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If you loved
Books like Poor things
A darkly hilarious, feminist funhouse mirror held up to the Victorian gothic, where the monster is the most rational person in the room. These 12 books are the closest matches in mood, pace and themes, with what each one shares with Poor things.
- gothic
- bizarre
- darkly comic
- theatrical
- uncanny
- 01
Lanark
Alasdair Gray · 1981
A sprawling, hallucinatory epic that fractures reality to explore the heartbreaking struggle for love and art in a decaying world.
- 02
Under the skin
Michel Faber
A masterclass in creeping dread that slowly peels back the mundane to reveal something profoundly alien and devastating.
- 03
Marabou Stork Nightmares
Irvine Welsh
A hallucinatory, brutal descent into the fractured mind of a violent man trying to outrun his own monstrous guilt.
- 04
The Wasp Factory
Iain Banks
A chilling, darkly comic descent into the meticulously ordered mind of an isolated teenage psychopath.
- 05
Regeneration
Pat Barker · 1991
A quiet, devastating exploration of shattered minds and the impossible ethics of healing men only to send them back to the slaughter.
- 06
Possession
A. S. Byatt
A lush, brainy treasure hunt through dusty archives that blooms into an epic, time-spanning romance.
- 07
Walking on Glass
Iain Banks
A surreal, disorienting puzzle of a novel where paranoia, romantic obsession, and impossible riddles hurtle toward an inevitable collision.
- 08
The Scottish Prisoner
Diana Gabaldon
A richly textured historical mystery wrapped around the simmering tension of two honorable men forced into an uneasy alliance.
- 09
Lighthousekeeping
Jeanette Winterson · 2005
An atmospheric, nested tale of isolation and connection, anchored by the mesmerizing power of shared stories in a windswept lighthouse.
- 10
Porno
Irvine Welsh
A grimy, high-octane reunion of aging degenerates scheming their way through the sleazy underbelly of Edinburgh.
- 11
The Last Werewolf
Glen Duncan
A blood-drenched, fiercely literate meditation on monstrous appetites and the exhausting burden of immortality.
- 12
Highlander Ever After
Jennifer Ashley
A steamy, atmospheric Highland romance where clashing cultures and a touch of magic ignite a passionate love story in a crumbling Scottish castle.
