Monsters and Magic: A Reading List
This round of the Riot Recommendation is sponsored by Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo.
Surrounded by enemies, the once-great nation of Ravka has been torn in two by the Shadow Fold, a swath of near impenetrable darkness crawling with monsters. Now its fate may rest on the shoulders of one lonely refugee.
Alina Starkov has never been good at anything. But when her regiment is attacked on the Fold and her best friend is brutally injured, Alina reveals a dormant power that saves his life—a power that could be the key to setting her war-ravaged country free. Wrenched from everything she knows, Alina is whisked away to the royal court to be trained as a member of the Grisha, the magical elite led by the mysterious Darkling.
With darkness looming and an entire kingdom depending on her untamed power, Alina will have to confront the secrets of the Grisha…and the secrets of her heart.
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We asked our riot readers to share their favorite books about monster and magic – two things that often go hand in hand. Take a look at the titles that made the list –
Angelology by Danielle Trussoni
The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel series by Michael Scott,
Queen of Kings by Maria Dahvana Headley
The Vicious Deep by Zoraida Cordova
American Gods, Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
The Assassini Trilogy by Jon Courtney Grimwood
Grendel by John Gardner
The Prydain Chonicles by Lloyd Alexander
The Heroes Guide to Saving Your Kingdom by Christopher Healy
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle
The Girl Who… series by Catherine M. Valente
Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor
Among Others by Jo Walton
The Nargun and the Stars by Patricia Wrightson
Half Magic by Edward Eager
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke
The Magicians by Lev Grossman
Thursday Next, Nursery Crime, Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde
The Dragonlance Chronicles by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman
Sweep series by Cate Tiernan
The Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini
The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
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