Books like Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, according to Reddit

The read-alike list

Ranked by co-mention strength — how often each book shares a thread with Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, normalized so ubiquitous books don't dominate.

#1

Piranesi

Susanna Clarke

A man alone in an endless house of statues and tides slowly realizes he used to have a different name.

77 shared threads

#2

The Fifth Season

N. K. Jemisin

An orogene comes home to find her son beaten to death and her daughter gone, the same day a continent starts splitting apart.

57 shared threads

#3

The Lord of the Rings

J. R. R. Tolkien

A gardener and three friends carry a cursed ring across a continent at war, because the only way to destroy it is to walk it into the volcano that forged it.

45 shared threads

#4

A Wizard of Earthsea

Ursula K. Le Guin

A proud boy on a poor island learns real magic, casts one spell out of arrogance, and spends the rest of the book hunted by what it let loose.

39 shared threads

#5

Assassin's Apprentice

Robin Hobb

A royal bastard trains as the king's poisoner and assassin, and readers fifteen books later still call the ending emotionally devastating.

19 shared threads

#6

The Night Circus

Erin Morgenstern

Two magicians raised from childhood for a duel to the death disguise the fight as a circus that only opens after dark.

9 shared threads

#7

Mexican Gothic

Silvia Moreno-Garcia

A young socialite travels to a remote Mexican mansion to check on her newly married cousin and finds the walls, and the family living inside them, aren't done growing.

9 shared threads

#8

Dune

Frank Herbert

Paul Atreides survives his family's massacre on a desert planet and becomes the messiah the empire engineered him to be, then has to live with it.

73 shared threads

#9

The Hobbit

J. R. R. Tolkien

A hobbit who has never left his own pantry gets recruited by thirteen dwarves and a wizard to steal treasure back from a dragon.

20 shared threads

#10

Gardens of the Moon

Steven Erikson

A continent-spanning empire's mage-soldiers besiege a city that might already be doomed by gods playing a board game with human pieces.

31 shared threads

#11

American Gods

Neil Gaiman

Gods who crossed the ocean with their immigrant worshippers are going extinct in modern America, replaced by whatever people actually worship now.

18 shared threads

#12

Uprooted

Naomi Novik

A village girl is taken by an ancient wizard as tribute every ten years, until the year his choice turns out to be a mistake he can't undo.

10 shared threads

The overlap, in numbers

Where each pairing actually shows up. Click through for the full Reddit verdict on each book.

1. #1 Piranesi by Susanna Clarke — 77 shared threads , mostly in r/printSF
2. #2 The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin — 57 shared threads , mostly in r/printSF
3. #3 The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien — 45 shared threads , mostly in r/printSF
4. #4 A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin — 39 shared threads , mostly in r/printSF
5. #5 Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb — 19 shared threads , mostly in r/printSF
6. #6 The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern — 9 shared threads , mostly in r/printSF
7. #7 Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia — 9 shared threads , mostly in r/printSF
8. #8 Dune by Frank Herbert — 73 shared threads , mostly in r/printSF
9. #9 The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien — 20 shared threads , mostly in r/printSF
10. #10 Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson — 31 shared threads , mostly in r/printSF
11. #11 American Gods by Neil Gaiman — 18 shared threads , mostly in r/printSF
12. #12 Uprooted by Naomi Novik — 10 shared threads , mostly in r/printSF