Riot Recommendation

Riot Recommendation: Which is the Best Modern Fantasy Series?

Jamie Canaves

Contributing Editor

Jamie Canavés is the Tailored Book Recommendations coordinator and Unusual Suspects mystery newsletter writer–in case you’re wondering what you do with a Liberal Arts degree. She’s never met a beach she didn’t like, always says yes to dessert, loves ‘80s nostalgia, all forms of entertainment, and can hold a conversation using only gifs. You can definitely talk books with her on Litsy and Goodreads. Depending on social media’s stability maybe also Twitter and Bluesky.

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This Riot Recommendation asking for the best modern fantasy series is sponsored by In the Night Wood by Dale Bailey, published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH).

Welcome to Dale Bailey’s In the Night Wood, where fairy tales are not just for kids. In this contemporary, spellbinding fantasy, the grieving biographer of a Victorian fantasist finds himself slipping inexorably into the supernatural world that consumed his subject. Bestselling author Karen Joy Fowler praises In the Night Wood claiming “Every story is a ghost story. But not every ghost story is as haunting as this one. Nor as luminously written, literate, absorbing, transporting, and all-around excellent. I couldn’t put it down.”

Magic and creatures set in modern times—yes, please! Thank you. More! We can’t wait for this list, which will break our TBR (because we’re going to read them all), so we’ll start: Zoraida Cordova’s Bruja Born! Now head to the comments section and tell us the best modern fantasy series! We’ll be back next week to share your fellow readers’ picks and bring a ton of magic into your life.