Books Like Half a Soul
If you finished Half a Soul and want more fae, curses, slow burn, start here. Each pick shares at least two tropes with it, and we've rated every one for spice and darkness so you know what you're getting into.
For reference, Half a Soul is:
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The picks
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1. Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries
Shares: fae, slow burn
Emily is a prickly Cambridge professor who goes to a frozen northern village to study the local Folk, and her charming, lazy rival Wendell Bambleby invites himself along. Told through her field journal. Cozy and very funny, with real faerie menace underneath.
- Fae
- Slow Burn
- Enemies to Lovers
- Deals and Bargains
Content warnings
Kidnapping
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2. A Deal with the Elf King
Shares: fae, curses, slow burn
A village healer gets claimed as the elf king's bride. Softer than most on this site, but it's a full fae-bargain story in one book.
- Fae
- Arranged Marriage
- Deals and Bargains
- Curses
Content warnings
Death of a loved one
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3. Curse of the Wolf King
Shares: fae, curses, slow burn
Beauty and the Beast with a bookworm who'd rather be a spy. Gemma Bellefleur needs King Elliot's curse broken so she can buy her freedom, and he needs someone to fall for him before it kills him. Funny, cozy, a good palate cleanser between dark reads.
- Fae
- Fairy Tale Retellings
- Curses
- Forced Proximity
Content warnings
Graphic violence
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4. A Curse So Dark and Lonely
Shares: curses, slow burn
Harper, a girl from DC with cerebral palsy, gets snatched into Prince Rhen's cursed kingdom, where every autumn ends with him turning into a monster. The quiet guard commander Grey steals the whole book. Clean YA, more about duty than kissing.
- Fairy Tale Retellings
- Curses
- Forced Proximity
- Slow Burn
Content warnings
Graphic violence, Kidnapping, Murder, Death of a loved one
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5. A River Enchanted
Shares: slow burn, fae
Jack Tamerlaine comes home to the isle of Cadence after ten years away to help find missing girls, called back by the heiress who used to torment him. The island's spirits of wind, water and earth are the Fair Folk in all but name. Quiet and atmospheric.
- Slow Burn
- Enemies to Lovers
- Fae
Content warnings
Kidnapping, Death of a loved one
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6. Ash
Shares: fae, slow burn
Cinderella with a fairy named Sidhean who wants to take Ash away forever, and the King's Huntress Kaisa, who teaches her to love the woods again. A quiet, lyrical sapphic retelling where the fae are cold and the human is warm.
- Fairy Tale Retellings
- Fae
- Forbidden Love
- Slow Burn
Content warnings
Physical or emotional abuse, Death of a loved one
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7. Gilded
Shares: curses, fae
Rumpelstiltskin from the miller's daughter's side. Serilda's tall tales catch the Erlking's attention, he locks her in his haunted castle to spin straw into gold, and a ghost boy named Gild does it for her. Long and slow in the middle, but the Wild Hunt is properly creepy.
- Fairy Tale Retellings
- Curses
- Deals and Bargains
- Captor and Captive
Content warnings
Kidnapping, Murder, Death of a loved one, Physical or emotional abuse
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8. Hunted
Shares: curses, slow burn
Yeva, a huntress in a snowy Russian-style kingdom, tracks the Beast that killed her father and ends up his prisoner, being trained to hunt for him. Beauty and the Beast with folktales, a bow and a heroine who hates the ballroom.
- Fairy Tale Retellings
- Captor and Captive
- Curses
- Slow Burn
Content warnings
Kidnapping, Animal death, Death of a loved one
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9. Lament
Shares: fae, slow burn
Deirdre, a shy harpist, plays the competition of her life alongside a gorgeous flute player named Luke, who happens to be an assassin sent by the Faerie Queen to kill her. Early Stiefvater, a bit rough, steeped in Irish folk music.
- Fae
- Assassins
- Forbidden Love
- Slow Burn
Content warnings
Death of a loved one, Murder
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10. Six Crimson Cranes
Shares: curses, slow burn
Princess Shiori's stepmother turns her six brothers into cranes and curses her so that every word she speaks kills one of them. The Six Swans through East Asian folklore, plus the betrothed she tried to ditch. Gentle YA with real heart.
- Fairy Tale Retellings
- Curses
- Arranged Marriage
- Slow Burn
Content warnings
Death of a loved one, Graphic violence
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11. The Darkest Part of the Forest
Shares: fae, curses
In Fairfold, tourists come to gawk at a horned boy asleep in a glass coffin in the woods. Then Hazel finds the coffin smashed and empty. Two romances, one of them queer, and a brother-sister story that hits just as hard.
- Fae
- Curses
- Found Family
- Forbidden Love
Content warnings
Graphic violence, Physical or emotional abuse
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12. Wildwood Dancing
Shares: fae, curses
Every full moon Jena and her sisters slip through a portal in their Transylvanian castle to dance with the folk of the Other Kingdom. Twelve Dancing Princesses with a dash of the Frog Prince, and Gogu the frog steals the show.
- Fae
- Fairy Tale Retellings
- Curses
- Forbidden Love
Content warnings
Physical or emotional abuse, Death of a loved one
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13. An Enchantment of Ravens
Shares: fae, curses
Isobel paints portraits for fae patrons who pay in enchantments. She paints human sorrow into the eyes of Rook, the autumn prince, and he hauls her off to stand trial for it. Short and pretty, a little thin on romance, but the fae are genuinely uncanny.
- Fae
- Forbidden Love
- Forced Proximity
- Curses
Content warnings
Graphic violence
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14. An Heir Comes to Rise
Shares: fae, slow burn
Faythe is a human in a fae-ruled kingdom hiding the fact that she can slip inside other people's minds. Once the wrong king finds out, she's a weapon whether she likes it or not. It starts YA-ish and slow, and fans swear the series improves a lot from book two.
- Fae
- Slow Burn
- Fated Mates
- Court Intrigue
Content warnings
Graphic violence, Murder, Death of a loved one
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15. Wicked Lovely
Shares: fae, curses
Aislinn can see faeries and survives by never letting them know. Then Keenan, the Summer King, decides she's the girl who'll break his curse and simply will not leave her alone. One of the original YA fae books, and Seth is still the better boyfriend.
- Fae
- Love Triangle
- Forbidden Love
- Curses
Content warnings
Stalking, Physical or emotional abuse
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