13 Inspiring Mulan Books To Channel Your Inner Feminist
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Are you looking for books like Mulan? Based on a Chinese legend, find popular Mulan books and retellings sure to bring out your inner warrior.
Have you watched Disney’s cartoon version of Mulan or read the book? Who doesn’t swoon for a good love story about a young feminist maiden totally kicking some serious butt?
In Disney’s Mulan, the Emperor of China decrees that one male from every household must fight in the Imperial Army to protect the country from northern invaders.
Mulan dons men’s traditional warrior clothing and fights in place of her sick father. In the Disney version, there is triumph and romance.
Did you know that Hua Mulan is a real person from a Chinese legend? Disney’s Mulan isn’t very far from the mark. Mulan’s heroism is recorded in ancient texts and a folk song known as The Ballad of Mulan.
The details get a little iffy around here because this text no longer exists.
However, over the course of centuries, scholars, musicians, and historical novelists have created Mulan retellings that shaped Disney’s Mulan today.
Modern stories similar to Mulan portray her as a brave hero and warrior, fighting for years as a female soldier. They take place all over the world.
Today, in Chinese culture, Mulan is a symbol of hope and inspiration.
So, what are the best books like Mulan to read right now? Below, we are sharing our favorite Mulan retellings for adults and teens.
Please remember that “best” is subjective, and we’d love to hear your favorite Mulan books in the comments. Let’s get started.
Read about even more kick-butt women in historical fiction.
Table of Contents
13 Best Mulan Books To Read
1. Wild Orchid: A Retelling of The Ballad of Mulan by Cameron Dokey
Wild Orchid is a book like Mulan filled with magical romance. Who doesn’t want their fairytale with some princessy love and a fierce woman?
In this Mulan retelling, Dokey emphasizes those lustful and crush-like feelings that Mulan has for Prince Jian.
Set in China, Mulan meets her father, a soldier for the emperor that she hasn’t seen in years. As the Huns build their army, Mulan goes off to fight for her frail father.
While battling traditional gender stereotypes, Mulan meets her swoon-worthy soulmate. Amazon | Goodreads
2. Reflection: A Twisted Tale (Twisted Tales #4) by Elizabeth Lim
“What happened if Mulan had to travel to the Underworld?” A Disney Mulan book, Reflection is a Mulan retelling with a fantasy twist.
Like Mulan, discover a battle against the Huns. Disguised as Ping, Captain Shang saves Mulan’s life.
In effect, Shang is mortally wounded. Mulan must cross into the Underworld, Diyu, to find and save Shang’s soul before he’s trapped there forever.
Reflection is the fourth book in the Twisted series, which is infamous for flipping books upside down and around. Amazon | Goodreads
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3. The Warrior Maiden by Melanie Dickerson
If you are looking for Mulan books set in the Baltics and other parts of Eastern Europe, you’ll love this Mulan retelling.
The Warrior Maiden takes place in Poland and Lithuania. True to Disney’s Mulan, this strong lead grabs her father’s clothing and heads off to fight against the Teutonic Knights.
Dickerson is infamous for her YA fairytale retellings. The Warrior Maiden is no different except that the novel has Christian overtones.
Dickerson utilizes faith as a powerful tool to build confidence. Through her characters, she criticizes conservative religious condemnation. Amazon | Goodreads
4. Spin The Dawn by Elizabeth Lim
Submission from travel blogger Keri of Quiet Girl Loud World
Maia’s dream is to become a royal tailor who dresses the emperor. When a messenger comes from the palace and offers her father an opportunity to become the royal tailor, Maia knows that she must go in his place.
Even though women cannot become tailors, Maia disguises herself as her older brother and leaves for the palace to pursue her dream and to bring honor to her family.
Once she enters the palace, Maia learns that she and 11 other experienced tailors are vying for the position.
The challenges push her limits, but with the help of a mysterious enchanter and a little of her own magic, she finds herself able to compete.
If you enjoy stories like Mulan with adventure, sweet romance, and characters who overcome hardship Spin the Dawn is for you. Amazon | Goodreads
5. Frostblood by Elly Blake
Frostblood is a New York Times bestseller and is the perfect book if you love YA dystopian action series.
While not an exact Mulan retelling, meet powerful 17-year-old Ruby. Similar to the Red Queen, Ruby has hidden abilities to control heat and flame. Like Mulan, she is a warrior in love.
With the death of her mother, Ruby, a Fireblood, joins forces with the Frostbloods to seek revenge and overthrow the corrupt kingdom.
Soon captured, Ruby is thrown into a pit where she must fight for her life, and of course, battle her emotions over a guy. Amazon | Goodreads
6. Flame In The Mist by Renée Ahdieh
Flame In The Mist is one of our favorite Mulan books that incorporates historical fantasy with feminism. Plus, it’s a fabulous fantasy novel set in Japan.
Set in Feudal Japan, Mariko feels powerless in her current role as the daughter of a samurai. Forced into a marriage of convenience, Mariko must either sit back like Dickerson’s Mulan or fight back.
True to your classic Mulan retelling, Mariko dresses as a boy to fight against the gang who attempted to murder her. We love the angsty romance along the way.
Books based in Japan don’t get any better than this. Amazon | Goodreads
7. Smoke In The Sun by Renee Ahdieh
The sequel to Flame In The Mist, Ahdieh’s Smoke In The Sun furthers this enchanting Mulan retelling even better and quicker-paced than the first.
Without giving too much away from Book One, we promise Book Two answers your questions and gives you a sense of finality.
Learn Mariko’s future: Will she follow her family’s wishes to marry the emperor’s son? Not everyone is who they seem to be, and the fiery action and romance will suck you right in.
Who will perish for the cause? Most notable, this beautifully written tale ends with Mariko discussing her place in the world as a woman.
For feminist books similar to Mulan, Smoke In The Sun will speak to you. Read more books set in Japan. Amazon | Goodreads
8. Defy By Sara B. Larson
Defy is one of the books similar to Mulan that incorporates a love triangle, sorcery, and women in battle.
Alex dresses as a male to fight in the army with her badass sword-fighting skills. Although unstoppable, a sorcerer kidnaps Alex along with her friend and a guard.
We can see where this is going, right?
While trying to sort through her feelings, Alex must still try to save her kingdom. Amazon | Goodreads
9. Alanna: The First Adventure by Tamora Pierce
Winner of the Margaret A. Edwards Award, Alanna is like a Mulan retelling for its lead characters overcoming gendered stereotypes and women with weapon mastery.
The first title in the Song of the Lioness series, enter a Mulan-like world where females cannot aspire to warrior status.
Alanna ultimately switches places with her twin brother to train as a page. With a magical element read along to see if Alanna can obtain Mulan’s legendary status. Amazon | Goodreads
10. Rebel Wing by Tracy Banghart
If you are looking for more books like Mulan, you will enjoy Rebel Wing for its woman-goes-to-battle-after-feeling-powerless edge.
18-year-old Aris feels helpless at home while her boyfriend is drafted into the war. Unlike Mulan, though, Aris is recruited into the war effort as a pilot but is asked to disguise herself as a man. Sigh…
Of course, women – even good ones – aren’t allowed into the military. Can Aris save the Dominion of Atalanta? Amazon | Goodreads
11. The Hand, The Eye & The Heart by Zoë Marriott
For YA LGBTQ+ Mulan books, don’t skip The Hand, The Eye, and The Heart.
Zhilan is a transgendered character and takes the place of their disabled father on the battlefield.
While not a strict Mulan retelling, find romance with a Mulan-like twist. Amazon | Goodreads
12. Woman Warriors by Pamela Toler
A nonfiction book about Mulan and women like her, Woman Warriors focuses on IRL strong women who were once pushed into the shadows of history.
Since the beginning of time, women have fought in battles and changed their identities. Gender masked their accomplishments.
The women in the book span the globe and transcend time. A few women included: Tomyris, Amina of Hausa, Boudica, and Lakshmi Bai.
Have you heard of them up until now? Me either. Amazon | Goodreads
13. A Game Of Thrones by George R. R. Martin
Although not a Mulan book series per se, we think GOT has strong women that resemble the story of Mulan. With the end of the HBO series, we couldn’t knowingly leave GOT off of this list of strong women warriors.
There is a struggle for the Iron Throne, dragons, and some equally powerful women. Read more popular books from the 1990s. Amazon | Goodreads
Which of these popular Mulan books and retellings will you read?
What is your favorite Mulan retelling? We’d love to know what other books you recommend. Please let us know in the comments.
You might also like our friend Rachel’s Classic Retellings book list.
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Christine Frascarelli
I also think that Mulan could be based on Alanna 1st book since it came in the 1980s and Mulan in the late 90s. That’s a really big coincidence since these two books propel the story of girls who disguised themselves as boys to enter the military; one by choice and the other because she had to.
Ultimately, they are both based on the Ballad of Mulan and Hua Mulan from ancient times and Chinese legends.
Agree, the romance in Disney gives big misconceptions to impressionable young girls. Maybe that’s why I wasn’t fussed, my mum was just saving me from having super high expectations and falling in love with imaginary princes?
You seriously have to watch Ralph Breaks The Internet or at least fast forward to the Disney Princess part. You will crack up. They make fun of themselves SO badly.
I am pretty sure that you found a REAL prince… ; )
Hey, I went to an all women’s college after watching Disney my WHOLE life. Lol!
Oh my god! Funniest thing…I was reading this and it made me think about Game of Thrones. I was thinking to myself, don’t bring up Game of Thrones again, Lauren, don’t do it. I’m so glad you did!? There are many strong women in Game of Thrones but the one who is most like Milan, I think, is Arya. For sure! Her society meant for her to be a Lady but that’s not what she wanted in life. She wanted to be a fighter and that’s exactly what she became! She’s kick-ass.
So many of these books sound great! I’m definitely adding Wild Orchid and Frost Blood to my list. Women Warriors sounds great too!
Great post! You have to teach me how you get the small pictures of the book covers. I should probably know that as a book blogger.? I just read about some sort of plugin but I don’t know if I jot the name down or took a screenshot. Hopefully I find it somewhere!
YAY!! LOL!! I almost messaged you or Keri to write about Game of Thrones for me here. I didn’t want to leave it off the list because I have a general idea of what goes down, but I didn’t want the true fans to call out my butt lol! I’ve heard over and over that Arya is a warrior and she sounded so much like Mulan that I couldn’t resist.
I also loved the Red Queen, which is comparable to Frostblood, if you ever need lots of YA series to read.
I’ll message you about covers.
I love the animated Mulan movie, but I am especially excited to see the live-action one. Just saw the trailer the other day and it looks so dang good! I definitely need to read some of these books. I love reading books with strong female leads and these ones all look great. I read Alanna recently, but the others are new to me. Can’t wait to read some these. My poor TBR, haha.
I’m really excited about the live-action Mulan too. I feel like I need to have a party to watch it.
My TBR pile is a complete mess; I feel you. The Warrior Maiden ends up on all my lists because it’s so great!
After seeing this post I can’t believe I’ve never read Mulan!! I’m guessing I maybe saw it on TV as a kid but Disney wasn’t big in my house – I swayed more towards The Goonies and Little Rascals haha. But I love the concept and I’m all for sassy female warriors! So I definitely want to add approximately all of these books to my list 🙂
I certainly grew up in a Disney-obsessed household. We owned all of them all on VHS (what is that?!?). Mulan was definitely the bolder of all the Disney ladies. I always love a good woman kicking ass story. I could probably do without the romance in almost every single one, though.
Mulan is actually my least favourite Disney film :’) I think it’s just because my siblings liked it so much they watched it on repeat, and I just got tired of it haha. But I am excited for the live-action film!! I do need to check some of these re-tellings out as I think I’d love to delve a little deeper into the story and find a new appreciation for it.
Oh noooooo! Lol!!! I always feel like Mulan gets a little left behind in the Disney princess world. We watched Ralph Wrecks The Internet, and I forgot that Mulan was even a Disney character.
oooooooooooooo also I have just read a book that is very Mulan ‘ish’
The Hand, the Eye and the Heart by Zoë Marriott
Thought you may enjoy as well 🙂
Thank you so much for the recommendation!! I’ll definitely look into it.
This list is KICKASS. I LOVE LOVE LOVE this. Can I tell you how smart it is for posting this now? The trailer just came out and I am SUPER EXCITED.
I love reading books with women warriors. I should read a few of these before the movie debut.
Thanks for this awesome list!
Girl, is Twitter down?!! I AM DYING right now!!!! Thank YOU for seeing this and commenting ASAP ; )
THANK YOU SO MUCH! I hadn’t seen a single other book blogger pop out a Mulan book list, and I thought: I GOT THIS!!!! Plus, Mulan is perfectly niche for global books…woohoo! Call me cutting edge Christine…lol…can you tell I drank too much coffee?
I love the feminist flair of Mulan. Let’s hope that culturally, everything is on point with the movie.
Let’s have a Mulan party!!! Maybe we can all Skype in lol!!