You know the feeling. You finish the last page of The Count of Monte Cristo and you're just... empty. It’s a book hangover of the highest order. Edmond Dantès spent fourteen years in a hole, found a literal mountain of gold, and then spent another decade psychologically dismantling his enemies with the precision of a Swiss watchmaker.
Where do you even go from there?
Most people just search for "more revenge stories." But that’s the trap. If you just grab any old thriller, you’re going to be disappointed. Alexandre Dumas didn't just write a "revenge" book; he wrote a 1,200-page transformation epic. You want that specific itch scratched—the one where a wronged man becomes a god-like figure to enact poetic justice.
The Sci-Fi Twin: The Stars My Destination
Honestly, if you want the closest thing to a carbon copy of the plot but in a completely different skin, you have to read The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester.
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It’s basically Monte Cristo in space. Gully Foyle is a low-life, uneducated grease monkey who gets left for dead on a wrecked spaceship. He survives for months in a locker, fueled by pure, unadulterated spite. When he finally gets out, he doesn't just want to kill the people who ignored his distress signal. He wants to destroy their entire world.
He transforms. He learns. He becomes wealthy and terrifying. The ending is a bit more "cosmic" than Dumas, but the middle part? It’s pure Dantès.
The Modern Retelling: A Prisoner of Birth
Jeffrey Archer is a master of the "page-turner," and A Prisoner of Birth is his explicit love letter to Dumas.
The setup is nearly identical but moved to modern-day London. A working-class guy named Danny Cartwright is framed for a murder he didn't commit by a group of wealthy, "upper-class" jerks. He goes to prison. He meets an older, sophisticated mentor (his Abbé Faria). He learns to speak like a gentleman. He escapes and assumes a new identity to take them all down.
It’s not "literary" in the way Dumas is, but it’s incredibly satisfying. You’ll fly through it in a weekend.
The Gritty Fantasy: Best Served Cold
Joe Abercrombie is the king of "grimdark" fantasy, and Best Served Cold is his take on the revenge trope.
Meet Monza Murcatto. She’s a mercenary leader who gets betrayed by her employer, thrown off a mountain, and left for dead. Her brother is killed. She’s broken.
But she doesn't stay down.
She crawls back and hires a motley crew of some of the worst people alive to help her kill the seven men who betrayed her. It’s bloodier than Monte Cristo. It’s more cynical. But it captures that feeling of a "list" being checked off one by one. If you liked the methodical way the Count took out Danglars and Fernand, you’ll love this.
Why The Black Count is Essential
You can’t talk about books similar to Count of Monte Cristo without talking about the man who inspired it.
Tom Reiss wrote a biography called The Black Count, and it is wilder than the fiction. It’s about Thomas-Alexandre Dumas—the author’s father. He was a biracial man born in Saint-Domingue (modern Haiti) who rose to become a top general in Napoleon’s army.
He was eventually captured and thrown into a dungeon for years by his political enemies. His son, the novelist, took that real-life trauma and turned it into the story of Edmond Dantès. Reading this gives you a whole new perspective on the book. It makes the "fiction" feel a lot more like a scream of rage from a grieving son.
The "Vibe" Reads
Sometimes you don't want the exact plot. You just want the vibe.
- Scaramouche by Rafael Sabatini: This has that swashbuckling, 19th-century French energy. "He was born with a gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad." Great line, right? It follows a man who goes into hiding and uses his wits (and a sword) to get back at a nobleman.
- The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas: Well, obviously. If you haven't read Dumas' other big hit, do it. It’s less "revenge" and more "adventure," but the pacing is just as addictive.
- Les Misérables by Victor Hugo: This is the "heavy" alternative. Jean Valjean is an escaped convict like Dantès, but instead of seeking revenge, he seeks redemption. It’s the flip side of the same coin.
What People Get Wrong About These Books
The biggest mistake is thinking these stories are just about hate.
They aren't.
They are about the cost of holding onto that hate. In The Count of Monte Cristo, the ending isn't just "I killed everyone and I'm happy." It’s actually quite melancholic. The Count realizes he might have overstepped his bounds. He realizes he's lost his own humanity in the process.
The best books similar to Count of Monte Cristo always keep that moral ambiguity. They make you cheer for the hero when they’re winning, but make you feel a little sick about it by the time they're done.
If you're ready to start your next 1,000-page journey, I'd suggest starting with The Stars My Destination for a quick hit of adrenaline, then moving into The Black Count to see the real history.
Pick up a copy of The Stars My Destination if you want the fastest pacing, or go with A Prisoner of Birth if you prefer a modern legal thriller setting. Either way, you're in for a long night of "just one more chapter."