Love This Show – Read This Book

Black Mirror – Dark Matter by Blake Crouch

So it’s been a while since we’ve seen a season of Black Mirror, but we finally have another season this month. Before or after you watch this mind-bending tech show, I would suggest reading Blake Crouch’s Dark Matter. This book perfectly gives the scary tech and social commentary vibes of Black Mirror. In this adrenaline-pumping sci-fi thriller, Jason Dessen is kidnapped and ends up in a lab strapped to a table. He wakes up in a world void of his regular life. His child never existed, and his wife married someone else. He is a physics genius in this world, but how did he end up here? And how does he get back?

Sandman – Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

When Sandman was adapted into a tv show, I was ecstatic. Obviously, I would advise reading the Sandman graphic novel series by Neil Gaiman if you haven’t. With ten volumes and tons of additional novellas, novels, and spinoffs, you would have years’ worth of content. This dark fantasy series follows stories in the real world and in a fantasy realm with Morpheus, the embodiment of Death, at the helm. But if you have read it, you should check out Gaiman’s friend Susanna Clarke. Specifically, Piranesi has the same feelings of dark mythos, an occult atmosphere, and creepy vibes. We have a building with infinite rooms that floods regularly and an ominous visitor to Piranesi the sole inhabitant of this place.

Wednesday – SuperMutant Magic Academy by Jillian Tamaki

Do you enjoy all the different monstrous outcasts of Nevermore Academy? Do you want to see the adventures of all the side characters? Look no further than SuperMutant Magic Academy by Jillian Tamaki. Humorous and melancholic. Angsty and fantastical. SuperMutant Magic Academy is composed of one to two pages spreads that tell the tales of a school filled with mutants and witches. Get to know the characters and adventures as they deal with being teenagers and having magical abilities.

You – Behind Closed Doors by B. A. Paris

Joe Goldberg from You wants what he wants and believes he is doing the right thing, but what if he was just a little more unhinged? Joe might be a stalker and murderer, but he’s no Jack from Behind Closed Doors. Jack tricks Grace into marrying him to keep up the appearance of being an average guy. All his colleagues see his happy marriage and beautiful house, but not where he keeps Grace locked up twenty-four-seven only to be strolled out for appearance’s sake.

Barry – Finlay Donovan is Killing It by Elle Cosimano

Barry is an assassin that just wants to be an actor; Finlay is an accidental assassin that just wants to be an author. These two quirky characters constantly struggle to get out of odd and dangerous situations. Barry wants to change his life and rid himself of his past, while Finlay gets mistaken as a hit person when describing the plot of her new novel to her agent. If you enjoy something ridiculous, funny, and dark like Barry, the Finlay Donovan series should surely scratch that itch as Barry comes to an end.

The Last of Us – Y the Last Man by Brian K Vaughan

Okay. Okay. Okay. I know we are all obsessed with Joel and Ellie. I’m already considering giving The Last of Us a rerewatch sometime soon. But as we wait for this tear-jerking thriller of an undead opera, why not check out a classic graphic novel like Y the Last Man by Brian K Vaughan? A pandemic kills off every Y-chromosome carrier on Earth, with the exception of the unemployed Yorick Brown and his moody male monkey, Ampersand. Like Joel, Yorick is on a quest, crossing over treacherous areas in the United States and beyond as he sets out to find his girlfriend in Australia.

Handmaid’s Tale – Red Clocks by Leni Zumas

Handmaid’s Tale shares many similarities to Leni Zumas’ Red Clocks, both set in a dystopian America focusing on women’s rights. Of course, you could always read Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale and The Testaments(soon to be adapted as a spinoff series!).  But if you want something that feels like the events leading up to Gilead, Red Clocks gives that and more.

Evil – How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix

Grady Hendrix’s How to Sell a Haunted House could be the focus of an episode straight out of Evil. Yes, the tone is a little weirder and far more ridiculous. But this could be your answer if you enjoy some terrifyingly haunting content like Evil. How to Sell a Haunted House follows Louise and Mark as they try to sell their parents’ home, which may or may not be a little haunted by puppets. If only Kristen and David were there to save the day and get to the bottom of what’s going on.

Yellowjackets – We Ride Upon Sticks by Quan Barry

This could be the same group of athletic teens. In Yellowjacket, we watch a group of female high school soccer players in the 90s that crash land in the mountains and must fight to survive. While in We Ride Upon Sticks, we follow a female lacrosse team in the 80s outside of Salem, MA. Both stories go outside the ordinary as these teens fall down dark, strange paths.

Peripheral – How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu

How High We Go in the Dark is a composite novel, meaning it is a set of short stories that create a larger story. They span the course of a pandemic starting in Siberia and changing the state of the world. It goes to fantastic and strange places. So many elements of The Peripheral seem to appear throughout the course of the novel with gaming, alternate realities, fate, death, and the future melding with the present.