yeah, well, me the fuck too!
I learned HTML about it! Here you will find my hand-picked selection of TLT readalikes. Questions I asked myself while compiling this list: Is it gay? Is it gross? Is it Catholic? and most importantly Does it make me feel like a rat with cheese? Not every book can check every box, of course, but every book included here is one I have read or intend to read. (I've also added an extra checkmark for those I personally recommend.) All are, at minimum, genre fiction -- that is, science fiction, fantasy, or horror -- and most are pretty dark. Under the column titled "LINK", you can find a description of the premise, my personal thoughts (on books I've read), and links to goodreads and storygraph.
(p.s. looking for something in particular? you can click on each header to sort the table by that category)
| TITLE: | AUTHOR: | READ?: | REC?: | GAY: | WEIRD/GROSS?: | RELIGION/IMPERIALISM?: | FUNNY?: | BRAINROT?: | LINK: |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Animorphs | KA Applegate | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | |
| "Pluto Shits on the Universe" | Fatimah Asghar | X | X | X | X | X | |||
| Foundryside | Robert Jackson Bennett | X | X | X? | X | ||||
| The Enterprise of Death | Jesse Bullington | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | |
| The Archive Undying | Emma Mieko Candon | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | |
| The Unbroken | CL Clark | X | ? | X | X | ||||
| Metal from Heaven | August Clarke | X | X? | X | X | ||||
| The Traitor Baru Cormorant | Seth Dickinson | X | X | X | X | X | |||
| Scorched Grace | Margot Douaihy | X | X? | X | |||||
| The Drowning City | Amanda Downum | X | X | X | |||||
| This is How You Lose the Time War | Amal El-Mohtar | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | |
| Leech | Hiron Ennes | X | X? | X | X | ||||
| Black Sun Rising | CS Friedman | X | X? | X? | X | X | |||
| Three Parts Dead | Max Gladstone | X | X | X | X | ||||
| Asunder | Kerstin Hall | X | X | X? | |||||
| The Library at Mount Char | Scott Hawkin | X | X | X | X | X | |||
| The Stars Are Legion | Kameron Hurley | X | X | X | X | X | X | ||
| The Twelve-Fingered Boy | John Hornor Jacobs | X | X | X | X | X | X | ||
| Archivist Wasp | Nicole Kornher-Stace | X | X | X | |||||
| The Unspoken Name | AK Larkwood | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | |
| Ancillary Justice | Ann Leckie | X | X | X | X | X | X | ||
| Nine Fox Gambit | Yoon Ha Lee | X | X | X | X | X | |||
| The Tombs of Atuan | Ursula K. Leguin | X | X | X | X | ||||
| A Memory Called Empire | Arkady Martine | X | X | X | X | ||||
| Hold Me Closer, Necromancer | Lish McBride | X | X | X | X | X | X | ||
| A Canticle for Leibowitz | Walter Miller, Jr. | X | X | X | X | X | |||
| The Knife of Never Letting Go | Patrick Ness | X | X | X | X | X | |||
| She Who Became the Sun | Shelley Parker-Chan | X | X | X | X | X | |||
| Traitors of the Black Crown | Cate Pearce | X | X | ||||||
| Gormenghast | Mervyn Peake | X | X | X | X | ||||
| Sisters of the Vast Black | Lina Rather | X | X? | X? | X | ||||
| The Stars Undying | Emery Robin | X | X | X | X | X | |||
| Vespertine | Margaret Rogerson | X | X | ||||||
| The Sparrow | Mary Doria Russell | X | X | X | X | ||||
| The Bone Shard Daughter | Andrea Stewart | X | X? | X? | X | ||||
| The Dawnhounds | Sascha Stronach | X | X | X | ? | X | |||
| Seven Blades in Black | Sam Sykes | X | X | X? | X | ||||
| The Jasmine Throne | Tasha Suri | X | X | X | |||||
| Creatures of Will and Temper | Molly Tanzer | X | X | X | X | X | |||
| Vermilion | Molly Tanzer | X | X | X | X | X | |||
| Some Desperate Glory | Emily Tesch | X | X | X | X | X | X | ||
| "The Last Flight of Doctor Ain" | James Tiptree, Jr. | X | X | X | X | ||||
| Crier's War | Nina Varela | X | X? | X | X | ||||
| Murderbot | Martha Wells | X | X | X | X | ||||
| Voyage of the Damned | Frances White | X | X | X? | X | X | |||
| The Monstrumologist | Rick Yancey | X | X | X | X | X |
hey you! looking character playlists instead? look no further, they're over here. or, if you're looking for dark academia readalikes, you can look over here.