Our reviews
85 fantasy books we've reviewed, each with who it's for, who should skip it and every source we used.
Every review is tagged with how the book feels to read.
85 reviews
Terry Pratchett
Best for: Fans of satirical fantasy and police-procedural fiction who enjoy social commentary woven into comic plotting — particularly readers already invested in the City Watch arc of the Discworld series.
Ursula K. Le Guin
Best for: Readers aged ten and up who want fantasy with genuine philosophical weight — particularly those drawn to coming-of-age stories centred on hubris, responsibility, and the nature of one's own darkness, grounded in Taoist ideas of balance.
Mary Mecham
Best for: Readers aged 14 and up who are drawn to villain-redemption arcs and want a structurally inventive Peter Pan retelling that centres high-stakes adventure over romance.
Sarah J. Maas
Best for: Fans of Sarah J. Maas's ACOTAR series — or readers who enjoy urban fantasy blending murder mystery, slow-burn romance, and supernatural politics — who are ready for a mature, 800-page series opener.
N. K. Jemisin
Best for: Readers ready to commit to a complete trilogy who want formally ambitious, world-building-intensive science fantasy that uses geological catastrophe as a vehicle for exploring institutionalized oppression and social allegory.
Stephanie Garber
Best for: Devoted fans of the Once Upon a Broken Heart trilogy who have followed Jacks and Evangeline's full arc and want one more immersive visit to the Magnificent North, enriched by Lotusbubble's illustrations.
Rebecca Yarros
Best for: Readers who love high-stakes fantasy romance — particularly the enemies-to-lovers dynamic, dragon-bonding lore, and a chronically ill heroine navigating a lethal military academy — and are comfortable with explicit violence and on-page sexual content.
Rebecca Yarros
Best for: Readers already invested in the Empyrean universe after Fourth Wing who want more of Violet and Xaden's fractured romance alongside escalating dragon-riding fantasy, political intrigue, and a civilisation-level threat.
Sarah Combs
Best for: Confident teen readers (roughly 14–18) and book-club or classroom groups who want a psychologically serious, structurally ambitious YA novel about the roots of school violence — told through seven interlocking voices across a single April morning.
Terry Pratchett
Best for: Readers new to Discworld who want to enter the series at its origin and enjoy satirical comedy fiction that uses fantasy genre conventions as raw material for jokes, in the tradition of Douglas Adams.
George R.R. Martin
Best for: Dedicated readers of A Song of Ice and Fire who have already read the first four novels and the companion volume Dreams and Dust, and are ready to complete the fifth book's dense, morally complex concluding half.
Caroline Peckham, Susanne Valenti
Best for: Readers already invested in the Ruthless Boys of the Zodiac series — or the broader Zodiac Academy universe — who want an explicit, high-heat reverse harem paranormal romance that continues Elise's story with fae, shifters, vampires, and slow-burn enemies-to-lovers tension.
Matt Dinniman
Best for: Dedicated fans of the Dungeon Crawler Carl series who are current through book five and want the next instalment in a New York Times bestselling LitRPG series celebrated for blending absurdist comedy with genuinely dark, consequential stakes.
Madeleine L'Engle
Best for: Readers aged 9 and up — and curious adults — who are drawn to ideas as much as adventure and want a young adult fantasy that treats cellular biology, classical theology, and cosmic ethics as equally serious narrative languages.
Melissa Roehrich
Best for: Readers already at home in the new adult dark fantasy romance space — particularly fans of possessive-Fae and enemies-to-lovers dynamics — who want a faction-rich, high-stakes opener to a complete six-book series.
Rick Riordan
Best for: Middle-grade readers aged 9 and up who are already invested in the Percy Jackson series and want a quest-driven adventure that deepens the mythology, expands the ensemble cast, and raises the emotional stakes in ways the earlier installments don't.
J. K. Rowling, Jack Thorne, John Tiffany
Best for: Wizarding World devotees and theatre enthusiasts who want to engage with the canonical eighth story of Albus Severus Potter and Harry's fractured father-son relationship, especially those who cannot attend a live production.
George R. R. Martin
Best for: Existing fans of A Song of Ice and Fire who have already collected the earlier illustrated editions in the Random House Worlds series and want a visually enriched, permanent hardcover of the fourth book on their shelves.
Caroline Peckham, Susanne Valenti
Best for: Readers of New Adult and upper YA romantasy who want a dark, high-stakes magical academy with an astrological magic system, enemies-to-lovers tension, explicit romance, and morally grey characters — and who are ready to commit to a series from the start.
Matt Dinniman
Best for: Readers already invested in the Dungeon Crawler Carl series who are fluent in LitRPG conventions and want a serialised science-fantasy saga with satirical bite, propulsive dungeon-floor momentum, and the ongoing odd-couple chemistry of Carl and Princess Donut.
Helen Scheuerer
Best for: Committed series readers who want a slow-burn, enemies-to-lovers romantasy built on a ticking prophecy clock — fans of The Bridge Kingdom or From Blood and Ash ready to invest in a four-book arc.
Tui T. Sutherland
Best for: Middle-grade readers aged 8–11 who are already invested in the Wings of Fire series and want to see Glory's identity and belonging arc take centre stage in a fully realised new corner of Pyrrhia.
Terry Pratchett
Best for: Readers who enjoy satirical comedy with genuine bite — whether they're Discworld veterans or complete newcomers looking for a sharp, self-contained entry point built around a charismatic con-artist protagonist.
C. B. Ash
Best for: Adventure-fantasy readers who want swashbuckling age-of-sail privateering fused with alchemical transformation magic, an ensemble five-person crew instead of a lone chosen one, and a setting well outside the medieval-European default.
