Book Recommendations: Fantasy

In this reimagining of The Arabian Nights, Shahrzad plans to avenge the death of her dearest friend by volunteering to marry the murderous boy-king of Khorasan but discovers not all is as it seems within the palace.

Queer black girls team up to overthrow the patriarchy in the former kingdom of Cinderella.

Transformed by the goddess Yemoja into a Mami Wati, an African mermaid charged with collecting the souls of those who die at sea, Simi goes against the gods to save a living boy, Kola, from drowning.

In the secluded town of Amity Falls, Ellerie has the chance to have her secret wishes come true, but there is a price to pay in this retelling of Rumpelstiltskin.

A dark and mystical East Asian fantasy reimagining of The Evil Queen legend about one peasant girl's quest to become Empress.

Isabelle is one of Cinderella's ugly stepsisters, who cut off her toes in an attempt to fit into the glass slipper; but there is more to her story than a maimed foot, for the Marquis de la Chance is about to offer her a choice and the opportunity to change her fate--there will be blood and danger, but also the possibility of redemption and triumph, and most of all the chance to find her true self.

A coming-of-age fantasy inspired by Indian folklore follows the efforts of a loving princess to sacrifice herself in marriage to a conquering emperor in order to protect her people only to be cast adrift alongside an enslaved oracle who becomes her companion in a quest to find a mystical library that may help them reverse their fates.

The exiled Princess Shiori must unravel the curse that turned her six brothers into cranes, and she is assisted by her spurned betrothed, a capricious dragon, and a paper bird brought to life by her own magic.

In the enchanted kingdom of Brooklyn, Vassa uses a magical gift from her dead mother to take on Babs Yaga, the witch who owns the local convenience store. Inspired by the Russian folktale Vassilissa the Beautiful.

When children start to go missing in the local woods, eighteen-year-old Wendy Darling must face her fears and a past she cannot remember to rescue them in this novel based on Peter Pan.

On an island where a set of triplets are born in every generation, three sisters, all equal heirs to the crown and possessor of magic, must now fight for the title in a game of life or death.

When a girl who's never longed for adventure is hit with a curse that begins to transform her into a demon, she embarks on a quest to reverse the curse and return to her normal life, but along the way is forced to confront her true power within.

Half-god, half-human Rue is snatched from her Houston home to Ghazan, a secret land of gods, by her estranged father, then must face an evil determined to steal everything from her.

In a world inspired by ancient Arabia, seventeen-year-old huntress Zafira must disguise herself as a man to seek a lost artifact that could return magic to her cursed world.

Every generation, seven families select a champion to compete in a tournament to the death for control of high magick--the most powerful resource in the world--but this year, a salacious tell-all book draws reporters, tourists, and government agents to Ilvernath to watch the bloody curse unfold and some of the champions are determined to thwart their destinies and rewrite their stories.

In 1926 Shanghai, eighteen-year-old Juliette Cai, heir of the Scarlet Gang, and her first love-turned-rival Roma Montagov, leader of the White Flowers, must work together when mysterious deaths threaten their city.

In this fantasy inspired by ancient Mesoamerica, a lineage of seers defiantly resists the shifting patriarchal state that would see them destroyed.

Ning enters a cutthroat magical competition to find the kingdom's greatest master of the art of brewing tea, but political schemes and secrets make her goal of gaining access to royal physicians to cure her dying sister far more dangerous than she imagined.

After her mentor mysteriously dies, Kyra, an elite warrior Markswoman, finds herself on the run from the dangerous Mistress of Mental Arts and heads into the unforgiving desert where she befriends Rustan, a disillusioned Marksman of the Order of Khur.

After failing to come into her powers, sixteen-year-old Voya--a Black witch living in near-future Toronto--is forced to choose between losing her family's magic forever, a heritage steeped in centuries of blood and survival, or murdering her first love, a boy who is supposedly her genetic match.

Laia is a Scholar living under the iron-fisted rule of the Martial Empire. When her brother is arrested for treason, Laia goes undercover as a slave at the empire's greatest military academy in exchange for assistance from rebel Scholars who claim that they will help to save her brother from execution.

To ensure her family's survival, sixteen-year-old Koral cheats her way into the Glory Race, a dangerous chariot tournament using sea monsters meant for the ruling elite.

Half-Black witch Shay Johnson is cast as the lead in her school musical and must decide between exposing her predatory drama teacher and getting the scholarship she desperately needs.

To discover the truth behind her mother's mysterious death, a teen girl infiltrates a magical secret society claiming to be the descendants of King Arthur and his knights.

When her parents drop the news that they can no longer afford her boarding school tuition, even with the scholarship, Alice hatches a plan to monetize her strange new magical power—she’ll discover the scandalous secrets her classmates want to know...for a price.

The first time the Nightmares came, it nearly cost Alice her life. Now she's trained to battle monstrous creatures in the dark dream realm known as Wonderland with magic weapons and hardcore fighting skills. Life in real-world Atlanta isn't so simple.

Sixteen-year-old Alex Rufus's curse of seeing the future distracts him from being and doing his best, but when he sees his little brother Isaiah's imminent death, he races against time, death, and circumstances to save him.

When her friend mysteriously vanishes after drawing an unsettling tarot card called The Housekeeper, Maeve uses her deep connection with the cards to search for clues the police cannot find.

Simon Snow is the worst Chosen One who's ever been chosen. That's what his roommate, Baz, says. And Baz might be evil and a vampire and a complete git, but he's probably right. Half the time, Simon can't even make his wand work, and the other half, he starts something on fire. His mentor's avoiding him, his girlfriend broke up with him, and there's a magic-eating monster running around, wearing Simon's face. Baz would be having a field day with all this, if he were here -- it's their last year at the Watford School of Magicks, and Simon's infuriating nemesis didn't even bother to show up.

Yadriel, a trans boy, summons the angry spirit of his high school's bad boy, and agrees to help him learn how he died, thereby proving himself a brujo, not a bruja, to his conservative family.

Benji is on the run from the cult that raised him--the fundamentalist sect that unleashed Armageddon and decimated the world's population. But when cornered by monsters born from the destruction, Benji is rescued by a group of teens from the local Acheson LGBTQ+ Center, affectionately known as the ALC. Benji is eager to belong, until he discovers the ALC's mysterious leader has a hidden agenda, and more than a few secrets of his own.