Dark Fantasy & Morally Gray Characters: 11 Book Recommendations | Fantasy Recommendations #3
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- Опубликовано: 15 сен 2024
- Today I'm here with 11 book recommendations for dark fantasy and fantasy with morally gray characters! If you are a fan of stabby fantasy and good villain backstories, then this is the video for you! Check out my series of fantasy recommendation videos.
| BOOKS MENTIONED |
- Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James: amzn.to/31YNd8l
- Imprison the Sky by A.C. Gaughen: amzn.to/3m11UQi
- Forest of a Thousand Lanterns by Julie C. Dao: amzn.to/3lYPSab
- The Young Elites by Marie Lu:amzn.to/3553xpW
- Fairest by Marissa Meyer: amzn.to/332rUSq
- The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman: amzn.to/3h0BMRy
- The Hazelwod by Melissa Albert: amzn.to/3hZNVaN
- Ash Princess by Laura Sebastian: amzn.to/3bsuHYV
- Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake: amzn.to/2F2DaGn
- Berserker by Emmy Laybourne: amzn.to/2Z8g9ZF
- Nevernight by Jay Kristoff: amzn.to/2ZotiOz
*Note that all book links are affiliate links & as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
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I’m so glad I found you. I love “weird “ books that no one else likes. And I absolutely adore “unlikeable” characters. This makes them relatable for me. Cookie-cutter characters are so boring. I need dark, gritty anti-hero/ villains in my life.
Hell yeah!
Explore the gripping dark fantasy, 'The Bloody Path Home.' Picture a world where a twisted religion believes dark desires lead to divine salvation. Follow a modern-day soldier, caught in rebellion, torn between choices testing his morality to return home. A thrilling journey awaits!
You will love The Timekeeper's Secret by iLana Markarov! The main character matches your description perfectly! Which is also why this book is my fav
Thank you for recommending The Young Elites! The whole female Darth Vader story sounds SO interesting especially as a huge Star Wars fan. I’m definitely buying it NOW 😁 I love stories about oppressed or underestimated women who are morally grey/on the way to darkness and take charge of their own power and get revenge. I can’t get enough of it!!
YES!!! 🥰 I’m with you and so happy to hear you are getting Young Elites! We are big Star Wars fans as well so that hooked me
You will love The Timeless Fate Series, i recommend it!! And now I will for sure check out Young elites
I love a moraly grey character, great banter and comedic interaction mixed in with all of the heavy scenes and plot points. Some of my favorites for the way they read are Gentlemen Bastards series, Nevernight Chronicles, and Gideon the Ninth. I'd love some more recommendations with that kind of writing style.
The Song of All is a dark epic fantasy book that I think is pretty underrated! I didn't love it, but I found the ideas and setting so intriguing, and no one talks about it.
Interesting! I haven’t heard of it.
I have only recently delved into dark fantasy books (Prince/King/Emperor of Thorns series) and I absolutely adored the Trilogy, the MC being based off Alex from Clockwork Orange was super intriguing and something I've never read before. This list has definitely given me some more ideas so thankyou!
I’m so happy to hear that! It’s a great subgenre and I may need to make a follow up with more recommendations soon. Happy reading!
Is Trilogy the name of the book? Could you tell me the name of the author? thanks
Forest of a Thousand Lantern sure is a lovely dark novel. Highly recommend.
ugh yes, i'm constantly saddened by how underhyped the young elites is compared to the rest of marie lu's stuff. it's my favorite of her series, by far.
i loved the ocean at the end of the lane too! i need to reread that soon.
Same!!! I just think Young Elites is very different.
yes to everything you mentioned!!
I love how you describe books! I can't wait to start reading those. Subscribed!
Please retitle this to YOUNG ADULT dark fantasy & morally gray characters book recommendations. Since only 2 of your 11 are not categorized as YA on goodreads. I hate YA, im tempted to read the hazel wood and Forest of a Thousand Lantern since Liene's channel recommends those aswell but im tentative.
I have read hazel wood and I would strongly recommend it. Hazel wood includes mild cursing and a bit of smoking and alcohol, however if you are fine with that, then it is a amazing book. I like how it deals with fantasy, instead of having it shoved in your face, the magic almost seems natural.
The Ocean at the End of the Lane is one of my favorite Gaiman novels. It's right up there with American Gods and Neverwhere. I'm really enjoying all these fantasy recs and can't wait for the next video!
Thank you! So glad you are enjoying them! Yes, Neil Gaiman is great.
I love Ulrika the Vampire trilogy. One of my favorites of all time!
Best fantasy books: Feminist Edition
Ye she literally said she got interested in one of the books cuz it was a female version of darth vador
Agreed
Have you read Marissa Meyer’s other Gillian origin story heartless? I personally liked that one more than Fairest, but it had some mixed reviews. I could see you going either way lol. I’m hoping to read Joe Abercrombie soon, which I’m sure liene has told you to read lol. Oh! Also you should read the conqueror’s saga by kiersten white! I’ve only read the first one but that would totally fit. Although... it’s alternate historical fiction really, rather than true fantasy.
I did read Heartless and liked it! Fairest was still my favorite though. 😊 Yep, Liene has definitely been pushing me to pick up Joe Abercrombie! I have Half a King and want to read it this year. I KNOW I need to read the Conqueror Saga and I own them all! 😂
This is such a fabulous list with a lot of books that I need to pick up still! I have Black Leopard Red Wolf coming up for my book club, so I'm glad to hear about the trigger warnings instead. I definitely think Vicious belongs on this list too - even though it's more of an urban fantasy. Great list!
Yeah, I definitely did not know about the BLRW triggers going in which is why I made a review video. Yes, Vicious!!!! That’s a great addition.
I've been enjoying Stephen Donaldsons books. I've been making my way through "The gap series", "the chronicles of Thomas Covenant" and "Mordants need". I'm only about half way through the first book of Mordants need, but it seems to be a much lighter read than the other two. The gap series is particularly brutal and some parts are disturbing. But all three are fantastically written.
I don't mind main characters being evil or unlikable but they better be smart. I can't stand idiotic main characters that get captured every other chapter, make terrible decisions that don't benefit them or anyone else, or constantly have awful internal reasoning that lacks any sort of cohesion. Make my main character evil if you must but make them believable and make them intelligent or I will post a nasty gram on your book review page and tell everyone that will listen to avoid your book like the plague (I hear it's been going around recently).
I certainly agree with you and would loved to get your recommendation for any books/series like this
I definitely think Forest of a Thousand Lanterns is a superbly done villain back story! And I adored Nevernight; still have to read Godsgrave!
Yes!!! I prefer Nevernight to Godsgrave but I think that is entirely to do with my reading taste. I love training school stories (nevernight) and don’t particularly enjoy gladiator style fighting and there is a lot of that in Godsgrave. Still loving the series though!
Lots of great sounding books! My favorites dark fantasy series is Joe Abercrombie’ first Law Trilogy and the companion novels. Have you read any of those?
I just recently read the first one! I may need to make a video with more recommendations.
I just bought The Hazel Wood at a clearance sale. I’m excited to see what I think!
🎉🎉🎉❤️
How was it?
"One of the darkest, grittests fantasy novels ive ever read" ...That isn't Prince Of Thorns! 😳😱😆
Nice list though, its good to have different options for people that isn't the usual Gorge R R Martin or Joe Abercrombie for example. 👍
I gotta tell you I think An Ember in the Ashes was darker than Nevernight. I know! But I will die on that hill. I was way more uncomfortable reading those books.
😂 That’s so interesting!
Because of u i am gonna read it lol
I have the Young Elites on my shelves but haven't started it yet. You just moved it up the list. Ash Princess needs to be on my list too. Nevernight is not my thing. I struggled so much with it. :l
Yay! Hope you enjoy Young Elites! Nevernight is definitely not for everyone. The style and humor really work for me but I understand why it’s polarizing.
@@BeautifullyBookishBethany I loved so much about Nevernight. The characters, the plot, the humor. I just didn't enjoy the writing style and it's a shame!
Team Slytherin! 🐍💚
🐍🐍🐍🥰
Just try Berserk
Yassss!! I’m so here for this 🖤✨ Thank you!
😊💕💕💕
Thanks for the Nevernight recommendation. Loved the first one. I noticed influences from C.S. Friedman's Coldfire Trilogy which just made me respect it more. If you haven't read them, I'm sure you'll like them. The Hunter in particular is deliciously... complicated.
I'm in the middle for Hazelwood. I thought it was ok. I liked the first half of the book, but not so much the second half. It reminded me of Alice in Wonderland (which could be what the author was going for), but I'm not a fan of Alice in Wonderland so I didn't really like the second half. I was fine with the main character, I didn't love her but I didn't hate her. For me, the characters aren't too memorable. I also don't think it reads as adult dark fantasy, it seems YA to me and I don't know that I would put it in the dark fantasy category, but that's just my opinion.
Yeah a lot of people seem to dislike one half or the other! Alice in Wonderland is a good comparison. For YA fantasy it is definitely on the dark side, though there are certainly much darker adult books.
I still have to read Imprison the Sky! FOTL is so good
Ahhh yes Imprison the Sky is great! Definitely worth reading. And I wish more people would read and love FOTL and Hazelwood. 💕 Definitely favorites for me. Berserker is so under appreciated!
I am not sure if it is dark but so far the characters are unlikeable An Unkindness of Magicians. Love your green sweater :)
Oh I have that one on my TBR! And thank you! 😊
Elric of Melnibone
Three Dark Crowns!!! LOVE this series too. I have such a long TBR, but I have been dying to re-read this series this year. So fun.
If you want gritty, dark fantasy you have to read The Black Company by Glen Cook.
Thank you so much for this video. I especially loved the vilain backstory category! Do you have other suggestions? By the way, I'm also a Slytherin hehehe!
I love a good villain backstory! Girls Made of Snow and Glads by Melissa Bashardoust is worth a read.
@@BeautifullyBookishBethany Thank you!!!! I'll check it out! :D
just stumbled upon your video, all of them all young adult, could you make a 2023 adult dark fantasy ?
Manifest Delusions by Michael R. Fletcher. Whats your opinion about it ?
Forest of a thousand lanterns looks interesting
Some of the best dark fantasy I've read has been m/m. Lacuna Chronicles. The God Eaters. Blessed epoch series. The broken moon series. Warchild series. By far my favorite is the fallocaust series. It is sooo dark and sooo good.
Otherwise:
His fair assassin series. The night angel trilogy. Six of crows. Fever series. Poison study.
You have such a good list! I can't wait to check a bunch of them out!
You would love Traitor Baru Cormorant. She’s such a jerk but ughhhh I loved her so much. She is sapphic (which I loved) but the romance is barely even there (somethingi also loved)
I added all the books to my tbr! :)
😊🎉🎉🎉
Check out The Malevolent Seven.
How would you say about Berserk?
My recommendation to You will be Charlie Fletcher's "Oversight trilogy".
These books seems good but personally wish there was more male oriented books on the list.
I LOVED Ash Princess! I loved Dark crowns but it got too long for me Im not gonna read the last two. ive already been spoiled anywey . I never see Ash Princess it revewed well idk why! I'll check out all these
i want to read ALL of them. i'm not a native speaker. do you think someone whose english skills are ok/good enough to read the books? in my language there are most of them not. :/
I think some of them will be harder than others. Black Leopard, Red Wolf especially.
thank u these all look soooooo good
Amazing video!
I think that making a video about dark fantasy and not mention at least for once the word Berserk shows how underrated are eastern works
I'd also recommend Uprooted by Naomi Novik.
What about morally brown characters?
I'm new at reading Fantasy. Anything ideas would be good!
Great! Lots of recommendations are coming!
Try Circle of Ceridwen by Octavia Randolph amazing book and then amazing whole series. Try the first few chapters at least you will get sucked in! I need more people to read them she is such an amazing writer.
Why are all the MCs girls? i kinda see a patern here
Berserker was good.
Yes! That’s a great one.
The master of grimdark Joe Abercrombie "the First Law" trilogy. Don't know if I can trust any dark fantasy list that doesn't reference Joe Abercrombie or GRRM. With that being said I'll look into some of these:)
I have read some Joe Abercrombie since making this and am thinking of making a follow up! Thanks for the consideration. 😂
Look forward to seeing it:)
The light bringer series
Where is Joe Abercrombie?
As a matter of fact, I have an additional recommendation list going up tonight and he just might be on it...
I thought I didnt enjoy unlikable mc but once I found a couple good ones I realized the reason I didn't enjoy the first unlikable mc I read was because he complained and whined about too much lol Now I dont avoid unlikable mc like I use to
I love that! Figuring out what works for you is such an interesting process.
you pronounced China just like how trump does lol
Feminist ....buy a cat
Young Adult, Young Adult, Young Adult, Young Adult, Adult, Young Adult, Young Adult... fuck me. Unsubscribed!