I Only Read Fantasy Books for an Entire Month

For some reason, I spent the whole of July reading just fantasy. After becoming reacquainted with the genre a couple of years ago, I soon realized I had a lot to catch up on.

It’s safe to say over the past year or so I went a bit mad with buying fantasy books, so much, that I haven’t been able to keep up and hence, a lot have remained unread.

So I decided to tackle the problem head on and spend an entire month dedicated to fantasy. Although I was excited at the beginning, I finished the month deflated, worn out and craving some real life fiction.

So much so, that I ended up dnf’ing my last read, Assistant to the Villain by Hannah Nicole Maehrer.

Part of me thinks this is because I was feeling too bogged down by fantasy but also, it wasn’t grabbing me at all. I knew it was time for me to read a different genre, so on the last few days of July, I switched to a literary fiction read.

However, during July I did get through 5 fantasy and sci-fi novels, which has made me think a lot about my relationship with the genre and what I’ve learnt about myself and my reading habits. If you’re interested, that’s what I’m going to be discussing today.

Preferring hardcore fantasy

During July, I got through 5 fantasy novels. They were the following:

• Powerless by Lauren Roberts

• Sea of Tranquility by Emily St John Mandel

• Gallant by Victoria Schwab

• Sleep Like Death by Kalynn Bayron

• Faebound by Saara El-Arifi

My favourite ended up being Faebound, which I wasn’t expecting in the beginning, as I was a little intimidated by how complex the world initially seemed. But in the end, I rated it 5 stars and fell in love with this book — hard. All of the others were either 3 or 4 star reads — good — but nothing mind blowing.

Which got me thinking. Faebound was the most ‘hardcore fantasy’ read out of them all with complex world building and traditional fantasy tropes. All of the others were fantasy-stroke horror, or fantasy-stroke YA — solid reads but they failed to wow me like Faebound.

So am I a destined hardcore fantasy reader now? Maybe. I love a cosy fantasy read such as Legends and Lattees by Travis Baldree as much as the next person, but it has to be said, I have to be in the mood for this type of frolicking read.

What I love about more hardcore fantasy is the complex layers, a multitude of characters, world building and the histories of the planet in which the story inhabits.

It’s why I loved Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon to the end of the earth and fell in love with the Throne of Glass series by Sarah J Maas. When I read fantasy — I want to be in it for the long haul.

I can cope with a whimsical, light hearted fantasy read from time to time, but what I crave is that complexity — and total escapism.

Connecting with the main character is a must

Although fantasy novels are driven by complex world building and exciting plots, they would be nothing without a host of powerful main characters. There’s a good reason we place so much pressure on ourselves as writers to get this right. You simply need an alluring and convincing POV to drive the story through.

But this can be different for everyone. Not everyone connects with a main character or gets on with a particular point of view. But when I’m feeling slightly lost at the start of a fantasy novel, I need a strong main character that I can connect with to drive me through the story.

It’s a must. If I dislike a main character in any way, it’s almost game over. A book can save itself for me if it has a dual POV but if it’s told by just one narrator who I don’t like, then I’m done.

This is because the main characters become your best friend whilst you reading a book. They stick by you thick and thin. You see the story and world through their eyes, and it’s how the novel comes together. The main characters are the bricks and mortar or the storytelling world.

Without them, we’re lost and if we don’t like them, the story won’t shine through.

My ratings for the above books almost directly correlate with how well I glued to a main character, or set of characters telling the story. Of course, how well you gel with a character is an individual experience — but that’s part of what makes reading so interesting.

What it can tell us about our current world

At its core, fantasy provides us with well needed escapism from our messy and imperfect lives. But if you look beneath the layers, you’ll often find subtle messages about our current world and the society we live in.

Some common tropes and themes explored usually go along these lines:

• Good versus evil

• Divisive societies/cultures

• Hope

The idea of a divided world is very much explored in Faebound, as Elves encounter the Fae, a species which were meant to have been extinct for hundreds of years. When they collide again after all those years, there is friction and conflict, but eventually, there is the hope they can live together in peace.

I’ve often thought as readers we can learn a lot from fantasy and the experience of reading five books within this genre back to back, has only heightened this.

Although each one was so different and taught me different things, it filled me with the endless possibilities of this genre and how it can inspire us to break down our bridges in our personal lives and the world we live in.

Fantasy realms are built on fictional ideas and histories, but they’ve got to come from the author who is often responding to the ideas that are unfurling around them.

Fantasy is best when interdispered with other genres

As the end of July rolled around, I wasn’t sure if I could face a sixth fantasy read, but I did try. My last read of the month was meant to be Assistant to the Villian, but I got about 60 pages in and decided it wasn’t working for me. I know, I did a great big DNF when I was supposed to be reading fantasy for a whole month.

But if you know me at all — you’ll know I’m a complete mood reader and I had to follow my heart.

That, and I had a book I needed to read for my next book club coming up. So I picked up The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak (incredible by the way, it’s easily going to make my top books I’ve read this year) and tried not to look back.

By the end of my fifth read, which was Faebound, despite rating it 5 stars I had well and truly had enough of fantasy. I felt bogged down by the lack of real lifeness, and couldn’t focus my reading energy on trying to understand complex otherly world systems — I just craved real life.

However, if I hadn’t done this little challenge, I wouldn’t have realised the most important reading lesson of all.

Fantasy for me has to be enjoyed in small doses. I can’t read consecutive fantasy back to back. This is because I crave fiction that mirrors real life, and I like to be able to place myself in a world, albeit briefly, to see how I would fit in. I like books to be relatable, sometimes, and that’s harder to do with fantasy.

That’s not to say I don’t enjoy fantasy as a genre — it’s rather the opposite as I think it adds so much richness to my life — but like all good things, it has to be enjoyed in moderation amongst other genres.

So, do I call myself a fantasy reader despite knowing I need a break from it from time to time? Absolutely. It’s an incredible genre, full of so much diversity and life lessons it can share with readers.

I love dragons, the Fae, battle scenes and immersing myself in the history of a society completely fictional that bears no resemblance to our own — but there is a time and place for me to escape with this genre, and it can never be constant.

This story was oriignally published in Books Are Our Superpower on Medium.