Books with category 🪄 Magical Realism
Displaying 22 books

The Cartographers

2022

by Peng Shepherd

What is the purpose of a map? Nell Young’s whole life and greatest passion is cartography. Her father, Dr. Daniel Young, is a legend in the field and Nell’s personal hero. But she hasn’t seen or spoken to him ever since he cruelly fired her and destroyed her reputation after an argument over an old, cheap gas station highway map. But when Dr. Young is found dead in his office at the New York Public Library, with the very same seemingly worthless map hidden in his desk, Nell can’t resist investigating. To her surprise, she soon discovers that the map is incredibly valuable and exceedingly rare. In fact, she may now have the only copy left in existence...because a mysterious collector has been hunting down and destroying every last one—along with anyone who gets in the way. But why? To answer that question, Nell embarks on a dangerous journey to reveal a dark family secret and discovers the true power that lies in maps.

The Cartographers is an ode to art and science, history and magic—a spectacularly imaginative, modern story about an ancient craft and places still undiscovered.

The League of Gentlewomen Witches

2022

by India Holton

Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the teahouse... Miss Charlotte Pettifer belongs to a secret league of women skilled in the subtle arts. That is to say—although it must never be said—witchcraft. The League of Gentlewomen Witches strives to improve the world in small ways. Using magic, they tidy, correct, and manipulate according to their notions of what is proper, entirely unlike those reprobates in the Wisteria Society.

When the long-lost amulet of Black Beryl is discovered, it is up to Charlotte, as the future leader of the League, to make sure the powerful talisman does not fall into the wrong hands. Therefore, it is most unfortunate when she crosses paths with Alex O'Riley, a pirate who is no Mr. Darcy. With all the world scrambling after the amulet, Alex and Charlotte join forces to steal it together. If only they could keep their pickpocketing hands to themselves! If Alex's not careful, he might just steal something else—such as Charlotte's heart.

The Many Deaths of Laila Starr

Humanity is on the verge of discovering immortality, which means the avatar of Death is out of a job… or is she? As humanity nears the brink of this monumental discovery, the avatar of Death is cast down to Earth to live out a mortal life in Mumbai as the young Laila Starr.

Struggling with her newfound mortality, Laila finds herself in the time and place where the creator of immortality is destined to be born. Faced with a crucial decision, Laila must choose whether to intervene and stop mankind from forever altering the natural cycle of life, or to witness death become an obsolete concept.

Ram V (These Savage Shores, Swamp Thing) teams up with Filipe Andrade (Captain Marvel) to bring forth a powerful graphic novel that navigates the delicate boundary between life and death, enhanced by the elements of magical realism. This collection brings together The Many Deaths of Laila Starr issues #1-5.

Light From Uncommon Stars

2021

by Ryka Aoki

Light From Uncommon Stars is a defiantly joyful adventure set in California's San Gabriel Valley. This tale weaves together cursed violins, Faustian bargains, and queer alien courtship over fresh-made donuts.

Shizuka Satomi has made a deal with the devil: to escape damnation, she must entice seven violin prodigies to trade their souls for success. Six have already been delivered. When Shizuka encounters Katrina Nguyen, a young transgender runaway with wild talent, the curse seems to be lifting as she's found her final candidate.

However, Shizuka's plans are complicated when she meets Lan Tran, a retired starship captain and interstellar refugee, in a donut shop. Lan's kindness and celestial gaze challenge Shizuka's understanding of a soul's worth. As their lives intertwine with magic, identity, and hope, they begin to form a family worth crossing the universe for.

Iron Widow

2021

by Xiran Jay Zhao

The boys of Huaxia dream of pairing up with girls to pilot Chrysalises, giant transforming robots that can battle the mecha aliens that lurk beyond the Great Wall. It doesn't matter that the girls often die from the mental strain.

When 18-year-old Zetian offers herself up as a concubine-pilot, it's to assassinate the ace male pilot responsible for her sister's death. But she gets her vengeance in a way nobody expected—she kills him through the psychic link between pilots and emerges from the cockpit unscathed. She is labeled an Iron Widow, a much-feared and much-silenced kind of female pilot who can sacrifice boys to power up Chrysalises instead.

To tame her unnerving yet invaluable mental strength, she is paired up with Li Shimin, the strongest and most controversial male pilot in Huaxia. But now that Zetian has had a taste of power, she will not cower so easily. She will miss no opportunity to leverage their combined might and infamy to survive attempt after attempt on her life, until she can figure out exactly why the pilot system works in its misogynist way—and stop more girls from being sacrificed.

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue

2020

by V.E. Schwab

France, 1714: in a moment of desperation, a young woman makes a Faustian bargain to live forever—and is cursed to be forgotten by everyone she meets. Thus begins the extraordinary life of Addie LaRue, and a dazzling adventure that will play out across centuries and continents, across history and art, as a young woman learns how far she will go to leave her mark on the world.

But everything changes when, after nearly 300 years, Addie stumbles across a young man in a hidden bookstore and he remembers her name.

The Midnight Library

2020

by Matt Haig

The dazzling reader-favorite about the choices that go into a life well lived, from the acclaimed author of How To Stop Time and The Comfort Book.

Somewhere out beyond the edge of the universe there is a library that contains an infinite number of books, each one the story of another reality. One tells the story of your life as it is, along with another book for the other life you could have lived if you had made a different choice at any point in your life. While we all wonder how our lives might have been, what if you had the chance to go to the library and see for yourself? Would any of these other lives truly be better? In The Midnight Library, Matt Haig's enchanting blockbuster novel, Nora Seed finds herself faced with this decision. Faced with the possibility of changing her life for a new one, following a different career, undoing old breakups, realizing her dreams of becoming a glaciologist; she must search within herself as she travels through the Midnight Library to decide what is truly fulfilling in life, and what makes it worth living in the first place.

The Haunting of Tram Car 015

The Haunting of Tram Car 015 is set in an alternate Cairo where humans coexist with otherworldly beings. The Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities is in charge of managing the delicate balance between the magical and the mundane.

Senior Agent Hamed al-Nasr, alongside his rookie partner Agent Onsi, embarks on a mission to handle a seemingly routine case of a possessed tram car. However, what begins as a straightforward exorcism quickly spirals into a complex investigation as the true nature of the demon within comes to light, threatening the safety of Cairo itself.

The Haunting of Tram Car 015

The Haunting of Tram Car 015 is set in an alternate Cairo where humans coexist with otherworldly beings. The Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities is in charge of managing the delicate balance between the magical and the mundane.

Senior Agent Hamed al-Nasr, alongside his rookie partner Agent Onsi, embarks on a mission to handle a seemingly routine case of a possessed tram car. However, what begins as a straightforward exorcism quickly spirals into a complex investigation as the true nature of the demon within comes to light, threatening the safety of Cairo itself.

The Immortalists

2018

by Chloe Benjamin

A deeply moving testament to the power of story, the nature of belief, and the unrelenting pull of familial bonds.

It's 1969 in New York City's Lower East Side, and word has spread of the arrival of a mystical woman, a traveling psychic who claims to be able to tell anyone the day they will die. The Gold children -- four adolescents on the cusp of self-awareness -- sneak out to hear their fortunes. Their prophecies inform their next five decades. Golden-boy Simon escapes to the West Coast, searching for love in '80s San Francisco. Dreamy Klara becomes a Las Vegas magician, obsessed with blurring reality and fantasy. Eldest son Daniel seeks security as an army doctor post-9/11, hoping to control fate. Bookish Varya throws herself into longevity research, where she tests the boundary between science and immortality. The Immortalists probes the line between destiny and choice, reality and illusion, this world and the next. 

The Black Tides of Heaven

2017

by Neon Yang

The Black Tides of Heaven is a captivating entry into Neon Yang's Tensorate Series. This standalone novella intertwines fantasy and science fiction with elements of Asian culture in a phenomenon known as 'silkpunk.' It introduces readers to Mokoya and Akeha, twin siblings with extraordinary abilities, who find themselves entangled in the politics and power struggles of their mother's Protectorate.

As a rebellion simmers, Akeha must navigate the dangerous terrain of independence and ideology, pulling away from Mokoya's prophetic visions and the life they once knew at the Grand Monastery. The story poses a poignant question: Can Akeha find peace and purpose within the rebellion without severing the deep bond with Mokoya?

Crooked Kingdom

2016

by Leigh Bardugo

Welcome to the world of the Grisha. Kaz Brekker and his crew of deadly outcasts have just pulled off a heist so daring even they didn't think they'd survive. But instead of divvying up a fat reward, they're right back to fighting for their lives.

Double-crossed and badly weakened, the crew is low on resources, allies, and hope. As powerful forces from around the world descend on Ketterdam to root out the secrets of the dangerous drug known as jurda parem, old rivals and new enemies emerge to challenge Kaz's cunning and test the team's fragile loyalties.

A war will be waged on the city's dark and twisting streets - a battle for revenge and redemption that will decide the fate of the Grisha world.

Six of Crows

2015

by Leigh Bardugo

Six of Crows is a fantasy novel written by the Israeli-American author Leigh Bardugo, published by Henry Holt and Co. in 2015. The story is set in the city of Ketterdam, loosely inspired by Dutch Republic-era Amsterdam, and follows a thieving crew.

The narrative unfolds from the third-person viewpoints of seven different characters. Kaz Brekker, a criminal prodigy, is offered a chance at a deadly heist that could make him rich beyond his wildest dreams. However, he cannot pull it off alone and must rely on:

  • A convict with a thirst for revenge
  • A sharpshooter who cannot walk away from a wager
  • A runaway with a privileged past
  • A spy known as the Wraith
  • A Heartrender using her magic to survive the slums
  • A thief with a gift for unlikely escapes

Six dangerous outcasts. One impossible heist. Kaz's crew is the only thing that might stand between the world and destruction—if they don't kill each other first.

Six of Crows is the first book in the Six of Crows Duology and is part of the larger Grishaverse.

Kitchen

Kitchen is an enchantingly original book that juxtaposes two tales about mothers, love, tragedy, and the power of the kitchen and home in the lives of a pair of free-spirited young women in contemporary Japan. Mikage, the heroine, is an orphan raised by her grandmother, who has passed away. Grieving, Mikage is taken in by her friend Yoichi and his mother (who is really his cross-dressing father) Eriko. As the three of them form an improvised family that soon weathers its own tragic losses, Banana Yoshimoto spins a lovely, evocative tale with the kitchen and the comforts of home at its heart.

In a whimsical style that recalls the early Marguerite Duras, Kitchen and its companion story, Moonlight Shadow, are elegant tales whose seeming simplicity is the ruse of a very special writer whose voice echoes in the mind and the soul.

MaddAddam

2013

by Margaret Atwood

MaddAddam, the thrilling conclusion to Margaret Atwood's speculative fiction trilogy, weaves together the tales of characters from Oryx and Crake and The Year of the Flood. This novel confirms the ultimate endurance of humanity, community, and love.

Toby and Ren have rescued their friend Amanda from the Painballers and return to the MaddAddamite cob house, now a fortress against threats both human and animal. Amidst the Crakers, the gentle species crafted by the late Crake, Toby takes up the mantle of religious overseer. As the Crakers' reluctant prophet, Jimmy, recovers from illness, Toby grapples with her own emotions, including jealousy over her lover, Zeb.

Zeb's quest to find Adam One, the founder of the God's Gardeners, unveils his tumultuous past involving a lost brother, a hidden murder, and a bear. With the Painballers looming, the MaddAddamites and their allies must prepare for a fierce confrontation.

Combining adventure, humor, romance, and Atwood's signature inventive storytelling, MaddAddam is an extraordinary tale set in a familiar yet fantastical world, offering a satirical reflection on our own potential future.

Moonlight Shadow

Moonlight Shadow is a tale of love and loss, exploring the depths of human emotion and the powerful bonds that tie people together. In this story, Satsuki struggles to move on from the death of her beloved, a pain shared by Hiiragi, who dresses in his late sister's school uniform as a form of remembrance. The enigmatic Urara, with her unique ability to discern people's phone numbers with just one glance, believes that on one special day, under certain conditions, it is possible to reunite with lost loved ones. Could this be true for Satsuki and Hiiragi, who are haunted by the memories of those they cannot forget?

This Is How You Lose Her

On a beach in the Dominican Republic, a doomed relationship flounders. In the heat of a hospital laundry room in New Jersey, a woman does her lover's washing and thinks about his wife. In Boston, a man buys his love child, his only son, a first baseball bat and glove. At the heart of these stories is the irrepressible, irresistible Yunior, a young hardhead whose longing for love is equaled only by his recklessness—and by the extraordinary women he loves and loses: artistic Alma; the aging Miss Lora; Magdalena, who thinks all Dominican men are cheaters; and the love of his life, whose heartbreak ultimately becomes his own.

In prose that is endlessly energetic, inventive, tender, and funny, the stories in This Is How You Lose Her lay bare the infinite longing and inevitable weakness of the human heart. They remind us that passion always triumphs over experience, and that “the half-life of love is forever.”

Seraphina

2012

by Rachel Hartman

Seraphina is a captivating tale set in a world where humans and dragons coexist precariously, with dragons capable of assuming human form. Seraphina, a young woman bearing a heavy secret, navigates through a life fraught with complexities following the death of her mother during childbirth. Amidst a climate of magical secrets and royal scandals, she battles with her identity while endeavoring to harness her exceptional musical abilities.

As the kingdom of Goredd approaches the anniversary of a peace treaty with the dragons, tension escalates. When a royal family member is found dead under mysterious circumstances, Seraphina finds herself embroiled in the investigation alongside the astute Prince Lucien. Their journey reveals a conspiracy threatening to shatter the fragile peace. Seraphina's struggle to protect her secret becomes a perilous endeavor, for its exposure could cost her everything.

With exquisite prose, Rachel Hartman weaves a story of self-discovery and intrigue, where the path to accepting oneself is as treacherous and complex as the political machinations that Seraphina must confront. This is a narrative of courage and the pursuit of identity in a world where survival often hinges on guarding one's truths.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

2011

by Ransom Riggs

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children is an unforgettable novel that mixes fiction and photography in a thrilling reading experience. A horrific family tragedy sends sixteen-year-old Jacob on a journey to a remote island off the coast of Wales, where he discovers the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children.

As Jacob explores its abandoned bedrooms and hallways, it becomes clear that the children were more than just peculiar. They may have been dangerous. They may have been quarantined on a deserted island for good reason. And somehow, impossible though it seems, they may still be alive.

A spine-tingling fantasy illustrated with haunting vintage photography, this novel will delight adults, teens, and anyone who relishes an adventure in the shadows.

Dune Messiah

2008

by Frank Herbert

Dune Messiah continues the story of Paul Atreides, better known—and feared—as the man christened Muad’Dib. As Emperor of the Known Universe, he possesses more power than a single man was ever meant to wield. Worshipped as a religious icon by the fanatical Fremen, Paul faces the enmity of the political houses he displaced when he assumed the throne—and a conspiracy conducted within his own sphere of influence.

And even as House Atreides begins to crumble around him from the machinations of his enemies, the true threat to Paul comes to his lover, Chani, and the unborn heir to his family’s dynasty...

Rebel Angels

2005

by Libba Bray

Ah, Christmas! Gemma Doyle is looking forward to a holiday from Spence Academy, spending time with her friends in the city, attending ritzy balls, and tending to her ailing father. As she prepares to ring in the New Year, 1896, a handsome young man, Lord Denby, has set his sights on Gemma, or so it seems. Yet amidst the distractions of London, Gemma's visions intensify—visions of three girls dressed in white, to whom something horrific has happened, something only the realms can explain.

The lure is strong, and before long, Gemma, Felicity, and Ann are turning flowers into butterflies in the enchanted world of the realms that Gemma alone can bring them to. To the girls' great joy, their beloved Pippa is there as well, eager to complete their circle of friendship. But all is not well in the realms—or out. The mysterious Kartik has reappeared, telling Gemma she must find the Temple and bind the magic, else great disaster will befall her. Gemma's willing to do his intrusive bidding, despite the dangers it brings, for it means she will meet up with her mother's greatest friend—and now her foe, Circe.

Until Circe is destroyed, Gemma cannot live out her destiny. But finding Circe proves a most perilous task.

The Elephant Vanishes

The Elephant Vanishes is a collection that showcases the imaginative genius of Haruki Murakami, an international literary icon. These stories blend the mundane with the extraordinary, creating a world where the surreal becomes the new normal.

A man witnesses the inexplicable disappearance of his favorite elephant, newlyweds find themselves driven by insatiable hunger to rob a McDonald's, and a young woman becomes the object of affection for a peculiar green monster. Each story takes the reader on a journey across the boundaries of reality, returning with remarkable treasures.

By turns haunting and hilarious, this collection includes the story Barn Burning, which inspired the major motion picture Burning.

Are you sure you want to delete this?