Between Two Fires

[u/Unique-Scientist8114]

I know this is no revelation, far from the first time its been discussed on the sub, and won't be the last. I only heard of it through the comments on this sub.

But man. Wow. I wasnt expecting it to grip me so. I wasnt expecting to be hooked, forcing myself to find a decent finishing point so I could eat. I wasnt expecting the emotions.

Does anyone have any recs for a similar vibe? Im usually a haunted house/ghosties type of fan, though having said that many of my favourites lie outside of that genre, but the sheer desolation, the ray of hope, then more bleakness. The epic scale. The only book close in vibe that I'm aware of is Lost Gods by Brom.

Recs dont have to be historical pieces, but that does award them bonus points.

Thank you!

[u/OrdoMalaise]

I don't have a good recommendation, but I just wanted to say, same.

I did not expect Between Two Fires to hit me like that. It gripped me, it was compelling, so unlike anything I've read before, then it punched me right in the heart at the end. Then it punched me in the heart a second time in epilogue. If I even just think about it for too long, I get a lump in my throat.

[u/Unique-Scientist8114 → u/OrdoMalaise]

Yeah I was teary-eyed by the end. I wept after the epilogue.

[u/TwoLetters]

I just finished this one a couple weeks ago, and I still can't stop thinking about it. "Compelling" didn't even begin to cover it. The funny parts were very funny, the heartfelt moments brought tears to my eyes, and the spooky moments were genuinely disturbing. Buehlman did something incredible with that book

[u/Unique-Scientist8114 → u/TwoLetters]

The Night tourney chapter blue screened my brain in a way I dont know that I've experienced before, and I've been reading horror since my early teens. People I know who dont touch horror found the blurb interesting too. Its lightning in a bottle.

[u/R1400]

They're different in setting and scale, but i'd fondly recommend looking into some of the author's other books. This one was my first, so far i've also read "Those Across the River" and "The Lesser Dead" by him, and in both cases I ended up staying up very late because I approached their respective climaxes and couldn't let the books down

[u/tuckelsteen]

In the spring I read The West Passage by Jared Pechacek and I don’t know if it had quite the pathos of BtF but it is a strange and compelling journey and has been the closest thing I’ve read since.

[u/kylehawk]

Try God's Demon by Barlowe

I loved BtF and Lost Gods

[u/Fuzzy_Dragonfly_]

Check out Company of Liars by Karen Maitland

[u/cryptid_reader]

Between Two Fires caught me off guard in the same way. I picked it up because a friend kept saying it was about the plague, and I thought I knew what I was getting. I did not expect to care that much about Thomas and Delphine, and I kept reading past my bedtime even though I had work the next morning and regretted it. I tried Lost Gods after that too, and it scratched part of the same itch for me, but it felt rougher and more scattered. I lost track of who was who in the middle and had to start a chapter over. If you want something with that same tired, end of the world feeling but in a ghost story shape, I would try The Little Stranger. I read it slowly because I kept arguing with myself about whether anything supernatural was even happening, and that argument is what stayed with me.

[u/Monodoh45]

He also wrote one about a vampire in 1970s New York and the author reads the audiobook and he happens to be a great voice actor too. Get The Lesser Dead. I wanna hear what you think.