10 books like Sabriel

I’m obsessed with books that can depict the wonder, glory, and awfulness of womanhood. The beauty of it all alongside the pain and the suffering and the toil of it all. Madeline Miller takes a goddess and tells her story so truthfully, and with such grace, that it makes you question every retelling of history you’ve ever heard. It forces you to ask the question, if the Greek Gods got it so wrong, who else did? Circe is a work of art and you won’t be able to put it down. It left me wanting so much more of her. I was bereft when I turned the final page. 

I’m recommending A Game of Thrones, but for a specific set of reasons. No other series toys with readers’ emotions like this one. In most books, character deaths are either avoided, or predictable. A Game of Thrones completely shatters that mold.

This series taught me what it feels like to have characters I loved torn from me. It taught me how frustrating it is to get invested in a story line only to see it fizzle off into nothingness. In short, it taught me about an author’s responsibility.

There is a lot to love in this series. As an author, there is also a lot to learn here.

Mary "Jacky" Faber, an orphaned street kid in early 19th century London, begins her adventures across the seven seas by dressing up as a ship's boy. Throughout the series she builds up quite the amazing resume that would put a Navy Seal to shame. And of course, there is a bit of romance here and there but the focus lies on Jacky sailing the world and kicking butt!

I discovered True Grit in my twenties, three years after my father’s death. I’d been living on my own for a year and was recovering from depression. Life was forcing me to learn resourcefulness, and this book came to me at the right time. I remember reading it with delight, wishing I’d known about it before. Mattie Ross’ pragmatic voice as she describes her father’s murder and her quest to avenge his blood resonated with me, not because we are alike, but because I needed a lesson in toughness. But beyond all this, I needed a good laugh, and True Grit is funny. The characters are colourful, the story suspenseful, and Portis’ research is so thorough you’d swear his book was written in the 19th century. 

Echo North combined several familiar-to-me folk tales, and introduced me to the tale of Tam Lin. I loved the blending of known and original—especially the mirror room, where stories layered upon stories and acquaintances took on completely new qualities. The sewing together of a fracturing magical house also fascinated me. I was never sure about the intentions of certain people until the end, and despite guessing wrong, I was delighted by what really was happening.

Katsa, a Graceling, is unnaturally skilled at murder. As a result, she is forced to work as an assassin for her uncle, the king. Unlike the other characters on my list, Katsa hates being an assassin and loathes her abilities (in fact, she has quite a bit of self-loathing). She also prefers using her brawn over her brain. Her love interest, Po, is very much her opposite—a soft, well-read boy who also has a secret Grace of his own. Together, the two must rescue a princess and take down possibly one of the most awful villains I’ve ever read. Graceling is also part of a series that further expands the world, its characters, and its primary villain, and be prepared because it gets dark.

I have a soft spot for books that feature necromancy, so I had to pick this up. Right away, I felt for the MC’s plight of feeling trapped in the life laid out for her, and then I felt intense anger towards the one responsible only to find they must work together. There is humor, drama, and heart in this tale. When I read I want to be made to feel something, and this book has that in spades, even if a lot of the time I find myself feeling anger at how the MC is treated. She has a thick skin though, and she’ll need it for the road ahead with deep mystery and dueling all about. Did I mention fighting? Love the action and how it is portrayed.

This is the book that made me want to be an author. The worldbuilding and characters so vivid they felt like living, breathing beings whenever I opened the pages. I also blame this series for making me miss a bus, not once, not twice, but four times in one afternoon, I was that enthralled. 

I’m also a sucker for stories written in the first person. Call it vicarious living, escapism, or perhaps a bit of both, but the voice of Fitz drew me in and didn’t let me go until the final page. If you love lush worldbuilding, deep (deep) characters, politics, assassins, companion animals, beast magic, and coming of age, this is one I highly recommend.

I read this novel on a plane coming back from vacation. (I’d brought Matt Haig’s The Humans, André Alexis’s Fifteen Dogs, and this one—best vacation reading ever!) It took almost 100 pages to get into it, but then I was hooked fast. I wanted to be Sean Kendrick, to have his skill and composure, to hang out with Corr, the water horse (and not get eaten). The narration alternates between Sean and Puck Connelly, an equally strong and dignified character who rides land horses (not as cool). She is why the book is on this list. Her first sentence speaks of her brothers, Finn and Gabe, and they’re with her throughout the book even when they’re not in a scene because they’re part of her, influential and understated. 

I’m obsessed with Naomi Novik’s books, and it was tough to choose which one to recommend for this topic. A Deadly Education fits the bill because its heroine, El, has the potential to become a terrifying dark sorceress, but she puts tremendous effort into resisting her destiny. She finds ways to use her knack for destruction to save the world instead of annihilating it. A prickly, difficult person, El speaks in an honest and often hilarious voice as she grapples with the complications and inequalities of her world. Bonus: the book is set in a magic school that’s literally trying to eat the students. It doesn’t get better than that!