Recs for that spooky time of year …

Welcome to magical realism month.

As someone who grew up reading way, way too much fantasy, I still like to look for magic everywhere. A fairy ring, perhaps, or a wardrobe that leads to another world where it’s always winter and never Christmas. I’d settle for a rabbit taking a wristwatch out of his waistcoat.

This longing for magic and whimsy and weirdness is at its strongest in October, when our senses are heightened for the strange and unusual. The turning of the year is a reminder that the world we live in is – in one sense – altogether magical, with leaves changing and weather shifting in a way that surprises us every time.

In the spirit of October, I wanted to share two unique reads this month from my latest adult fiction reading adventure: exploring the genre of magical realism. If you’re not familiar with it, magical realism is a genre-bender, grounding its characters in a contemporary world while adding one fantastical quirk. Think Emoni Santiago and her gift for putting memories into food in With the Fire on High, or the story of a neglected child who realizes her enormous brain can be channeled into moving objects around in Roald Dahl’s Matilda, or the girls being turned into human silkworms in Karen Russell’s short story collection Vampires in the Lemon Grove.  

As an adult, I’ve realized I’m far more drawn to magical realism than I am to high fantasy because the genre keeps you grounded in a relatable world while pushing the envelope with a circumstance or a character’s ability that’s just a little too strange to actually happen.

Here are two fun and fast yet thoughtful reads from my month of magical realism to help you have a delightfully spooky and whimsical October.

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender

On the eve of her ninth birthday, Rose tastes something really bad in her mother’s lemon cake with chocolate frosting. As she makes her way through the family fridge to experiment, she discovers that she has a magical gift for tasting people’s emotions. Rose’s gift/curse reshapes forever not only what food she can and can’t stomach but also what relationships in her life she will never see the same way again.

I loved this weird little read, with its gently unfolding character development and wistful observations about humanity. Even after almost a year of focusing on fiction, I’m still not sure what makes me pick up a novel and say, “Oh, yes, this is for me,” but that’s how I felt just a few pages into this book.

Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson

Lillian is a bitter late-twenty-something who recklessly accepts her former boarding school roommate’s job offer to care for two children over the summer because she feels stuck in her life and in her mother’s house and has nothing better to do. The catch? She’ll be the caretaker for two kids who have a casual habit of spontaneously lighting up in flames whenever they get agitated. How do you look after two unwanted stepkids whose skin could be on fire at any given moment? Lillian is skeptical of their, ahem, abilities, until she sees the kids in action and realizes that she’s way in over her head. But it’s Bessie and Roland – these strange fire children under her care – who end up teaching her that life can start all over again.

I was wondering if and how this book would develop past its flashy premise, and I was surprised to be hooked by Lillian’s wry, distinctive voice and the story setup that’s intriguing even before any fire is introduced. This is a fast, rollicking read, yet I found myself lingering over sentences and turns of phrase too delicious to be rushed.