10 Books Like Percy Jackson to Read Next

The best book like Percy Jackson is Aru Shah and the End of Time by Roshani Chokshi. It offers the closest combination of a modern young hero, living mythology, fast quests, humor, friendship, dangerous divine beings, and a completed larger story. It does not copy Greek mythology: Aru’s adventure grows from Hindu stories and develops its own identity across five books.

Choose Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky when mythology and storytelling matter most, Amari and the Night Brothers when the hidden supernatural world is the attraction, or Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow when you want wonder, trials, and found family. Older readers ready for a darker transition should look at Northern Lights or Sabriel, not assume that every book with a young hero offers the same content boundary.

This guide is anchored to The Lightning Thief, because the first book most clearly represents what readers usually mean by “like Percy Jackson”: an accessible, funny, modern middle-grade quest in which a child discovers that ancient mythology explains his own identity. The later Percy books grow darker and politically larger. Averaging the entire series into one profile would hide the light, immediate invitation that begins it.

What makes a book feel like Percy Jackson?

The surface answer is mythology, but mythology alone is not enough. A slow literary retelling of an ancient story may contain more gods than The Lightning Thief and still feel nothing like reading Percy. Riordan’s particular experience comes from several qualities working together:

• Mythology is active and contemporary. Gods, monsters, prophecies, and legendary objects interfere with the recognizable present.
• The hero discovers an explanation for being different. Percy’s difficulties are reframed when he learns that he is a demigod rather than simply a failing student.
• The story moves as a quest. Travel, deadlines, monsters, clues, and reversals keep the book fast and concrete.
• Friendship is operational. Annabeth and Grover do not merely support Percy emotionally; their knowledge and choices change whether the quest succeeds.
• Humor survives danger. The voice remains inviting even when betrayal, family absence, and possible war give the adventure weight.
• The prose welcomes younger readers without talking down to them. The concepts can grow while the sentences remain accessible.
• There is room to continue. Camp Half-Blood is both a destination and a base from which a larger world can expand.

The Fantasy Fit Matrix gives extra weight in this guide to adventurous or humorous tone, fast pace, high magic, accessible prose, coming of age, quests, found family, modern settings, and middle-grade audience fit. Darkness and political complexity matter less because a recommendation does not become more accurate merely by reproducing the later series’ escalation.

1. Aru Shah and the End of Time: the closest overall Percy Jackson alternative

Aru Shah lives at the Museum of Ancient Indian Art and Culture, where an attempt to impress classmates leads her to light the cursed Lamp of Bharata. The act releases the Sleeper and sets time itself at risk. Aru must accept a connection to the Pandavas, find another Pandava sister, and enter an Otherworld she previously knew only through stories.

The resemblance to The Lightning Thief is structural and emotional. A modern child learns that mythology is not distant material from a book or museum. It explains who she is, why danger has found her, and what kind of responsibility she now carries. The resulting quest uses magical objects, transformed places, divine figures, puzzles, and humor without losing the importance of family disappointment and fear.

Aru Shah and the End of Time ranks first in both editorial order and Matrix fit because it preserves almost every part of the Percy Jackson reading contract while changing the mythology. Aru is not a disguised Percy. Her tendency to embellish the truth, her relationship with the other Pandava sisters, and the story’s attention to Hindu traditions create a different character arc and group dynamic.

The complete Pandava Quintet is a larger commitment than one book, but it reaches an ending. Choose it when the essential request is “another funny mythology series for the same general audience.” Readers who only want Greek gods should stay within Riordan’s connected series; readers who want the formula to open onto another tradition should begin here.

2. Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky: the best mythology and storytelling choice

Tristan Strong is grieving the death of his best friend when an attempt to protect the friend’s journal tears open a route into Alke. There, figures connected to Black American folklore and West African mythology are caught in a conflict that requires more than physical strength. Tristan has to understand what stories preserve, whom they belong to, and what his own voice can do.

Like Percy, Tristan enters a mythological struggle through a personal wound. He is young, frightened, capable of humor, and forced to act before he feels ready. The quest gathers companions and legendary figures around him, but the book does not treat myth as a set of recognizable cameos. Stories are part of the world’s power and part of Tristan’s attempt to live with grief.

The Matrix gives this book the fourth-highest displayed fit because it is slightly darker, leaves the modern world for a secondary realm, uses third person, and does not share Percy’s consistently humorous mood. This guide places it second because the numerical model cannot fully express the importance of mythology itself. Among the available books, Tristan is the strongest alternative after Aru when the reader wants another tradition to be interpreted through a contemporary young hero rather than merely another magical institution.

The central Tristan Strong sequence is complete in three novels, making it a more contained commitment than Percy Jackson or Aru Shah. Choose it for mythology, emotional substance, action, and a story about finding power in narration. Choose Amari instead when hidden-world discovery and training matter more than the mythic source.

3. Amari and the Night Brothers: the best hidden-world alternative

Amari Peters refuses to accept the assumptions surrounding her missing older brother. A message he left behind reveals that he worked for the Bureau of Supernatural Affairs and gives Amari a chance to enter its summer tryout. The ordinary world suddenly contains agents, magicians, monsters, departments, rules, and a history she was never allowed to see.

This is the closest match for readers who loved Percy’s moment of explanation: the discovery that strange experiences form part of a larger hidden reality. Amari enters as an outsider and has to prove herself inside an institution where talent does not erase prejudice. Friendship, rivalry, training, dangerous tests, and the need to find a family member give the book clear emotional and narrative momentum.

Amari and the Night Brothers has the second-highest Matrix fit in the recommendation list because it matches Percy’s audience, pace, magic, accessible first-person structure, modern setting, coming of age, and found family. It appears third in the article because mythology is not the organizing principle. The Bureau resembles a supernatural agency and school more than a modern extension of an ancient pantheon.

The Supernatural Investigations series is ongoing, so the first book cannot promise a finished overall route. Choose it when the Bureau, Camp Half-Blood training, and discovery of a hidden community sound more important than gods. It is also a strong option for readers who want the protagonist’s experience of class and racial prejudice to be directly acknowledged inside the fantasy.

4. Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow: the best wonder and found-family choice

Morrigan Crow has been blamed for local misfortunes and expects a curse to kill her on Eventide. Jupiter North instead takes her to the secret magical city of Nevermoor and enters her as a candidate for the Wundrous Society. Remaining there requires her to survive four trials despite having no obvious extraordinary talent to present.

The appeal overlaps with Percy through emotional reversal. A child who has been treated as a problem discovers a community where the qualities that isolated her may have another meaning. Jupiter supplies eccentric mentorship, the Hotel Deucalion offers a vivid new home, and the trials create a clear sequence of dangers and discoveries. Humor and wonder keep the book inviting.

Nevermoor receives the third-highest Matrix fit but appears fourth here. Its magical city, academy-like society, found family, fast pace, and chosen identity match strongly; ancient mythology does not drive them. The book is therefore a better answer to “I want the feeling of discovering Camp Half-Blood” than to “I want another modern mythology quest.”

The ongoing series currently contains four published main books and is designed as a long commitment. Start here for imaginative settings, friendship, mentors, and tests. Choose Aru Shah or Tristan Strong when named mythological traditions are the non-negotiable part of the request.

5. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone: the best complete magical-school route

Harry Potter has grown up neglected and without a truthful account of his parents. Learning that he is a wizard transforms his understanding of himself and opens a route into Hogwarts, where lessons, friendship, sport, hidden history, and danger make the magical world feel both like a refuge and a responsibility.

The emotional architecture is close to Percy Jackson. Both heroes have been misunderstood by adults and school systems, both discover that the impossible explains part of their lives, and both form friendships inside a new magical community. Their first books use accessible prose, high magic, a clear mystery, low romance, and a hopeful sense that belonging can change a child’s future.

The main difference is structure. Hogwarts organizes the series through school years, classrooms, a castle, and recurring institutional mysteries. Percy repeatedly leaves camp for time-sensitive quests through a recognizable modern landscape. Greek mythology is the engine of Percy’s world, whereas the Harry Potter books create a broad magical culture from many sources.

The seven-book Harry Potter series is complete and grows much darker than its opening. Choose it when school, friendship, hidden history, and the expanding magical community matter most. It is not the shortest recommendation, but it offers the clearest finished route for readers who want to grow with the cast over several years.

6. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe: the best short classic quest

Lucy Pevensie enters a wardrobe and discovers Narnia, a country trapped in endless winter by the White Witch. Her siblings eventually cross with her, and the four children become involved in the return of Aslan and a struggle whose meaning extends far beyond their ordinary lives.

The shared qualities are clear: children enter a mythic conflict, acquire unusual allies, travel through a dangerous landscape, and have to decide whom to trust. The plot is compact, the magic is high, romance is absent, and the language remains accessible. It can deliver an entire quest in much less space than most contemporary series starters.

Its voice and assumptions are different. This is a children’s classic told from outside the characters rather than a sarcastic first-person account. Christian symbolism shapes the story, character psychology is lighter, and Narnia is a secondary world reached by a portal rather than mythology operating inside modern America.

Choose The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe when you want a short, complete individual adventure with mythic stakes and broad family appeal. The full Chronicles of Narnia contains seven complete books, but the series changes protagonists and chronology rather than following one continuous Camp Half-Blood-style path.

7. The Dragonet Prophecy: the best prophecy and found-family series

Five young dragons have been raised in a hidden cave because a prophecy says they will end a war among the dragon tribes. Their guardians define them by that destiny and withhold much of the world they are expected to save. Escape gives the dragonets a chance to protect one another and decide whether the adults’ plan deserves obedience.

Percy readers may recognize the combination of prophecy and resistance. Young heroes inherit a conflict they did not create, adults give them incomplete information, and found family becomes more dependable than the roles assigned at birth. The pace is fast, the prose accessible, and each danger expands the reader’s understanding of the wider world.

The differences are larger than the basic premise suggests. Every principal character is a dragon, the setting is a secondary world, and politics among tribes matters far more than it does in The Lightning Thief. Darkness is three out of five rather than two, and violence around captive children and war is more persistent.

Wings of Fire is a long ongoing series built in multi-book arcs. Choose it when the reader wants many books, changing protagonists, dragons, prophecy, and friendship. Choose Tristan Strong for a completed compact sequence or Aru Shah when modern mythology remains essential.

8. Howl’s Moving Castle: the best comic fantasy alternative

Sophie Hatter believes she is destined for an unremarkable life until the Witch of the Waste curses her into the body of an old woman. Leaving home brings her to the moving castle of Howl, a powerful, vain, evasive wizard whose household includes a fire demon, an apprentice, several secrets, and little interest in orderly problem-solving.

The connection to Percy Jackson is tonal. Howl’s Moving Castle moves quickly, makes magic abundant, and lets humor come from people refusing to behave as fantasy roles expect. Sophie survives through stubbornness and practical intelligence rather than overwhelming power. Adults are unreliable, identities are misleading, and apparent side problems keep connecting to the main enchantment.

The article’s eighth position matches its displayed fit, but the source of that fit is not mythology. This is comic secondary-world fantasy with a major romantic thread, a more intricate enchantment plot, and no equivalent to Percy’s team quest or camp. It works for readers who primarily want wit, magical chaos, and an underestimated protagonist.

The three Howl’s Moving Castle books form a short completed series, and the first novel provides its own satisfying arc. Choose it for humor and personality. Readers avoiding romance should remain with the higher recommendations, where romance is classified as none.

9. Northern Lights: the best darker middle-grade transition

Lyra lives at Jordan College with her daemon, Pantalaimon, and little reliable knowledge about the adults shaping her life. The disappearance of children, including her friend Roger, pulls her north with an alethiometer and into conflict involving armored bears, scientific experiments, institutional authority, and the mysterious substance called Dust.

Like Percy, Lyra is bold, impulsive, loyal, and difficult for adults to control. A rescue quest carries her through an expanding world, unusual companions become essential, and information about family and identity changes the meaning of the journey. The prose is accessible even as the ideas grow more difficult.

The four-out-of-five darkness, politics, and plot complexity create the main boundary. Humor is not the organizing tone, adult institutions are genuinely threatening, and the completed His Dark Materials trilogy moves into theology, moral ambiguity, parallel worlds, and loss. This is not simply Percy with different creatures.

Choose Northern Lights when a reader is ready for more complexity but still wants a fearless child protagonist and a fast adventure. It is a better bridge into demanding fantasy than Sabriel for readers who prefer to remain within a middle-grade primary audience, although its content is substantially heavier than the opening Percy books.

10. Sabriel: the best young-adult step up

Sabriel has been educated in Ancelstierre, away from the Old Kingdom where her father serves as the Abhorsen. When he disappears, a message sends her across the Wall with a bandolier of bells and a responsibility connected to the Dead. The journey forces her to use skills she has learned without the protection of the person who taught her.

The Percy Jackson connection lies in inherited responsibility, a missing parent, magical tools, unusual companions, fast travel, and a young hero discovering that personal family history belongs to a much larger threat. Sabriel is capable from the beginning, but capability does not remove uncertainty about what her role will demand.

The Matrix score is much lower than the other recommendations because the audience shift is real. Sabriel is young adult, gothic, four out of five for darkness, built around necromancy, and includes horror elements and a romance subplot. Its hard magical rules and atmosphere offer little of Percy’s lightest humor or modern mythological play.

Choose it only when “what should I read after Percy Jackson?” means the reader is ready to move older, darker, and more self-reliant. The original Sabriel, Lirael, and Abhorsen arc reaches a conclusion, while later Old Kingdom books expand the world. The first novel also carries a complete enough individual journey to test the transition before committing further.

Books like Percy Jackson compared

The table shows why a single similarity percentage cannot choose for every reader. Aru, Amari, Nevermoor, and Tristan all score highly, but one emphasizes mythology, another hidden institutions, another wonder, and another storytelling through grief. Audience and darkness become especially important near the bottom of the list.

Choose by what you liked about Percy Jackson

• For the closest overall replacement: choose Aru Shah and the End of Time.
• For another mythology and folklore tradition: choose Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky.
• For a modern hidden supernatural institution: choose Amari and the Night Brothers.
• For wonder, trials, and found family: choose Nevermoor.
• For a complete magical-school series: choose Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.
• For a short classic portal quest: choose The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
• For dragons, prophecy, and a very long series: choose The Dragonet Prophecy.
• For comic magical chaos: choose Howl’s Moving Castle.
• For a darker but still middle-grade-primary trilogy: choose Northern Lights.
• For a young-adult transition into gothic fantasy: choose Sabriel.

How we selected and ranked these books

The Matrix uses The Lightning Thief as the anchor rather than an average Percy Jackson profile. The book is classified as middle grade with a crossover audience, fast pace, adventurous tone, accessible prose, high soft magic, no romance, low darkness, high character focus, and a combination of urban and folklore fantasy. Its strongest structural tags are quest, coming of age, chosen identity, and found family.

The match percentages compare those attributes using the reading intent defined at the top of the article. They are not review ratings. A lower score does not mean an inferior book; it means that the transition requires the reader to accept more differences in audience, tone, structure, or content.

Editorial order can depart from raw similarity when an important quality is not fully represented by a generic axis. That happens with Tristan Strong. Amari and Nevermoor match more of Percy’s modern setting and hidden-community mechanics, but Tristan’s use of a living mythological and folkloric tradition answers the actual search more directly. The article states that tradeoff instead of silently treating the score as a final verdict.

Frequently asked questions

What is the closest book series to Percy Jackson?

The Pandava Quintet, beginning with Aru Shah and the End of Time, is the closest overall series in this guide. It combines modern life, mythology, a young chosen hero, fast quests, humor, friendship, divine beings, and an accessible middle-grade audience. Its five-book story is complete.

What should I read after Percy Jackson at the same age level?

Start with Aru Shah, Tristan Strong, Amari, or Nevermoor. All four are middle-grade-primary crossover books with accessible prose and young protagonists. Choose Aru or Tristan for mythology, Amari for a hidden agency and training program, and Nevermoor for magical-city wonder and trials.

Which books use mythology other than Greek mythology?

Aru Shah and the End of Time draws on Hindu stories and deities. Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky brings together Black American folk heroes and West African gods while making storytelling itself part of the fantasy. These are the two strongest choices when learning another mythological tradition is the priority.

Which recommendation is funniest?

Aru Shah is the closest combination of mythology and humor. Nevermoor is funny and wondrous without being based on an ancient pantheon, while Howl’s Moving Castle offers the strongest comic personality clashes and magical disorder. Howl includes a major romantic thread; the other two do not.

Which series like Percy Jackson are complete?

The Pandava Quintet, Tristan Strong, Harry Potter, The Chronicles of Narnia, Howl’s Moving Castle, and His Dark Materials are complete in the routes discussed here. Amari, Nevermoor, and Wings of Fire remain ongoing. The original three-book Old Kingdom arc beginning with Sabriel concludes, although later books expand the world.

What should an older Percy Jackson reader choose?

Choose Northern Lights for a middle-grade-primary book with greater darkness, politics, and philosophical complexity. Choose Sabriel for a clear move into young-adult gothic fantasy, stronger violence, horror elements, a more defined magic system, and a small romance subplot.

Do all these books avoid romance?

No. The first seven recommendations classify romance as None in their opening volume. Howl’s Moving Castle has a major romantic thread, Northern Lights has none, and Sabriel uses romance as a subplot. The Matrix snapshot under each heading shows the individual book’s classification.

Why are other Rick Riordan series not included?

The purpose is to help readers move beyond the most obvious answer. Riordan’s other connected mythology series are natural next steps, but recommending only books by the same author would not test whether Fantasy Compass can identify the transferable qualities readers actually want. This guide prioritizes distinct authors and never recommends two books from the same series.

Where should you start?

Start with Aru Shah and the End of Time unless you already know which part of Percy Jackson matters most. It is the most balanced continuation of the mythology, humor, friendship, speed, and age level, and its complete series gives the reader a real destination.

Choose Tristan Strong when mythology and story are the priority, Amari when the hidden world is the priority, or Nevermoor when belonging and wonder are the priority. That distinction is more useful than looking for a second Percy: the best next book should preserve the part of the experience you loved while giving you a new world worth entering.