The Witch by Freida McFadden is a dual-timeline thriller set in present-day and 1692 Massachusetts. The Lost Apothecary, The Familiars, and The Haunting of Hill House are books like it for readers who want more of its mix of history and haunting. Each one matches a different part of the book: a dual timeline, a witch-trial story, and a haunted house.
At ReadNext, we sort these nine picks into three groups: witch trials, witch families and witchy history, haunted houses and hidden pasts, and twisty domestic suspense. Each entry says whether it sits in the spooky tier or the darker tier, and it gives the content note where we have one, so you can screen for child death, violence, abuse or suicide before you start.
Read-Alikes for The Witch, by What You Loved Most
Witch trials, witch families and witchy history
1. The Lost Apothecary
Sarah Penner
The Lost Apothecary has a dual timeline, as The Witch does. It alternates an 18th-century story about women who poison with a modern mystery. Pick it if the historical thread was your favorite part and you want that past-and-present pull again. Skip it if the haunting was your hook. It is a darker pick, and its content note covers murder, poisoning and sexual threat.
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2. The Familiars
Stacey Halls
The Familiars follows a woman accused of witchcraft in the 1612 Pendle witch trials. Choose it if you want a historical witch story to carry the whole book. It is a darker pick: its content note covers childbirth death, child death, violence and witch-hunt cruelty. Skip it if child death is a line you will not read.
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3. Practical Magic
Alice Hoffman
Practical Magic is the witch-family pick. A witch family lives with an inherited curse, and the magic sits inside a grounded modern setting. It sits in the spooky tier, though its content note lists domestic abuse and a death. Choose it if the witchcraft appealed to you more than the trial or the timeline. Skip it if you want historical detail.
Find it on AmazonHaunted houses and hidden pasts
4. The Haunting of Hill House
Shirley Jackson
The Haunting of Hill House builds dread slowly around a fragile, unreliable narrator. It sits in the spooky tier, with supernatural dread. Choose it if the house and the uncertainty were your favorite parts. Skip it if the 1692 history was what held you. We have no confirmed content note for this title, so we list none.
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5. We Have Always Lived in the Castle
Shirley Jackson
We Have Always Lived in the Castle follows a family in an isolated house, with a poisoning in its story. It sits in the spooky tier, but its content note lists a poisoning murder and a death. Skip it if a poisoning murder is more than you want to read.
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6. The Little Stranger
Sarah Waters
The Little Stranger is set in a crumbling country house after the war, with a haunting that may be human. It suits readers who liked the house at the center of The Witch. It is a darker pick, and its content note lists violence and suicide. Skip it if you want the haunting to be clearly supernatural, since the book keeps that question open.
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7. The Silent Companions
Laura Purcell
The Silent Companions is a haunted old house with a hidden past, and its story arrives through interlaced narratives. Choose it if you enjoyed piecing together a house’s history. It is a darker pick: its content note lists child death, violence and suicide. Skip it if you want one narrator from start to finish.
Find it on AmazonTwisty domestic suspense, darker
8. He Said/She Said
Erin Kelly
He Said/She Said is twisty domestic suspense told from two shifting perspectives. Pick it if The Witch’s twists were the part you wanted most. It is a darker pick: its content note lists sexual assault and violence. Skip it if sexual assault is a subject you want to avoid.
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9. The Housemaid
Freida McFadden
The Housemaid is another McFadden thriller about a live-in worker and a hidden danger that escalates. It shares The Witch’s author. It is a darker pick: its content note lists domestic abuse, violence and sexual content. Choose it for more McFadden next, and skip it if those topics are limits for you.
Find it on AmazonWhat Made The Witch Work
The Witch works through four things a reader can match to other books: a dual timeline, a haunted family estate, and a question the publisher frames as ‘magic or madness.’ Each one points to a different part of the list.
Julia Barlow loses her job and her apartment, then goes to Pemberton, her family’s seventeenth-century estate in rural Massachusetts, officially to check on her aging grandmother. The grandfather clock stops at exactly 3:41 a.m. every night, and a disembodied voice cries for help outside her bedroom door. As she digs into the house’s history, she finds the story of a woman executed for witchcraft in 1692.
- The witchcraft itself: try Practical Magic, where the magic runs through an inherited curse.
- The estate and its haunting: try The Haunting of Hill House, We Have Always Lived in the Castle, The Little Stranger and The Silent Companions.
- The magic-or-madness question: try The Haunting of Hill House, with its fragile, unreliable narrator, and The Little Stranger, where the haunting may be human.
- The secrets and twists: try He Said/She Said and The Housemaid, the domestic suspense group.
Which Picks Are Spooky and Which Are Darker
Three picks sit in the spooky tier: Practical Magic, The Haunting of Hill House, and We Have Always Lived in the Castle. They come from the first and second groups.
Practical Magic lists domestic abuse and a death, and We Have Always Lived in the Castle lists a poisoning murder and a death. We have no confirmed content note for The Haunting of Hill House.
The other six are darker picks, and they appear in all three groups. Every pick in the domestic suspense group is darker.
How to Pick by What You Loved Most
Choose by the element you liked most, because each element leads to a different group.
If the 1692 timeline held you, start with The Lost Apothecary for its dual timeline or The Familiars for its witch trial. If the haunted house drew you in, start with The Haunting of Hill House, then move to The Little Stranger only if its darker content suits your reader.
If the twists mattered most, go to He Said/She Said or The Housemaid. Both are darker, and both are domestic suspense.
If you want suspense with nothing supernatural, see the psychological thriller books page. If you still cannot choose, try the what should I read quiz.
Content Notes for Sensitive Readers
All nine picks are listed as adult titles in our data, and several involve child death, violence, abuse or suicide.
The Familiars and The Silent Companions list child death. The Little Stranger and The Silent Companions list suicide. He Said/She Said lists sexual assault, and The Housemaid lists domestic abuse, violence and sexual content.
If your reader wants none of those topics, drop The Familiars, The Little Stranger, The Silent Companions and He Said/She Said. That leaves five picks, and four of them have content notes covering murder, poisoning, domestic abuse or sexual content.
Is The Witch a Standalone?
The facts we have do not say whether The Witch is a standalone, so we give no series length.
To check, open the publisher’s listing for The Witch, which is the source of the premise described here.
The Witch is also a Goodreads Choice Awards Mystery & Thriller nominee in the 2026 opening round.
