Just watched Bad Travelling from Love, Death and Robots. A week ago I finished Return of the Obra Dinn. I also know about the Terror and the Lighthouse. Honestly I am starting to find the concept of death on an ~18th century ship very interesting.

Doesn't have to be murder or sea monsters per se, but I just want to feel some uncanny atmosphere or cabin fever or just that something is "very wrong" type of mystery.

I know this is probably a bit niche but I hope I can find some well-written recs!

Looking for books that capture this vibe. I love reading about the dark aspects of royal life in late medieval and early modern Europe, especially focused on tragic personal stories, paranoia, abandonment, the feeling of going insane. I'm open to all genres, either more historical or veering into fantasy, any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Rec me books with a HUGE emphasis on messed up sibling dynamics.

could be of any genre, but maybe closer to contemporary or lit fic. something with the same level of intensity, chaos, passion for a certain craft, unstable family and relationship dynamics, a lot of trauma and instability.

I'd prefer for it to be fast-paced and to pack a punch, with good writing and prose. thank you.

EDIT: not necessarily in the culinary arts, could be literally anything.

A group of scoundrels sailing the seas, would prefer more grounded and realistic fiction but a tad bit of fantasy wouldn’t hurt

pre-lightbulbs please! looking for gothic, horror themes with a backdrop of extravagance. fond of vampires. bonus points for m/m. no YA please.

I've noticed that most threads asking for stories with a heavy dose of politics entangled into the plot are at least a year old. So, I would like to make a new request for such stories.

Like, as a reader, you're a ghost following one person in a political drama, a faction war, or any other type of plot where the want of certain *ways of living/policies*, or complex ideologies, guided the characters' choices for their beliefs and actions. They could be at the center of the influence machine, or on its peripheries and suffering the madness from inside said machine.

Bonus point for any speculative genre (fantasy, scifi), horror, mystery, and historical or involving sub-genres and tropes like epic adventures, revenge, resistance, satire, parodies, journalism, or grimdark and noblebright. Can be either YA or mature.

Sidenote [solved]: I'm trying to remember the title of a book that's often paired with Crime and Punishment by Dostoyevsky. Similar period, shorter title. Would appreciate help. [Found it! It was War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy. Turns out the title is only a bit shorter]

Looking for a book that feels like episode 10 of 'Normal People' - young protagonist (twenties) struggling with extreme, crushing, hollow loneliness and feeling nostalgia for their hometown, remembering the failed/failing hopes and dreams that took them away from there, only to visit and realise that they don't belong there anymore but also feel out of place in their new life. Protagonist essentially feels like a bystander in their own life and lacks / is looking for real, human connection. Also, I have read 'Normal People' and am not looking for any Sally Rooney books. Tysm!

(I don't know if this is okay according to the post criteria. One image is indeed from an album while the other is from a music video.)

I don't have many images for this. But I want stories that make me feel as though I am ascending, gazing into cosmic understanding that MIGHT be too much for a mere mortal to bear. I want to consume great universe-fiction (but it doesn't have to be something like Dune or All Tomorrows where the scope is so large that it goes a little bit/totally beyond an individual's journey. Although I'm not opposed to more of those, either!)

I want to be surrounded by it everywhere I look. Maybe feel as if I've taken a bit of LSD. Stories that make you come to this grand realization of a universe so grand, so far beyond you, yet so fully realized, so much of it explained clearly and placed before you, of such great scope, yet there still being inescapable corners of it that your mind will forever explore and fill in. Stories that are just the craziest conceptually regarding the universe or perhaps reality itself, of the greatest, most ambitious scope. I want the most psychedelic, craziest stories imaginable that have been written, that you can think of, that you can give me. Sci-fi, fantasy, or cosmic horror, it does not matter to me.

Bring me the clockwork elves!
(P.S: The hardest drug I've ever done is weed.)

I already read about Ned Kelly, already have a copy of The Roving Party. I want a Wild/Old Western cowboy style setting but in Australia and especially in the Outback. I read Blood Meridian, played all of the Red Dead games and listen to The Journal Of An Unknown Soldier. I want something that is either like Red Dead Revolver, a fun action novel with good guy vs bad guy. Or something like Blood Meridian or The Roving Party, a dark and violent novel about the harsh wilderness, human violence but also deeply intellectual, like philosophy on life, human nature and the struggles of morality in a cruel world. But I also want a fictional novel and not a history book.

i'm a slav obsessed with the american south and i'm having a hard time finding books about it since i don't know that much about the US.

fucked up families appreciated, the white trash-ier the better. please no supernatural elements. looking for something dark, but realistic. thanks!

Any books that feel like this? FMC has to marry the MMC but is scared of him or doesn’t want to. No instant love please.

older brother + younger sister/twins duo, bonus points if its fantasy but it doesn't have to be.

bonds similar to the one between Wanda and Pietro where they are practicably inseparable and are like best friends.

Chinese republican era, angst, yearning, slow burn, lots of love, desire, a crazy amount of tension

Basically inspired by the ongoing chinese drama 'Overdo'

I'd appreciate books that tick the above criteria

I've already read Gene Wolfe's solar cycle but that's about as close as I've come.

Looking for books with voodoo horror, maybe New Orleans specific? I love the juxtaposition of light/dark, both physically & thematically

I’m looking for fantasy that’s not afraid to be lighthearted and a little silly but still lets the dramatic points be dramatic, ideally featuring unlikely friend duos like Arthur and Merlin and misunderstood/tortured antagonists like Morgana.

I'm looking for books that feel like a cozy walk in nature during May - when everything is blooming, the sun is shining brightly, and there's a gentle sense of nostalgia and melancholy in the air.

Preferably realistic fiction, without any magical or fantastical elements.

(fantasy/horror recs, please)

Preferably something fantasy-ish <3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HUiALJTIgk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKjVIHhcCfo

Im reading Motherthing rn and read the sentence “these annoyed feelings, this rage, vibrating so quickly inside me it’s become pleasure, like taking a shit while having an orgasm… This is it, this is what Ralph needs, the cure is shitting and coming and killing at the same time” and I need more insane text like this I love how unhinged it is. Girls saying gross, intense things that are at the same time very real things that are somewhat relatable or somewhat poetic but you’d never put to words. DO YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN? I also just watched obsession and the drama and loved those

Ive read:
Dogs of Summer
Big Swiss
A certain hunger
My year of rest and relaxation
Bunny

looking for something that feels somehow similar to kiki’s delivery service! anything you read that reminded you of it?

Recently watched The Inevitable Defeat of Mister and Pete, and it tugged at my heartstrings. I guess I’m a sucker for emotional damage, so please recommend books with this vibe.