If You Liked The Raven Cycle, You’ll Love These Books…

This book is often talked about in the same circles as The Raven Cycle, and it’s not without reason! With its found family aspect, bird-related naming convention, and wide supporting cast, Six of Crows is a ‘higher’ fantasy alternative to Maggie Stiefvater’s series.

The book follows six characters as they attempt to break into the most secure prison in their world: the Ice Court. This heist will give them all the money they need to reach their dreams. Inej wants freedom, Wylan wants to escape his father, Jesper wants to pay off his debts, Nina and Matthias want to escape their past, and Kaz wants revenge. They are all different, but as they get closer to their goal, they have to learn to trust each other.

If you liked the found family aspect of The Raven Cycle, Six of Crows is the perfect book for you, and once you’ve read it, you won’t be able to resist the second book in the duology, Crooked Kingdom, which delves even deeper into the Crows' dynamics!

The first book in a series, The Foxhole Court, is yet another book often talked about in the same circles as The Raven Cycle for similar reasons as Six of Crows. This series is a mess and often reads as fanfiction of itself, which is a compliment, and the found family within the story is wonderfully crafted.

It follows Neil Josten as he tries to outrun his past as the son of the Butcher of Baltimore. All Neil wants to do is play Exy, and when a figure from his past and the son of the co-founder of the sport want him on his team, he is willing to risk all the work he has put into hiding all these years, something he knows would make his mother turn in her grave. He tries to hide behind his new name, contact lenses, and boxed dyed hair, praying Kevin Day won’t remember him from their shared past.

If you want even more found family but need a break from fantasy, this should be your next read! The second book in the series is even called The Raven King, which is a joke between people who love both series.

The Foxhole Court is darker and deals with much heavier topics than the rest of the books on this list, especially as the series goes on, so please beware of the trigger warnings before you pick it up!

A book our resident feminist, Blue Sargent, would approve of, We Can Be Heroes follows Beck and Vivian after their best friend Cassie is murdered by her ex-boyfriend, the heir to Bell Firearms. Despite always having butted heads when Cassie was alive, Viv and Beck end up bonding over their need for revenge.

To ensure Cassie isn’t forgotten, they paint murals around town in her memory, all based on Greek mythology. When Cassie’s ghosts join them, they know they are on the right path.

If Noah is your favorite character in The Raven Cycle, this book is perfect for you. With its beautiful prose, wonderful characters, and discussions of what is left behind after we’re gone, We Can Be Heroes will pull at your heartstrings and has a lot in common with The Raven Cycle. We have familiar problems, ghosts, urban fantasy elements , a quest, and a town—although not one you will fall in love with like you did Henrietta, which plays a big part in the narrative.

This book might be the most different from The Raven Cycle of all the books on this list, but its themes make it perfect for anyone who loves Adam Parrish.

The story follows Rev and Emma. Rev is struggling with his past, as his father was a devout Christian and abused him in the name of God to the point where he still has mental and physical scars left from those days. Rev has lived with a new, loving family for years, but the arrival of a letter from his father suddenly sets his thoughts spiraling and makes him revert to his old ways.

Emma loves designing games and wants to work with this, like her father, but feels that her mother doesn’t take this seriously enough. When an internet troll starts to harass her, she feels she can’t tell anyone about it, leaving her to deal with the stranger's vile words on her own. As they go from short hate comments to open threats, she struggles to know what to do.

Rev and Emma come into contact after meeting behind the local church and soon start sharing their troubles, building a connection in the process.

With the talk of abuse, family, and being afraid of continuing the cycle of abuse, there are plenty of Adam-cantered themes in this book. It deals with each topic in a heart-breaking yet honest way, and even if you don’t agree with all the characters' actions, you can’t help but love them.

This book is technically the second in a duology but can be read before the first book, Letters to the Lost—even if I highly recommend you read both books!

Although I will be the first to admit I much prefer the movie this book is based on (it is the closest I’ve ever gotten to feeling like I did when I first read The Raven Boys!), Dead Poets Society by N.H. Kleinbaum is still a worthy read if you like The Raven Cycle.

Set at Welton Academy, a private school with four core values—tradition, honor, discipline, and excellence—the novel follows a gang of young boys and their English teacher, Mr. Keating.

Mr. Keating urges the boys to think with their own minds, and Neil Perry takes this to heart more than most. He re-convinces the Dead Poets Society, and the rest of his friends follow his lead. Together with their teacher, the boys start to see the world in a new light. Anxious Todd Anderson grows out of his shell, Charlie Dalton tests the limits, and Knox Overstreet starts pursuing the girl of his dreams. But there are still people who think things should remain as they always have…

If your favorite part of The Raven Cycle is Monmouth Manufacturing and Gansey, this is the perfect book for you. Gansey wants to find something greater than himself, just like the boys in this novel, and he is very academic in his pursuit. That’s not to mention the dark academia and old money aspect of Welton Academy and Gansey as an individual. Although The Raven Cycle isn’t quite dark academia itself, Gansey would fit perfectly into the Dead Poets Society.

Last but not least, it only feels right to recommend another one of my favorite books, a Maggie Stiefvater standalone!

The Scorpio Races is set in a world where, on November first, the yearly Scorpio Races are held. Here, you sit atop a water horse, more dangerous than the sea from which they came, and hope not to die. The story follows Puck and Sean as they set out to win the race and fall in love in the process.

With its wonderful writing, strong setting, and characters that are hard not to love, The Scorpio Races is perfect if you want more of Maggie Stiefvater in your life!

Was your favorite plot point of The Raven Cycle the Ronan and Adam team-up where they frame their teacher for a horrible crime? Then this book might be your next read!

A staple of the dark academia genre, If We Were Villains follows Oliver Marks. Set a decade before he is released from jail for a murder he might not have committed, Oliver is one of six Shakespearean actors at Delcher Classical Conservatory. We follow him and his friends after their classmate is found dead and watch as their roles on stage become their roles off-stage. Villains, tyrants, temptresses, ingénues, and extras all become a reality as the world as they know it unravels.

With its mystery, strong personal bonds, LGBTQIIA+ themes, and dark atmosphere, this is the book for those who want even more from the ‘Pynch’ team-up!

Do you wish you had a journal like Gansey’s? That you could leave it all behind to study a niche topic somewhere far away from where you grew up? Then you might love Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries as much as I did!

The story follows the titular character in her attempt to finish her encyclopaedia of faeries. Set in Hartford, a cold village reminiscent of Reykjavik, the story has peculiar and lovable characters. Emily is easy to relate to with her introverted nature and love for research. The townspeople in Hartford make the village a place you wish you could visit. And let’s not forget her colleague, whom she suspects of being a faery, Wendell Bambleby—a person I would hate to meet in reality but loved reading about on the page. He is arrogant and slightly annoying, but a nice break from the scholarly adventures of Emily.

With its lovable cast of characters, a setting that is as easy to love as Henrietta, and scholarly adventure, Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries is perfect for us Gansey lovers out there! And let’s not forget that Wendell and Emily feel like a Gansey and Blue alternative, especially if you love the “I’m not a prostitute” scene.