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10 fantasy books that haven’t been adapted as TV shows (but should be)

By Isobel Pankhurst

Rows and rows of books, from the floor to the ceiling, inside The Book Exchange, a used books and puzzles shop at 8719 South U.S. Highway 1, in Port St. Lucie. "It's like a dream come true," said Meghan Wood, the new owner. The shop specializes in selling and trading quality used paperback and select hardback books.Tcn Book Exchange
Rows and rows of books, from the floor to the ceiling, inside The Book Exchange, a used books and puzzles shop at 8719 South U.S. Highway 1, in Port St. Lucie. "It's like a dream come true," said Meghan Wood, the new owner. The shop specializes in selling and trading quality used paperback and select hardback books.Tcn Book Exchange /
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LOS ANGELES, CA – MARCH 08: Isaiah Mustafa, Emeraude Toubia, Cassandra Clare, Katherine McNamara and Harry Shum, Jr. attend the Cassandra Clare book signing for “Lady Midnight” at Barnes & Noble at The Grove on March 8, 2016 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Araya Doheny/Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES, CA – MARCH 08: Isaiah Mustafa, Emeraude Toubia, Cassandra Clare, Katherine McNamara and Harry Shum, Jr. attend the Cassandra Clare book signing for “Lady Midnight” at Barnes & Noble at The Grove on March 8, 2016 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Araya Doheny/Getty Images) /

The Infernal Devices, by Cassandra Clare

Cassandra Clare’s The Mortal Instruments series has been adapted both as a movie and as a TV show already. Set in the same world as that book series, The Infernal Devices is something of a prequel series with many of the featured characters being ancestors of those in the original books.

The Infernal Devices follows American orphan Tessa Gray as she arrives in England in search of her brother Nathaniel, who seems to have disappeared. Her search plunges her into a magical world she never knew existed, and she must forge an alliance with the demon-hunting Shadowhunters if she hopes to be reunited with her brother.

The Infernal Devices was originally optioned by the same people who first adapted The Mortal Instruments, but due to the failures of the film was never developed further. As of 2020, a TV adaptation was said to be in the works at BBC Three, but nothing has been officially announced.

The Wrath and the Dawn, by Renee Ahdieh

This reimagining of One Thousand and One Nights follows Shahrzad, a teenage girl who as an act of revenge volunteers to marry Khalid, the Caliph. Every night Khalid takes a new wife and has them executed at sunrise, but everything is not quite as it seems and Shahrzad slowly finds herself falling for Khalid.

This duology is currently being adapted as a webcomic with Ahdieh working with artist SilvesterVitale and writer/producer Stephen Lamm. The screen rights were first optioned by Imagine Entertainment in 2017, which planned to adapt the books into film. But the trend of YA book-to-film adaptations died off before it was ever made.

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