back through the wardrobe
Fantasy nonfiction, or books about the nature of the fantastic (and the lives of some of its most ardent devotees) for those of us who'd like to leave the comfort of our Hobbit holes and brave the literary wilderness.
created by deleted
last updated July, 2026
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I'm absolutely accepting suggestions and critiques of what's included! Feel free to share thoughts and recommendations.
Scope of this list will remain limited to specifically “the fantastic” and people who wrote fiction, created systems/games/films to do with such fictions, or otherwise are themselves celebrated fantasists.
To use Farah Mendlesohn’s definition provided in Rhetorics of Fantasy, “the fantastic is an area of literature that is heavily dependent on the dialectic between author and reader for the construction of a sense of wonder, that it is a fiction of consensual construction of belief.”
Subgenre examples will encompass fantasy, speculative fiction, paranormal/supernatural fiction, and horror.
ahhhh that list is absolutely perfect 🥰🥰🥰 very needed guide 🙂↕️✨
saving this list immediately 💕 i think fantasies of time and death by anna vaninskaya might be a good fit? also snake sisters and ghost daughters by cathy yue wang, and unquiet spirits edited by lee murray and angela yuriko smith
deletedOP
These are all literally perfect! Adding!!
Thank you for this list, the theme is so interesting and there are so many books that I would've never even thought of searching! I want to read too many of them😭
I really hope you win the community quests vote!
deletedOP
Aww, I am so glad it resonates with you! There’s so many great books on here that I look forward to reading too! It’s always a case of too many books, too little time 😭
