Fantasy
NEW TO OUR STORE:
HIGH/EPIC FANTASY:
MAGICAL REALISM:
What is Magical Realism? Magical Realism is a sub-genre of Realism. It includes books that are a bit genre bending and hard to categorize. It often features worlds very similar to ours that have a little dash of the fantastical. Differing from Urban Fantasy, these fantastical elements are not considered weird or abnormal but are rather a normal or given part of society and the world the characters live in. Magical Realism doesn't have enough fantastical elements to be counted as Fantasy or Science-Fiction.
URBAN FANTASY:
Julie's favourite:
The Left-handed Booksellers of London
Garth Nix
Eighteen-year-old art student Susan Arkshaw arrives in London in search of her father. But before she can question crime boss Frank Thringley he's turned to dust by the prick of a silver hatpin in the hands of the outrageously attractive Merlin. Merlin is one of the youngest members of a secret society of booksellers with magical powers who police the mythic Old World wherever it impinges on the New World - in addition to running several bookshops, of course! Merlin also has a quest of his own: to find the Old World entity who arranged the murder of his mother. Their investigations attract attention from enemies of the Old and New Worlds. Soon they become involved in an even more urgent task to recover the grail that is the source of the left-handed booksellers' power, before it is used to destroy the booksellers and rouse the hordes of the mythic past. As the search for the grail becomes strangely intertwined with both their quests, they start to wonder... Is Susan's long-lost father a bookseller, or something altogether more mysterious?
Monique's Favourite:
BOOK OF NIGHT by HOLLY BLACK
In Charlie Hall's world, shadows can be altered, for entertainment and cosmetic preferences-but also to increase power and influence. You can alter someone's feelings-and memories-but manipulating shadows has a cost, with the potential to take hours or days from your life. Your shadow holds all the parts of you that you want to keep hidden-a second self, standing just to your left, walking behind you into lit rooms.
And sometimes, it has a life of its own.
Charlie is a low-level con artist, working as a bartender while trying to distance herself from the powerful and dangerous underground world of shadow trading. She gets by doing odd jobs for her patrons and the naive new money in her town at the edge of the Berkshires.
But when a terrible figure from her past returns, Charlie's present life is thrown into chaos, and her future seems at best, unclear-and at worst, non-existent. Determined to survive, Charlie throws herself into a maelstrom of secrets and murder, setting her against a cast of doppelgangers, mercurial billionaires, shadow thieves, and her own sister-all desperate to control the magic of the shadows.
With sharp angles and prose, and a sinister bent, Holly Black is a master of shadow and story stitching. Remember while you read, light isn't playing tricks in Book of Night, the people are.
PARANORMAL:
HORROR / GOTHIC FICTION:
DARK ACADEMIA:
What is Dark Academia? Dark Academia is a sub-genre that can be included under many different umbrellas (be they historical fiction, fantasy, science-fiction, thrillers etc.) Dark Academia books are mainly set in an academic setting, like a boarding school or university. Or they feature characters that pursue knowledge, especially darker topics like mortality or the dark arts. Dark Academia could also be in reference to gothic architecture or aesthetics, like museums, libraries or galleries. The 'dark' part of Dark Academia means that usually a murder or mystery takes place, either real world or paranormal in nature.
RETELLINGS (MYTHS, LEGENDS AND FAIRYTALES):
Monique's favourites:
The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer
The Lunar Chronicles are probably one of the best fairytale retellings that I have ever read.
Each book is a take on a different fairytale that we all know and love. But they all interrelate in the most fanscinating way.
With plot twists that you don't see coming and intricate world building that will blow you away this is a series I will never stop recommending.
Jan's Favourite:
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
Piranesi lives in the House. Perhaps he always has.
In his notebooks, day after day, he makes a clear and careful record of its wonders: the labyrinth of halls, the thousands upon thousands of statues, the tides that thunder up staircases, the clouds that move in slow procession through the upper halls. On Tuesdays and Fridays Piranesi sees his friend, the Other. At other times he brings tributes of food to the Dead. But mostly, he is alone.
Messages begin to appear, scratched out in chalk on the pavements. There is someone new in the House. But who are they and what do they want? Are they a friend or do they bring destruction and madness as the Other claims?
Lost texts must be found; secrets must be uncovered. The world that Piranesi thought he knew is becoming strange and dangerous.
The Beauty of the House is immeasurable; its Kindness infinite.
HISTORICAL FANTASY:
COSY FANTASY:
What is Cosy Fantasy? Cosy Fantasy is a sub-genre that pretty much lives up to its name. Stories under the Cosy umbrella tend to be low stakes, focusing on the characters or community rather than action and adventure plot lines. Cosy Fantasy tends to be escapism that leaves you feeling warm and fuzzy on the inside. The storlylines are comforting and healing and focus on a gentle slice of life (world building, character development and relationships within a community).
ROMANTASY:
CLASSICS:
Can't see your favourite Fantasy? We can always order in any book for you. Feel free to come in store, call or email your bookish requests and if they are still in print we will get them in for you at no extra cost.