If you have wandered through the halls of Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children, or kept company with October Daye in the hidden corners of fae San Francisco, you know what it is to discover that the world contains more wonder—and more peril—than ordinary folk suppose. You have tasted that particular magic, and now you hunger for more.
Fear not, dear reader. There exist other doorways, other adventures, other heroines who walk between worlds. Let us explore them together.
Portal Fantasies and Hidden Doorways
For those who fell quite desperately in love with McGuire’s Wayward Children novellas, these tales of secret passages and other worlds shall prove most satisfying.
The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow
In the early 1900s, young January Scaller lives as a curiosity in her wealthy guardian’s mansion, surrounded by strange artifacts from impossible places. When she discovers a mysterious book that tells of doorways between worlds—doorways that seem terribly, wonderfully connected to her own story—everything she thought she knew begins to unravel.
This Hugo Award-nominated debut is a love letter to the power of words and stories, wrapped in the most beautiful prose you shall encounter this side of Faerie. Like McGuire’s work, it understands that finding a door is only the beginning of the adventure.
The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern
Graduate student Zachary Rawlins discovers a peculiar book in his university library—one that somehow contains a story from his own childhood. Following clues of bees, keys, and swords, he finds himself descending into an underground library of impossible beauty, where stories are treasured like jewels and a battle rages over the fate of narrative itself.
Morgenstern has crafted something rather like a Russian nesting doll of tales, each one opening into another. For readers who adore the dreamy, layered quality of the Wayward Children series, this labyrinthine wonder awaits.
The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
A middle-aged man returns to his childhood home and remembers events he had quite thoroughly forgotten—a neighboring family of women who were perhaps not entirely human, a pond that was actually an ocean, and a terrible thing he accidentally let into the world.
Gaiman has woven a tale both terrifying and tender, capturing childhood’s particular vulnerability to magic. It shares with McGuire’s work that understanding that childhood encounters with the impossible leave marks that never quite fade.
Urban Fantasy Adventures
Those who have devoured the October Daye series know the pleasures of supernatural mysteries solved by clever, complicated heroines. These series shall scratch that particular itch.
Moon Called by Patricia Briggs (Mercy Thompson Series)
Mercedes Thompson is a coyote shapeshifter working as a mechanic in Washington State’s Tri-Cities, trying to live quietly among the werewolves, vampires, and fae who populate her world. When a teenage werewolf arrives at her shop seeking help, Mercy finds herself drawn back into the supernatural politics she has long avoided.
Briggs has created a heroine every bit as stubborn and loyal as Toby Daye, navigating a richly imagined world where the supernatural exists alongside our own. The Mercy Thompson series now spans many volumes, each one a delight.
Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews (Kate Daniels Series)
In a world where magic and technology war for supremacy—where skyscrapers crumble during magic waves and spells fail when technology holds sway—Kate Daniels makes her living as a mercenary. When her guardian is murdered, Kate must navigate between warring factions of shapeshifters and necromancers to find justice.
The husband-and-wife team writing as Ilona Andrews has built a post-apocalyptic Atlanta that feels wonderfully lived-in, with a heroine whose sharp tongue and sharper sword have earned her legions of devoted readers.
Skinwalker by Faith Hunter (Jane Yellowrock Series)
Jane Yellowrock is the last Cherokee skinwalker, a woman who shares her soul with a mountain lion called Beast. Hired to hunt a rogue vampire terrorizing New Orleans, Jane must navigate the dangerous politics of the undead while uncovering secrets about her own mysterious past.
Hunter captures New Orleans with delicious authenticity, and Jane’s dual nature—the tension between woman and Beast—creates a fascinatingly complex protagonist.
Written in Red by Anne Bishop (The Others Series)
In a world where humans survive only at the sufferance of the terra indigene—the shapeshifters and other supernatural creatures who truly rule the Earth—Meg Corbyn is a blood prophet fleeing her captors. She finds unexpected sanctuary among the Others of the Lakeside Courtyard, who decide this strange human might be worth protecting.
Bishop has imagined a world turned quite upside down, where humanity is “clever meat” and the real power belongs to beings far older and more dangerous. It shares with October Daye that sense of navigating carefully between dangerous powers.
Grave Witch by Kalayna Price (Alex Craft Series)
Alex Craft makes her living as a grave witch, raising shades to speak with the dead for clients and police alike. But Alex has secrets of her own—not least that she is not entirely human, and the Faerie courts are beginning to take notice.
Price has crafted mysteries wrapped in magic, with a heroine whose powers come at a genuine cost. Fans of Toby Daye’s investigations shall find much to love here.
Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris (Sookie Stackhouse Series)
In the small Louisiana town of Bon Temps, telepathic waitress Sookie Stackhouse has always been an outsider. When vampires “come out of the coffin” and the handsome Bill Compton walks into her bar, Sookie discovers that being unable to read a vampire’s mind is surprisingly liberating—until people start dying.
Harris helped pioneer urban fantasy as we know it, and Sookie remains one of the genre’s most beloved heroines. The Southern Gothic atmosphere and Sookie’s irrepressible voice make these novels pure pleasure.
Dark Fairy Tales and Found Family
McGuire excels at taking fairy tale elements and making them strange and new. These authors do the same, with results most wondrous.
The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune
Linus Baker is a caseworker for the Department in Charge of Magical Youth, a man of routine and rules. When he is sent to evaluate an orphanage housing six dangerous magical children—including a boy who may be the Antichrist—Linus discovers that family comes in the most unexpected forms.
Klune has written a story of found family and chosen love that wraps around your heart and refuses to let go. It shares with McGuire’s work that fierce belief that outcasts and misfits deserve belonging.
Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher
Princess Marra is the third-born daughter, hidden away in a convent while her sisters are married off to a neighboring prince. When she learns the terrible truth about her brother-in-law, Marra sets out on a quest to commit regicide—accompanied by a dust-wife, a banished knight, a dubious fairy godmother, and a dog built entirely of bones.
Kingfisher (pen name of Ursula Vernon) has won the Hugo Award for this darkly funny feminist fairy tale. Her wit and warmth remind one of Terry Pratchett at his finest, and her heroines are gloriously practical women doing impossible things.
Alice by Christina Henry
In the Old City’s asylum, a woman called Alice remembers only fragments—a tea party, long ears, blood. When a fire sets her free, she must track a monster through nightmare streets to discover what really happened in that other place she barely remembers.
Henry has transformed Carroll’s Wonderland into something dark and dangerous, a fever dream of violence and survival. This is fairy tale revision at its most unflinching.
A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik (The Scholomance Series)
El Higgins attends the Scholomance, a school for young wizards built outside reality—where there are no teachers, the curriculum tries to kill you, and half the students don’t survive to graduation. El has the power to become the greatest dark sorceress in generations, if only she weren’t stubbornly determined to be good.
Novik has imagined a magical school entirely unlike any other, where friendship is survival strategy and the monsters are terrifyingly real. El’s sardonic voice and fierce integrity make her an instantly compelling heroine.
A Gentle Rest Between Adventures
Sometimes one desires something softer, a tale to soothe rather than startle. These books offer comfort without sacrificing wonder.
A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers
In a solarpunk future where robots long ago gained consciousness and wandered into the wilderness, tea monk Sibling Dex travels from village to village offering comfort and a listening ear. When they venture into the wild seeking something ineffable, they encounter Mosscap—a robot curious about what humans really need.
Chambers has written a meditation on purpose and meaning, wrapped in the coziest prose imaginable. It shares with McGuire’s work a deep kindness, a belief that gentleness is its own form of strength.
Finding Your Next Adventure
Each of these authors has walked through their own particular doorway and returned with stories to share. Some doors lead to danger, others to comfort, and the very best lead to both. If Seanan McGuire taught you that magic hides in the margins of the world, waiting for those brave enough to seek it, these authors shall prove worthy guides to new wonders.
The doors are everywhere, you see. One need only learn to look.
