Check out these 5 Magical Novels of Magical Realism

by MK French

Do you enjoy the mixing of reality with fantasy? Then magical realism might be your genre. Check out these 5 new books.

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Strange Folk by Alli Dyer

August 2024; Atria Books; 978-1668045770
audio, ebook, print (320 pages); magical realism

Lee left Craw Valley and her family's legacy of power to heal at eighteen. When she leaves California and returns with her children to live with her grandmother Belva, she finds that the target of one of Belva's spells died. Lee now fears that Belva’s magic summoned something dark. Searching for answers, Lee looks into family secrets and rediscovers her power in order to protect her family and the town.

Appalachia has its own rich traditions, not just culturally but folk magic as well. Opaline had been separated from Belva's magic due to her mother's issues, and she reinvented herself as Lee when she went to college. Life doesn't always work out, and she never found a steady place in California. Coming back to her family was a last resort, but it's a place her children find fascinating and start attaching to in spite of her efforts to put it down. Magic is all around them and her children feel it, including the malevolent forces present. Lee tries to investigate on her own, knowing the police would never look into magic, but it dredges up stories Belva had never previously told. Family lore is more complicated than she had thought, and now her heritage is more important than ever.

Folk magic is always fun to read about, as are stories about reclaiming family legacies and healing multigenerational trauma. People might not have magic in their lives, but will understand the wish to get away and reinvent themselves when there are complicated family dynamics. Of course, it doesn't work well here, and Lee can no longer run from the past. She must own up to the family she ran from, and the convoluted relationships they all have with each other. Every family member has a gift and acknowledging that enables them to move forward. 

Buy Strange Folk at Amazon

Rise and Divine by Lana Harper

August 2024; Berkley; 978-0593637982
audio, ebook, print (336 pages); magical realism

Daria “Dasha” Avramov is an event planner at the Arcane Emporium occult megastore and has the rare affinity for banishing demons and traversing the boundary between this realm and the next. She still grieves for her parents and is obsessed with that boundary. This has her avoiding relationships, especially after both of her devastating breakups with Ivy Thorn. The two must work together to plan the Cavalcade—a month-long festival celebrating Thistle Grove’s ceremonial founding. Dasha hopes that the third time might be the charm, but Ivy refuses to be hurt again. In addition to their feelings, Dasha and Ivy must also confront an otherworldly threat to Thistle Grove.

Rise and Divine is book 5 of the "Witches of Thistle Grove" series, but it's fine if you haven't read the prior books in this series. It's a witchy town with four main founding families and their bloodlines. Dasha is odd even from a necromancy standpoint, as she is a demon eater: she literally eats demons and the dark entities that prey on the living in addition to the necromancy magic of the Avramov bloodline. She hopes to get back together with Ivy, whom she broke things off with when she wasn't in a good headspace and had turned to physical relationships to avoid dealing with grief and crossing the boundary into the land of the dead. The Cavalcade brings the two in close proximity, and Dasha hopes to rekindle the spark the two once had. During the festivities, a bigger demon than Dasha is used to dealing with arrives, and one of the festival attendees has no memory of what happened before she was found. If the demon is set loose in the town, the people would suffer and the magic keeping the town safe could be undone.

In addition to the second chance romance of this book, there's the thread of mystery surrounding the new demon's appearance, the odd magical happenings in the town, the thefts at the Arcane Emporium, and the identity of the young woman the Dasha finds. There's a lot happening, as well as the teasing glimpses that Dasha has of the other world. She once wanted to stay there rather than remain living, which ultimately led to her chaotic behavior. Grief does a number on many of the people in town, and this creature preys on it as well as the powers that others have. Dasha tries to track down the demon using every connection she has, and it's by leaning on these connections and being vulnerable to others that gets her needs met. I really enjoyed seeing this witchy town and how the families all banded together to help each other when they really needed to.

Buy Rise and Divine at Amazon

The Full Moon Coffee Shop by Mai Mochizuki

August 2024; Ballantine Books;  978-0593726822
audio, ebook, print (240 pages); magical realism 

Cats are a symbol of good luck in Japan and supposedly will return the favor if you're kind to them. If you are kind to the right cat, you get invited to a mysterious coffee shop run by talking cats. Customers at the Full Moon Coffee Shop get the usual cakes, coffees, and teas, but the cats also consult their star charts, offer wisdom, and let them know where their lives veered off course. For a group of customers, there's a very special reason they were invited.

Translated from the Japanese novel, we follow a group of people in three sections of the book, slowly realizing that they're connected to each other. They knew each other a long time ago when Mizuki had been a substitute teacher and had guided her students, several of whom remained in touch as adults. Most had become so driven in their careers and now feel stuck, though they don't know how to fix it. I liked the idea of the cats reaching out, and the idea of reading birth charts to pinpoint what each person needed. It's astrology to outline areas of trouble and what will help, but it's up to the individual to take the steps to correct it. In the end, we realize why these special cats choose to help these particular people, and we see how the advice works out. It's a cozy, heartfelt novel, and a joy to read.

Buy The Full Moon Coffee Shop at Amazon

Truly Madly Magically by Hazel Beck

June 2024; Graydon House; 978-1525804731
audio, ebook, print (352 pages); magical realism

Ellowyn Good had been cursed by her own mother to always tell the truth. As a half-witch, she never considered herself an equal part of the Riverwood coven. Now that the Joywood seems to be targeting her directly, she wonders what her role is going to be. Figuring this out means dealing with her first love Zander and trying to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past.

This is book three of the Witchlore series, following Small Town, Big Magic and Big Little Spells. The Joywood is a coven of powerful witches that controlled magic in St. Cyprian, and by extension the world. Prophecies abound, and a new coven has formed to challenge the Joywood for control of magic. Riverwood seeks to help the average witch and protect the humans that could be harmed by an imbalance in magic, and their group has the traditional roles to make up a proper coven. In the first book, Emerson got her memories and her magic back after the Joywood suppressed it. In the second, Emerson's sister Rebekah came into her own as the Diviner. This book is Ellowyn's turn to shine.

Ellowyn had always been denigrated for being half-witch and cursed to tell the truth at all times. The Good women have strong tempers and a tendency to lay down curses, and Ellowyn always felt this made her a liability with her friends. On top of that hurt is the fact that her boyfriend Zander had dumped her on prom night during the dance itself; the two bickered, fought, and had their one night of hate sex every year for the next ten years. Their relationship is now coming to a head because of the coven and because Ellowyn is now pregnant with their child. The ascension to rule the town and all of witch kind doesn't care about her personal dilemmas, and there are attacks meant to disable her and potentially even kill her; her skills as a Summoner as well as her pregnancy are a threat to the Joywood.

This book has the second chance romance thread as well as the overall plot of the ascension trials. They dovetail nicely because as the trials begin there are more attacks on Ellowyn and snide remarks about all of them. This forces the Riverwood coven to stick together, and surprise, surprise, Zander, and Ellowyn are forced to stick together for safety. This makes them talk about the past, their families, and the future they have to build. Ellowyn summoning their ancestors also brings Zachariah and Elizabeth into the book, who act just like Zander and Ellowyn do. Seeing what happened to this pair shows Zander and Ellowyn one possible future, as well as giving the clues for Ellowyn to come into her full gifts as the special kind of Summoner she was always meant to be.

In terms of both lore and the romance, the book nailed it. I was riveted and avoided things I meant to do just to finish it and find out how it ended. We know that there will be more to come because the Joywood is sneaky and looking for immortality however they can get it.

Buy Truly Madly Magically at Amazon

Mysterious Ways by Wendy Wunder

August 2024; Wednesday Books; 978-1250770202
audio, ebook, print (336 pages); YA magical realism

Seventeen-year-old Maya knows everything about the people that she sees, from their private history to their thoughts and failures. Because this was so overwhelming, she was sent to the Whispering Pines Psychiatric Facility. Now she is starting at a new school, and Maya meets a guy she actually likes. Is there such a thing as knowing too much?

Maya is a self-aware Gen Z teen who can hear others' thoughts, and with eye contact can zoom in and hear the more internalized thoughts and memories. She can even rearrange them, which she does to help fellow patients at Whispering Pines. She isn't sure there's much to learn from others or schools at the beginning of the book because of this ability. I'm not sure if I even liked her at that stage. As she stops taking herself quite so seriously, she begins to reach out at school to make friends, take up a cause, have a real relationship, and figure out what her telepathy actually means. 

There are flashes not only of her own thoughts but that of others around her, and they're deeper than she assumes them to be. Reaching out and making connections is what was relentlessly drilled into her at the hospital and with her therapist. When she actually puts genuine effort into it, she helps effect change in their lives. It's not just rearranging thoughts, but being a presence and sounding board, being someone that others can rely on, and becoming part of something bigger than herself. The surface thoughts she hears are just parts of people, and while it can give her knowledge she doesn't want or shouldn't have, it's her own heart that helps give her purpose. That's true no matter the age of the protagonist, and hopefully, this reaches the teens who will read this book.

Buy Mysterious Ways at Amazon

Born and raised in New York City, M.K. French started writing stories when very young, dreaming of different worlds and places to visit. She always had an interest in folklore, fairy tales, and the macabre, which has definitely influenced her work. She currently lives in the Midwest with her husband, three young children, and a golden retriever.

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