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5 Dark Fantasy Books by Female Authors You Won’t Be Able To Put Down
The term dark fantasy can mean different things. Sometimes it’s a fairy tale with grim elements, or a world where magic comes with heavy drawbacks; the best books in the genre explore this by blending familiar fantasy elements with darker themes of power, identity, survival, and the sacrifices people will make.
The five works below offer different interpretations of dark fantasy. V.E. Schwab views a blessing of living forever as a curse, and T. Kingfisher takes an unexpected group of protagonists on a bloodthirsty adventure, while Chloe Gong presents a dystopia where the difference between the real world and virtual space is almost gone. Kim Liggett and R.F. Kuang explore even darker themes by examining brutal societies and warfare.
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab
V.E. Schwab’s The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue opens with one of those deals that seem amazing until you find out the catch. In 1714 France, Addie needs to avoid an arranged marriage, so she makes a deal with a strange entity named Luc. Addie wins everything she wants — freedom, immortality, and living life by her own rules. The cost of success is high, and any encounter with someone in the world ends with Addie being forgotten the moment she leaves their sight.
The book shifts between Addie’s current life and centuries spent wandering the Earth, leaving her traces over time through art, history, and brief encounters. The melancholy atmosphere is a huge part of the book’s appeal, particularly as Addie eventually encounters someone who can remember her. It’s an intimate, occasionally haunting story about wanting to leave some evidence behind that you existed. The book was also a 2021 Locus Award finalist and spent 37 weeks on The New York Times bestseller list.
Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher
T. Kingfisher’s Nettle & Bone takes the fairy tale and asks what happens when the princess decides she is done waiting for someone else to rescue her. Marra is the youngest of three princesses, but after her older sisters suffer under an abusive prince, she decides to intervene herself. The main issue that arises is that killing the prince is no simple task, so Marra must first complete an odd set of three tasks for a dust-wife: fashioning a cloak from nettles, constructing a dog made of bones, and capturing the moonlight in a jar.
Those adventures ultimately become even stranger, as they bring Marra into a world involving a gravewitch, a disgraced knight, a reluctant fairy godmother, and a chicken possessed by a demon. The author, Kingfisher, has a knack for making heavy topics fun, and Nettle & Bone never allows the dark topics to overshadow its warmth. While domestic violence, trauma, and impossible choices appear on the page, they run alongside a wonderfully peculiar family that gives the story more emotional depth than you would expect from a short book. The novel won Best Novel at the Hugo Awards in 2023, and its mix of horror, humor, and fairy-tale oddness is part of what makes it special.
Coldwire by Chloe Gong
Chloe Gong’s Coldwire pushes dark fantasy into cyberpunk territory, creating a future where humanity has been divided between two countries and, perhaps more importantly, two versions of reality. Society is split between “upcountry,” a virtual-reality existence, and “downcountry,” the physical world. Eirale, an orphan of war turned soldier, finds herself framed for an assassination and forced to help track down a dangerous program. While Lia attends military academy, she is assigned to team up with her rival to sneak behind enemy lines and locate AI weaponry.
This sets off a YA dystopian story where politics run rampant, the military is misused, AI is everywhere, and nothing can be trusted. The author takes an interesting approach, delving into corporate politics, diaspora, and the repercussions of living in a rapidly changing world. Coldwire is the first installment of a trilogy called StrangeLoom and has made the NYT and Sunday Times bestseller lists. The story takes a while to get going as it lays the foundation, then reveals a plot twist.
The Grace Year by Kim Liggett
Kim Liggett’s The Grace Year drops 16-year-old Tierney James into Garner County, an isolated society built around the belief that teenage girls possess a dangerous magic. According to the community’s rules, girls must spend their 16th year banished to the wilderness, where they are expected to release that supposed magic before returning home to marry. Tierney has always questioned the system, but surviving her own grace year forces her to confront how much cruelty the tradition is built on.
The wild is dangerous, but what is scarier is the system that teaches these girls to be wary of one another. They find themselves struggling with the harsh environment and poachers. The book captures the essence of a survival story like The Lord of the Flies, but it also makes its fight against the patriarchal system even more horrifying. The Grace Year is ultimately less interested in whether the girls can simply survive one terrible year than in what happens when an entire society convinces women that they are each other’s enemies.
The Poppy War — R.F. Kuang
R.F. Kuang’s The Poppy War, begins in a recognizable fantasy setting. The story follows Fang Runin, or Rin, a girl in a family that wants to marry her off, so she takes part in the Keju, the empire-wide test that can help her escape the situation she is in. Rin is accepted into the prestigious military academy after she surprisingly comes first in her province. At this institution, Rin realizes she can communicate with powerful gods in ways beyond her understanding.
However, the story soon takes a darker turn when, amid the military academy’s peaceful life, a vicious campaign begins after the Mugen Federation invades, opening the door to a war reminiscent of the most horrifying events in 20th-century Chinese history. Kuang draws from many real-life wars, such as the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Opium Wars, and reflects upon many aspects of colonialism. The novel has received two awards: the Crawford Award and the Compton Crook Award. This book is also the first in a trilogy that follows Rin through her trials and tribulations.
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