Reading for Comparison
When I was still interested in traditional publishing, I looked into querying agents.
Querying agents requires providing comp titles, novels that you can “compare” your novel to. The advice was pretty standard; pick 2 to 4 novels published in the last 3 years, last 5 years max. You could refer to the entire novel or call out specific elements of another novel in comparing it to yours (“the witty banter of ABC meets the high-stakes plot of XYZ” and so forth).
So, I began reading for the sake of finding comp titles. And it is true, no one is ever truly original and it would be a careless mistake to say in a query letter that “no one has ever written anything like this before” but I also think this exercise did reinforce how different my body of work is and make me seriously consider self-publishing.
In this post, I present to you all the novels I read as I was looking for comparisons. I don’t like criticizing work that other authors have poured their hearts into so the point is not to write a “review” per se. I mostly just want to emphasize what turned out to be similar and what turned out to be quite different from my novels. I did add stars by my top three, however. If you read the description and you think you would like it, then you absolutely should buy it and support these authors!
There are some thematic spoilers, but no major plot spoilers.
Tess of the Road, Rachel Hartman (2018) ★★
Picked up because: I can’t remember exactly, but it may have came up when I searched “feminist fantasy.”
Similarities: Slow burn character arc, realism of how much time it takes to heal from emotional scars and childhood conditioning. If my character arcs are as satisfying as Tess’s, then I would take that as a huge compliment!
Differences: This story really is about the journey of one woman. Meanwhile, my novels are multi-POV, have a larger cast of characters, and involve more large-scale conflicts.
The Jasmine Throne, Tasha Suri (2021) ★
Picked up because: I was researching recent fantasy novels that won or were considered for awards.
Similarities: Complicated women with complicated relationships with each other. Complicated dynamics between family-like characters. Lush, vibrant, immersive fantasy writing.
Differences: The world building is much more magic-centered than my world is. Though there was religious conflict and I liked what she did with the different religions (especially with regards to women, both as a category of people and specific female characters), it still felt like the different religions served a plot purpose more than belief being a genuine part of who these characters are.
The Unbroken, C. L. Clark (2021) ★★★
Picked up because: I was researching recent fantasy novels that won or were considered for awards.
Similarities: Many strong, complex women (not just the two main characters), and complex relationships. The surprising and unsurprising (in a good way) character arcs. The yearning romance. The attention to world building at the word-level. There was so much to love in this novel; if mine are compared favorably to hers, I would be ecstatic.
Differences: Though religion and faith play a central role, the starting point is that society is atheist and exploring religion is transgressive. Meanwhile in my novels, theism is taken for granted and disbelieving is transgressive. Also, from Clark’s website, “I worked my body hard, to know what it felt like to strain beyond my capacity. To learn what I was capable of.” It showed in her writing: her action scenes were amazing. It is something for me to aspire to.
The Knight and the Moth, Rachel Gillig (2025)
Picked up because: I was trying to read more recently published romantasy novels.
Similarities: The character arc, thematically (Sybil questioning how the Abbess raised her at Aisling Cathedral and coming into her own power), the need to overcome childhood religious conditioning, and the religious nature of the inspiration for the settings and the conflicts.
Differences: Mostly how central the romance plot line is. All my novels have at least two romance subplots, and the progression of the romance is critical to the plot and the character arcs. However, it is not nearly as all-consuming as it is in this novel.
The Second Death of Locke, V. L. Bovalino (2025)
Picked up because: I was trying to read more recently published romantasy novels.
Similarities: The character arc, thematically (Grey understanding what happened to her, what she did, and coming into her own power), and the codependent dynamic between Grey and Kier being reinforced by the existing politico-military system.
Differences: In my novel, the point is to transcend the codependency, and the source of that codependent relationship is different. Otherwise, as with The Knight and the Moth, the romance is a subplot in my novels. Reading a lot of romantasy novels is what convinced me that what I am writing is not romantasy.
The Sacred Space Between, Kalie Reid (2025)
Picked up because: I was trying to read more recently published romantasy novels.
Similarities: The character arc, thematically (Maeve’s faith in the Abbey coming undone, helped along by her relationship with Jude). There was also Christian-coded imagery that reinforced her message about religion, belonging, loneliness, isolation, and love. In the Acknowledgment, Reid says, “Much of it (as you may have guessed) stemmed from my own experience of the grappling that comes alongside deconstructing long-held beliefs. Writing Jude and Maeve’s journey was cathartic, to say the least, and I hope some of my readers see themselves in their journey, too.”
Differences: Reid and I both offer stories of religious deconstruction, but given what I presume are differences in our journeys, offer different stories. Someone who read The Sacred Space Between and enjoyed it would enjoy The Acolyte’s Heresy, and it would still be a different enough story about many of the same themes: religion, belonging, and love. Similar to Tess of the Road, though the Abbey presumably plays a large role in society, The Sacred Space Between is a smaller-scale story about a smaller number of characters. And as with The Knight and the Moth and The Second Death of Locke, there is a larger emphasis placed on the romance.
Assassin’s Apprentice, Robin Hobb (1995)
Picked up because: I wanted to read something by a famous, bestselling fantasy author. I actually never read Robin Hobb before, so I started with a friend’s recommendation.
Similarities: The amount of detail put into the world building. I also liked how it showed the different way women were treated by Galen, and how women, like Lady Patience and Princess Kettricken, exercise power in different ways than men.
Differences: This is definitely an older book, one I would not be “allowed” to comp too, even if I wanted to. The main difference is that there was a lot more telling than showing, and the journeys were described in more physical detail than I would describe them.
King of Scars, Leigh Bardugo (2019)
Picked up because: I wanted to read something by a famous, bestselling fantasy author. I already read Six of Crows and Shadow and Bone, so I went for something I hadn’t read by her yet to analyze/enjoy with the perspective of a fellow writer.
Similarities: The interweaving of the internal and external stakes. It was something I was already being very careful about in my own writing, and I enjoyed it immensely in how well she did it in her writing. How real the world feels with the different kingdoms having their own unique culture. The complexity of the politics, considering factors such as military technology development.
Differences: I say this as something I would like to aspire to: my novels do not have the Nikolai and Zoya levels of banter. I don’t think any of the characters I have created so far have that kind of personality, but it is something I would like to incorporate in the future, when I have a snarkier character.
Heir of Storms, Lauryn Hamilton Murray (2025)
Picked up because: I was in the local bookstore, in a small town in Germany (where my father’s side of the family comes from). My cousin works in a bookstore and was talking about how difficult it is for independent bookstores. As part of “research,” I tried to find a book the way a casual reader would and I chose this one to buy to support the local bookstore.
Similarities: Character arc and plot both teach the character the importance of feeling your emotions.
Differences: Feeling emotions was tied more directly to the way the MC’s magic worked. And overall, this felt a lot more YA to me than my novels are.
The Queen’s Rising, Rebecca Ross (2018)
Picked up because: I bought this specifically because I thought it would be a coming-of-age story similar to one of my novels.
Similarities: Despite the reason I bought it, it was not that similar at all.
Differences: Another one that felt quite a bit more YA than my novels.
Educated, Tara Westover (2018)
Picked up because: It is a memoir about leaving a cult, and I thought I could pitch my novel as a fantasy version of a cult-leaving story.
Similarities: Though I enjoyed reading it, the similarities to my own work was more superficial than I expected.
Differences: To me, this was more about family abuse than religious abuse. Though I dial the conflict and stakes up to 11 in my fantasy novels, in many ways, Educated is darker than I would ever be willing to go in my own writing.
The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood (1985)
Picked up because: It is one of the most famous speculative fiction pieces about religion.
Similarities: Mostly in the anti-women nature of the antagonistic religious establishment.
Differences: As with Educated, this was darker than anything I would be willing to write.
What do you think? Will you be checking any of these out? Have you already read any of these, and what did you like or dislike about them?
Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower (1993), Samantha Shannon’s The Priory of the Orange Tree (2019), and Roshani Chokshi’s The Gilded Wolves (2019), and Everina Maxwell’s Winter’s Orbit (2021) are already on my to-be-read list, but what else should I be reading? I’d love more suggestions for fantasy novels that sensitively deal with religion/faith, have intricate politics, and have an emotionally realistic character arc! Please leave your suggestions in the comments!
In conclusion, Tess of the Road and The Sacred Space Between are the best comparisons thematically, while The Jasmine Throne, The Unbroken, and King of Scars are the best comparisons for the scale of the plot and intricacy of the political, theological, and magical world building. Does that make you excited to read or more confused about my novels? Does it clarify tone and themes?
