It’s time we unpacked our magical powers and predicted the bookish future.
I mean WHAT could possibly go wrong with this. Clearly nothing. As 2019 tumbles in and books are announced, we start to wonder what is going to be BIG this year. What’s going to rule the shelves?! What trends will show their shiny faces and what genres will be top of the shelves and what patterns will we see in plots and topics???
So I’m teaming up with some fantastic voices in the YA book community to give our opinions on…
I was making a yearly habit out of this but fell off the moon in 2018 and, legit…I have no idea what I was doing. BUT IT’S BACK!. And you can see our 2016 and 2017 predictions too!
And the most MASSIVE thank you to these bloggers who’ve joined me in speculating about upcoming trends and book patterns! I’d love to do more collabs this year with more amazing bloggers, because you’re all so fun and nice?? I can’t even. Lovely beans.
ALSO. I asked everyone to volunteer their opinions independently, so it’s super exciting to see how many of us had the same thoughts!
* Note: none of us believe diversity is a “trend”! Whenever we talk about diversity here, we’re predicting what’s on the rise. And diversity isn’t a trend that’s here just to be popular. It’s a needed and realistic voice that’s here to sTAY.
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I’m going to put this here now: 2019 IS GOING TO BE THE YEAR OF TISSUES because tears will surely be shed with all the amazing book releases this year. With books like King of Scars, The Wicked King and The Gilded Wolves gracing us with their presence in January, I don’t even know how I’ll be able to survive the rest of the year. As early as now, we need to organize support groups. Trust me, we will need it.
No one can also stop me from saying that YA Fantasy is going to be a hit this year especially because we’re getting a lot of diverse books from this genre in 2019. ASIAN BOOKS ARE ALSO RULING THE YEAR and I’m a million percent here for this. I’m looking forward to Descendant of the Crane which is dubbed as the Chinese Game of Thrones full of court intrigue and murder mystery. Yep I’m here for all the blood, folks. Then there’s Shatter the Sky which has DRAGONS and sapphic protagonists. You should also watch out for The Gilded Wolves (yes I’m mentioning it twice because it deserves everything) which has a crew of diverse characters who you will surely love from page one. Clearly these books are what you need in your life.
I have about a hundred books on my mental 2019 TBR pile and my wallet is crying fresh blood as we speak. Despite this, I’m still glad because HELLO TO MORE BOOKS. We just have to say goodbye to most of our money though.
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VAMPIRES AND WITCHES. VAMPIRE WITCHES. There, I’ve called it. 2019 already seems to be shaping up to be the year where two of my most beloved things are exhumed and let back out into the world to thrive (and feast on our blood). I COULD NOT BE MORE EXCITED. Even though I’m still not over the emotional torment things like Twilight and Buffy the Vampire Slayer instilled in me, I’m ready to have my heart broken again (in the best way possible) over vampires and witches. And let’s not forget: vampire witches.
Honestly, Dracula would be TURNING IN HIS COFFIN if he knew it’s taken this long for vampires to be popular in YA again. But with the upcoming releases of The Beautiful by Renée Ahdieh and the anthology Vampires Never Get Old, finally these blood-sucking fiends will get the respect they deserve once again. And let’s not forget the witches! We were blessed in 2018 with the Toil & Trouble anthology, but I’m calling it as another big thing this year, first up with the release of These Witches Don’t Burn by Isabel Sterling. Prepare your TBRs (and your bank accounts), because 2019 is going to be one heck of a year!
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2019 will be such an incredible reading year, I can feel it and I am seeing such good upcoming books, too ! For me, there is one great and much needed wave coming this year better, harder and stronger than ever: diverse young adult contemporary books. If the last few years have brought us some wonderful diverse books, 2019 is kicking the bar even higher with such promising upcoming reads, Color Me In (Natasha Diaz), Don’t Date Rosa Santos (Nina Moreno), Opposite of Always (Justin A. Reynolds), I Wanna Be Where You Are (Kristina Forest), obviously On The Come Up (Angie Thomas) and WAY more to look forward to!
I’m absolutely thrilled to see that joined by diverse fantasy and sci-fi, too, with diverse casts taking the lead of many upcoming books: The Fever King by Victoria Lee, We Set The Dark On Fire by Tehlor Kay Mejia, The Light At The Bottom of the World by London Shah to quote only three! YES TO ALL THE DIVERSITY IN 2019 I AM PUMPED CAN YOU TELL.
I feel like 2019 will also be super interesting when it comes to fantasy (and that comes from a mostly contemporary reader!), especially twisty, dark stories and complex retellings. I could mention here The Beholder (Anna Bright) pitched as The Odyssey meets Cinderella and WHAT, Blood Heir (Amélie Wen Zhao) which is a dark Anastasia retelling (SCREAMING), House of Salt and Sorrows (Erin A. Craig) pitched as a Twelve Dancing Princesses retelling, Once & Future (Amy Rose Capetta and Cori McCarthy) a gender-bend ARTHUR retelling (!!). There are just SO many books to look forward to!
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Given the recent groundbreaking success of Kpop, as well as the movie adaptations of To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before and Crazy, Rich Asians, I think that 2019 will be the year of breakthrough young adult books—both contemporary and fantasy—that are influenced by Asian cultures. Also, given the heated state of the current political climate, I wouldn’t be surprised to see more books that tackle hard-hitting themes that are relevant to our everyday lives. And finally, though I’m not necessarily predicting that this will happen, but we could all surely do with more kissing books, so fingers crossed for that happening!
Most anticipated books:
1) KING OF SCARS by Leigh Bardugo (a.k.a. the most anticipated book of my ENTIRE LIFE, because Nikolai Lantsov. Need I say more?)
2) DESCENDANT OF THE CRANE by Joan He (LOOK. AT. THAT. COVER!)
3) DARKDAWN by Jay Kristoff (I am convinced that Jay is trying to kill all of his readers, so this will probably be the last book I ever read. But it’s fine, I’m sure it will be worth it.)
So this collab post has been AMAZING and I’m squishing myself here at the end, despite feeling like everyone has marvellously covered what I, too, agree are going to be The Good Things™ of 2019. I’m still so stoked about the levels of diversity that flooding the shelves. Seeing all the #ownvoices Asian fantasies, to a glorious increase of POC teens on contemporary covers, to seeing queer kids starring in every genre??? WE ARE THRIVING HERE.
As May, Brittany, and Rain have mentioned, I too agree that Asian fantasies are going to be big in 2019. Another prediction I’ll make is: more focus on diverse contemporary! I’m living for The Weight Of Stars (f/f and POC) and You Asked For Perfect (m/m and POC) and I Wish You All The Best (nonbinary narrator!) and Love From A to Z (Muslim, POC, and disability rep!). I’m also really pleased to add my own contemporary, The Boy Who Steals Houses (with anxiety/autism rep), is getting to stand with these great and admirable authors I look up to!
So many of these are #ownvoices authors too, which makes my heart so full that these people are getting to tell their stories. All that’s left is for us to wildly support these types of books so publishers see us asking for more. Moooore. MOAR.
SO EXCITES FOR ALL OF THIS!!! I’M SOOO HERE FOR THE ASIAN DIVERSITY REPS YESS!
IT’S GOING TO BE SUCH A GOOD YEAR I AM STOKED 💛
AAAAAHHHH I’M SO HAPPY TO FINALLY BE ABLE TO SEE THIS POST IN THE FLESH! TOTALLY AGREE WITH EVERYTHING IN THIS POST. I’m so happy to collaborate with y’all and I’m sure all these predictions are 100% accurate 😉
THANK YOU SO MUCH AGAIN, RAIN 💛💛💛 it was so fun to do this and have you join in ahh!!!
This is such a cool collab OMG!! I’m so excited, 2019 is really going to be full of all the good AISAN books it makes my heart beat 1000 times faster because like representation is REAL. ASDFGHJKL. and honestly, i am sooo ecstatic to see some of my favourite book bloggers here (may@ forever and everly!!! SCREAM. and Marie from drizzle and hurricane books like ahgshgfdshgf) this is such a cool idea? I AM EXCITED about ALL THE FANTASY i loooove fantasy so much dsjfhdjsgfdjf. also, I need the cover for THe Boy Steals Houses i’m getting impatient sfjdgsjfgd AHGH. this is a rambly comment, i’m sorry.
I want to do more collabs like this and ask aaall the people ajfdklsad it was so fun to do! And omg I’m really glad that so many of these top-anticipated Asian fantasies are also by ownvoices authors. Like this is what we truly need!! (MAY AND MARIE ARE SO LOVELY 😍 I’m so glad they wanted to do this!!)
(I’m impatient about my cover 😭😭)
When I was going through the 2019 releases, I noticed a lot more fantasy books were being published this year. It makes me SO HAPPY. I was always more for contemporary books, but lately I’ve been super into my fantasy. *_*
The fantasies are freaking me out with hOW GOOD THEY ALL SOUND 😍
Diverse reads are definitely HERE TO STAY. The reading community is loving all the representation, so there’s bound to be more of that. ♥ AND YES TO ALL THOSE RICH FANTASIES AAAAH THE FANTASY ADDICT IN ME IS SCREAMING. Of course, I’ve been into lighter stories recently (Asian dramas are getting to me), so I’m in for all the diverse contemporaries as well!!!
YES THEY ARE AND WE ARE BEING BLESSED. It’s just so so good to see publishing changing and listening to readers’ pleas 😍I’m glad it’s on the rise SO much. And particularly the flood of Asian fantasies (and contemporaries too) is just epic to see eep.
So I agree with like all of these… yeah. Truly, 2019 will be a breakthrough year for books.
Also what font do you use? The swirly squiggly one
– just to use in some personal projects (obviously not on my blog). I like it 🙂
Rhi xx
Oh that font is just a free one on ribbet.com…I can’t remember what it’s called, but it was just like the first in their option list. 😂
Ahh okay thank you!!!
There are definitely more diverse books coming out all of the time. So far, from what I’ve seen, I actually think this will be more of a contemporary year.
It definitely feels like more of a contemporary year and I AM HERE FOR IT.
There are so many incredible books getting released in 2019 and yea this year is going to be amazing. Almost all of these books are on my TBR. I am not a big fantasy reader but seems like fantasy is going to be quite big this year and I definitely nned to improve my fantasy game 😃 Ans my heart is so happy to see so manh amazing contemporary releases 😀
IT IS!! I have zero hope for my TBR at this rate lmao 😂but no complaints since all teh books look so so good?!
Interesting prediction. i agree on asian fantasy on the rise and I hope lot good fluffy contemporaries too 😍😍😍
I’m so excited with the rise of all of these 😍😍
I’m loving that there seems to be so many historical fantasies coming out this year, The Gilded Wolves, Romanov, Firestarter, An Affair of Poisons, Enchantee, A Court of Miracles-it makes me so happy that my two favourite things are finally being combined more. Also yes to all the Asian fantasies.
omg this is SO TRUE! I didn’t think about how many were coming, but there are! I’m particularly keen for Enchantee and Romanov!
Yessssss historical fantasies are so amazing and it’s one of my favorite subgenres
Wow loved this post so much! I think this year is certainly going to be a year for Asian fantasies (which I may not get round to till the year after cause wow…backlist books are eating me alive) But I’m here for vampires and witches to make a comeback as paranormal is my fav genre. Honestly…since I don’t read a lot of new releases I can’t really say much on predictions other than I agree with everything in this post!
ok totally relate to the backlist problem.😂I’m like DEAD under the weight of them all lmao…but I want to read all the new things too eeep!!
I agree with your predictions. I’m excited for #OwnVoices contemporaries! We always need more of those. I’m also hoping for some fantasy that feels unique. I’m interested in fantasy books, but I rarely love them because they all have the same recycled tropes.
Yesss agreed! I really love that we’re getting books from people who KNOW what they’re talking about.😂 And we do need a bit of a revamp in fantasy, 😂I find the premises are usually good but the tropes can weigh it down?! So here’s to hoping 2019 does better.
I am so pumped for all of the #ownvoices Asian inspired fantasies, and I’m not even Asian! They bring such fresh twists to the fantasy genre and i love them quite a lot
It’s so encouraging and good that ownvoices authors are getting to tell their stories and their truths!
Good predictions, I agree with most of them. Especially that there are a lot of Asian inspired fantasies and I am a 63836% here for them. I also think perhaps 1700-1800 century France is on the rise (The Gilded Wolves, Enchantée, and A Court of Miracles) as well as Anastasia retellings (Blood Heir and Romanov). I’m also a little surprised that not many trends from last year like pirates (Pacifica, To Kill a Kingdom, These Rebel Waves, etc) and AIs (Lifel1k3, Heart of Iron, Skyward) aren’t coming back. Since dystopia ended it’s like we haven’t had any genre become as powerful since. I’m not complaining though, I enjoy a more diverse selection
Ooh yes I very much agree with that prediction too (I literally just started Gilded Wolves before taking a break to blog a bit 😂And I have Enchantee on my tBR!) I am curious as to why we haven’t had an influx of a particular genre like usual? Like first it was paranormal, and then dystopia…but eh, not so much anything RULING the shelves now? I feel like all the movie-adaptions at the moment are gravitating to the contemporaries (like THUG, Love Simon, To All The Boys, Everything Everything, Wonder, etc.) so I wonder if contemporary truly will be the Big thing now…
ohhh, Asian fantasies! I’m getting into k-dramas right now (almost done watching the best series ever called Rich Man, Poor Woman), and just want to devour anything Asian, so that really piques my interest.
Yayyy!! I hope you end up getting to read a lot of them too!
Ahh! I definitely agree! I can’t wait for all those anticipated releases and I am so excited that I have an ARC of you asked for perfect!
Ahhh that is so good! I hope you end up enjoying it *happy flails*
I”m soo excited, especially for Spin the Dawn and Descendant of the Crane! I’m really stoked about all the diversity in YA novels-it’s so awesome! Been Asian American myself, I remember been thrilled when encountering novels, per say, inspired by Japanese culture!
One prediction I can make is that YA novels will have prettier and prettier covers, lol. They’re gorgeous already…next they’ll be dazzling and immortally perfect! 😉
I’m so so glad you’re excited for them!! And it’s way overdue that we’re having more ownvoices Asian narratives starring on the shelves, so this is just FAB.
COLLABS ARE THE BEST. *slams table in Thor style* It’s the law. *apologizes* I love the structure of this post so much!! it’s so pretty to look at with the flowers and the cut from colorful covers to text and back and forth. I’m so excited for Wicked Saints; I have the definite feeling that I will absolutely smash the mental like button on that novel because I have seen FAN ART for it and my eyeballs are in love with everything they encounter. In my head I have already sorted it into my favorites shelf lol. Wilder Girls and Spin the Dawn are both anticipated releases that I’m super duper hyped for and I can’t wait to devour either. My predictions are: The Priory of the Orange Tree because it’s big, filled with a rich fantasy world, written by Samantha Shannon and features dragons (AND has been read by awesome and popular authors and everyone seems to love it) and Middlegame by Seanan McGuire because she has a huge fanbase and that book sounds REAL GOOD. ALL OF THE DIVERSE BOOKS MAKE MY HEART FLUTTERY. It’s so good to see that things are changing and getting better and more inclusive!!
omg thank you!! that means a lot to me 😍I was torn about how exactly to format it eep, but I’m happy with how it turned out. (FLOWERS FTW.)
And omg there are going to be SO many books that are just going to steal our hearts this year. I can feeeeel it. Wicked Saints is mega hyped already, same with Priory!! Although that’s technically adult but oh well. 😂
I don’t read much of contemporary but everything here seems pretty accurate to me. I love how the fantasy books are branching out too from the standard fantasy’s we’ve been seeing! That’s so exciting to me! Descendant of the Crane is going to be AMAZING. Can’t wait!
Absolutely! And like almost everyone mentioned Descendant of the Crane so I think it’s going to be a top favourite for this year.
Once again thank you so, so, SO much for having me, I had such a fun time with this and I LOVE all of the other predictions here, these are so great and so on point, too! I can’t wait to read more and more 2019 releases as the year goes on and to discover them all and their awesomeness 🙂
Wonderful post, Cait! <3 <3 <3Mar
Aw, no thank YOU for joining me 😘 this was such a fun collab and I truly got the best people to join in. I AM HONOURED AHHH!!
I really want some murder books set in the South during the civil war..
PLEASE.
I am from southern USA so that would be fab.
Especially haunted wedding dresses in a creepy dilapidated house.
PLEASE.
I love murder mysteries more than Sherlock himself.
Probably.
I mean yeah he’s a sociopath and I’m not… I think… But..
ASIAN FANTASY IS THE BEST I CAN’T WAIT FOR IT ALL TO COME OUT THIS YEAR!!!
AHHHH.
(Random stuff in one comment but then again I am random)
Have you read Dread Nation?? I think it’s Civil War/Zombies/South but I’m not 100% certain.😂
I just want everyone to know that (a) I’ve bought a ton of tissues in anticipation of having my heartbroken a billion times over this year (seriously I am convinced there’s a conspiracy of authors and publishers who get together every month and are like, cool, how can we TOTALLY DESTROY OUR READERS THIS YEAR? and have a checklist of goals) and (b) AM ECSTATIC that diversity is mentioned as not a trend but something here to stay/necessary in this post because yes and lastly (c) AM SO READY FOR THE RETURN OF WITCHES and more creepy/atmospheric reads in 2019. As always my comment is ALL OVER THE PLACE and I would apologize but I’m on a tight schedule here leaving it (I’m really not I just want to get back to reading THE CRUEL PRINCE, thanks) so y’know.
Anyways. GREAT PREDICTIONS. I’m ready to be destroyed by 2019’s literary releases, yay!
I am 10000% sure you are correct with that assumption. Like what else are books for, if not to ruIN US COMPLETELY. *fun flails* 😂 And absolutely YES to diversity just being on the glorious rise! I know there’s still a long way to go, but the book community does so well at championing diverse voices it’s just *happy sigh* SO GOOD.
“The year of tissues.” I fear this year so much. xD I went through a phase when I was about twelve or thirteen where I was a glutton for pain and read EVERY SINGLE BOOK that was guaranteed to make me cry. Don’t ask me why; I still question my choices.
YES TO MORE WITCHES. Where have these books been all my life?? I can’t wait to read These Witches Don’t Burn. I’m in love with the cover.
I feel like since about 2015 or so, diverse YA contemporaries have been on the rise and have not gone away and it makes me so happy!! My bookshelves are so much more interesting and varied because of it. I totally agree about Asian fantasies (and stories in general) becoming extra present this year, especially with the success of To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before and books like Girls of Paper and Fire.
omg I totally understand. 😂I think TFIOS trained us well!? Or badly lmaoooo. But omg we need all the witches. Actually I am ALL for paranormal making an epic comeback (hopefully with more diversity and better writing lmao).
This post is making me renewedly excited for the bookish year… so many amazing books coming out! I’m really hoping a lot of the predicted trends do wind up following through because they are very good trends . The Weight of the Stars sounds amazing… I should really pick up The Wicker King before it comes out!
AHHHH YES YES PICK UP THE WICKER KING and then all the flails for Weight of Stars 😍 I may confess to already having it preordered!
This is the first year I’ve “officially” been in the YA book community, so this is a really helpful post! I’m personally hoping to see more contemporary this year, and also for what I’ve seen so far, it seems to be a lot of sequels + continuations of series!!
Also this is such a cool collab!!!
💛💛 I’m so so glad you enjoyed this! And also YES. So much contemporary is coming and I am all for this.
THIS BLOG POST IS SO FULL OF… STUFF AND I CAN’T EVEN how long did it take you to put this together?! XD Anyway, well, peeps, great answers! Definitely checking out your blogs.
Btw, just letting you know I tagged you for the 20-Question Book Tag. 😀
https://greenteawithbooks.wordpress.com/2019/01/12/the-20-question-book-tag/
IT IS VERY INTENSE!! And well nicely for me, I had lots of help hahaha. It’s epic to do collabs and I want to do more! (also thank you for the tag!)
yes! I definitely agree with all of these asian fantasy ownvoices predictions ahhhh!! 2019 is literally the year of the fricking asian
IT IS SO AWESOME.
Oooh I definitely think 2019 is going to be the year of fantasy! I mean thee are so many amazing ones on all of our TBRs, it’s wonderful! And it makes me feel so warm that YA/books in general are becoming so beautiful and diverse <3.
AGREED 😍a ton of really super hyped fantasies are finally coming out and !!! so excite!!
I think my TBR just clapped in joy from all the new books. I’m really excited to see diverse fantasy characters and also more adorable contemporaries of just feels and fluff.
I’m so so glad you enjoyed these recs!!💛
AAAH great post!! I’m very excited for all of these books to be out and I agree, more diverse books are being published and I hope we’ve gone past the realm of “trend” and entered the “normal” territory when it comes to this discussion, because diverse books need to be here to stay. I also expect lots of tears in 2019, both in YA *and* adult books. I’ve got some adult books that are coming out that I expect to ugly cry over, as well as some YA books, and look at me being totally fine with that!
ABSOLUTELY! And I feel very strongly that it’s not just a “trend” in the publishers’ eyes either, since so many of these are ownvoices stories. People are telling their truths and it’s beautiful and empowering!
All these predictions sound great! 2019 is going to be a hell of a year for YA! I am definitely excited for all the Asian releases, since my first and current read of the new year have been Asian contemporaries (American Panda & The Way You Make me Feel). Knowing that we’re getting more and more diverse books every year makes my heart very happy. We still have a long way to go, but we’re definitely working towards including more diverse authors & stories.
I wish werewolves would make a comeback, though, hahah. I do feel like 2019 will be a year for witch books, so hopefully in the few years we’ll have more paranormal and more werewolf books, as we definitely don’t have enough of those imo. Anyway, great predictions!
AGREED. We are in for delicious treats that’s for sure, with so many talented authors sharing their stories ahh!! And tbh I am up for werewolves too!? Like we just need the old burned-out genres to make a comeback with better writing and more diversity!!)
YAAAS TO ALL THE ASIAN REP! And I would be THRILLED with Vampires and Witches coming back to power! BRING ‘EM ON WITH A VENGEANCE!
I’d also predict a rise to any contemp romance Netflix can make into a movie!!
Netflix seems really keen on making more romcoms so yES WE SHOULD GO WITH THIS!
*whispers* And what will meet their untimely deaths in hopefully bookish glory??? (NONE I hope)
I agree with Rain about Asian books and I’M HERE FOR THIS AS WELL (this means a lot to me as well being Asian). So much excitement and good books coming from #ownvoices authors, especially fantasy and contemporary. I’m here for all of this. 😍😍😍
I’m so so glad so many bookworms are getting the Asian rep by ownvoices authors that they deserve!! This is so special!
I love how you did this as a collab! It helped me find a whole slew of books, which is always nice. I don’t know if is something I predict, it’s more of a wish, but I’d love to find happy contemporaries. that also have substance. I find that a lot of the contemporaries dealing with hard topics tend to end in tragedy, and while that makes sense, I’d love to see some hope thrown in once and a while.
I definitely agree with that and want that too! I like books with happy endings more now 😂 like give us something meaty and powerful AND happy.
Aahh this post was so great, Cait!! Thank you again for having me, I had a lot of fun with it! (I love that you included that little clarification that none of us think diversity is a trend <3) I love how so many of us talked about a lot of Asian books, haha! And yess I'm also super excited for I Wish You All the Best and The Weight of the Stars — both of their covers are GORGEOUS as well. (And I'm of course excited for your own book!!)
Aww no thank YOU for coming! you’re such an amazing voice in the community and I was honoured to have you on my blog too! 💛 (Also LOVE how many of everyone mentioned Descendant of the Crane!!)
Chain of Gold by Cassandra Clare is gonna be the book of the year!
I AM WHOLLY EXCITED FOR IT!
Wow this was really interesting to read! Thanks for collating everyone’s predictions, it is so interesting and so exciting to see the kinds of stories coming out at the moment, and so many of the books mentioned are definitely on my to read list!
I was super intrigued by the ‘atmospheric contemporary’ comments too, it is such an interesting little niche and something I’d like to read more of.
🙂
It was really great to get everyone’s opinions on this and SO much fun!!💛
I’d agree with all these predictions! I’m excited for all the new Asian works by Asian authors. I don’t know much about those cultures, so those reads are doubly interesting. I am, ahhhh, kind of getting tired of all the YA fantasy though?? I just love fantasy so much it’s hard to impress me, and I feel like a lot of YA fantasy has been becoming pretty similar over the past couple years. I almost feel like we’ve wrung most of the creative juices out of YA fantasy, if that makes any sense at all. But I do like the increased LGBT+ rep in fantasy. Since most fantasy is based off Medieval Europe, which did not feature too many out and proud gays, a lot of fantasy authors accidentally fall into the mindset that it’s “unrealistic” to represent the LGBT+ community in fantasy. I’m glad we’re finally moving past that.
Eleanor | On the Other Side of Reality
I actually do understand the feel with being skeptical of YA fantasy these days…I always feel the world building and sense is lacking? But hopefully with more diverse authors bringing their cultures and POVs into the fray, we’ll have some better quality fantasies!! (And I’m very very tired of people assuming being gay only popped up in the 20th century. Um yeah no. Give us the rep we deserve!)
I am so happy with this list and I totally agree that some of these will happen. I think we are going to get some amazing fantasy worlds that are really fleshed out, and yay for more diverse reads and mental health representating reads coming out last year. I am so looking forward to seeing that trickle into 2019 too 😀
Yesss exactly! We are in for a really good 2019, that’s the basic prediction here. 😂