Books

I'd say for me magical realism has been 2025's "Genre of the year" so I have a few recommendations.

If you like Murakami you might like Sayaka Murata - I particularly liked Earthlings, it's a bit less magical realism but definitely quirky and surreal.

Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt was another book that stood out to me this year. It's an emotional story with a young man and an older woman which uses a very smart octopus as the main character and anchor for the story (even though I wouldn't consider the story is about the octopus).

Black Girl Unlimited by Echo Brown is firmly magical realism, and also quite good.

Nothing To See Here by Kevin Wilson is about a young woman who gets roped into babysitting two kids that spontaneously combust from time to time. It's lighthearted but emotional, and I was laughing out loud about once every 5 pages. I had a blast with this one.

I would also class Jandy Nelson's books as magical realism so I would say you might enjoy that too.

Then there's This Is How You Lose The Time War, which I didn't like at all, but has many good reviews so I won't discredit it. It's... Space fantasy? There's no "science" in the fiction, but it has time travel, and weirdness galore.

This is my list of books I've read in 2025, in case you find anything inspiring:

And my storygraph profile in case you want to take a look (or not, I won't be able to know!).