8 Lush Historical Fantasy Books for Your TBR

Del Rey, publisher of The Unicorn Hunters by Katherine Arden

In a desperate gamble to save her throne, a young monarch conceals a secret marriage in the shadows of an enchanted forest—and unknowingly alters the fate of her world. In this rich and epic historical fantasy, the author of the acclaimed Winternight trilogy turns the real history of a remarkable woman, Anne of Brittany, into an unforgettable tale of mystery, enchantment, and the price of power.

The Girl with a Thousand Faces by Sunyi Dean

Mercy Chan woke up on a beach without any memories, just after Japan occupied Hong Kong. She finds a place for herself and her loyal ghost-cat in the seedy, maze-like neighborhood of the Kowloon Walled City. But when the neighborhood is threatened, her past looms back up in the foreground, and she begins to realize—remember—that nothing about how she got here is simple. The magic of ghost-infested Hong Kong and the weaponization of spirits are mixed into the real trauma and aftermath of World War II in the city of Hong Kong.

Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark

Imagine the Ku Klux Klan was powered by eldritch creatures that are slowly leaking into our world, feeding on our feelings of hate. That’s the case in this alt-history of the American South, featuring a crew of people determined to fight the monsters that threaten to take over, led by Maryse and her powerful sword. Their most important task becomes to prevent the premiere of Birth of a Nation, which threatens to create an influx of hate. This is a great historical fantasy novella saturated with Black folklore and magic.

She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan

Two children go to see a fortune teller. The son is promised good fortune and greatness. The daughter has no future. But when her family is murdered, and her brother dies in front of her, she takes on Zhu Chongba’s identity. She is determined to survive, and she ventures out into the world, soon to become a crucial piece of the dynasty that would repel Mongol rule. Inspired by real Chinese history and the rise of the Ming Dynasty, it’s a rich, queer, epic duology.

The Volcano Daughters by Gina María Balibrera

Graciela and Consuelo are two estranged sisters trying to survive through the authoritarian rule of El Gran Pendejo in El Salvador in the 1920s. Their story is narrated by their childhood friends, now spirits. One grows up in an Indigenous community forced to work on coffee plantations; the other is an oracle forced to prophecy for the dictator himself. Mixing poetic prose and myths with historical events like La Matanza (the massacre) in El Salvador, this book covers their attempts to survive.

The Gilda Stories by Jewelle Gomez

A young Black girl escapes slavery; the brothel owner who adopts her goes on to give her the gift of immortality, and also grants her a new name: Gilda. Over the course of decades, from 1890 to the 1950s and all the way into 2050, Gilda finds her identity as a queer Black vampire and tries to build a community of her own people that she’s comfortable with. It’s an intensely queer story of found family and fantasy, spanning both the continent and the decades of history of Black culture and trials.

The World That We Knew by Alice Hoffman

A mother is determined to get her daughter out of Nazi-occupied Berlin—determined enough to hire the unseasoned daughter of a rabbi to perform forbidden magic and create a golem that can protect her daughter and get her over the border. As the novel continues into the depths of WWII in Germany and later in France, the golem must cope with her own existence and relative humanity while watching over the two daughters as they try to survive and even rebel against the encroachment of the Nazis.

The Lions of Al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay

Kay has become well-known for his historical fantasy, and in this volume, he tackles the epic tale of an empire based on Moorish Spain and the clash between religions that began when the Castilians decided to move their empire. In this rendition, we follow both the Jaddite leader Rodrigo Belmonte and his group of mercenaries, as well as the poet and diplomat Ammar ibn Khairan, advisor to the king of Cartada.

Siren Queen by Nghi Vo

In the silver age of Hollywood, becoming a star meant entering a cut-throat business. That was true in our world, too, but in this version, the studio owning your soul is a bit more literal. Inspired by the real lives of Asian actresses, this book depicts Luli Wei, a woman determined to be a movie star, who will navigate racist pigeonholing, misogynist overtures, and the threats of blood magic to make it happen, even if it means stepping on others on her way to the top.