The Best VE Schwab Books Ranked 2026

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VE Schwab is hands-down one of my favourite authors. I would read anything she writes. Her monthly newsletters are somehow just as epic as the books she publishes, so I know that even her shopping list would be a brilliant read. Victora ‘VE’ Schwab has written a multitude of stories across a number of formats, but which are the best VE Schwab books?

I definitely have a hard time picking and I’ve read a lot of them. So I took to Goodreads to see what the bibliophiles of the world said.

And I wasn’t that surprised with the list.

In this post, we’re going to take a look at the top 10 best VE Schwab books ranked according to Goodreads*, and I’ll decide whether or not I agree with the people.

It’s important to note before we dive in, that up until recently when Schwab announced she’d be putting all her books out under the VE Schwab, she was writing books under the name Victoria Schwab for the younger readers, and VE Schwab for the other readers. This list is JUST looking at her as VE Schwab on Goodreads and doesn’t take into account her books as Victoria Schwab. Though, do check out my comments at the bottom of this post to see which Victoria books I would put into this VE list.

Okay, now let’s get into it!

The Best VE Schwab Books Ranked on Goodreads

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue (2020)
A Darker Shade of Magic (Shades of Magic, #1) (2015)
Vicious (Villains, #1) (2013)
A Gathering of Shadows (Shades of Magic, #2) (2016)
A Conjuring of Light (Shades of Magic, #3) (2017)
Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil (2025)
Gallant (2022)
Vengeful (Villains, #2) (2018)
The Fragile Threads of Power (Threads of Power, #1) (2024)
Shades of Magic Vol. 1: The Steel Prince (2019)

Let’s check these out, starting with number 10 and working our way up to the best VE Schwab book, which is sitting pretty at number 1.

10. Shades of Magic Vol. 1: The Steel Prince (2019)

The Shades of Magic series (further down the list) is one of my favourite book series ever, so when it was announced that there were going to be prequel stories in comic form, I was definitely excited to read them. However, the downside of comic books and serial graphic novels is that they come out in bite-sized chunks. This means while I’ve read the first two (The Steel Prince being Issue 1), I haven’t even thought again about looking into the other ones. But I did enjoy the ones I did read!

7. Vengeful (Villains, #2) (2018)

I know that I said that I’d read anything VE Schwab writes, and I will, I just haven’t read this one yet. Ha. But I loved Vicious (book one, and at number 3 on these best VE Schwab books list), and I have actually read it twice. The second time was in anticipation of reading Vengeful but I never quite got to the second one. It is on the list, though!

6. Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil (2025)

The latest book from Schwab is Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil, and it’s more like The Invisible Life of Addie La Rue than some of her others. I’m not surprised to see it on the best VE Schwab books ranked on Goodreads because people looooved this book. As did I. Not as much as Addie, but still really enjoyed it. It’s the story of three women, interconnecting stories over the centuries. It’s a story of hunger, love, and loss. And everything in between.

7. Gallant (2022)

Gallant was a beautiful gothic middle-grade novel, and while I don’t often read gothic-esque tales, obviously, I was keen to read this one by Schwab. It’s a short read, coming in at only 320 pages, and if you’re going to pick it up, then I recommend reading it in one sitting if you can. It makes it immersive and you really do get sucked into the story.

5. A Conjuring of Light (Shades of Magic, #3) (2017)

And here it is. The Shades of Magic series. Coming in at number 5 is the third book in the series, A Conjuring of Light. I re-read this series in 2023, and I still love it to bits. I would probably agree that the order I would put them in, in terms of rank, would be 1-2-3, as my favourite is the first one, but I’m pleased to see that the people of Goodreads have included all 3 books in the top 5.

4. A Gathering of Shadows (Shades of Magic, #2) (2016)

A Gathering of Shadows is the second in the Shades of Magic series, and again, such a great series. And I would tend to agree that it’s not quite as good as the first one, but better than the third.

3. Vicious (Villains, #1) (2013)

Vicious is SUCH a great book and I would agree that it deserves a spot in the top 3 best VE Schwab books. While I have yet to dive into the second one, I thoroughly enjoyed Vicious.

I think when I read it the first time, I had recently read A Darker Shade of Magic so I was still very much on that buzz. I remember really enjoying Vicious but definitely not as much as ADSOM. I probably love ADSOM more still, however after reading Vicious for a second time now, I appreciate it a lot more.

2. A Darker Shade of Magic (Shades of Magic, #1) (2015)

Probably my favourite of all the VE Schwab books I’ve read so far is A Darker Shade of Magic. However! I do think that Addie should be number one, so I totally respect the Goodreads people’s decisions on this one. But I love ADSOM because the characters are so superb (Schwab does write incredible characters!), the I absolutely adore the setting of four Londons, almost stacked on top of each other, each being soaked in a different amount of magic. What a concept! Check out my review of A Darker Shade of Magic to really understand how I feel about it.

1. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue (2020)

The best VE Schwab book, according to Goodreads, is The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue. And, as I said, even though it’s not my top number 1 book, I would actually put it at the top of the list, too. Schwab really brings her insane writing talent to the table with this one and even though it’s not usually a book I would pick up, I am so glad I did and I would love to read it again.

What would I change about this list of books?

I would say the final 5 are pretty spot on, and they would probably stay pretty much as is.

I said in the intro of this post that these books were written under VE Schwab and that her younger-aged readers will know her as Victoria Schwab. More recently she’s moved to having all her books under the name VE Schwab, which, honestly, makes it all a bit easier for us.

I’ve read many of those books aimed at a younger audience, too, and would be pleased to see City of Ghosts on the list. The other books I really enjoyed by Schwab was the first book in The Archived series, too, aptly named, The Archive. While I haven’t read the second book, I do think that this one doesn’t get enough credit.

There have been some changes to this list of the best VE Schwab books since I originally wrote the blog post in 2023, but that’s what is going to happen when you have new books coming out each year.

Schwab has another book coming out in 2026, written with Cat Clarke, under the one name of Evelyn Clarke, and it’s called The Ending Writes Itself, and I’m really looking forward to it.

So tell me! What do you think of this list of best VE Schwab books, as ranked by Goodreads? Do you agree with the order? What would you change? Perhaps you’d add some of her other books in here and subtract others?

*I looked at VE Schwab’s author page on Goodreads and sorted the books she’d written by popularity to get this list.

Updated: January 2026