In a portal fantasy someone travels from one reality to another, often by means of a particular object – think of the classic stories Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. (Science fiction variations may involve alternate realities, the multiverse, time travel, or wormholes – but we’ll look at those another day!)
In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan
Sharp-tongued and opinionated Elliot discovers an invisible wall concealing the magical Borderlands and its training facility for diplomats and warriors. Distinctly unmagical and a confirmed pacifist, over the next four years Elliot learns to make a place for himself while turning the politics of the world around him on their head. Also available on hoopla.
Kindred by Octavia Butler
Dana, a modern Black woman, is celebrating her twenty-sixth birthday with her new husband when she is snatched abruptly from her home in California and transported to the antebellum South. After this first summons, Dana is drawn back again and again to protect a man that will father one of Dana's ancestors. Also available on hoopla.
Finna by Nino Cipro
Finna follows two recently broken up queer co-workers, Ava and Jules, who’ve discovered that the monolithic Swedish furniture store they've been working for has been concealing the existence of wormholes in their furniture showroom. When an elderly customer becomes lost in the multiverse, Jules and a reluctant Ava are “voluntold” to find the missing grandma, or a suitable "replacement" from another world. Also available on hoopla.
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
In a house with infinite rooms, endless corridors, and multiple climates, Piranesi is enlisted by an enigmatic master known as the Other to help locate a Great and Secret Knowledge. When another being, possibly from a distant world, contacts Piranesi with information about The Other’s motivations, Pirenesi is forced to confront decisions that could overturn his reality.
Invisible Library Series by Genevieve Cogman
Irene was born and raised in the Library and now works as a spy for this mysterious organization with access to fiction from multiple realities. When she and a new assistant are sent on a mission to an alternate London to retrieve a dangerous book they discover that the book has been stolen, and they aren’t the only ones looking for it!
The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow
When January Scaller finds a strange book that tells a tale of secret doors, love, adventure, and danger, she becomes increasingly suspicious about her own world. As each turn of the page reveals impossible truths about the world she discovers a story increasingly entwined with her own.
A Spindle Splintered by Alix E. Harrow
Zinnia, newly 21, and living on borrowed time, has a rare genetic disorder that will cut her life short. On her birthday she pricks her finger and is transported into the world of Sleeping Beauty. There, she joins forces with the princess and the two set out to break their own curses.
NOS4A2 by Joe Hill
In this spine-tingling work of suspense from the best-selling author of Heart-Shaped Box, Victoria McQueen must unlock her secret supernatural gift for retrieving missing items to save her son from the evil Charles Talent Max. Also available on hoopla.
Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire
At a boarding school for children who have been transported to magical lands, used up, and returned to the real world, Nancy trigers dark changes among her fellow schoolmates and resolves to expose the truth when a child dies under suspicious magical circumstances. Also available on hoopla.
Un Lun Dun by China Miéville
Un Lun Dun is London through the looking glass, an urban Wonderland of strange delights where the lost and broken people of London end up. It is a city awaiting a prophesied hero, and when Londoners Zanna and her friend Deeba find a secret entrance to this strange city, it seems that the ancient prophecy may come true at last.
Miss Peregrine’s Children Series by Ransom Riggs
Jacob thought his grandfather’s stories of odd children were just fairy-tales, but when he finds the now-abandoned orphanage where Grandpa was raised, he discovers the children are real – and hidden in a loop of time. Start with book one of this popular series and we promise you’ll be hooked!
Palimpsest by Cat Valente
Everyone lucky or doomed enough to go to Palimpsest, a city visited only in dreams, awakes bearing a tattooed map of its neighborhoods. Join four travellers, for whom Palimpsest becomes what each desires most, as they learn the ways of the city and discover the price of becoming more than tourists.
