Most lists of books like Shadow and Bone are secretly lists of books like the Darkling, which is how you end up with a shelf of brooding men and not much else. The trilogy itself does something smaller and meaner: it takes an ordinary girl, hands her a power every powerful person wants, and watches a country decide what she is worth. The picks below share that skeleton. Some borrow the dark court, some the rigged system, and one trades the kingdom for a college campus.
The short answer: read Red Queen if you want the closest plot match, The Cruel Prince if the dangerous royal was your reason for staying, and Legendborn if you want something newer with a sharper argument about power. Everything here is researched from publisher pages, trade reviews and reader reactions, and I say whose opinion is whose.
For reference, Shadow and Bone is Leigh Bardugo’s 2012 debut from Henry Holt: Alina Starkov, an orphan in the kingdom of Ravka, reveals a rare Grisha power to summon light while crossing the Shadow Fold, and the Darkling, the Grisha leader, takes her to the Little Palace to train. Publishers Weekly said Alina’s angst and aggression are a letdown but that the storytelling and world-building more than make up for it, and Kirkus liked how the magic is revealed gradually. That tells you what to hunt for: a world with rules, and plot machinery that keeps moving.
Taste of Vampire by D.S. Murphy
Taste of Vampire drops a human girl bred to serve into a kingdom ruled by vampires: she is chosen by an elite, must survive a deadly Trials competition, and plots to kill the tyrant king while falling for his icy prince son. If you came for a cruel court and a system built to crush people like her, that is the pitch, and it is book one of four in the Kingdom of Blood and Ash series, which is finished. Skip it if deadly-competition setups have worn thin for you, because the Trials will sound familiar. Disclosure: this one is ours, from the site owner’s own pen name or imprint, so weigh it like any author recommending their own book.
Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard
Mare Barrow is a 17-year-old Red thief living under Silver-blooded elites whose supernatural gifts keep them in power. Kirkus describes a plan to save her friend Kilorn going wrong and pulling her into the Silver palace, and Publishers Weekly says she discovers she can summon lightning and becomes the spark of a rebellion. HarperTeen published it on February 10, 2015, and the main series runs four novels. This is the one that most resembles Alina’s arc: a nobody in a palace with a power the court cannot explain. The honest weakness is that it wears its influences openly. Publishers Weekly said the book shares several plot points and similarities with The Hunger Games, and Kirkus listed familiar tropes, including the rags-to-riches path, and noted that revolution takes priority over romance. Skip it if you want a structure you have never seen, or if you came mainly for the love story.
The Cruel Prince by Holly Black
Jude was raised among the Gentry of Elfhame after her adoptive faerie father, Madoc, murdered her parents. Ten years later she is a mortal among faeries, bullied by Prince Cardan and his friends and then recruited as a spy by the crown prince, Dain, per Wikipedia’s summary of the setup. If the Darkling was the draw, Cardan is the argument: a prince whose cruelty is the puzzle. Kirkus’s verdict was Get it, and it praised the mix of Faerie lore, high fantasy and high school drama. Little, Brown published it on January 2, 2018, and it opens a trilogy that continues with The Wicked King and The Queen of Nothing. The weakness: Jude’s edge is a human ability to lie, not a rising power, so if the best part of Shadow and Bone for you was Alina’s gift unfolding, this is a schemer’s story instead. It also begins with the murder of her parents and sustained bullying, so go in prepared.
Legendborn by Tracy Deonn
Bree Matthews is 16, grieving her mother, and enrolled in a residential program for bright teens at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill when she watches a magical attack that stirs memories of the night her mother died. The trail leads to a secret society of descendants of King Arthur’s knights, and she decides to infiltrate it. It belongs on this list because the heroine is an outsider and the institution is rotten, and Kirkus notes that the book ties Arthurian legend to the legacy of chattel slavery in the American South. McElderry published it on September 15, 2020. It won the Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe Award for New Talent in 2021, and the next book, Bloodmarked, followed in 2022. The weakness is the opening, which asks for patience: Kirkus says readers must push through clunky exposition and choppy transitions, and Publishers Weekly said hazy exposition initially slows the narrative.
The Prison Healer by Lynette Noni
Kiva Meridan is 17 and has spent about ten years in Zalindov, a death prison, where she took over as healer after her father died. When the captured Rebel Queen arrives ill, the warden gives Kiva a week to get her ready for a Trial by Ordeal, four elemental challenges, and Kiva ends up volunteering as the queen’s champion, according to Publishers Weekly. Kirkus notes she must face magical trials with no magic of her own, which turns Alina’s outsider status inside out. HMH published the US edition on April 13, 2021, and it is the first of a trilogy, followed by The Gilded Cage and The Blood Traitor. The weakness: Publishers Weekly called the pacing leisurely, and Kirkus found it readable but not remarkable, grim and claustrophobic with little levity. If you want warmth, look elsewhere.
An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir
Laia is a scholar whose grandparents are killed and whose brother is captured by the Martial Empire’s Masks, so she goes undercover as a slave to the Commandant of Blackcliff Military Academy. Elias, the Commandant’s son, wants out of the academy until the Augurs name him an Aspirant for the throne, per Kirkus. Razorbill published An Ember in the Ashes on April 28, 2015. Two leads, an empire that treats people as disposable and a brutal school at the center: it scratches the Little Palace itch with more blood. Kirkus predicted it would be popular but flagged lackluster prose in places, a conflict between conquerors and the enslaved that it calls suddenly trendy, a potential love triangle or two, and a slight overreliance on sexual violence as a threat, so check content notes first if that matters to you.
Where to start
Pick by what you miss. For plot, Red Queen. For a dangerous court, The Cruel Prince. For a real-world setting with an argument, Legendborn. If you would rather stay inside Bardugo’s world, her site groups the books as the Shadow and Bone trilogy and two duologies, and Wikipedia lists them as Six of Crows (2015) and Crooked Kingdom (2016), then King of Scars (2019) and Rule of Wolves (2021). Her site also links to a Grishaverse reading-order page, which is worth checking before you commit to a sequence.
Questions readers ask
What is the closest book to Shadow and Bone?
Red Queen is the nearest in structure: a girl with a rare power is pulled into an elite palace and becomes a symbol. Publishers Weekly and Kirkus both note that it leans on familiar patterns, so it works best if you want that pattern again rather than a twist on it.
Which of these series are finished?
As far as I could confirm, the Taste of Vampire series is complete at four books, Red Queen’s main series is four novels (2015 to 2018), The Cruel Prince opened a trilogy in 2018 (Wikipedia lists later spin-off books through 2024), and The Prison Healer is a trilogy. The Legendborn Cycle has three books so far, Legendborn (2020), Bloodmarked (2022) and Oathbound (2025), and I could not confirm whether it is finished.
Do any of these need content warnings?
Kirkus flagged sexual violence used as a threat in An Ember in the Ashes. The Cruel Prince opens with bullying and the murder of Jude’s parents, The Prison Healer is set in a death prison, and Legendborn is built on grief and the legacy of slavery. Check each book’s notes before you hand it to a younger reader.
Was Shadow and Bone adapted for TV?
Yes. According to Wikipedia, Netflix released an eight-episode first season on April 23, 2021, and an eight-episode second season on March 16, 2023, drawing on the Shadow and Bone and Six of Crows books.
If you want to compare notes on the source text, start with our Shadow and Bone review, then see how two of these picks handle the same pressures in our Red Queen review and our Cruel Prince review.
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