What Are You Looking For?

A folklore-infused fantasy about a cursed princess undertaking dangerous trials to save her brothers. Its strongest threads are family loyalty, courage, sacrifice and repairing harm, while its trials include physical danger, death and bereavement.

This is a varied speculative-fiction collection rather than one continuous story. Its appeal lies in imaginative settings, changing moods and morally pressured situations, but the individual stories may differ considerably in intensity and subject matter.

A fast-moving fantasy adventure combines an unusual underground world with a serious rescue mission. Its strongest appeal is likely the combination of sibling care, loyal alliances, prophecy and difficult choices during conflict.

A lively haunted-theatre adventure for readers who enjoy supernatural mysteries, jokes and rapid action. Expect ghosts, occult activity, threats to Zack and references to brutal past deaths, alongside a developing friendship.

This is an imaginative adventure combining friendship, mystery and a robot with a society changed by water scarcity. It also gives sustained attention to Auden’s experience of achromatopsia and his changing relationship with that difference.

This offers immersive folklore, a slow-building relationship and a heroine confronting shame about her magic. It may suit readers who enjoy gothic atmosphere, complex myth-making and emotionally difficult fantasy rather than a light fairy-tale retelling.

This is an imaginative fantasy adventure about siblings entering a winter-bound world and taking part in its liberation. Its moral framework includes courage, sacrifice, repentance, forgiveness and explicitly Christian allegory.

A high-stakes myth-inspired adventure about rescuing a sister and confronting powerful gods. It offers determined protagonists, alliances between unusual characters, imaginative battles and a story shaped by African and Caribbean cultural and spiritual influences.

Expect a fast-moving, imaginative adventure in which time travel connects family relationships, grief and responsibility. The story also makes room for humour, friendship and emotional growth, with Al facing both practical dangers and difficult choices.

A sweeping fantasy adventure centred on two young people, a hidden magical world and the struggle to preserve disappearing magic. Expect imaginative creatures, perilous quests and emotionally significant losses alongside companionship, ingenuity and moral responsibility.

This is a family-history story in which discovering wartime secrets changes how Liv understands her grandmother, loyalty and courage. It combines contemporary friendship worries with Jewish sisters’ separation, Resistance work, loss and rebuilding a life.

Expect a brisk, eventful fantasy adventure rooted in Norse mythology. Its imaginative quest is paired with homelessness, bereavement, death, disability, religious identity and friendship across differences.

This is a high-stakes fantasy continuation about Sophie and her allies confronting hidden history, dangerous enemies and choices that may require sacrifice. Friendship, family, courage and romantic uncertainty sit alongside magical peril.

A dark, high-stakes fantasy quest in which Lirael and her companions try to prevent a destructive power from escaping. Expect magic, necromancers, battles, danger and a concluding struggle involving sacrifice.

This is a factual, story-led collection about animals involved in wartime. It combines rescue, communication, morale and service with a gentle, sometimes uplifting presentation, while acknowledging that some animals died.

Expect a brisk mythological adventure: Percy and friends navigate a perilous Labyrinth while an approaching war threatens their camp. The book mixes monsters, quests, humour, emotional choices and large-scale conflict, with Greek mythology shaping both its world and its plot.

This is a dark, romantic fantasy about survival, dangerous power and difficult choices. Its appeal lies in an immersive faerie world and intense relationships; its most attention-demanding material includes graphic injury, sexual content, coercion and frightening threats.

This is a high-stakes fantasy adventure centred on competing responsibilities: returning home, preventing war, rescuing friends and stopping monsters from returning. Its strongest apparent appeal is sustained peril combined with loyalty and impossible-looking choices.

A tense animal-and-human adventure built around survival, divided loyalties and the relationship between Eften and Dogboy. Its central conflict places compassion and allegiance under pressure.

A candid account of a teenager facing Tourette’s syndrome and OCD, with depression, anxiety, addiction, ridicule and exclusion also named.

This is a high-stakes fantasy conclusion about Eragon and Saphira confronting a powerful ruler. It combines adventure, battles and moral stakes with loss, hope and the difficult question of what restoring justice may require.

A supernatural coming-of-age story about inherited responsibility, private secrets and a choice with potentially enormous consequences. Adam’s wish for normality collides with a frightening vision and a demand to act.