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Chime by Franny Billingsley
"In a mist-laced marsh where old magic lingers, a sharp-tongued girl is certain she’s wicked—until a charming outsider and buried secrets force her to question the story she’s told herself. Guilt, desire, and witchcraft entwine in Chime, a lush, eerie fairy-tale that thrums with atmosphere and hard-won grace."
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In Chime, did you enjoy ...
... an intimate, guilt-soaked, unreliable first-person voice that slowly exposes buried truths?
We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
If Briony’s confessional tone—insisting she’s a witch, misremembering the library fire, and piecing together Stepmother’s manipulations—had you hooked, Merricat’s narration in We Have Always Lived in the Castle will cast the same spell. You’ll slip into a voice that is by turns fierce, childlike, and deeply secretive as a family tragedy unspools, with revelations landing as chillingly as Briony’s late-breaking self-discoveries.
... lush, lyrical prose that wraps folklore and the uncanny in sensuous, atmospheric language?
The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender by Leslye Walton
If the swamp-soaked poetry of Chime—Briony’s thorny metaphors, the Old Ones in the marsh, and the humid shimmer of Swampsea—enchanted you, The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender offers that same intoxicating lyricism. Walton’s sentences feel spellbound, turning family history and quiet magic into something as evocative as Briony’s moonlit encounters with the Boggy Mun and her tender, crooked courtship with Eldric.
... a haunting, interior journey through fractured memory and creeping otherworldliness?
Cuckoo Song by Frances Hardinge
If you loved living inside Briony’s mind—her self-loathing, flickers of doubt, and dawning realization about Stepmother’s spellbinding—Cuckoo Song offers a similarly unsettling, intimate unraveling. Triss wakes "wrong" and must confront strange bargains and uncanny beings, much like Briony negotiating with the Old Ones; the psychological unease builds toward revelations that reframe everything you thought you knew.
... a twisty, gothic mystery where a clever girl uncovers dangerous secrets at the edge of the fantastical?
The Lie Tree by Frances Hardinge
If Briony’s sleuthing—ferreting out what truly happened with the library fire and Stepmother’s schemes—kept you turning pages, The Lie Tree will scratch the same itch. Faith investigates her father’s death and experiments with a truth-twisting tree that feeds on lies, echoing the way Briony’s investigations sift through superstition, small-town whispers, and real magic to reach a hard-won truth.
... a magical-realist unmasking of self and perception, where love and truth hinge on seeing clearly?
Bone Gap by Laura Ruby
If Briony’s journey from self-curse to self-knowledge—accepting what she is and isn’t, and choosing Eldric with open eyes—moved you, Bone Gap offers a resonant transformation. Finn’s struggle to name what he sees (and can’t), Roza’s disappearance, and the town’s warped assumptions mirror the way Chime untangles identity from rumor and magic from myth, leading to an emotionally powerful reveal.
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