11 books like Harry Potter for adults
If what you loved about Harry Potter was the school year turning, the hidden world under the ordinary one and the slow reveal of how magic actually works, there's a good deal written for grown-ups that scratches the same itch. These are sorted by what they share with Hogwarts, so you can pick the bit you miss most.
Updated September 2026
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Magic schools with grown-up stakes
The Magicians by Lev Grossman 2009
A gifted teenager finds the secret college of magic he always dreamed of, but Grossman is interested in what happens when the dream doesn't fix the person having it — expect drink, sex and disappointment alongside the spellwork.
A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik 2020
A boarding school for young wizards with houses, cliques and a graduation to survive; here there are no teachers, no Dumbledore and no adult coming to help, and the narrator is prickly enough to be genuinely unlikeable at first.
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss 2007
A poor, clever boy talks his way into a university of magic and learns it the hard way, with sympathy taking the place of wandwork; the tone is a lonelier, more lyrical thing than Rowling's, and the trilogy is still unfinished.
Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo 2019
Secret societies, arcane rites and a gifted outsider given a place she hasn't earned — but this is Yale rather than Hogwarts, and Bardugo writes violence, addiction and assault without softening them.
Hidden magic in modern Britain and beyond
Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch 2011
The wizarding world tucked inside real London, learning Latin and first spells from an eccentric mentor; the frame is a police procedural, so the puzzle is a murder rather than a prophecy.
Storm Front by Jim Butcher 2000
A working wizard in a world that doesn't officially believe in him, with a magical governing body and rules that bite when broken — the voice is American hard-boiled detective, all wisecracks and bruises.
A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab 2015
A Georgian-flavoured London with magic threaded through it and a tournament sequence that will remind you of the Triwizard; the magic is elemental and blood-bound, and the body count is considerably higher.
The Rook by Daniel O'Malley 2012
A secret British government department manages supernatural threats with committees, memos and civil-service politics, which is very much the Ministry of Magic played for laughs — only here the heroine wakes with no memory of who she is.
English magic with a comic or antiquarian streak
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke 2004
English magic as a national inheritance, complete with scholarly bickering and a genuinely frightening fairy; Clarke writes in mock-Regency prose with footnotes, so it asks more patience than Rowling ever does.
Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett 1989
A secret brotherhood, a dragon and a wizard university, all handled with the same affection for daft institutions that makes Hogwarts work; Pratchett's satire is aimed squarely at adults even when the jokes are silly.
The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde 2001
An alternative Britain where the fantastical is bureaucratically administered and the humour is thoroughly homegrown, though the pleasure here is literary in-jokes rather than a magic system.
If you also liked…
- Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin
- Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
- A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
- Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling
- Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
Questions
- Which of these is closest to the feeling of starting at Hogwarts?
- The Name of the Wind, for the poor-boy-arrives-at-the-university thrill, or A Deadly Education if you want the school setting with the sentiment stripped out. Rivers of London gives you the apprenticeship instead, with London standing in for the castle.
- Are these much darker than the later Potter books?
- Some are: Ninth House deals frankly with assault and addiction, and The Magicians with depression and self-sabotage. Guards! Guards! and The Eyre Affair are all warm-hearted and safe to hand to anyone.
- I want something funny and very British. Where do I start?
- Guards! Guards! is the usual entry point to Pratchett's city books and needs no prior reading. The Eyre Affair and The Rook are the next stops for absurd institutions played straight.