Which Books Are Similar To Ourselves And Immortality?

That gentle oddness of 'Ourselves and Immortality'—two men finding solace around embalming tables, awkward intimacy patched together with patience—was what made me hunt for similar reads. If you want warm, character-driven romances where funerals, grief, or mortuary life is central, try 'Morbidly Yours' for a living-in-grief-but-learning-to-love story, and 'The Dead Romantics' if you like your funeral scenes sprinkled with ghostly humor and a big heart. For something with a historical/romantasy bent that still focuses on undertakers and found family, 'The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy' is a top pick, and for cozy serial vibes about mortician siblings and mysteries, 'The Lady Mortician’s Visions' novels are fun and satisfying. These all felt like natural next reads to me — tender, slightly strange, and full of people who learn how to be kind to themselves.

That quiet, slightly macabre tenderness in 'Ourselves and Immortality' — the mortuary storefront, the slow unspooling of two very different men learning how to trust — is exactly the mood that hooked me. I loved how John’s stammer and fascination with death make him feel both tender and odd in a way that’s handled gently, and how Calvin’s con-artist past drags shadow and charm into the romance. If you want more books that give you that same mix of historical atmosphere, gentleness, awkward intimacy, and the occasional grim-but-heartwarming setting, try these. Start with 'The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy' for a rom-com-with-grit that actually centers an undertaker as a protagonist; Megan Bannen blends funeral-business detail with fantasy and letters-that-mend-a-heart, so if you liked the occupational intimacy and odd jobs vibe in 'Ourselves and Immortality' this one scratches that itch with extra magic and enemies-to-lovers heat. Then pick up 'Morbidly Yours' by Ivy Fairbanks if you want a contemporary take that’s basically slow-burn, mortuary-adjacent, and rooted in grief and healing — it’s quieter, warmer, and leans into the mortician protagonist’s social anxiety in a way that felt very respectful to me. For a lighter paranormal spin where funerals and family business play big parts, the series starting with books from 'The Lady Mortician’s Visions' gives that small-community undertaker energy, plus cozy mystery vibes when the dead don’t stay quiet. If you want something that’s emotionally buoyant and a little meta about love and loss, 'The Dead Romantics' is a rom-com that uses funeral scenes and ghostly moments to look at why we tell stories about love — it’s not the same era, but it shares that tender handling of mortality and the way people form family around grief. All of these lean into character-first romance, the ache and the small, absurd moments, so you’ll get a similar aftertaste to 'Ourselves and Immortality' without needing the exact period details. I finished them feeling oddly comforted and oddly brave, which is exactly the feeling I want after a slow, warm read.

Reading lists and recs are my little guilty pleasure, and if you loved the gentle historical setting and slow-burn romance in 'Ourselves and Immortality', here’s a compact stack I’d hand to a friend. First pick: 'The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy' — it leans fantasy, but the undertaker’s world-building, the letters-between-strangers device, and the way two mismatched people learn to rely on each other hit the same emotional notes of awkward intimacy and workplace closeness. Next, 'Morbidly Yours' gives you contemporary grief work and funeral-home quirks with a painfully sweet slow-burn that handles stuttering and social anxiety thoughtfully. Finally, if you want something that leans into uncanny comfort and community funeral-business energy, check out the books in 'The Lady Mortician’s Visions' series for cozy mysteries and mortician-family dynamics. Each of these kept making me think about how love shows up in the weirdest jobs and how grief can knit people together; they’re comforting in the exact same melancholic way.