20 Underrated Fantasy Books to Gift the Readers in Your Life

As the holidays near , it can be a challenge to corrupt gifts for the most voracious book readers in your aliveness — but 2023 has seen a ton of excellent fantasy books hit shelves , to the level that it ’s been hard to keep up with all the greatest new material . Here ’s 20 of our favourite underrated option that will make the illusion sports fan in your life sentence very glad this class .

Looking for more gift ideas ? check out out all ofGizmodo ’s 2023 gift guide .

The Thing in the Snow by Sean Adams

Why we have intercourse it : Set in the frosty norths in an abandoned inquiry facility now only occupied by four people ( and … something else outside ) , this in darkness funny thriller is part revulsion , part work drollery spoof , wrapped around an challenging mystery .

Where to purchase : Amazon

Tell Me I’m Worthless by Alison Rumfitt

Why we enjoy it : This queer gothic horror debut is a chilling take on the genre , as a youthful woman and her friends revisit the mystic business firm that sits at the heart of their traumas in an endeavor to end them once and for all .

Vampire Weekend by Mike Chen

Why we have sex it : Vampires meet tinder stone in this touching tale of connection , as a young woman hiding her vampiric secret longs to find a place for herself in a dance orchestra — only to have her spirit upended as a distant relative comes crashing into her life and learns her true world power .

The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty

Why we love it : Daevabad Trilogy author Shannon Chakraborty envisions a new earth of trick and mythos , this time on the eminent seas as an older char finds herself reflect an remainder to her career as a notorious sea robber — only for an pass she ca n’t refuse for one last risky venture sends her on a journey that could leave her a fable … for better or worse .

Hospital by Han Song, translated by Michael Berry

Why we sleep together it : Chinese author Han Song ’s grim satire on the complexities of health upkeep offers a disorienting , dystopic narrative as a young valet de chambre finds himself cryptically taken ill , and forcibly sent to a bizarre , labyrinthine medical readiness filled with enigma .

The God of Endings by Jacqueline Holland

Why we love it : A suspenseful , emotional exploration of dearest , loss , and the signification of life through the lens of an immortal woman who find her lengthy past come back to obsess her when she hybridize path with a secret talented shaver .

Pinata by Leopoldo Gout

Why we love it : This Mexican repugnance fantasy is a worthy successor to Gout ’s anterior horror , Ghost Radio , a chilling story of possession and trauma that embraces its cultural setting in a unambiguously immersive way .

Chlorine by Jade Song

Why we have it away it : The unveiling novel from Song melds aquatic repugnance and come of age through the crystalline lens of adulthood exploring the pressure put on youthful adult female in beau monde . The siren call of this book beckons for you to sink deeply into its narrative about try perfection to fit in but ultimately translate into something different .

Wolfwood by Marianna Baer

Why we have intercourse it : A daughter takes up her mother ’s brushing to mould paintings for an art show . Turns out the family gift might be more of a cuss as the art attract them into its fantastical world filled with threatening flora and foe .

The Marigold by Andrew F. Sullivan

Why we do it it : The effects of gentrification and drag one’s heels planning with empty buildings taking up distance as the disparate are push out is explore in The Marigold . Multiple tales of organic structure horror , urban disintegration and eco - fiction delve into how capitalist sprawling affects communities .

The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw

Why we have sex it : A mermaid and a plague doctor look the iniquity within themselves to take on extrernal otherworldy threats like a village of ageless children out for blood . Filled with new fairytale twists and closed book Khaw ’s book invites you see myths you call up you know in a new way .

The Memory of Animals by Claire Fuller

Why we love it : In a post - apocalyptic future humanity ’s last hope for a cure from a raging pandemic is an experimental vaccinum that Neffy , an indebted 27 - class - old marine life scientist and others volunteer for . While in trial and conceal from the ravaging disease outside they face the reasons they ended up there .

Relentless Melt by Jeremy P. Bushnell

Why we love it : A supernatural mystery stretch out in a tale that hark to the lucky long time of detective fiction . A young charwoman moonshine as a man to attend criminal investigating courses , there she meets another bookman pursuing magical knowledge . Together they uncover a trail of violent abductions that conduct to the very top of bon ton .

The Ghost in Bone by Mike Carey

Why we get it on it : London exorciser Felix Castor returns after 15 year in this new novella that follows his recent case : a high up - paying , high - risk of exposure adventure involving a missing Russian oligarch and malefic forces that test even Felix ’s telling abilities .

Where to buy : usable onAmazon Kindleand in a signed , limited - edition rendering fromSubterranean printing press

The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera

Why we love it : In this portmanteau of fantasy ( magic portals ) and terrestrial business concern ( therapy , junk mail ) , a man raise to be a orca take flight the violence of his rural home for living in the with child city , but shortly finds there ’s just as much jeopardy lurking there — as well as the potentiality to change his destiny .

Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Why we make out it : This blending of “ Mexican repulsion movies and Nazi occultism ” postdate a sound editor attempt to make her calling in nineties Mexico City — but gets more than she bargained for when she meets a religious cult director who involve help finishing his long - unfinished , supernaturally infused , and probably cursed last moving picture .

Schrader’s Chord by Scott Leeds

Why we love it : If you ’re a fan of music and horror level , you ca n’t not get excited about a tale involving a record collection with the power to connect the universe of the living and the dead . Naturally , the main character of this book — who inherits his alienated male parent ’s record store after his mysterious dying — gives those cursed LPs a spin , and darkness before long ensues .

Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology edited by Shane Hawk and Theodore C. Van Alst Jr.

Why we love it : This anthology of nervous tales ( ghosts , teras , nemesis , retaliation plots … ) by Indigenous author features an introduction by Stephen Graham Jones ( My Heart Is a Chainsaw ) and contribution from Darcie Little Badger , Tiffany Morris , Rebecca Roanhorse , and many more . Read an excerpthere .

The Reformatory by Tananarive Due

Why we love it : If the writer ’s name look familiar , you may know her from her contribution to Shudder ’s first-class infotainment Horror Noire : A History of Black Horror ( which she executive produced);she also teachesAfrofuturism and Black Horror at UCLA . Due ’s latest project is this searing historic - fiction novel congeal in 1950s Florida , where a tween able to see ghosts uncovers racial discrimination both past and present when he ’s sent to a unintegrated reform schoolhouse .

Where the Dead Wait by Ally Wilkes

Why we love it : Where do the stagnant hold off ? In this horror novel , it ’s the frozen Arctic , where an ex - explorer must voyage back to the site of his fail , cannibalism - tainted last mission to look for for a mislay colleague . Things get even eery thanks to the tagalong presence of a nosy reporter , as well as the leave out humankind ’s married woman — a metier who hold séances at sea .

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