looking for a good fantasy book/series

i recommend checking out the “a court of thorn and roses” series.

I am not familiar with dark fantasy tik toks, but maybe you would like The Mirror Empire by Kameron Hurley.

I’m not familiar with TikTok, but if we’re talking about dark fantasy in general then I can think of at least three directions.

The Realm of the Elderlings series by Robin Hobb is not unlike Game of Thrones as medieval political intrigue in situations that don’t have perfect solutions. It’s on a smaller scale and complete at sixteen books divided into five story arcs. If you don’t love it, the first major plot is resolved by the end of the third book and you can stop there with a story that makes sense. It’s dark in that there’s a lot of deception including magic that can alter people’s minds. Also the first book is *Assassin’s Apprentice* and that’s an accurate description. Fitz is expected to get comfortable with doing unsavory things for the sake of avoiding open battle and having a functional kingdom. He gets hurt a lot in the process.

Kushiel’s Legacy by Jacqueline Carey is also medieval political intrigue, but it’s right on the edge of pornography. This book series is why I know how to make my own whips, which should give you some idea of both the direction and intensity of what happens in bedrooms. I call it dark because of the mysteries, the psychological manipulation, and the enthusiastic sadomasochism, but there’s also a strong sense of good as a tangible force in the world. The first book is *Kushiel’s Dart* and I think it makes sense as a standalone although it’s been a few years since I read it.

*A Deadly Education* by Naomi Novik is pretty much Hogwarts as a horror setting. The only way to not graduate from the Scholamance is to die trying and graduation rates hover around 70 percent. People go anyway because it’s safer than trying to fight the eldritch abominations that try to eat young wizards without training. The viewpoint character, Galadriel Higgins, is the center of a prophecy, but it’s that she’ll shatter the foundations of the world and the last time she let her mind wander while doing homework, she wrote a spell that would ignite a supervolcano were it ever cast. There’s two more books in the series.

Fourth Wing

All of Sarah J Maas’s books

Foxglove King

One Dark Window

And if you want something more whimsical: A River Enchanted (duology)

First Law Trilogy by Joe Abercrombie
The Last War Trilogy by Mike Shackle.