Here are 100 books that The Looking Glass Wars fans have personally recommended if you like
The Looking Glass Wars.
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I grew up with Irish folklore, Lord of the Rings, and X-Men comics as my bedtime stories, but I am also a domestic violence survivor twice over with c-PTSD. I was never able to get justice for anyone who hurt me. I created my stories as a way to cope and understand my feelings and triggers by making them their own personalities. So, I made my trauma available for everyone in a fantasy setting with two love interests to adore the heroine who had to endure so much but never gave up on giving people someone to root for when they couldn’t for themselves anymore.
What if a witch, a vampire, and a Fairy walk into a bar, all having quit their job to start a detective agency, and you get this book? I loved the pacing, the characters, all of it!
The female lead character, Rachel, is just one of the funniest characters. I loved how she was A-okay with going around the legal system in the ways she did to trip up her target was just fun.
From New York Times bestselling author, Kim Harrison, comes the first book in an exciting urban fantasy series; packed with the perfect balance of wry humour and thrilling action, which will delight fans of thrillers and fantasy alike.
Rachel Morgan is a white witch and runner working for Inderland Security, in an alternate world where a bioengineered virus wiped out a great deal of the world's human population - exposing the existence of the supernatural communities that had long lived alongside humanity.
For the last five years Rachel has been tracking down law-breaking Inderlanders in modern-day Cincinnati, but now she…
Over the past 50 years, scientists have made incredible progress in the application of genetic research to human health care and disease treatment. Innovative tools and techniques, including gene therapy and CRISPR-Cas9 editing, can treat inherited disorders that were previously untreatable, or prevent them from happening in the first place.…
I have always been fascinated by stories where faith, myth, and the human condition collide in unexpected ways. The kinds of books that don’t just tell a story, but make you question God, morality, suffering, and what remains of humanity when everything collapses. These are the kinds of stories that stay in your head long after you finish reading. They mix faith, myth, and the end of the world in ways that feel strangely personal and unsettling. They are not simple fantasy, not traditional horror, and not religious fiction in the usual sense. They sit in a strange space where belief, suffering, and human nature all collide.
I love this book because it treats gods, myths, and beliefs as living things shaped by human attention and neglect.
What fascinated me most was how ancient divinities walk unnoticed in the modern world, slowly fading as people stop believing. I felt drawn to the idea that faith itself creates reality.
This story made me reflect on how myths evolve, how belief changes through time, and how the supernatural can feel strangely grounded in everyday life.
Now a STARZ® Original Series – Season 3 premiere in January 2021
“Pointed, occasionally comic, often scary, consistently moving and provocative….American Gods is strewn with secrets and magical visions.”—USA Today
Newly updated and expanded with the author’s preferred text. A modern masterpiece from the multiple-award-winning master of innovative fiction, Neil Gaiman.
First published in 2001, American Gods became an instant classic, lauded for its brilliant synthesis of “mystery, satire, sex, horror, and poetic prose” (Washington Post) and as a modern phantasmagoria that “distills the essence of America” (Seattle Post-Intelligencer). It is the story of Shadow—released from prison just days after…
I'm Lyra R. Saenz. I'm an off-the-clock goth, a steampunk romantic, and a loyal adopter of lonely books. I'm a writer of genre-breakers and witchy makeovers. I've spent my life with either my nose in a book or my heart on the stage, and my passion for art is my drive every day. I grew up watching Star Wars, which is probably the apex of all magic merged with science settings, and I've always wondered why people don't make more of that: a super advanced society where witches and wizards are respected parts of the world.
First of all, the main character, Laytham, gets my little bi-sexual heart leaping with excitement. He’s sexy and dark and mysterious. He’s got some serious issues but handles it all with a healthy dose of cynicism and magic.
I love how gritty this book is. It’s the stench of the city mixed with the sweat and arousal of a dance club. I’ve never seen magic done this way, where one of the characters uses the computer to access his own magical network.
I read this book at a time in my life when things just were not going in the direction I wanted them to. It inspired me to take back control of my life. In a lot of ways, it is very cyberpunk, rooted in urban fantasy.
In the more shadowy corners of the world, frequented by angels and demons and everything in- between, Laytham Ballard is a legend. It's said he raised the dead at the age of ten, stole the Philosopher's Stone in Vegas back in 1999, and survived the bloodsucking kiss of the Mosquito Queen. Wise in the hidden ways of the night, he's also a cynical bastard who stopped thinking of himself as the good guy a long time ago. Now a promise to a dying friend has Ballard on the trail of an escaped Serbian war criminal with friends in both high…
Since losing his mom, thirteen-year-old Jack Wilson has spent most of his time seeing just how much trouble he can get away with so that he feels like a winner at something. But he takes his mischief too far and is faced with the possibility of unbearable consequences. He…
I'm Lyra R. Saenz. I'm an off-the-clock goth, a steampunk romantic, and a loyal adopter of lonely books. I'm a writer of genre-breakers and witchy makeovers. I've spent my life with either my nose in a book or my heart on the stage, and my passion for art is my drive every day. I grew up watching Star Wars, which is probably the apex of all magic merged with science settings, and I've always wondered why people don't make more of that: a super advanced society where witches and wizards are respected parts of the world.
I listened to the audiobook of this anthology and man! I could not tell you how beautiful and horrifying this one is.
For those of us who love some horror alongside our fantasy, this one takes the kickers. I love the throughline of each story. There is something to be said for when the line between the technolyzed body and the real body comes into conflict.
I love that there was magical realism in some of the stories, but it was crouched within the human psyche, for where does magic live if not in our heart and soul.
When we were children, we dreamed of being heroes. We wanted to slay dragons and defeat the monsters that scared us.
As we grew older, we were forced to try and find our monsters. We had been told they would be easy to spot. Monsters had too much teeth, too much fur, too much size.
These were lies. We stopped wanting to be heroes. We started to want to be more, to be too much. We wanted, needed, more than the world could give us. We wanted more than what we were told we should be. We wanted…
I have always been fascinated by stories that use darkness in plot and character growth. As a former funeral director, I find stories with death—whether it’s the power of death, the death of a loved one, or something similar—to be really poignant. I always write books that embrace the darkness, and I love to see how characters come out on the other side. I hope you enjoy these books as much as I do!
If I have a Roman Empire, it’s this series. I think about the triplets of Fennbirn regularly.
This book follows three triplets who are fated to kill each other so one may wear the crown. I loved the way Blake peeks inside each of the sister’s heads and writes this complicated dynamic between them. I mean, the fact that they’re sisters and they have to kill each other is the baseline for complications.
It is dark and visceral, and I truly felt like I was with each sister when their POV came up.
Three Dark Crowns is a heart-stopping fantasy from Kendare Blake, acclaimed author of Anna Dressed in Blood.
In every generation on the island of Fennbirn, a set of triplets is born: three queens, all equal heirs to the crown and each possessor of a coveted magic. Mirabella is a fierce elemental, able to spark hungry flames or vicious storms at the snap of her fingers. Katharine is a poisoner, one who can ingest the deadliest poisons without so much as a stomach-ache. Arsinoe, a naturalist, is said to have the ability to bloom the reddest rose and control the fiercest…
I’m a children’s story writer. I frequently include dragons, from babyhood to adulthood. They aren’t just pets – they can be scary. I like to show characters who become better people by coping with their fears. Dragons are symbols. Plus, I love imagining what they might do in my plots.
First, I’m a fan of Eoin Colfer. He’s always adept at playing against expected stereotypes.
This time, he’s got a prince who is devoid of traditional royal skills. And a princess, who wasn’t born royal. And a dragon, who doesn’t live up to expectations either.
This story reminds me of a quote from the TV show In Living Color – “I will not comply with even reasonable requests.”
Illustrated in a sophisticated muted palette, this is a classic quest story with a modern twist from two Irish Children's Laureates.
After his father's death, Prince Lir is tricked into embarking on a perilous quest to rescue a maiden from a dragon. The studious young prince is no warrior, but he uses his brains to make himself indispensable to the grumpy dragon. However, neither prince nor dragon have bargained on the dark magic which manipulates them both, and it may be left to maiden herself to save them all...
An Heir of Realms tells the tale of two young heroines—a dragon rider and a portal jumper—who fight dragon-like parasites to save their realms from extinction.
Rhoswen is training as a Realm Rider to work with dragons and burn away the Narxon swarming into her realm. Rhoswen’s dream is to…
I love fantasies that dream up totally new worlds! Some people condemn the fantasy genre as formulaic, and sometimes they’re right—but it shouldn’t be so! Fantasies can explore worlds as wide and wild and wonderful as the human imagination itself! Anything’s possible! But I also love a fantasy world that’s as real, coherent, and consistent as our own real world. I think that’s the ultimate challenge for any author: to create it all from the grassroots up. And for any reader, the trip of a lifetime! My personal preference is for worlds a bit on the dark side—just so long as they blow my mind!
Three worlds in one book! There’s the not-so-important world of the Ancelstierre, roughly Edwardian or early-20th-Century-ish, and there’s the Old Kingdom, basically medieval, where Charter Magic wars with Free Magic (and how well Nix thinks through the workings of his forms of magic).
But the third world is the one that takes the cake! An underworld of the dead, with its different levels, gates, and sills. Sabriel discovers her own special inheritance and powers—OK, that’s standard fantasy fare, except that Sabriel’s powers are those of an abhorsen. It’s the Abhorsen’s role to make sure that the dead stay dead, and journey on down into the deeper levels of death. Of course, the dead who keep coming back are the ones who drive the narrative!
A stunning anniversary gift edition of the second in the bestselling Old Kingdom fantasy series.
Sabriel has spent most of her young life far away from the magical realm of the Old Kingdom, and the Dead that roam it. But then a creature from across the Wall arrives at her all-girls boarding school with a message from her father, the Abhorsen - the magical protector of the realm whose task it is to bind and send back to Death those that won't stay Dead. Sabriel's father has been trapped in Death by a dangerous Free Magic creature.
I’m a grown-up who struggles to stay in the here and now, vastly preferring to live in the stories in my head or in the book in front of me. I grew up in New England, Spain, and now have settled in Colorado after traveling around most of the lower 48 states. I’ve been a fan of well written fantasy since I learned to read, and at 35 I started writing my own fantasy stories. Now when I need a perfect getaway escape, I read my own books!
What’s not to love about a world so imaginatively cool and amazingly immersive?
I’ve legit spent hours of my life thinking about living in an underground cave system, and so this book was everything I wanted. I also loved being along for the adventure and feeling like I was discovering things right along with the characters.
It’s giving National Treasure vibes, which is one of my all-time favorite movies.
Ember is the only light in a dark world. But when its lamps begin to flicker, two friends must race to escape the dark. This highly acclaimed adventure series is a modern-day classic-with over 4 MILLION copies sold!
The city of Ember was built as a last refuge for the human race. Two hundred years later, the great lamps that light the city are beginning to dim. When Lina finds part of an ancient message, she's sure it holds a secret that will save the city. Now, she and her friend Doon must race to figure out the clues to…
I was born and grew up in Seoul. My bestselling debut novel has been longlisted for the 2024 Women’s Prize for Fiction and the 2024 Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize and shortlisted for the 2024 William Saroyan International Prize for Writing. My book is inspired by my great-aunt, one of the oldest women who had escaped alone from North Korea. It is available from Harper Perennial in the U.S. and Virago in the UK. The novel’s translations continue to meet readers worldwide, including in Italy, Romania, Greece, Denmark, Spain, Switzerland, and South Korea.
Eileen is one of the most twisted and unconventional literary heroines I’ve ever read. Behind her quiet demeanor and dull face hides her mind, which is like a killer’s, always furious and seething.
While working at a juvenile correctional facility, Eileen meets Rebecca, another key character far removed from most women of their generation. Seductive and deceitful, Rebecca cajoles Eileen into joining her act of crime–a violent, underhanded plan to restore her idea of justice.
Shortlisted for the 2016 Man Booker Prize and chosen by David Sedaris as his recommended book for his Fall 2016 tour.
So here we are. My name was Eileen Dunlop. Now you know me. I was twenty-four years old then, and had a job that paid fifty-seven dollars a week as a kind of secretary at a private juvenile correctional facility for teenage boys. I think of it now as what it really was for all intents and purposes-a prison for boys. I will call it Moorehead. Delvin Moorehead was a terrible landlord I had years later, and so to…
A gay retelling of the classic fairy tale--a scrumptious love story featuring ungrateful stepsiblings, a bake-off, and a fairy godfather.
Cinderelliot is stuck at home taking care of his ungrateful stepsister and stepbrother. When Prince Samuel announces a kingdom-wide competition to join the royal staff as his baker, the stepsiblings…
Children have vivid imaginations, and while mine was initially drawn to science fiction, I discovered my true passion for fantasy upon reading The Hobbit as a teenager. Since that day, escaping into fantasy worlds—whether it be through books, movies, TV, roleplaying, and video games—became my passion and hobby, leading me down many roads, including writing game reviews, a short story, a novel, and an extensive collection of fantasy-related replicas and statues. Ultimately, that endless feeling of wonder and exploration, adventure and danger is what convinced me to become an author; these five books sitting at the top of a long list that inspired me to reach that goal.
I’ve always had a fascination with prophecies and the ubiquitous role they play in works of fantasy—it’s a tried-and-true literary device, and I don’t think there is another series that embodies the principle of fate better than Eddings’ Belgariad series.
The title of this first book sets that up most perfectly. From the first few pages, I was instantly drawn into this world, which takes the concept of uniquely varied traveling companions to a whole other level.
Not only are the characters all well fleshed out with personalities and motivations that kept me invested the whole way, but the book (and series) was also replete with another thing I love so much about fantasy novels—going on a grand, action-filled journey through numerous, fascinating locations.
The first part of a saga set against a history of 7000 years of struggles of gods and kings and men. Long ago, the evil god Torak sought dominion and drove men and gods to war. Belgarath the Sorcerer led a quest to reclaim the Orb of Aldur - but so long as it lay at Riva, men would be safe.
