ONTD Original: If You Like That, Read This!
Hopefully most of you have some relaxing days off ahead of you, so here's some reading suggestions if you're stumped on what to pick up.
Do you like STRANGER THINGS?
Read PAPER GIRLS!
From Good Reads: In the early hours after Halloween of 1988, four 12-year-old newspaper delivery girls uncover the most important story of all time. Suburban drama and otherworldly mysteries collide in this smash-hit series about nostalgia, first jobs, and the last days of childhood.
Time for OP's Opinion! This graphic novel is wild and half the time I don't know what's going on. But the art is gorgeous, and it's so much fun.
Do you like THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE?
Read WE HAVE ALWAYS LIVED IN THE CASTLE!
From Good Reads: Merricat Blackwood lives on the family estate with her sister Constance and her Uncle Julian. Not long ago there were seven Blackwoods-until a fatal dose of arsenic found its way into the sugar bowl one terrible night. Acquitted of the murders, Constance has returned home, where Merricat protects her from the curiosity and hostility of the villagers. Their days pass in happy isolation until cousin Charles appears. Only Merricat can see the danger, and she must act swiftly to keep Constance from his grasp.
Time for OP's Opinion! Ok, ok. This is an easy pull, with the Shirley Jackson connection and all. But if you like creepy houses and weirdo families, you might love this slim novel that packs a big punch. (OP note: this is my favorite book so I am biased.)
Do you like JENNIFER'S BODY?
Read GIRLS ON FIRE!
From Good Reads: On Halloween, 1991, a popular high school basketball star ventures into the woods near Battle Creek, Pennsylvania, and disappears. Three days later, he’s found with a bullet in his head and a gun in his hand-a discovery that sends tremors through this conservative community, already unnerved by growing rumors of Satanic worship in the region.
In the wake of this incident, bright but lonely Hannah Dexter is befriended by Lacey Champlain, a dark-eyed, Cobain-worshiping bad influence in lip gloss and Doc Martens. The charismatic, seductive Lacey forges a fast, intimate bond with the impressionable Dex, making her over in her own image and unleashing a fierce defiance that neither girl expected. But as Lacey gradually lures Dex away from her safe life into a feverish spiral of obsession, rebellion, and ever greater risk, an unwelcome figure appears on the horizon-and Lacey’s secret history collides with Dex’s worst nightmare.
By turns a shocking story of love and violence and an addictive portrait of the intoxication of female friendship, set against the unsettled backdrop of a town gripped by moral panic, Girls on Fire is an unflinching and unforgettable snapshot of girlhood: girls lost and found, girls strong and weak, girls who burn bright and brighter-and some who flicker away
Time for OP's Opinion! Though Girls on Fire doesn't have the supernatural element that Jennifer's Body does, it does involve an intense female friendship that can bring both girls down with it. And some early 90s Satanic Panic thrown in for good measure.
Do you like TRUE BLOOD?
Read SLICE OF CHERRY!
From Good Reads: Kit and Fancy Cordelle are sisters of the best kind: best friends, best confidantes, and best accomplices. The daughters of the infamous Bonesaw Killer, Kit and Fancy are used to feeling like outsiders, and that's just the way they like it. But in Portero, where the weird and wild run rampant, the Cordelle sisters are hardly the oddest or most dangerous creatures around.
It's no surprise when Kit and Fancy start to give in to their deepest desire - the desire to kill. What starts as a fascination with slicing open and stitching up quickly spirals into a gratifying murder spree. Of course, the sisters aren't killing just anyone, only the people who truly deserve it. But the girls have learned from the mistakes of their father, and know that a shred of evidence could get them caught. So when Fancy stumbles upon a mysterious and invisible doorway to another world, she opens a door to endless possibilities.
Time for OP's Opinion! Just like Bon Temps, Portero, TX is a town where some seriously weird shit happens. And everyone just kind of accepts it as a fact of life. But when the Cordelle sisters open a door to a separate dimension where they can kill without consequence, things get a lot weirder and darker.
Do you like GHOSTBUSTERS?
Read THE DIVINERS!
From Good Reads: Evie O’Neill has been exiled from her boring old hometown and shipped off to the bustling streets of New York City-and she is pos-i-tute-ly ecstatic. It’s 1926, and New York is filled with speakeasies, Ziegfeld girls, and rakish pickpockets. The only catch is that she has to live with her uncle Will and his unhealthy obsession with the occult.
Evie worries he’ll discover her darkest secret: a supernatural power that has only brought her trouble so far. But when the police find a murdered girl branded with a cryptic symbol and Will is called to the scene, Evie realizes her gift could help catch a serial killer.
As Evie jumps headlong into a dance with a murderer, other stories unfold in the city that never sleeps. A young man named Memphis is caught between two worlds. A chorus girl named Theta is running from her past. A student named Jericho hides a shocking secret. And unknown to all, something dark and evil has awakened.
Time for OP's Opinion! This may seem like an odd connection but it especially rings true for the third in the series where a telephone line is set up to take calls about ghost sightings. For real! A Jazz Age Ghostbusters? How can you resist?
SOURCES: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5
ONTD, what are you reading over the holidays? Can you think of any other readalikes?
Do you like STRANGER THINGS?
Read PAPER GIRLS!
From Good Reads: In the early hours after Halloween of 1988, four 12-year-old newspaper delivery girls uncover the most important story of all time. Suburban drama and otherworldly mysteries collide in this smash-hit series about nostalgia, first jobs, and the last days of childhood.
Time for OP's Opinion! This graphic novel is wild and half the time I don't know what's going on. But the art is gorgeous, and it's so much fun.
Do you like THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE?
Read WE HAVE ALWAYS LIVED IN THE CASTLE!
From Good Reads: Merricat Blackwood lives on the family estate with her sister Constance and her Uncle Julian. Not long ago there were seven Blackwoods-until a fatal dose of arsenic found its way into the sugar bowl one terrible night. Acquitted of the murders, Constance has returned home, where Merricat protects her from the curiosity and hostility of the villagers. Their days pass in happy isolation until cousin Charles appears. Only Merricat can see the danger, and she must act swiftly to keep Constance from his grasp.
Time for OP's Opinion! Ok, ok. This is an easy pull, with the Shirley Jackson connection and all. But if you like creepy houses and weirdo families, you might love this slim novel that packs a big punch. (OP note: this is my favorite book so I am biased.)
Do you like JENNIFER'S BODY?
Read GIRLS ON FIRE!
From Good Reads: On Halloween, 1991, a popular high school basketball star ventures into the woods near Battle Creek, Pennsylvania, and disappears. Three days later, he’s found with a bullet in his head and a gun in his hand-a discovery that sends tremors through this conservative community, already unnerved by growing rumors of Satanic worship in the region.
In the wake of this incident, bright but lonely Hannah Dexter is befriended by Lacey Champlain, a dark-eyed, Cobain-worshiping bad influence in lip gloss and Doc Martens. The charismatic, seductive Lacey forges a fast, intimate bond with the impressionable Dex, making her over in her own image and unleashing a fierce defiance that neither girl expected. But as Lacey gradually lures Dex away from her safe life into a feverish spiral of obsession, rebellion, and ever greater risk, an unwelcome figure appears on the horizon-and Lacey’s secret history collides with Dex’s worst nightmare.
By turns a shocking story of love and violence and an addictive portrait of the intoxication of female friendship, set against the unsettled backdrop of a town gripped by moral panic, Girls on Fire is an unflinching and unforgettable snapshot of girlhood: girls lost and found, girls strong and weak, girls who burn bright and brighter-and some who flicker away
Time for OP's Opinion! Though Girls on Fire doesn't have the supernatural element that Jennifer's Body does, it does involve an intense female friendship that can bring both girls down with it. And some early 90s Satanic Panic thrown in for good measure.
Do you like TRUE BLOOD?
Read SLICE OF CHERRY!
From Good Reads: Kit and Fancy Cordelle are sisters of the best kind: best friends, best confidantes, and best accomplices. The daughters of the infamous Bonesaw Killer, Kit and Fancy are used to feeling like outsiders, and that's just the way they like it. But in Portero, where the weird and wild run rampant, the Cordelle sisters are hardly the oddest or most dangerous creatures around.
It's no surprise when Kit and Fancy start to give in to their deepest desire - the desire to kill. What starts as a fascination with slicing open and stitching up quickly spirals into a gratifying murder spree. Of course, the sisters aren't killing just anyone, only the people who truly deserve it. But the girls have learned from the mistakes of their father, and know that a shred of evidence could get them caught. So when Fancy stumbles upon a mysterious and invisible doorway to another world, she opens a door to endless possibilities.
Time for OP's Opinion! Just like Bon Temps, Portero, TX is a town where some seriously weird shit happens. And everyone just kind of accepts it as a fact of life. But when the Cordelle sisters open a door to a separate dimension where they can kill without consequence, things get a lot weirder and darker.
Do you like GHOSTBUSTERS?
Read THE DIVINERS!
From Good Reads: Evie O’Neill has been exiled from her boring old hometown and shipped off to the bustling streets of New York City-and she is pos-i-tute-ly ecstatic. It’s 1926, and New York is filled with speakeasies, Ziegfeld girls, and rakish pickpockets. The only catch is that she has to live with her uncle Will and his unhealthy obsession with the occult.
Evie worries he’ll discover her darkest secret: a supernatural power that has only brought her trouble so far. But when the police find a murdered girl branded with a cryptic symbol and Will is called to the scene, Evie realizes her gift could help catch a serial killer.
As Evie jumps headlong into a dance with a murderer, other stories unfold in the city that never sleeps. A young man named Memphis is caught between two worlds. A chorus girl named Theta is running from her past. A student named Jericho hides a shocking secret. And unknown to all, something dark and evil has awakened.
Time for OP's Opinion! This may seem like an odd connection but it especially rings true for the third in the series where a telephone line is set up to take calls about ghost sightings. For real! A Jazz Age Ghostbusters? How can you resist?
SOURCES: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5
ONTD, what are you reading over the holidays? Can you think of any other readalikes?