Historical Fantasy

A Far Better Thing

We’re big fans here at BookPage HQ of Parry’s joyously nerdy approach to historical fantasy, whether she’s dreaming up a French Revolution but with sorcerers or a World War I fought with faerie magic. A Far Better Thing sounds like a combination of all of Parry’s books to date: faeries, the French Revolution and the classic literature revisionism of The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep. In a brilliant spin on A Tale of Two Cities, Parry transforms coincidental lookalikes Sidney Carton and Charles Darnay into a boy kidnapped by faeries and the changeling left in his place, respectively. And as the book opens, the now-grown Sidney is out for revenge.

The Listeners

By Maggie Stiefvater

The adored author of YA classics The Raven Cycle, The Scorpio Races and the Shiver Trilogy will finally make her adult debut with The Listeners, which seems of a piece with the dreamy, fabulist fantasy of The Raven Cycle. The Listeners will follow a midcentury hotel owner who is the only person who can “manage” the possibly/probably magical hot springs that have made the West Virginia hotel a luxury destination. However, it’s also 1942, and when the hotel owners make a deal with the State Department to house captured Axis diplomats, the beautiful environs are soon crawling with Nazis.

Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart

By GennaRose Nethercott

Ominous, imaginative and intriguing, GennaRose Nethercott’s stories probe the tension between the wild and the tame as they exist in our daily lives.

Mother of Rome

By Lauren J.A. Bear

Cathartic and moving, Mother of Rome reimagines the myth of Romulus and Remus by placing their mother, Princess Rhea Silvia, center stage.

The Scholar and the Last Faerie Door

By H.G. Parry

The Scholar and the Last Faerie Door is a magical twist on dark academia that presents an entrancing vision of an alternate post-World War I England.

Lady Macbeth

By Ava Reid

Readers seeking stories of abuse survivors finally conquering their abuser and fans of grimdark historical fantasy will find Lady Macbeth elegantly written and right up their alley.

The Bright Sword

By Lev Grossman

At once full of desperate hope and grievous loss, Lev Grossman’s The Bright Sword is a moody reflection on the tales of King Arthur and the Round Table.

A Rose by Any Other Name

By Mary McMyne

In A Rose by Any Other Name, Mary McMyne uses the mystery of Shakespeare’s Dark Lady as the foundation for a dark and captivating Elizabethan fantasy.

The Cautious Traveller’s Guide to the Wastelands

By Sarah Brooks

The Cautious Traveller’s Guide to the Wastelands is a compelling steampunk fairy tale that follows a train journey through the dangerous place that was once Siberia.

Goddess of the River

By Vaishnavi Patel

In Goddess of the River, Kaikeyi author Vaishnavi Patel reimagines the Mahabharata with an intriguing moral ambiguity.

The Book of Thorns

By Hester Fox

Hester Fox’s The Book of Thorns is a gentle, magical tale of hope and healing in the midst of war.

The Warm Hands of Ghosts

By Katherine Arden

The author of the marvelous Winterlight trilogy returns to historical fantasy with this haunting tale set during World War I. Former nurse Laura Iven’s parents recently died in an accident, and her brother, Freddie, was declared MIA. But what actually happened to Freddie is far stranger.