10 Fantasy Books From BookTok That Are Worth The Hype (2024)

If you spend hours scrolling on BookTok like I do, you’ve definitely heard of Stephanie Garber, who recently went viral for her popular Caraval fantasy series ! If you need more YA fantasy goodness, check out her 2021 release Once Upon A Broken Heart, the first installment of her series by the same name.

This 2021  Goodreads Best Fantasy  nominee follows Evangeline Fox as she discovers that the love of her life will be marrying someone else, and she’s desperate to put a stop to the wedding.

All she can think to do is strike a deal with the infamous, magical Prince of Hearts, which she’ll have to trade for 3 kisses at the time and place of his choosing.

For another captivating YA fantasy read, pick up Legendborn by Tracy Deonn, which was published in 2021 and nominated by Goodreads for Best YA Fantasy that same year.

This book is the first installment of The Legendborn Cycle series and follows a young teenager as she grieves her childhood home and family memories after the accidental death of her mother. To escape her pain, she enrolls in a college program for advanced high schoolers but soon realizes she’d bit off more than she can chew.

During her first night on campus, she witnesses a flying demon who feeds on human energy attacking the campus, being fought off by a group of so-called "Legendborns,” who vow their lives to hunting down these mythical creatures.

If you’re looking to add Adult Fantasy to your TBR, I recommend The Will of Many by James Islington which was published in 2023 and nominated by Goodreads for Best Fantasy that same year.

This installment in the epic adult fantasy Hierarchy series follows a young fugitive as he tries to escape the ruling of the Hierarchy in The Catenan Republic, where he lives under a false name and family history.

Though he’s on a mission to solve a murder and expose the Hierarchy, he refuses to give power to the rulers who executed his family as he builds the trust of many involved. 

For another eye-catching Goodreads nominee for Best Fantasy of 2019 , add The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon to your TBR! This Adult LGBTQ+ Fantasy starts The Roots of Chaos series off by telling the story of Queen Sabran, who must conceive a daughter to keep her realm protected, but she’s running out of time.

While an outsider uses forbidden magic to protect her from assassins looking to put an end to her reign, only time will tell if she can wed and birth an heir to her queendom to keep her family’s ruling of Inys going after over one thousand years.

One of BookTok’s favorite books this year has to be Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros, the first installment of The Empyrean series published in 2023. This Goodreads nominee for Best Romantasy follows a 21-year-old who is ordered by her mother, the commanding Quadrant general, to become a dragon rider, changing her life course forever.

Not only is being a dragon rider dangerous for humans, but for her, it’s a death sentence. Dragons aren’t known for their patience in adapting to “weak” or “brittle” humans, but Violet is just that: small, brittle, and set up for death.

For another magical Romantasy rec, check outThe Serpent and the Wings of Night by Carissa Broadbent, which was published in 2022 as the first installment of the Crowns of Nyaxia series.

This vampire-filled romance follows the adopted human daughter of the Nightborn vampire king as she enters a tournament held by the goddess of death to prove herself as more than prey for thirsty vampires.

Her plan goes awry when she meets her biggest competitor, who is also a ruthless vampire and an enemy to her father’s crown. 

This Sci-Fi rec serves as the first installment of The Broken Earth series by N.K. Jemisin, which was published in August 2015 and nominated on Goodreads for Best Fantasy that same year.

This attention-grabbing story follows our main female lead, who comes home to discover her son has been murdered and her daughter kidnapped at the hands of her husband. To find her daughter, she’ll have to travel through the large Sanze Empire, where she’ll have to suffer through the darkness and lack of sunlight, no clean water, no safe refuge, and little to no stock of supplies.

For an LGBTQ+ inclusive Fantasy Sci-Fi read, consider this Goodreads Best Fantasy nominee published in 2020.

As the first installment of the Between Earth and Sky series by Rebecca Roanhorse, this story follows two main characters as they travel to the holy city of Tova, where the Winter Solstice usually brings the celebrations of renewal, but this year falls dark. The Solar Eclipse, set to fall on the same day, brings threat as it is prophesized that this rare celestial event is the “unbalancing of the world.”

With the ship carrying our main characters set to arrive in Tova on the day of the Solstice, will they witness the world crumble from above, or will they find a way to bring the threat to an end?

For a thrilling Horror Fantasy read, consider One Dark Window by Rachel Gillig, which was published in 2022 and is the first book in The Sheperd King series. This gothic fantasy follows Elspeth, a girl trying to survive in a mist-locked kingdom with no one to protect her besides Nightmare, the ancient mercurial spirit trapped in her head.

As she fights to release this kingdom from the dark magic infecting it, she must learn to keep Nightmare a secret, which gets increasingly difficult as he threatens to take over her mind completely.

Will she be able to find the cure for this kingdom before it’s too late?

For our final BookTok recommendation, we have Starling House by Alix E. Harrow, published in 2023 and nominated by Goodreads for Best Fantasy the same year.

This story follows the mystery of an abandoned nineteenth-century house in the center of a small Kentucky town cursed with bad luck. To make matters worse, the house in question once belonged to an author and illustrator, E. Starling, who mysteriously vanished without a word.

When Opal, the main character of this standalone, is offered a job within the abandoned “Starling House,” she quickly feels connected to the home in ways she can’t explain, but she must stick it out to save herself and her brother and leave town once and for all.