Books like The Ruby in the Smoke

The Ruby in the Smoke by Philip Pullman reads as atmospheric, suspenseful. These 12 books share its genome — matched by how they actually read, not just their shelf label.

What The Ruby in the Smoke is like to read

A teenage heroine plunges into the criminal underworld of Victorian London, chasing the mystery of her father's death through opium dens and pursuing villains. The description promises a suspenseful, danger-laced mystery with real peril to its young protagonist. Best for: readers who want a plucky young heroine and a Victorian-noir mystery of hidden crimes.

The Golden Compass

Philip Pullman · 1995

A close ya relative — matched on how it reads, with quick, propulsive pacing.

A Great and Terrible Beauty

Libba Bray · 2003

A Victorian boarding-school gothic threaded with grief, visions, and clique power dynamics — atmospheric and secret-laced rather than fast-moving.

creepy, not goryYAdeep cut

Peppermints in the Parlor (Peppermints #1)

Barbara Brooks Wallace · 1980

A close ya relative — matched on how it reads, with steady pacing.

Kruistocht in spijkerbroek

Thea Beckman · 1974

Matches the adventurous mood, carried on quick, propulsive pacing.

Troubling a Star (Austin Family Chronicles #5)

Madeleine L'Engle · 1994

A coming-of-age adventure that blends L'Engle's signature warmth and character interiority with higher external stakes—Vicky Austin confronts both physical danger and moral complex

YAcomplete storydeep cut

The Bad Beginning

Lemony Snicket · 1999

A gleefully grim fable told by a mournful, digressive narrator who keeps warning you to stop reading — arch vocabulary lessons braided into genuine menace as three clever orphans outwit a monstrous guardian.

creepy, not goryyounger readers

The Tattooed Potato and Other Clues

Ellen Raskin · 1975

A witty, puzzle-driven coming-of-age mystery following an art student's apprenticeship to an eccentric painter, full of quirky clues and colorful Greenwich Village characters.

YAcomplete storydeep cut