Recs if you like Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell...

Standalone fantasy books that won't make you invest your life in a dozen installments

When the narrator(s) makes the book even better. For new listeners and audiobook elites, here is a range of different genres and narrators that excel at audio perfection.

Fantasy titles that have become foundational to the genre and/or that are considered fantasy classics, written by women. Always open to suggestions!

Books that include faeries, whether whimsical or scary

Let me know if you have any recommendations to add to this list!

books w/ full names in the title (mostly fiction)

All sorts of magic including - Wizards, warlocks, druids, alchemists, etc…

I took a very large take, and I hope you’ll enjoy!! 😊

For series, I only put the first book.

Recommendations are very welcome!! 🥰

Bibliophilia at its best - books about books, readers, libraries, bookstores!

magic systems in fantasy that resemble and incorporate real or fictional sciences! for the fantastical scientists that want magic inscriptions that feel like coding, alchemy, and magical equations fueling spells!

*SFF novels which use footnotes as a secondary narrative, paratext, or metacommentary on events in the main narrative.

books where characters step through mirrors into new or different worlds.

We all love gothic classics, but what is new when it comes to the gothic genre (from the last 20 years or so)?! For fans of Dracula, Jane Eyre, Frankenstein, We Have Always Lived in the Castle, etc. Please comment with suggestions to add!

books that blend the magic of fantasy with real world history. only criteria is that books are set within actual historical time periods and not inspired-by settings.

Fiction has always been where truth hides. Across horror, thriller, literary fiction, fantasy & mystery every book on this list has something to say about power, who holds it, who destroys it, and how it reproduces itself.

It’s me. I’m bitches ✋🏻

Collection of fiction texts that utilize footnotes for various reasons, including world building, comedic narrative input, or character perspective

whether it's straight-up Jane Austen retellings, set in an alternative regency-era England, or a whole new world that has those prim and proper vibes, these books all introduce magic, spells, and perhaps even a bit of whimsy into the familiar regency setting (may also contain Victorian or Gregorian-era like fantasy novels, since they can have a lot of overlap in vibes!)

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

Feel free to mention any I missed in the comments 😊

less of the usual culprits if you please!

aka, novels for nerds 🫵🙂‍↕️

Clever, arresting and intentional SFF books by genre writers who really know how to play with and control language; not even necessarily immensely quotable or flowery, but wholly competent and meticulous.