The best books like Twilight to read now

It’s hard to believe 10 years have passed since the cinematic masterpiece otherwise known as Breaking Dawn, Part 2 In theaters. To help celebrate this momentous occasion, we’ve compiled a list of young adult and adult novels with a supernatural twist to read if you were (or still are) a Twilight fan.

Elatsoe by Darcie Less Badger

The cover for Elatsoe, with a young person wearing a red coat surrounded by white wolves.

Image: Levine Querido

Elatsoe’s world is very similar to ours. There’s still high school to navigate, homework to turn in on time, and pistachio ice cream. There are powerful magicians and terrifying monsters in the mirror-world. Elatsoe can speak with the dead. This gift was passed on from her Lipan Apache ancestors. When her beloved cousin is brutally murdered, Elatsoe decides to put her unique skill set to use and, with the help of her best friend and her loyal ghost dog at her side, she soon discovers not all is as it seems in the picturesque town where her cousin’s body was discovered.

Darcie Little Bugger’s story is beautiful, and at times deeply disturbing. This book will appeal to all readers. And, while it doesn’t feature a love triangle like in Twilight, ElatsoeFeatures some of the most frightening vampires in YA fiction and a stunning ace representation.


Squad by Maggie Tokuda Hall & Lisa Sterle

A group of girls looks forward (while one looks back at the reader) in the cover for the graphic novel Squad, with three wolf silhouettes howling against the moon in front of them.

Greenwillow Books

What does it mean to cross The Mean GirlsWith Teen Wolf? The answer is Maggie Tokuda-Hall and Lisa Sterle’s gorgeous and nostalgia-inducing YA graphic novel, Squad.

It is located in San Francisco’s affluent suburbs. Squad introduces readers to Becca who, like most teenagers, wants nothing more than to find a group of friends she’ll fit in with. To Becca’s surprise she’s quickly adopted by a group of popular girls at school. It’s only under the light of a full moon that Becca learns the truth: her new friends are werewolves.

Squad This is an engaging, brightly colored vigilante story about peer pressure and love, both platonic and romantic, and how it can bring people together as well as tear them apart.


The Lost Girls, by Sonia Hartl

A young girl wearing a studded choker has blood dripping down from her fangs in the cover for The Lost Girls

Image by Page Street Kids

If you’ve ever watched any of the Twilight movies and found yourself wishing Alice had more screen time (or you shipped Bella with Alice instead of with Edward), thenThe Lost Girls, Sonia Hartl’s sapphic vampire novel, might be the perfect book for you.

Immortality isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. When 16-year-old Holly Liddell is turned into a vampire by her boyfriend in 1987, the last thing she’s expecting is to be stuck with crimped hair for all eternity. Holly finally meets Rose (or Ida) 34 years later. These vampires, who have, just like Holly, been left alone and turned into vampires by their ex. Rose and Ida want revenge but Holly is drawn to the girl she has been pursuing.

It Lost GirlsIt is simply charming. John Tucker Must DieIt has a sapphic twist. It’s a wild ride from start to finish and an excellent reminder that girl gangs are not to be trifled with.


Aiden Thomas – Cemetery Boys

The cover for Aiden Thomas’s Cemetery Boys, featuring two young brown men, candles, tombstones, and a skeletal figure in the background.

Swoon Books

Twilight is not the only thing that Twilight has. You may be led to believe that all supernatural romance is slow-burn and between humans and vampires. Sometimes it’s between a human and the ghost of their school’s resident bad boy. This, as it just so happens, is exactly the case in Aiden Thomas’ enchanting and incredibly tender YA debut, Cemetery Boys.

Yadriel (16-year-old Latino gay boy) wants only one thing in this world: for his family and friends to accept his gender. After Yadriel successfully performs a ritual to prove to his family he is a brujo, two things happen: He inadvertently unlocks his powers and accidentally summons the ghost of Julian Diaz, the school’s recently deceased troublemaker. Julian, in his final moments of life is warm and friendly. This contrasts with the stories about his turbulent past. Julian is determined to uncover the truth about his past before he can move on. Yadriel agrees to assist him.

It is obvious that Cemetery BoysIt is an emotionally rollercoaster ride of a book. Aiden Thomas pulls no punches as Yadriel is embraced at arm’s length (at least at first) by his family. The journey to acceptance and self-discovery is a bumpy one, but Yadriel has help along the way and learns that you don’t need permission from anyone to be yourself.


Sarah Andersen: Fangs

Cover image for Sarah Andersen’s Fangs, with a young woman wearing a black dress and bat wings. The book is a stark red color.

Andrews McMeel Publishing

You are not likely to come across a graphic novel that depicts a couple of werewolves and vampires falling in love. FangsSarah Andersen

Originaly a webcomic. FangsThe story follows Elsie, a 300 year old vampire who is looking for love. Jimmy, a charming, flannel-wearing werewolf, tells Elsie the tale. Each page is its own self-contained comic strip that gives readers a glimpse into Elsie and Jimmy’s life together as their fondness for one another grows. They watch horror movies, go on dinner dates, and learn to navigate each other’s quirks (Jimmy hates the mailman, while Elsie struggles to take selfies and avoids the sun at the beach).

The combination of Andersen’s gorgeous, gothic illustrations and her signature, wry sense of humor highlights the trials and tribulations of modern-day relationships and makes Fangs a must-read if you’re a fan of supernatural romance.


Rachel Harrison: Such Sharp Teeth

Cover image for Rachel Harrison’s Such Sharp Teeth, which promises it as a werewolf novel. A silhouette of a werewolf appears in a red circle, which drips like blood. The title is written in big pink letters, in the style of a sharpie or highlighter.

Image: Berkley Books

You were more likely to be Team Jacob than Team Edward. So Sharp TeethThis book by Rachel Harrison may be the one for you. You’re guaranteed to have a good time reading any of Harrison’s books (check out The Return once you’re done with So Sharp Teeth). Harrison has mastered the art of making horror entertaining. Her feminist, body-positive approach to werewolves shows that she is an expert in this field.

Like many people, Rory Morris isn’t thrilled about the idea of moving back to the small town she grew up in, but that’s exactly what she does when her pregnant sister asks for her help. Rory gives up her dream job, and returns to the small town where she was raised and the gossip mill that she abandoned. After grabbing drinks at an almost-flame and getting into an argument, Rory accidentally hits a large red-eyed, large-eyed animal in her car. Rory’s investigation uncovers a vicious attack in the woods. Not long afterwards, Rory has an unexpected craving for red meat. She also suddenly becomes very strong and is unable to tolerate silver.

Rory must learn to manage her situation, support her sister and possibly find love, while also trying to prevent another attack.


House of Hunger, Alexis Henderson

Cover image for Alexis Henderson’s House of Hunger, with a young woman in a red dress, with blood dripping down her neck.

Ace Books

Unlike the vampires in Twilight, the ones in Alexis Henderson’s sexy, gothic new novel, House of Hunger, do not sparkle. Henderson is an author you should be looking out for when it involves cosmic horror, dark fantasy and other things that happen in the night. In House of Hunger, she deconstructs the hedonistic, blood-soaked vampire lore we’re all familiar with and flips it on its head.

Marion Shaw longs for freedom from the city and slums she calls home her whole life. When the chance to be a bloodmaid in the House of Hunger presents itself, Marion leaps at it. Marion is shocked to discover a world where the rich drink the bloods of the poor upon her arrival. At its center is the fearsome and seductive Countess Lisavet, and while Marion would do anything to please her new mistress, it’s difficult to ignore the fact that her fellow bloodmaids have begun to go missing during the night.

This gripping, gory novel is as captivating and unforgiving as it is beautiful.


Megan Bannen’s Undertaking of Hart and Mercy

Cover image for Megan Banne’s The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy. It is a light blue cover with yellow drawings of skulls, flowers and candles. In the middle, two skeletal hands form a heart, which is shaded in pink. Two white silhouettes are seen next to a tombstone in the heart.

Orbit Books

If you’re a fan of romance novels and you somehow haven’t heard of Mercy and Hart: The Undertaking of Hart Megan Bannen already? Then you need to stop reading it and grab a copy.

It is the titular Hart who acts as a marshal. (Think Timothy Olyphant). JustifiedHe is a strong and determined man who has been assigned to patrol the magic land of Tanria. He’s also incredibly lonely. Hart writes an anonymous letter in desperate search of a connection. It ends up at Mercy Birdsall’s hands. Hart doesn’t expect Mercy to reply to him or to develop romantic feelings for him.

Set in a world that features old gods, new gods, talking animals, the undead, and just about everything in between, it’s essential reading for anyone who swoons at the mere thought of a slow burn, epistolary, enemies-to-lovers plot.

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