. Hayne's retelling of the Trojan War gives voice to the women involved in the conflict, telling a non-linear tale through a dozen or so perspectives that include goddesses and both Greek and Trojan women. Spoiler alert: there are no winners here, as there rarely are for women in war. Haynes drives this fact home in a feminist retelling that gives a voice to the silenced, and that's witty where you'd least expect it. If you're a mythology nerd, this trip to ancient times is worth the price of admission.

Read about the other books on the list.

A Thousand Ships is among Megan Barnard's top eleven books about misunderstood women in history and mythology, the B&N Reads editors' twenty-four best mythological retellings, Susan Stokes-Chapman's top ten novels inspired by Greek myths, Jennifer Saint's ten essential books inspired by Greek myth, Deanna Raybourn's six top novels based on historical scandals, and Alyssa Vaughn's forty-two books to help you get through the rest of quarantine.

The Page 69 Test: A Thousand Ships.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven slow-burn romances

Laura Vogt is a historian, storyteller, and poet.

She loves all things wild and beautiful.

Vogt lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma, with her husband and three children.

Her new novel is In the Great Quiet.

At Lit Hub Vogt tagged seven favorite slow-burn romances, including:

Jane Austen, Emma (1815)

If you need a fix after Bridgerton, I’ve got you. You thought I would recommend Pride and Prejudice or Persuasion, right? And, sure, those both spectacularly showcase longing. Austen is the queen of the slow burn. Not only in romance, but in the gradual development of character, relationships, and prose. You must wait—but an Austen book is always worth it.

Emma follows a matchmaker as she wanders the picturesque English countryside. Emma meddles with the romantic life of her entire village—while completely misunderstanding her own romance. In Pride and Prejudice, we have Darcy’s confession of love at 55%, while in Emma we’re on the edge of our seats wondering until the last chapters. Emma is a slow burn of misrecognition. We’re biting our nails, turning those pages. The brilliance of Emma is that she herself is the obstacle—she’s so busy arranging other people’s happiness that she nearly misses her own.

Read about the other entries on the list at Lit Hub.

Emma is on John Mullan's list of ten of the best wines in literature, and among Daniel Mendelsohn's six all-time favorite books, Lucy Worsley's six best books, Sophie Kinsella's six best books, Tanya Byron's six best books, Judith Martin's five favorite novels, and Monica Ali's ten favorite books.

--Marshal Zeringue