Books Like The Bear and the Nightingale
If you finished The Bear and the Nightingale and want more fairy tale retellings, witches, demons, start here. Each pick shares at least two tropes with it, and we've rated every one for spice and darkness so you know what you're getting into.
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The picks
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1. Uprooted
Shares: fairy tale retellings, curses, witches
Every ten years a wizard takes one village girl. This time it's Agnieszka, which nobody expected. The real villain is the Wood, which is properly creepy.
- Fairy Tale Retellings
- Curses
- Slow Burn
- Witches
Content warnings
Graphic violence, Death of a loved one
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2. Daughter of the Forest
Shares: fairy tale retellings, curses, witches
The Six Swans in early Ireland. Sorcha's brothers are cursed into swans and she can't speak a word until she's woven shirts from nettles. It's slow, patient and lovely, with one assault scene early on that's very hard to read.
- Fairy Tale Retellings
- Curses
- Witches
- Slow Burn
Content warnings
Sexual assault, Physical or emotional abuse, Torture, Death of a loved one
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3. House of Salt and Sorrows
Shares: fairy tale retellings, curses
Annaleigh lives in a seaside manor with her sisters, four of whom have already died, and the rest keep sneaking off to enchanted balls every night. The Twelve Dancing Princesses as gothic horror. The romance is light. The creep factor isn't.
- Fairy Tale Retellings
- Curses
- Forbidden Love
Content warnings
Death of a loved one, Murder, Gore
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4. Nettle & Bone
Shares: fairy tale retellings, curses
Marra, the forgettable youngest princess, decides her sister's abusive prince husband has to die. To pull it off she builds a dog out of bones and picks up a disgraced knight, a dust-wife and a fairy godmother. Funny, grim, with a little romance at the edges.
- Fairy Tale Retellings
- Curses
- Found Family
Content warnings
Physical or emotional abuse, Murder, Death of a loved one
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5. The Bone Houses
Shares: curses, fairy tale retellings
In Ryn's village the dead get up at night and walk out of the forest. She's a gravedigger, so it's bad for business. A Welsh-myth road trip with a mapmaker and an undead goat. Creepy, sad and lighter than it sounds.
- Curses
- Found Family
- Fairy Tale Retellings
Content warnings
Death of a loved one, Gore, Graphic violence
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6. The Hazel Wood
Shares: fairy tale retellings, curses
Alice's grandmother wrote a book of fairy tales so dark it's out of print. Then the stories start coming for her.
- Fairy Tale Retellings
- Curses
Content warnings
Murder, Graphic violence, Kidnapping
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7. For the Wolf
Shares: fairy tale retellings, curses
Red, the queen's second daughter, is sent into the Wilderwood as a sacrifice to the Wolf and finds a grumpy Warden named Eammon bleeding into the trees to keep them back. Red Riding Hood meets Beauty and the Beast with forest horror. Slow and tender.
- Fairy Tale Retellings
- Curses
- Forced Proximity
- Slow Burn
Content warnings
Gore, Graphic violence
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8. House of Hollow
Shares: curses, fairy tale retellings
Three sisters vanished as kids and came back with black eyes and no memories. Now the oldest is missing again. Gross, glittery body horror with a fae core. YA but not soft.
- Fae
- Curses
- Fairy Tale Retellings
Content warnings
Gore, Kidnapping, Murder, Harm to children
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9. Juniper & Thorn
Shares: fairy tale retellings, witches, curses
A retelling of the Grimm story The Juniper Tree, set in an industrializing city with a monster loose in it. Marlinchen and her sisters are the last witches, kept locked up by their abusive father. This is gothic horror first. Check the warnings, they're heavy.
- Fairy Tale Retellings
- Witches
- Curses
- Revenge
Content warnings
Sexual assault, Physical or emotional abuse, Harm to children, Gore, Self-harm, Murder
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10. Kingdom of the Wicked
Shares: witches, demons
Sicilian witch summons a prince of hell to find out who killed her twin. Wrath is the best part, and the spice goes up a lot in book two.
- Witches
- Demons
- Enemies to Lovers
- Revenge
Content warnings
Murder, Gore, Death of a loved one
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11. The Bloody Chamber
Shares: fairy tale retellings, curses
Ten short stories that take Bluebeard, Beauty and the Beast, Red Riding Hood and Puss in Boots and make them hungry, sexual and strange. Short enough to read in a weekend. Every dark fairy tale retelling since owes it something.
- Fairy Tale Retellings
- Vampires
- Curses
Content warnings
Murder, Physical or emotional abuse, Gore, Dubious or non-consent
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12. The Last Wish
Shares: fairy tale retellings, curses
Linked short stories where Geralt takes monster contracts that keep turning out to be twisted fairy tales: a cursed princess, a Beauty and the Beast setup, a djinn. Start here, not with Blood of Elves. It's funnier and more melancholy than the games.
- Fairy Tale Retellings
- Morally Gray
- Curses
Content warnings
Graphic violence, Murder, Gore
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13. Tender Morsels
Shares: fairy tale retellings, witches
After years of abuse from her father, Liga is given a private heaven where nothing bad can happen, and raises her daughters there. Then the real world starts leaking in. Snow White and Rose Red, made very adult. Not for everyone.
- Fairy Tale Retellings
- Witches
- Found Family
Content warnings
Sexual assault, Physical or emotional abuse, Harm to children
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