The best young adult fantasy novels to stoke the fires of your imagination

The first of the His Dark Materials Trilogy, Northern Lights kicks off the series with a bang. We are thrust into the shoes of young Lyra as she journeys to the Arctic in search of her missing friend and uncle. Along the way, she must navigate through an engaging cast of characters ranging from ruthless sophisticates to metalsmith polar bear-esque creatures. Besides being wonderfully descriptive, the book delves deep into intriguing themes such as childhood, humanity, morality, identity, religion, and science. Inside the fantastic world Pullman has created, the most captivating part for me personally was the concept of daemons, physical manifestations of a person’s inner-self, which start as shapeshifters but take on the form of a certain animal as the person matures.

Set in an alternate version of London where a ruling class of magicians lord over nonmagical commoners, The Amulet of Samarkand follows jaded young magician Nathaniel and the djinn named Bartimaeus he summons to enact his revenge on a powerful government magician who slighted him. An egotistical and sarcastic spirit who truly stole the show for me, Bartimaeus possesses a quick wit that shines not only through quips but also through hilarious footnotes littering his chapters. This novel explores the ethics of the magician class and the spirits they enslave as Stroud masterfully weaves this tale from two different perspectives, following Nathaniel in third person while Bartimaeus’ chapters utilize first person.

The Sea of Trolls is a gripping fantasy novel that fuses together history and Norse epics into a sprawling adventure teeming with magic, Viking raiders, and mythical creatures. Even with all of these fantastical elements in the mix, what hooked me the most about Sea of Trolls was the incredibly well-written cast of characters. Reading about intriguing figures such as the famed skald Dragon Tongue mentoring young Jack on the art of magical bards and the fiery but complex young berserker in training Thorgil under the wing of raider leader One-Brow Olaf, I found myself utterly engrossed in the narrative Farmer wove between the pages of The Sea of Trolls. 

Fablehaven is a book stuffed to the brim with magical creatures and artifacts, and the sheer number of peculiar creatures featured, such as the wooden puppet Mendigo, is enough to catch the attention of any fantasy fan. However, what I found most compelling about this book was the structure of the enchanted world hiding in plain sight that Mull constructed. The many mythical creatures that call Fablehaven home can only be seen by drinking the milk of a special cow, and otherwise appear to those without this magical vision as mundane sights such as rocks or animals. Moreover, the creatures residing in Fablehaven must all abide by a treaty protecting humans and magical creatures alike, which leads to some interesting developments as the series continues… 

An astoundingly creative world fashioned by Australian author Emily Rodda, the unique and thrilling creatures roaming the land of Deltora quickly captured my imagination as a young reader. From the fearsome vulture-like Ak-Baba carrying out the Shadow Lord’s will to the tyrannical lizard-esque Wennbar demanding food offerings from the Wenn, Rodda has a talent for conceiving creatures that both excite and terrify readers. These creatures are further brought to life by the vivid illustrations from the talented Marc McBride, and an anime series that I only just learned the existence of while writing this article, but am now thrilled to check out!