I have been vibing fantasy tomes lately. I definitely go through phases where I just want some light fantasy and end up reading four Shadowhunters in a row, or I just can’t stand the thought of trying to figure out a magic system, so I swallow a heaping pile of contemporaries. But lately? I don’t know if it’s because I’ve been doing both of those for a while, or because I haven’t read a tome in ages, but all I want right now is the most giant ass fantasy tomes that YA has to offer me. If it’s over 700 pages, I need it. I got The Serpent’s Curse by Lisa Maxwell in the mail last week, and that brick of a book would hurt so bad if you threw it at someone, and that is my DREAM right now, oh my gosh.

At the time of drafting this post, I’m in the middle of a contemporary and a Shadowhunters book, and all I want is to power through those so I can get to a point where I can only fit one book in my bag and even that’s too damn big. Thus, by the time this posts, I will be elbow-deep in at least one of these books.

I don’t know if people actually consider Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo to be a tome, but since it comes in at a whopping 465 pages, and it’s going to destroy my soul, I am so ready for it. I’ve been rereading the entire Grishaverse in preparation for the show, and while I did not get nearly as far as I’d like before it released (ie: the entire universe before Friday), I got as far as I definitely wanted to. I’m currently rereading SOC, and my S&B trilogy review comes out on Wednesday, so keep your eyes peeled for that. I first read SOC back in 2017, and though I’ve taken it down to reread it several times, I never actually got that far. Something in my said that if I ever reread it, I’d end up working on the old story I wrote back then, too, and–well. I started rewriting that during the S&B reread, so I think I was definitely right, and now I’m ready for all the writing vibes to happen again! This is definitely the first of the tomes I’m going to tackle, though I hope to get through it quickly so I can dive immediately into another one of these.

Queen of Air and Darkness by Cassandra Clare is 912 godsdamn pages, someone save me. I forgot that I had this on my TBR right now, so you’ll see me call another book later on the biggest one, and I’m leaving it there because I feel like this shouldn’t count? WHY IS IT SO LONG? WHY AM I SO EXCITED ABOUT THAT? I took a quick nosedive into The Eldest Curses because I realized I was missing some chronological information with Magnus & Alec, and while they’re fine, they’re also wavering three-star reads, and that third star is purely because it’s Magnus & Alec, so I am so excited to get back to a book that Clare didn’t co-write. They’re just never as good, and this is also the finale for The Dark Artifices, and Emma & Julian have been slowly eating away at my soul, and I need to know. Dear reader, I need to know if they get together, or I will riot. And 900+ pages slowly withering to death wondering that while Clary flits in and out? OH HELL.

I talked about Blessed Monsters by Emily A. Duncan on my Instagram, and I’ll talk about it again before my review of it whenever I get around to reading it, but the tl;dr of it is that I very rarely go on Twitter, and so I was not aware of everything that was happening, which meant all of it was a surprise, or I would have stopped supporting her a while ago. Thus, the finale of Duncan’s trilogy was already on its way to me when everything exploded, and I would be lying if I said I wasn’t going to read it and probably enjoy it, so rather than hide the fact that I was doing both, I wanted to just be blatantly honest about it. And yes, I am very excited to see how this trilogy ends. It was one of my favorite books the year it released, and all I want in this story is for Serefin to end up gay and happy, and we’re halfway there, so I’m holding out hope for the happy. I’d definitely like to read this 528-page monstrosity post Grishaverse-reread, though, so I can better avoid the glaring similarities, but soooooooon.

Oh, look! Another problematic book! I’ve had my fair share of issues with Claire Legrand’s trilogy, and while I still don’t quite understand why I bought Lightbringer and am excited to read it, here I am? This feels like Holly Black all over again, in which I’m weirdly drawn to these books I kind of hate, but I’ll also never read anything else by them. I don’t know, I can’t explain it. Furyborn infuriated me, Kingsbane was even worse, and I’m not holding out much hope for Lightbringer, but I’m also hella excited to read it because Legrand just goes hard on the high fantasy elements, and I need to hatelove all 594 pages of this as soon as possible. (Do I recommend these? No, they are a fluke on my tastes, and I will never stop being confused.)

The true beast of the bunch, The Serpent’s Curse by Lisa Maxwell comes in at a whopping 768 pages, UNHOLY SATAN. Seriously, this package was so heavy, and I had no idea that Maxwell was going to treat us to this many pages, which is dumb considering the second one was also a little over 700 pages, but look, it’s been three years since The Devil’s Thief released, and holy mother of Lilith, I’m going to have to reread them, I hadn’t realized it’d been that long. Okay, I read it in 2019, so it’s only been two years, but that’s a long time, and I don’t really remember how it ended, and did I just add two more 500+ page tomes to this list? I may have. I am inconceivably excited about the fact that this was turned into a quartet, and I cannot wait to lug this beast around with me.

I’m fairly certain that I think about There Will Come a Darkness by Katy Rose Pool at least three times a week? It might honestly be more. And I really shouldn’t reread it right now because the finale is coming out this fall, so I should save it, but my brain just keeps going “reread it twice this year, why not”, and who am I to argue with that logic? This is one of the smaller ones at 496 pages, but it absolutely consumed me the first time I read it, and you know what? I’m just remembering that I was in a really poor mental place when I read the first book, and I distinctly remember putting in my review that I was rating it five stars because I knew, in a better mental state, that this would be a favorite book for me, and I was right, y’all. I think about this series constantly. I’m gonna reread it twice this year.

A Sky Beyond the Storm by Sabaa Tahir is the real reason behind this list because I’ve been avoiding reading it for three months now, and I really don’t know how to stop doing that. I’m so nervous about this coming to an end! I feel like the 516 pages isn’t even a good indicator because the margins are so small on the pages, so this is probably a solid 100 pages longer on standard printed page, but it’s not even the length that’s tripping me up. Tahir goes hard, y’all, and I’m so afraid of what she’s going to do. But I also need to find out, and if publicly calling myself out for not reading it is going to do the trick, then let’s have at it. Also, I’d just really like to clear out my preorders, and my TBR cart in general, so this has got to be at the top of the list in my brain.