Books in Pairs: Magical Realism

• If you liked: The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman you might like: Strange Creatures by Phoebe North Two adult protagonists retelling the tales of their troubled childhood in which they fled into a paracostic shadow-world to escape a traumatic situation.
  

• If you liked: Grief is the Thing with Feathers by Max Porter you might like: Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies by Maddie Mortimer Two novels written in alternative format from a highly unique point of view, about illness, body and grief. The narrator in both GITHWF (grief personified) and MOOSB (cancer personified) take the voice of Ted Hughes Crow.
  

• If you liked: Everything Under by Daisy Johnson you might like: Gingerbread by Helen Oyeyemi Magical realism taking inspiration from dark European fairytales to tell a story of a "mundane" yet complex domestic situation.
  

• If you liked: Magonia by Maria Dahvana Headley you might like: Challenger Deep by Neal Schusterman Imaginative but heartfelt stories that use fantasy element to explore the inner world of teenagers with life-changing illnesses.
  

• If you liked: The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender by Leslye Walton you might like: When the Moon was Ours by Anna-Marie McLemore Magical realism set in small towns about being different and feeling like an outsider. Both written in highly lyrical prose that is art in its own right.
  

• If you liked:The Astonishing Color of After by Emily X.R. Pan you might like: King and the Dragonflies by Kacen Callendar Tear-jerking magical realism on grief, about teens and children who believe their deceased loved-one has changed into an animal upon death. Both also happen to feature themes of immigration, belonging and prejudice.
  

• If you liked: Bone Gap by Laura Ruby you might like: We Speak in Storms by Natalie Lunde or: Beasts of Extraordinary Cicumstance by Ruth Emmie Lang Small town cosy magical realism featuring coming of age stories with just a small touch of magic.
  

• If you liked: Burn Our Bodies Down by Rory Power Or: If These Wings Could Fly by Kyrie McCauley Small town claustrophobic magical realism, using magical elements to express the real-life horrors of domestic abuse.
  

• If you liked: The Harpy by Megan Hunter you might like: Chouette by Claire Oshetsky Two modern fairytales about domestic life (being a wife and being a mother) with a magical element of a bird throughout.
  

• If you liked: Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel you might like: The Gloaming by Kirsty Logan Although not similar in plot at all, both capture that feeling of melancholic hope amids a world in ruins, that I adored so much.
  

• If you liked: Mrs Death Misses Death by Salena Godden you might like: Creatures of Passage by Morowa Yejide Literary fiction with a dash of magical realism, following characters coming to terms with themes of life, death and eternity, helped by a "death-companion". (Death personified as a working-class black woman, vs a ghost that haunts the trunk of a Plymouth Belvedere respectively). Both authors are poets as well, leading to works that brim with liminality in both themes and style.
  

• If you liked: A Constellation of Roses by Maria Asebedo you might like: Wildwood Whispers by Willa Reece Characters healing from trauma in a small-town setting, by the helps of tranquil forests and magical cakes...
  

• If you liked: Once There Were Wolves by Charlotte McConaghy you might like: Beasts of Extraordinary Circumstance by Emmie Ruth Lang Two deeply moving, characterdriven novels focussing on vagarious protagonists who've converted a tragic past into a fascination for wolves. The former leans towards the tragedy-side, whereas the latter takes a more whimsical and hopeful tone.