5 Spellbinding Books Every Harry Potter Fan Will Devour

With the Harry Potter TV remake brewing at HBO Max ( well, just Max now), a whole new wave of Hogwarts nostalgia is coming whether we asked for it or not. If you grew up on that series but feel a little conflicted about diving back in, you are very much not alone. Still want the magic, the found-family vibes, the Big Destiny drama? Cool. Here are five book picks that scratch similar itches without being carbon copies.

1. Percy Jackson & the Olympians by Rick Riordan

   Look, the parallels are right there: a kid who thinks he is normal gets whisked off to a place that trains the gifted, teams up with two friends, and ends up carrying fate-of-the-world baggage. The twist is all Greek mythology. Percy and his crew are demigods tangling with Titans who would happily smash everything, while many of the Olympians are too self-absorbed to help unless it suits them. The original run is five books, and Riordan kept expanding the universe after that with follow-ups and multiple spin-off series. If you want classic quest energy with snappy humor, this is the big, crowd-pleasing one.

2. A Deadly Education (The Scholomance Trilogy) by Naomi Novik

   If you wanted Hogwarts but a lot meaner, here you go. Galadriel 'El' Higgins is a half-Welsh, half-Indian sorceress stuck at a school inspired by the old Scholomance legend out of Romania (the one supposedly run by the Devil). The place literally tries to eat its students, and about half of them do not make it to graduation. El is powerful, prickly, and trying very hard not to become the apocalypse in a hoodie while she grinds toward a diploma. It is a tight three-book arc: A Deadly Education, The Last Graduate, and The Golden Enclaves.

3. A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

   Less sorting hats, more Oxford libraries. Diana, a historian who also happens to be a witch, stumbles onto a long-lost manuscript and runs headfirst into a centuries-deep conspiracy, plus a very complicated attraction to a vampire named Matthew. Yes, forbidden romance vibes. But this leans historical fantasy rather than YA, with carefully built lore, academic intrigue, and a grown-up tone that treats the mythology like, you know, actual study material. It is a trilogy, and it picked up a TV adaptation under the same title.

4. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

   For the younger-reader lane, this one is proudly odd. It is about kids with unusual abilities, but the packaging is what makes it sing: the narrative is stitched together with eerie vintage and found photography that feeds the mystery. A boy decodes clues from his grandfather's old photos and stories, which lead him to an abandoned orphanage on a Welsh island and a very peculiar world hiding in plain sight. The initial book turned into a six-novel saga (five sequels ), and Tim Burton adapted the first for the big screen with Eva Green and Asa Butterfield.

5. The Magicians by Lev Grossman

   Same basic premise as wizard school, different life stage. This is magic college, which means the spells are harder, the hangovers are worse, and the existential dread is part of the curriculum. It is sharper, darker, and way more preoccupied with what power does to people in their late teens and 20s. Best of all, the story is fully contained in three books and reads like one sustained arc if you go back-to-back. Syfy turned it into a series in 2016, and it ran for five seasons.

Whether you want breezy quests, lethal academia, or a smarter, moodier magical world, there is something here that hits that old-school wonder without just rehashing the Boy Who Lived. Happy reading until the remake lands.