magic realist fiction

Seventeen-year-old Mina Lee's first love is art. But since her mother's death, her father has preferred she be involved in more academic pursuits. Developing a webcomic in the hopes that she can convince him to let her attend art school, Mina wakes one morning to discover she has somehow entered her superhero-driven world, complete with a crush on her deceased childhood friend Jin. Now forced to navigate a changing storyline she didn't write, she must use her newfound superpowers to defeat villains, get the guy, and somehow, get back to her own world.

"In the small mountain town of Jasper, North Carolina, June Farrow is waiting for fate to find her. The Farrow women are known for their thriving flower farm--and the mysterious curse that has plagued their family line. The whole town remembers the madness that led to Susanna Farrow's disappearance, leaving June to be raised by her grandmother and haunted by rumors. It's been a year since June started seeing and hearing things that weren't there. Faint wind chimes, a voice calling her name, and a mysterious door appearing out of nowhere-the signs of what June always knew was coming. But June is determined to end the curse once and for all, even if she must sacrifice finding love and having a family of her own. After her grandmother's death, June discovers a series of cryptic clues regarding her mother's decades-old disappearance, except they only lead to more questions. But could the door she once assumed was a hallucination be the answer she's been searching for? The next time it appears, June realizes she can touch it and walk past the threshold. And when she does, she embarks on a journey that will not only change both the past and the future, but also uncover the lingering mysteries of her small town and entangle her heart in an epic star-crossed love."--.

Seventeen-year-old Maya struggles with her omniscient abilities, but when she meets a cute guy at her new school, he helps her learn how to cope with knowing too much.

In their familiar North Carolina beach town, Callie and her friends, Talia and Cleo, are joined by the enigmatic Polly, who introduces the idea of learning how to make themselves invisible, a plan that initially seems impossible but eventually works, leading to a recklessness that makes it increasingly difficult for the girls to return to their former selves.

Twelve-year-old Murray struggles to regain her magic after a hurricane forces her to move away from her beloved ocean that, she believes, has given her special powers.

"Growing up in the small town of Winston, Pennsylvania, feels like drowning. Leah goes to church every Sunday, works when she isn't at school, and takes care of her baby brother, Owen. Like every girl in Winston, she tries to be right and good and holy. If she isn't, the Lord of the Wood will take her, and she'll disappear like so many other girls before her. But living up to the rigorous standards of the town takes its toll. One night, when Owen won't stop screaming, Leah wishes him away, and the Lord listens. The screaming stops, and all that's left in the crib is a small bundle of sticks tied with a ribbon. Filled with shame and the weight of the town's judgment, Leah crosses the river into the Lord of the Wood's domain to bring Owen back. But the devilish figure who has haunted Winston for generations isn't what she expects. He tells her she can have her brother back--for a price. It's a bargain that will uncover secrets her hometown has tried to keep buried for decades. And what she unearths will have her questioning everything she's been taught to fear"--Provided by publisher.

Told in alternating timelines, African American Atlas learns of her ancestral powers and their connection to the Great Dismal Swamp which shielded her grandmother as a formerly enslaved girl in the 1700s.

"There are only two things seventeen-year-old Jericka knows about her estranged grandmother: her name, and that she abandoned Jericka's mom and uncle when they were kids. But now that her grandmother is dying, Jericka is dragged to middle-of-nowhere Coldwater, Maryland, to say goodbye. While Jericka attempts to form a connection with a woman she's never known and adjust to life in a town where everything closes before dinner, she meets 'ghost girl' Kat, who is eager to leave Coldwater and intriguing despite some troubling town gossip. As summer unwinds, Jericka uses her senior photography portfolio to capture the town as it is--and as it was--only to discover that Coldwater has a few unsettling secrets of its own. The more you try to leave, the stronger the town's hold. As she feels the chilling pull of her family's past, Jericka begins to question everything she thought she knew about her mother, her childhood, and the lines between the living and the dead"--Provided by publisher.

"When celebrated writer Alma Cruz inherits a small plot of land in the Dominican Republic, she turns it into a place to bury her untold stories--literally. She creates a graveyard for manuscript drafts and revisions and the characters whose lives she tried and failed to bring to life and who still haunt her. Alma wants her characters to rest in peace, but they have other ideas, and the cemetery becomes a mysterious sanctuary for their true narratives"--Provided by publisher.

High school football player Cade Webster buys a ring in a pawn shop, but when his wish that people stop acting scared of him seems to be coming true, he remembers the ring came with a warning--"When the strangeness begins, come back"--and suddenly people seem to have lost their fear of everything.