20 Books to Read If You Loved Harry Potter

If the magical education chapters of Harry Potter were your favorite part of the series, The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss delivers that same thrill of a school for magic, reimagined for adult fantasy readers with far greater depth and ambition. The novel is framed as legendary figure Kvothe telling his own origin story to a chronicler over the course of three days, and that narrative device turns the book into an intimate, richly voiced coming-of-age epic. Kvothe's journey takes him from a childhood spent among traveling performers, through devastating tragedy, and eventually to the University — a school where students don't wave wands but study "sympathy," naming, and alchemy through rigorous, almost scientific magic systems. Fans who loved watching Harry, Ron, and Hermione grow into their power will recognize the same hunger for knowledge, the same friction between talent and poverty, and the same electric sense that magic must be earned through discipline rather than granted by birthright.

What sets this must-read fantasy novel apart is Rothfuss's prose, which is genuinely beautiful — lyrical, precise, and quotable in a way few fantasy writers manage. Kvothe himself is a magnetic, flawed narrator: brilliant, arrogant, vulnerable, and utterly compelling, the kind of protagonist readers argue about online for years. If you're searching for books like Harry Potter that trade a children's boarding school for something more layered and literary, or if you simply want to understand why this is consistently ranked among the best fantasy books of the last two decades, The Name of the Wind is essential reading — just be warned that its long-awaited sequel will leave you desperate for more, exactly the way Rowling's cliffhangers once did.

Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson and the Olympians is, for countless young readers, the most natural successor to Harry Potter — a modern classic of middle-grade fantasy that swaps British wizardry for Greek mythology and never loses a beat of momentum. Percy Jackson is a restless, dyslexic twelve-year-old kid bounced from school to school who suddenly discovers he's a demigod, the son of Poseidon, and is thrust into a hidden world of monsters, prophecy, and ancient gods walking among mortals. Like Harry, Percy shares that irresistible "everyman" quality: he isn't the most powerful figure in the room, but his loyalty, self-deprecating humor, and refusal to abandon his friends carry him through impossible odds. Riordan does for Greek mythology what Rowling did for British folklore and boarding-school tropes — he makes centuries-old stories feel urgent, funny, and completely relevant to a kid reading on a school bus today.

What makes this series such a beloved must-read for Harry Potter fans is how faithfully it mirrors the emotional architecture of the wizarding world — the found-family bonds forged at Camp Half-Blood, the slow-burn mystery arcs, and stakes that grow darker and more consequential with every book, echoing the way Rowling's own series matured from whimsical adventure into genuine peril. It's frequently cited as one of the best fantasy books for reluctant readers precisely because Riordan writes with such propulsive pace and sly wit, while still tackling real themes: neurodivergence, family, identity, and what it means to be a hero when the gods themselves are unreliable. If you want to know why you should read Percy Jackson after Harry Potter, it's simple: it captures that same specific magic of an ordinary kid discovering an extraordinary destiny, book after book.

Ursula K. Le Guin's A Wizard of Earthsea predates Harry Potter by nearly three decades, yet its fingerprints are all over the modern magical-school genre, making it essential reading for anyone who wants to trace the roots of the fantasy books they love today. The novel follows Ged, a proud and gifted young wizard-in-training on the island of Roke, whose reckless hunger to prove his power causes him to accidentally unleash a nameless dark force — one he must then pursue across the length of the Earthsea archipelago in a quest that is as much about self-knowledge as it is about survival. Le Guin's prose is spare, incantatory, and utterly hypnotic, closer to myth or fable than conventional fantasy narrative, and her exploration of the true cost of power, arrogance, and responsibility resonates with the same moral questions that drive Harry's own journey through danger and temptation.

Beyond the plot, what makes A Wizard of Earthsea a genuine must-read for fans of magical school stories is how radically it reimagines the genre's building blocks: its hero is a young man of color in a fantasy landscape largely modeled on Taoist philosophy rather than European mythology, and its magic system is built on the ancient idea that to know a thing's true name is to hold power over it. For readers who loved the wonder of Hogwarts and want to understand where so many of fantasy's best ideas about magic, mentorship, and balance actually originated, this slim, quietly devastating classic is one of the most influential fantasy books ever written — a genuinely different flavor of magic that still feels urgent and singular today.

Lev Grossman's The Magicians has earned a reputation as "Harry Potter for adults," and that tagline undersells just how sharp and unsettling this must-read fantasy trilogy really is. Quentin Coldwater, a brilliant but deeply unhappy teenager convinced that real life is a disappointment, is unexpectedly admitted to Brakebills, an elite and secretive college for magic tucked away in upstate New York. It's every reader's fantasy-school daydream made real — until Grossman starts pulling the wonder apart at the seams. Magic here is grueling, tedious, and requires years of exacting technical study; it doesn't fix your depression, your relationships, or your sense that something essential is missing from your life. The novel then goes even further, sending its characters into a Narnia-like world that turns out to be far darker and more morally compromised than childhood books promised it would be.

If you loved Harry Potter's magical school setting but craved something that grapples honestly with adulthood, disillusionment, and the gap between fantasy and reality, The Magicians is the book — and the acclaimed television series — that fans and critics alike return to again and again. It's darker, more psychologically complex, and more morally ambiguous than the wizarding world, deliberately asking the question so many readers quietly wonder: what would actually happen if the magical worlds we loved as children turned out to be real? For anyone hunting for the best fantasy books that speak directly to readers who grew up on Rowling and are ready for sharper, more challenging fare, this is essential, unforgettable reading.

Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere is urban fantasy at its most inventive, and it captures a very specific piece of the Harry Potter magic: the thrill of discovering that an entire hidden world exists just beneath the surface of ordinary life. Richard Mayhew is an unremarkable Londoner with a stable job and a controlling fiancée — until one act of kindness toward a wounded stranger pulls him out of his own existence and into London Below, a labyrinthine shadow-city of monks, monsters, angels, and assassins that exists in the gaps and forgotten corners of the real city above. Gaiman's imagination is boundless here, conjuring a shipping-crate market that trades in secrets, a Beast that stalks the Underground, and a whole cast of characters who are simultaneously mythic archetypes and deeply, achingly human.

What makes Neverwhere such a natural next read for Harry Potter fans is that same delicious contrast between the mundane and the magical — just as the gray, joyless Dursley household gave way to the wonder of the wizarding world, Richard's beige London commute gives way to something dazzling, dangerous, and profoundly alive. Gaiman's wit, warmth, and gift for atmosphere have made him arguably the author most frequently recommended to readers looking for books like Harry Potter, and Neverwhere remains one of the best entry points into his catalog. If you've ever wished a stranger would show you a door into a bigger, stranger, more magical world, this is exactly why you should read Neverwhere next.