Succession, but make it supernatural

While primogeniture was supposedly embraced in order to deal with this sort of issue, inheritance is always a messy business, especially when there’s little difference between intended successor and pretenders to the throne. It gets even weirder when the people competing to take over the family business have some…unusual talents at their disposal. The same talents that help their family empires run so smoothly. The same talents that make it so easy their competitors in the dust, by which I mean, six feet under.

This year, there’ve been several speculative and supernatural thrillers compared to Succession, and since I love nothing more than a weird trend, I figured I’d put together a list! Behold, 4 recent and upcoming novels in which squabbling scions fight to control the family powers, not just the family coffers. Obviously, there are a lot of vampires, because capitalism lends itself to depictions of the powerful draining the weak, and these  there are some demons too, because why not.

Chuck Wendig, The Calamities
(Del Rey)

Set in the same magical universe as Wendig’s Book of Accidents, The Calamities explores similarly dark themes of family, loyalty, and obligation, although with much more humor and far less hope. When his father absconds from the family estate after draining their magical reservoir dry, the louche Mourning Mayne, reluctant heir to his family’s demonic empire of purchased souls, finds himself struggling to keep the family together and fighting off plenty of challengers.

Andrew Sullivan, Earth Filled With Blood
(Gallery)

Andrew Sullivan’s latest takes us into the grotesque world of Canada’s greatest blood-drinking families, who also happen to be Canada’s largest business owners. Garrett, new-made heir by virtue of his brother’s demise, is the last best hope of a family of car salesmen who literally feed on their customers (and who now have no more customers). He’s dating the younger daughter of a much more powerful vampire clan embedded in the oil and gas industry when the murder of her older sister throws the rest of the family into a desperate war for control of the family assets, even as enemies beset them from all sides.

Alma Katsu, Fiend
(Putnam)

Alma Katsu has written a—bear with me—fiendishly delightful tale of a dysfunctional family whose multigenerational power comes from harnessing the energy of a rather unpredictable force. The ending left me stunned—and so, so satisfied.

Justine Larbalestier, Scott Westerfeld, The Mortons
(Pamela Dorman Books)

Jessica Morton is the daughter of an ancient and powerful family, in competition with her cousins to run their criminal empire. Each generation attends a private boarding school with a shadow curriculum, in which the cousins learn the art of creative accounting, subtle influence, and bold assassination; each generation accepts that they may be culled before they begin to live, for this is their family’s way. But something is changing, has already changed—Jessica’s generation is far too small, her family seems desperate, and a rebellion may be brewing.