Fairy tales are often the first stories kids learn from picture books, and the works of Hanna Diyab, the Brothers Grimm, and Hans Christian Andersen can help inspire a lifelong passion for reading. But just because you grow up, doesn’t mean you have to abandon the genre. Modern fantasy books often strive for epic scale and complex political scheming, but it can be just as satisfying to explore a wondrous world where brave heroes fall in love and find the courage to do what’s right. If you want to bring some more magic to your reading list, check out these five fairy tale novels for adults.
The Night Circus (2011) by Erin Morgenstern
Fairy tales often feature kids who find themselves in magical realms with their own rules, and Erin Morgenstern’s debut novel pulls her protagonists into a wondrous circus that serves as a battlefront for dueling mages. Celia Bowen and Marco Alisdair have been trained from childhood to battle each other by creating the most captivating exhibits in the Circus of Dreams. While they spend years honing their skills without even knowing who their rival is, they eventually fall in love with each other.
The competition threatens to destroy them and everyone else working in the circus, whose magic keeps them both eternally young and bound to the traveling show. The young mages have to figure out a way to safely end the twisted game. It’s a heartbreakingly sweet story filled with awe-inspiring descriptions of the dazzling attractions.
The Golem and the Jinni (2013) by Helene Wecker
Helene Wecker’s debut novel combines Jewish and Arabic mythologies for a beautiful romance set in 19th-century New York. Chava, a golem whose would-be master died on the voyage to America, and Ahmad, a jinni freshly released from a flask and trapped in human form, explore their new home, finding kindness from other immigrants. But the strongest bond they form is with each other. The two immortals with very different views on humanity become unlikely companions on long strolls through the city.
While the book does come to a tense climax, Wecker takes her time detailing the way Chava and Ahmad search for purpose and comfort in things as simple as baking bread and finding a way to warm up during the winter. The book kicks off a trilogy following the golem and jinni through the decades, which concluded in September with the release of The Gates of Midnight.
Spinning Silver (2018) by Naomi Novik
The Brothers Grimm’s tale of Rumpelstiltskin serves as the basis of Naomi Novik’s Locus Award-winning novel set in the fictional Eastern European kingdom of Lithvas. When Miryem Mandelstam takes over her father’s moneylending business, she’s so effective at collecting on debts that she boasts she can “turn silver into gold.” A fae king makes her prove the claim, pulling her into a conflict between his realm and the demon Chernobog.
Much like the heroine of the original story, Miryem has to use her wits to find a way out of her predicament. Spinning Silver is a sweet story with rich characters and beautifully described settings. If you like it, you should also read Novik’s Polish folklore-inspired novel, Uprooted.
The House in the Cerulean Sea (2020) by TJ Klune
Plenty of fairy tales follow young people discovering a magical world, but TJ Klune’s beautiful queer romance The House in the Cerulean Sea proves you can find where you really belong at any age. Linus Baker is a very lonely man living a boring life checking on the welfare of magical youth held at government-run orphanages. But when the uncaring bureaucracy he works for sends him on a month-long inspection job to a facility on a remote island, Linus casts aside his professional detachment and becomes part of a very strange family that includes sprites, a wyvern, and the Antichrist.
This is a classic tale of finding both love and the courage to stand up for what’s right, but it also doesn’t shy away from heavy subjects of intolerance and child abuse. Klune continued the story in his 2024 novel Somewhere Beyond the Sea.
Tress of the Emerald Sea (2023) by Brandon Sanderson
The first of Brandon Sanderson’s crowdfunded Secret Project books written during the COVID-19 pandemic, Tress of the Emerald Sea is a sweet romantic adventure reminiscent of The Princess Bride. Tress lives on a remote island surrounded by an ocean of deadly spores. Her experience of the wider world is limited to a collection of cups she gathers from passing sailors, and the stories told by her best friend Charlie, the son of the island’s ruling duke. When Charlie is captured by the fierce Sorceress and his father refuses to pay the ransom, Tress decides to stow away on a sailing ship and rescue Charlie herself.
While the book is set in Sanderson’s Cosmere universe and narrated by his world-hopping storyteller Hoid, you don’t need to have read anything else to appreciate its whimsical story. That makes Tress of the Emerald Sea a perfect introduction to Sanderson before jumping into one of his denser series.
This story is part of Polygon’s latest special issue, Happily Never After: A Week of Adult Fairy Tales, brought to you by The Wolf Among Us Remastered, out on Oct. 29.