Fall Books with Folk Tales, Wild Places, & Dark Magic
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I really love timing the reading of books to the seasons and these five fall books are filled with folk tales, wild places, & dark magic for perfect autumn vibes. Yes, so four out of the five all fantasy novels and yes, they are all written really well.
(And yes, I absolutely want to know the books you are reading this fall!)
Godkiller
You are going to love Godkiller by Hannah Kaner. This is a world where gods are forbidden and our main character is a hired god killer. First in the Fallen Gods trilogy, Godkiller is a really fun ride and I truly enjoyed all three books. With an adult female main character (always a win in my book), this book is still a good read for young adults and older teens. And the disability representation in this book is done plainly and beautifully.
I think Godkiller is a wonderful autumn book because Kaner does cozy so well, whether the characters are at home, camping, or stopping for a break. The god who is with us throughout the series is a tiny antereled hare.
Names have power, and gods felt the tug of theirs like a hook in their gills, pulling them into the open.
― Hannah Kaner, Godkiller
The Comfort of Crows
Crows are a bit of a special animal for me. My children say they follow me around, maybe they do, so I loved finding The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year by Margaret Renkl and illustrated by Billy Renkl. While it’s truly a year-round book, as Renkl observes her own backyard, I enjoy reading sections of it during the corresponding season and the autumn is one of my favorites.
In this way, I’m more likely to observe my own surroundings and find the tiny seasonal changes like the author does. And yet nothing about the book is preachy about how you should pay attention, she shares things that delight or bother her. It’s a very real book and I like it so much for that.
I never deadhead the coneflowers, though, for there are few things more beautiful than the sight of a goldfinch still wearing his summer finery and riding a coneflower tossing in the autumn wind.
― Margaret Renkl, The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year
Nettle & Bone
She has a bone dog, that’s all that needs to be said right? This is a book to read for perfect autumn vibes if there ever was one. And I will read anything by T. Kingfisher, knowing the story will always unfurl in a gorgeous way. Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher feels like a fairy tale, in that you’ve never heard this particular story but it has such weight to it. It’s a lovely macabre story.
Everyone have their souls still? Shadows still attached? Then let’s go before that changes.
― T. Kingfisher, Nettle & Bone
Gingerbread
I will also read anything by Helen Oyeyemi and Gingerbread is exactly what I want from her hands. This is a fairytale, the Grimm Brothers’ “Hansel and Gretel,” but not quite how you’ve heard it before. With all the baking, weird dollies, and a mysterious well I think Gingerbread is perfect for autumn. As with other Oyeyemi’s books, you will finish the book with very, very few answers but you’ve gone on such an incredible ride that you don’t mind. You just want to get back into her world again soon.
Her gingerbread keeps and keeps. It outlasts all daintier gifts. Flowers wilt and shed mottled petals, mold blooms greenish-white on chocolate truffles, and Harriet’s gingerbread hunkers down in its tin, no more attractive than the day it arrived, but no more repellent either.
― Helen Oyeyemi, Gingerbread
Honeycomb
Do you want a book full of dark fairytales? Maybe even dark fairytales that center around certain insects? Honeycomb by Joanne M. Harris is another book to read for perfect autumn vibes because it is often very dark but only enchantingly so. I really love that the stories are stand-alone but if you read the entire book, they are interwoven with the tale of the Lacewing King. If you think you know about the faery world, think again.
There is a story the bees used to tell, which makes it hard to disbelieve.
― Joanne M. Harris, Honeycomb
