Recs if you like The Crane Husband...

Shorter books (under 200 pages) that are part of at least one quest. Many are also in the public domain, making them easily accessible when you want to grind for that next badge.

Speculative (sci-fi, fantasy, horror etc.) novellas less than 200 pages long that are either standalone or read like a standalone story

Perfect for fantasy lovers with not enough hours in the day!

Feel free to mention any I missed in the comments 😊

"What a midwesterner he was, a thoroughly unhip guy with his heart in the usual place, on the sleeve, in plain sight." — Charles Baxter, The Feast of Love

Fiction that embodies the experience of being Midwestern and full of big feelings: depression, yearning, being lost in a cornfield

Fiction featuring humans turning into birds — and vice versa.

This is not a shapeshifter list.

SISTER LISTS: Strange Transformations: Insect Style | Strange Transformations: Canid Style | Strange Transformations: Small Mammal Style

Books under 250 pages

Fairytale and folktale retellings and reimaginings

Suggestions welcome

Short books to boost you to your reading goal. A lot of these are from ‘mckenna loves content’ on YouTube

alternate titles broke: weird girl lit woke: weird wildlife lit freak fauna creatures serving cunt in a god-fearing way animals want me, literary fiction fears me

these are not just books about animals. these are books where an owl/crow/deer/shark/bear/genderqueer mountain lion/other concerning critter arrives carrying the entire emotional weight of the novel and nobody does anything about it.

Short. Quick. SO, so good.

HRCYED prompt

Fiction books that outright tackle misogyny, or have feminist undertones. For every reader out there who's tired of being met with toxic/misogynist behaviour in stories that is presented as acceptable, or even romantic, and those who want to learn about the female perspective. (For more horrory books, see my list "Feminist Horror", for YA, see my list "Feminist YA".)

I LOVE single POV fantasy and it's so hard to find! It is soooo hard for me to keep track of 3+ POVs with my single-brain cell.