Year of the Griffin

by Diana Wynne Jones

Wait—I know you just finished Jones, but hear me out: if you haven't read this one yet, it's essential. The way she builds a world where magic operates on its own peculiar logic, where characters constantly scheme and counter-scheme while the actual plot spirals into delightful chaos, is exactly what made Year of the Griffin sing. Plus, the found-family dynamic among misfits learning to work together mirrors Elda's crew perfectly.

by Margaret Rogerson

Rogerson captures that same balance Jones does—where the stakes genuinely matter but the characters' bickering and incompetence keep things from ever feeling heavy-handed. There's a magical university, a protagonist who's not what she seems, and a plot that hinges on characters learning to trust each other while everything around them catches fire (sometimes literally). The tone shifts between genuine peril and moments where you're laughing at how spectacularly things go wrong.

by Giambattista Piranesi

This is my surprise pick—it's literary fantasy rather than adventure fantasy, but Clarke does something Jones also does brilliantly: she trusts readers to piece together the rules of an impossible world without spelling everything out. Where Year of the Griffin delights in magical mishaps and escalating schemes, Piranesi delights in slowly revealing what's actually real. Both feel like puzzles where the pleasure is in discovery rather than prediction.

by Robin McKinley

McKinley writes with the same generous attention to character that Jones does—her protagonist, like Elda, is caught between worlds and must figure out who she is while learning magic on the fly. There's less comedy here than in Year of the Griffin, but the same sense that a young person's competence and stubbornness can genuinely reshape their world. Published in 1982, it's from an earlier era of fantasy but feels remarkably fresh.

by George MacDonald

Addison shares Jones's gift for making institutional chaos feel both hilarious and touching—her protagonist stumbles into power unprepared, surrounded by people with their own agendas, and must navigate byzantine rules while remaining fundamentally decent. Like Corkoran's schemes unraveling in Year of the Griffin, the plot here thrives on misunderstandings and people working at cross-purposes, but with genuine warmth underneath the absurdity.