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If you loved
Books like Un Lun Dun
A delightfully weird, trope-smashing portal fantasy where the sidekick takes charge in a wonderland of discarded junk. These 12 books are the closest matches in mood, pace and themes, with what each one shares with Un Lun Dun.
- surreal
- quirky
- wondrous
- slightly eerie
- 01
King Rat
China Miéville · 1999
A grimy, bass-thumping descent into a hallucinatory London where ancient urban legends bleed into the underground club scene.
- 02
Perdido Street Station
China Miéville
A hallucinatory plunge into a sprawling, grimy metropolis where science, magic, and grotesque biology collide in a nightmare of urban decay.
- 03
The Left-Handed Booksellers of London
Garth Nix
A magical romp through 1983 London where fighting booksellers police the boundaries of myth and reality.
- 04
Mortal Engines
Philip Reeve
A relentless, soot-stained chase across a ruined earth where survival means never stopping.
- 05
The Magic City
Edith Nesbit
A whimsical, dreamlike journey where the mundane objects of a lonely childhood transform into a sprawling, magical landscape.
- 06
Neverwhere
Neil Gaiman
A darkly whimsical plunge into a grimy, magical metropolis hidden just beneath the cracks of the ordinary world.
- 07
Shade's children
Garth Nix · 1997
A relentless, shadow-drenched fight for survival in a bleak world where growing up is a literal death sentence.
- 08
The Dangerous Alphabet
Neil Gaiman
A delightfully sinister twist on a childhood staple that invites readers into a shadowy, subterranean world of monsters and mischief.
- 09
Lud-in-the-mist
Hope Mirrlees
A beautifully melancholic fairy tale about the quiet terror and absolute necessity of letting a little wildness into a perfectly ordered life.
- 10
Fever Crumb (Fever Crumb #1)
Philip Reeve
A gritty, inventive journey through a decaying future city, guided by a fiercely logical mind learning how to feel.
- 11
Nevermoor
Jessica Townsend
A whimsical, fast-paced plunge into a secret magical city where a doomed outcast finally finds her place.
- 12
Unbirthday
Liz Braswell
A nostalgic yet eerie return to a childhood wonderland that has grown just as dark and complicated as adulthood.
