I really like fairy mythology, but whenever I look for novels on them they are just written to be attractive people with a few quirks in a Romantasy story where the lore/worldbuilding takes a backseat.
I'd like a book that explores how different they can be from humans. Maybe stories about frightening fairies that force you to dance until you die of exhaustion, or stories about trying to attract a kind brownie with donations of milk and food so it'll come to your home and repair your broken things.
I do not mind romance, as long as the fairies feel inhuman and not just like attractive love interests with pointy ears.
I'm open to any kind of fantasy sub-genre, be it horror, romance, adventure, etc.
I remember loving the 13 Treasures triology by Michelle Harrison as a teen, with its focus on fairy lore such as wearing clothes outside-out or wearing red to protect yourself from fairies.
by vilhelmine
16 Comments
h{Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell} had quite a bit of this.
You should check out The Age Of Misrule, by Mark Chadbourn. The fae return. And they’re terrifying.
I really like Holly Blacks take on fairies which is definitely more traditional fairies than just humans with wings. Her Folk of the Air is one of my favourite trilogies, the world building and especially the characters are fantastic, so flawed and they feel so real.
h{{Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries}}
Maybe try The Bitterbynde Trilogy by Dart-Thorton. I will say the ending of the trilogy felt incomplete/rushed but the fey folk in it are very inhuman and often terrifying.
I’d also suggest Lords and Ladies by Terry Pratchett. “Elves are terrific- they beget terror.”
Not a novel, but check out the stories of Arthur Machen, especially The White People.
October Daye series is really good
The Fairy Bargains of Prospect Hill by Rowenna Miller.
Lud in the Mist by Hope Mirrlees
Under the Pendulum Sun by Jeanette Ng (check trigger warnings for this)
Little, Big by John Crowley – this is not an easy read, but has an excellent, unknowable, alien Faerie
h{{Lords and Ladies, by Terry Pratchett}}
Lords and Ladies by Terry Pratchett. It’s a Discworld book. It’s one of the few that recommends you read another first, but I don’t think you have to. It’s one of my favorites, especially if you like A Midsummer’s Night Dream
Wee Free Men involves the same. That one is the first in a series.
Maybe the Sevenwaters books by Juliet Marillier? How preset the fair folk are varies from book to book but there are a variety of cases where they treat humans as pawns and mess up their lives to varying degrees.
Books 4-6 especially apply, as one of the main antagonists is a faerie king, but this stuff is present in the original trilogy, too. Thinking about how they did >!Simon!< in Daughter of the Forest makes me want to cry every time I think about it, and that was the relatively benevolent-ish ones!
The Thorns Remain by JJA Harwood is exactly this, right down to the brownies!
“The Fey” by Kristine Kathryn Rusch, maybe. Written in the 90s, so well before the current Romantasy trend.
“The Splendour Falls” is a short story anthology inspired by the Changeling: The Dreaming TTRPG, but you don’t have to be familiar with the game to enjoy the book.
Again from the 90s, so way before the current trends.
Half a Soul by Olivia Atwater
An oldie, but {{Faerie Tale by Raymond Feist}} is a scary fae book.
Also seconding Emily Wilde!