Emoji Book Recs: Fantasy Edition! (part 1)

Before I start, I want to say I got this idea from Michelle at Magical Reads! It’s such a wonderful idea Michelle!

Earlier this week I asked people on Bookstagram for some help with this post! I had people give me emojis, and in return I’d give a book rec for each emoji. Here are the resulting book recs! Well okay, this is part one because people sent A LOT of emojis oh my god. So part two will come tomorrow to make it easier to read and not get overwhelmed.

Some emojis are easier to pick books for, so for the harder ones I had to do a little interpretation. I’ll explain my reasoning a little bit so you understand why I chose each book for each emoji! And there will be a sci-fi edition (also in two parts) coming next week. So without further ado, here we go!

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🦑: Monstress (Marjorie M. Liu; adult) – I’m not sure this has an actual squid in it, but squid makes me think of monsters. And if you couldn’t tell by the title, Monstress does indeed have monsters! It’s an incredible graphic novel series, and the art is stunning.

🧠: The Left-Handed Booksellers of London (Garth Nix; YA) – Though this is titled “left-handed”, there are also right-handed” booksellers. The right-handed ones are the more bookish and intellectual ones, which made me think of the brain emoji!

🍄: This Poison Heart (Kaylnn Bayron; YA) – Okay not all mushrooms are poisonous, but ones that look like this definitely are! This Poison Heart is about a girl who can control plants, and in particular she has resistance to poisonous plants. It’s so good and I highly recommend it.

🤸🏻‍♀️: Twelve Kings in Sharakhai (Bradley P. Beaulieu; adult) – So my thought process: cartwheel, so acrobatic, so a good fighter, so then we have Çeda! Our main character, who is a pit fighter! She’s totally badass.

🍟: Rosemary and Rue (Seanan McGuire; adult) – I couldn’t really think of a book that featured French Fries in it (I’M SORRY CAT). But I love French Fries and could eat them forever, and I love this series and could read it forever. So it fits!

🌮: Mossflower (Brian Jacques; YA) – Again, I couldn’t think of a book with tacos. But this book, and the whole Redwall series, has incredible descriptions of food!! I remember being very hungry when I read them haha.

🔥: Crown of Feathers (Nicki Pau Preto; YA) – I mean, this book features phoenixes, which literally come from fire. So I feel like that’s kind of spot on hahaha.

🌞: Black Sun (Rebecca Roanhorse; adult) – This is one of the more straightforward ones haha. I mean, sun emoji, sun in the title? Yep. But seriously this book is amazing. Dark for sure though. My review for it is here!

🤩: Finnikin of the Rock (Melina Marchetta; YA) – This book and series is SO underrated and it deserves ALL THE STARS!!! So that’s why I had to choose it for the starry eyed emoji! Royal families! Curses! Princes that aren’t dead?? And so much more.

🤯: Middlegame (Seanan McGuire; adult) – I don’t know that I can really describe this book accurately. It’s incredible. A masterpiece. It’s about twins and alchemy and magic and science and so much more. It’s absolutely mind-blowing!! You can read my review of the book here.

🙀: The Kingdom of Copper (S.A. Chakraborty; adult) – This whole trilogy has some shocking moments, but I feel like this book (the second one) is the most like that!!

☺️: The Demon King (Cinda Williams Chima; YA) – Ahhh this series just makes me so damn happy. Like, I make this face when I think about it. Maybe it’s time for me to reread it. If you like YA fantasy, you must read this series.

🤗: Magic of Blood and Sea (Cassandra Rose Clarke; YA) – I feel like this book just gave me a hug when I read it, because it had all of my favorite things. Broody love interests, badass lady main character, pirates, assassins, magic!! I loved it.

🥺: Fire (Kristin Cashore; YA) – THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FIRE (the main character) AND HER LOVE INTEREST MAKES ME MAKE THIS FAAAACE!!!!!!!! They are so precious. Waaaahhhhhh.

🌜: Soulless (Gail Carriger; adult) – You know what moons mean? Werewolves. I don’t make the rules. One of my fav books with werewolves is this one – a steampunk historical urban fantasy that is just hella fun.

🧹: The Once and Future Witches (Alix E. Harrow; adult) – So brooms mean witches right? At least in this month of October they do. And a great witchy book is this one! Ladies trying to bring back magic!

🍦: Alanna The First Adventure (Tamora Pierce; YA) – Ice cream is literally my favorite dessert. Maybe favorite food? So of course we have to go with my favorite author here. And the Alanna (Song of the Lioness) series is my favorite of her books, so I chose the first book of that series for this emoji.

👍🏼: Mister Monday (Garth Nix; MG) – A book that I’d give a thumbs up to is pretty vague. So I chose the first book in an underrated middle grade series, the Keys to the Kingdom series. Arthur stumbles upon a vast magical house, only to discover that he is the mysterious heir. It’s rad.

🏹: Arrows of the Queen (Mercedes Lackey; adult) – This is an older book, and it’s by one of my mom’s favorite authors. I mean obviously the title fits the emoji right? I feel like this book has great YA/adult crossover vibes!

🍂: Ninth House (Leigh Bardugo; adult) – Leaves mean fall vibes. I MISS FALL. Ugh living in the desert sucks. ANYWAY. Ninth House gives me STRONGGGG fall vibes so I feel like it’s a perfect October read, and a perfect pick for the leaves emoji!

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I hope you enjoyed my choices, and found some new things to read. Stay tuned for part two tomorrow!