Book Recommendations:)

The Necromancer's Lair
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Hi there! I’m back to ask for more books to reads since I’m getting bored and it’s getting harder to find the books I like. Of course, I’ll be leaving some of my preferred things down to see if there is anything that fits a certain book. Thank you in advance!

p.s. If your own story fits the bill, I wouldn’t mind a link;)

Books I have read and enjoyed to assure no repeats and give you a little more info
  • Villains Duology by V.E. Schwab (I love her sm)
  • The whole GrishaVerse by Leigh Bardugo (especially the Six of Crows Duology)
  • The Fever King Duology by Victoria Lee
  • Scythe Trilogy by Neal Shusterman
  • Newsflesh and Parasite Trilogy by Mira Grant

My preferred–

  • Genres: Fantasy, Sci-fi, Dystopian, Action/Thriller, Psychological, LGBTQ+, Apocalyptic, Mystery, Adventure, Historical, Supernatural, and Poetry
  • Anti-Hero/Morally grey characters (I want villains, assassins, thieves, those kinda dudes)
  • Murder/death/violence, overall dark and mature stories
  • Angst/heavy topics (I want to cry pls)
  • magic used in a creative way/good worldbuilding and in-depth characters
  • Series/long book and YA to Adult section
  • More diversity in skin color and gender (that is done right)
  • Something with a twist (or twisted/traumatized characters are cool)
  • I’m getting more into criminal psychology so any good books on psychology would be appreciated (basically any books that dive into it or a fictional story that messes up with my mind)

Not preferred–

  • (too much) romance + love triangles (unless they’re done correctly) and werewolf
  • problematic authors (JK Rowling, Sarah J. Maas, etc.)

note: if there’s something that’s not in the “not preferred” then you can assume that I’m fine with it:)

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I just read an amazing book, that I think you’ll like. It doesn’t have that much romance- like 3 kisses max LOL
It’s fantasy, and the female MC is a strong, villainous creature. No werewolves. It’s To Kill A Kingdom by Alexandra Christo.

I have something with lots of angst and guaranteed to make you cry, but it has romance. It’s a thriller romance though, and has traumatized characters + really heavy topics + dark + will mess you up.
And it’s 18+ (no smut; just the casual mention of sex), so tell me if that’s cool and I’ll drop the name.

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I saw “historical” and “thief” so I recommend “The Book Thief” XD It’s a story with Death as the narrator about a thieving girl in Nazi Germany. Not even done yet, but I’m loving it so far.

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Overlord. This is kind of my favorite thing right now, but it’s kind of a screwball because it’s so different from anything else I can think of. It’s technically a subversion of normal light novel tropes, but it has a lot more going for it than that.

It checks off most of your preferred genres: Fantasy, Sci-Fi(kind of, it has hyper-advanced VR tech), Action/Thriler(Oh yeah!), Adventure(yes), Apocalyptic(if you really belive that The Overlord is not something humans can win against)

The main character is quite literally a dark lord who wishes to take over the world and make sure his name is spread far and wide

Oh yeah. The author can be merciless and I respect him for it.

It will make you think differently about all kinds of fantasy baddies.

It’s based on RPG systems but it really works. Not as in-depth as some other books, but it is heavily hinted that it takes lifetimes to even get the 6th level, the highest that a human can do magic. Characters are initially simple but very interesting. Worldbuilding leaves a lot to play with.

Light Novels are fairly analogous to YA novels, and it’s a very fast read.

Surprising amount of dark-skinned characters, and a lot of kickass monster women.

Yeah, Overlord is very twisted

There’s one werewolf lady but she’s a minor character. At first glance, you might not even know she’s a werewolf lady!

The illustrations are top-tier and very evocative. Prose is very blunt, direct, and fast-paced, so you probably aren’t going to read a passage and think “wow that’s pretty!”.

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Oh please read The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri. It’s like perfect for your reading taste, and I loved it so so damn much. Also a majority of people who read it loved it - like you’ll find a ton of rave reviews of this book out there, if you pay attention to that kind of stuff. Though if you’re going to pick this up, you should know it’s not a standalone or a complete trilogy. This book came out last year, the second comes out this year and the last one I don’t know.
It’s about two morally grey lesbians from different and distinct cultures within an empire who were once glorious but have now lost their power coming together to fight for their ideals. It’s politics, war, love, and everything in between.
The prose is gorgeous, the setting is stunning, the main characters are flawed yet strong.

Another book you might like is Obsidian: Awakening by Sienna Frost. This book should be 18+ for the dark stuff, but I read it at 15, the author knew about it, and it was fine, but I am comfortable with dark stuff, so take that into consideration, I guess. I read this while it was on wattpad, but it has since been self published, and the ebook version is now out. The author is working on the paperback edition, which is still not out.
This book is about a world that has two distinct ways of life because of which they have a conflict spanning centuries, and the people with the power to end it all - except they are people who are flawed and morally grey and dark.
I will caution you not to read this if you don’t like really really dark stuff. This book goes DEEP. TW: sexual assault on a teen female - the scene is described, not in graphic detail, but in terms of feelings, and it’s important to the plot.
And also one character is in a relationship with a guy she hates, and the guy hates her, and they also love each other - if not for the conflict between them that basically ruins their entire relationship.
Also there’s a guy who has to kill his own brother for reasons that would become spoilery.
There might be more TWs, but these are the ones I can think of off the top of my head.
This book is a really deep study of how conflict - not necessarily war, the sterotype kind of conflict, affects lives and builds on tension.

Also gonna drop this story here: Heir of the Gods - Jager - Wattpad
Not mine, but I read it, love it, and I think it fits your taste, too. It’s less dark compared to the other two, but still dark and gritty.

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Easily The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater. It’s the Grishaverse stuff, but a bit darker and dreamier and gayer.

Also might wanna check out the Renegades Trilogy by Marissa Meyer!! It’s a sci-fi series about dystopian superheroes and it’s pretty neat.

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The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells. Sci-fi, YA, asexual main character, consist of 5 novellas, 1 short story and 1 novel, ongoing, anti-hero, morally grey, a twist which as of the first four books has barely been mentioned. (Spoiler is the twist) The Murderbot’s used to be human.

The Wife Upstairs by Rachel Hawkins. Gothic thriller, death, murder, twist, the ending really messed me up, Jane Eyre retelling.

(Haven’t read this one yet) All of us villains by Amanda Foody & Christine Lynn Herman. To quote one of my favourite YouTubers, “If you took the characters of Vicious, gave them the magic of Harry Potter and put them all into the Hunger Games that would be this book.” YA, fantasy, queer characters, going to be a series, violence, death, lore, villains,

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GrishaversevsOverlord

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Thank you everyone for the suggestions! I’m so excited to look for books to read:))

Ooh, I have seen that around bookstores and it looks really good but I’ve never come around to read it. Maybe I might pick it up and read it now :eyes:

Totally fine with the romance! I just didn’t want it as the whole genre for a book. I’m really interested in it now skjskjs

Wait that sounds super good! I think I heard the title a couple of times but never really thought about it, I’ll go check this out! Thank you!

I never heard about it but it seems really interesting!

That is something I can get behind

Totally fine with me! I just didn’t want it to be an omegaverse–

It’s sounds so lovely, I’m totally gonna find it now

I’m fine with that kind of stuff! It sounds fascinating already

Will definitely check that out later!

Ooh, I think I’ve heard of this but never really looked into it, I’ll check it out!

I love her cinder series so I will definitely try this!

I’m already in love with the title lmao, it sounds exciting!

That sounds fun :eyes:

Ooh, I’m totally gonna check that out–

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:thinking:

  • Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard (YA fantasy).

  • Unwind by Neal Shusterman (YA dystopian).

  • The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes (YA mystery).

  • An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir (YA fantasy).

  • Sadie by Courtney Summer (YA/NA thriller).

  • Dear Evan Hansen: the Novel by Val Emmich, Steven Levenson, Benj Pasek, Justin Paul (YA contemporary).

  • Falling Kingdoms by Morgan Rhodes (YA fantasy).

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Ah, well you can read Verity by Colleen Hoover. I swear I still get shudders when I think of it and I read it last year.
The characters are a bit controversial- but that’s the point, to show how grey people can be.

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I was also going to recommend Obsidian, but you beat me to it! :slight_smile:
The Broken Earth trilogy by NK Jemisin might also fit what you’re looking for.

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Sienna’s an awesome author, and Obsidian is one of my absolute favourite books!

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Oh, thank you!

Thank you! I’ll be checking that out!

I have read this series but I have found it to be a little boring lol

But thank for all the book recommendations!

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Some recommended authors…

Ian Rankin’s crime series. The TV series Rebus is based on his works.

Chris Ryan’s fiction series. I quite enjoyed his Danny Black and Matt Browning series. Also, recommend the TV series Strike Back, based on his fiction series with the same name.

Andy McNab is another good military / spy suspense author. I’ve read a few books from his Nick Stone series. Cold Blood was the first book I encountered. Note: whenever you think the characters are safe, they’re not.

I recommend checking out John Le Carre’s works too. I’ve only read Little Drummer Girl and A Most Wanted Man, and watched Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and The Tailor of Panama…and A Most Wanted Man…but I was thoroughly impressed.

Update: The Night Manager TV series is also based on Le Carre’s novel. Just found that out. Great TV series.

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Ways of Dying by Zakes Mda

Blood Rose by Margie Orford

The Snowman by Jo Nesbo

Sidetracked by Henning Mankell

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I think you’d also probably like Devolution by Max Brooks. It’s basically a what the hell happened scenario with the only thing to really go off of being a journal. Mixed with the actual journal entries. It’s also a Bigfoot book. And the audiobook is :ok_hand:t2:.

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Not sure if we’re allowed to recommend our own books, but I think mine Link: The Last Philosopher - Nick East - Wattpad has almost everything you’re looking for

Blurb: Before everything, it’s assumed there was nothing, but what if there was no real difference between the two? Just two extreme philosophies from the original conflict.

The planet Huom has been under observation for longer than should technically be possible. The primary watcher, a bitter black-hole, is excited to see that there is finally a proverbial Darkness at the end of the tunnel.

Meanwhile on the planet, in the freezing mountains of Empris, Lyeasrakardsul, the oldest living sorcerer suffers from devastating nightmares. At the same time — far away in the sandstone desert of Zenon — Herschel, a man filled to the brim with strange ideas is escaping a prison filled with strange old men.

What does all this have to do with arsehole Gods, hairy Dwarfs, frustrated Afreets, curious Knomes, lizard-women, and nude Áettar? Perhaps Nothing, perhaps Everything… but why can’t it be both?

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