Must Read: Fantasy books for people who don't like fantasy

Every Wednesday on the Sarah Brett show we hear about some of the best books around.

This week Joelle Owusu, commissioning editor from publishing company Unbound, brings us her top six fantasy books for people who don't like fantasy.

Have you read any of these books or do you have another favourite to recommend? Comment below...

Caraval by Stephanie Garbel

Caraval was Stephanie Garber's debut novel, it has a mysterious circus theme which has been compared to The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern.

It's a young adult book so it's not for everybody, but it is a good entry into the fantasy genre.

The novel is about a young woman called Scarlett who is really bored of her life. She lives on a tiny island called Trysda with her sister and their dad, who is a horrible man.

For years she's been writing letters to Legend, a man who organises a carnival called Caraval, she's never had a reply back until one day, after she discovers her father wants to marry her off, she gets an invitation for her and her sister to go to the carnival. 

It's really fast paced, thrilling and full of twists and turns, and the book has fantastic 'world building'.

With fantasy books, sometimes there are all these characters and so much 'world building' that it becomes convoluted and confusing, but Caraval is pretty straightforward.

Gingerbread by Helen Oyeyemi

Gingerbread is a twist on the Hansel and Gretel fairy story.

It's about Harriet Lee and her daughter Perdita; Londoners who bake a specific type of gingerbread in their flat, which is popular in Harriet's homeland and was the favourite food of Harriet's former best friend, Gretel.

Perdita has all these questions and goes on an adventure to find her mother's long lost friends.

It's a really interesting story about jealousy, ambition, family values, grudges with some magic and fantasy along the way.

The Girl With All The Gifts by M. R. Carey

The book is set in a dystopian world where a fungal infection has wiped out most of humanity. People who have the infection are called 'hungries' because it turns them into zombie like creatures who survive by feeding on the flesh and blood of human beings. 

There is a guarded area of England where people who haven't been infected live, there they have 'child hungries' who have been infected but have retained their mental states and are still able to communicate and can survive by eating animals.

Scientists are collecting the 'child hungries' to educate and analyse them as well as dissecting them to try and find a cure for the disease.

Morals soon come into play as some of the adults bond with the children, specifically a girl called Melanie who has a very high IQ and was selected to be dissected. Some of the characters want to protect her because they don't think it's right to be killing children, even though they're half-dead already.

It's a really tense, sad story and a bit scary. It's really well written and makes you think about your own morals and what you'd do if the world was falling apart around you.

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

This is my favourite book of all time, I found it on a blog years ago and it just blew me away.

It was Erin Morgenstern's debut book and I'm not going to tell you much about it because it doesn't even mention the characters on the blurb even though they're important to the story - it's a book for curious people...

Your attention is kept throughout, and I found I could almost taste the circus air when I was reading it.

The characters are so well written and I've read the book about three times now!

Only Ever Yours by Louise O'Neill

This is in my top five all-time favourite books. At first glance you think it's going to be an airy-fairy chick-lit book, but it's not. It's a dark dystopian world that's a cross between The Handmaid's Tale and Stepford Wives.

The women in the novel have no control over their lives and destinies. After a girl graduates, she's given one of three roles. The most desired role is Companion, which is like a wife to a man and is the most desired position because it means you're both beautiful and child-bearing.

Concubine is the second role, which is self-explanatory, and the third role is Chastity, where you're deemed ugly and become a teacher to the next generation of girls.

The book follows 'freda' and her best friend 'isobel', who are pitted against each other to become Companions.

What I loved about this book is that all the female characters don't have their names capitalised because they're not important, that's how much less of a person they are than the men.

Children Of Blood And Bone by Tomi Adeyemi

This was Tomi Adeyemi's debut fantasy novel which caused a massive buzz in 2018.

It was so unique and was published at the time of Black Panther being in cinemas, when people were realising stories which have an African fantasy focus can do well.

The book follows Azalea, a member of a magical group that has been repressed and killed over the years, as she attempts to restore the magic kingdom of Orïsha.

There's a lot of use of the Yoruba language and culture of Nigeria in the book which is really fabulous.

High Fire by Eoin Colfer