Books like Shadow and Bone
What should you read after Leigh Bardugo’s novel? It depends on what you loved most about it.
- Leigh Bardugo
- 2012
- YA fantasy
What did you love about it?
Choosing one reorders everything below.
Best books to read after Shadow and Bone
Ranked overall. Pick what you loved above to re-rank them.
Best overall matchGraceling
Kristin Cashore
A girl whose rare and frightening ability makes her a king's instrument until she decides otherwise. Cashore got there first, and handles the mentor problem better.
- An orphan who discovers a power
- A charismatic, dangerous mentor
- A court of elemental magic
- Less court glamour
Great matchThrone of Glass
Sarah J. Maas
Same year, same appetite: a girl brought to a palace to be trained and used, a prince, a captain, and a court that runs on menace.
- Training montage at a palace
- A love triangle with teeth
- An orphan who discovers a power
- An assassin, not a chosen one
Great matchRed Queen
Victoria Aveyard
A poor girl discovers a power nobody like her should have, is installed in a glittering court, and learns that the man guiding her has plans of his own.
- An orphan who discovers a power
- A court of elemental magic
- A charismatic, dangerous mentor
- Beat-for-beat familiar plotting
Best for the dark empireAn Ember in the Ashes
Sabaa Tahir
A brutal military academy, a girl going in as a spy, and a soldier who hates what he has been made into. Ravka's darkness with the volume raised.
- A darkness that swallows a country
- Training montage at a palace
- A love triangle with teeth
- Considerably more violent
Best for the dangerous love interestThe Cruel Prince
Holly Black
If the Darkling was the reason you kept turning pages, Black has built an entire court out of that impulse and refuses to make anybody safe.
- A charismatic, dangerous mentor
- A love triangle with teeth
- A court of elemental magic
- Faerie setting, no Russian flavour
Best for more RavkaSix of Crows
Leigh Bardugo
The same world, same currency, same canals, but a crew of six thieves and Bardugo writing at the top of her game. Most readers say the Grishaverse actually starts here.
- A Russian-inflected world
- A court of elemental magic
- A darkness that swallows a country
- Heist structure throughout
Great matchThe Winner's Curse
Marie Rutkoski
A general's daughter buys a slave at auction, and the rest of the novel is the two of them negotiating power. Quieter than Bardugo, and far cleverer about politics.
- A darkness that swallows a country
- A love triangle with teeth
- A charismatic, dangerous mentor
- No magic at all
Worth a look — with a warningSerpent & Dove
Shelby Mahurin
A witch and a witch-hunter forced into marriage, in a France-flavoured world where the church burns people. All the antagonistic chemistry, considerably less plot.
- A love triangle with teeth
- A darkness that swallows a country
- An orphan who discovers a power
- Explicit content and coarse humour
Best for the Russian atmosphereThe Bear and the Nightingale
Katherine Arden
The real thing: Russian folklore, frost demons and house spirits, and a girl who sees what nobody else will admit is standing there. Bardugo's setting with its folklore intact.
- A Russian-inflected world
- An orphan who discovers a power
- A darkness that swallows a country
- Adult literary pacing
Great matchThe Young Elites
Marie Lu
Lu asks what happens if the girl with the new power is the one who turns cruel. A useful counter-argument to every chosen-one book on this list.
- An orphan who discovers a power
- A darkness that swallows a country
- A charismatic, dangerous mentor
- A villain-origin trajectory
Great matchUprooted
Naomi Novik
A girl taken by a cold, powerful wizard to be trained, in a Polish-flavoured wood where the corruption spreads much the way the Fold does.
- A charismatic, dangerous mentor
- A darkness that swallows a country
- A Russian-inflected world
- A prickly, unromantic mentor
Great matchThe Wrath & the Dawn
Renée Ahdieh
A girl walks into the palace of a boy-king who kills his brides, intending to kill him first. The dangerous-attraction engine, running at full throttle.
- A charismatic, dangerous mentor
- A love triangle with teeth
- Training montage at a palace
- Romance-first plotting throughout
Great matchThe Girl of Fire and Thorns
Rae Carson
A girl told since birth that she was chosen for something, with no idea what and no confidence she is equal to it. The chosen-one anxiety, honestly written.
- An orphan who discovers a power
- Training montage at a palace
- A court of elemental magic
- Its weight-loss arc dates it
What should you read after Shadow and Bone?
Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo works on several levels at once, and which book you should read next depends on which of those levels got you. For most readers the closest match is Graceling by Kristin Cashore — a girl whose rare and frightening ability makes her a king's instrument until she decides otherwise. Cashore got there first, and handles the mentor problem better.
If what stayed with you was training montage at a palace, read Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas instead: same year, same appetite: a girl brought to a palace to be trained and used, a prince, a captain, and a court that runs on menace. Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard is the other strong option — a poor girl discovers a power nobody like her should have, is installed in a glittering court, and learns that the man guiding her has plans of his own.
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