Other Shapeshifter Books:
These are books about shapeshifters who, like Isabel in Mistwood, can change into any shape they desire. For a list that includes all kinds of shapeshifters, check out this very extensive list, or this list on Amazon.com.
Young Adult:
- The Swan Maiden by Heather Tomlinson. Doucette’s two sisters are swan maidens, sorceresses who can assume the shapes of swans. But Doucette is destined to live her life without magic — or so she thinks until a startling discovery, and then a terrible loss, lead her to discover that she can change into more than just a swan. But her power will come with a price…
- Shapeshifter’s Quest by Dena Landon is about a tribe of shapeshifters imprisoned in their forest by magical tattoos imposed upon them at birth. It falls upon Syanthe, the only shapeshifter without a tattoo, to save her people when their confinement becomes deadly.
- Little Sister by Kara Dalkey. In Heian Japan, a young noblewoman enlists the aid of a tengu — a forest shapeshifter — to save her sister’s soul.
- Bruce Coville’s Shapeshifters is an anthology of stories about various types of shapeshifters, by authors including Lawrence Watt-Evans, Ray Bradbury, and Jane Yolen.
- Shape-Shifter: The Naming of Pangur Ban by Fay Sampson. A kitten is cursed by a witch and given shapeshifting powers he cannot control. His only hope is a group of adventurers who aren’t sure whether they should help him… or kill him.
- Under The Cat’s Eye: A Tale Of Morph And Mystery by Gillian Rubinstein. Within a sinister boarding school lies the gateway to another world where shape-shifting is the norm. Jai, the school’s newest student, must uncover the secrets of those who have come through the gateway in order to confront the evil headmaster.
- Other by Karen Kincy. Seventeen-year-old Gwen, a half-pooka shapeshifter, must catch a serial killer targeting paranormals in an America prejudiced against them–before she’s next.
Adult:
- Polymorph by Scott Westerfeld is about a shapeshifter in near-future New York City who discovers she is not the only one of her kind… but that her counterpart must be stopped at all costs.
- The Shape-Changer’s Wife by Sharon Shinn is a lyrical and unusual love story about a magician who apprentices himself to a powerful shape-changer and discovers a terrible secret.
- The Chronicles of the Cheysuli series by Jennifer Roberson follows the history of a race of shapeshifters as they struggle to fulfill an ancient prophecy.
- Wild Seed by Octavia Butler is about an immortal shapeshifter, Anyanwu, who has lived for centuries in an African village. But her existence is turned upside down when she is found by Doro, a body-switching spirit both like and unlike herself… who may be responsible for her creation, and whose plans for her future will take her far from her home.
- The Beastly Bride: Tales of Animal-Human Transformation, edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, is a collection of short stories about shapeshifters.
- The Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris, about a Southern waitress in a world where supernatural creatures have come out into the open, features a shapeshifter named Sam as one of its main characters.
If you would like to recommend a book I’ve missed, please email me at .
Shapeshifter Links:
- Naturally, there’s an article about shapeshifters on Wikipedia.
- Another extensive list on Amazon, broken into categories.
- And here’s my post about shapeshifters over at the Enchanted Inkpot.
If you would like to recommend that I add a page to this list, please email me at to suggest it!