Sarah Rees Brennan (born 21 September 1983) is an Irish fantasy novelist. Her books are bestsellers in both the UK and USA.
Rees Brennan's first novel, The Demon's Lexicon (2009), was longlisted for the 2010 Carnegie Medal. Her fantasy novel In Other Lands was a finalist for the 2017 Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book. Her adult fantasy novel Long Live Evil debuted on the USA Today's best seller list and became a #1 Sunday Times bestseller on release in the UK, and appeared on both The New York Times 2024 Best of Fantasy list and The New York Times Best of Romance list. Rees Brennan's work was listed twice in the 2024 Locus Recommended Reading List - her Hansel and Gretel retelling "Happily Ever After Comes Round" was recommended in the Short Stories category and Long Live Evil was recommended in NovelsÃÂ -ÃÂ Fantasy.
Rees Brennan was born in Ireland. She obtained a Creative Writing MA from Kingston University in London and worked as a librarian in Surrey, England before moving to Dublin where she currently lives.
Rees Brennan has been writing since the age of five. She has a blog on LiveJournal which has over 4000 subscribers.
She wrote her first novel, The Demon's Lexicon, while studying for her Creative Writing MA. The publishing house Simon & Schuster obtained a three-book contract deal with her which involved an undisclosed six-figure sum. Since then she has written and collaborated on many bestselling and award-nominated works including In Other Lands and her tie-in work with Netflix. Rees Brennan's most recent novel is Long Live Evil which debuted on the USA Today's best seller list and was a number one best seller on the Sunday Times in the UK.
Rees Brennan is a cancer survivor, having been diagnosed with stage 4 Hodgkins Lymphoma in 2017.
In October 2025, Rees Brennan was a guest on the Off the Shelf podcast.
Three of Brennan's books are Junior Library Guild books: Untold (2014), Unmade (2014), and In Other Lands (2017).
The Demon's Lexicon received starred reviews from Kirkus Reviews, Bulletin, and School Library Journal.
In 2017, The New York Times included In Other Lands on their list of the fall's best young adult fantasy novels.
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