2024 Reddit Fantasy Bingo TBR and Recommendations 

Here's some of my recommendations! I apologize if you've already read them 😅 Hard-Mode Allertiative Title: The Lies of Locke Lamora (Non-Dragon) Hard-Mode Animal Square: A Master of Djinn Hard-Mode Bard: The Stray Spirit (Bonus: It's Self-Pub!) P.S. Chain Gang All Stars is AMAZING! Highly recommend!

Yay, I was looking forward to this video! Thanks for making it! 😊 And for letting me know that Water Outlaws would count for PoC hard mode square, as I wanted to pick that book up for some time, but wasn't aware it was a debut. And here are some of my current reads/read already/possible TBR for Bingo: 1. First in a Series - almost done with the Raven Boys 2. Alliterative Title - The Tales of Beedle the Bard (not HM, but current pick, which would not work for the Bard square XD); other possibilities include A Short Work Through a Wide World (new release), Elric of Melnibone book 3 - The Weird of the White Wolf (in case I finally get motivated to pick up this series) or Slaying the Dragon, The Secret History of Dungeons and Dragons 3. Under the Surface - I will maaaaybe pick up 20000 Leagues Under the Sea 4. Criminals - would Mask of Mirrors work for hard mode? 🤔 5. Dreams - I am hoping that City of Nightmares duology will feature mundane dreams in a story so focused on dreams 🤞 6. Entitled Animals - an easy and cute pick for this would be The Tea Dragon Society 7. Bards - I know that Juliet Marillier has a bard trilogy, but I am not really interested in it, because while Marillier writes awesome grown up characters, her teen chars are supremely annoying (her most famous book, Daughter of the Forest would work for both Published in the 90s HM and First in the Series HM, tho), so I to find good recs for this square 10. Romantasy - I think I am going to use this prompt to motivate myself to finish Throne of Glass series this year (not HM, tho) 11.Dark Academia - Shugo Chara manga series (not me cheekily adding magical girl manga for a dark academia square 😂but it fits all of the prompts 😋) 12. Multi-POV - Crooked Kingdom 13. Published in 2024 - Baby X 14. Character with a Disability - would a character with dyslexia count here? 🤔 15. Published in the 90s - just today, I got excited when Nausicaa of The Valley of The WInd arrived from the library because I realized that a Hayao Miyazaki book might count for this square, but then I saw that it was published in the 80s, so nope 😂 16. Orcs, Trolls and Goblins - The Hanging City is a romantasy featuring a troll and a human. I've heard people in Reddit saying it doesn't count for HM because the troll love interest doesn't have a POV, but I would disagree with that because the book only has one POV and its main (and only, really) focus is the love story 17. Space Opera - since scifi is not really me genre, I have no idea which books would be considered to be a space opera, so I just decided to pick up Space Opera by Catherynne M. Valente since she's already an author I was interested in trying out and hoping that a book with that title has to be a space opera 😂 Also it's pitched as Eurovision in Space 19. Survival - I'm currently reading the Hunger Games prequel - The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes - and loving it and I think it absolutely counts for HM 20. Judge A Book By Its Cover - this is such a hard prompt for me - I never pick up a book without knowing anything about it 😭 22. Short Stories - I started reading Dangerous Women late in March 23. Eldrich Creatures - would later Chorus of Dragons books or any Liveship Traders books work for this maybe? 🤔 The rest I am still struggling with, tbh 🤔 Also, being exclusively a mood reader means that reading plans mean nothing 😂

The kings Harp series by Juliet Marillier would also work for the bard prompt

I am comfortable in my comfort zone but love watching other people pushing themselves lolol

Unnatural magic (C.M. Waggoner) fits your request for a troll MC with some fantasy romance in it!! There’s 2 MC’s and one of them is a half-troll and has a really cute, unconventional relationship with a human. Would recommend!

The author I’m planning on reading for the 90s prompt is Melissa Scott. I picked up her 2023 release last year and loved it, so I’m going to read Dreamships from 1993.

3 word Alliterative Titles: Love's Labors Lost (Shakespeare), The Two Towers (Tolkien), Oona Out Of Order (Montimore), The Thirteenth Tale (Setterfield), We Were Witches (Gore), The Testing Trilogy (Charbonneau).

Entitled Animals: Wolfen by Whitley Strieber - arguably counts for hard mode. Eldrich Creatures: John Dies at the End by Jason Pargin or Ghoul 'n the Cape by Josh Malerman

Valdemar series by Mercedes Lackey has Bards!

I suspect you've considered and either have already read/don't want to read at least some of these, but here are some books I can think of! Entitled Animals: The Last Unicorn (Peter S. Beagle), Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries (Heather Fawcett), The Leviathan (Rosie Andrews) Eldritch Creatures: Southern Reach trilogy (Jeff VanderMeer), Borne (Jeff VanderMeer), Into the Drowning Deep (Mira Grant) obligatory suggestion from my childhood self: The Animorphs series was started in the 90s, and K.A. Applegate is still publishing.

Yay, time to obsess over another bingo board I will probably forget to look at until next March again! 🤣 Some recs from me: - Queer romantasy: Breeze Spells and Bridegrooms by Sarah Wallace & S.O. Callahan - Bard: The Stray Spirit by R.K. Ashwick - Selfpub/indie under 100 ratings (specifically books I think you'd love): A Quiet Vengeance by Tim Hardie, Spark of the Divine by Louise Holland, Renia by Karl Forshaw, The Necessity of Rain by Sarah Chorn, Breaker of Fates by Vaela Denarr & Micah Iannandreah - Orc protagonist: The Black Crown by John A. Douglas Thanks for your recs & have fun with completing the board 🥰🥰

For the Bard square a few years ago I read The Lark and the Wren by Mercedes Lackey. From what I can recall it was good

Hi Angela! I'm currently halfway through The Spear Cuts Through Water (which I picked up after hearing you rave about it in previous videos) and I am OBSESSED! It's SO good; I can't believe it's not more well-known. So thanks for the rec! Now I'm on the lookout for a copy of The Vanished Birds

A River Enchanted was my favorite book of last year!!

For the magical creature square, Tread of Angels by Rebecca Roanhorse is a great short read. Or Serwa Boateng's Guide to Vampire Hunting if you don't mind a middle grade. For cosmic horror, Sister Maiden Monster by Lucy Snyder would work, but I don't know if you'd like it. The Dead Take the A Train is another option. Leech by Hiron Ennes could also maybe work? Or Hell Followed With Us by Andrew Joseph White, but that feels a little bit like a stretch.

For alliteration I was thinking about reading A Sweet Sting of Salt by Rose Sutherland. It's a The Selkie Wife retelling that comes out this month! I think I am going to read Til Death Do Us Bard for the bard square. It sounds different from your typical bard story!

If Andromeda Strain doesn't count for underground or underwater, I'd highly recommend either Sphere by Crichton (which takes place under the ocean and is very Abyss-like), or The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling which is a sci-fi horror spelunking book. Both are excellent!

Great list of recommendations! I’m excited to participate again. I don’t know what I’m going to do for the Bard one. I usually just scroll through Storygraph and see what other people picked so I can choose from there.

I just finished Bunny last month and was surprised by how much I liked it 😅 It is truly unhinged and I would recommend picking it up when you’re more in the mood for something akin to horror

Dreams that are "normal": The Skin of Dreams (Queneau). It's daydreams where the character becomes unable to know what is real.

Very keen to do bingo again, I did 2023 for the first time and it was hard! I cut it really close😂 I was hoping to read Blood over Bright Haven for self pub slot but Orbit picked it up😢 so back to the drawing board! Edit to say HM animal recommendation: Leviathan Wakes, book 1 of the Expanse. I'll be reading Rule of Wolves by Leigh Bardugo because I seriously need to finish some series

For the creature book, I think I'm doing The Last Unicorn for that one or maybe Voyage of The Basilisk as Im been meaning to read both. Excited to use New Suns 2, and hoping I love it nearly as much as New Suns 1

Some great choices and recs, thanks! Some prompts I decided on: Alliterative title: Black Bird, Blue Road - Sofiya Pasternak (middle grade historical fantasy) Entitled Animal - Phoenix King - Aparna Verma (previously self published under A Boy with a Fire) My recommendation for this prompt instead of Dragon fantasy is Kishi by Antoine Bandele (two-faced demon from Angolan mythology) Trolls, orcs, goblins - I have read Trylle Trilogy and Kanin Chronicles by Amanda Hocking, I have Omte Origins left. Those are YA Fantasy from 2010s (for Trylle, last book in Omte came out in 2021) full of tropes and angst, pure nostalgia and fun times. Bard is also too specific for me, and have no idea how to translate it if I wanna read in other language. But there is plenty of time still, I'm hoping to read and tick off prompts as I go, then worry about what's left next year 😂 Happy reading! 🎉🗓

Eldritch creatures suggestion if you haven’t already tried it - The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold

For Eldritch I'm going to recommend The Twisted Ones by T. Kingfisher. Her book The Hollow Places should also fit but I haven't read that one. Good luck!

Alliterative: This is How You Lose the Time War The counts!

When I saw the Dreams hard mode, I just thought to myself that I would easily find one by accident. And yup, right of the bat, Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle works for hard mode. For survival slasher horror should work, so I'm reading The Angel of Indian Lake as soon as my audiobook hold comes in. You are making me question my Disability square choice, which is currently Sunbringer by Hannah Kaner, because I have been putting off The Unbroken way too long. And like you, I'm planning on Witchmark for Romantacy.

The Hollow Kingdom by Clare B. Dunkle is a ya fantasy romance where the love interest is a goblin. I read it a very long time ago though so if it’s problematic, I have no idea lol.

T. Kingfisher has a self-pub book called Nine Goblins that has an army of goblins as the main cast. I haven't read it, but it sounds fun. It is short, though, so not sure if that breaks the rules for this bingo board.

Thank you for making this video! For the "book published in the 90s and the author is still writing" - might I recommend the Young Wizards series by Diane Duane? While the first book was published in 1983, books 3 and 4 in the series (High Wizardry and A Wizard Abroad) were published in the 90s. She is still publishing stories in the series, albeit mostly independently now, so I don't know if that would fully count? But the series is quite lovely, and the author rewrote it all in the past ten years so that it was all in a modern timeline (when you write a series across forty years, things change!) and sells the new versions for fairly cheap on her website.

I'm determined to complete fantasy bingo this year, for alliteration I'm planning to read When Women Were Dragons (the book I've seen most commonly recommended for hard mode is The Lies of Locke Lamoura which I only just read a couple of months ago!)

Also as I'm reading pandora by anne rice now and main character is telling her story sooi think it would fit bard prompt. Anything by rice would fit that prompt. Edit: pandora also has dreams 😏

Legendborn for the Dark Academia hard mode for sure!!

Chasm City by Alastair Reynolds may count for Dreams HM. The dreams are transmitted in an unusual way (by a virus), but the dreams themselves are mundane. I'm reading Dreamsnake by Vonda MacIntyre for entitled animals, which is HM. Song for the Basilisk by Patricia A. McKillip is an excellent Hard Mode choice for bards.

I’m glad I’m not the only one who finds the Bard prompt to be reaaaaally western centric

Another author you could do for author who wrote in 1990s is Kate Elliott - the first book in her Crown of Stars series came out in 1997

For fantasy animals Phoenix Keeper by S A MacLean is a sapphic fantasy romance coming out in august

For alliterative title I recommend The Lies of Locke Lamora

For the Bard hard mode: The Way of the Renegades by Steven D Wall and it’s narrated by Steven Pacey. I’m 98% sure the MC is called a bard

I'm pretty sure the memoir When My Ghost Sings by Tara Sidhoo Fraser has normal dreams in it. For mythical creatures: To Shape a Dragon's Breath by Moniquill Blackgoose was really good and the focus was not on the dragons. Or Snapdragon by Kat Leyh, which isn't about dragons at all. Or for a poetry option, We are Mermaids by Stephanie Burt.

Animals in the title! I have recommendations! A Warning About Swans by R.M. Romero, A Snake Falls to Earth by Darcie Little Badger, Cuckoo Song by Frances Hardinge, The Last Dragoners of Bowbazar by Indra Das (if that counts for dragons). Surprisingly, I've read way fewer books with magical animals in the title than I would have thought. The bard book that comes to mind for me is The Bards of Bone Plain by Patricia A. McKillip. I feel like I've read a lot of other books with musician protagonists not called bards, though. Seraphina, Light From Uncommon Stars, Divinity 36 and sequels, etc. The Saint of Bright Doors could count for eldritch creatures. I want to say they're not Cthulhu-related, but given that I've never actually read Lovecraft, I don't trust my ability to pick up on references.

I wanna try The Genesis of Misery by Neon Yang for space opera.

For mystical creature you could go indie and read from AJ Locke maybe 🤔

Zombies vs. unicorn edited by Holly Black has a magical creature in the title 😂

I need to read Bunny for the exact same reason lol

Maybe try Victor Pelevin. The Sacred Book of the Werewolf or the short story collection A Werewolf Problem in Central Russia

Paladin's... series is going to have seven books

YES please read The Goblin Emperor 7✨️ from 5 !!!

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I wouldn’t count No Gods, No Monsters as eldritch personally

Fraternity by Andy Mientus has a mundane school. It has a demon summoning

Well I would recommend The Phoenix King for entitled animal hard mode, but I think your review is actually the reason I picked that one up. It's also kind of annoyed me how much that entire square has become dragon books, so I've made it my personal mission not to use one. So far I'm thinking maybe the Phoenix Keeper by S.A. MacLean coming out later this year which is a cozy sapphic fantasy romance, but at the same time I don't always get along with cozy books so maybe I'll find something else before then.

Within these Wicked Walls is the only HM I have on my reads list - was a solid gothic YA. I know you are eh about dragons, but you might be interested in “To Shape a Dragon’s Breath” (for it’s anti-colonial lens on dragon school books) or “Miss Percy’s Guide to the Care and Feeding of British Dragons (older protagonist, and it did kind of remind me of A natural history of dragons.

I am more excited for this board than last years just because I think I can hit more of these, but i do think some of the prompts are lazy. I just finished my comfort reread of Goblin Emperor during me being sick, so I won't suggest other books for that square.

But the hacienda is not fantasy or SF, right?so why it counts for dream prompt? I chose magpie for entitled animals but it's thriller so i figured i shouldn't use for that prompt.

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I also need recs for the eldritch creature prompt. Saw Lanny by Max Porter on the list and I own it but it bored me so much I dnf’ed it 😭 would take any alternative preferably by a female author 🫶🏼

This seems fun, but it's definitely challenging in places. 🗓️

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