15 Books Similar To The Revenant [2026 Updated]

Hey there, book lovers. If you are anything like me, you probably walked out of the movie theater after seeing The Revenant, or turned the final page of Michael Punke’s novel, and just sat there in stunned silence. There is something raw and primal about that story. It is not just the bear attack. It is the sheer, unadulterated grit of Hugh Glass crawling through the frozen American frontier, fueled by nothing but a burning need for revenge and the will to survive against impossible odds. It is the kind of story that sticks with you, making your own daily struggles feel a little less daunting in comparison.

We all crave that visceral connection to the wild sometimes. We want stories that strip humanity down to its bare bones, exposing the savage beauty of nature and the dark corners of the human heart. You want more of that? You want to feel the biting cold, the gnawing hunger, and the adrenaline of a life or death chase? Well, you have come to the right place. I have scoured the shelves to find the absolute best books similar to The Revenant. These are novels that do not pull any punches. They are brutal, beautiful, and absolutely impossible to put down. So, pour yourself a strong cup of coffee, settle into your favorite reading chair, and let’s explore the untamed wilderness together.

Books Similar To The 48 Laws Of Power

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Historical Survival and Western Noir

These selections capture the specific flavor of the 19th century American West or similar frontiers. They feature rugged protagonists, harsh landscapes, and the brutal reality of expansion.

1. Lord Grizzly by Frederick Manfred

If you loved the story of Hugh Glass in The Revenant, you owe it to yourself to read Frederick Manfred’s Lord Grizzly. Published in 1954, this is widely considered the definitive literary retelling of the Hugh Glass saga before Punke came along. While Punke’s version is a taut thriller, Manfred’s novel is a sprawling, mythic journey that delves deep into the mountain man’s psyche. The story covers the same ground: the brutal mauling by the grizzly bear, the betrayal by his companions who leave him for dead, and the agonizing crawl back to civilization.

However, Manfred brings a unique, almost feverish intensity to the narrative. He creates a rich internal monologue for Glass, exploring his spiritual connection to the land and the animals he hunts. The descriptions of the crawl are visceral and exhaustive; you feel every inch of the rough terrain scraping against his broken body. Manfred captures the distinctive voice of the frontier era, using a vernacular that feels authentic and immersive without being difficult to read. It offers a slightly different ending and thematic focus than Punke’s version, leaning more into forgiveness and the complexity of the human spirit rather than pure, cold vengeance. It is a masterpiece of Western literature that stands tall on its own merits.

Key Theme: The spiritual and physical transformation of a man pushed beyond the limits of endurance.

2. The North Water by Ian McGuire

Imagine The Revenant but set on a whaling ship in the freezing Arctic waters of the 1850s, and you have The North Water. This book is intense. Ian McGuire has written a novel that is dark, violent, and incredibly atmospheric. The story follows Patrick Sumner, an ex army surgeon with a shady past who signs up as the ship’s doctor on the Volunteer. He thinks he is escaping his demons, but he has no idea what awaits him on board. The crew is a rough bunch, but the true monster is Henry Drax, a harpooner who is a brutal, amoral force of nature.

The tension on the ship is palpable from page one. As the Volunteer sails further north into the ice, the environment becomes as deadly as the men on board. McGuire does not shy away from the gore of the whaling industry or the savagery of the characters. The prose is sharp and muscular, reminiscent of Cormac McCarthy. When disaster strikes and the crew is left stranded on the ice, the survival elements kick into high gear. It becomes a terrifying struggle against the cold, starvation, and the predatory nature of man. This is a gripping, fast paced read that will leave you shivering.

3. Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy

You cannot talk about gritty Westerns without mentioning the king of the genre, Cormac McCarthy. Blood Meridian is frequently cited as one of the greatest American novels ever written, and for good reason. It is a hallucinatory, apocalyptic nightmare of the American West in the 1850s. The story follows “the kid,” a teenage runaway who falls in with the Glanton gang, a group of scalp hunters hired to massacre Native Americans along the Texas Mexico border.

This book makes The Revenant look like a fairy tale in terms of violence. It is relentless, brutal, and horrifyingly beautiful. The antagonist, Judge Holden, is one of the most terrifying villains in literary history: a massive, hairless, highly educated man who embodies pure war and chaos. McCarthy’s prose is dense and biblical, describing the landscape in a way that makes it feel like a character itself indifferent, ancient, and hostile. This is not a standard revenge plot; it is a meditation on the nature of violence in the human soul. It is a challenging read, but if you want the ultimate “man versus a savage world” experience, this is the peak. It will haunt you long after you finish it.

4. Butcher’s Crossing by John Williams

John Williams is the author of Stoner, a quiet novel that gained massive popularity years after its publication. Butcher’s Crossing, however, is his foray into the Western genre, and it is a perfect companion to The Revenant. Set in the 1870s, it tells the story of Will Andrews, a young Harvard dropout who heads West seeking adventure and a connection to nature, inspired by the transcendentalists like Emerson and Thoreau. He arrives in the dusty town of Butcher’s Crossing, Kansas, and finances a buffalo hunting expedition into a hidden valley in the Colorado Rockies.

The expedition is led by Miller, an experienced hunter obsessed with finding a massive herd he saw years ago. What follows is a deconstruction of the Western myth. Instead of glorious adventure, they find grueling labor, mindless slaughter, and the crushing weight of isolation. The descriptions of the buffalo hunt are graphic and disturbing, stripping away any romantic notions of the frontier. The group gets trapped by an early winter, turning the story into a claustrophobic survival drama. Williams writes with a precise, elegant style that contrasts sharply with the grim subject matter. It is a powerful look at the futility of greed and the indifference of nature.

5. Ridgeline by Michael Punke

If you loved Michael Punke’s writing style in The Revenant, the most logical next step is to pick up his 2021 novel, Ridgeline. Punke proves he is not a one hit wonder with this gripping historical dramatization of the events leading up to the Fetterman Massacre of 1866. The story is set in the Powder River Valley, where the U.S. Army attempts to build a fort in the heart of Sioux territory. This is a direct provocation to the tribes, led by the legendary Red Cloud and the young warrior Crazy Horse.

Punke excels at meticulous historical research and weaving it into a narrative that moves like a thriller. The book switches perspectives between the U.S. soldiers, including the arrogant Colonel Henry Carrington and the reckless Captain Fetterman, and the Native American warriors defending their land. The tension builds slowly and inexorably toward the inevitable violent clash. You get the same vivid descriptions of the landscape and the harsh realities of frontier life that made The Revenant so immersive. It focuses more on military strategy and the clash of cultures than individual survival, but the stakes are just as high. It provides a balanced, gritty look at a pivotal moment in the Indian Wars.

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Modern Classics of Vengeance and Endurance

These novels might vary slightly in setting or tone, but they share the core DNA of The Revenant: a relentless drive forward and the crushing weight of the elements.

6. The Son by Philipp Meyer

The Son is an epic American saga that spans over 150 years and multiple generations of the McCullough family in Texas. While it covers a lot of time, the sections featuring the family patriarch, Eli McCullough, are pure Revenant style survivalism. Born on the frontier, Eli is kidnapped by Comanches as a teenager in 1836. To survive, he has to adapt quickly, shedding his former identity and becoming a warrior for the tribe. The descriptions of his integration into Comanche life are fascinating, brutal, and deeply researched.

Meyer does an incredible job depicting the savage reality of Texas history. It is a place where land is won through blood and held through ruthlessness. Eli eventually returns to white society but carries the Comanche ethos with him, building a ranching and oil dynasty through sheer force of will. The novel explores how the violence of the frontier echoes down through generations. It is a big, thick book that feels grand in scope, tackling the rise of America as a superpower through the lens of one hard, unforgiving family. If you like the historical grit and the clash of civilizations found in Punke’s work, this is a must read.

7. The Terror by Dan Simmons

Dan Simmons blends historical fiction with supernatural horror in this massive novel about the lost Franklin Expedition. In 1845, two ships, the HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, sailed into the Arctic looking for the Northwest Passage and were never heard from again. Simmons takes the known historical facts the ships getting stuck in the ice, the illness, the starvation, the eventual abandonment of the vessels—and adds a terrifying twist: there is something out there on the ice stalking them.

While the supernatural element (a massive, demonic bear like creature) adds a layer of horror, the true terror of the book comes from the realistic survival details. The cold is a constant, physical presence. You feel the frostbite, the scurvy rotting the men’s gums, and the slow descent into madness and cannibalism. It is a long read, but the atmosphere is suffocatingly effective. The men are trapped in a white wasteland with no hope of rescue, fighting against the elements, each other, and the monster in the dark. It captures that same feeling of hopelessness and man’s insignificance against nature that permeates The Revenant, but dials the horror up to eleven.

8. The Big Sky by A.B. Guthrie Jr.

Before Lonesome Dove, there was The Big Sky. Published in 1947, this is often cited as the first novel to truly capture the life of the mountain man realistically. It follows Boone Caudill, who runs away from a tyrannical father in Kentucky to the upper Missouri River country to become a trapper. Boone is a brooding, violent character who feels more at home in the wilderness than in civilization. He teams up with the easygoing Jim Deakins and the distinct Dick Summers (a character who appears in several of Guthrie’s books).

The novel is a love letter to a vanished world. Guthrie describes the pristine American West before the wagon trains and settlers arrived—the rivers, the mountains, the endless sky—with poetic beauty. However, he does not romanticize the men. They are dirty, smelly, and often cruel. They live hard lives and die lonely deaths. The tragedy of the book is that by doing what they love—hunting and trapping—they are paving the way for the civilization that will destroy their way of life. It is a foundational text for the genre and essential reading for anyone interested in the era of the fur trade.

9. Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry

You cannot have a list of Westerns without Lonesome Dove. While it is more of an ensemble piece and less of a solitary survival story than The Revenant, it shares the same commitment to gritty realism and unvarnished history. The story centers on two retired Texas Rangers, Augustus McCrae and Woodrow Call, who decide to drive a herd of cattle from the Rio Grande up to Montana. It is a perilous journey filled with river crossings, dust storms, bandits, and tragedy.

What makes Lonesome Dove superior to almost everything else in the genre is its character work. Gus and Call are iconic figures—one a talkative romantic, the other a stoic workaholic. The violence in the book comes sudden and sharp, shocking the reader with its abruptness. McMurtry de-romanticizes the cowboy life while simultaneously creating a heartbreakingly nostalgic elegy for the Old West. The “Blue Duck” storyline features a villain as terrifying as anyone Hugh Glass ever faced. It is a long commitment, but it is one of those books you will wish would never end. It captures the danger and the dust of the frontier perfectly.

10. True Grit by Charles Portis

If the revenge aspect of The Revenant is what hooked you, True Grit is the gold standard. It is the story of fourteen year old Mattie Ross, who sets out to avenge her father’s murder by the coward Tom Chaney. She hires the toughest U.S. Marshal she can find, a one eyed, drunken man named Rooster Cogburn, to help her track the killer into Indian Territory.

Unlike the silent brooding of Hugh Glass, Mattie Ross is a narrator who loves to talk. Her voice is distinct: biblical, stubborn, and utterly fearless. The dynamic between her and the grumpy Rooster Cogburn is pure gold. While it has plenty of humor, do not let that fool you; the setting is harsh and the violence is real. The winter landscape they traverse is unforgiving, and the climax involves a pit of rattlesnakes that is the stuff of nightmares. It is a tighter, faster read than The Revenant, but it hits the same notes of dogged determination and the cost of vengeance. It is a true American classic that manages to be both funny and dark at the same time.

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Non-Fiction That Reads Like a Thriller

Sometimes the truth is stranger and more brutal than fiction. These non-fiction books offer the same level of narrative drive and survival stakes as any novel.

11. The Indifferent Stars Above by Daniel James Brown

If you think Hugh Glass had a bad time, wait until you read about the Donner Party. The Indifferent Stars Above is a masterful work of narrative non-fiction that tells the harrowing true story of the doomed wagon train trapped in the Sierra Nevada mountains during the winter of 1846. Daniel James Brown focuses specifically on Sarah Graves, a young bride who set out for California with high hopes.

Brown reconstructs the journey with terrifying clarity. He explains the science of starvation, hypothermia, and what extreme cold does to the human body and mind. It is gruesome, heartbreaking, and fascinating. The title perfectly captures the theme: nature does not care about your hopes or your suffering; the stars remain indifferent. The desperation that drove members of the party to cannibalism is handled with empathy but without looking away from the horror. It is a survival story that parallels the intensity of The Revenant in every way. You will feel the cold seeping off the pages. It is a testament to the human will to survive when all hope is lost.

12. Crow Killer: The Saga of Liver-Eating Johnson by Raymond W. Thorp and Robert Bunker

This biography is the stuff of legend and served as the inspiration for the movie Jeremiah Johnson. It tells the story of John “Liver-Eating” Johnson, a mountain man whose wife, a Flathead Indian, was murdered by Crow warriors while he was away. In a blind rage, Johnson embarked on a decades long vendetta against the Crow nation. Legend has it he would cut out and eat the livers of the warriors he killed, an insult in Crow belief that meant they could not enter the afterlife.

Whether every detail is 100% historically accurate is up for debate, as frontier tall tales often blur the lines, but the narrative is undeniably powerful. It depicts the mountain man life in all its gory glory. Johnson is a terrifying figure—a man consumed by hate who becomes a monster to fight monsters. The book is episodic, detailing various skirmishes, ambushes, and survival situations in the high Rockies. It is raw, violent, and unpolished, much like the man himself. If you want to see the dark side of the mountain man archetype, this is the book to grab.

13. The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt

For a slightly different flavor, The Sisters Brothers offers a picaresque, darkly comic take on the Western assassin trope. Set during the California Gold Rush, it follows Eli and Charlie Sisters, two hitmen hired to kill a prospector named Hermann Kermit Warm. The book is narrated by Eli, the more sensitive and introspective of the two brothers, who is beginning to question their violent line of work.

While it is funnier and quirkier than The Revenant, the setting is just as dirty and dangerous. The brothers encounter weirdos, witches, and disasters on their journey from Oregon to California. The violence is sudden and grotesque, often treated with a matter of fact dryness that makes it even more disturbing. Patrick deWitt creates a unique voice that blends formal, old timey dialogue with modern sensibilities. It explores the bond between brothers and the toll that a life of killing takes on the soul. It is a “weird Western” that feels fresh while still delivering the grit fans of the genre expect.

14. In the Heart of the Sea by Nathaniel Philbrick

This is the true story that inspired Moby Dick, and it is a survival nightmare. In 1820, the whaleship Essex was rammed and sunk by an enraged sperm whale in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The crew escaped into three small whaleboats with very little food and water, thousands of miles from land. What followed was an ordeal of starvation, dehydration, and death that lasted for months.

Nathaniel Philbrick vividly reconstructs the disaster. He details the social hierarchy of the crew, the brutal mechanics of whaling, and the psychological unraveling that occurs when men are pushed past their limits. Like The Revenant, it pits man against a massive, angry animal, followed by a desperate struggle against the elements. The eventual resort to cannibalism is handled with historical context and grim reality. It is a gripping page turner that reminds us how small and vulnerable we are in the face of the ocean’s vastness. It is essential reading for fans of high stakes survival stories.

15. Skeletons on the Zahara by Dean King

We trade the freezing cold for blistering heat in this incredible true story. Skeletons on the Zahara recounts the experiences of the crew of the brig Commerce, which wrecked off the coast of Africa in 1815. The sailors were captured by desert tribesmen and sold into slavery, forced to march across the Sahara Desert. They faced dehydration, starvation, sunburn, and brutal treatment by their captors.

Dean King actually retraced their journey across the desert to understand what they went through, and that dedication shows in the writing. The physical suffering described is intense—tongues swelling from thirst, skin cracking, bodies wasting away. It is a story of resilience and the strange bonds that form between enemies. Captain James Riley’s leadership and determination to save his men mirror Hugh Glass’s determination to survive. It is a brutal, eye opening look at a part of history rarely discussed, and it delivers the same “how did anyone survive this” feeling that makes The Revenant so compelling.

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Final Thoughts

There you have it, folks. Fifteen books that will scratch that itch for survival, revenge, and the harsh beauty of the frontier. Whether you are looking for the icy plains of the American West, the frozen decks of a whaling ship, or the blistering sands of the Sahara, there is a story here that will transport you straight into the danger zone.

Next Step: I would recommend starting with “The North Water” if you want that immediate, atmospheric match to The Revenant, or “Lord Grizzly” if you want to see the other side of the Hugh Glass legend. Which one calls out to you first? Happy reading!