Books like “The Lightning Thief”

What to read after “The Lightning Thief” by Rick Riordan: a list matched by tropes, mood and atmosphere. Under each book you will see what it has in common.

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1
The Book of Three
Lloyd Alexander · 1964
From the same world: “Mythology Retelling”
Taran, an assistant pig-keeper who wants only to be a hero, loses the oracular pig Hen Wen and follows her into the land of Prydain. With a bard, a princess and a creature named Gurgi, he stumbles into a war against the Horned King.
2
Legendborn
Tracy Deonn · 2020
From the same world: “Mythology Retelling” and “Urban Fantasy”
After her mother's death, Bree Matthews joins an early college program at UNC and witnesses a demon attack that no one else remembers. Pulled into a secret society descended from King Arthur's knights, she hunts for the truth behind the magic that erased her memory.
3
American Gods
Neil Gaiman · 2001
From the same world: “Mythology Retelling” and “Urban Fantasy”
Fresh out of prison, Shadow Moon takes a job with the smooth-talking Mr. Wednesday. Their road trip across America draws him into a quiet war between the old gods brought by immigrants and the new gods of media and technology, with Shadow caught in the middle.
4
The Darkest Night
Gena Showalter · 2008
From the same world: “Mythology Retelling” and “Urban Fantasy”
- Mythology Retelling
- Urban Fantasy
Cursed to carry the demon of Violence, the immortal warrior Maddox has spent lifetimes in torment. Every night he dies at the hands of the gods, and every dawn he wakes. Rescuing a mortal woman named Ashlyn from his enemies throws them both into a conflict that could free or destroy him.
5
A Touch of Darkness
Scarlett St. Clair · 2019
From the same world: “Mythology Retelling” and “Urban Fantasy”
- Mythology Retelling
- Urban Fantasy
Persephone is a young journalist who wants an ordinary life, away from her mother Demeter's plans. At a nightclub she meets Hades, the god of the dead, and loses a wager that binds her to his realm. She must learn to grow life in the underworld, or surrender to a love she was warned against.
6
Anansi Boys
Neil Gaiman · 2005
From the same world: “Mythology Retelling” and “Urban Fantasy”
- Mythology Retelling
- Urban Fantasy
Fat Charlie Nancy learns that the father he barely knew was the spider god Anansi, and that he has a brother he never met. Spider is charming, magical and trouble, and he turns Charlie's careful life upside down while Charlie tries to bury a past that will not stay buried.
7
The Stardust Thief
Chelsea Abdullah · 2022
From the same world: “Mythology Retelling”
- Mythology Retelling
- Quest
Loulie al-Nazari, the Midnight Merchant, trades in jinn relics with her jinn bodyguard Qadir. When the sultan forces her into a search for a lost lamp, she must cross a desert of jinn, thieves and old stories, where the line between merchant and prey keeps shifting.
8
Daughter of the Moon Goddess
Sue Lynn Tan · 2022
From the same world: “Mythology Retelling”
Xingyin grows up alone on the moon, hidden from the emperor who exiled her mother for stealing an elixir of immortality. When her magic is discovered she flees, conceals her identity at the celestial court and trains as a warrior to win her mother's freedom.
9
Eragon
Christopher Paolini · 2002
Similar plot moves: “Wise Mentor” and “Chosen One”
Eragon finds a polished blue stone in the mountains, and it hatches into a dragon. Chosen as her rider, he is hunted by the king's servants and must leave his village to learn the ways of the Dragon Riders and join the rebels.
10
City of Bones
Cassandra Clare · 2007
From the same world: “Urban Fantasy”
- Urban Fantasy
Clary Fray sees a murder no one else can, committed by three tattooed teenagers with strange weapons. When her mother vanishes, Clary is drawn into the world of the Shadowhunters, warriors who protect humans from demons, and learns her own past is part of their hidden war.
11
Unbreakable
Kami Garcia · 2013
From the same world: “Urban Fantasy”
- Urban Fantasy
- Chosen One
After her mother's death, Kennedy Waters is pulled into a world of ghosts and demons when she learns her family belonged to the Legion, a secret society sworn to fight them. With three brothers as her allies, she must help close a threat that killed her mother and is still hunting her.
12
The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea
Axie Oh · 2022
From the same world: “Mythology Retelling”
- Mythology Retelling
- Quest
Mina takes her brother's place as the sacrifice meant to calm the Sea God, and wakes in the realm of spirits. There she searches for the god, hoping to save her village and the boy who has waited for her.