"There are probably as many definitions for "literary fantasy" as there are readers, but for the purposes of this list, I am using it to mean works of fantasy that prioritize sentence-level craft and/or complex thematic structures, and/or that play with expectations and fantasy tropes, and/or that focus on characters & interiority as primary goals of the work. I don't just mean "well-written fantasy" or "literary novels that have magic in them." What I mean is books that relate to & pull from the conventions of both genres: fantasy and literary fiction. This means there might be dragons, and there might be a hero's journey, and there might be some lyrical descriptions, and there might be some family conflict. There is also some crossover with SF and literary SF, of course, but I will try my best not to conflate the two. So with all that said, here are a few wonderful works of literary fantasy, that I recommend to all lovers of fantasy & all lovers of literary fiction." - getpocket.com
