There exists, we are quite certain, a restless sort of reader, forever prowling the shelves in search of something they have not yet discovered, something that hums with that unmistakable quality which separates a truly magnificent book from the merely popular.
You know the feeling, surely. You have devoured all the titles that everyone recommends. You have read the ones with a million reviews and the ones that trend relentlessly across every corner of the internet. And now you want something else—something brilliant and overlooked, tucked away like treasure in a sea cave, waiting for a reader bold enough to find it.
Well. We have been doing rather a lot of prowling ourselves, and we are delighted to report that the hidden gems of YA fantasy are abundant, dazzling, and woefully under-discussed. What follows is our carefully assembled collection of underrated YA fantasy novels that deserve to be read by approximately everyone. Each one offers something extraordinary—inventive magic, unforgettable characters, prose that lingers—and each one has been far too quiet for far too long.
Shall we begin?
1. Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson
Imagine, if you will, a world in which books are alive—genuinely, dangerously alive—and must be kept under lock and key lest they transform into rampaging monsters.
Elisabeth Scrivener has grown up inside one of the Great Libraries, dreaming of becoming a warden who protects these volatile grimoires. When a catastrophic act of sabotage frames her for a crime she did not commit, she finds herself thrown into the company of a sorcerer named Nathaniel Thorn and his enigmatic demon servant, Silas.
What follows is a grand adventure through a kingdom where the line between knowledge and destruction is perilously thin. Rogerson’s writing is lush and propulsive, her world utterly original, and the slow-blooming relationship between Elisabeth and Nathaniel is handled with exactly the right measure of tension and tenderness. If you love books about books—and magic that feels genuinely wondrous—this one belongs on your shelf immediately.
2. The Wendy by Erin Michelle Sky and Steven Brown
Here is a Peter Pan retelling that is nothing at all like what you expect, and that is precisely what makes it magnificent. Set in 1780s London, The Wendy reimagines Wendy Darling as a fierce, clever orphan who dreams not of nurseries or sewing but of captaining her own ship. Trained in navigation, swordplay, and seamanship, she is recruited into England’s secret service to defend against magical threats—and that is when she encounters Peter Pan, Captain Hook, Tinker Bell, and a great deal of delightful trouble.
The narration has a warmth and wit reminiscent of the very best fairy tales, with a voice at once so sharp and charming that you should prepare yourself to laugh out loud more than once. As for Wendy, she is an absolute triumph of a heroine: tenacious, principled, and entirely unwilling to accept anyone’s limitations on what she might become.
The complete trilogy—The Wendy, The Navigator, and The Captain—is now available, and we can tell you from experience that once you begin, you will not wish to stop. This is one of those rare books that appeals equally to those who grew up adoring Peter Pan and those who always wished Wendy had been given a sword.
3. The Forgotten Beasts of Eld by Patricia A. McKillip
This book won the very first World Fantasy Award, and yet somehow it is still not nearly as well known as it deserves to be.
Sybel lives alone on a mountaintop, summoning and commanding legendary beasts with her extraordinary wizardly power—a crystal dragon, a great boar, a falcon of mythic renown. Her solitary existence shatters when a man arrives carrying a baby, and Sybel’s heart, long indifferent to human entanglement, begins to open. But power and love prove to be complicated bedfellows, and the consequences of Sybel’s choices ripple outward in ways both devastating and beautiful.
McKillip’s prose is among the finest in all of fantasy—lyrical without being overwrought, precise without losing its dreamlike quality. This is a novel about what it costs to love, what it means to wield power, and how far we will go to protect what we hold dear. It is breathtaking, and it has been waiting for you.
4. Thorn by Intisar Khanani
Thorn transforms The Goose Girl fairy tale, a relatively simple story of stolen identity, into something far richer and more complex. Princess Alyrra has endured a miserable life under her abusive family, and when she is sent to a distant kingdom to marry a prince she has never met, a magical betrayal strips her of her identity entirely.
Forced to live as a commoner called Thorn, she discovers something unexpected: freedom. For the first time, she can move through the world unencumbered by the expectations and cruelties that defined her royal life. But injustice is everywhere, and Alyrra must decide whether the liberty she has found is worth the price others are paying.
Khanani builds her world with patience and precision, and the romance that unfolds—a quiet, careful thing built on conversation and mutual respect—is among the most satisfying in YA fantasy. This is a deeply thoughtful book that rewards readers who appreciate character over spectacle.
5. The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater
On the island of Thisby, every November, carnivorous water horses emerge from the sea. They are magnificent and lethal, and the islanders race them along the beach in a competition where victory brings fortune and defeat often brings death.
Sean Kendrick is the returning champion, bound to the stables of a man he despises. Puck Connolly is the first woman ever to enter the Scorpio Races, driven by desperation to save her family.
Stiefvater’s writing is atmospheric in a way that feels almost physical—you can taste the salt air, feel the November chill, hear the thundering hooves on wet sand. This is not her most famous work (that honour likely belongs to The Raven Boys), but many readers consider it her finest. It is a story about the things we love that might destroy us, told with a restraint and beauty that makes every sentence feel earned. If you have somehow missed this one, consider this your urgent invitation.
6. Raybearer by Jordan Ifueko
Tarisai has spent her entire life in isolation, raised by a mysterious mother known only as the Lady, aching for connection and family. When she is sent to the capital to compete for a place on the Crown Prince’s Council of Eleven—a group bound together by magical telepathy—she discovers the belonging she has always craved. But there is a terrible catch: the Lady has implanted a command deep within Tarisai’s mind, and it demands she kill the Crown Prince himself.
Inspired by West African mythology, Raybearer builds a world that feels genuinely new—not a reshuffling of familiar European tropes but something vibrant and original. Ifueko’s exploration of found family, loyalty, and the courage it takes to defy the people who made you is handled with both intelligence and heart.
This was named one of the best YA fantasies of 2020 by multiple publications, yet it still flies under the radar for a startling number of readers. That needs to change.
7. The Bone Houses by Emily Lloyd-Jones
Ryn is a teenage gravedigger in a Welsh-inspired village plagued by the risen dead—shambling creatures called bone houses that wander out of the forest with increasing aggression. When a mysterious young mapmaker named Ellis arrives, the bone houses grow bolder, and Ryn determines to venture into the enchanted forest to find the source of the curse and end it.
What follows is a quest that moves through haunted woods, abandoned mines, and crumbling ruins, blending horror and tenderness in equal measure. Lloyd-Jones writes with clarity and imagination, and the relationship between Ryn and Ellis—two lonely people drawn together by circumstance and stubbornness—is wonderfully grounded.
This standalone novel is perfect for readers who want their fantasy with a gothic edge and a protagonist who carries a shovel.
8. The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea by Axie Oh
Inspired by the Korean legend of Shim Cheong, this novel follows Mina, a young woman who throws herself into the sea to save her brother’s beloved from being sacrificed to the Sea God. She wakes in the Spirit Realm, bound by the Red String of Fate to a god caught in an enchanted sleep, and must navigate a world of warring deities, treacherous bargains, and impossible choices to save both the spirit and human worlds.
Axie Oh writes with the cadence of an ancient folktale—the prose is luminous and deliberate, and the Spirit Realm she creates is lush with invention. Mina herself is fiercely compassionate, the kind of heroine who makes choices not because they are easy but because they are right.
This is a standalone novel that feels timeless, a story that reads as though it has always existed and was merely waiting for someone to write it down.
9. Summers at Castle Auburn by Sharon Shinn
Corie spends her summers at the grand Castle Auburn with her half-sister, learning the ways of the court and nursing an enormous, hopeless infatuation with the devastatingly handsome prince. She adores everything about this world—the glittering halls, the enchanted creatures, the promise that one day she will belong to it entirely.
But as she grows from a child into a young woman, the fairy tale she believed in begins to crack, and the world she idolized reveals itself to be far more complicated—and far more troubling—than she ever imagined.
Shinn’s novel is a masterclass in the coming-of-age story, a book that captures the precise, bittersweet moment when you begin to see the world as it truly is rather than as you wish it to be. It is character-driven and quietly devastating, with a subtlety and emotional honesty that will make you want to stand up and applaud. This has been one of YA fantasy’s best-kept secrets for over two decades.
10. The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale
In this second Goose Girl retelling on our list, Princess Anidori-Kiladra possesses the rare gift of animal-speaking, which allows her to understand the language of birds and beasts. Sent to a far-off kingdom to marry a prince she has never met, she is betrayed by her own lady-in-waiting, who steals her identity and her crown.
Stripped of everything, Ani must disguise herself as a goose girl and slowly, painstakingly reclaim what was taken from her—discovering strengths she never knew she had. Hale’s writing has the quality of a folk tale told beside a fire—it is warm, rich, and deeply satisfying. The story explores friendship, self-discovery, and the courage it takes to use your own voice when others have tried to silence it.
This is the first book in the Books of Bayern series, and it remains one of the loveliest fairy tale retellings ever written.
11. Spin the Dawn by Elizabeth Lim
Described with delightful accuracy as “Project Runway meets Mulan,” Spin the Dawn follows Maia Tamarin, a gifted seamstress who disguises herself as her brother to compete for the position of imperial tailor. As she fights to prove herself in a competition rigged against her, she is drawn into an impossible challenge: to sew three enchanted dresses from the laughter of the sun, the tears of the moon, and the blood of stars.
Her journey takes her across a landscape inspired by Chinese mythology, accompanied by a court enchanter whose secrets run dangerously deep. Lim writes with a lush sense of wonder, and the act of sewing and creation is rendered with such beauty that you will never look at fabric quite the same way again.
This is a book for anyone who has ever believed that artistry is its own form of magic—and that the hands that create are every bit as powerful as the hands that wield swords.
12. House of Salt and Sorrows by Erin A. Craig
Twelve sisters. A crumbling manor by the sea. And a curse that keeps killing them, one by one.
Annaleigh Thaumas is the sixth of twelve sisters, and four of her siblings have already died under mysterious circumstances. When the surviving sisters begin sneaking out to attend enchanted midnight balls, Annaleigh suspects that the supernatural revelry and the deaths are connected—and that the truth may be far more terrifying than she imagined.
This is a retelling of The Twelve Dancing Princesses filtered through gothic horror, and Craig’s atmospheric writing is extraordinary. The manor itself feels alive with dread, the sea presses in from all sides, and the tension builds relentlessly with every chapter. If you enjoy fairy tales that have been given a thorough and satisfying darkening, this is essential reading.
13. The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi
Set in Paris during the glittering 1889 Exposition Universelle, The Gilded Wolves follows treasure-hunter Séverin as he assembles a crew of misfits—an engineer, a historian, a dancer, a forger—to pull off an impossible heist and reclaim his stolen inheritance from a powerful secret society.
Chokshi’s world runs on Forging, an art that allows the manipulation of mind and matter, and she uses this magic system to construct puzzles and set pieces that are genuinely thrilling. The banter between the crew members crackles with life, and the novel explores questions of colonialism, identity, and belonging with both subtlety and force.
This is the book for readers who loved Six of Crows and want something with a similar ensemble energy but an entirely different flavour—opulent, intellectual, and laced with danger at every turn.
14. Down Comes the Night by Allison Saft
Wren Southerland is a healer whose reckless use of magic has cost her everything—her position in the Queen’s Guard, her reputation, and her closeness to the person she loves most. When a reclusive lord summons her to his remote, snow-buried estate to cure a mysterious illness, she leaps at the chance to prove herself.
But her patient turns out to be no ordinary man: he is Hal Cavendish, the infamous Reaper of Vesria and the sworn enemy of her kingdom. Trapped together in an estate that grows more sinister by the day, Wren and Hal must navigate their mutual distrust, a creeping supernatural threat, and the unsettling possibility that everything they have been told about each other’s nations is a lie.
Saft writes gothic atmosphere beautifully—the snow-drenched isolation, the crumbling grandeur of Colwick Hall, the claustrophobic intimacy of two enemies sharing a confined space. This is a deeply romantic, deeply atmospheric standalone that deserves far more attention than it has received.
15. The Near Witch by V.E. Schwab
Before Victoria Schwab became one of the biggest names in fantasy, she wrote a debut novel that appeared much more quietly. It is one of the truest hidden gems on this list.
In the isolated village of Near, surrounded by wild and whispering moors, Lexi has grown up on her father’s stories—tales of the Near Witch, a woman of wind and earth who once protected the village and was repaid with cruelty. When a mysterious stranger appears on the moor one night, a boy who seems to fade like smoke at the edges, the children of Near begin to vanish from their beds, lured into the darkness by a song carried on the wind. The villagers turn on the stranger with torches and suspicion, but Lexi is drawn to him and to the old magic that stirs beneath the moor—a magic far older and more dangerous than anyone in Near wants to remember.
Schwab’s prose is atmospheric and lyrical, carrying the cadence of a folk tale whispered beside a dying fire. The moors feel alive with menace and beauty in equal measure, and the mystery at the novel’s heart unfolds with the slow, irresistible pull of a song you cannot quite place. This is a book that was ahead of its time, a gothic fairy tale that deserves to be rediscovered by every reader who loves magic woven into the landscape itself.
Finding Your Next Favourite
There you have it—fifteen novels that have been waiting, with varying degrees of patience, for you to discover them. Some are retellings that transform familiar stories into something startlingly new. Some build entire worlds from mythologies that rarely get their due. Some are quiet and character-driven; others are rollicking adventures with swords and heists and carnivorous horses.
What they share is quality. Every book on this list represents the work of a writer operating at the height of their powers, crafting something that deserves to be pressed into the hands of every fantasy reader who has ever said, “I want something different.”
We hope you find exactly the adventure you are looking for. And if you do—well, do tell someone about it. Hidden gems, after all, are only hidden until the right person starts talking about them.
