Reading Recommendations: Wanderlust – Magical Destinations
A new month means another batch of reading recommendations! June means the start of the summer reading season, so this month’s theme is centered around wanderlust, but with a twist. Instead of tropical beaches or summer camp retreats, I’m focusing on magical destinations! Hope you enjoy these picks!
Orphaned at a young age, Alice has lived with her aunt for most of her childhood. But her uncle is abusive and resentful, and at fifteen years old, Alice decides to return home to Kyoto and train as a maiko, eventually hoping to become a geisha.
But when she arrives back to the city where she was born, she finds that Kyoto has changed quite a bit in the eight years since she left it. Almost as if it’s a completely different world…
Alice in Kyoto is a charming retelling of the popular tale Alice in Wonderland, except the story is set in 1800s Japan (Kyoto). Following our main character Alice, who shares some similarities with the Classic novel she sets out for a new beginning after leaving her uncle’s house. She takes a whimsical journey to Kyoto (except it’s not the Kyoto she knows) and meets magical beings while traveling in this new world. It’s equal parts, self-discovery, and magic!
In the realm of Awara, where gods, monsters, and humans exist side by side, Miuko is an ordinary girl resigned to a safe, if uneventful, existence as an innkeeper’s daughter.
But when Miuko is cursed and begins to transform into a demon with a deadly touch, she embarks on a quest to reverse the curse and return to her normal life. Aided by a thieving magpie spirit and continuously thwarted by a demon prince, Miuko must outfox tricksters, escape demon hunters, and negotiate with feral gods if she wants to make it home again.
With her transformation comes power and freedom she never even dreamed of, and she’ll have to decide if saving her soul is worth trying to cram herself back into an ordinary life that no longer fits her… and perhaps never did.
What I love about this novel is the heightened sense of adventure and the aura of mystery. With every turn Miuko and her sidekick, Genki tries to navigate their travels with demon hunters, a vengeful demon prince named Tujiyazai, and ghosts constantly at their heels. The story is rich with Japanese folklore which has been mentioned in countless stories and also introduces them in a way that makes them accessible to new audiences. Though the journey is terrifying and action-packed. The novel shows a very magical side of Japan.
Graphic novel star Kazu Kibuishi creates a world of terrible, man-eating demons, a mechanical rabbit, a giant robot—and two ordinary children on a life-or-death mission.
After the tragic death of their father, Emily and Navin move with their mother to the home of her deceased great-grandfather, but the strange house proves to be dangerous. Before long, a sinister creature lures the kids’ mom through a door in the basement. Em and Navin, desperate not to lose her, follow her into an underground world inhabited by demons, robots, and talking animals.
Eventually, they enlist the help of a small mechanical rabbit named Miskit. Together with Miskit, they face the most terrifying monster of all, and Em finally has the chance to save someone she loves.
This is a fantasy middle-grade adventure series that follows siblings on an adventure through a strange new world. The world-building is excellent and each new volume of this graphic novel series brings even more excitement than the last. I love stories with grand quests and I appreciate how this series blends an aura of suspense, two siblings overcoming grief while bonding, and discovering strange new things. It’s a fun series for its intended reading audience and adults alike.
Isela Vogel has the power to attract the favor of the gods for anyone who can pay her fee but struggles to hide the degenerative hip condition that will end her career. Then she’s offered a job that will set her and her family up for life. Though her prospective patron is a formidable necromancer with a heated and infuriating gaze, she can hardly refuse the payday.
The Allegiance of Necromancers is powerful but not omnipotent, and when someone starts murdering his kind, Azrael must enlist a human in order to track down the killer. But why does she have to be so frustratingly stubborn–and intriguing? Azrael can make the dead walk, but he can’t make the very much alive Isela toe any line.
Isela is thrown into a world of supernatural creatures–demons after dark, witches in the shadows, shifters running wild in city parks–where the grace of gods can truly infuse the blood of the most mortal-seeming dancer. As the danger increases with each thrilling discovery, trusting Azrael may be the only way to survive a conspiracy to destroy the fragile peace of a broken world.
But the greatest threat is their growing attraction. Dancers and necromancers don’t mix for a reason–it turns out there are fates worse than death.
This book had a really interesting concept that I haven’t visited before in this genre, so I was very excited about reading it. The story is full of action-packed scenes from fights, magic, and sparring dances. The gods-dancing mentioned in this book is elegant, yet fierce and you can see the passion in Isela’s dance and why she’s one of the top dancers at her academy. She tries her hardest not to fall for Azreal since she knows he’s nothing but danger. But the attraction between the two is too hard to deny as they work together on solving the mystery of the murders and locating grimoires. I also love the attention to detail in Prague, where the story is set. It sounds like a beautiful but mysterious city making it a good setting for this suspenseful fantasy. I thought the world-building was very good!
The year is 2399. Humans’ “biological clocks” have been stopped for more than 250 years, freeing humanity from aging and death. AIs have rights, and can even acquire full citizenship.
It’s also fashion week. Antisocial fashion editor Pablo Starr — who runs Space Fashion Week, via RNWY — is bored and depressed, as usual. He has endless riches, and (like everyone in 2399) doesn’t age, but he’s been searching for his lost love for almost 100 years.
Meanwhile, supermodel-turned-reality star Samantha (of mean-spirited holo show Samantha!) is trying to make a name for herself as an inventor, but she’s mocked by the media and her shallow co-workers.
Their lives are connected, and changed, when DOS, an antiquated robot, crashes the Chanel show looking for Samantha.
DOS has a wild story: his owner has been abducted by a Sention sim (a lifelike android made by Fashion Robotics), and Pablo will be next.
The story follows multiple characters as the point of view switches from chapter to chapter. Samantha, Pablo, DOS, Santoria, and others join up to fight the forces of evil in order to save the galaxy from being overtaken by a power-hungry being. This novel is incredibly detailed and it really helps in the overall world-building process of setting up a futuristic world with amazing technology, gadgets, fashion, robots, etc. It was such an immersive reading experience and I like that there were illustrations of some of the tech gadgets being used by the main characters.
Eva Evergreen is determined to earn the rank of Novice Witch before she turns thirteen years old. If she doesn’t, she’ll lose her magic forever. For most young witches and wizards, it’s a simple enough test:
ONE: Help your town, do good all around.
TWO: Live there for one moon, don’t leave too soon.
THREE: Fly home by broomstick, the easiest of tricks.
The only problem? Eva only has a pinch of magic. She summons heads of cabbage instead of flowers and gets a sunburn instead of calling down rain. And to add insult to injury, whenever she overuses her magic, she falls asleep.
When she lands on the tranquil coastal town of Auteri, the residents expect a powerful witch, not a semi-magical girl. So Eva comes up with a plan: set up a magical repair shop to aid Auteri and prove she’s worthy. She may have more blood than magic, but her “semi-magical fixes” repair the lives of the townspeople in ways they never could have imagined. Only, Eva’s bit of magic may not be enough when the biggest magical storm in history threatens the town she’s grown to love. Eva must conjure up all of the magic, bravery, and cleverness she can muster or Auteri and her dreams of becoming a witch will wash away with the storm.
Reading any sort of Fantasy novel leaves you with a sense of wanderlust and this novel made me wish I could visit Eva’s world as well. The description of Auteri alone is enough to transport readers to this universe. From its descriptions of the water that lined the coast, to the light festival, and even all of the mom-and-pop shops of this seaside community. It’s a tranquil place but also far enough from home so that Eva can focus on her quest and obtain her goals. Along the way she makes new friends, makes a home away home from while struggling to develop in her own environment, and even grows in her powers. My favorite development in the story is her slightly destructive but cute flame fox sidekick which can be seen in many of the charming illustrations included in the book.
That concludes my reading recommendations for themed books about magical destinations! What books do you recommend or what are your favorites? What magical place would you like to travel to? Comment below!
