Not Recommended

Ari Devi. Faery Mysticism: A Practical Guide to Initiation. (2010) Very disappointing, especially for the price tag of $19.95 (as of early 2019). This book does not live up to its subtitle. At the end of the book the author even admits they've only scratched the surface -- it's really the barest introduction. There were a few (like, 3) interesting exercises in the book, but not really any explanation of why you would do them, what your goal is in using them, or how they connect to material in lore. The parts that reprint the ballads of Tam Lin and Thomas the Rhymer with a little commentary were a decent start, but needed more in-depth analysis to really be of value. About a fourth of the book is taken up with a reprint of a version of the tale of Eros and Psyche; I find it a stretch to call that part of the faery tradition to begin with, and unlike the ballads, the author does not expound upon it at all, just makes a few passing references. If you're interested in Eros and Psyche you can find it online, rather than paying for it as part of a self-published book. I found the writing rather scattered and unfocused in general, in need of editing and even basic spell-checking in some cases. The author often asserts connections between or meanings of certain things without citing particular support or even explaining her reasoning. The layout was also not very good, with a good deal of wasted space.

Bast, Anya. Or at least, take her stuff for what it is -- campy erotic paranormal fiction -- and try not to think about the fact that she uses "OtherKin" (her capitalization) to mean non-humans in their own natural bodies, or calls "Vampir" (vampires) "the Embraced."

Bear, Greg. Songs of Earth and Power. (1996) This is a compilation of two novels, The Infinity Concerto (1984) and The Serpent Mage (1986). This depiction of the sidhe is, er, strange to say the least (save perhaps some aspects of the city of Inyas Trai). You can read some of it on Google Books.

Conway, D.J. Dancing with Dragons. (1994) This book is somewhat less egregious than her Celtic Magic or Norse Magic because there is no historical "Dragon" tradition to compare to, but like those two, it's just everyday generic Neo-Pagan ritual with a little flavor grafted on. If you are looking for "dragon magic", that is, magic practiced as dragons themselves would, put this book down because it ain't that. Dancing with Dragons might possibly be useful as a very basic introduction for someone who was previously unaware of the idea that there are dragon spirits who can be persuaded to help one learn and work (human) magic, but that's about it. (See also J'Karrah EbonDragon's critique of Dancing with Dragons.)
The followup volume, Mystical Dragon Magick (2007), is also not something I would generally recommend a good resource for dragon 'kin or those interested in draconic magic; but that said, it strikes me as being rather more like honest Unverified Personal Gnosis with less attempt to pretend to be anything else.

Davis, Brett. The Faery Convention. (1995) (Hits on Amazon attribute this work to "Nancy Davis" for some reason. I hope I'm not unintentionally deadnaming Brett or Nancy by mentioning this.) This is a weak spy/intrigue novel with some of the characters made "supernaturals" seemingly just for the novelty. In most cases the characterization of the different non-human races is extremely thin and the names of the ones that have names are mostly just silly.

Parsons, Zack. Your Next-Door Neighbor is a Dragon. (2009) The subtitle, "A guided tour of the Internet's strange subcultures and weird realities," should give you a clue about why I don't recommend this one, unless you're a completist about history. There's one chapter on "Otherkin--Dragonkin" and one on "Otherkin--Elfkin" (the rest of the book is on other topics). As you might expect from a book associated with SomethingAwful.com, it is highly unsympathetic to the poor dragon and elf who appear. The author says he interviewed six otherkin for the book, but I suspect it's the two who would paint us in the worst light that finally made it in.

Roney-Dougal, Serena. The Faery Faith: An Integration of Science With Spirit. (2003) Only a few percent of the book is actually on topic. The author spends a lot of time rambling about general psychic phenomena, ghosts and apparitions, poltergeists, crop circles, out of body experiences, ley lines, "shamanism", parapsychology, the pineal gland, the "holographic universe", the neopagan seasonal ritual calendar, vague new agey ramblings about particles and quantum whatever, yadda yadda yadda. Some of these things can be related to faeries and faery folklore if you squint, but overall I was very disappointed with the content and glad I got it for free with a trial of Kindle Unlimited. Also, at least in the Kindle edition, there are rampant character encoding problems that make it visually difficult to read, such as the substitution of ® for the "fi" ligature, and sometimes there are mysteriously missing spaces soabunchofwordsruntogetherlikethis.

Yates, Jane. Therianthropy (Paradox Child, Book 2). (2013) This book is a very weird mishmash of rather fanciful ideas of magic, a time travel machine that I guess is also magic (but it wasn't very clear), and "la la la some of us can turn into animals by spinning around and there are swirling lights!" which is the extent of the "therianthropy" in the book -- nothing to do with "people who identify as animals" (nor even the anthropological definition of humans depicted with animal traits or as shapeshifters). Plus, badly written spells in English usually preceded by "she chanted in Latin" without actually showing any Latin. Maybe the first book would have helped me understand some of the things that are simply dropped on the reader like they're supposed to already know about them (such as the existence of the time machine), but I'm not very sure about that. (One review on Amazon actually described this book as a step up from the first, which... hoo boy.)

last updated 6/04/2021