Christian fiction is a difficult genre to find real gems in. I love, love, love me a good fantasy novel with lots of deep symbolism, though. If I find one I love? Oh, baby. We are golden.

Since I know there are lots of y'all out here who don't want to settle for sickly sweet "clean" romance or hammer-fisted sermons...I wanted to assemble a list. Some great fantasy books await, all of them chock-full of gorgeous imagery, allegory, themes and characters. They're not great because they are written by Christians, but rather because of what they say about the King.

Let's get right into it!

Because you can't do this without SOME classics...here it is! MacDonald himself was a bit of a questionable individual, and you'll notice some whackadoo symbolism in many of his books. This one, however, was designed for small children, and therefore is just beautiful. I read it for my C.S. Lewis seminar for a project, and the influences on Lewis' works, especially the Chronicles of Narnia, is blatant. If you're looking for a quick but joyful read, I strongly recommend this children's story.

The GOAT himself for Christian writing, Lewis went truly all out on this novel. It is easily the greatest of his works, and I've already read it twice. It sticks out to me every time I read it, and I've annotated the heck out of my copy. It's an absolutely gorgeous symbolism about how our feeble attempts to create gods for ourselves can never satisfy--but if we actually get even a glimpse at His back, the entire world begins to make a semblance of sense. I could write pages and pages and pages about this book, and I have in the past (haha) but I will save that for academia and just say: READ THIS BOOK.

This series, y'all. I'm only putting the first one here, but the whole series is incredible and I wish more people were talking about it at this point. I don't think any series has ever had THIS much of a chokehold on my imagination. I could never write a book this beautiful. The first book is very heavy-handed allegorically (but still immaculately beautiful). After that, it's a little more subtle, but still gorgeous and tear-inducing. I am begging you, if you love fantasy and you're a Christian, read these. (Read them even if you aren't a Christian or if you don't love fantasy. Artwork like this is like lightning--it only strikes occasionally).

While this book is less heavy on the Christian elements, it's still an absolutely beautiful picture of redemption and hope. The family in this story is truly incredible, and I haven't encountered many stories that are this gritty and real about the healing required from years of trauma. A good Christian book understands that healing is not overnight or instantaneous--it takes work, and this duology is a beautiful depiction of that in all its intricacy.

This is more of a contemporary and also an adult novel. It's actually a really hard book to describe--it hurts a lot to read, and it's incredibly dark at times, but it's a very good book with lots of beautiful symbolism and some very blatant light in darkness. There's a vaguely devil-ish character, a character who serves as something of a Christ figure, an unreliable narrator who's also ten years old... you name it. It's truly amazing. I've had the privilege of reading this one for a novel-writing class and I absolutely loved it.

This one is a very fun fantasy adventure with a lot of tropes and a beautiful group of characters with siblings and marriage of convenience and more. And assassins. DREAM assassins. If y'all haven't read this one, you should. It's so good and the trilogy is amazing--the books just get better as they go. And I need y'all to understand just how amazing the love interest is.

What are your favorite Christian books? Does anyone have a recommendation for me? Drop your favorites in the comments below!