Fantasy was our founder, Zara Hoffman’s, first love when it comes to genre fiction. It is fitting that it was also the genre of the first four titles acquired by Inimitable Books (even though a title from a different genre wound up getting published earlier than the fourth acquisition). The titles on this list are in the order that Zara read them.
Please note, the covers and publishers listed with each title is for the edition Zara read the book with (and may not be the cover of the book’s original publication). The years are the original publication of each title.
You’ll notice that some pretty famous series are not included on here. That’s not to say those books are bad. They just don’t make the cut as Zara’s top favorites.
Lyra is rushing to the cold, far North, where witch clans and armored bears rule. North, where the Gobblers take the children they steal–including her friend Roger. North, where her fearsome uncle Asriel is trying to build a bridge to a parallel world.
Can one small girl make a difference in such great and terrible endeavors? This is Lyra: a savage, a schemer, a liar, and as fierce and true a champion as Roger or Asriel could want–but what Lyra doesn’t know is that to help one of them will be to betray the other.
Zara doesn’t remember the specifics of learning how to read. But this book was one of the first fae remembers on the recommendation of fae’s older cousins.
Zara will note that the portrayal of gypsies (called “gyptians” in this alternate universe fantasy) world isn’t great. Fae also disliked both sequels in the trilogy.
Sophie lived in the town of Market Chipping, which was in Ingary, a land in which anything could happen, and often did—especially when the Witch of the Waste got her dander up. Which was often.
As her younger sisters set out to seek their fortunes, Sophie stayed in her father’s hat shop. Which proved most unadventurous, until the Witch of the Waste came in to buy a bonnet, but was not pleased. Which is why she turned Sophie into an old lady. Which was spiteful witchery.
Now Sophie must seek her own fortune. Which means striking a bargain with the lecherous Wizard Howl. Which means entering his ever-moving castle, taming a blue fire-demon, and meeting the Witch of the Waste head-on. Which was more than Sophie bargained for…
Though the Hayao Miyazaki film takes a slightly different focus than the novel, and certainly different tone in parts of the story, Zara still loves the adaptation. Almost as much as the book, with the understanding that they are different mediums and not intended to be identical.
When the ancient evil of the Blackbringer rises to unmake the world, only one determined faerie stands in its way. However, Magpie Windwitch, granddaughter of the West Wind, is not like other faeries. While her kind live in seclusion deep in the forests of Dreamdark, she’s devoted her life to tracking down and recapturing devils escaped from their ancient bottles, just as her hero, the legendary Bellatrix, did 25,000 years ago. With her faithful gang of crows, she travels the world fighting where others would choose to flee. But when a devil escapes from a bottle sealed by the ancient Djinn King himself, the creator of the world, she may be in over her head. How can a single faerie, even with the help of her friends, hope to defeat the impenetrable darkness of the Blackbringer?
Though Zara often spent the Scholastic Book Fair stocking up on Cam Jansen, A to Z Mysteries, and Magic Tree House books, fae has a very strong memory of finding Blackbringer on one of the many tables and being enamored with the cover, and then description. Though the world-building was magical, the characters were what popped off the page and cemented this book amidst Zara’s favorites in the genre.
Percy Jackson is about to be kicked out of boarding school… again. And that’s the least of his troubles. Lately, mythological monsters and the gods of Mount Olympus seem to be walking straight out of the pages of Percy’s Greek mythology textbook and into his life. And worse, he’s angered a few of them. Zeus’s master lightning bolt has been stolen, and Percy is the prime suspect.
Now Percy and his friends have just ten days to find and return Zeus’s stolen property and bring peace to a warring Mount Olympus. But to succeed on his quest, Percy will have to do more than catch the true thief: he must come to terms with the father who abandoned him; solve the riddle of the Oracle, which warns him of betrayal by a friend; and unravel a treachery more powerful than the gods themselves.
We bet you were expecting another fantasy series, but not only has that author apparently gone off the deep end while “Uncle Rick” has remained an awesome person in addition to being a talented author, Zara has always preferred this Greek mythology-centric series. A leftover of fae’s obsession with Greek mythology after first learning about it in the awesome picture book called Snake Hair in Kindergarten.
“There are only two reasons a non-seer would see a spirit on St. Mark’s Eve,” Neeve said. “Either you’re his true love . . . or you killed him.”
It is freezing in the churchyard, even before the dead arrive.
Every year, Blue Sargent stands next to her clairvoyant mother as the soon-to-be dead walk past. Blue herself never sees them—not until this year, when a boy emerges from the dark and speaks directly to her.
His name is Gansey, and Blue soon discovers that he is a rich student at Aglionby, the local private school. Blue has a policy of staying away from Aglionby boys. Known as Raven Boys, they can only mean trouble.
But Blue is drawn to Gansey, in a way she can’t entirely explain. He has it all—family money, good looks, devoted friends—but he’s looking for much more than that. He is on a quest that has encompassed three other Raven Boys: Adam, the scholarship student who resents all the privilege around him; Ronan, the fierce soul who ranges from anger to despair; and Noah, the taciturn watcher of the four, who notices many things but says very little.
For as long as she can remember, Blue has been warned that she will cause her true love to die. She never thought this would be a problem. But now, as her life becomes caught up in the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys, she’s not so sure anymore.
There was something so enchanting about this story in addition to being incredibly intriguing thanks to its many mysteries. However, in the interest of honesty, Zara wasn’t able to get immersed in the second book and wound up putting it aside.
In a society steeped in tradition, Princess Lia’s life follows a preordained course. As First Daughter, she is expected to have the revered gift of sight—but she doesn’t—and she knows her parents are perpetrating a sham when they arrange her marriage to secure an alliance with a neighboring kingdom—to a prince she has never met.
On the morning of her wedding, Lia flees to a distant village. She settles into a new life, hopeful when two mysterious and handsome strangers arrive—and unaware that one is the jilted prince and the other an assassin sent to kill her. Deception abounds, and Lia finds herself on the brink of unlocking perilous secrets—even as she finds herself falling in love.
Though this is a fantasy, what made this book stand out in Zara’s memory was how artfully the author maintained the mystery of which of the two young men in Lia’s life is the one meant to kill her while being in their points of view before the reveal. Zara did manage to guess the identities properly before Chapter 43, but it was quite a ride!
Is your favorite fantasy novel on this list? Share what you love about your pick. If not, let us know what it is in the comments.
