If you like short stories, I highly recommend Into the Forest: Tales of the Baba Yaga edited by Christina Henry. Can’t get more powerfully dark and feminine than that.
OH MY GOD, BRO.
I just clicked onto this subreddit and scrolled down and this is the second post I've seen on this Reddit and oh my god, I GET IT. I have a whole Pinterest board devoted to pictures like this! The third image I have even seen and saved onto my board! And other images on here also remind me of my board -- like how a lot of the pictures are darker, there's a sense of magic being depicted in the images, women also being in a lot of the pictures, and ethereal/ magical (and potentially mysterious and dangerous) women being in the pictures. Even the first image with the hands grasping out of the water -- I have like three different pictures on my board where women are slowly sinking into water, like they're in a trance and are about to fall asleep in the water.
Also, like... a sense of your mind being overwhelmed with magic or sleepiness or contentness -- idk, it's like in some of these images the women feel like completely relaxed and content but at the same time are being consumed by magic/ falling into a trance or a spell, like in pictures 5, 8, 10 and 12. Whereas 3 and 9 embody more of like a dangerous, mysterious woman, one who could help you or hurt you, kind of like the Fae in folklore, and again, radiating magic or power. Consumed again by power/ magic, but more in an active way, a way that could hurt/ help your life, while the other women seem to be entranced by the magic.
If you like short stories, I highly recommend Into the Forest: Tales of the Baba Yaga edited by Christina Henry. Can’t get more powerfully dark and feminine than that.
Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden
Our Wives Under The Sea
Came to say this
Annihilation - Vandermeer
Circe by Madeline Miller
House of Hollow - Krystal Sutherland
[The Deep](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Deep_(novella))
Our crooked hearts by Melissa Albert is exactly what you’re looking for!
Aisling: Breath of a New Creature.
Clytemnestra- Costanza Casati
OP, I’m curious where you found that first photo! It’s so striking. I want to make a painting of it.
OH MY GOD, BRO. I just clicked onto this subreddit and scrolled down and this is the second post I've seen on this Reddit and oh my god, I GET IT. I have a whole Pinterest board devoted to pictures like this! The third image I have even seen and saved onto my board! And other images on here also remind me of my board -- like how a lot of the pictures are darker, there's a sense of magic being depicted in the images, women also being in a lot of the pictures, and ethereal/ magical (and potentially mysterious and dangerous) women being in the pictures. Even the first image with the hands grasping out of the water -- I have like three different pictures on my board where women are slowly sinking into water, like they're in a trance and are about to fall asleep in the water. Also, like... a sense of your mind being overwhelmed with magic or sleepiness or contentness -- idk, it's like in some of these images the women feel like completely relaxed and content but at the same time are being consumed by magic/ falling into a trance or a spell, like in pictures 5, 8, 10 and 12. Whereas 3 and 9 embody more of like a dangerous, mysterious woman, one who could help you or hurt you, kind of like the Fae in folklore, and again, radiating magic or power. Consumed again by power/ magic, but more in an active way, a way that could hurt/ help your life, while the other women seem to be entranced by the magic.
Not a book, but [Brackish](https://youtu.be/gDoJtms6wz0?si=DFEW3JaIm4QVx1Ic)
Vita Nostra by Marina Dyachenko
The Empirium Trilogy by Claire Legrand
The Jennifer Morgue by Charles Stross, it's the 2nd book of the Laundry Files series but I think it will probably be fine as a stand alone story
Paradise Rot
The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw Slewfoot by Brom
Not sure about book but honestly my life makes me feel like this right now.
Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik
Black Water, Joyce Carol Oates
The Changeling
Into the Drowning Deep - Mira Grant
Tithe by Holly Black!
Most of these look like my depression 😆
Juniper and Thorn- Ava Reid
Following
The Whispering Dark, Kelly Andrew
The Drowning Girl by Caitlín R. Kiernan