Novels like Half a Step Beyond
Books Chinese readers most often put in the same booklists as Half a Step Beyond, best match first.
- 51 The Dragon King's Beloved Wife 龙王娇妻 On my eighteenth birthday, my great-grandfather called me back to the old family home and told me to stay the night. I woke in the middle of the night to find myself wearing a red wedding dress. The terrifying part was that there was a monster beside me. It looked like an immortal, but it was obviously not human... 210Reads8.9Score—Shelves
- 52 Foxbound 狐缘 [Fox King + paranormal + funny + sweet romance] After my boyfriend and I made things official, thick black fur suddenly sprouted all over my face. A fox appeared in my dreams and warned me that until I'd paid off my debt, I could forget about dating anyone and getting away from him! To repay what I owed, I became his spirit medium, opened a ritual altar, and helped him attain enlightenment. But he only got more demanding, and even wanted to marry me. “Third Master, I'm cursed and destined to bri 156Reads7.6Score—Shelves
- 53 My Fiancé, Lord White Fox 我的未婚夫白狐大人 I went back to my hometown for the Mid-Autumn Festival and felt that my family was acting strangely. In the middle of the night, I caught them secretly burning a paper sedan chair, saying they were going to marry me off. Curious, I followed them. I never expected to end up trapped and get married in a daze. Huh? Handsome husband in white, what’s that behind you? Could it be a white fox’s tail? 315Reads7.3Score—Shelves
- 54 The Crimson Round Table Game 猩红圆桌游戏 After death, a person weighs 21 grams less. Those 21 grams are a person’s consciousness. When emotions run especially high before death, that consciousness can become an obsession. Only those who die with exceptionally powerful emotions become obsessions, clinging to their last wish and struggling to remain in this world until they can fulfill it. 55Reads5.6Score—Shelves
- 55 The Snake Lord Is Above 蛇君在上 Yun Qianhan gave her boyfriend a pendant with a white snake design, but the snake crawled out of it and bit him to death. Then it abducted her and insisted she become its wife, claiming it wanted to have a whole nest of little snakes with her. What was she supposed to do? 213Reads7.2Score—Shelves
- 56 Strange Tales of the Past and Present 古今怪诞奇谈 (Synopsis: From ancient times to the present, strange, bizarre, and terrifying supernatural tales have circulated all over the world. This book uses fiction to bring together short supernatural stories, some true and some false, that have been passed down through the ages. Let Third Master lead you through a supernatural world unlike any other!) 105Reads—Score—Shelves
- 57 Fox Town 狐镇 After surviving a landslide, Qiu Yiyao returns to the hometown she left years ago, only to find that everything there feels strange. Her father is a stranger, the neighbors are odd, and the other survivors are dying one after another. Then there’s the mysterious forum that appears from time to time: We’re being watched. As the truth slowly comes to light, she discovers that everything is connected to the white fox she saved all those years ago. 8Reads—Score—Shelves
- 58 The Ominous Coffin 凶棺 It all started with a coffin that floated up from the river... I thought it was a fortune dropped from the sky, but it turned out to be a disaster. After I pried open the coffin, I began to feel that something unclean had followed me home. My daughter grew stranger by the day. She was only three, yet she had already started developing! 120Reads—Score—Shelves
- 59 The King of Face Reading 观相之王 This novel is complex and brainy, not a lightweight read. If that’s not your thing, don’t read it. Ensemble cast + mind games + the supernatural + climbing the ranks and getting rich + foretelling good and bad fortune + solving mysteries through face reading and divination. “I’d like to ask about my health using the character ‘six.’” “Certainly. The character ‘six’ looks like a person dismembered into several pieces, with the head separated from the body.” Why are some people blessed with endle 5Reads—Score—Shelves
- 60 White Terror 白色恐怖 [Wildly Imaginative Twists] + [Extensive Foreshadowing] + [Social Unrest] + [Mystery and the Supernatural] The campus, bustling by day, is eerily quiet at night... A group of girls playing with a spirit board in their dormitory happen upon the body of a woman who fell to her death. Rumors spread that a ghost is responsible. Then another girl is pushed down the stairs by an evil spirit in the teaching building! Panic grips the campus. Before long, a female teacher is killed by a ghost on camera a —Reads—Score—Shelves
- 61 The Serpent King's Decree 蛇王令 I was born with a black scale on my body. As I grew older, the scale kept spreading. When I was sixteen, I dreamed that the black scales came to life and turned into a black snake that coiled tightly around me… 40Reads8.8Score—Shelves
- 62 The Fragrance of Serpent’s Desire 蛇色生香 Everyone considered me an ill omen, but my grandmother said I was born noble: I must never kneel to anyone in this life. Others should kneel to me, and everyone I helped must enshrine my spirit tablet at home and address me as Her Ladyship. Yet I spread blessings far and wide, driving away evil and averting disasters for the people, only to end up infamous as the reincarnation of a snake woman who brought misery to all. In this life, I’ve slain ghosts, vanquished demons, raised monuments, an 272Reads8.7Score—Shelves
- 63 A Snake Bride, a Ghostly Bridal Sedan 蛇娶妻，鬼抬棺 The year I was born, my mother died in childbirth, while my father and grandfather were killed when a swarm of snakes attacked them. When I turned eighteen, my protective talisman shattered. From that night on, I had a husband who came and went like a ghost. My grandmother looked grave as she told me this was the Su family’s retribution, and that I had to be loyal to Lord Jin or disaster would befall me! Ever since that night, Lord Jin has come to see me every evening. After a night of torment, 103Reads—Score—Shelves
- 64 The King of the Underworld's Beloved 地府鬼君的心尖宠 [Sweet romance, 1v1, adored by everyone, supernatural, strong heroine] Also known as “I Run an Inn in the Underworld.” The general manager of the Afterlife Inn is a troublemaker across all three realms, so infamous that even the King of Hell would rather avoid her. She often sends the Underworld gifts like arson and missing-person cases, leaving everyone on edge. One day, the seal on the netherworld weakened. Someone who should have been reduced to ashes a thousand years ago came stumbling out 60Reads8.7Score—Shelves
- 65 The Fake Heiress Went Viral for Catching Ghosts on Livestream 假千金她直播抓鬼爆红了 [Livestreaming + Fortune-Telling + Mysticism + Showbiz + Episodic Stories + No Romance] San Qianyi was kicked out of the Divine Realm and transmigrated into the body of a fake heiress who owed 30 million in breach-of-contract fees and was hated by the entire internet. All she ever did was court death and frame the real heiress. Once she learned the situation, San Qianyi grabbed her suitcase and ran for it. Forced to work for the Great Emperor of Fengdu to accumulate merit, she started livestre 239Reads6.8Score—Shelves
- 66 The Pregnant Snake 孕蛇 Wang Yu only ate a piece of snake meat a coworker offered her... Who could have imagined it would bring about the annihilation of her family? She should hate him, despise him, and blame him! But she’s pregnant with his child. What is she supposed to do? 64Reads—Score—Shelves
- 67 The Serpent Lord Has Arrived: Master, Don’t Crave Me 蛇君驾到：爷，别馋我 This novel features the supernatural, an arrogant and calculating male lead, a devoted couple with no other partners, and emotional torment for both leads. I was born beneath a sky filled with rosy clouds, ablaze with every color, and blessed with auspicious signs. My grandmother was a shaman, so she read my fate and cast the divination. The result was astonishing: I was destined to become an empress. When I was seven, I fell seriously ill. A wise master advised that I form a bond with the Snake 202Reads6.8Score—Shelves
- 68 Demons Lurk in Qingcheng 青城有妖 On Mount Qingcheng lived a snake demon named Qing Shanjun, known as the Great Immortal Qing. The Great Immortal Qing often lounged in front of a waterfall on Mount Qingcheng, admiring his own beauty and bragging, “I’m such a gorgeous male snake, and I’ve been single for over nine hundred years. I really have kept myself pure!” On his first day down the mountain, the Great Immortal Qing latched onto Su Hexiang, the young woman who had caused him to fail his tribulation. He couldn’t kill her or ea 8Reads7.0Score—Shelves
- 69 Married to a Snake 蛇嫁 In late spring of 1993, after my grandfather returned from a trip, he gave me a pendant. From then on, my life changed dramatically. One day, a wickedly alluring man appeared, abducted me by force, and made me his disciple in the art of spirit-mediumship. He often said, “The debt your grandfather owes is yours to repay for the rest of your life...” 57Reads7.5Score—Shelves
- 70 I'm a Little Spirit Medium 我是小神婆 [Mysticism + supernatural + crime-solving + powerful protagonist + resolving mysteries + hidden origins + folk customs] I'm an abandoned baby, picked up from a trash can by my shaman grandmother. Growing up under her influence, I always wanted to become an even more powerful shaman than she was. Because of my unusual fate, strange and bizarre things, sometimes terrifyingly uncanny, are always happening around me... What happened to the female ghost who fell in love with someone else's body? Did 1Reads—Score—Shelves
- 71 My Idiot Friend Lusts After Sadako, So He Gets Killed from the Start 损友馋贞子身子，开局领盒饭 Little Ghost: “This is bad! Sadako got roughed up by a teenage boy.” Ghost King: “How dare he! Send the Hanged Ghost to deal with him!” Little Ghost: “This is bad! The moment the Hanged Ghost went up there, the boy hung him from a fan and spun him around. He's already been torn limb from limb!” The Ghost King roared with fury: “Where is Nie Xiaoqian? Go cut off that boy's head!” Nie Xiaoqian: “That kid defiled me! I don't want to live anymore!” Ghost King: “Bunch of good-for-nothings! I'll have 8Reads—Score—Shelves
- 72 The Silent Relic 圣物无言 Sullivan is an Irish archaeologist. A graduate of the University College Dublin Department of Archaeology, she could take carbon-14 samples at twelve and spent an entire summer at fifteen in the passageways of Newgrange. She should have been digging at Celtic sites, but an organization called the “Recorders' Guild” recruited her after reading her paper, “Materials and Chronology of Medieval Relics.” The Guild has only one rule: record the truth, and never interfere. She has traveled across Europ 1Reads—Score—Shelves
- 73 My Dad Went to Another World to Find a Son-in-Law 我爸跑到异世界，找女婿 [Otherworld + Transmigration + Golden Finger + Comedy + Devoted Couple + The Secret to Longevity] A feel-good power fantasy, a feel-good power fantasy, a feel-good power fantasy! Other people transmigrate alone. My dad brought two of us along! Other people are the heroines of their own stories. My parents made the storage rings recognize them as their owners first. Other people’s husbands are carefree twenty-somethings. My dad went straight out and found me someone over a thousand years old! Oth 2.9kReads8.1Score380Shelves
- 74 Spirit-Sending Diary 送灵日记 She died with her eyes open, her body piled among countless corpses, her resentment reaching the heavens. She sings at night in the barren hills, waiting desperately for someone from her past, her devotion unchanged. They haunt an old mansion, their ghostly forms harming the living. There are no evil spirits in this world. They are all people who were hurt. I'm an unconventional spirit guide. I listen to the dead, resolve their lingering grievances, and lay their souls to rest. This is my work d 348Reads7.6Score—Shelves
- 75 Doted on Too Much by My Nonhuman Husband 被非人老公过分宠爱 [Satisfying romance + sweet doting love + supernatural + scheming] Because of my unusual constitution and fate, my grandfather arranged a marriage for me before he died. He only appears at night, and loves kissing, cuddling, and lifting me up in his arms! And wherever he appears, all sorts of bizarre events follow! It wasn’t until the very end that I discovered he had been with me because... 118Reads8.5Score—Shelves
- 76 The Fated Demon Bride 天命妖妻 I was born under an unusual fate, and people predicted I wouldn’t live past the age of ten. To save my life, my parents arranged an extraordinary marriage for me. On the wedding night, my family laid out a grand feast, but no one came. I was left alone in the bridal chamber until a pair of cold hands led me inside. Only when the groom lifted my veil did I finally understand: I had married a demon... 62Reads6.7Score—Shelves
- 77 The Ultimate Ghost-Raising Master 极品养鬼师 [Adult] + [Adorable Pets] + [Sharp Tongue] + [Making Money] + [Secret Arts] Do you know how to raise ghosts? No worries, I do! Do you know how to catch ghosts? No worries, I do that too! Do you know where to find ghosts? No worries, I’ll take you there! Watch your step. Get in! —Reads—Score—Shelves
- 78 A Snake Immortal for a Husband, Subduing a Hundred Ghosts 蛇仙为夫，镇百鬼 Our village had an unwritten rule: girls born in the Year of the Snake with a purely yin fate were chosen as brides by the Snake Immortal. On the seventh day of the seventh lunar month in the Year of the Snake, they had to be married off at the Snake Immortal Temple on the back mountain. Otherwise, disaster would befall the entire village. My elder sister was born with the rare Yin Snake fate, unseen in a century. Ever since she was born, Grandma had warned her never to have contact with men. Sh 1.2kReads7.5Score179Shelves
- 79 The Snake King Has His Eyes on Me 蛇王惹上身 I was pushed off a cliff. The good news was that I didn't fall to my death, and my boyfriend and best friend hadn't killed me. The bad news was that although I was still alive, I had landed in something even more terrifying than death: a nest of snakes... 259Reads8.2Score102Shelves
- 80 Snake Scales All Over the Bed 蛇鳞满床 (A heroine who grows over time + a villainous male lead + love and hate intertwined + not for naive readers + not a sweet romance + open ending + don't read if you don't like thinking things through + anyone who leaves a malicious rating without reading the blurb and setting will lose all their good luck!!!) The day I was born, my mother stepped on a black snake and killed it, and its snake spirit took revenge on her relentlessly. To save my life, my grandfather went to beg the Snake Immortal fo 197Reads8.3Score—Shelves
- 81 Reborn, Li Xiaomi Is Just a Little Too Powerful 重生后，李晓咪有亿点点强 Li Xiaomi is a timid people-pleaser. Though her family is well-off and her parents dote on her, her relatives look down on her for being a girl and make things difficult for her at every turn. Her so-called friends treat her as nothing more than an ATM. They act like her best friends to her face, but behind her back they mock her as a hopelessly naive fool. Li Xiaomi hates who she is, but lacks the courage to change. One typhoon night, when her aunt orders her to take out the trash, a flowerpot 3Reads—Score—Shelves
- 82 Raising Great Demons at the Museum 我在博物馆养大妖 Restore the most dilapidated paintings, and keep the wildest man. Pressed by financial difficulties, Le Ying took up her family's traditional craft and became a calligraphy and painting restorer at a museum. While restoring paintings, she also took in several spirits and raised a one-legged great demon. Somehow, she ended up on a path to success in both her career and love life. A cross-species romance between a spiritual-energy flatterer and a proud, obsessive divine bird. 32Reads8.7Score—Shelves
- 83 Marry the Phoenix, You! Go Cook Me a Couple of Dishes 嫁凤，你，去给我炒两个菜 [The heroine is clever, neither a saint nor an idiot. The hero isn’t aloof or short-tempered. Lots of jokes, a mutually faithful couple, happy endings for everyone, causes revealed after effects, no substitute trope, a little angst for the hero but none for the heroine, with a touch of past and present lives.] Warnings: The heroine is a strong woman with a feminist outlook, and there are lots of jokes. The romance between the leads has little to do with their past and present lives, but those li 209Reads8.7Score—Shelves
- 84 Goddess Reborn, Snake Immortal Wife 神女转世，蛇仙妻 An early work, an experiment. A girl born under an ill-starred fate, destined to be a goddess, with two immortals, a snake and a fox, circling around her, while the Ghost King of Kunlun fights to protect her to the death. I was born with a snake-shaped tattoo. It brought me plenty of benefits, but also some unpleasant consequences. My parents never let me get too close to boys, but when I hit puberty, I still broke that rule. Ever since then, a man has appeared in my dreams every single night... 7Reads8.0Score—Shelves
- 85 The Snake’s Delight 蛇欢 My life belongs to a snake. From the day I was born, Grandma sold me to a snake. I grew up sleeping in a dead person's coffin and shedding snake skin, living as a freak. For the snake's sake, Grandma taught me to be a shamanic healer and save others, though I could never save myself. It wasn't until I received my first patient on the day I came of age that I finally learned what Grandma and the snake had agreed upon... 155Reads9.3Score101Shelves
- 86 My Bewitching Husband Is Flirting with Me Again 妖孽夫君又在撩我 Su Yu has had an unlucky fate since childhood and thought she would be alone for the rest of her life. Instead, she marries Third Master Qin, the most powerful man in all of Haicheng, who dotes on her like no one else. “I hear Third Master’s new wife is bad luck incarnate! She’ll bring her husband to ruin!” Third Master Qin: “My fate is too strong. I’m only worried nobody will be able to jinx me.” “Look at that necklace Third Madam is wearing. How tacky!” Third Master Qin: “Go buy up every jewel 108Reads8.6Score—Shelves
- 87 Starting Out in a Mass Grave, She Builds Her Fortune Catching Ghosts 开局乱葬岗，她靠抓鬼发家致富 [Everyone's favorite + no romance + friends growing together + lighthearted] Ye Wan, a gifted young master of the arcane arts, was leisurely running her remodeled escape room when someone framed her and a bolt of heavenly lightning blasted her to smithereens. To protect this last surviving scion, the founding patriarch spent all his accumulated merit shielding her as she transmigrated to another world. When she opened her eyes, she found herself dumped in a mass grave. Luckily, she still had 22Reads8.8Score—Shelves
- 88 Mystery and Detective Notes 悬疑推理笔记 My new work is out! Welcome to read it on Tomato Novels. I hope you enjoy it. Your support inspires me to write, and I'll do my best to tell every story well! 39Reads—Score—Shelves
- 89 The Snake King's Peerless Enchantress 蛇王的绝世妖妃 The year I turned eighteen, something bizarre happened, and I nearly lost my life. My family made a pact with a snake. He would give me his blood, and I would marry him. And so, from that day on, the world gained an unparalleled demon consort. 2Reads—Score—Shelves
- 90 A Snake's Many Pregnancies 蛇孕连连 My ancestors killed countless snakes, and generations of my family have had snake blood on their hands. A passing Taoist priest said we would have to pay for those blood debts. A fire burned my father to death. As I was collecting his remains, a snake on his body bit me. The village chief said it was a subterranean dragon snake from Hell, come to claim my life, and that I had less than three months to live. I refused to believe it, until one day a handsome young man came and insisted on marrying 80Reads8.7Score—Shelves
- 91 Ensnared by a Snake: My Husband Dotes on Me and Won’t Let Go 遇蛇：夫君他又宠又撩 [Romantic suspense + mild supernatural elements + both leads are chaste + sweet romance + mutual devotion + 1v1 + episodic short stories] Synopsis: On the fourteenth day of the seventh month, I was born under an ill omen. My grandmother bared her teeth and glared at me, calling me a curse who had killed one of her loved ones. In her rage, she tried to kill me by smashing me to the ground, but my maternal grandmother, a temple priestess, risked her life to save me. Eighteen years later, my grandm 92Reads8.9Score—Shelves
- 92 The Serpent’s Curse 蛇咒 The day I was born, my grandparents were skinned alive. Every branch around us was crawling with writhing, jubilant snakes. They said I would be next. To stay alive, I had no choice but to give myself to him. The secrets of the blood-stained garment and the snake curse became the things I most wanted to uncover. I thought I existed only to help him forge the blood garment, but when life and death hung in the balance, he held me tight. “Song Youyou, you will always be mine!” 134Reads8.6Score—Shelves
- 93 The Ghost Banquet 鬼禁食 A glutton's feast: can it really eat anything at all? Open wide, and nothing is off-limits? When you're indulging in wild game, have you ever felt a hint of murderous intent behind you... 25Reads—Score—Shelves
- 94 The Horror Taxi 恐怖出租车 There is a kind of vehicle meant for certain people. Its job is to take them to the world they belong in. That is the ghost bus. You may never have heard of a living person boarding one, but if you ever see a vehicle of unknown origin on the road, be careful... 2kReads6.8Score—Shelves
- 95 Luring Ghosts 招诡 A lot of the time, there are secrets and things hidden inside you that even you don't know about. For instance, what happens after you fall asleep... 350Reads8.0Score—Shelves
- 96 Ashes Fall Through the Ninth Heaven 烬落九重 [War God revealed + shared pain + groveling pursuit + unstoppable heroine] In her previous life, she was the sharpest sword in the Ninth Heaven. She burned through her divine power for him and became a crippled phoenix, only for him to crush her spirit core with his own hands! She heard him coldly say, “You’re useless to me,” but didn’t hear “Stay alive,” drowned out by the tolling bells. She never saw his shattered knuckles or the blood hidden in his sleeve. Reborn as the timid legitimate daugh 20Reads—Score—Shelves
- 97 Fear Infection: Paper Dolls Absorb Everything for Me 恐惧感染，纸人替我吸收一切 [Horror Game + Infinite Escape + Supernatural Horror] Darkness fell, and a world of terror arrived. An invisible plague was spreading unseen. Dreamlike murmurs echoed across the land. Terror filled the cities, and nightmares reveled in the streets. [Survival Guide for Ordinary Citizens]: Keep your fear level down! Keep your fear level down! Keep your fear level down! Unless... you want to see them become real. Wen Jiu: “Well said, but... what if I don’t have a fear level?” 15Reads8.4Score—Shelves
- 98 Peering into Immortality: The Eye That Sees Through Illusions 窥仙：破妄之眼 Gu Xian, a college student, never imagined that his closest roommate would vanish completely from everyone's memories overnight. His classmates don't remember him, he's missing from the photos, and even their social media history has been erased. Gu Xian is the only person in the world who remembers that he ever existed. At that moment, a pale blue-white light blazed in Gu Xian's eyes. He saw another face of the world: the hidden realm of cultivation, concealed beneath ordinary cities and foreve —Reads—Score182Shelves
- 99 The Snake's Seduction 蛇欲撩情 I went back to the countryside to move a grave, and ended up attracting a huge black snake. He went to great lengths to get close to me, following me from the countryside all the way to my company. “Shen Ning, you have to take responsibility for me,” he whispered softly in her ear. 1kReads7.7Score104Shelves
- 100 The Snake King's Consort 蛇王妃 I am an ill-fated woman. The day I was born, a flood swept through hundreds of miles in every direction, wiping out all the livestock. The villagers bullied and insulted me, calling me the serpent king’s wife. When my parents died under mysterious circumstances, I had no choice but to leave my hometown and embark on a one-way path to slay demons and exorcise evil. The demonic shadows of the Eastern Sea, the legends of mirages, terrifying butterfly curses, and those hidden villages scattered acro 72Reads9.2Score—Shelves
