Why YA High Fantasy Books Can Forever Change Us

This post was last updated on September 9th, 2025 at 02:57 pm

Incredible YA high fantasy books take us on breathtaking quests, wrap us in dream-worthy romances, and keep us up past our bedtimes. Reading great books has surprising real-world benefits, too. There’s also a specific reason why some books leave us forever changed, and some don’t!

Trends come and go, but YA high fantasy books have been around for a long time, and they’re not going away. Unlike some types of genre fiction, whose popularity ebbs and flows through the decades, tales of magic, fantastical beasts, and epic quests never grow stale. First of all, what makes a novel YA high fantasy? Also known as “epic fantasy,” books in this genre have a few things in common. 

The story is set in a fictional world with rules different from those of real-life Earth. In contrast, low fantasy stories are set in a world similar to ours, and the fantastical elements are more limited. The high fantasy world has its own consistent set of rules. Those typically include magical elements or a set of scientific principles that would be foreign to us. A high fantasy story is often told from the viewpoint of one central hero. This person (or creature, in some cases) may be an underdog. 

However, the story may also be told from the viewpoint of many characters, with each chapter starting from a different person’s perspective. For example, in The Lord of the Rings, Frodo Baggins is the main protagonist. However, in this fantasy book series, the reader still gets a plentiful sampling of other viewpoints, personalities, and motivations throughout this well-loved epic tale. 

This post is about YA high fantasy books.

YA High Fantasy Books

Reading Is One of the Best Ways To Relieve Stress

This one is easy to take for granted. However, unlike television, reading engages our minds completely immersively. Reading gripping YA high fantasy books disconnects us from the real world. They do it so well because the imaginary world is so different from ours. The experience allows us to truly relax. It lets our mind go into a state similar to meditation. We don’t even have to leave our comfy chair, bed, or reading nook. Yes, TV can indeed help a person relax, too. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always provide the same healthy mental stimulation. We also sometimes feel guilty after staring at the tube for too long. 

Uprooted by Naomi Novak stands out among great YA fantasy romance books. It’s about Agnieszka, a young woman living in a village near a magical forest. After being chosen as a wizard’s apprentice, she discovers that she has magical abilities of her own. She puts them to the test when a dark power threatens her home. 

“Breathtaking. . . a tale that is both elegantly grand and earthily humble, familiar as a Grimm fairy tale yet fresh, original, and totally irresistible.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Reading YA High Fantasy Books Improves Our Relationships

Yes, reading improves our relationships because books are a reality simulation in many ways. While the worlds in which YA high fantasy books are set aren’t like ours, the ways characters interact with one another are still highly relatable.

In these YA novels, characters face impossible choices, terrifying opponents, and changes they don’t know how to deal with. We’re often faced with the very same in our own lives. Reading allows us to use our imagination to navigate the complexities of life and those around us. 

In Angel Mage by Garth Nix, Liliath, a practitioner of angel magic, brings four people together for nefarious purposes. These four feel an uncanny connection from the moment of meeting, but they don’t suspect how important they are… and why. They’re all oblivious to Liliath’s plans for them—plans she’s determined to enact at any cost.

Readers Sleep Better Than Non-Readers

Because reading relaxes us and gives us an escape from reality, time spent reading high fantasy sets us up for a good night’s sleep. Making this your final activity of the day also helps you get into a routine. Over time, your body understands that when the book or the eReader comes out, it’s nearing that part of the day when it’s time to rest. This switching off from the day’s stress also contributes to better quality sleep. 

So, what’s a good bedtime story? Falling Kingdoms by Morgan Rhodes is the first in an epic six-book series that’s packed full of everything. Mythica is a world comprised of three kingdoms. Here, magic has long been forgotten.

No one uses it anymore, but with peace over the land for centuries, there was no need. Now, however, a shocking murder sets many events in motion. Princess Cleo of Mytica must confront violence and fight for her place as Queen. 

Reading YA High Fantasy Makes You More Open-Minded

Science fiction and fantasy books reflect different morals as presented by the characters in the world in which they find themselves. They give us different ways to look at things, inviting us to view ideas with a new pair of eyes in ways we’ve never seen them before. While at first glance, it seems that fantastical worlds disconnect us from reality, this isn’t necessarily true. Rather, they give us a parallel reality that finds us thinking outside the box. They show us ways to be more accepting and tolerant of other people that we may have found more challenging to understand or accept before. 

Labyrinth Lost by Zoraida Córdova is the first book of the Brooklyn Brujas trilogy. It’s a wonderfully diverse tale about Alex, a very powerful witch who hates magic and doesn’t want to use it. When she casts a spell to try to rid herself of the dreaded power, it backfires, and her entire family vanishes. Now, she’s left alone with Nova. He’s got powers of his own, and Alex doesn’t know if she can trust him. She learns that if she wants to get her family back, she and Nova must make a journey together. They’ll have to navigate the “land in between,” a place as dark and creepy as it is extraordinarily strange.  

Reading Raises Our Sense of Empathy

This point ties in with the one above, but deserves its own section because it’s so important. Anytime we dive into a novel from our stack of YA books to read, we put ourselves in the characters’ shoes. While high fantasy exposes us to situations we’d probably never experience in real life, the emotions of the protagonists (and sometimes the villains) are shockingly real. This totally fresh perspective helps us try to figure out the feelings and thoughts of others. We can identify with the characters’ longings, motivations, and things that frustrate them. We get to observe from afar the full spectrum of their interactions with lovers and enemies and everything in between. When we read a compelling scene in a story, we still experience it as though we’re feeling it in real life to some degree. 

In Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder, Yelena has to choose between a quick death or a slow poison. We soon find out that some people aren’t content to wait for the slow part. 

“Poison Study is an enchanting adventure and a thrilling mystery filled with action, danger, excitement, and suspense from start to finish. With characters that are immediately captivating, a strong heroine with an unbelievably heartbreaking story who becomes even stronger, and an unlikely and surprising hero, Poison Study will charm readers and entrap them in this tantalizing world the author has created.” —Fiktshun, Amazon Reviewer

The Best Books Change Us Forever

In addition to all the other benefits reading great books gives us, some stories are so unbelievably amazing that they leave us changed forever. You know what I mean. There’s that moment of turning that last page, your gaze flicking to the words “The End.” You sigh and gently close the book. That story was breathtaking. It was riveting, infuriating, nail-biting, exhilarating, and wondrous. It inspires something you never knew was there… until now. The book was everything all at once, and now that the tale has become part of you, you’ll never be the same.

What is that exactly? What is that “X-factor,” the mysterious quality that some books have and others don’t? Why do these stories leave us forever changed? In fiction, that X-factor is resonance with the reader on such a profoundly spiritual level that it fulfills a need we didn’t even know we had. Books like The Hero and the Crown and The Darkangel Trilogy did that for me as a teen. 

The publisher recommends The Hero and the Crown for ages 10 – 12. In my humble opinion, as someone who’s read it (more than once), it’s just an incredible book for anyone to experience. I stand by that, whether you’re 13 or 103. Aerin’s determination and awkwardness are simply palpable. You’re right there with her as she’s tripping over her own feet or making another attempt at getting the dragon-fire-proof ointment just right. 

This post was all about YA high fantasy books.

You might also enjoy Lake Caerwych, the first book of the Copper & Cobalt Trilogy.