Here are 74 books that The Near Witch fans have personally recommended if you like
The Near Witch.
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My novel choices were part of the Afterschool Literacy & Building Modules for an organization called LitShop. It encourages growth in literacy, making, building, and leadership in girls ages 10-15 in St. Louis, Missouri. I’m honored to lead the writing classes. All of the LitShop books feature strong girls who believe they can make and build their way to a better world, and I aim to include similar characters in my stories. Stories can provide us with motivation, inspiration, and companionship, and all of these books have done just that… for the girls of LitShop as well as myself.
A misfit loner is chosen to save the world. I know, it’s been done before. But this story is special. Firstly, it is set against the backdrop of Nigerian culture and lore. And secondly, Sunny. The main character is memorable for more than just her “differences.” She is determined and fierce, making her a hero you want to see bring home a “w” over and over again.
Affectionately dubbed "the Nigerian Harry Potter," Akata Witch weaves together a heart-pounding tale of magic, mystery, and finding one's place in the world.
Twelve-year-old Sunny lives in Nigeria, but she was born American. Her features are African, but she's albino. She's a terrific athlete, but can't go out into the sun to play soccer. There seems to be no place where she fits in. And then she discovers something amazing-she is a "free agent" with latent magical power. Soon she's part of a quartet of magic students, studying the visible and invisible, learning to change reality. But will it be…
Maybe it was too much reality TV growing up, especially being raised on figures like Tiffany "New York" Pollard or A Different World's Whitley Gilbert, but bad girl protagonists are insta-buys for me. I love them, and I have a particular fondness for when they're black girls. We're already seen as so angry, but bad girl books show you not only why a girl could get to be so angry but also that you ain't seen nothing yet. I need more people to see how much joy there is in rage, and I chose to explain it with YA horror because it's a genre so driven by catharsis and mood that it's a perfect fit.
Katrell is none other than THEE most QUEEN bitch. Even I, a personal bad girl connoisseur, wouldn't pick a fight with her. When Katrell learns she can resurrect the dead, she's immediately thinking about her and hers – specifically her dog and her pockets.
She has a harsh, frustrating family situation, but this book surprised me with the moment she decided to take her life into her own hands.
That's when I knew I was in the presence of a bad bitch. Katrell does need saving, but that does not make her weak. It makes her that much more merciless to threats if they dare get in her way, and we love that for her!
For fans of Lovecraft Country and Candyman comes a witchy story full of Black girl magic! One girl′s dark ability to summon the dead offers her a chance at a new life, while revealing to her an even darker future.
“Practical Magic meets Black Girl Magic in this powerful addition to the YA canon. I couldn′t put it down.” —#1 New York Times Bestselling Author Victoria Schwab
Katrell can talk to the dead. And she wishes it made more money. She’s been able to support her unemployed mother—and Mom’s deadbeat-boyfriend-of-the-week—so far, but it isn’t enough. Money’s still tight, and to…
I love being cozy more than just about anything – that’s why I keep writing books set in boarding schools in the fall! My books are best served with a cup of tea and a purring kitten to get you through the sad bits – which, as we all know, just make romantic endings even more satisfying.
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.
Hocus Pocus and Practical Magic meets the Salem Witch trials in this haunting story about three sisters on a quest for revenge - and how love may be the only thing powerful enough to stop them.
Welcome to the cursed town of Sparrow...
Two centuries ago, in the small, isolated town, three sisters were sentenced to death for witchery. Stones were tied to their ankles and they were drowned in the deep waters surrounding the town. Now, for a brief time each summer, the sisters return from the depths, stealing the bodies of three weak-hearted girls so that they may…
Growing up in New Orleans, my love of all things magical is the native fruit of the culturally rich soil I was planted in. Witches both fascinate and scare me a little. Reading and writing fiction helps me process what’s hiding behind those fears. My debut novel, Mind Like a Diamond explores thirteen of the most common fears in the form of a competition-style haunted house. Like many of the books on this list, it might give you nightmares. But sometimes being scared is so wonderfully thrilling, you can’t put the book down. For more book recommendations from me, bookish memes, and writing tips follow me on Instagram.
All you need to know: witches in the future. That’s it. That’s the review. Go read this book. Okay, in all seriousness, this is one of those books that you almost throw at people without explanation. I should note it has some sensitive content—from the author: “Whipping scene within the context of slavery, gun/police violence, discussion of and character with an eating disorder, blood/gore/violence, death, substance abuse/addiction, mentions of child neglect."
As an added note, there are mentions of systems existing in the book which misgender trans people that are discussed by the characters.
So yes, lots of heavy subject matter. But this book will blow you away. And the cover is stunning so treat yourself to the hardcover. Go on, I insist. Thank me later.
"High stakes, big heart, and lots of Black Girl Magic...unputdownable." -Aiden Thomas, New York Times bestselling author of Cemetery Boys
A rich, dark urban fantasy debut following a teen witch who is given a horrifying task: sacrificing her first love to save her family's magic. The problem is, she's never been in love-she'll have to find the perfect guy before she can kill him.
After years of waiting for her Calling-a trial every witch must pass to come into their powers-the one thing Voya Thomas didn't expect was to fail. When Voya's ancestor gives her an unprecedented second chance to…
I’m a Canadian fantasy and horror writer living on Vancouver Island. In my spare time I collect far too many candles and dabble in tea leaf reading, so stories of witchcraft and witches are naturally right up my alley.
A laugh-out-loud snarky (and definitely steamy) enemies-to-lovers story about a witch hunter falling for the witch he’s supposed to kill. Though there’s a lot of romance and tension between the characters, we also get a good amount of action and exploration of this world of “Chasseurs” and witches.
New York Times Bestseller * Indiebound Bestseller * An Amazon Best Book of 2019 * B&N's YA Book Club Pick
"A brilliant debut, full of everything I love: a sparkling and fully realized heroine, an intricate and deadly system of magic, and a searing romance that kept me reading long into the night. Serpent & Dove is an absolute gem of a book." -Sarah J. Maas, #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Court of Thorns and Roses series
Bound as one, to love, honor, or burn. Book one of a stunning fantasy trilogy, this tale of witchcraft and…
With every book we read, we engage in a complex act of telepathy and empathy. We are entering another human’s thoughts, interpreting them with our own, and come out changed from this colossal encounter. These five books I mentioned, with their extraordinary kindness, insight, humor, wisdom, warmth, compassion, and wholeness—many of them fantasies, many of them focusing on communities—have informed the writer I am today: a World Fantasy Award Winner. But I wouldn’t be without all the books that helped make me. These books are some of the best that built me, and keep building in me: the kind of books I try to write myself.
Ah, The Ruthless Lady’s Guide to Wizardrydelighted me and made me laugh from the first page. It’s radically funny and inexorably inventive. Best of all, it follows a protagonist who doesn’t know how great she is—who thinks she’s kind of terrible, really—and it takes a newfound community of friends and fellow wizard ladies to reflect back to her a new opinion of herself. The language is Dickensian (only better!) in its wit and flexibility. It abounds in amazing female characters. And while there’s a fun romance, it’s the friendships that get me in my sticking place. I just wanted to hug this book when I finished. I wanted to have written it. I’m glad Waggoner did instead.
Sparks fly in this enchanting fantasy novel from the author of Unnatural Magic when a down-and-out fire witch and a young gentlewoman join forces against a deadly conspiracy.
Dellaria Wells, petty con artist, occasional thief, and partly educated fire witch, is behind on her rent in the city of Leiscourt—again. Then she sees the “wanted” sign, seeking Female Persons, of Martial or Magical ability, to guard a Lady of some Importance, prior to the celebration of her Marriage. Delly fast-talks her way into the job and joins a team of highly…
I’ve been obsessed with stories and storytelling ever since I learned to read, which is probably why fairy tales, some of the oldest stories around, play a huge role in Unwritten. What I love most about fairy tales is how exciting they are: they have magic, wicked witches, abandoned children, magical transformations…. And yet, the original fairy tales are often simply “story skeletons” –some are only a few pages (or even paragraphs) long. Still, they have endured over hundreds of years and are constantly evolving. I love studying what makes these tales continue to resonate with readers and thinking about how I can use these elements in my own work.
The Magic Circle is a retelling of Hansel and Gretel from the witch’s point of view. (I absolutely adore all of Donna Jo Napoli’s fairy tale retellings, so it was hard to pick just one!) I love how she is able to take an evil character from the original fairy tale and completely humanize her, writing her backstory and making her so sympathetic that by the time we get to that fateful scene with the oven, I was in tears. Not only are the characters brilliantly drawn, but the book is set in Medieval Europe and meticulously researched, bringing this time and place to life.
From the author of Zel, Stones in Water, and The Prince of the Pond.
Deep in the woods lives the old witch called Ugly One. All she wants is to forget—the she was once a loving mother and a healer, blessed and powerful within her magic circle, and not a witch, claimed by the devils. Then one day she hears the footsteps she dreads. Then real voices—children’s voices. The Ugly One longs to take care of sturdy, sensible Gretel and her young brother Hansel. They are such good children, such delicious, beautiful children. But demons’ voices scream in her head:…
The allure of magic in literature has gripped me since I was a kid, probably due to a very difficult childhood and the unusually precocious scope of my imagination. Escape is prized in such circumstances. The fact that I could illustrate my own little stories as well as I could read adult works helped, too. Majoring in English and History later on only fortified my subsequent desire to blend contemporary and classically appointed styles along with elaborate illustrations to create (hopefully) enduring works of my own. I describe myself as “raised by wolves, saved by stories, and still exploring the universe in my own magical hot air balloon.”
Who could resist a trio of country witches leaving the comfort of their cottages just because one of them inherits a new job as a fairy godmother and her companions insist upon tagging along to supervise? Off to the big city they fly, unaware of the hilarious and spooky perils that await them along the way… or the powerful enchantress eager to seal their doom when they arrive. I think it’s Terry Pratchett’s best tale from his “witches series,” and the unforgettable excursion by Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg, and Magrat Garlick will charm the pumpkins out of readers for a lifetime.
'You can't go around building a better world for people. Only people can build a better world for people. Otherwise, it's just a cage.'
There's power in stories. The Fairy Godmother is good. The servant girl marries the Prince. Everyone lives happily ever after . . . don't they?
The witches Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg and Magrat Garlick are travelling to far-distant Genua to stop a wedding and save a kingdom. But how do you fight a happy-ever-after, especially when it comes with glass slippers and a power-hungry Fairy Godmother who has made Destiny an offer it can't refuse?
I was a weird kid. Often accused of ‘thinking too much’, I cut my literary teeth on Stephen King, Ray Bradbury, Phillip K Dick, and Shirley Jackson. Raised on their dark milk, I grew up wanting more than hollow scares and mindless eviscerations. Don’t just give me a scary story, give me a scary story that resonates, one that raises a lens to our world, our history, the rules we’re asked to live by. Unsettle me, make me think. Most of all, give me characters worth my precious time. These are the kind of stories I endeavor to write and the ones I most enjoy reading. I hope you enjoy this small selection as much as I have.
The Children of Lir is one of Ireland’s best-known myths. Over the years it has been more than a little sanitized, and as a consequence almost entirely relegated to a children’s beloved fairytale. With her rich, poetic prose and unflinching honesty, Deirdre Sullivan brings the story right back into the adult sphere. Her characters emerge, flawed and seething, from the magical fog of myth to hurt and help each other, and to drag the enthralled reader with them through aeons of vengeance, loyalty, and, eventually, peace.
I can’t stress how beautiful this novel is. An epic poem almost, it satisfies my hunger for beautiful prose, and for thematic depth and emotional resonance. If you love gorgeous writing as much as I do, you will love this one.
A dark, feminist retelling of The Children of Lir by the author of the multi-award-winning Tangleweed and Brine
'No-one else writes like Deirdre Sullivan. She is lyrical, poetic and thoroughly intoxicating.' Juno Dawson, author of Wonderland
'Unsettling, haunting, and darkly lyrical, Savage Her Reply is a beautiful thing.' Louise O'Neill, author of After The Silence
A retelling of the favourite Irish fairytale The Children of Lir. Aife marries Lir, a chieftain with four children by his previous wife. Jealous of his affection for his children, the witch Aife turns them into swans for 900 years.
I am the oldest of six children – all girls! I used to make up imaginary worlds for my little sisters. We’d steal clothes from Mum and Dad for dressing up; we’d pull all the cushions off the sofa to make a show; we even used to put ribbons on the poor dog. Nowadays I write books with magic and fairy tales and adventure. I write for the child inside me; the child that loved an exciting, fantastical story. I have written over 50 books for children from picture book to middle grade, and I still love inventing imaginary worlds.
Spooky and magical! I remember staying up all night to finish this one when I was a child. It’s scary but so, so exciting. The real thrill comes from the idea that magic is all around us, alongside us in our everyday lives. The relationship between the boy and his grandmother is warm and loving, and their positivity is what provides the hope and joy in this book.
From the World's No. 1 Storyteller, The Witches is a children's classic that has captured young reader's imaginations for generations.
This is not a fairy tale. This is about real witches.
Grandmamma loves to tell about witches. Real witches are the most dangerous of all living creatures on earth. There's nothing they hate so much as children, and they work all kinds of terrifying spells to get rid of them. Her grandson listens closely to Grandmamma's stories-but nothing can prepare him for the day he comes face-to-face with The Grand High Witch herself!
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