Here are 2 books that Riding the Elephant fans have personally recommended if you like
Riding the Elephant.
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I’ve been teaching in prep schools for twenty-five years, and I also attended one. As both student and teacher, I’ve been fascinated by student social dynamics—how groups form, fracture, and define what they value or reject. I’m equally interested in how teachers’ experiences mirror yet differ from students’. Though I always looked forward to summer breaks, I was drawn to literature—especially mysteries—set in prep schools. These stories helped me better understand the complexity of these relationships while offering a lens to reflect on my own experiences, often with far more drama than real life.
I love fantasy, and I love when fantasy meshes with reality in a way that comments on the real world through the fantasy. Emily Tesh nails that.
I also loved how evident it was that Tesh had worked at schools and made some of the drudgery of faculty meetings and admin work sparkle with humor in her novel. The characters are deeply and believably flawed.
'A searingly brilliant fantasy. This is magical school with teeth . . . an unmissable read' Tasha Suri, author of The Jasmine Throne
'Fans of Naomi Novik's Scholomance series won't want to miss this' Publishers Weekly
Dr Walden is the Director of Magic at Chetwood School and one of the most powerful magicians in England. Her days consist of meetings, teaching A-Level Invocation to four talented, chaotic sixth formers, more meetings and securing the school's boundaries from demonic incursions.
Walden is good at her job - no, Walden is great at her job. But demons are masters of manipulation. It's…
The dragons of Yuro have been hunted to extinction.
On a small, isolated island, in a reclusive forest, lives bandit leader Marani and her brother Jacks. With their outlaw band they rob from the rich to feed themselves, raiding carriages and dodging the occasional vindictive…
You know from the back cover that you're getting an "accident on a train + magic" story with Death on the Caldera. What you don't realize is the depth of the world you're about to be immersed in, and the masterful way that Paxman makes that world feel lived-in and real without dragging you down in the way that an epic fantasy would. Add to that an ensemble with a series of overlapping interests and perspectives, challenging each other at different turns, and you have an incredible page-turner.
