Books like “The Island of Doctor Moreau”

What to read after “The Island of Doctor Moreau” by H. G. Wells: a list matched by tropes, mood and atmosphere. Under each book you will see what it has in common.

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1
Frankenstein
Mary Shelley · 1818
Same genre: “Science fiction” and “Gothic novel”
Victor Frankenstein discovers the secret of life and assembles a living creature from the dead, then abandons it in horror. Lonely and rejected, the creature turns on its maker, and both are drawn into a cycle of guilt and vengeance.
2
The Troop
Nick Cutter · 2014
Similar atmosphere: “Body Horror”
- Body Horror
- Deserted Island
Five boys and their scoutmaster camp on a remote island for a weekend. A starving stranger arrives by boat, carrying a parasite that turns the body against itself. As the infection spreads, the small group's most immediate danger becomes one of the boys themselves.
3
Frankenstein in Baghdad
Ahmed Saadawi · 2013
Similar atmosphere: “Body Horror”
- Body Horror
- Sympathetic Monster
In occupied Baghdad a junk dealer stitches a corpse together from the body parts of the dead, and a wandering soul animates it. The creature walks the streets demanding justice for the people it was made from, and soon needs fresh parts to keep going. A bleak, darkly funny story of war, guilt and monstrousness.
4
Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
Robert Louis Stevenson · 1886
Same genre: “Science fiction” and “Gothic novel”
- Mad Scientist
A respected London doctor is oddly close to a violent, mysterious man named Hyde. When a friend investigates the link between them, he uncovers a scientific experiment that set loose a darker self.
5
Annihilation
Jeff VanderMeer · 2014
Similar atmosphere: “Body Horror”
- Body Horror
- Forbidden Knowledge
Four women cross into Area X, a coastal region sealed off for decades, to survey it as the twelfth expedition. The biologist records the abandoned bunker, the writing on its walls and the animals that seem almost aware. She also knows her husband went in before her and came back changed.
6
The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories
H. P. Lovecraft · 1999
Similar atmosphere: “Body Horror”
- Body Horror
- Forbidden Knowledge
A Penguin Classics selection of Lovecraft's stories, from 'Dagon' and 'The Picture in the House' to 'The Call of Cthulhu', 'The Colour Out of Space' and 'The Shadow Over Innsmouth'. Scholars, sailors and dreamers glimpse buried civilisations and vast indifferent forces, and the knowledge slowly takes their minds apart.
7
Lord of the Flies
William Golding · 1954
Similar setting: “Deserted Island”
- Deserted Island
A group of schoolboys survives a plane crash on a deserted island and tries to govern themselves. Order slips first into fear and then into savagery as the boys turn on one another. An allegory about civilisation, violence and what people become without rules.
8
Tender Is the Flesh
Agustina Bazterrica · 2017
Similar atmosphere: “Body Horror”
- Body Horror
After a virus makes all animal meat deadly, Argentina legalises the farming of humans for food. Marcos works the slaughter line and keeps his feelings out of it, until he is given a live woman as a gift and begins to treat her as a person.
9
The Only Good Indians
Stephen Graham Jones · 2020
Similar atmosphere: “Body Horror”
- Body Horror
Years ago four Blackfeet men shot an elk on land they had no right to hunt. Now something is stalking them across the reservation, taking them one by one, in a story about grief, guilt and the debts that follow a person home.
10
Misery
Stephen King · 1987
Similar atmosphere: “Body Horror”
- Body Horror
After a car crash in a snowstorm, novelist Paul Sheldon wakes in the remote home of Annie Wilkes, who calls herself his number one fan. She nurses him back to health, then learns he has killed off her favourite character, and will not let him leave until he writes her a new book.
11
The Exorcist
William Peter Blatty · 1971
Similar atmosphere: “Body Horror”
- Body Horror
An actress's young daughter falls ill with symptoms no doctor can explain, and the doctors eventually suggest a religious explanation. A priest trained in exorcism is asked to help, and he must confront both the thing in the room and his own wavering faith.
12
The Mysterious Island
Jules Verne · 1875
Same genre: “Science fiction”
- Deserted Island
Five Union prisoners escape a siege in a hot-air balloon and are blown onto an uncharted island. There they rebuild a small civilization from its resources, aided by an unseen hand and threatened by a hidden danger.