What to read after “The Moorchild” by Eloise McGraw: a list matched by tropes, mood and atmosphere. Under each book you will see what it has in common.
On her sixteenth birthday Meghan learns that her little brother has been swapped for a changeling and that the fey are real. To get him back she enters the Nevernever, a dangerous world divided between Summer and Winter courts, where she is drawn to a prince she was raised to fear.
Miryem restores her family's moneylending business with a clever tongue, and her boast that she can spin silver into gold reaches the frozen Staryk king. Bound to his winter court, she must use her wits to protect both kingdoms from a bargain that could destroy them.
Jude was born mortal but was raised in the High Court of Faerie after her parents were killed. Mocked by the fae and drawn to the cruel prince Cardan, she schemes her way into the court's politics, trading secrets and taking dangerous risks to win a place among those who despise her.
Emily Wilde, a prickly scholar of faerie folklore, travels to a frozen northern village to finish her encyclopaedia. Her charming colleague Wendell follows, and the two must bargain with the hidden folk whose mischief binds the village -- and Emily herself -- to an old tale.
Jude now controls the throne from behind the scenes, holding Prince Cardan bound to her for a year and a day. Court politics, undersea enemies and her own divided heart threaten the plan. She must keep her grip on power while denying the feelings growing between her and the wicked king she came to despise.
Isobel paints portraits for the fae, whose kind cannot create art themselves. When she paints mortal sorrow into the face of the autumn prince, she commits a crime that could cost her life. He carries her to his court for judgment, and their mutual distrust slowly turns into something forbidden.
Half-fae changeling October 'Toby' Daye wants nothing to do with Faerie after fourteen years away from it. When a fae noble is murdered and binds Toby with a dying curse to find the killer, she is pulled back into the dangerous politics of the local faerie court.
Years ago, Callie, a siren, made a bargain with the King of the Night and racked up hundreds of favours she has never repaid. Now he has returned to collect, and he needs her help to find fae warriors who are disappearing from the Otherworld. Their old bargain binds them together, and the feelings Callie buried long ago refuse to stay hidden.
Aislinn has always followed the rules for surviving the hidden world of faeries: never draw their attention, never let them know she can see them. Then the Summer King begins to court her, sure she is the queen he has been searching for, while her human friend Seth refuses to let her face the fae alone.
Feyre survived Amarantha's trials, but the cost has left her breaking. On her wedding day Rhysand takes her to the Night Court, where she learns to use her new powers while a war with Hybern gathers. Trust grows between them as old loyalties and a dangerous bargain pull her in different directions.
Luella was raised to be an ordinary healer, not the human bride the Elf King demands. When he comes to claim her, she is taken to Midscape, where her touch can wake the sleeping land. Trapped with a cold, distant husband, she must find a way home or accept a destiny she never wanted.
MacKayla Lane travels to Ireland after her sister is murdered and finds she can see the fae, a power that makes her a target. To find the killer and stay alive she turns to Jericho Barrons, a secretive man whose help comes at a price and whose motives she cannot read.
Nesta Archeron has survived war and transformation, but she cannot forgive herself for what she lost or forget what she did. Sent to train with Cassian in the House of Wind, she is forced to face her anger, her grief and the bond between them while a new threat gathers in the mortal lands.
Edinburgh, 1844. Aileana Kameron hides a secret: she hunts the fae who murdered her mother, using her own inventions and a training she never speaks of. Her closest ally is Kiaran, a fae warrior who teaches her to fight, and the trail she follows leads toward something far older and more dangerous than she expected.
A young man promises to retrieve a fallen star for the girl he loves and crosses a wall into the land of Faerie. There he finds the star is a woman pursued by witches and princes, and his errand becomes a journey of its own.
When the people of Erl ask to be ruled by a magic lord, their lord sends his son Alveric into Elfland to win the hand of Lirazel, the King's daughter. Their marriage cannot hold against the pull of Elfland, so Alveric sets out on a long, hopeless quest to bring her home while centuries pass in the mortal world.
Azoth survives as a guild rat in the slums of Cenaria, where life is cheap. To escape he apprentices himself to Durzo Blint, the city's most feared assassin, and must abandon his old name and life to become Kylar Stern, a killer schooled in dangerous magic and politics.
Fitz is the unacknowledged bastard son of a prince, raised in the shadows of the royal court. Trained secretly as an assassin and bonded to a wolf through the forbidden Wit, he must decide where his loyalty lies as the kingdom's politics turn treacherous.
On New Year's Eve, thirteen-year-old Rebecca Shaw goes missing while walking with her parents near a village on the moors, and the search does not end. Over thirteen years the novel follows the villagers, the seasons and the wildlife around them as ordinary life continues beside an unresolved absence.
Severian is raised in the guild of torturers and exiled from his city after an act of mercy. He narrates his own travels across a dying world, but his perfect memory is perfect only in his own account, and the past conceals far more than he admits.
By day the world belongs to people; at night, demons rise from the ground. Three children, Arlen, Leesha and Rojer, grow up in the shadow of the wards that keep the corelings out, and each finds a different way to fight back.
Maia, the exiled half-goblin youngest son, is unwanted and forgotten until an airship crash makes him emperor. He arrives at a hostile court with few allies and must learn whom to trust while trying to rule with kindness and stay alive.
The Omehi have fought an unwinnable war for generations, where a rare few can call dragons or transform into killing giants. Giftless Tau plans to escape, until betrayal murders those he loves. To avenge them he trains to become the greatest swordsman alive, whatever it costs.
Each year the people of a village leave a baby in the forest for the witch they fear, and each year the witch Xan carries the child to a safe home. When she accidentally gives one baby moonlight instead of starlight, the girl gains dangerous magic, and Xan decides to raise her. Luna grows up among a swamp monster and a dragon, unaware of the mother who still mourns her.
Start with “The Iron King”, “Spinning Silver”, “The Cruel Prince”: they are the closest to “The Moorchild” in tropes and mood. Under each book in the list you will see what exactly it has in common.
How are similar books chosen?
We compare tropes (for “The Moorchild” these are Windswept Moors, Fae, Outcast Hero), genre, plot, era and tone. It is not “readers also bought”; it is similarity in the content itself.
Are there recent books in this list?
Yes. Among the newer ones are “The Iron King”, “Spinning Silver”, “The Cruel Prince”. Switch the “Modern” filter to keep only books from 2000 onward.
