100 Must-Read Books Featuring Fantastical Creatures

What is a fantastical creature? I choose to define it as any creature that does not exist in reality, only in the minds of the imaginative and on the pages of fantasy novels everywhere. For the purposes of this list, I chose to avoid titles that are geared towards sci-fi or horror and tried to stick with supernatural and fantasy titles. These are tales and bestiaries featuring creatures like unicorns (WHY IS THIS CATEGORY SO VERY WHITE?!?), fairies, genies, gnomes, dragons, vampires, shapeshifters, and other not-quite-humans. Some of these fantastical creatures are unique to their specific books; others have been present in the lore of the world for centuries, millennia even. Some, like fae and dragons, have personalities and characteristics that vary drastically depending on the region of origin and target audience. And before you go and tell me I forgot Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them or The Silmarillion, I made an effort to avoid some of the most obvious and more mainstream titles in favor of books you may not have picked up without a little nudge.

1. The Legend Begins by Isobelle Carmody
2. Red Hot Fury by Kasey MacKenzie
3. Prophecy by Ellen Oh
4. Monstrous Affections: An Anthology of Beastly Tales edited by Kelly Link & Gavin J. Grant
5.  Fae edited by Rhonda Parrish
6. Menagerie by Rachel Vincent
7. Pegasus by Robin McKinley
8. Acorna: The Unicorn Girl by Anne McCaffrey & Margaret Ball
9. Troll Fell by Katherine Langrish
10. Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews
11. The Taken by Vicki Pettersson
12. The Subtle Beauty by Ann Hunter
13.  Tides by Betsy Cornwell
14. The Curse of the Chocolate Phoenix by Kate Saunders
15. The Menagerie by Tui T. Sutherland & Kari Sutherland
16. The Cloud Roads by Martha Wells
17. Huntress by Malinda Lo
18. The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey
19.  The Unicorn Girl by M.L. LeGette
20. Drink, Slay, Love by Sarah Beth Durst
21. Into the Fire by Kelly Hashway
22.  The Fairy-Tale Detectives by Michael Buckley, illustrated by Peter Ferguson
23.  Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin
24. The Devourers by Indra Das
25. The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker
26. The Divine by Boaz Lavie, illustrated by Asaf Hanuka & Tomer Hanuka
27. The Visitors by Simon Sylvester
28. Unnatural Creatures edited by Maria Dahvana Headley & Neil Gaiman
29. The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro
30. The Simoqin Prophecies by Samit Basu
31. Wildfire by Mina Khan
32. Heart of Stone by Christine Warren
33. Rampant by Diana Peterfreund
34. Unico by Osamu Tezuka
35. City of the Beasts by Isabel Allende, translated by Margaret Sayers Peden
36. Moonshine by Alaya Dawn Johnson
37. Silvertongue by Charlie Fletcher
38. Dreams and Shadows by C. Robert Cargill
39. Slave to Sensation by Nalini Singh
40. Dragon of the Lost Sea by Laurence Yep
41. Promise of Shadows by Justina Ireland
42. Wolf Mark by Joseph Bruchac
43. Falling in Love with Hominids by Nalo Hopkinson
44. Silver Phoenix by Cindy Pon
45. The Girl at Midnight by Melissa Grey
46. Hunter by Mercedes Lackey
47. Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton
48. A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan
49. The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison
50. Monstress by Marjorie Liu, illustrated by Sana Takeda
51. Shadowshaper by Daniel José Older
52. The Jumbies by Tracey Baptiste
53. The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly
54. The Secret of Platform 13 by Eva Ibbotson
55. Lord of the Changing Winds by Rachel Neumeier
56. Ingo by Helen Dunmore
57. Kynship by Daniel Heath Justice
58. The Sea of Trolls by Nancy Farmer
59. The Shadow Speaker by Nnedi Okorafor
60. Coal by Constance Burris
61. Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater
62. Uprooted by Naomi Novik
63. Song of the Summer King by Jess E. Owen
64. Vampires in the Lemon Grove by Karen Russell
65. Bayou Magic by Jewell Parker Rhodes
66. Eon by Alison Goodman
67. Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed
68. Fledgling by Octavia E. Butler
69. Ico: Castle in the Mist by Miyuki Miyabe, translated by Alexander O. Smith
70. Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
71. The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle
72. Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr
73. Soulless by Gail Carriger
74. Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor
75. Bad Unicorn by Platte F. Clark
76. The Last Dragonslayer by Jasper Fforde
77. Seraphina by Rachel Hartman
78. Teeth by Hannah Moskowitz
79. Zombies Vs. Unicorns edited by Holly Black
80. Black Swan Rising by Lee Carroll
81. Brian Froud’s Goblins! by Ari Berk, illustrated by Brian Froud
82. Jinn and Juice by Nicole Peeler
83. Asteroid Made of Dragons by G. Derek Adams
84. Stormdancer by Jay Kristoff
85. Tales from an Israeli Storyteller by Uri Kurlianchik
86. Silver in the Blood by Jessica Day George
87. The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett
88. Jackaby by William Ritter
89. The Little Book of Magical Creatures by Elizabeth Pepper & Barbara Stacy
90. The Flame of Olympus by Kate O’Hearn
91. The Unofficial Middle-Earth Monster’s Guide: Hunt Hobbits, Hoard Treasure, and Embrace Your Villainous Nature by The Mordor Collective
92. The Thinking Woman’s Guide to Real Magic by Emily Croy Barker
93. Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine
94. Isle of Winds by James Fahy
95. The Forbidden Wish by Jessica Khoury
96. Phoebe and Her Unicorn by Dana Claire Simpson
97. The Resurrectionist: The Lost Work of Dr. Spencer Black by E.B. Hudspeth
98. Gnomes by Wil Huygen, illustrated by Rien Poortvliet
99. Moon Called by Patricia Briggs
100. The Element Encyclopedia of Magical Creatures by John Matthews & Caitlin Matthews