General Discussion

@SinkPhaze

Quantum Devil Saga by Yu Godai (officially translated last year by Kevin Frane), it's under 300 pages and there will be multiple volumes (which aren't translated yet)

It's set in a post-apocalyptic area called "the Junkyard" where 6 tribes must fight each other to gain access to Nirvana. The story is mostly centred round the Embryon tribe. Everyone in the junkyard gains an atma, allowing them to turn into demon-like creatures. The Embryon tribe find a young girl when they gain their atmas and take her back to their base believing she may be linked to the atma.

I'm bad at summaries but it's very good and there are a couple of ps2 games related to it but the books stray from it quite a bit.

I can't remember if anyone turns into a dragon though.

someone's prob rec'd it already but : game of thrones if you aren't squeamish or get squicked out by it's themes! i dont know if it counts as horror ?x? there's blood and gore but.. it's not suspenseful or anything, so it depends on your definition of horror.. it def classifies as body horror tho so

i also second good omens!
i mainly read biographies (regardless of person) just bc i like hearing about peoples lives so ;o;
the trouble with cinderella is rly good if you like reading about ppl like i do but it may be hard to find? idk it was artie shaws bio
if you haven't read it i rec the original alice and wonderland !
there's a dragon book i have somewhere omg but i cant remember what ;o omg
i havent personally read it but i heard its good, and i somewhat liked the anime adaption --- the earthsea series by ursula le guin !
EDIT: oh i forgot about my favorite series-- The Brothers Grimm ;o; but it does contain horror concepts and such so it's prob out but i just wanted you to know it existed if you ever start reading horror bc i didn't until my mom showed me the light ;A; but i def understand if it triggers you, you need to keep your mental health a priority c:

if you want a cool sci-fi, may i recomend red rising by pierce brown? two books in the series so far and it's a rather fast read despite its size, i found.

artemis fowl by eoin colfer is a fun series, mix of fantasy and sci-fi, i think it's pretty unique.

the chaos walking trilogy by patrick ness is also really good, it's sci-fi but it doesn't read that way.

@SinkPhaze MY WORK HERE IS DONE.

@SinkPhaze @orneryOgre I second the Bartimaeus trilogy! It's targeted at teens, I think, but there's plenty of depth, and the main character is delightfully snarky.

As for sci-fi, have you read the Dune series? Anything by Neal Stephenson is great as well. Rather intellectual, especially if you're interested in things like coding/the Enigma machine etc etc

@SinkPhaze
This is sort of a kid's series, but Wings of Fire is really good in my opinion! The series has six books so far, and each of the books are fairly long. The main characters (heck, almost all of the characters) are dragons, so you might like that.

On the other hand, this is an old-ish series, but the Dragonlance series' first book is really good. I can't tell you much about the other ones, though; haven't finished reading yet. (Just for clarification, this first book is called Dragons of Autumn Twilight.)

@SinkPhaze:

Pretty metaphors mean nothing unless they're meaningful and relevant. Honestly, flowery language usually means "I don't know what I'm saying so I'll cover it up with big words". Honestly, simpler is often better.

I haven't read TFIOS beyond a few pages because I know it has content that I'm a little upset over, and I honestly am wondering if it has any worth to it or if it's just sappy teen romance not worth the paper it's printed on. :/

Go ahead and steal it. I'm sure the author would be happy that the quote could help someone. ^^

There's a neat little web app called Whichbook where you can put in the kind of feelings/themes/etc. you want the book to have and it will make recommendations based on that. It's good if you'd rather not read a book that's sad or graphic or something.

I don't know a lot of fantasy books but I figure that could help.

@SinkPhaze

OH BOY!

SCI FI:

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. British humor and spaceships and babelfish. Often compared to Terry Pratchett in tone.

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. A classic, but violence trigger warning. The second book in the series is also good (Speaker for the Dead) but after that it got a bit too weird for me.

Animorphs by KA Applegate. Might be a bit simple and 'YA-ish' in style, but it's actually a heart-wrenching story about child soldiers. And aliens. And transformations, and war ethics. Each book is like 150 pages, but there are 54 of them, plus the Megamorphs and the Chronicles.

FANTASY:

Dragon of the Lost Sea by Lawrence Yep. I read this series as a kid, loved it to death. Chinese mythology and dragons!

The Abhorsen Trilogy by Garth Nix. Necromancers! Awesome female characters! Really neat variations on magic.

Young Wizards Series by Diane Duane is a primo modern fantasy.

Anything by Tamora Pierce.