Books like “The Thirteenth Tale”

What to read after “The Thirteenth Tale” by Diane Setterfield: 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 Silent Companions
Laura Purcell · 2017
From the same world: “Gothic”
A young widow is sent to her late husband's crumbling estate and finds an eerie painted wooden figure that seems to move on its own. As the figures multiply, she begins to doubt her own mind. A gothic horror set in the English countryside, told through an asylum diary.
2
The Little Stranger
Sarah Waters · 2009
From the same world: “Gothic”
In post-war England, a country doctor is drawn into the fading life of a once-grand family living in a decaying mansion. Strange events unsettle the house and its residents, and suspicion falls in every direction. An unnerving story about class, decline and things that may not be ghosts.
3
The Turn of the Key
Ruth Ware · 2019
From the same world: “Gothic”
A nanny takes a live-in post at a remote smart house in the Scottish Highlands, hoping for a fresh start. The children are troubled, the technology watches everything, and her employers are rarely home. Told in letters from prison, it asks who is really to blame.
4
Uncle Silas
J. Sheridan Le Fanu · 1864
From the same world: “Gothic”
- Gothic
- Gothic Manor
Orphaned heiress Maud Ruthyn is sent to Bartram-Haugh, the remote house of her uncle Silas, a man once suspected of murder. Isolated there with him, his strange son and a governess, she slowly realises the household is closing in on her.
5
The Last House on Needless Street
Catriona Ward · 2021
From the same world: “Gothic”
At the end of a quiet street live a man, his daughter and a cat, keeping to themselves. When a new neighbour comes looking into a child's long-ago disappearance, the house's careful routine bends and the story it protects begins to break apart.
6
Jane Eyre
Charlotte Brontë · 1847
From the same world: “Gothic”
- Gothic
- Gothic Manor
An orphan becomes a governess at the brooding Thornfield Hall. A bond grows between her and its stern master, but the house hides a dangerous secret that threatens the life she is beginning to hope for.
7
Rebecca
Daphne du Maurier · 1938
From the same world: “Gothic”
A shy young woman marries the widowed Maxim de Winter and arrives at Manderley, his grand estate by the sea. There she is measured against his first wife, the beautiful Rebecca, whose presence lingers in every room, in the servants' loyalty and in a secret nobody will speak.
8
The Shadow of the Wind
Carlos Ruiz Zafón · 2001
From the same world: “Gothic”
- Gothic
- Twist Ending
In 1945 Barcelona, young Daniel is taken to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books and chooses a novel called The Shadow of the Wind. He becomes obsessed with its vanished author, Julián Carax, and his search through a scarred city uncovers a decades-old story of doomed love, madness and revenge.
9
Rock Paper Scissors
Alice Feeney · 2021
From the same world: “Gothic”
A couple whose marriage is failing take a weekend trip to a remote chapel in the Scottish countryside. Cut off and cold, they each keep a secret, and the anniversary gift they open is not what either of them expects.
10
The Mysteries of Udolpho
Ann Radcliffe · 1794
From the same world: “Gothic”
- Gothic
- Gothic Manor
After her parents die, Emily St. Aubert is left to the care of an aunt who marries an Italian nobleman. Taken to the gloomy castle of Udolpho, she is surrounded by unexplained sounds, sealed rooms and sinister men, while she tries to keep her love and her safety.
11
We Have Always Lived in the Castle
Shirley Jackson · 1962
From the same world: “Gothic”
Eighteen-year-old Merricat lives with her sister and uncle in a large house outside a village that despises them, after the rest of the family died years earlier from poison. When a cousin arrives hoping to claim the estate, the careful order of Merricat's world is broken.
12
What Moves the Dead
T. Kingfisher · 2022
From the same world: “Gothic”
- Gothic
- Gothic Manor
Alex Easton travels to the Ushers' decaying manor to see a childhood friend who is dying. Madeline's body is changing in ways the doctors cannot explain, down to the hairs on her arms, the local hares behave strangely, and the tarn beside the house seems to be watching.