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It’s a new year, which means it’s time for a new Read Harder Challenge! Book Riot has been curating this challenge for eleven years now for book lovers who want to read more, want to make their reading more diverse, or just love a reading challenge—or maybe all three!
I love the idea of a reading challenge, but I am pretty bad at sticking to them. Every year, I set lofty reading goals for myself, like “read twenty-five books with a red cover” or “read all of Kurt Vonnegut again.” Last year, I wanted to reread all of “The Cat Who…” books by Lillian Jackson Braun. (There are twenty-nine books in the series—I made it to the fourth one.)
To be honest, I have never actually met any of the challenges I set for myself, which leads me to believe I set unreasonable reading goals. So this year, I decided to let someone else pick for me, so I am doing the Read Harder Challenge. I have been waving my arms about books for Book Riot since its inception, but this is actually my first time participating in the Read Harder Challenge. I think it’s going to be fun!
Sometimes, the hardest part of a reading challenge is knowing what book to pick. So to help you come up with ideas for one of the Read Harder tasks, I picked five great books for number six: Read a standalone fantasy book. A standalone means it’s not part of a series, whether it’s a duology, a trilogy, or a longer series. (It also means that no matter how much readers want a sequel, there isn’t one.)
These are all fantastic standalone fantasy reads that I have loved, and I hope you will, too! But before I share my choices, a reminder that if you’re looking for recommendations or to connect with other people doing the Read Harder challenge, you can sign up for the Read Harder newsletter and become a paid subscriber for even more recommendations as well as community features!
When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill
Kelly Barnhill has been writing amazing, award-winning books for kids for many years, and she also knocked it out of the park with her first novel for adults. An alternate history, it’s about a young girl named Alex Green who is trying to find answers and her place in the world after a world-changing event. In 1955, the Mass Dragoning happened, in which hundreds of thousands of women turned into dragons—like, real scales-and-wings dragons—and flew away. Alex doesn’t understand why her favorite aunt became a dragon and not her mother, or why she’s not allowed to ask any questions about what happened. Under the strict thumb of her mother, Alex must hold in her curiosity and feel helpless as she watches her cousin get closer to danger with each day. It’s a fiercely feminist fantasy (say the three times fast) about family, the patriarchy, and rage.
The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez
This is an imaginative, exciting sophomore novel from the author of The Vanished Birds (another great standalone), about a tyrannical royal family that has terrorized the people of their land for centuries. The emperor and his three sons—known as the Three Terrors—have been able to rule as the Moon Throne because of the powers of a god they hold prisoner at the palace. But with the help of an outcast and a palace guard, the god escapes captivity, and the three must work to figure out a way to free everyone from the Moon Throne. And they must do it with the Three Terrors hot on their heels, hoping to recapture the god. Because not only is the god the one who grants the evil empire its powers, she’s also their mother.
Kaikeyi by Vaishnavi Patel
Keeping the unintended theme of powerful women in standalone fantasy books going, there’s this excellent debut, a reimagining of the queen from the ancient epic the Ramayana. In that story, Kaikeyi is portrayed as vindictive and conniving, but in Patel’s novel, we get her side of the story, from her young years as a princess whose mother was banished, to the father who sees her only as property to bargain with, to her growth into a queen as she comes into her own powers and changes all the expectations people had for her. Kaiyeki is a powerful novel about the stories told about us versus the truth, and of one woman’s refusal to be forced into a role.
Ink Blood Sister Scribe by Emma Törzs
Here’s a standalone fantasy that also contains a much-beloved subgenre: a book about books! Magical books, in this case, protected for generations by the Kalotay family. Half-sisters Joanna and Esther grew up around the library and its volumes of exciting and dangerous magic. But when they got older, Esther fled their home after the death of her mother, leaving Joanna alone with her father and the books. Joanna has passed the time reading everything she can get her hands on, but when their father suddenly dies, Esther must return home to help Joanna figure out what was in the never-before-seen book that their father was reading when he died. Together they will have to keep their family legacy safe while protecting themselves and the rest of the world from dangerous magic.
Tailchaser’s Song by Tad Williams
And last but not beast least, this fantasy classic that is turning forty this year! Fritti Tailchaser is an orange tomcat who must go on a quest to rescue his friend Hushpad, who has disappeared along with several other feral cats. His journey will take him through the realm of M’an, as well as both friendly and dangerous creatures, to a dark underworld. It’s great for fans of Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, or cats, or fun fantasy. It also has a glossary of cat terms and pronunciations. (Tolkien fans may want to get in on this action.) This is going to be my pick for the second Read Harder task, reread a childhood favorite book, because I loved this book when I was a kid and I hope I still love it. Although, now that I am an adult who owns two orange male cats, I realize the most fantastical aspect of this novel is the idea that an orange cat has enough brains to go on an adventure, lol. (The one orange brain cell Reddit isn’t wrong. )
Okay, star bits, now take the knowledge you have learned here today and use it for good, not evil. If you want to know more about books, I talk about books pretty much nonstop (when I’m not reading them), and you can hear me say lots of adjectives about them on the Book Riot podcast All the Books! and on Bluesky and Instagram.
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