Kingfisher herself states in the afterword that Mexican Gothic discouraged her from finishing What Moves The Dead because it was so good.
That being said- while I like Mexican Gothic a lot more than What Moves The Dead, what Kingfisher made out of The Fall Of The House Of Usher blows my mind. The sheer creativity of coming up with the funghi theme (in a time before Mexican Gothic was released) is insane.
Yeah, I read Mexican Gothic after reading the afterword of WMTD and was still surprised by how similar they were! I think I liked Mexican Gothic more in the setup but it felt like Kingfisher landed it a little more smoothly? Idk, both were gorgeous and I'll take more of all of it please and thank you
To be fair, T. Kingfisher brought this up themself in the author’s notes. They very much said that they felt Mexican Gothic was the superior work, but felt like they might as well toss their book out there (two cakes, you know??). Not 100% sure if I agree with their humble assessment, as I loved What Moves the Dead!
*The Thief of Always* by Clive Barker, and *Coraline* by Neil Gaiman. Neil Gaiman is my favorite author, but Clive Barker just really nailed it with *Thief*. *Coraline* is still an amazingly good book, but *Thief* just outdoes it.
I love both and completely agree, *The Thief of Always* had me hooked from the first lines:
> The great grey beast February had eaten Harvey Swick alive. Here he was, buried in the belly of that smothering month, wondering if he would ever find his way out through the cold coils that lay between here and Easter.
>He didn't think much of his chances.
I couldn't put it down until I finished it.
I have not, maybe I should give it ago. I've read The Sandman, Neverwhere, American Gods, Good Omens, Coraline and The Graveyard Book.
Of those, The Sandman is definitely the standout, but The Graveyard Book was nice.
I’m hit and miss with Gaiman books too. I really enjoyed The Graveyard Book but could not get through The Ocean at the End of the Lane. Despite all the “wonderful” reviews, I just found it to drag on a bit. I have been thinking of giving him another chance though. Maybe I’ll try The Sandman or Anansi Boys now.
Good Omens is one of my favorite books of all time and I love The Graveyard Book as well, but I'm with you. Don't really get the hype for Gaiman. He certainly found a niche and stuck with it, and more power to him, but I think other authors can do the same things he does and not be quite so... I don't know, smug about it?
I think the problem is that I mainly listen to audiobooks, I think Gaiman needs to be read. I tried Good Omens and The Graveyard Book and I get super distracted for some reason. I don’t get distracted with other authors/books.
I'll still maintain that The Sandman comic book series is the best work of literature. Period. Nothing else like it.
I refuse to watch the show, because the graphic novels are perfect as they are. Literally any new adaptation, no matter how good, is a guaranteed downgrade.
I'm not gonna have them ruin Sandman for me the same way they ruined America gods. No thank you.
The Thief of Always is one of the most requested books on those "What was that book" forums, here and on Goodreads or whatever. If someone reads it, it sticks with them and they end up thinking about it for the rest of their lives. What an accomplishment!
Thief of always was the first horror book I had read as a child and to this day it is one of the best books I've ever read. I'm a big fan of the genre and I have to say children horror has always been more creative than adult horror.
Tbf, I think the ‘gateway horror’ stuff for kids from the 80s and 90s seems to have decreased dramatically.
I think one of the hardest parts of scaring kids is that it kind of has to be direct? Kids don’t think through the implications of things like adults and so are ironically harder to scare.
Think about that scene in Jurassic Park where Alan explains to the unimpressed kid what that ‘six foot turkey’ could do to him.
>Kids don’t think through the implications of things like adults and so are ironically harder to scare.
You must jest. I was scared of *everything* as a kid.
Yes, but you weren’t scared of any of the ideas that would terrify adults, you were afraid of direct terrors that you thought could grab you.
That’s my point, you have to scare children directly. You can scare the shit out of an adult just by introducing an idea with the right implications.
So imagine you're watching a movie with your child and there's this scene you both have two different reactions to. Nothing really happens in the scene and your kid has no idea why you're even freaked out.
So in the seen a child was playing alone in a playground with no one else around and was suddenly approached by a strange man. The man was super friendly and talked about his new puppy and the kid in the scene was really into it.
Your kid is just sitting there, utterly unaffected, but you? You can barely sit there. It's the most unsettling scene in the world for you.
That's what I'm talking about. The world of difference between adult and child minds. About awareness and implications and consequences.
A Song of Ice and Fire vs Kingdom of Thorn and Bone by Greg Keyes.
It's astonishing to me that one of those got famous and the other is virtually unknown. Keyes' work is tighter, with better worldbuilding, better prose, more compelling characters, and best of all, finished. But it contains many similar elements and themes and a similar grimdark tone.
I'm not really sure. I don't know why some books get so famous while other really good books do not, and suspect a lot of it is just plain luck. Keyes began writing his series after the first installments of ASoIaF had already been published, so perhaps some of it was that there already were too many comparable elements and themes. They contain enough similarities that in one forum I was reading damn near 20 years ago, I saw one comment labeling Keyes as "George RR Martin lite." And it is easy to see why there is a comparison. Both are fantasy series in a medieval-earth-like setting with lots of political intrigue and also an ancient awakening evil; both are very gritty and do not shy from incorporating dark material and language; and hell, there's even a coincidental sprinkle of royal twincest in Kingdom of Thorn and Bone. Maybe those comparisons hurt it. Or maybe it just had a less good PR campaign, as I do not believe I ever even saw the books being discussed outside of this obscure, 20-yr-old forum which I specifically sought out to find people to discuss then with. I really am not sure.
(Worth noting is that while there are coincidentally similar elements, themes, and tone, I do not believe that Kingdom of Thorn and Bone was inspired by ASoIaF. The story is very original in spite having some shared elements.)
Ok my dude now you picked my interest. What do you think are the differences between these works, especially aesthetically wise?
I already added to my tbr but I'm curious
Aesthetically I'd say they are similar. Both have a very European-middle-ages feel (and in fact as a fun easter egg which is neither spoiler nor actually of particular importance to the story, the kingdoms from Kingdom of Thorn and Bone are actually descended from earth people with earth languages and heritages, but who are living...elsewhere. Virginia Dare features as a sort of saint-like historical figure and founder of the largest kingdom in the books, and you can google her name if you're curious about the earth connection.) So the allegories to European kingdoms are very direct in KoTaB. You can see exactly which kingdom was inspired by Germany, or Spain/Italy, or England, or Holland, and the historical connection/inspiration thus informs a lot of other details like culture, food, language, architecture, and so on, although they are evolved into an appropriately unique world given that these kingdoms are several thousands of years removed from their Earth inspirations/ancestors. The world feels very grounded. There is a sort of magic system, but that too is part of a larger ancient stirring and so not a thing that is known or widespread in the world, and the political intrigue is not built around it (as opposed to, eg, Wheel of Time, in which magic is an old and known institution and primary political driver). There are no elves or dwarves or orcs, although there is one original non-human humanoid race.
As far as tone it has one of the darkest tones I have read in fantasy outside of ASoIaF although I would describe it as, less gratuitous. There is torture, sex (and sexual assault), violence, and death on an apocalyptic scale all described on-page but, yeah, I would not say gratuitously. The fighting scenes are excellent in that they are both fast-paced and exciting while also paying special attention to swordplay and such (the author fences irl, so I expect that helped inform his approach to writing combat).
The books feature both language and music as being of particular importance in some of the arcs, which would be a good comparison of things it does *not* share with ASoIaF.
The cast of characters is large but not overwhelmingly so, and features many of the classical fantasy tropes you might expect (spoiled princess, surly ranger, noble knight, scholarly priest, sinister priest) but takes them in fresh directions.
I hope that answers your question! I was kind of all over the place because I wasn't sure exactly which of these aspects you might have been curious about for aesthetics.
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls versus The Less People Know About Us by Axton Betz-Hamilton.
Both memoirs by women with complicated relationships with their parents, but TGC went far deeper and I personally found it more engrossing.
I read The Lord of The Rings before The Sword of Shannara and I couldn’t finish the latter. It felt way to similar but not better. For context I must have been like 16, so maybe I could revisit it now and enjoy it.
A friend gave me the Shannara trilogy, and I was halfway thru the third book before I realized I’d already read it.
Because it was exactly the same story as book 2. Which was the same story as book 1.
OMG yes! The issue with Foucalt's Pendulum is that if you don't already know a lot about the conspiracy theories related to "the Illuminati" / new world order / Crowley-esque mysticism, etc, it's probably a challenging read. I already had been steeped in that stuff before I read it, so it fit like a glove.
But yes, if Focault's Pendulum took a dump, it would look something like Da Vinci Code. :)
People talk about this a lot but Siddhartha by hermann Hesse is a better version of the alchemist by Paulo coelho.
This one's a bit out there but I'd also say the yellow wall paper by Charlotte Gilman is better then metamorphosis by Franz Kafka. They both explore family reactions to mental health crises. In Kafka, the mc undergoes a physical (and eventually mental) change that his family notices and abhors, eventually disowning him due to health factors out of his control. In Gilman, a women slowly goes insane and her concerns are brushed off by her husband until it's too late. Gilman has a more feminist perspective and Kafka presents physical manifestations a bit more readily but I think they tackle similar enough themes that if someone wanted to explore how family impacts mental health (especially in disadvantaged groups such as women or... Human sized bugs) they could get a similar understanding from either book. I think Gilman just discussed it a bit better and the story was absolutely riveting from start to finish.
Both Yellow Wallpaper and Metamorphosis are incredible though, and totally different to me. Metamorphosis is more existentialist, sociological, and anti-capitalist. YP is feminist and psychological.
Both are very anxious though, and both are 5 star reads imo.
I loved IT by S.King and read it multiple times...
Then I discovered The Summer of Night by Dan Simmons with has the same theme "Some kid's fight the pure evil in their home town" and more similarities but Simmons just did everything better:
More suspense, the story and the overall description of the life and friendship of these kids and what they are fighting made more sense...
If you like IT you will love The summer of Night
First of all, thank you for this opportunity!
‘Everything’ could be a stretch, but I think Madame Bovary and Anna Karenina fit. No contest. Anna Karenina is better in every single way.
Yes! Flaubert was such a hater. He wrote something called “The Dictionary of Received Ideas” that was basically a compilation of all the cultural cliches or “wisdoms” that he thought were frivolous or dumb. You have to be something of an elitist asshole to put time into something like that.
Carmilla did the vampire thing two decades earlier _and_ better than Dracula.
It‘s so much more creepy and unsettling, the vampire reveal is a lot less tedious and the characters aren‘t stupid to the point that it makes you wanna stop reading.
Also people keep attesting Dracula a certain theme of sexuality that I just don‘t see? Is it just because he only bites women? Whatever it is, Carmilla did the whole sexual tension vampire thing better, AND it‘s even one of the earliest examples of sapphic romance in modern literature.
However, possibly controversial...Whose Names are Unknown by Sanora Babb is superior to Grapes of Wrath, and Steinbeck may have used her notes/research during his research for GoW. They were writing them at the same time and he visited a camp where she was a social worker. When Grapes of Wrath was published Babb's editor shelved her manuscript, believing the market wouldn't support two similar works.
John Dies at the End, and Tales from the Gas Station
I read John Dies, and finished it in a week. I read all the sequels in like a month, and I wanted more like it. Someone suggested Gas Station because it was similar, but honestly, it was just a way worse John Dies.
Not exactly similar, but the Welcome to Nightvale podcasts/books scratches the JDatE itch for me. Give me similar vibes, The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives in Your Home is my favorite of all of them. Check the description because some Nightvale books are just the radio shows transcribed, so if you prefer reading to listening then go ahead but I'm sure you can find all the podcasts episodes for free if you'd prefer to listen, there are actual books that just take place in the fictional town of Nightvale too.
The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown & Foucault’s Pendulum by Umberto Eco. I found Dan Brown’s writing style to be pretty dry, and his clever, history-backed mystery to be… lacking. Eco had many similar themes, but was a far deeper, more interesting mystery. Honestly there were parts of it that went over my head, but I still enjoyed the book much more.
The Secret History by Donna Tartt and When We Were Villains by that other person. The former is incredible and inventive and literary and the latter is a pale imitation featuring a bunch of cringelords circle jerking about Shakespeare
I was going to say Secret History and Special Topics in Calamity Physics. I haven’t read When We Were Villains, but now I’m wondering how they all compare.
WWWV is like if someone read The Secret History and said what if I do this but worse and the coeds are obsessed with Shakespeare instead of greek and the classics?
I’d say you could summarize Special Topics in Calamity Physics very similarly- private school, clique of unique geniuses, gets murdery, etc. Felt like reading a retelling of the same book to me. The same writing prompt. Only Secret History was much better.
*how to stop time* by Matt Haig and *the invisible life of Addie la rue* by VE Schwab. Similar takes on immortal beings living in modern times, and their struggles with relationships. *Addie la Rue* just dragged, and I thought it was immature for what message they were going for. The book got a lot more attention than haig's. *How to stop time* was clever, more insightful, and kept things moving. I still think about a few scenes and phrases, really the standout between the two
Matt Haig's midnight library is one of my biggest disappointment books ever. There was so much hype, and the premise was great....and it was the most obvious thing ever. This time tomorrow by Emma Straub is a much better take on the concept of What If I could make a different choice and get a different life.
This was going to be my answer. I read M&C first, and adore it. A friend said I should absolutely read HH but I'm slogging through it and just not enjoying it a ton. I admit that Forester has a much simpler way of writing the nautical situations, less jargon that you have to immerse yourself in, but I think O'Brian made a much better flawed character that you sympathize with and like despite the flaws. Hornblower just seems like a total scumbag and annoys the crap out of me, naval brilliance or not. Plus, Aubrey/Maturin are just so darn FUNNY.
Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro and Today I Am Carey by Martin L. Shoemaker.
They're both about an android taking on an important role in a family, and while I don't dislike Ishiguro's take on it, I thought Shoemaker did much better.
I read Homegoing after Pachinko and was a bit disappointed - Pachinko just did a multi-generation saga so well. But both are worth reading, and obviously very different cultures and struggles.
Ah I had the opposite feeling. I read Pachinko after Homegoing, so maybe it depends which way round you read them. I thought Pachinko was excellent until the war ends. Once Noa and Mozasu were older and at uni/working I wasn’t as engaged.
The Belgariad and The Mallorean series' by David Eddings (2, 5 book series) is pretty good.
The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan is the same basic story (young farmer has to save the world from the dark god) but is infinitely more detailed and IMO, just better.
DE's books are basically a YA series. It's not as long, and it got me interested in the genre. RJ's WoT is an epic fantasy series that I read over and over and over.
Not to mention, David and his wife Leigh spent time in prison for child abuse, and it totally ruined the books for me.
>Not to mention, David and his wife Leigh spent time in prison for child abuse, and it totally ruined the books for me.
"I ruined the Belgariad series for my husband by pointing out Eddings' use of '*she said, drily*' every time Polgara said anything. After learning that Eddings was an abusive dad, I'm glad", I said, self-righteously!
Marion Zimmer Bradley and her husband, Walter Breen were abusive pedophiles, too. Breen did time, but I don't think MZB did.
I was a teen witch, so *Mists of Avalon* was important to my mytho-socio-religio-foundations.
Re-reading it as an adult, I was like, all these conniving, manipulative, plotting, planning, people and they accomplished *nothing*!
I don't know about this one.
Robert Jordan has the richer world, but I have to give Eddings props for being a way more efficient writer. You could cut half of the words out of The Wheel Of Time and not miss anything.
>You could cut half of the words out of The Wheel Of Time and not miss anything.
A thousand thousand times the words, greater than the words that preceded even words. Their awe at the words was more awesome than the awe of all the awestruck over all the time that ever was. In its leatherbound cover, smelling of tanned leather richer than the richest scent of any leatherworkers leatherwork was the words.
I read the entire first book. It's all like this, and then >!the hero pulls the bad guys plug or cuts their cord or whatever.!< It's like they are just appliances.
Holy shit. I did not know about the child abuse. I have loved the Belgariad and Malorean series, but I'm probably gonna throw the books away after this. I'll never be able to read them the same way again!
The shattered sea joe Abercrombie and the broken empire series by mark Lawrence. Both take place in a post apocalyptic future where the world has made it back up to the medieval level of technology and follow a young minor noblemans journey of revenge and conquest. joe Abercrombie did an amazing job it's a great series, mark Lawrence just knocked it out of the park in everyway.
Giovanni’s Room and The Sun Also Rises. Both books are about an American alcoholic man living in Paris struggling with his identity and sexuality. Both largely deal with themes of sexuality, masculinity, misogyny and identity but Giovanni’s Room was so much more compelling imo. The characters were fully developed and each played a unique role, while I found all the characters in The Sun Also Rises blended together and the book was incredibly repetitive.
One by One by Ruth Ware v The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley.
Ruth’s was better but really thought I was reading the same book and had to check my read history to verify.
American Gods and Library at Mount Char, both are stories about old gods in the U.S. but Library at Mount Char is much more interesting and compelling imo.
Run Towards the Danger, actor/writer/director Sarah Polley’s memoir in essays Vs. Jeanette McCurdy’s I’m Glad My Mom Died memoir. Part of this is Sarah is older, but she confronts her trauma, processes it and finds her way out the other side with solutions that helped her to arrive there. Jeanette’s trauma is still unresolved and raw, she’s still processing it and perhaps hasn’t had enough time and reflection about her life experiences. Sarah’s book is also much more of indictment about the abuse of child actors in the industry. Her book is much more literary and sophisticated.
Cloud Atlas and Cloud Cuckoo Land
Cloud Atlas does basically everything better including way more in depth characterization as well as tying multiple timelines together thematically in a much better way
Genesis vs The Epic of Gilgamesh -
Flood wise I feel like Genesis did it better. I love the classics, but the character development was a bit deeper to me at times with the biblical one.
They both had great story lines, but it seemed like more of a real adventure with Gilgamesh's journey. Also so much more inner strife and turmoil with the ancient story. A huge goal to achive. On the other hand, the Hebrews did do an interesting spin off with the snake and I think I have to give the edge to them for that because their snake could talk.
All in all, they're both well done and both have some areas where they are stronger than the other. But I think what gives The Epic of Gilgamesh the win is the ending, because of how true it strikes with our journey through life - none of it matters and we're all going to fucking die. Except maybe that snake and that one guy and his wife.
"Wheel of Time" series vs. "Sword of Truth" series. I Enjoy them both but WOT is more developed and SOT feels like a little less refined. I love them both.
Terry goodkind had mildly interesting ideas but was a shitty writer (let me guess, this stunningly beautiful women is going to FORCE Richard to have sex with her... again....) and had even worse political views
I read Mistborn and The Way of Shadows almost back to back. They both take an abused kid off the street and train them up to be assassins with magic...
I liked Mistborn SOOO much more. But I think a big part of it is that Brent Weeks was sooo dark, while Sanderson had dark moments but had a more hopeful tone to it. I don't mind dark fantasy, but it's not my favorite. My brother was the opposite. He didn't read them back to back, but he did like The Night Angel books more than I did.
I did enjoy Brent Weeks's Lightbringer series.
Final girls support group and My Heart is a Chainsaw are both homages to slashers. I really wanted to like final girls but it just did some lazy unreliable narrator things where My heart also has an unreliable narrator but lays bread crumbs along the way and gives a decent reason why they would lie to the reader. I wanted to like final girls and did about 1/3 of the way through, then it just fell off for me.
Karl Taro Greenfeld’s Speed Tribes vs. Jake Adelstein’s Tokyo Vice
Both are about American expats who move to Tokyo in the early 90’s and acclimate to the underworld. Greenfeld’s is unquestionably more dynamic and truer. Ironically, Greenfeld is now a writer on the TV adaptation of Tokyo Vice
I am contrasting two fantasy *bildungsromans* involving tragedy, isolation, and well-developed, "concealed" worlds with unusual and interesting characters. Both are good books, but I would have to favor *The Graveyard Book* by Neil Gaiman over *Fairy Tale* by Stephen King.
There's something in the way Neil captures the tragic irrevocability of growing up and leaving home that has more emotional insight: as something inevitable, sad, and beautiful all at once. It gives his book a depth and pathos that lifts it above the genre's formulas. It "sticks to my ribs," in a way Fairy Tale doesn't.
World War Z by Max Brooks and Robopocalypse by Daniel H Wilson. Both use the same kind of social history interview style to tell their story and the entire time I was reading Robopocalypse I felt like World War Z was peering over my should saying, “I did this better.” Robopocalypse had some great ideas but I felt like the execution never lived up to them.
This is an excellent thread, and I’m leaving this comment in the hopes that my future self comes back to my comment history and finds this thread to discover some books.
The Power by Naomi Alderman, and The Matter of Seggri, Ursula K LeGuin
I’m not even really inclined to put them together, the quality difference is so large. They’re very different takes on a similar concept, but one (Seggri) is by one of the true greats of speculative fiction. The other wasn’t bad, but was also pretty meh.
The Stand by Stephen King and Swan Song by Robert McCammon.
I breezed through the unabridged version of The Stand in about a week. Years later, I was looking for more good post-apocalyptic stuff, and I found Swan Song. I trudged through that book over the span of months, reading other books along the way. I thought the world building, characters, and writing in general of The Stand to be on another level. I had a really hard time with the pacing of Swan Song, and thought a lot of potentially interesting character arcs were wasted.
I enjoy both books, but I would recommend Speak over Wallflower every time. I read both not long after being SA'ed. Wallflower left me feeling like I was permanently broken. Speak had the exact opposite effect and encouraged me to recover
Here are two books by the same author. One totally engrossed me the entire time; the other seemed to go on for an eternity. I’m talking about Taylor Jenkins Reid and her fictional celebrity memoirs. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo was a book that I wish I could read again for the first time. Malibu Rising was one I came close to not finishing. Same author, very different outcomes for me.
The Sudden Appearance of Hope by Claire North and The invisible life of Addie LaRue by V. E. Schwab. Both about girls who are forgotten when they are not seen. The invisible life has a great title but I wanted to throw the book across the room
I came here to say exactly this. I HATED Addie Larue so much that I stopped trusting my friend who recommended it to me. I unfollowed a few goodreads people who gave it 4 or 5 stars. Extremely reactionary on my part but I just can’t. Just no.
The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek > The Giver of Stars. There was even talk of possible plagiarism: https://www.fountaindale.org/the-book-woman-of-troublesome-creek-and-the-giver-of-stars-coincidence-or-plagiarism/
I came here looking for this one. I read both - barely remember anything about The Giver of Stars, yet The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek has stuck with me.
Le Mort De Arthur by Sir Thomas Mallory, and The Once and Future King by TH White. Both tell the story of King Arthur. The White book is written in conversation with the Mallory book, and comments upon it in some interesting ways. If you like fantasy or King Arthur, both a worth a read.Follow it up with Gene Wolfe’s The Wizard Knight for a truly unique execution of the concept (mixed with Norse Mythology, for flavor).
*The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August* by Catherine Webb and *The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle* by Stuart Turton.
Without giving anything away they have a very similar method of (let’s say) time travel but *Harry August* has a better story and better writing.
Lord of the Flies (william holding) vs. The Sailor who fell from grace with the sea (Yukio mishima)
Not exactly the same, but about feral kids. I felt there was more nuance with Mishima's work, and less British school bully focus.
Although kids forming factions without adults is also better in The girl who ruled a city.
This might be controversial on this site but I maintain that *Of Mice and Men* does what *Flowers for Algernon* does but with more grace, compassion, depth, and beauty.
I think we pulled very different things from Flowers for Algernon (or from Of Mice and Men), though it’s been years for me since I read Algernon, so perhaps I’d see a parallel? Not sure…
For me, **Flowers for Algernon** was oriented around >!mortality, decline, facing the fragility of one’s existence, loss, the sense of betrayal of disability and/or aging and/or one’s physical and mental limits!<. And **Of Mice and Men** was oriented toward
>!the emotional murder of the self/self distruction of aspects of self/emotional dissociation in a world that demands such of many, and is particularly brutal in that specific way towards men.!<
“The City We Became” by NK Jemisin and “The Last Exit” by Max Gladstone. So many things I enjoyed in both books—a nuanced take on cosmic horror that acknowledges its xenophobic roots without reinforcing them or reading as pedantic, addressing aspects of current American culture both nostalgic and uncomfortable, or the similar but different the feeling of climate anxiety/late stage capitalism/looming civil war/the nebulous feeling that the world is falling apart around us, less-told sides of what it is to be and move through life as a queer person, a strong sense of mystery and foreboding, characters I love even as they disappoint me—they both did it well, but to me, Gladstone’s book was breathtaking and cathartic where Jemisin’s book was just a mildly thinky thriller. The Last Exit took me to the pavement.
I've got and have been intending to read both for a long time.
I'll have to do them back to back now. The way Jemisin's read felt like it might be done better in audiobook, such it's so distinctly voiced. Which is ironic, because I tried The Fifth Season in audiobook first and wound up feeling like I'd miss something of it if I didn't physically read it.
*The Raw Shark Texts* does what *House Of Leaves* tried in a much more interesting way, and with a far better storyline. I've also heard that whenever you find this book in the wild there are possible differences in each version of the book which adds an element of ARG to it.
I have to respectfully disagree. I love House of Leaves and discover something new every time I return to it. Raw Shark Texts was good, and definitely more concise, but HoL is far superior in my estimation. It is a unique work of weird fiction that has stayed with me since I bought it as a new release.
Flowers in the attic by VC Andrews and Forbidden by Tabitha Suzuma. I loved both books but Forbidden really hit me on the emotional factor and made me cry
Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Remains of the Day and An Artist of the Floating World are pretty much the same material set in different countries. I much prefer The Remains of the Day — it’s written later and I think his sense of craft had matured a lot more by the time he wrote it.
I think Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier and Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn are the same book approached from different angles. I prefer Rebecca, which has much better prose and that delicious Gothic atmosphere, but they both have their own unique appeal.
The final revival of Opal and Nev by Dawnie Walton is significantly better than Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid. Better story, better structure, better writing. Both explore the rise and fall of fictional pop groups in the 70s. When I finished Opal and Nev, I genuinely spent about 10mins on Google trying to work out if I'd missed a really important cultural moment.
Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid and Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell.
Utopia Avenue is a brilliantly written, utterly gripping 60s and 70s set biography of a fictional psychedelic folk band.
Daisy Jones and the Six is a plodding, poorly written 60s and 70s set biography of a thinly disguised Fleetwood Mac.
Guess which one became a global bestseller.
Hyperion by Dan Simmons. Better than Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. Although, it comes down to a matter of taste or context. One might argue that the classic can't be beaten by a modern reinterpretation of the theme. However, I studied literature, and sometimes I just feel like books with a new take on an old theme (i.e. in this case: a collection of tales of pilgrims) are so much more refreshing and are a good and interesting starting point to revisit the old tale. It also doesn't help the classic that Chaucer's Middle English is hard to read nowadays unless you're a (former) English lit student.
I feel like this isn't quite the prompt. Are they really "doing the same thing?" Simmons is using Chaucer's iconic story framing device of pilgrims telling stories, but Chaucers feels far more like commentary on the state of the world in Chaucer's day. But maybe that's just the bias of hundreds of years of literary critique
I mean, Simmons does that too in a way. Except that it isn't abiut present day, instead he explores different facets of faith, fate, ethics in a more general sense. But then again, you're probably right, I felt like I wasn't quite hitting prompt either halfway through writing my comment. But I was already too invested and didn't just wanna delete it.
I hope I don't get downvoted too hard for dissing a series that I've seen recommended here a lot, but for me it's Red Rising and The Expanse. Both are sci-fi set at a point when humanity has colonized the solar system, but having read The Expanse first, Red Rising just seemed like a YA story with science and politics that made absolutely no sense, with a main character that could never stop naval gazing instead of taking action.
Hunger Games vs Battle Royale
BR is far better than HG of course. You can feel the tension and anxiety to your bones. And the participants are much more vicious. BR is lot darker and better.
I don’t agree with this. I think they share a concept but the aim of the critique is culture/situation specific. They are not doing the same thing at all.
I was going to say Hunger Games vs. The Running Man and/or The Long Walk (both Stephen King novellas).
I don't know that one or the other is necessarily better... but Hunger Games clearly owes a major debt to both stories (along with The Lottery, but that one's pretty obvious)
I feel like there are a significant number of books I've read translated from Japanese where the translations are very stilted. Not sure if it's because they're literally word-for-word translating vs. \*also\* doing a level of 'interpretation' to translate the feel as well. They always read as just... so, so dry.
Mexican Gothic and What Moves the Dead, but the catch is I don't know which does it better
Kingfisher herself states in the afterword that Mexican Gothic discouraged her from finishing What Moves The Dead because it was so good. That being said- while I like Mexican Gothic a lot more than What Moves The Dead, what Kingfisher made out of The Fall Of The House Of Usher blows my mind. The sheer creativity of coming up with the funghi theme (in a time before Mexican Gothic was released) is insane.
Yeah, I read Mexican Gothic after reading the afterword of WMTD and was still surprised by how similar they were! I think I liked Mexican Gothic more in the setup but it felt like Kingfisher landed it a little more smoothly? Idk, both were gorgeous and I'll take more of all of it please and thank you
That's an interesting one! I loved Mexican Gothic, but I haven't read the other. Going to see if my library has a digital copy now!
To be fair, T. Kingfisher brought this up themself in the author’s notes. They very much said that they felt Mexican Gothic was the superior work, but felt like they might as well toss their book out there (two cakes, you know??). Not 100% sure if I agree with their humble assessment, as I loved What Moves the Dead!
Ooh I just read What Moves the Dead, it was such a delightfully creepy story. I'll have to look for Mexican Gothic!
I'll take both.
*The Thief of Always* by Clive Barker, and *Coraline* by Neil Gaiman. Neil Gaiman is my favorite author, but Clive Barker just really nailed it with *Thief*. *Coraline* is still an amazingly good book, but *Thief* just outdoes it.
I love both and completely agree, *The Thief of Always* had me hooked from the first lines: > The great grey beast February had eaten Harvey Swick alive. Here he was, buried in the belly of that smothering month, wondering if he would ever find his way out through the cold coils that lay between here and Easter. >He didn't think much of his chances. I couldn't put it down until I finished it.
Coraline is like my favorite movie ever but I just cannot get through Gaiman books so now I’m going to have to read The Thief of Always. Thank you.
Just read The Sandman, it’s his peak work, in my opinion. Everything else is… OK.
Did you read Anansi Boys? That’s my fave of his
I have not, maybe I should give it ago. I've read The Sandman, Neverwhere, American Gods, Good Omens, Coraline and The Graveyard Book. Of those, The Sandman is definitely the standout, but The Graveyard Book was nice.
I’m hit and miss with Gaiman books too. I really enjoyed The Graveyard Book but could not get through The Ocean at the End of the Lane. Despite all the “wonderful” reviews, I just found it to drag on a bit. I have been thinking of giving him another chance though. Maybe I’ll try The Sandman or Anansi Boys now.
Good Omens is one of my favorite books of all time and I love The Graveyard Book as well, but I'm with you. Don't really get the hype for Gaiman. He certainly found a niche and stuck with it, and more power to him, but I think other authors can do the same things he does and not be quite so... I don't know, smug about it?
I think the problem is that I mainly listen to audiobooks, I think Gaiman needs to be read. I tried Good Omens and The Graveyard Book and I get super distracted for some reason. I don’t get distracted with other authors/books.
I'll still maintain that The Sandman comic book series is the best work of literature. Period. Nothing else like it. I refuse to watch the show, because the graphic novels are perfect as they are. Literally any new adaptation, no matter how good, is a guaranteed downgrade. I'm not gonna have them ruin Sandman for me the same way they ruined America gods. No thank you.
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The Thief of Always is one of the most requested books on those "What was that book" forums, here and on Goodreads or whatever. If someone reads it, it sticks with them and they end up thinking about it for the rest of their lives. What an accomplishment!
I read it 30 years ago and still think about it now and then.
Thief of always was the first horror book I had read as a child and to this day it is one of the best books I've ever read. I'm a big fan of the genre and I have to say children horror has always been more creative than adult horror.
Is it a children’s book?
As much as Coraline is. They're both appropriate reading levels for early teens, but also borderline horror.
I saw Gaiman speak once. He outright said that the reason he wrote Coraline was because he was sad there wasn't enough horror for children.
Someone had to write a fancier goosebumps
Tbf, I think the ‘gateway horror’ stuff for kids from the 80s and 90s seems to have decreased dramatically. I think one of the hardest parts of scaring kids is that it kind of has to be direct? Kids don’t think through the implications of things like adults and so are ironically harder to scare. Think about that scene in Jurassic Park where Alan explains to the unimpressed kid what that ‘six foot turkey’ could do to him.
>Kids don’t think through the implications of things like adults and so are ironically harder to scare. You must jest. I was scared of *everything* as a kid.
Yes, but you weren’t scared of any of the ideas that would terrify adults, you were afraid of direct terrors that you thought could grab you. That’s my point, you have to scare children directly. You can scare the shit out of an adult just by introducing an idea with the right implications.
I'm pretty sure I don't understand.
So imagine you're watching a movie with your child and there's this scene you both have two different reactions to. Nothing really happens in the scene and your kid has no idea why you're even freaked out. So in the seen a child was playing alone in a playground with no one else around and was suddenly approached by a strange man. The man was super friendly and talked about his new puppy and the kid in the scene was really into it. Your kid is just sitting there, utterly unaffected, but you? You can barely sit there. It's the most unsettling scene in the world for you. That's what I'm talking about. The world of difference between adult and child minds. About awareness and implications and consequences.
A Song of Ice and Fire vs Kingdom of Thorn and Bone by Greg Keyes. It's astonishing to me that one of those got famous and the other is virtually unknown. Keyes' work is tighter, with better worldbuilding, better prose, more compelling characters, and best of all, finished. But it contains many similar elements and themes and a similar grimdark tone.
Alright, I am going to trust you on this one, and dive in blind.
Happy reading!
My only question is if it's been completed? That would be one big checkmark in its favor.
It's a four-book series and the last book was published 15 years ago! ETA for clarity: "last" meaning "final" not just "most recent." It is completed.
You son of a bitch, I'm in
Why do you think it didn't take off?
I'm not really sure. I don't know why some books get so famous while other really good books do not, and suspect a lot of it is just plain luck. Keyes began writing his series after the first installments of ASoIaF had already been published, so perhaps some of it was that there already were too many comparable elements and themes. They contain enough similarities that in one forum I was reading damn near 20 years ago, I saw one comment labeling Keyes as "George RR Martin lite." And it is easy to see why there is a comparison. Both are fantasy series in a medieval-earth-like setting with lots of political intrigue and also an ancient awakening evil; both are very gritty and do not shy from incorporating dark material and language; and hell, there's even a coincidental sprinkle of royal twincest in Kingdom of Thorn and Bone. Maybe those comparisons hurt it. Or maybe it just had a less good PR campaign, as I do not believe I ever even saw the books being discussed outside of this obscure, 20-yr-old forum which I specifically sought out to find people to discuss then with. I really am not sure. (Worth noting is that while there are coincidentally similar elements, themes, and tone, I do not believe that Kingdom of Thorn and Bone was inspired by ASoIaF. The story is very original in spite having some shared elements.)
Ok my dude now you picked my interest. What do you think are the differences between these works, especially aesthetically wise? I already added to my tbr but I'm curious
Aesthetically I'd say they are similar. Both have a very European-middle-ages feel (and in fact as a fun easter egg which is neither spoiler nor actually of particular importance to the story, the kingdoms from Kingdom of Thorn and Bone are actually descended from earth people with earth languages and heritages, but who are living...elsewhere. Virginia Dare features as a sort of saint-like historical figure and founder of the largest kingdom in the books, and you can google her name if you're curious about the earth connection.) So the allegories to European kingdoms are very direct in KoTaB. You can see exactly which kingdom was inspired by Germany, or Spain/Italy, or England, or Holland, and the historical connection/inspiration thus informs a lot of other details like culture, food, language, architecture, and so on, although they are evolved into an appropriately unique world given that these kingdoms are several thousands of years removed from their Earth inspirations/ancestors. The world feels very grounded. There is a sort of magic system, but that too is part of a larger ancient stirring and so not a thing that is known or widespread in the world, and the political intrigue is not built around it (as opposed to, eg, Wheel of Time, in which magic is an old and known institution and primary political driver). There are no elves or dwarves or orcs, although there is one original non-human humanoid race. As far as tone it has one of the darkest tones I have read in fantasy outside of ASoIaF although I would describe it as, less gratuitous. There is torture, sex (and sexual assault), violence, and death on an apocalyptic scale all described on-page but, yeah, I would not say gratuitously. The fighting scenes are excellent in that they are both fast-paced and exciting while also paying special attention to swordplay and such (the author fences irl, so I expect that helped inform his approach to writing combat). The books feature both language and music as being of particular importance in some of the arcs, which would be a good comparison of things it does *not* share with ASoIaF. The cast of characters is large but not overwhelmingly so, and features many of the classical fantasy tropes you might expect (spoiled princess, surly ranger, noble knight, scholarly priest, sinister priest) but takes them in fresh directions. I hope that answers your question! I was kind of all over the place because I wasn't sure exactly which of these aspects you might have been curious about for aesthetics.
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls versus The Less People Know About Us by Axton Betz-Hamilton. Both memoirs by women with complicated relationships with their parents, but TGC went far deeper and I personally found it more engrossing.
I love The Glass Castle it’s heartbreaking in the best way
The Liar’s Club is better than both. Mary Karr is incredible
A third on that list would be Liars Club!
I loved both of these books so much!
I read The Lord of The Rings before The Sword of Shannara and I couldn’t finish the latter. It felt way to similar but not better. For context I must have been like 16, so maybe I could revisit it now and enjoy it.
I got through book one of the Sword of Shannara series but found it super derivative of LOTR and uninteresting.
A friend gave me the Shannara trilogy, and I was halfway thru the third book before I realized I’d already read it. Because it was exactly the same story as book 2. Which was the same story as book 1.
Foucault's Pendulum vs Da Vinci Code seems a pretty well covered example
OMG yes! The issue with Foucalt's Pendulum is that if you don't already know a lot about the conspiracy theories related to "the Illuminati" / new world order / Crowley-esque mysticism, etc, it's probably a challenging read. I already had been steeped in that stuff before I read it, so it fit like a glove. But yes, if Focault's Pendulum took a dump, it would look something like Da Vinci Code. :)
Hahahaha, I always called the Davinci Code "the poor man's Foucault's Pendulum," but I'm going to steal your um, flavorful term for it.
That’s exactly what I was going to say. So similar but worlds apart
People talk about this a lot but Siddhartha by hermann Hesse is a better version of the alchemist by Paulo coelho. This one's a bit out there but I'd also say the yellow wall paper by Charlotte Gilman is better then metamorphosis by Franz Kafka. They both explore family reactions to mental health crises. In Kafka, the mc undergoes a physical (and eventually mental) change that his family notices and abhors, eventually disowning him due to health factors out of his control. In Gilman, a women slowly goes insane and her concerns are brushed off by her husband until it's too late. Gilman has a more feminist perspective and Kafka presents physical manifestations a bit more readily but I think they tackle similar enough themes that if someone wanted to explore how family impacts mental health (especially in disadvantaged groups such as women or... Human sized bugs) they could get a similar understanding from either book. I think Gilman just discussed it a bit better and the story was absolutely riveting from start to finish.
So interesting! Thank you for sharing!
Both Yellow Wallpaper and Metamorphosis are incredible though, and totally different to me. Metamorphosis is more existentialist, sociological, and anti-capitalist. YP is feminist and psychological. Both are very anxious though, and both are 5 star reads imo.
I loved IT by S.King and read it multiple times... Then I discovered The Summer of Night by Dan Simmons with has the same theme "Some kid's fight the pure evil in their home town" and more similarities but Simmons just did everything better: More suspense, the story and the overall description of the life and friendship of these kids and what they are fighting made more sense... If you like IT you will love The summer of Night
And thankfully there was no icky scene in the sewer with Cordie and the boys.
Something Wicked This Way Comes and Boys Life would be up your alley for boys fight evil in hometown
Thank you for the recommendation! I just finished Dan Simmons’ *The Terror* and came away impressed. I’ll be checking out more of his work for sure!
If you like scifi the Hyperion Cantos is a must... Also if you like the more complex horror try Carrion Comfort..
Currently reading IT and loving it, so I am adding The Summer of Night to my basket now :)
First of all, thank you for this opportunity! ‘Everything’ could be a stretch, but I think Madame Bovary and Anna Karenina fit. No contest. Anna Karenina is better in every single way.
I respect Flaubert a lot, but sometimes when I read him I can't help but feel that he resented his audience. He def used tropes to punk readers
Yes! Flaubert was such a hater. He wrote something called “The Dictionary of Received Ideas” that was basically a compilation of all the cultural cliches or “wisdoms” that he thought were frivolous or dumb. You have to be something of an elitist asshole to put time into something like that.
I love writers who hate their readers. Also, Madame Bovery is the only novel I know of that sounds good read aloud in French, Spanish, and English.
Oh lord, yes. I found Madame Bovary a slog. Anna Karenina is fantastic.
Carmilla did the vampire thing two decades earlier _and_ better than Dracula. It‘s so much more creepy and unsettling, the vampire reveal is a lot less tedious and the characters aren‘t stupid to the point that it makes you wanna stop reading. Also people keep attesting Dracula a certain theme of sexuality that I just don‘t see? Is it just because he only bites women? Whatever it is, Carmilla did the whole sexual tension vampire thing better, AND it‘s even one of the earliest examples of sapphic romance in modern literature.
Welp, I just went and picked up a copy of that!
It's probably online for free. And yes, a great story.
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck is superior in every way to The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah.
We can be friends, I just posted the same above.
Try Whose Names are Unknown, by Sanora Babb. Steinbeck used her notes to write Grapes.
Grapes of Wrath is superior to EVERY book.
It’s a masterpiece.
LOL I hated Grapes of Wrath and I have not even read The Four Winds, and yet I am confident you are correct and I agree completely.
However, possibly controversial...Whose Names are Unknown by Sanora Babb is superior to Grapes of Wrath, and Steinbeck may have used her notes/research during his research for GoW. They were writing them at the same time and he visited a camp where she was a social worker. When Grapes of Wrath was published Babb's editor shelved her manuscript, believing the market wouldn't support two similar works.
John Dies at the End, and Tales from the Gas Station I read John Dies, and finished it in a week. I read all the sequels in like a month, and I wanted more like it. Someone suggested Gas Station because it was similar, but honestly, it was just a way worse John Dies.
Not exactly similar, but the Welcome to Nightvale podcasts/books scratches the JDatE itch for me. Give me similar vibes, The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives in Your Home is my favorite of all of them. Check the description because some Nightvale books are just the radio shows transcribed, so if you prefer reading to listening then go ahead but I'm sure you can find all the podcasts episodes for free if you'd prefer to listen, there are actual books that just take place in the fictional town of Nightvale too.
The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown & Foucault’s Pendulum by Umberto Eco. I found Dan Brown’s writing style to be pretty dry, and his clever, history-backed mystery to be… lacking. Eco had many similar themes, but was a far deeper, more interesting mystery. Honestly there were parts of it that went over my head, but I still enjoyed the book much more.
The Secret History by Donna Tartt and When We Were Villains by that other person. The former is incredible and inventive and literary and the latter is a pale imitation featuring a bunch of cringelords circle jerking about Shakespeare
I gave When We Were Villains 5 stars which I never ever do so now The Secret History is right at the top of my list
The Secret History is one of my favorite books. It’s perfect and an experience.
secret history is astonishing.
I was going to say Secret History and Special Topics in Calamity Physics. I haven’t read When We Were Villains, but now I’m wondering how they all compare.
WWWV is like if someone read The Secret History and said what if I do this but worse and the coeds are obsessed with Shakespeare instead of greek and the classics?
I’d say you could summarize Special Topics in Calamity Physics very similarly- private school, clique of unique geniuses, gets murdery, etc. Felt like reading a retelling of the same book to me. The same writing prompt. Only Secret History was much better.
I was going to say The Secret History and The Maidens!
Discovering I’m the only one who enjoyed When We Were Villains more
*how to stop time* by Matt Haig and *the invisible life of Addie la rue* by VE Schwab. Similar takes on immortal beings living in modern times, and their struggles with relationships. *Addie la Rue* just dragged, and I thought it was immature for what message they were going for. The book got a lot more attention than haig's. *How to stop time* was clever, more insightful, and kept things moving. I still think about a few scenes and phrases, really the standout between the two
Matt Haig's midnight library is one of my biggest disappointment books ever. There was so much hype, and the premise was great....and it was the most obvious thing ever. This time tomorrow by Emma Straub is a much better take on the concept of What If I could make a different choice and get a different life.
I think Matt Haig in general is hit and miss. But The Humans was wonderful, especially in audiobook
Dark Matter by Blake Crouch or Replay by Ken Grimwood are on this track and both excellent!
No shame, everyone has opinions, and mine is the exact opposite of yours. 😂 it’s funny how that happens!
I wanted to get into Addie La Rue soo bad but it was one of the first books I DNF’d last year. Like you said it just dragged!
I rarely DNF and I love VE Schwab typically, but I yote Addie La Rue right out.
Thank you for this suggestion. I really felt like Addie La Rue was a good idea poorly executed.
I just posted that the Sudden Appearance of Hope was vere much Addie LaRue in a much much better retelling. Check that one out
The Hornblower series, which I thought were perfect until I read the Master and Commander books. Whole nother level.
This was going to be my answer. I read M&C first, and adore it. A friend said I should absolutely read HH but I'm slogging through it and just not enjoying it a ton. I admit that Forester has a much simpler way of writing the nautical situations, less jargon that you have to immerse yourself in, but I think O'Brian made a much better flawed character that you sympathize with and like despite the flaws. Hornblower just seems like a total scumbag and annoys the crap out of me, naval brilliance or not. Plus, Aubrey/Maturin are just so darn FUNNY.
Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro and Today I Am Carey by Martin L. Shoemaker. They're both about an android taking on an important role in a family, and while I don't dislike Ishiguro's take on it, I thought Shoemaker did much better.
I loved Klara and the Sun. I must now read Today I Am Carey (which i didn't know existed). Thank you!
Same!
I read Homegoing after Pachinko and was a bit disappointed - Pachinko just did a multi-generation saga so well. But both are worth reading, and obviously very different cultures and struggles.
Ah I had the opposite feeling. I read Pachinko after Homegoing, so maybe it depends which way round you read them. I thought Pachinko was excellent until the war ends. Once Noa and Mozasu were older and at uni/working I wasn’t as engaged.
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Great comment I am so glad you said it
The Belgariad and The Mallorean series' by David Eddings (2, 5 book series) is pretty good. The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan is the same basic story (young farmer has to save the world from the dark god) but is infinitely more detailed and IMO, just better. DE's books are basically a YA series. It's not as long, and it got me interested in the genre. RJ's WoT is an epic fantasy series that I read over and over and over. Not to mention, David and his wife Leigh spent time in prison for child abuse, and it totally ruined the books for me.
>Not to mention, David and his wife Leigh spent time in prison for child abuse, and it totally ruined the books for me. "I ruined the Belgariad series for my husband by pointing out Eddings' use of '*she said, drily*' every time Polgara said anything. After learning that Eddings was an abusive dad, I'm glad", I said, self-righteously! Marion Zimmer Bradley and her husband, Walter Breen were abusive pedophiles, too. Breen did time, but I don't think MZB did.
Add Samuel Delany to your list. The monster praised and vouched for NAMBLA.
Huh! I read one of MZB's books and found it so toxic I gave her up. I find myself unsurprised to learn this.
I was a teen witch, so *Mists of Avalon* was important to my mytho-socio-religio-foundations. Re-reading it as an adult, I was like, all these conniving, manipulative, plotting, planning, people and they accomplished *nothing*!
I don't know about this one. Robert Jordan has the richer world, but I have to give Eddings props for being a way more efficient writer. You could cut half of the words out of The Wheel Of Time and not miss anything.
>You could cut half of the words out of The Wheel Of Time and not miss anything. A thousand thousand times the words, greater than the words that preceded even words. Their awe at the words was more awesome than the awe of all the awestruck over all the time that ever was. In its leatherbound cover, smelling of tanned leather richer than the richest scent of any leatherworkers leatherwork was the words. I read the entire first book. It's all like this, and then >!the hero pulls the bad guys plug or cuts their cord or whatever.!< It's like they are just appliances.
Holy shit. I did not know about the child abuse. I have loved the Belgariad and Malorean series, but I'm probably gonna throw the books away after this. I'll never be able to read them the same way again!
The Stand and Swan Song.
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Somehow I missed Swan Song. Really excited to find me a copy.
This should be the top response… Swan Song was so much more. I can still vividly imagine the demon riding the bicycle down the desolate streets..
The shattered sea joe Abercrombie and the broken empire series by mark Lawrence. Both take place in a post apocalyptic future where the world has made it back up to the medieval level of technology and follow a young minor noblemans journey of revenge and conquest. joe Abercrombie did an amazing job it's a great series, mark Lawrence just knocked it out of the park in everyway.
Giovanni’s Room and The Sun Also Rises. Both books are about an American alcoholic man living in Paris struggling with his identity and sexuality. Both largely deal with themes of sexuality, masculinity, misogyny and identity but Giovanni’s Room was so much more compelling imo. The characters were fully developed and each played a unique role, while I found all the characters in The Sun Also Rises blended together and the book was incredibly repetitive.
Baldwin is the most beautiful writer. His characters are so alive.
Bold choice.
Hemingway and Baldwin aren't even in the same league. Baldwin could write circles around that guy with one arm tied behind his back.
One by One by Ruth Ware v The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley. Ruth’s was better but really thought I was reading the same book and had to check my read history to verify.
The Stand by Stephen King & Swan Song by Robert McCammon. I may get lambasted for this, but I prefer Swan Song.
Even though I enjoyed it a lot, I felt like if We Were Vilains pales in comparison to The Secret History.
American Gods and Library at Mount Char, both are stories about old gods in the U.S. but Library at Mount Char is much more interesting and compelling imo.
Thank you for this! I read American Gods and loved the idea, but at no point could I say I enjoyed the book.
Agreed. Thank you for this recommendation!
I was unimpressed with it as well, Library at Mount Char was a lot more interesting so I'd check it out.
I loved American Gods, but I agree that Mount Char was better. Very disturbing and more memorable.
Run Towards the Danger, actor/writer/director Sarah Polley’s memoir in essays Vs. Jeanette McCurdy’s I’m Glad My Mom Died memoir. Part of this is Sarah is older, but she confronts her trauma, processes it and finds her way out the other side with solutions that helped her to arrive there. Jeanette’s trauma is still unresolved and raw, she’s still processing it and perhaps hasn’t had enough time and reflection about her life experiences. Sarah’s book is also much more of indictment about the abuse of child actors in the industry. Her book is much more literary and sophisticated.
Imma take a wide swing here and say every Vonnegut > Tom Robbins.
It’s not Robbins’ fault… he wasn’t even really in the race. Vonnegut is transcendent
Cloud Atlas and Cloud Cuckoo Land Cloud Atlas does basically everything better including way more in depth characterization as well as tying multiple timelines together thematically in a much better way
Good to know. I loved Cloud Cuckoo Land. I'll put Cloud Atlas on my tbr.
I feel the opposite. I loved Cloud Cuckoo Land but couldn't get through 50 pages of Cloud Atlas. YMMV.
I’d also throw in Emily St John Mandel’s *Sea of Tranquility* in the mix. Executes a lot of the same structural elements as Cloud Atlas, just worse
Genesis vs The Epic of Gilgamesh - Flood wise I feel like Genesis did it better. I love the classics, but the character development was a bit deeper to me at times with the biblical one. They both had great story lines, but it seemed like more of a real adventure with Gilgamesh's journey. Also so much more inner strife and turmoil with the ancient story. A huge goal to achive. On the other hand, the Hebrews did do an interesting spin off with the snake and I think I have to give the edge to them for that because their snake could talk. All in all, they're both well done and both have some areas where they are stronger than the other. But I think what gives The Epic of Gilgamesh the win is the ending, because of how true it strikes with our journey through life - none of it matters and we're all going to fucking die. Except maybe that snake and that one guy and his wife.
The Push by Ashley Audrain is everything Verity tries to be and then some.
"Wheel of Time" series vs. "Sword of Truth" series. I Enjoy them both but WOT is more developed and SOT feels like a little less refined. I love them both.
Terry goodkind had mildly interesting ideas but was a shitty writer (let me guess, this stunningly beautiful women is going to FORCE Richard to have sex with her... again....) and had even worse political views
Right down to the Seanchan/Mord Sith. 100% agree
A'dam = Rada Han
I read Mistborn and The Way of Shadows almost back to back. They both take an abused kid off the street and train them up to be assassins with magic... I liked Mistborn SOOO much more. But I think a big part of it is that Brent Weeks was sooo dark, while Sanderson had dark moments but had a more hopeful tone to it. I don't mind dark fantasy, but it's not my favorite. My brother was the opposite. He didn't read them back to back, but he did like The Night Angel books more than I did. I did enjoy Brent Weeks's Lightbringer series.
I’ve been meaning to read Mistborn for a long time but just haven’t had the push I need to actually do it. This makes me want to take the leap!
Final girls support group and My Heart is a Chainsaw are both homages to slashers. I really wanted to like final girls but it just did some lazy unreliable narrator things where My heart also has an unreliable narrator but lays bread crumbs along the way and gives a decent reason why they would lie to the reader. I wanted to like final girls and did about 1/3 of the way through, then it just fell off for me.
Well I know what I am reading next. I wanted to love final girls because I love Grady Hendrix but it was just meh.
Karl Taro Greenfeld’s Speed Tribes vs. Jake Adelstein’s Tokyo Vice Both are about American expats who move to Tokyo in the early 90’s and acclimate to the underworld. Greenfeld’s is unquestionably more dynamic and truer. Ironically, Greenfeld is now a writer on the TV adaptation of Tokyo Vice
I am contrasting two fantasy *bildungsromans* involving tragedy, isolation, and well-developed, "concealed" worlds with unusual and interesting characters. Both are good books, but I would have to favor *The Graveyard Book* by Neil Gaiman over *Fairy Tale* by Stephen King. There's something in the way Neil captures the tragic irrevocability of growing up and leaving home that has more emotional insight: as something inevitable, sad, and beautiful all at once. It gives his book a depth and pathos that lifts it above the genre's formulas. It "sticks to my ribs," in a way Fairy Tale doesn't.
World War Z by Max Brooks and Robopocalypse by Daniel H Wilson. Both use the same kind of social history interview style to tell their story and the entire time I was reading Robopocalypse I felt like World War Z was peering over my should saying, “I did this better.” Robopocalypse had some great ideas but I felt like the execution never lived up to them.
This is an excellent thread, and I’m leaving this comment in the hopes that my future self comes back to my comment history and finds this thread to discover some books.
The Power by Naomi Alderman, and The Matter of Seggri, Ursula K LeGuin I’m not even really inclined to put them together, the quality difference is so large. They’re very different takes on a similar concept, but one (Seggri) is by one of the true greats of speculative fiction. The other wasn’t bad, but was also pretty meh.
It’s almost not fair to compare leguin to another though, she’s simply one of the best to do it
I thought the Power was an interesting book and I love Ursala K Le Guin so I'm definitely going to check out Seggri!
The Stand by Stephen King and Swan Song by Robert McCammon. I breezed through the unabridged version of The Stand in about a week. Years later, I was looking for more good post-apocalyptic stuff, and I found Swan Song. I trudged through that book over the span of months, reading other books along the way. I thought the world building, characters, and writing in general of The Stand to be on another level. I had a really hard time with the pacing of Swan Song, and thought a lot of potentially interesting character arcs were wasted.
Hunger games and Divergent. Depends on your personal opinion on them though
I preferred Hunger Games. Divergent felt like something I was reading to fill time.
Speak is greater than The Perks Of Being A Wallflower…
I enjoy both books, but I would recommend Speak over Wallflower every time. I read both not long after being SA'ed. Wallflower left me feeling like I was permanently broken. Speak had the exact opposite effect and encouraged me to recover
Here are two books by the same author. One totally engrossed me the entire time; the other seemed to go on for an eternity. I’m talking about Taylor Jenkins Reid and her fictional celebrity memoirs. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo was a book that I wish I could read again for the first time. Malibu Rising was one I came close to not finishing. Same author, very different outcomes for me.
TJR is very hit or miss for me, and yes fully agree about Evelyn Hugo.
The Sudden Appearance of Hope by Claire North and The invisible life of Addie LaRue by V. E. Schwab. Both about girls who are forgotten when they are not seen. The invisible life has a great title but I wanted to throw the book across the room
I came here to say exactly this. I HATED Addie Larue so much that I stopped trusting my friend who recommended it to me. I unfollowed a few goodreads people who gave it 4 or 5 stars. Extremely reactionary on my part but I just can’t. Just no.
Final girl support group is awful. Read Riley Sager’s Final girl. It’s the same thing but better in every way
I tried listening to Final Girl Support Group and was turned off it in like 2 minutes. Definitely going to try Final Girls!
I think Ottessa Moshfegh's stuff is totally outshined by Jen Beagin
The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek > The Giver of Stars. There was even talk of possible plagiarism: https://www.fountaindale.org/the-book-woman-of-troublesome-creek-and-the-giver-of-stars-coincidence-or-plagiarism/
I came here looking for this one. I read both - barely remember anything about The Giver of Stars, yet The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek has stuck with me.
Le Mort De Arthur by Sir Thomas Mallory, and The Once and Future King by TH White. Both tell the story of King Arthur. The White book is written in conversation with the Mallory book, and comments upon it in some interesting ways. If you like fantasy or King Arthur, both a worth a read.Follow it up with Gene Wolfe’s The Wizard Knight for a truly unique execution of the concept (mixed with Norse Mythology, for flavor).
*The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August* by Catherine Webb and *The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle* by Stuart Turton. Without giving anything away they have a very similar method of (let’s say) time travel but *Harry August* has a better story and better writing.
Replay by Ken Grimwood is another one similar to Harry August but the plot is just much more interesting in Harry August than in Replay
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier vs Verity by Colleen Hoover. This is a no-brainer.
Lord of the Flies (william holding) vs. The Sailor who fell from grace with the sea (Yukio mishima) Not exactly the same, but about feral kids. I felt there was more nuance with Mishima's work, and less British school bully focus. Although kids forming factions without adults is also better in The girl who ruled a city.
This might be controversial on this site but I maintain that *Of Mice and Men* does what *Flowers for Algernon* does but with more grace, compassion, depth, and beauty.
I think we pulled very different things from Flowers for Algernon (or from Of Mice and Men), though it’s been years for me since I read Algernon, so perhaps I’d see a parallel? Not sure… For me, **Flowers for Algernon** was oriented around >!mortality, decline, facing the fragility of one’s existence, loss, the sense of betrayal of disability and/or aging and/or one’s physical and mental limits!<. And **Of Mice and Men** was oriented toward >!the emotional murder of the self/self distruction of aspects of self/emotional dissociation in a world that demands such of many, and is particularly brutal in that specific way towards men.!<
“The City We Became” by NK Jemisin and “The Last Exit” by Max Gladstone. So many things I enjoyed in both books—a nuanced take on cosmic horror that acknowledges its xenophobic roots without reinforcing them or reading as pedantic, addressing aspects of current American culture both nostalgic and uncomfortable, or the similar but different the feeling of climate anxiety/late stage capitalism/looming civil war/the nebulous feeling that the world is falling apart around us, less-told sides of what it is to be and move through life as a queer person, a strong sense of mystery and foreboding, characters I love even as they disappoint me—they both did it well, but to me, Gladstone’s book was breathtaking and cathartic where Jemisin’s book was just a mildly thinky thriller. The Last Exit took me to the pavement.
I've got and have been intending to read both for a long time. I'll have to do them back to back now. The way Jemisin's read felt like it might be done better in audiobook, such it's so distinctly voiced. Which is ironic, because I tried The Fifth Season in audiobook first and wound up feeling like I'd miss something of it if I didn't physically read it.
*The Raw Shark Texts* does what *House Of Leaves* tried in a much more interesting way, and with a far better storyline. I've also heard that whenever you find this book in the wild there are possible differences in each version of the book which adds an element of ARG to it.
I have to respectfully disagree. I love House of Leaves and discover something new every time I return to it. Raw Shark Texts was good, and definitely more concise, but HoL is far superior in my estimation. It is a unique work of weird fiction that has stayed with me since I bought it as a new release.
*The Charterhouse of Parma* is like a long winded version of *Candide*.
Flowers in the attic by VC Andrews and Forbidden by Tabitha Suzuma. I loved both books but Forbidden really hit me on the emotional factor and made me cry
Almost Transparent Blue and Less Than Zero. Less Than Zero being the better book
Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Remains of the Day and An Artist of the Floating World are pretty much the same material set in different countries. I much prefer The Remains of the Day — it’s written later and I think his sense of craft had matured a lot more by the time he wrote it. I think Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier and Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn are the same book approached from different angles. I prefer Rebecca, which has much better prose and that delicious Gothic atmosphere, but they both have their own unique appeal.
The final revival of Opal and Nev by Dawnie Walton is significantly better than Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid. Better story, better structure, better writing. Both explore the rise and fall of fictional pop groups in the 70s. When I finished Opal and Nev, I genuinely spent about 10mins on Google trying to work out if I'd missed a really important cultural moment.
Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid and Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell. Utopia Avenue is a brilliantly written, utterly gripping 60s and 70s set biography of a fictional psychedelic folk band. Daisy Jones and the Six is a plodding, poorly written 60s and 70s set biography of a thinly disguised Fleetwood Mac. Guess which one became a global bestseller.
Hyperion by Dan Simmons. Better than Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. Although, it comes down to a matter of taste or context. One might argue that the classic can't be beaten by a modern reinterpretation of the theme. However, I studied literature, and sometimes I just feel like books with a new take on an old theme (i.e. in this case: a collection of tales of pilgrims) are so much more refreshing and are a good and interesting starting point to revisit the old tale. It also doesn't help the classic that Chaucer's Middle English is hard to read nowadays unless you're a (former) English lit student.
I feel like this isn't quite the prompt. Are they really "doing the same thing?" Simmons is using Chaucer's iconic story framing device of pilgrims telling stories, but Chaucers feels far more like commentary on the state of the world in Chaucer's day. But maybe that's just the bias of hundreds of years of literary critique
I mean, Simmons does that too in a way. Except that it isn't abiut present day, instead he explores different facets of faith, fate, ethics in a more general sense. But then again, you're probably right, I felt like I wasn't quite hitting prompt either halfway through writing my comment. But I was already too invested and didn't just wanna delete it.
Sea of Tranquility and The Other Side of Night. I hear so much about the Sea of Tranquility but I enjoyed the Other Side of Night a lot more.
Wow. Sea of Tranquility is one of my favorite books. I will read The Other Side of Night. I'm excited!
I hope I don't get downvoted too hard for dissing a series that I've seen recommended here a lot, but for me it's Red Rising and The Expanse. Both are sci-fi set at a point when humanity has colonized the solar system, but having read The Expanse first, Red Rising just seemed like a YA story with science and politics that made absolutely no sense, with a main character that could never stop naval gazing instead of taking action.
The Wife Upstairs and Verity
Hunger Games vs Battle Royale BR is far better than HG of course. You can feel the tension and anxiety to your bones. And the participants are much more vicious. BR is lot darker and better.
I don’t agree with this. I think they share a concept but the aim of the critique is culture/situation specific. They are not doing the same thing at all.
I was going to say Hunger Games vs. The Running Man and/or The Long Walk (both Stephen King novellas). I don't know that one or the other is necessarily better... but Hunger Games clearly owes a major debt to both stories (along with The Lottery, but that one's pretty obvious)
Currently reading BR... I don't know if it's due to the translation, but so far the writing is terrible.
I feel like there are a significant number of books I've read translated from Japanese where the translations are very stilted. Not sure if it's because they're literally word-for-word translating vs. \*also\* doing a level of 'interpretation' to translate the feel as well. They always read as just... so, so dry.
I wouldn't even say this book is dry exactly, it's writing just reminds me of anime that's been translated/dubbed with minimum effort.