Mood
JK Rowling has not finished dividing. If like me, you are one of those who find it difficult to separate the artist’s work, here is a literary selection full of magic that should help you get away from the little glasses sorcerer and its decried designer.
21.06.2025, 06:5221.06.2025, 13:58
No more “entertainment”
I’m like you, I love Harry Potter. I grew up with him, I saw each of the movies in the cinema, and I transmitted my books to my niece so that she could read them one day. I had a lot of admiration for JK Rowling, both for his literary talent, obviously, and for his philanthropy, making the author a model of virtue … Finally, that was before, since, today, it is difficult to close your eyes as the positions of the author vis-à-vis transgender people are embarrassing for anyone who is keen to defend this minority.
Positions, but also acts, since JK Rowling announced the creation of a legal fund at the service of his ideas deemed transphobes. A fund nourished by its enormous fortune, which grows with each purchase of any derivative product marked by a small lightning. The boycott calls for his work multiply, carried by fans and personalities like actor Pedro Pascal. Daniel Radcliffe, who interprets Harry Potter in the cinematographic saga, also said he was deeply saddened by JK Rowling’s positions.
If, for yourself or for your children, you decide to distant Hogwarts, here is a literary selection made of the same wood as the elder wand. Works in which we find similar themes: fantasy, folklore, heroes who feel excluded, stigmatized or ostracized, the feeling of being a foreigner in search of a family, or the need to be yourself. Totally queer themes, in a great paradox with the author’s ideas.
To get to the point:
For the youngest (9-12 years):
Gardens of lost cities
Image: Lumen
This series of youth novels, written by Shannon Messenger, started in 2012. In 2024, the series, still in progress, is in its eleventh volume and appears as an initiatory journey on tolerance and inclusion, where the reader sees the heroine grow, with his friends, within a magical world.
The saga recounts the adventures of Sophie Foster. She has always heard the thoughts of people around her. One morning, a strange boy approaches him and tells him that she is not human. She must join the universe that she left twelve years earlier and discovers the world of elves in an adventure full of twists and turns. Following the consequent success of this literary saga, an adaptation project to the cinema of Gardens of lost cities is scheduled for 2026.
Magic Charly
Fantastic trilogy Magic Charly is written by French author Audrey Alwett. In this story which takes place between Provence and Brittany, Charly Vernier discovers that her grandmother was a magician. But a mysterious thief of memory, the rider, stripped him of his memories and seeks to seize the ultimate source of magic. To save her, Charly has no choice but to become an apprentice magician.
Behind the fantastic and wacky facade of the magical world of Charly, Audrey Alwett approaches strong themes, such as death, social inequality or even prejudices.
Ewilan’s quest
Image: Rageot
Ewilan’s quest is a saga in six books written by Pierre Bottero. The story has also been adapted in comics, by Glénat editions, and an animated series will also see the light of day.
Between interdimensional trip and extraordinary epic, Ewilan’s quest We train in the footsteps of a young college student whose reflections make her a dizzy young lady, absorbed in her thoughts. To the point that a day, she crosses without looking in front of a truck … and landed in an unknown forest. A world in which Camille will develop strange powers and discover that she is not just anyone.
From 13 years old:
The mirror pass
Image: Gallimard
The mirror pass is a cycle of French fantasy novels in four volumes, written by the French Christelle Dabos. In her novels, she narrates the adventures of Ophélie, a heroine endowed with the power to read the past of objects, just like that of moving from one place to another through the mirrors and 21 arches which constitute the world of Ophélie.
Awarded and sold millions of copies, The mirror pass addresses different themes, such as the right to make mistakes, memory or identity. The series is compared to a French-speaking version being halfway between The castle in the sky D’HAYAO Miyazaki and At the crossroads De Philip Pullman.
The war of the poppy
Image: South acts
Initiation story, The war of the poppy Questions readers about cruelty and the endless cycle of war, about the tendency to self -destruct humans. In three volumes, this dystopian epic of military fantasy takes place in the immense Empire Nikara. There lives Rin, a young orphan promised at a wedding arranged by her adoptive parents.
Ready to try everything to escape it, she joined the military academy of Sinegard, responsible for forming future elites of the Empire. This is how she will gradually awaken the Shamanic powers that are hers and prove to be a brilliant asset for her country. This first novel by RF Kuang, an American author of Chinese origin, was hailed by criticism and detonates by its originality.
The Small Spell store
With The Small Spell store From Sarah Beth Durst, it is the discovery of a new fantasy sub-genre, called the “cozy fantasy”. Exit therefore the great quests and epic battles, since it is a kind of feel-good novel, emphasizing a comforting framework.
Image: Bragelonne
Kiela has never been comfortable with people. Fortunately, his post at the large alyssium library allows him to live far from the others, surrounded by the most precious spell books in the Empire. But when the revolution breaks out and the library is reduced to ashes, Kiela and her assistant, Caz, a magic plant with intelligence, save the books they can and take the direction of a distant island: that of her childhood, a place where Kiela thought of never setting foot.
This fable, made of magic and a suspicion of romance, is populated by mythical creatures, cinnamon rolls and spells. A nibble book huddled in a plaid on a rainy day, a good tea at hand.
Other world
Image: the pocket book
The alliance of the three is the first volume of the saga Other world De Maxime Chattam, which has eight pounds. The story follows Matt and Tobias, two New York teens since childhood. One day, the city is struck by an unprecedented storm. Blue flashes strike buildings, leaving humans only their clothes or transforming them into repugnant mutants. The two friends manage to flee on an island, where they join a community of spared children. In this world where adults have disappeared, these teenagers left to themselves will develop extraordinary skills.
Maxime Chattam is one of the big names in French thriller, and Other world is his only fantastic and youth work, in which he incorporated all the qualities of his detective novels. This saga addresses maturity and its upheavals, but also an ecological message, through this other world where nature has resumed its rights.
Obviously, nothing prevents (re) discovering timeless classics, such as the Lord of the Rings, at the crossroads, or the world of Narnia. As for the work of JK Rowling, to move away from it does not necessarily mean drinking it, but simply Choose not to contribute more to an already well-stocked wallet.
Thank you to the Lausanne Librairie Payot bookstore for helping me make this selection.
