Recs if you like The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea...

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

JK Rowling is a bigot who uses her platform to hurt transfolks and other marginalized groups (plus she literally just quoted Mein Kampf on the bird site). If you're still supporting her in 2025, don't bother talking to me.

I'm sure some of these are already on your TBR, so might as well add some more! Let me know if I am missing any of your favorites!

Books that inspired or are similar to Studio Ghibli films

This is like literary sorbet, books that are simple, sweet, and pretty easy to digest when you want to turn your brain off, decompress after a big, intense book, or break out of a reading slump.

fantasy novels where curses play a role, whether it be a cursed person, object, or place! recs always welcome!

If we are going to do Qwordy's the Hardest Reading Challenge You'll Ever Do 3.0 - we should probably get some Pagebound badges along the way! I'm specifically going to be adding books from Quests and readalongs that go past the July start date and match at least one of these title prompts: Periodic Table, Familial Terms, Rainbow of Words (also Joseph's coat), Numerical Titles, Titular Counting 5+, Pun in the Title, and First & Last Name in the Title. Recommendations welcome!

books that feel like watching a studio ghibli film 🌱 ₊˚✧ ﾟ.

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

Feel free to mention any I missed in the comments 😊

Books set in an Asian or Asian-inspired setting or incorporates elements of an Asian culture or mythology. Only the first book in a series is listed.

We have a lot of requests in our library for these, so I figured I would provide the page bound community with our list!

books for the barbie movie lovers

Want to get into fantasy but never read/only read a bit and don't want to read anything too complex? These books and series have light worldbuilding, magic systems, and are overall good introductions to those new to fantasy. The majority of these are more YA due to the nature of entry-level fantasy

Loved Kpop Demon Hunters? Try these recs! From fantasy to contemporary, there's something for everyone here!

Do you love collecting tiny shiny objects (badges)? These books will count towards THREE quests, helping you collect all the shiny objects!

Ever felt overwhelmed by Quests? Well, we currently (August 1st 2026) have over 100 of them, totaling 4000+ different books. Ofc you’re overwhelmed.

Whether you’ve already worked through the ones on top, or just want more of a challenge, here I’m giving you a list of every book on Pagebound that’s in 3 Quests. Hopefully you’ll find it helpful. NB: Time limited Quests not included. Too much upkeep, sorry.

Enjoy, and happy questing

🎶 Come, little children, I take thee away / into the land of enchantment 🎶 that nostalgic feeling when you were a child and you could see glimpses of a new fantastical world of magic and wonders basically a collection of stories where children and teens discover a new world with hidden dark undertones which also includes BIPOC/LGBTQ+ representation

No I am not a white girl who ‘is newly Chinese’. But I am a white girl WHO LITERALLY WILL CONSUME ANY ASIAN FANTASY I CAN GET MY HANDS ON!!! Like literally fly me away because these authors and their worlds are SO GOOD!!!

Sometimes you're just not ready to commit to a series