THE FICTIONFOX

Genre: horror, haunted-house Published: Tin House Publishing, March 2026 My Rating: 5/5 stars "What would Lele say? What would Lele do? She asked herself these questions all the time, her answers feeble and uncertain, never knowing if she was right. She’d made this ghost. It couldn’t tell her anything new." The Valley of Vengeful Ghosts is an incredibly effective ghost-story with themes of grief, trauma and social isolation. It drew me in with its atmosphere, but truly snuc

Genre: Literary Fiction Novella, Magical Realism, Post-apocalyptic. Published: New Directions (US)/ Fitzcarraldo Editions (UK) , March 2024 My Rating: 1/5 stars "That was the future. This is now. The end of the world looks exactly the way you remember. Don’t try to picture the apocalypse. Everything is the same." I wanted to love this novella so bad. A magical realism story of an undead woman, tracking across a desolate landscape with a crow living inside her chest, explori

Genre: Historical fantasy, Western Published: Quirk Books, November 2025 My Rating: 4.5/5 stars “Romantic love was a clear-cut institution, bolstered by orthodoxy and ritual. When a man lost his wife, it was expected that his world would unravel. But friendship… friendship was a wilderness with no guide. There were no courting rituals one might follow to pursue it, and little sympathy for the gut-wrenching horror of its loss.” Who would have thought that I could enjoy a weste

Genre: Literary Fiction, Magical Realism Published: Grove Press, August 2025 My Rating: 5/5 stars ‘Sometimes,’ I said, ‘goodbye isn’t...

Genre: Fantasy Published: Del Rey, January 2025 My Rating: 4/5 stars "Life is about finding joy in the space between where you came from...

Genre: (cozy) horror Published: ECW Press, September 2025 My rating: 3.5/5 stars I was originally drawn to this novel based on both its...

Genre: Cozy Fiction, Magical Realism Published: Doubleday, September 2024, originally published March 2023 My Rating: 1/5 stars “The...

Genre: Speculative Fiction Published: Atlantic Press, Augustus 2016 My Rating: 2/5 stars This is one of the weirdest book I have ever...

Genre : middle-grade, magical realism. Published: Feiwel & Friends, March 2025 My Rating: 4.5/5 stars "Surprisingly, it was the pigeons...

Genre: Eco-fiction, horror, novella Published: Stelliform Press, April 2025 My Rating: 3/5 stars "The fen belongs to itself. Like us, it...

Genre: Magical Realism Published: Lake Union Publishing, March 2025 My Rating: 5/5 glowing stars "My mother is a willow. She stands by...

Genre: Magical Realism, Novella Published: Graywolf Press/Charco Press (EN) & Vleugels (NL), first publication 2020. Rating: 3/5 stars...

Genre: Magical Realism Published: Stillhouse Press, March 2025 My Rating: 2.5/5 stars, rounded down "Jo moves through a world that is...

Genre: Horror, Historical Fiction, Frankenstein Retelling Published: Raw Dog Screaming Press, February 2024 My Rating: 4/5 stars " Death...

Genre: Cozy Fantasy Published: Bindery Books, October 2024 My Rating: 2.5/5 stars "It’s strange how grief works. I was content, walking...

Genre: Literary fiction, magical realism Published: Tin House Books & Recorded Books Audio, July 2024 My Rating: 3.5 stars “(you are)...

For quite some time, magical realism was my most read genre, so there wasn’t a lack of titles to choose from when it came to selecting my favourites. Magical realism has a long history as a genre, and elements of it are often combined with different genre-elements like horror, science-fiction, romance or even autobiographical writing. Bellow you’ll find my running Top-20 favourites, as well as a handful of honourable mentions. For your ease of navigation, I’ve divided them in

Genre: Magical Realism, Mystery, Horror Published: Sourcebooks Landmark, June 2024 My Rating: 3/5 stars Last year around this time I...

Genre: Literary Fiction, Magical Realism Published: Fourth Estate, February 2024 My Rating: 4.5/5 stars "Everything that comes from the...

Genre: Magical Realism, Short Stories Published: Oneworld Publications, May 2024 My Rating: 5/5 stars “Then she takes her husband’s hand,...