The fae and faeries are taking the YA world by storm. However, it’s not surprising as faeries have always had a sort of romantic feel to them, but these book fae aren’t as charming as the ones in fairytale books.
From their beautiful glamour to their fierce nature, these fae have both scary and intriguing characteristics that draw YA readers in.
Read on to discover our picks and tell us in the comments below if you will be checking any of them out?
The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black
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Children can have a cruel, absolute sense of justice. Children can kill a monster and feel quite proud of themselves. A girl can look at her brother and believe they’re destined to be a knight and a bard who battle evil. She can believe she’s found the thing she’s been made for. Hazel lives with her brother, Ben, in the strange town of Fairfold where humans and fae exist side by side. The faeries’ seemingly harmless magic attracts tourists, but Hazel knows how dangerous they can be, and she knows how to stop them. Or she did, once. At the center of it all, there is a glass coffin in the woods. It rests right on the ground and in it sleeps a boy with horns on his head and ears as pointed as knives. Hazel and Ben were both in love with him as children. The boy has slept there for generations, never waking. Until one day, he does… As the world turns upside down, Hazel tries to remember her years pretending to be a knight. But swept up in new love, shifting loyalties, and the fresh sting of betrayal, will it be enough?
Holly Black is the Queen of Fae. Many of the books that she has released have been about fae and the world that they live in. Her stories include the evil side of fae where changelings are common and fae prey on humans. The Darkest Part of the Forest is about a girl-knight who is great with a sword, her brother who has the gift to charm everyone with his music, and a prince who is sleeping in a glass coffin in the forest. It’s a dark and mysterious story that is perfect for lovers of fae.
The Iron King by Julie Kagawa
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Meghan Chase has a secret destiny; one she could never have imagined. Something has always felt slightly off in Meghan’s life, ever since her father disappeared before her eyes when she was six. She has never quite fit in at school or at home. When a dark stranger begins watching her from afar, and her prankster best friend becomes strangely protective of her, Meghan senses that everything she’s known is about to change. But she could never have guessed the truth – that she is the daughter of a mythical faery king and is a pawn in a deadly war. Now Meghan will learn just how far she’ll go to save someone she cares about, to stop a mysterious evil, no faery creature dare face; and to find love with a young prince who might rather see her dead than let her touch his icy heart.
The Iron King is more of a lighter fae book, but still filled with the self-obsessed fae you all know. It’s a retelling of A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare and many of the characters are featured in this book. Julie Kagawa knows a lot about fae mythology and lore and she puts it to good use in this book.
An Enchantment of Ravens by Margaret Rogerson
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A skilled painter must stand up to the ancient power of the faerie courts—even as she falls in love with a faerie prince—in this gorgeous debut novel. Isobel is a prodigy portrait artist with a dangerous set of clients: the sinister fair folk, immortal creatures who cannot bake bread, weave cloth, or put a pen to paper without crumbling to dust. They crave human Craft with a terrible thirst, and Isobel’s paintings are highly prized. But when she receives her first royal patron—Rook, the autumn prince—she makes a terrible mistake. She paints mortal sorrow in his eyes—a weakness that could cost him his life. Furious and devastated, Rook spirits her away to the autumnlands to stand trial for her crime. Waylaid by the Wild Hunt’s ghostly hounds, the tainted influence of the Alder King, and hideous monsters risen from barrow mounds, Isobel and Rook depend on one another for survival. Their alliance blossoms into trust, then love—and that love violates the fair folks’ ruthless laws. Now both of their lives are forfeit, unless Isobel can use her skill as an artist to fight the fairy courts. Because secretly, her Craft represents a threat the fair folk have never faced in all the millennia of their unchanging lives: for the first time, her portraits have the power to make them feel.
An Enchantment of Ravens uses Celtic folklore elements such as the Wild Hunt and their fae worshipping nature, along with fae characters who are vain and overconfident and those who wear glamours in order to conceal their true appearance. The writing is gorgeous and the story is very well-developed which makes it an excellent read for anyone craving some fae.
The Falconer by Elizabeth May
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Edinburgh, 1844. Eighteen-year-old Lady Aileana Kameron, the only daughter of the Marquess of Douglas, has everything a girl could dream of: brains, charm, wealth, a title—and drop-dead beauty. She’s a liar. But Aileana only looks the part of an aristocratic young lady. she’s leading a double life: She has a rare ability to sense the sìthíchean—the faery race obsessed with slaughtering humans—and, with the aid of a mysterious mentor, has spent the year since her mother died learning how to kill them. She’s a murderer. Now Aileana is dedicated to slaying the fae before they take innocent lives. With her knack for inventing ingenious tools and weapons—from flying machines to detonators to lightning pistols—ruthless Aileana has one goal: Destroy the faery who destroyed her mother. She’s a Falconer. The last in a line of female warriors born with a gift for hunting and killing the fae, Aileana is the sole hope of preventing a powerful faery population from massacring all of humanity. Suddenly, her quest is a lot more complicated. She still longs to avenge her mother’s murder—but she’ll have to save the world first.
Set in Scotland, The Falconer is filled with stabbing, murderous girls and faeries. The Falconer is the name for a female warrior who is born to kill the fae. Aileana is the last one of them and her reputation and social life are in shatters. It includes many major things fae lovers adore and I highly recommend it.
A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
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Feyre’s survival rests upon her ability to hunt and kill – the forest where she lives is a cold, bleak place in the long winter months. So when she spots a deer in the forest being pursued by a wolf, she cannot resist fighting it for the flesh. But to do so, she must kill the predator and killing something so precious comes at a price. Dragged to a magical kingdom for the murder of a faerie, Feyre discovers that her captor, his face obscured by a jewelled mask, is hiding far more than his piercing green eyes would suggest. Feyre’s presence at the court is closely guarded, and as she begins to learn why, her feelings for him turn from hostility to passion and the faerie lands become an even more dangerous place. Feyre must fight to break an ancient curse, or she will lose him forever.
The last book on this list is a fairly popular one. A Court of Thorns and Roses is a Beauty and the Beast retelling that has an abundance of faeries, curses and romance. Feyre is struggling to provide for her family who is pretty useless. When she kills a wolf who turns out to be a fae, she is forced to live in the Spring Court under the protection of Tamlin who is under a curse. This is a book that you will dive into and won’t want to leave.
