THE UNLIKELY ESCAPE OF URIAH HEEP

(Orbit/Redhook, 2019)

Order: US / UK

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2019 Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Selection

The ultimate book-lover’s fantasy, featuring a young scholar with the power to bring literary characters into the world, for fans of The Magicians, Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore, and The Invisible Library.

“Many have tried and some have succeeded in writing mashups with famed literary characters, but Parry knocks it out of the park. She plays with the canon without trying to imitate it, all the while spinning a truly heartfelt story about the strained but powerful love between Rob and Charley. An appreciation for Dickens and a passing knowledge of literary theory will provide extra enjoyment, but a lack thereof is no excuse to miss this page-turning fantasy. Just plain wonderful.” -Kirkus (starred review)

―Booklist (starred review)

“If you’ve ever checked the backs of your wardrobe for snow and lamp-light — if you’ve ever longed to visit Pemberley House or 221B Baker Street, to battle the Jabberwock or wander through a fictional London fog — this book belongs to you. It’s a star-studded literary tour and a tangled mystery and a reflection on reading itself; it’s a pure delight.“―Alix E. Harrow, bestselling author of The Ten Thousand Doors of January

“H.G. Parry’s ambitious debut novel is a delight of magic and literature, love and adventure. With vibrant characters and a passion for story that shines through every word, this engaging read establishes Parry as a writer to watch.“―Kat Howard

“A delightful blend of adventure and mystery and marvel, a story in which the fantastical becomes real. This beautifully-written novel is an exploration of the power fiction wields — the power to inform and to change, even to endanger, our everyday world.”―Louisa Morgan

“A daring exploration of the worlds within words. Parry writes with the keen insight of Sherlock Holmes, the generous heart of David Copperfield, and the haunting soul of Dorian Grey.“―Jordanna Max Brodsky

“A joyous adventure through all the tales you’ve ever loved. Funny, charming, clever and heartfelt, you’re absolutely going to adore The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep.”―Tasha Suri

“H.G. Parry has crafted an imaginative and unique exploration of how words shift our lives in ways big and small. The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep is a rollicking adventure that thrills like Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere mashed up with Penny Dreadful in the best post-modern way. Equal parts sibling rivalry, crackling mystery, and Dickensian battle royale, it’ll be one of your most fun reads this year.”―Mike Chen

“Clever, emotionally compelling, and teeming with witty allusions. In a story reminiscent of the literary world-bending adventures of Jasper Fforde’s Thursday Next, Parry has crafted a tale which will appeal to the cherished dreams-and secret nightmares-of all bibliophiles.”―Cass Morris

“Parry does a lovely dance on and around the stage of Dickens and other classical literature, playing fast and loose with the nature of reality to tell a story about the transformative act of the reading process and the importance of family, both found and not. The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep is dead clever and enormously satisfying.“―Vivian Shaw

“Engaging and intelligent, The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep kept me turning the pages to discover familiar characters and surprising twists.”―Rowenna Miller

A DECLARATION OF THE RIGHTS OF MAGICIANS

The Shadow Histories #1

(Orbit/Redhook, 2020)

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Barnes & Noble Book of the Month (June 2020)

A sweeping tale of revolution and wonder in a world not quite like our own.

It is the Age of Enlightenment — of new and magical political movements, from the necromancer Robespierre calling for revolution in France to the weather mage Toussaint L’Ouverture leading the slaves of Haiti in their fight for freedom, to the bold new Prime Minister William Pitt weighing the legalization of magic amongst commoners in Britain and abolition throughout its colonies overseas. But amidst all of the upheaval of the early modern world, there is an unknown force inciting all of human civilization into violent conflict.

“A rich, sprawling epic full of history and magic, Declaration is Jonathan Strange with international politics and vampires. I loved it.”―Alix E. Harrow, author of The Ten Thousand Doors of January

“A witty, riveting historical fantasy….Parry has a historian’s eye for period detail and weaves real figures from history-including Robespierre and Toussaint L’Ouverture-throughout her poetic tale of justice, liberation, and dark magic. This is a knockout.”―Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Impeccably researched and epically written, this novel is a stellar start to what promises to be a grand new fantasy series.”―Booklist (starred review)

“I absolutely loved it. It held my attention from the beginning and throughout. It’s a beautiful tapestry of words, a combination of carefully observed and researched history and a well-thought-out and fascinating system of magic. An absolute delight to read; splendid and fluid, with beautiful and complex use of language.”―Genevieve Cogman, author of The Invisible Library

“Fans of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell will be enchanted by this sprawling epic of revolution and dark magic.“―Locus

“It’s no simple task to wrangle fifteen years of tumult in a few hundred pages, but Parry manages it with a deft hand. Her alternate history puts a human face on the titans of the past, while weaving in supernatural elements that add a whole new dimension. I stayed up well past my bedtime to find out what happens next.”―Marie Brennan, author of the Memoirs of Lady Trent series

“Impressively intricate; fans of the magic-and-history of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell will be delighted.”―Alexandra Rowland, author of A Conspiracy of Truths

A RADICAL ACT OF FREE MAGIC

The Shadow Histories #2

(Orbit/Redhook, 2021)

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Kirkus Best Fiction Books of 2021

The Concord has been broken, and a war of magic engulfs the world.

In France, the brilliant young battle-mage Napoleon Bonaparte has summoned a kraken from the depths, and under his command the Army of the Dead have all but conquered Europe. Britain fights back, protected by the gulf of the channel and powerful fire-magic, but Wilberforce’s own battle to bring about free magic and abolition has met a dead end in the face of an increasingly fearful and repressive government. In Saint Domingue, Fina helps Toussaint Louverture navigate these opposing forces to liberate the country.

But there is another, even darker war being fought beneath the surface: the first vampire war in hundreds of years. The enemy blood magician who orchestrated Robespierre’s downfall is using the Revolutionary Wars to bring about a return to dark magic to claim all of Europe. Across the world, only a few know of his existence and the choices they make will shape the new age of magic.

“A first-rate blend of political drama and magic battle–action…. Brings the series’ meditations on idealism, the fight for human rights, and the necessary limits of institutional power to a head. Absolutely superb.” ―Kirkus (starred review)

THE MAGICIAN’S DAUGHTER

(Orbit/Redhook, 2023)

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Barnes & Noble Book of the Month (March 2023)

NPR Best Books of the Year 2023

It is 1912, and for the last seventy years magic has all but disappeared from the world. Yet magic is all Biddy has ever known.

Orphaned in a shipwreck as a baby, Biddy grew up on Hy-Brasil, a legendary island off the coast of Ireland hidden by magic and glimpsed by rare travelers who return with stories of wild black rabbits and a lone magician in a castle. To Biddy, the island is her home, a place of ancient trees and sea-salt air and mysteries, and the magician, Rowan, is her guardian. She loves both, but as her seventeenth birthday approaches, she is stifled by her solitude and frustrated by Rowan’s refusal to let her leave. He himself leaves almost every night, transforming into a raven and flying to the mainland, and never tells her where or why he goes.

One night, Rowan fails to come home from his mysterious travels. When Biddy ventures into his nightmares to rescue him, she learns not only where he goes every night, but the terrible things that happened in the last days of magic that caused Rowan to flee to Hy-Brasil. Rowan has powerful enemies who threaten the safety of the island. Biddy’s determination to protect her home and her guardian takes her away from the safety of Hy-Brasil, to the poorhouses of Whitechapel, a secret castle beneath London streets, the ruins of an ancient civilization, and finally to a desperate chance to restore lost magic. But the closer she comes to answers, the more she comes to question everything she has ever believed about Rowan, her origins, and the cost of bringing magic back into the world.

“The Magician’s Daughter is that most rare and precious thing: a brand-new classic, both wholly original and wonderfully nostalgic. It’s an absolute treasure.” ―Alix E. Harrow, author of The Ten Thousand Doors of January

“From the mysterious and magical Hy-Brasil to the poorest streets of post-Victorian London, this exciting tale of a young woman caught between two worlds is brilliantly-imagined. I love the way Parry blends mythic elements with wit and heart. A fast pace, period detail and an intriguing cast of real, flawed people make The Magician’s Daughter a book to be absolutely devoured.”―Lucy Holland, author of Sistersong

“The Magician’s Daughter is innovative fairy tale and deftly researched historical fiction in one, full of captivating magic and richly drawn characters. HG Parry crafts an evocative world rife with a struggle for equity, justice, and the occasional miracle that readers won’t be able to forget.”―Rowenna Miller, author of Torn

“There are the best kind of fairytale elements in The Magician’s Daughter—the ones that draw you in and make you believe that magic does exist. Animal familiars, an island that only appears on certain days, and a young heroine who learns the depths of her strength. I absolutely adored it!”―Andrea Stewart, author of The Bone Shard Daughter

“The Magician’s Daughter casts a spell with its warm and subtle prose. Parry has created an enchantment of a novel?a coming-of-age story teeming with magic, with characters striving to change an unjust world?this is a book to be savoured.”―E. J. Beaton, author of The Councillor

“A compelling journey into a world of fading myth and mystery, evoking the magic of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by way of The Dark is Rising. The old magic runs deep in H. G. Parry’s veins. The Magician’s Daughter is a true delight.”―Cameron Johnston, author of The Maleficent Seven

“A coming-of-age fantasy…filled with heartbreak and wonder. Highly recommended for fans of heroine’s journeys, steampunk alternate worlds, and stories about what happens after the magic goes away.” ―Library Journal (starred review)

“Parry continues her hot streak of well-researched historical fantasy with this mix of bildungsroman and love letter to the 19th-century English canon…The magic system—which posits magic as a nonrenewable resource—works wonderfully as a metaphor for capitalism after 19th-century industrialization. Parry’s fans will not be disappointed.”―Publishers Weekly

“Parry’s greatest gift as a fantasy author isn’t her ability to create magic systems that are both easily understandable and also detailed and immersive. Nor is it her knack for settings, as in the delightful and whimsical images of Hy-Brasil. Instead, it is how she takes those worldbuilding skills and uses them in service of deeply felt characters. … Another gem of a novel from a talented writer.”–Kirkus (starred review)

“Parry has written another winning fantasy novel full of adventure, found family, and magic. This is a fully realized world that feels like a homage to the classic fantasy tales of Diana Wynne Jones…For readers who love a great fantasy adventure.”―Booklist

“Beautifully crafted…Even devotees of fantasy’s darker corners will take solace in The Magician’s Daughter, a little paean to storybook endings and happily ever afters.”―BookPage

“The Magician’s Daughter is a delightful little fantasy that pulls at all the right heartstrings…For those who fondly remember the works of Frances Hodgson Burnett or Lewis Carroll, this novel will definitely be your (bread, butter and) jam.”
―Wall Street Journal

“The Magician’s Daughter is a splendid piece of writing…If you’re looking for something to recapture some magic in your life, something that touches the bit inside all of us that dreams impossible dreams, then I can’t recommend this book enough.”―Lightspeed

“A charming romp of an old-school coming of age fantasy about family and magic that will take your heart for a wild ride.”―NPR

“A gorgeously atmospheric coming-of-age novel that’s interested in power and marginalization… The Magician’s Daughter is a triumph of skill and technique. It gets sense of place brilliantly. It interleaves the numinous and the quotidian delightfully. Its imagery is really striking. Biddy is a compelling character, sheltered but not naive. Her story is a journey of discovery, a coming-of-age into a wider world that leaps off the page in vivid, heart-rending detail. The novel’s treatment of a parent-child relationship and the child’s discovery that parents can be terribly flawed and fail and yet both still love you and be worthy of love is replete with generosity and emotional truth.”
 ―Locus

HEARTLESS (novella)

(Subterranean Press, 2024)

Purchase links: US

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Dust jacket and two chapter head illustrations by Kathleen Jennings

At the age of seven, in a London workhouse, newly-orphaned James meets ten-year-old Peter. Mysterious, mercurial, thoughtless to the point of cruelty, Peter nonetheless takes a liking to James. The two forge a strange friendship, bound together by their shared love of stories—stories of a magical island called Neverland, where they adventure as the pirate James Hook and the child-king Peter Pan. But one fateful night, Peter vanishes from his bed, and in the morning James is found lying alone and broken in the courtyard outside. Only James saw Peter fly from the workhouse roof in pursuit of a star, and nobody but James believes that the star was a fairy.

Over twenty years later, on the deck of a whaling ship in the frozen wastes of the Arctic, First Mate James Hook sees the same star again.

James’s obsession with finding his childhood friend will lead him to mutiny and murder, beyond the edges of the world, and finally to an island that shouldn’t exist. But neither Neverland nor Peter are what they appear. A new story is about to begin, and not all stories have happy endings.

Limited: 1000 signed numbered hardcover copies

“The origins of Neverland are revealed in this enchanting Peter Pan prequel from Parry (The Magician’s Daughter). James Hook is seven when his mother dies and he’s sent to live in a workhouse in Victorian London… Afterward, he embarks on an obsessive, lifelong search for Neverland, magic, and the cruel childhood friend who left him behind. Parry brings James’s increasingly desperate quest to life through vivid prose and probes deeply into what it actually means never to grow up.”–Publishers’ Weekly

THE SCHOLAR AND THE LAST FAERIE DOOR

(Orbit/Redhook, 2024)

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All they needed to break the world was a door, and someone to open it. 
 
Camford, 1920. Gilded and glittering, England’s secret magical academy is no place for Clover, a commoner with neither connections nor magical blood. She tells herself she has fought her way there only to find a cure for her brother Matthew, one of the few survivors of a faerie attack on the battlefields of WWI which left the doors to faerie country sealed, the study of its magic banned, and its victims cursed.

But when Clover catches the eye of golden boy Alden Lennox-Fontaine and his friends, doors that were previously closed to her are flung wide open, and she soon finds herself enmeshed in the seductive world of the country’s magical aristocrats. The summer she spends in Alden’s orbit leaves a fateful mark: months of joyous friendship and mutual study come crashing down when experiments go awry, and old secrets are unearthed.

Years later, when the faerie seals break, Clover knows it’s because of what they did. And she knows that she must seek the help of people she once called friends—and now doesn’t quite know what to call—if there’s any hope of saving the world as they know it. 

“By turns wondrous, haunting, and mysterious, The Scholar and the Last Faerie Door asks big questions and delivers all the right answers. This book is historical fantasy at its finest.”―Olivia Atwater, author of Half a Soul

“Part historical fantasy, part campus novel, and entirely magical, The Scholar and the Last Faerie Door is easily my favorite read of this year. Parry has crafted an unputdownable, bittersweet tale about thorny love, belonging, and what it means to truly fix a broken world.” ―Allison Saft, New York Times bestselling author of A Far Wilder Magic

“A brilliant story of magic and scholarship and ambition. Of sacrifices made to keep loved ones safe, and a secret world that is wilder and stranger and more complicated than even those living in it know. This is a marvelous, thought-provoking, captivating novel, and I loved it completely.” ―Kat Howard, Alex Award-winning author of An Unkindness of Magicians

“The Scholar and the Last Faerie Door is thoughtfully written and thoroughly enthralling. H.G. Parry illuminates the pleasures and perils of knowledge—and friendship—in a voice that is exquisite and empathetic to the very end.” ―Sylvie Cathrall, author of A Letter to the Luminous Deep

“The Scholar and the Last Faerie Door immerses readers in a richly imagined world of magical spells and scholarly intrigue. As always, H.G. Parry blends fantasy, history, thought-provoking ideas, and brilliantly enjoyable prose.”―Rowenna Miller, author of The Fairy Bargains of Prospect Hill

“Weaving magic and history together, Parry explores what it means to come of age, to belong and not belong, and to strive to save someone you love. The characters in this book captivated me and the writing felt as smooth as a rain-polished stone. The Scholar and the Last Faerie Door is a spellbinding novel.”―Elyse John, author of Orphia and Eurydicius

“Bewitching! An irresistible blend of history, fairy lore and magic set in England during the aftermath of the Great War, with hints of magic glimmering with every turn of the page. Power and privilege, love and loyalty, ambition and friendship—I was completely absorbed.”―Kell Woods, author of After the Forest

“Magical, creepy, and comforting all at the same time—The Scholar and the Last Faerie Door is an instant classic. You’ll remember all your favorite books and be reading late into the night to find out more. H.G. Parry has something truly special here.” ―Kritika H. Rao, author of The Surviving Sky

“The Scholar and the Last Faerie Door is a rare treat of a novel. H. G. Parry breathes magic and history to life—weaving the eerie lore of faerie through the glittering Jazz Age of the 1920s. I devoured this book with wide eyes and a racing heart, and I have no doubt that others will do the same.”―Ryan Graudin, author of The Enchanted Lies of Celeste Artois

“Parry paints a picture of a bygone era that is both attractive and subtly rotten at the core, exploring issues of power and privilege, duty and obligation. The results are complex, introspective, and impressive.”―Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“A dazzling escape for lovers of magical universities and fantastical adventures.” ―BookPage

“Like the best fantasy novels, The Scholar and the Last Faerie Door serves as a mirror to our own world and the problems within it: the broken world left after a devastating pandemic and how hard it is to make systemic changes in an inherently corrupt system. This intelligent, vivid novel belongs in all library fantasy collections. Highly recommended.”―Booklist (starred review)

A FAR BETTER THING

(Tor, 2025)

Purchase links: US

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I feared this was the best of times; I hoped it could not get any worse.

The faeries stole Sydney Carton as a child, and made him a mortal servant of the Faery Realm. Now, he has a rare opportunity for revenge against the fae and Charles Darnay, the changeling left in his stead.

It will take magic and cunning―cold iron and Realm silver―to hide his intentions from humans and fae and bring his plans to fruition.

Shuttling between London and Paris during the Reign of Terror, generations of violence-begetting-violence lead him to a heartbreaking choice in the shadow of the guillotine.

“A dazzling incarnation of A Tale of Two Cities; a spellbinding tale of vengeance, violence and enduring heartbreak.”―Ariel Kaplan, author of The Pomegranate Gate

“A real heartburner of a novel―passionate, painful, with protagonists who were dragging all the weight of the past and could still strive towards something better for themselves and the ones they loved. The sort of book that one absolutely can’t put down, that makes you cry in the best way.”―Genevieve Cogman

“This book had me at ‘fairy revenge set against the French Revolution’ and it did not disappoint! An elegant blend of magic, history and fairy lore that taps deep into what it means to be human―and the love and loss that entails.”―Kell Woods, author of Upon a Starlit Tide

“This book is perfect. Human changelings toil in revolutionary Paris and Dickens’ London for the world’s scariest fairy masters, just glad to be out of the Realm. A stage magician who excels at true magic uncovers a book with claws that our dissolute hero must fight with a sword. H. G. Parry is a brilliant writer who kept me on the edge of my seat, gulping down after page while still relishing all the flavors of her delicious prose.”―Ellen Kushner, author of the Tremontaine series

“A Far Better Thing begs the question of what exists behind the veil. What if, underneath revolutionary moments, there was a tinge of magic?”―Chicago Review of Books

“Parry dazzles in this masterful fantasy riff on A Tale of Two Cities. … The result is a rip-roaring tale rooted in love, vengeance, and justice. Readers will be wowed.”―Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“With intricate character work and a seamless blend of history, literature, and imagination, this novel crafts a tale as vivid and textured as the classic that inspired it.”―Library Journal

“Captivating and evocative . . . This imaginative work has fascinating characters that will grab at readers’ minds and hearts while dealing with themes of love, revenge, and even redemption. A Far Better Thing is a historical fantasy novel not to be missed.”―Shelf Awareness