r/BooksThatFeelLikeThis

Hello! I’m looking for well-written romance books with characters who feel like real, complex people. I'd love something with emotional depth, meaningful character growth

and couples who make each other better people and work as a team, support each other, and face problems together. Great banter and strong chemistry is also a big plus.

Please no: growling, overly jealous or possessive MMCs, controlling/alpha behavior from MMC, miscommunication trope as the main source of conflict, immature characters or unnecessary drama.

Spicy scenes are welcome as long as they give AO3 and not Wattpad if that makes sense.

Please help a girl out, I feel like all the books I've read recently suck.

Where we're let inside someone's mind or maybe the character is going through their day. No plot yet unputdownable. Preferably a short novel.

Chill hangout vibes in the 70s, perferably young adults living life at that time. Any books that recreate this vibe?

i dont know how youd even pull off a surreal horror with this vibe but if there is one out there i need it... but if you have a fiction or fantasy novel like this im still super interested!

Just remembered that I read The Starving Saints by Caitlin Starling and its sort of pulling this off but id still love a book that goes in a different direction

Finished T. Kingfisher's Swordheart and hungry for more of that sorta romance/plot... BUT... like.... better written. Her writing is just not my cup of tea. Guy Gavriel Kay is my all time favorite author, if that shows the kind of writing style/voice I prefer..

So! Things I'd love:
- Elegant, flowing, poetic, thoughtful prose
- Third person perspective
- Medieval/fantasy setting
- Knight/fighter and their ward/companion/person they ended up stuck with
- Some lightheartedness and humor is okay, but not to the extant that it fills every interaction/dialogue

Things I'd like to avoid:
- First person perspective
- Young adult
- Any and all T Kingfisher recommendations

I'm struggling so much with finding a good next book so I really appreciate anybody who gets this far and/or has any suggestions for me<3

Looking for onirical, melancholic fantasy books like The NeverEnding Story. Especially with surreal/liminal locations, symbolic worlds, psychological or spiritual journeys, and themes of identity, emotional emptiness, transformation, and losing/finding yourself again.

Already read: The Hounds of the Morrigan, Labyrinth novelization, and The Dark Crystal novelization :)

I don’t even really know what I’m asking for as it’s super random and the closest thing I could find was American Psycho kinda (but not the vibe I’m looking for).

I’m trying to find a book about a guy who is handsome and uses those advantages however he wishes. Looking for an MC or even side character who is straight up evil, depraved and eventually (or maybe never!) gets vicious karma and his life starts to unravel due to his actions. He can be popular or a loner.

If he has a mental illness that is described in relation to his way of thinking/actions that would be great. And if it takes place in a wooded/more rural area too rather than a city. More isolated vibe.

Someone who seems perfect or at least likeable to others but has this creepy side to him that is unsettling, bone-chilling and makes the reader uncomfortable. Not looking for romance, any other genre is fine.

Credit for fanart in pic 1: alcvol40 on tumblr
Credit for painting in pic 3: cds_art_ on Instagram

Looking for a gritty depressing social commentary with campy or unreal elements. I’m a big transgressive fiction fan and I’ve already read most of Chuck Palahniuks repertoire, as well as Trainspotting by Irvine welsh which i feel as a bit o this vibe. Some of these pictures are from movies i like but because i felt like they captured the vibe that I’m looking for the best :)

more sad mystery than evil horror

Gorgeous, romantic, smoker, goth boy, thats ittttt

Detective or police officer as the main protagonist where he/she stumbles across a monster or monsters during a case maybe. Either he’s being target or he trying to save people that is. Something like that. The monsters are unknown at first

anything that fits the vibe of: mildew, rotten fruits, damp, neon lights, cheap perfume, raunchy, sweat-slick, decay, fever dream, overflowing ashtrays, trashy, gas station coffee, piss stained couch etc etc

preferably litfic, horror, magical realism

Heyy

So I am looking for books to gift a person and their reading taste and them as well can be summed up by these pictures.

I know it's a mixture of everything but that's how they are

🙂🙂

Preferably books with very nice prose, very atmospheric tone. Kind of on the literary side. Open to both straight and sapphic stories alike! Doesn’t have to have a happy ending. Just looking for writing that conveys this feeling! :)

(Also with absolutely no misogyny or objectification pls)