55 books like The Language of Thorns

Nguyen is another artist whose drawings blow my mind. On top of his gorgeous, fluid, imaginative artwork, this book showcases a unique and gently told story about a boy who processes his burgeoning queerness through his and his mother’s shared passion for fairy tales.

Nguyen adds literary flair with a limited and intentional color palette—red shades for the present, blue for fairy tales, and yellow for memory—and also explores themes of immigration and assimilation. (The protagonist and his family, like the author-illustrator, are Vietnamese.)

To me, what’s most striking about this book, a queer retelling of “Snow White,” is that in addition to the POV of the Snow White character, Lynet, there’s also narration from Mina, the Evil Queen insert. Only in this retelling Mina isn’t a superficial villain.

In fact, she’s no villain at all. I find her to be a complex heroine, and her relationship with Lynet is equally rich and complicated. I was compelled by Lynet and Mina’s struggles under the weight of feminine and royal expectations. Despite their conflicts, they are more alike than they are different, and their journey to realizing this was so satisfying.

The sapphic romance between Lynet and a surgeon provides a lovely subplot that adds to, rather than distracts from, the main storyline. One of my all-time favorite sapphic retellings.

This novella has some of my favorite descriptions of the natural world and I love how it plays with its protagonist’s sense of time.

The lead character and his relationship to the forest draw from the mythology of the Green Man, and it’s a fantastic example of how much the narration style can be affected by the viewpoint character.

Tesh’s pose is dreamlike and slow, and all of its elements—the plot, the characters, the relationships—unfold slowly, like winter melting into spring.

Stories rife with forest magic and characters who learn to let go of past hurts are two of my favorite things, and Silver in the Wood executes both beautifully. 

Anna-Marie McLemore’s prose is so poetic and elegant that I sometimes reread sentences just because they have such a beautiful cadence to them.

This book is a reimagining of “Snow White and Rose-Red” with elements of Swan Lake and Latinx folklore.

Everything McLemore writes is magic, but this story weaves together everything I love about their work: magical realism, velvety descriptions, and fairy tales cracked open in new ways to shed light on racial and gender politics.

I love the complicated, loving relationship between the two sisters, and I love that the boy Blanca falls in love with has a complicated relationship with gender that is in part inspired by McLemore’s transgender and non-binary husband.

Filled with magic, prophecy, and ancient goddesses, Hunted By the Sky transports you to a world where a girl with a star-shaped birthmark seeks revenge for the murder of her parents, and a boy who is willing to do anything to save his father will soon meet. In this beautiful novel, you will find thoughtful worldbuilding and fantastical mirrors to our own reality, exploring identity, class, and love. 

She’s a witch! Let’s stake her out for the dragon to eat. This happens to Alys. But she’s not a witch. Her village just didn’t like her. She wants revenge and when the dragon arrives, he becomes her ally. Here’s another twisted plot where the female is undervalued but the story helps Alys find what she thinks she wants. Part of what she finds along the way is a strength and loyalty she didn’t know she had. But she also discovers what she thought she wanted, isn’t really worth it in the end. 

This book is the equivalent of eating a batch of fresh chocolate chip cookies inside a drafty and most definitely haunted lighthouse on the Oregon coast as the waves crash against the shore and you pull your blanket a little tighter around you.

No one does atmosphere like Shea Earnshaw (No one, I said it) and this story of drowned girls off the Oregon coast will send a chill up your spine even as you’re reaching for your next cup of tea.

Asra is a demigod with the gift of dictating the future by writing with her own blood. When her blood magic leads to the mortal girl she loves turning into a vengeful dragon, Asra must embark on a journey across the kingdom to stop her. A big-hearted protagonist grappling with her own power, complex cultural politics, two compelling love interests – who could ask for more? That so many of the primary romantic relationships in the story are same-sex is almost beside the point – except, of course, that queer characters rarely appear so matter-of-factly in epic fantasy. Inkmistress trades in deep, nuanced characters, moral complexity, and a story that often surprises in the best way, keeping the reader hooked until the incredibly satisfying conclusion.

Mia Corvere – the protagonist of the Nevernight Chronicles – and her offsider Ashlinn Jarnheim are very close to being my absolute favourite female protagonists of all time. I adore their partnership, and I enjoy how ruthless and practical both of them can be—while also caring very much about those they love.

Mia wants revenge for the execution of her father when she was a small child, she trains under a mysterious mentor throughout her childhood so that she can attend a violent assassin school. There, she intends to learn everything she needs to be good enough to take down her father’s killers. Of course, it’s not quite as easy as all that, but Mia’s journey is a twisty, interesting, complex one that will leave you compulsively turning pages. This is a dark, moody, and sometimes gruesome read. If you prefer your fantasy a little lighter, be warned before starting… show more.

Beware the replacement wife! Those folks we envy because they appear to have it all (flawless family/home/career, etc…) are often frantically treading water, desperate to keep that facade of perfection afloat. I know because I’ve been there, in a seemingly idyllic marriage where underneath the trappings of material success was, well, crap.

In this novel, the second wife thinks she’s got it goin’ on with the first wife’s ex, but things are not as they seem (are they ever in domestic thrillers, or real life??) I got a vicarious kick out of the two wives’ scheming and revenge-lust, and the dry humor laced throughout the story had me snickering with snarky delight!