You may have heard of the dark-academia aesthetic, but have you heard of cabincore? Imagine warm wood paneling, fires burning on the hearth, and lots of flannel and cozy blankets. As we all settle in for the long winter, relaxing in a cabin with a good book sounds like just the right move. Spend your winter nights reading tales of magical worlds, mysterious woods, and isolated mountain towns. You may not want to set up your own cabin in some of these realms, but they will all make for a good read.
9 Cabincore Reads to Enjoy by the Hearth
The White Hare
Head to the bluebell woods on the far west of Cornwall, and you’ll find the White Valley. In the woods lives a legendary, enchanted white hare, which is either an ill omen or a blessing, depending on who you ask. In THE WHITE HARE, we follow Magda and Mila, a mother and daughter who live in a quiet house near the woods. As they settle into the house, they must reckon with their own pasts, as well as the haunting secrets held in the woods.
The White Hare
For fans of Alice Hoffman and Kate Morton, The White Hare is a spellbinding novel about mothers and daughters finding a new home for themselves, the secrets they try to bury, and the local legends that may change their lives.
In the far west of Cornwall lies the White Valley, which cuts deeply through bluebell woods down to the sea at White Cove. The valley has a long and bloody history, laced with folklore, and in it sits a house above the beach that has lain neglected since the war. It comes with a reputation and a strange atmosphere, which is why mother and daughter Magdalena and Mila manage to acquire it so cheaply in the fateful summer of 1954.
Magda has grand plans to restore the house to its former glory as a venue for glittering parties, where the rich and celebrated gathered for cocktails and for bracing walks along the coast. Her grown daughter, Mila, just wants to escape the scandal in her past and make a safe and happy home for her little girl, Janey, a solitary, precocious child blessed with a vivid imagination, much of which she pours into stories about her magical plush toy, Rabbit.
But Janey’s rabbit isn’t the only magical being around. Legend has it that an enchanted white hare may be seen running through the woods. Is it an ill omen or a blessing? As Mila, her mother, and her young daughter adjust to life in this mysterious place, they will have to reckon with their own pasts and with the secrets that have been haunting the White Valley for decades.
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Wild Wood
After a vehicle accident lands Jesse Marley in the hospital, her life gets turned upside down in ways that her neurologist can’t explain. Jesse labels herself as a “realist,” but she must face the very surreal realities of herself as she begins an extraordinary journey across borders and beyond time. Her journey takes her to Hundredfield, a Scottish stronghold built a thousand years ago by a brutal Norman warlord, where Jesse discovers that she is the key to unlocking the secrets of this castle.
Wild Wood
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Don't Call the Wolf
Inspired by a Polish fairy tale, DON’T CALL THE WOLF is perfect for fans of Leigh Bardugo. The story follows a young queen and a weary soldier as they navigate a dark forest and the deadly monsters who stalk its depth. Ren, the young queen, strikes a deal with soldier Lukasz to rid the forest of one of its most deadly inhabitants, a golden dragon. In return, Ren promises to find Lukasz’s missing brother. But promises are easily broken in the battles between monsters and men.
Don't Call the Wolf
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Uncanny Times
The world is on the dawn of a new age in UNCANNY TIMES. However, the old ways are still alive as inhuman creatures called the Uncanny threaten humanity. Aaron and Rosemary Harker are among the Huntsmen who protect the world from these creatures—even if the Church would have them condemned too. As Aaron and Rosemary investigate a series of suspicious deaths, they also discover a truth that could turn the world upside down and change the Huntsmen forever.
Uncanny Times
Huntsmen, according to the Church, were damned, their blood unclean, unholy. Yet for Rosemary and Aaron Harker the Church was less important than being ready to stand against the Uncanny as not being prepared could lead to being dead.
The year is 1913. America—and the world—trembles on the edge of a modern age. Political and social unrest shift the foundations; technology is beginning to make its mark.
But in the shadows, things from the past still move. Things inhuman, uncanny.
And the Uncanny are no friend to humanity.
But when Aaron and Rosemary Harker go to investigate the suspicious death of a distant relative, what they discover could turn their world upside down—and change the Huntsmen forever
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The Tangled Lands
Magic has become a twisted, toxic thing in Khaim, The Blue City. The archmage, the last of his kind, and The Jolly Mayor, a tyrant who runs the city, hoard the last of the magic in order to control Khaim’s citizens. But the people of The Blue City have had enough and stage an uprising. In THE TANGLED LANDS, Paolo Bacigalupi and Tobias S. Buckell tell four interrelated stories of resistance and sacrifice in the last great city of Khaim.
The Tangled Lands
WINNER OF THE WORLD FANTASY AWARD FOR BEST COLLECTION
From award-winning and New York Times bestselling authors Paolo Bacigalupi and Tobias Buckell comes a fantasy novel told in four parts about a land crippled by the use of magic, and a tyrant who is trying to rebuild an empire—unless the people find a way to resist.
Khaim, The Blue City, is the last remaining city in a crumbled empire that overly relied upon magic until it became toxic. It is run by a tyrant known as The Jolly Mayor and his devious right hand, the last archmage in the world. Together they try to collect all the magic for themselves so they can control the citizens of the city. But when their decadence reaches new heights and begins to destroy the environment, the people stage an uprising to stop them.
In four interrelated parts, The Tangled Lands is an evocative and epic story of resistance and heroic sacrifice in the twisted remains surrounding the last great city of Khaim. Paolo Bacigalupi and Tobias Buckell have created a fantasy for our times about a decadent and rotting empire facing environmental collapse from within—and yet hope emerges from unlikely places with women warriors and alchemical solutions.
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The Fifth Season
It’s the end of the world, but one woman must navigate the rising tide of revolution and catastrophe to find her missing daughter in THE FIFTH SEASON. The great red rift has ripped open the heart of the world's sole continent, causing an eruption to blot out the sun. In the first volume of this Hugo Award–winning trilogy, Essun’s search for her daughter is only the beginning as she grapples with death, grief, destruction, and long dormant wounds rising up again.
The Fifth Season
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The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter
In THE STRANGE CASE OF THE ALCHEMIST’S DAUGHTER, readers revisit some of literature’s classic tales through an entirely new lens. Mary Jekyll is alone and penniless after her parents’ deaths. She searches for answers about her father’s past—and along the way discovers a chance to change her fortunes, if she can track down her father’s former friend, Edward Hyde, and turn him over to the authorities. With the help of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, Mary tracks Hyde and discovers a secret society of scientists and monsters beyond Mary’s worst nightmares.
The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter
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The Glittering World
When Michael "Blue" Whitley returns to Starling Cove, he’s just looking for a getaway with his friends. Soon, however, memories of the night he and a childhood friend went missing start to bleed through. He begins to question his recollections of the idyllic, mysterious woods of Starling Cove, and why, soon after he was found in the woods, his mother suddenly fled with him to America. Blue and his friends dive into the secrets of the wood and their own pasts in this mind-bending narrative.
The Glittering World
In the tradition of Neil Gaiman (The Ocean at the End of the Lane), Scott Smith (The Ruins), and Jason Mott (The Returned), award-winning playwright Robert Levy spins a dark tale of alienation and belonging, the familiar and the surreal, family secrets and the search for truth in his debut supernatural thriller.
AS A BOY, HE VANISHED INTO THE WOODS. SOMETHING ELSE CAME BACK.
It’s a long way from the grit of New York City to the stark beauty of Nova Scotia, and many years separate Blue Whitley’s only two journeys between them. One occurred at age five, when his mother stole him away from the hinterlands of Canada. Now, twenty-five years later, he’s returning to sell a house left to him by a grandmother he barely remembers. Envisioning the trip as a week of countryside leisure, Blue is accompanied by his best friend Elisa, her stalwart husband Jeremy, and Gabe, his young and admiring co-worker. Starling Cove, however, is not your typical vacation spot. Blue senses secrets withheld. Strange whispers on the wind welcome him home, and at first he finds himself staring transfixed into the woods. Then he feels them gazing back. After a shocking discovery—that Blue went missing in these forests for weeks as a child—life as he knows it begins to fall apart. And when another abduction strikes, the truth about Starling Cove begins to emerge.
Told from all four characters' points of view, through lush, evocative prose Robert Levy conjures a fascinating, sinister landscape. A unique blend of taut psychological thriller and supernatural suspense, The Glittering World is a stunning debut novel about belonging and betrayal, the mysteries of the natural world and the secrets buried deep within the human heart.
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Tread of Angels
In the mining town of Goetia, prospectors flock from near and far to mine the powerful new element Divinity. Descendants of demonkind, the Fallen, and the divine winners of an ancient war, the Virtues, live alongside each other at Abaddon’s mountain, where Divinity was found. This reimagined “Old West” fantasy pits these two factions against each other when two sisters must fight for freedom and justice.
Tread of Angels
Celeste, a card sharp with a need for justice, takes on the role of advocatus diaboli, to defend her sister Mariel, accused of murdering a Virtue, a member of the ruling class of this mining town, in a new world of dark fantasy from the New York Times bestselling author of Black Sun, Rebecca Roanhorse.
The year is 1883 and the mining town of Goetia is booming as prospectors from near and far come to mine the powerful new element Divinity from the high mountains of Colorado with the help of the pariahs of society known as the Fallen. The Fallen are the descendants of demonkind living amongst the Virtues, the winners in an ancient war, with the descendants of both sides choosing to live alongside Abaddon’s mountain in this tale of the mythological West from the bestselling mastermind Rebecca Roanhorse.
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Photo credit: iStock / Emilija Randjelovic