My top Books for fans of Widow’s Bay on Apple TV! Widow’s Bay is a comic supernatural horror series with a small town island setting, New England vibes, and a curse that must be broken. What books have a similar feel? Here are my picks!
8 Best Rated Island Thrillers for Fans of Widow’s Bay on Apple TV
If (like me) you watched and loved Widow’s Bay, you know all about it:
- a talented ensemble cast headed by Matthew Rhys as a mayor determined to turn a cursed, claustrophobic New England island into a tourist hot spot
- the locals’ insistence that there is a centuries-old curse on the island
- and all hell (literally!) breaking loose
These eight books deliver that same “remote island + creepy vibe” as Widow’s Bay, from full-blown paranormal to creepy New England island vibes, to survival horror.
Quick Picks by Vibe
| If you want… | Read this |
|---|---|
| Full paranormal folklore: witches, curses, changelings | The Lighthouse Witches by C.J. Cooke |
| A birthday party with a twist you will not see coming | Daisy Darker by Alice Feeney |
| New England small town secrets, no supernatural | Dead of Summer by Jessa Maxwell |
| Feminist, arty, quietly chilling | The Blue Hour by Paula Hawkins |
| A cursed wealthy family with Succession energy | Vantage Point by Sara Sligar |
| Dark Academia vibes | Night Objects by Eli Raphael |
My Ratings for These Island Thrillers
I’ve rated each book on:
- Island Isolation 🏝️: how cut-off, remote, and “the ferry might or might not run” the setting feels
- Paranormal Level 👻: how much real supernatural/folklore lives in the story vs. just spooky menace
- Twist Factor 🌀 how shocking is this book?
The Lighthouse Witches by C.J. Cooke
Setting: Lòn Haven, off Scotland’s Black Isle
A muralist and her three daughters arrive on an island where a lighthouse sits atop an old witch prison. Two daughters vanish. One reappears decades later, unaged and remembering nothing. Told across three timelines with real Scottish witch-trial history woven into a changeling myth, this is the most paranormal pick on the list and seems the closest in spirit to Widow’s Bay’s actual curse.
The reviews are excellent, and while I have not yet read this, I have read The Book of Witches by C.J. Cooke, which is also a good choice if you enjoyed the grimoire episode of Widow’s Bay!
Island Isolation: 🏝️🏝️🏝️🏝️🏝️
Paranormal Level: 👻👻👻👻👻
Twist Factor: 🌀🌀🌀🌀
Dead of Summer by Jessa Maxwell
Setting: Hadley Island, New England
A woman returns to a tony New England island a decade after her best friend vanished off the island’s shores, only to get pulled back into the mystery when someone else disappears. Sun-soaked WASP glamour hiding old betrayals is exactly the tone Widow’s Bay strikes when the tourists show up: decades of buried island secrets.
Island Isolation: 🏝️🏝️🏝️🏝️
Paranormal Level: 👻
Twist Factor: 🌀🌀🌀🌀
Beautiful Ugly by Alice Feeney
Setting: Isle of Amberly, Scotland
Read my spoiler-filled readers’ guide →
A grieving author retreats to a remote Scottish island (twice-weekly ferry in, no ferry back, twenty-five residents, no phones) to write, and instead finds something creepy under a floorboard and a whole lot of weirdness around town. The Isle of Amberly has ritual, a tragedy the whole community is hiding, and feels very Widow’s Bay in its “this whole town has one big shared secret” structure.
Island Isolation: 🏝️🏝️🏝️🏝️🏝️
Paranormal Level: 👻👻
Twist Factor: 🌀🌀🌀🌀🌀
Vantage Point by Sara Sligar
Setting: Locust Harbor
Read my spoiler-filled readers’ guide →
Think Succession but with a family curse: the surviving children of a wealthy family that loses members in eerie, run-of-bad-luck ways every April are being gaslit (or haunted?) all over again. It has the same “is this generations-old curse real or is someone doing this on purpose” tension driving Widow’s Bay.
Island Isolation: 🏝️🏝️🏝️
Paranormal Level: 👻👻
Twist Factor: 🌀🌀🌀🌀
The Blue Hour by Paula Hawkins
Setting: Eris Island, Scotland (a tidal island, cut off at high tide)
Read my spoiler-filled readers’ guide →
An art expert investigates a human bone incorporated into a dead sculptor’s work and gets stranded overnight on the tidal island where she lived and died, much like Widow’s Bay’s own cut-off-from-the-mainland setup. No ghosts, (though artist Vanessa Chapman’s spirit does hover ominously over the island.) This book has a dark, almost gothic feel here, with an ending that other readers and I are still discussing!
Island Isolation: 🏝️🏝️🏝️🏝️🏝️
Paranormal Level: 👻
Twist Factor: 🌀🌀🌀🌀🌀
Night Objects by Eli Raphael
Setting: Salish Island, Pacific Northwest
A grieving fifteen-year-old is sent to an elite, secret-society boarding school on a PNW island after her mother’s death, and finds herself caught up in a Secret History-style murder within her friend group. It’s Dark Academia rather than paranormal or small-town, but the isolated-island-institution setting and “everyone here has been shaped by this place’s traditions” feel inspired me to put it on my list.
Island Isolation: 🏝️🏝️🏝️
Paranormal Level: 👻
Twist Factor: 🌀🌀🌀
Daisy Darker by Alice Feeney
Setting: Seaglass, Cornwall (a tidal island house)
Alice Feeney’s favorite of all her books! A family gathers at their grandmother’s tidal island house for her birthday, a house which is cut off from the mainland except at low tide. Sounds (creepily) festive, until the family members start dying off one by one, Then There Were None–style. Yes, it’s set in the UK, but it’s a good match for Widow’s Bay’s blend of small-town dread and a shocking, spooky payoff.
Island Isolation: 🏝️🏝️🏝️🏝️🏝️
Paranormal Level: 👻👻👻👻👻
Twist Factor: 🌀🌀🌀🌀🌀
Want even more ideas? Then these two related posts are for you:
30+ Suspenseful Books Set on a Spooky Island
Suspense Books Featuring Small Town Secrets
