What to read next
10 books like The Devils
The pleasure is in the group chemistry. If that is what you want more of after The Devils, these recommendations preserve that appeal in different ways, without pretending every similar book offers the same experience.
Start with our The Devils review by Joe Abercrombie.
Choose by reading mood
Where to start
For the fastest read
Yellowface
BriskFor the darkest read
Between Two Fires
Very darkFor the strongest romance
The Lion & the Deathless Dark
CentralFor the easiest entry
A Sorceress Comes to Call
AccessibleThe full shortlist
Why each book belongs here
Each match is judged against The Devils, not merely placed beside it because the books share a broad genre label.
1
Nettle & Bone
- Shared ground
- Both books build unease from a threat the characters cannot safely understand at first.
- What changes
- Both books send an odd company across a dangerous fantasy landscape, but Nettle & Bone is shorter, warmer, and more interested in practical kindness. Choose it when the found family matters more to you than gore or provocation.
- Best for
- Readers who want an adult fairy tale about sisters and found family, with gallows humor and only a light romantic element.
- Pace Balanced
- Darkness Gentle
- Romance Minimal
- Difficulty Accessible
2
Between Two Fires
- Shared ground
- Both books build unease from a threat the characters cannot safely understand at first.
- What changes
- Between Two Fires also mixes medieval religion with monsters, but it treats faith and damnation with far more dread. Choose it for a severe horror pilgrimage rather than a profane team adventure.
- Best for
- Readers wanting medieval horror, plague, faith, demons, violence, and a damaged knight's redemptive journey.
- Pace Balanced
- Darkness Very dark
- Romance Minimal
- Difficulty Accessible
3
A Sorceress Comes to Call
- Shared ground
- Both books build unease from a threat the characters cannot safely understand at first.
- What changes
- A Sorceress Comes to Call shares the black humor and dangerous magic, then confines them to a smaller household drama. It is the better choice if you want social maneuvering and menace without a sprawling cast.
- Best for
- Readers wanting dark fairy-tale revision, coercive-control horror, older heroines, and humane humor.
- Pace Balanced
- Darkness Dark
- Romance Minimal
- Difficulty Accessible
4
Katabasis
- Shared ground
- Both books use discomfort and exaggeration to expose the logic of a social system.
- What changes
- Katabasis is more measured than The Devils. Alice and Peter's rivalry joins intellectual recognition to resentment, while the underworld's competing rules turn academic interpretation into a practical survival skill.
- Best for
- Dark-academia readers who enjoy analytic magic, classical underworlds, footnotes, rivals forced to cooperate, institutional critique, and intellectually dense fantasy.
- Pace Balanced
- Darkness Moderate
- Romance Minimal
- Difficulty Moderate
5
The Compound
- Shared ground
- Both books build unease from a threat the characters cannot safely understand at first.
- What changes
- The Compound has a similar overall reading load, but changes the emphasis. Lily's willingness to remain inside the game prevents easy moral distance, and the exchange of basic necessities for performance turns familiar television rituals into coercion.
- Best for
- Readers of dystopian satire, social horror, reality-TV critique, surveillance fiction, and morally compromised narrators who want an addictive rather than austere novel.
- Pace Balanced
- Darkness Moderate
- Romance Minimal
- Difficulty Accessible
6
The Lion & the Deathless Dark
- Shared ground
- Both books build unease from a threat the characters cannot safely understand at first.
- What changes
- The Lion & the Deathless Dark is more measured and more romance-led than The Devils. The deathless threat, court power, and central attraction make desire inseparable from survival and trust rather than decorative beside the fantasy plot.
- Best for
- Readers wanting adult dark romantasy, dangerous bargains, court conflict, explicit attraction, and mythic stakes.
- Pace Balanced
- Darkness Gentle
- Romance Central
- Difficulty Accessible
7
The Forever Song
- Shared ground
- Both books build unease from a threat the characters cannot safely understand at first.
- What changes
- The Forever Song has a similar overall reading load, but changes the emphasis. Allison, Jackal, Kanin, Zeke, and Sarren bring the core relationships into one final route toward the plague's source and future coexistence.
- Best for
- Readers completing Blood of Eden who want violent payoff, romance, family reckoning, and a definite trilogy ending.
- Pace Balanced
- Darkness Gentle
- Romance Minimal
- Difficulty Accessible
8
Yellowface
- Shared ground
- Both books use discomfort and exaggeration to expose the logic of a social system.
- What changes
- Yellowface is faster than The Devils. June's self-justification turns appropriation, envy, marketing, and online punishment into one continuous voice rather than a checklist of publishing controversies.
- Best for
- Readers of literary satire, unreliable narrators, publishing stories, social-media anxiety, cultural appropriation debates, and fast books built for argument.
- Pace Brisk
- Darkness Moderate
- Romance Minimal
- Difficulty Accessible
9
The Immortal Rules
- Shared ground
- Both books build unease from a threat the characters cannot safely understand at first.
- What changes
- The Immortal Rules is more measured than The Devils. Blood scarcity, walled cities, human registration, rabids, and Allison's katana competence give the world concrete survival rules.
- Best for
- YA readers wanting dark vampire dystopia, survival, found family, violence, and a morally resistant heroine.
- Pace Balanced
- Darkness Moderate
- Romance Minimal
- Difficulty Accessible
10
The Eternity Cure
- Shared ground
- Both books build unease from a threat the characters cannot safely understand at first.
- What changes
- The Eternity Cure has a similar overall reading load, but changes the emphasis. Kanin's capture, Jackal's unstable alliance, plague research, and Allison's human ties force her ethics into practical compromise.
- Best for
- Readers of The Immortal Rules prepared for darker violence, plague stakes, family betrayal, and a hard cliffhanger.
- Pace Brisk
- Darkness Moderate
- Romance Minimal
- Difficulty Accessible
Side-by-side
Pace, darkness, romance, and difficulty
Use these labels as directional guidance. The individual notes above explain the tradeoffs.
| Book | Pace | Darkness | Romance | Difficulty |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Devils | Balanced | Moderate | Minimal | Accessible |
| Nettle & Bone | Balanced | Gentle | Minimal | Accessible |
| Between Two Fires | Balanced | Very dark | Minimal | Accessible |
| A Sorceress Comes to Call | Balanced | Dark | Minimal | Accessible |
| Katabasis | Balanced | Moderate | Minimal | Moderate |
| The Compound | Balanced | Moderate | Minimal | Accessible |
| The Lion & the Deathless Dark | Balanced | Gentle | Central | Accessible |
| The Forever Song | Balanced | Gentle | Minimal | Accessible |
| Yellowface | Brisk | Moderate | Minimal | Accessible |
| The Immortal Rules | Balanced | Moderate | Minimal | Accessible |
| The Eternity Cure | Brisk | Moderate | Minimal | Accessible |
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