📖 So You Liked HP, Then I Bet You'll Like 🎞️

[Stefan Archer]

Folks!

Welcome to a slightly different birthday thread, inspired by the HNZ book club. This is a thread to post recommendations for media (books, games, tv shows, movies etc) that are like Harry Potter, but are importantly not Harry Potter.

So I'd recommend that if you like Harry Potter, then you'd probably really like Carry On by Rainbow Rowell. It reads like Harry Potter fanfiction really, for about the first half of the novel, and then does manage to find its own voice.

If you like Harry Potter, and you also like Dungeons and Dragons, I can't recommend Fantasy High on Dropout. It's more DND than HP, but is about high school kids (the bad kids) who have adventures while also being at school. it's great fun. Dropout also has the Misfits and Magic mini-series which is in a very Harry Potter-esque world and game mechanics more like Harry Potter, and it's great fun.

So what recommendations do you have?

 

[Sunday Weeks]

Well Emzies stole my first thought Thats what I get for reading that book with her

But if we're talking good stories with magic, has anyone tried the Stardust Thief by Chelsea Abdullah? It's like Aladdin vibes a bit, a great adventure tale with loads of magic and intrigue and a grand adventure. Definitely one of the best books I've read so far this year.

 

[Aine Thompson]

Popping up to shill for Fire Emblem: Three Houses. People joked about the HP aspect when it came out (which is mostly just the school aesthetic) so it's not really that strongly linked but idk, if you like the setting and the house v house drama and bonding with your students you might enjoy it! You play as a mercenary who gets roped into teaching at an academy for (mostly) nobles and through it you learn more about why you were chosen as well as the political intrigue of the country and the goals and backstory of each house (specifically their leader) that you've chosen.

Books related, while there's a lot of magical coming of age novels out there I recommend the Circle of Magic series by Tamora Pierce! Four young people from vastly different backgrounds are brought together at a magical school (of sorts) to hone their specific talents and develop a sort of familial bond. I must admit I haven't read all of them myself (they can be a bit difficult to find nowadays) but I got invested in the first books of the series, where each of them focuses on one of the four children and their specific powers. Angry weather mage Triss is a whole mood.

 

[Professor Elvera Le Fey]

Books related, while there's a lot of magical coming of age novels out there I recommend the Circle of Magic series by Tamora Pierce! Four young people from vastly different backgrounds are brought together at a magical school (of sorts) to hone their specific talents and develop a sort of familial bond. I must admit I haven't read all of them myself (they can be a bit difficult to find nowadays) but I got invested in the first books of the series, where each of them focuses on one of the four children and their specific powers. Angry weather mage Triss is a whole mood.

I really enjoyed the circle of magic series when I was younger. Infortunatly it was the only one of Tamora pierces series that the library had the full series of. But I wish I had read more of her work when I was younger. It might be with noting that each of the books have two titles (I am not sure if it was a uk and American editions or if they were rereleased) maybe I will have to track down some more of her books.

I think I have two book series to add
The wayward children by Seanan McGuire (the first book is called every heart a doorway) is fantastic. Set in a school specifically for children who have travelled between worlds and returned home (think Alice after wonderland) each of the novella are short and focus one one of the students though each book is technically stand alone we see the same characters follow through the books. I don’t want to give too much about the plots (I have only read the first three) but there was lots of adventures and each book has a different mood.

The scholarmance series by Naomi novik (first book a deadly education)
A lot of Naomi’s books are based around Eastern European folklore which apparently the scholarmance is based off. But I don’t know. All I know is the book is really good. Set in a school where magical children are sent to to protect them from monsters in the world. Not that there are no monsters in the school only their chances of survival to adulthood are better than outside. The school runs fully automated off magic. There are no teachers or staff just the staff. The main character is outsider, El, who is destined to bring doom to the world. But she really doesnt want to be an evil sorceress the fates have want her to be.

 

[Poppy Perkins]

If you like Harry Potter, and you also like Dungeons and Dragons, I can't recommend Fantasy High on Dropout. It's more DND than HP, but is about high school kids (the bad kids) who have adventures while also being at school. it's great fun. Dropout also has the Misfits and Magic mini-series which is in a very Harry Potter-esque world and game mechanics more like Harry Potter, and it's great fun.

how about that most recent Fantasy High episode gang?

But seconding the Misfits and Magic mini-series, I watched it recently and it was very funny how they poked at the more nonsense aspects of the Harry Potter world. Evan Kelmp firstie when?

And to keep with the magical book recommendations I feel obliged to add the Darker Shades of Magic series by V. E Schwab, which is about these parallel versions of London that have various levels and kinds of magic. They're a very good time and I liked them a lot. I also really enjoyed a YA duology she wrote, This Savage Song and Our Dark Duet, which are about this city full of monsters. I'm not doing the summary justice at all but I really loved it.