Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

by Lois H. Gresh

Pullman builds a world where institutional authority—represented by the Magisterium—actively suppresses knowledge and free thought, which mirrors Harry's growing realization that the Ministry of Magic isn't trustworthy. Both stories hinge on young protagonists discovering that the adults in power are lying to them, and both feature richly detailed magical systems where the rules matter deeply to the plot.

by Diana Wynne Jones

Jones has that same gift Rowling does for making magical details feel lived-in and casual—spells are tools, not spectacles—but she pairs it with a wry humor that undercuts melodrama. The protagonist navigates a world where nothing is quite what it seems and must rely on wit and observation rather than raw power, which is the emotional core of Order of the Phoenix beneath all the Dolores Umbridge fury.

by Leigh Bardugo

This is the grown-up version of what happens when you take the secret societies and magical hierarchies of the wizarding world and ask: what if the system was corrupt from the ground up, and the people running it were genuinely dangerous? Bardugo writes with the same attention to magical detail you loved in Rowling, but she's unflinching about power dynamics and institutional abuse—it's like Order of the Phoenix but everyone's stakes are higher and the consequences stick.

by George MacDonald

Published in 2014, this is a quieter kind of fantasy than you might expect—it's about a young person thrust into a position of power within a rigid, hierarchical magical society, navigating court politics and discovering who to trust. Where Order of the Phoenix is about resistance and anger, this explores what happens when you choose kindness and integrity within a broken system, and it has that same meticulous attention to how institutions actually function.

by Giambattista Piranesi

Here's your surprise pick: this reads like a literary mystery wrapped in a magical labyrinth, and it shares something crucial with Order of the Phoenix—the slow, dawning realization that your understanding of reality is incomplete, and that someone you trust may be manipulating you. Clarke writes with an almost dreamlike precision, and the way she reveals what's actually happening will make you want to immediately reread it, just like you probably did with Phoenix once you understood Dumbledore's plan.