The bell tolls. The crows caw. On the eve (or some other time of import, depending on when you’re reading this) of the last day of September, we prepare for… Spooky Season. Oh boy, I hope you’re ready. I feel like I’m repeating myself by mentioning it’s only the second-best time of the year, but I’m not the only person, or the only library-folk, to feel that way. Besides, I did promise a traipse through the thorny woods of dark fantasy the last time we met on the interwebs like this, and I’m not one to back out on a promise. So, without further ado, let’s step off the beaten path of princesses, dragons, witches, and wizards, and see what the darkness of the (literature) woods has in store for us.
For a CliffsNotes overview of the genre, dark fantasy got its start in the early 20th century thanks to Gertrude Barrows Bennett, a young, 20-something single mom from Minneapolis who worked as a stenographer (oh would you look at that, some fun links). Better known by her pen name Francis Stevens, her work injected small bits of existentially terrifying mythology, veiled social parallels, and elements of sci-fi horror into the world of magic in ways that hadn’t been done before. I don’t know about you, but the whole thing is giving Mary Shelley. Although after scouring our shelves for even a small collection of her stories (such as The Heads of Cerberus, Claimed!, and The Citadel of Fear) and coming up empty-handed, you don’t have to look far to see how Gertrude/Francis’ words influenced the writers around her, or the books that came after her. Abraham Merritt, giant of the pulp fiction and cosmic horror genres (along with H.P. Lovecraft), was often mistaken for Bennett’s pen name and paid homage as early-to-mid-19th-century men often did (cough, cough) through the stylistic choices in his own writing. Suffice to say, we wouldn’t have the cosmic horror genre as we know it without this young woman’s weirdness. Or Dungeons and Dragons, for that matter. Heavily inspired by Lovecraft, Merritt, and pulp fiction, it wouldn’t be what it is without the stories Barrows Bennett put to paper first. So, the Beholder is purely her fault, and I won’t be hearing any arguments to the contrary. Also, a side note: yes, nearly all your favorite things are made by women (indirectly or not).
Still, dark fantasy’s definition has always been on the loose side. Even the two authors responsible for its name meant different things when they coined it. This magical subgenre has come to encompass fantasy with a side of mystery, horror, academia, history, and more. Though we won’t be able to cover all its many, many forms here, I did manage to grab a small sampling from our shelves.
Contemporary & Urban Dark Fantasy
Vampires in nightclubs, grubby magicians busking on street corners, and something that definitely lives in the sewers, but no one really cares to mention. While considered low fantasy, it’s the kind of magic that your everyday person can touch (and, ultimately, the horror too). It’s often set in a bustling city where the fantasy is masked by exhaust fumes, crowded condo buildings, and 9-5 corporates. Though I’ve definitely put it on your radar before, I don’t think any book series I’ve read encompasses this better than Lev Grossman’s The Magicians.
Picture a college for magically inclined students in the heart of NYC, where none of them are as elite as they think they are. After some spells gone wrong, Quentin and his friends find themselves in the fantasyland of his favorite childhood novels which quickly turn from magical into a nightmare (and worse, a lesson on ego). Darkness lurks in every corner of Grossman’s world, but that’s mostly because of his characters. They’re inherently flawed, selfish, and make awful decisions. But that’s the point. Quentin has always viewed himself as a hero, but in the real world, and in Grossman’s Fillory, there are no classic, sword-wielding do-gooders to be found. More than that, magic won’t fix everything, and in fact, often makes it worse. There is no magical snap-your-fingers fix for sadness, anger, loneliness, or unworthiness, and if there was, it wouldn’t work; only amplify what was already there. The only fix there is, is to put in some effort for your own sake. Spoiler alert, though you may have already guessed, The Magicians doesn’t have your classic happy ending, which is why this series is front-and-center of my dark fantasy collection.
Gothic Dark Fantasy
Dank castles, rotted floorboards, princesses asleep for so long they’ve become covered in cobwebs, and animal friends that have become a little less… friendly. Gloom, doom, creeping ivy, and decay are the hallmarks of this dark fantasy subgenre. Think the likes of Edgar Allen Poe, Shirley Jackson, and Henry James. Or, for a more modern take, T. Kingfisher. Her collection of works spans from grim, reimagined fairytales to stories based on the tales written by her gothic predecessors (especially Edgar Allen Poe. If you were looking for a new flavor of The Fall of the House of Usher, What Moves the Dead is a must-pick-up during this Spooky Season), and more.
With her fairytale retellings, from Sleeping Beauty (Thorn Hedge, an eerie, isolated, and menacing capital-G gothic story about the person maintaining the princess’s curse) to Snow White (Hemlock and Silver, a body horror-heavy tale about a poison-drinking healer, a magic mirror with a dark world held inside, and one very sick princess), Kingfisher often takes an outsider’s perspective, creating characters that never existed in the originals or who might have but were always on the fringes of the story. She’s never beholden to the story beats we all know and love either, so her writing always feels fresh and exciting, despite its darkness and, a lot of the time, grotesqueness. Her writing style ranges from wry and tongue-in-cheek to almost cozy, and for people who like Cool Writing Things, the contrast is a delight. Also, those book covers. It’s art.
Also, heads up: Kingfisher is also the author behind the Astarion (Baldur’s Gate 3) standalone backstory novel, which just released… yesterday, and I can’t think of another writer who can capture that vampire’s sass better than her. If full gothic dark fantasy is a little much for you this Halloween season, then maybe a little sprinkle of it is right up your alley. I’d get my hold request in early, though. I can’t see this title staying on our shelves for long.
Occult Dark Fantasy
Magic as thick as blood, the elements, and the primal parts of humans, calling to the things that are forbidden and better left in the dark underworld where they came from. Fantasy often lets us look at the things society would rather not see, but occult dark fantasy dials that up to 1000. Much of this subgenre’s core trait is highlighting the repressed and the systems that control them, then magnifying them. These stories are often led by supernatural detectives who range from zealot to monster themselves (think Mike Mignola’s Hellboy), outcast necromancers, or, in Alexis Henderson’s The Year of the Witching, a young, ostracized girl coming to terms with terrible power. The cult vibes are high in the land of Bethel, where Holy Protocol and the word of the prophet must be adhered to to the letter, meaning submission and total conformity for all its women. But when local folktale about the prophets and dead, scorned witches leads our heroine Immanuelle into the woods, she discovers all isn’t as the Church says when she’s given a gift by their spirits: her dead mother’s secret diary. I love me some feminist, anti-establishment storytelling, and while there’s no shortage of it in occult dark fantasy (or general fantasy for that matter), there’s always room for more.
To wrap up our walk through the woods, here are a few not-to-miss highlights:
For lovers of elaborate architecture, the hungry look of insatiable ambition, old books (possibly filled with very cursed knowledge), and dimly lit halls: Dark Academia is the dark fantasy genre for you. Leigh Bardugo’s Alex Stern trilogy or R.F. Kuang’s Babel (and more recently released Katabasis) are sure-fire pick-ups. All of these stories have magic schools with a Harry Potter and Dumbledore-esque mentorship from the depths of hell, sometimes literally. These two sure love their Dante’s Inferno references.
If you want a sprinkle of everything, Weird Dark Fantasy is the subgenre that does it all. It’s the closest thing I can think of to cosmic horror without too many Crazy Things from The Deepest Reaches of Space, but with the same amount of bleak terror and surrealism to really put you on edge. Put together a group of twelve twelve-year-old orphans in a library of infinite knowledge with a cruel dad who is probably an Elder God that suddenly kicks the bucket, and you have The Library at Mount Char. The supernaturally gifted children bring the Fantasy, and the battle royale they’re thrown into for control over literal creation brings the Dark.
With that, I’ll leave you to wander deeper into the dark fantasy woods on your own. Just make sure to always leave a trail of breadcrumbs behind you! As you can probably tell, it’s easy to lose yourself in these kinds of woods. Until next time!