Elizabeth Lim author page

Elizabeth Lim biography

Elizabeth Lim is an American author of young adult fantasy novels and fairy-tale retellings. She grew up in Northern California and Tokyo, Japan, and studied at Harvard College and the Juilliard School, where she pursued music composition. Before becoming a novelist, she worked as a composer for films and video games. Her books have been translated into more than 20 languages.

Her first published novel, Reflection (2018), was written for Disney’s A Twisted Tale series and reimagines the story of Mulan. She subsequently contributed So This Is Love (2020), based on Cinderella, and When You Wish Upon a Star (2023), inspired by Pinocchio, to the same series.

Lim’s Blood of Stars duology comprises Spin the Dawn (2019) and Unravel the Dusk (2020), published by Knopf Books for Young Readers. The first novel follows Maia Tamarin, a young tailor who disguises herself as a boy to compete for a position at the imperial court before undertaking a quest to create three magical dresses.

Her Six Crimson Cranes duology, also published by Knopf Books for Young Readers, consists of Six Crimson Cranes (2021) and The Dragon’s Promise (2022). Drawing on East Asian folklore and Hans Christian Andersen’s The Wild Swans, the first book follows Princess Shiori as she attempts to rescue her six brothers after they are transformed into cranes. Six Crimson Cranes became a New York Times bestseller and received the 2023 Oklahoma Library Association High School Sequoyah Book Award.

Lim returned to the same fictional world in Her Radiant Curse (2023), a fantasy novel exploring the relationship between two sisters. Her subsequent young adult novel, A Forgery of Fate, was published by Knopf Books for Young Readers in June 2025. Inspired by Beauty and the Beast, it follows Truyan Saigas, an art forger who can paint visions of the future and becomes entangled with a cursed dragon lord.

Her first adult fantasy novel, Fishbone Cinderella, was published by Del Rey on 28 July 2026.