Books like The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook — picked by fans

Translated from Korean, Solo Leveling is the story of a world where mysterious portals have opened and lead into caves full of nightmarish creatures. To combat these “Dungeons”, humans have harnessed magic in order to awaken what are called Hunters – people who are stronger, faster, and more powerful than the average person. One of these Hunters is named Jinwoo Sung, known across Korea as the weakest hunter to have awakened. Barely stronger than a normal human, he’s nearly died hundreds of times but keeps fighting in order to support his sister and sick mother. After a sudden encounter with a strange Dungeon, he’s gained the ability to Level Up, finally giving him the chance to prove that he’s not just some weakling who needs to be protected.

This story resonates with me because you can’t help but be envious of a power like this. The more the MC fights,… show more.

Bastion is a story about a demi-god who did nothing wrong and yet the whole world thinks he did.

The question is, did he?

We don’t know and neither does Scorio. He is brought to this world without a clue as to who he is and immediately put into danger. The second he gets out he is told he is a monster and they try to kill him.

What initially seems to be a simple quest for revenge and seeking more power grows into a journey of self-discovery. Not only of what Scorio is capable of doing but who he really is. All while fighting a system hell bent on keeping him down.

What can I say? I love a good underdog story.

Oh and this beauty legitimately feels like reading two books. Somewhere around the middle I swear the first book ends and the second one begins. 

It’s a… show more.

I was given this book as part of Christmas book exchange. My friend thought I’d love it, and she was right. It’s a pirate story at heart, but the action takes place on a frozen landscape and instead of a ship, the Frostheart is a sleigh. The characters are great, especially Ash and his Yeti friend. The pages are packed with danger, magic, and laughs. All my favourite things.

Cinnamon Bun is a litRPG with heart.

Starting at zero may be typical for a litRPG, but Broccoli Bunch, heroine of the story, sets herself apart by humanizing all the creatures of her new world rather than devaluing them as objects to be slaughtered in the quest for power, glory, and loot. While fighting monsters in pursuit of some grand quest is commonplace in fantasy, within the litRPG subgenre, it’s practically the sole focus.

Which is why to me, our compassionate heroine Broccoli Bunch trying to make friends with all the monsters in the world is such a satisfying breath of fresh air.

This book is a wonder of a collaboration between siblings Sofia Samatar and Del Samatar, and it has haunted me for years.

This collection is a surreal work of autobiography told through Sofia’s short fiction and Del’s illustrations, all featuring different monsters. These monstrous vignettes are interwoven with memories of growing up as multiracial Somali Americans in the 1980s—to me, they highlight the power of speculative fiction at its very best.

This book feels a little bit like reading someone’s journal, and a little bit like when I realize I’m dreaming but can’t wake myself up. The monsters mesmerized and unsettled me; the Graphis gives me shivers and the Collector of Treasures makes me feel ill. It’s a challenging read and one that I will come back to again and again.

If you are looking for a book to inspire the inner creative in your child (and maybe even in you), this is the one. The color monster is a fabulous resource for helping kids identify emotions and it is presented in this incredible pop-up book format. You and your child can really disappear into the story through these 3-D visuals and it might even allow for a deeper exploration into emotions from this imaginative space. 

Framed by a scholarly appraisal of an actual archaic text, this novel, in verse, proceeds to tell a story of love, from boyhood to death.

It’s the story, amazingly, of a monster, a mythic creature with wings and red skin, but you forget about the myth when you’re reading. And you forget about poetry. Or you wonder, what’s the difference between poetry and a beautiful narrative of longing, of heartbreak, of hope and friendship and family ties, and when you get to the end of the life of this kid, which, like all our lives, is a story of love, you feel you understand a little more clearly what it is. 

A 90s, queer, coming-of-age story mixed with cosmic horror, I would have read this in a single sitting if I didn’t have to get off the bus. The protagonist, Heath, is an artistic teen who recreates horror movie posters during his habitual trips to the local video store and is slowly starting to realize he is gay, something discouraged by his fellow students at his Catholic school.

I loved the lack of explanation about the supernatural elements. Was the monster all in Heath’s head? I love the ambiguity, but I also love it as a metaphor. I really enjoyed the emotional journey, which felt very autobiographical. My favorite thing is the video store itself. I’m 33, so this brought back fond memories of visiting the video store with my parents.

This book is brilliant! The blurb alone was enough to hook me, and I couldn’t put it down until I reached the last sentence! The story was interesting, and the world-building was vivid, and the magic system was so interesting. Give it a shoot, you won’t regret it! 

Monstress is an awful lot of things: An epic fantasy that confronts the horrors of modern war; a work of fusion that marries Western and Eastern aesthetics and the epic scale of George R. R. Martin with the cosmic and body horror of Junji Ito; an incredible trove of beautiful visual art; a stage for women of all kinds, young and old, beautiful and monstrous, weak and powerful, with and without shark heads; and a story about a girl coming to grips with a dark family legacy and what it means for her place in a bloody, painful world.

More than anything else, it’s about what happens when people use each other. For my money, the best epic fantasy currently being published in any form.