Books like “A Curse So Dark and Lonely”

What to read after “A Curse So Dark and Lonely” by Brigid Kemmerer: a list matched by tropes, mood and atmosphere. Under each book you will see what it has in common.

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1
The Goose Girl
Shannon Hale · 2003
From the same world: “Fairy Tale Retelling”
- Fairy Tale Retelling
- Slow Burn
Princess Ani sails to a neighbouring kingdom to marry a prince she has never met, but on the journey her lady-in-waiting seizes her name and crown. Forced to work as a goose girl, Ani must keep her identity hidden and gently win back what was stolen.
2
Six Crimson Cranes
Elizabeth Lim · 2021
From the same world: “Fairy Tale Retelling”
- Fairy Tale Retelling
- Slow Burn
Princess Shiori would rather sneak out than learn magic, until a stepmother's spell turns her six brothers into cranes and steals her voice. Silent and alone, she must travel a dangerous empire to break the curse, aided by a boy with secrets of his own.
3
Ella Enchanted
Gail Carson Levine · 1997
From the same world: “Fairy Tale Retelling”
- Fairy Tale Retelling
- Slow Burn
At birth Ella is given the gift of obedience, a curse that forces her to do whatever she is told. To escape a life of commands she sets out to find the fairy who blessed her, meeting a prince along the way.
4
Spinning Silver
Naomi Novik · 2018
From the same world: “Fairy Tale Retelling”
Miryem restores her family's moneylending business with a clever tongue, and her boast that she can spin silver into gold reaches the frozen Staryk king. Bound to his winter court, she must use her wits to protect both kingdoms from a bargain that could destroy them.
5
The School for Good and Evil
Soman Chainani · 2013
From the same world: “Fairy Tale Retelling”
- Fairy Tale Retelling
Every year two children are taken to the School for Good and Evil, one to train as a hero and one as a villain. Best friends Sophie and Agatha are sure they know which is which, but the school has its own plans for them.
6
Nettle & Bone
T. Kingfisher · 2022
From the same world: “Fairy Tale Retelling”
- Fairy Tale Retelling
Marra, a shy convent-raised princess, learns that no one will save her sister from a cruel prince -- so she decides to do it herself. Three impossible tasks, a gravewitch, a reluctant fairy godmother and a demon-possessed chicken later, she sets out to stop a king.
7
Uprooted
Naomi Novik · 2015
From the same world: “Fairy Tale Retelling”
- Fairy Tale Retelling
- Slow Burn
Every ten years the wizard known as the Dragon takes one girl from Agnieszka's valley. When he chooses her instead of her best friend, she is carried to his tower, where she discovers a talent for magic, a growing bond with her cold teacher and the corrupted Wood that threatens them all.
8
A Court of Thorns and Roses
Sarah J. Maas · 2015
From the same world: “Fairy Tale Retelling”
Feyre kills a wolf in the winter woods and is taken to a magical realm as payment. In the Spring Court she learns the land is cursed, and her loathing for its high lord slowly turns into something she never expects.
9
Beauty
Robin McKinley · 1978
From the same world: “Fairy Tale Retelling”
A plain, bookish youngest daughter takes her father's place as a prisoner in an enchanted castle. As she comes to know the beast who lives there, she slowly learns that beauty and love are not what she was taught to expect.
10
The Last Wish
Andrzej Sapkowski · 1993
From the same world: “Fairy Tale Retelling”
- Fairy Tale Retelling
Geralt of Rivia is a witcher, a mutated monster-hunter for hire. In linked stories he takes on curses, a striga and a djinn, and learns that the line between monster and human is rarely where the stories say it is.
11
The Bear and the Nightingale
Katherine Arden · 2017
From the same world: “Fairy Tale Retelling”
- Fairy Tale Retelling
In a northern village at the edge of the Russian wilderness, Vasya grows up hearing the old house spirits and fairy tales her stepmother forbids. When new winters bring a creeping evil, only Vasya, who can still see the spirits, can bargain with the forces threatening her home.
12
The Iron King
Julie Kagawa · 2010
Similar plot moves: “Portal Fantasy” and “Forced Proximity”
- Portal Fantasy
- Forced Proximity
On her sixteenth birthday Meghan learns that her little brother has been swapped for a changeling and that the fey are real. To get him back she enters the Nevernever, a dangerous world divided between Summer and Winter courts, where she is drawn to a prince she was raised to fear.