magic realist fiction

"When six-year-old Beatrice Willoughby vanished at the Amadeuses' annual All Hallows Eve party, people in the tiny mountain town of Nevermore were quick to whisper: They were always odd. Their house is full of dark magic. And when Mort Amadeus was pegged for the crime, the Amadeuses, once the center of society, retreated. They closed their doors, disappeared from life. People almost forgot. Until thirteen years later, when six envelopes land at the doorstep of six households in town: We cordially invite you to a celebration on the 31st of October this Saturday evening at the Amadeus household. So begins the mystery of who was really responsible for the missing girl thirteen years ago. Was it Duchess von Pelt, whose face no one has ever seen? Mrs. Raven, the keeper of the local inn? Wormwood, the Amadeuses' mysterious caretaker? Dr. Foozle, the town pharmacist? Count Baines, who seems to know when unlucky things are about to happen? Judge Ophelius, who presided over Beatrice's case originally? Mr. and Mrs. H, a couple who no one can ever quite remember? Or somehow, might precocious, eleven-year- old Dewey and his storytelling dad, Chaucer, be somehow mixed up in all this? The guests must work together to identify the guilty party among them over the course of the evening--but beware the ticking clock, because at midnight, everything is going to change! Told from different perspectives, this is a sly, darkly funny mystery. Filled with strange characters and set in a mansion deep, deep in the woods. G. Z. Schmidt has crafted an unforgettable puzzle, perfect for reading on a dark autumn night" --.

"Privately questioning her remote community's superstitions about dangerous powerful spirits in their Devil's Alley home, Cecelia Rios experiments with the forbidden art of brujer?a to rescue her kidnapped sister"--OCLC.

When travel journalist and mountaineer Nick Grevers awakens from a coma, he is horrified to learn his climbing partner, Augustin, is missing and presumed dead, and he himself has suffered extensive injuries. He claims amnesia, but he remembers everything than happened on Maudit, a remote and scarcely documented peak in the Swiss Alps. He begins to question his sanity as he starts to believe that he was changed on the mountain, and his boyfriend Sam tries to piece together what really happened on Maudit.

"Gem Echols is a nonbinary Seminole teen living in the tiny town of Gracie, Georgia. Known for being their peers' queer awakening, Gem leans hard on charm to disguise the anxious mess they are beneath. The only person privy to their authentic self is another trans kid, Enzo, who's a thousand long, painful miles away in Brooklyn. But even Enzo doesn't know about Gem's dreams, haunting visions of magic and violence that have always felt too real. So how the hell does the strange new girl in town know about them? Willa Mae Hardy acts like she and Gem are old companions and seems to know things about them they've never told anyone else. When Gem is attacked by a stranger claiming to be the Goddess of Death, Willa Mae saves their life and finally offers some answers. She and Gem are reincarnated gods who've known and loved each other across lifetimes. But Gem--or at least who Gem used to be--hasn't always been the most benevolent deity. They've made a lot of enemies in the pantheon; enemies who, like the Goddess of Death, will keep coming. It's a good thing they've still got Enzo. But as worlds collide and the past catches up with the present, Gem will discover that everyone has something to hide"--Provided by publisher.

Years after a major earthquake in Japan creates different zones in which time passes differently, Sora and her father secretly investigate the off-limit zones in order to find the answer behind the time anomalies and the disappearance of Sora's mother.

Anna enters a surreal hotel where no one ever leaves, and when the clock strikes midnight, she will be trapped there forever, unless she decides to break all her rules to break free from its magic.

"A woman fresh out of a failed marriage has seemingly written her soulmate into existence--only to discover that great love begets greater tragedy--in this fantastical reimagination of Romeo and Juliet"--Provided by publisher.

"For Lewis and Wren, their first year of marriage is also their last. A few weeks after their wedding, Lewis receives a rare diagnosis. He will retain most of his consciousness, memories, and intellect, but his physical body will gradually turn into a great white shark. As Lewis develops the features and impulses of one of the most predatory creatures in the ocean, his complicated artist's heart struggles to make peace with his unfulfilled dreams. At first, Wren internally resists her husband's fate. . . . Then, a glimpse of Lewis's developing carnivorous nature activates long-repressed memories for Wren, whose story vacillates between her childhood living on a houseboat in Oklahoma, her time with a college ex-girlfriend, and her unusual friendship with a woman pregnant with twin birds. Woven throughout this . . . novel is the story of Wren's mother, Angela, who becomes pregnant with Wren at fifteen in an abusive relationship amidst her parents' crumbling marriage. In the present, all of Wren's grief eventually collides, and she is forced to make an impossible choice"--Provided by publisher.

"After Ciela and Lock are sexually assaulted at the same party, they develop a cautious friendship through her family's possibly-magical pasteler?a and his secret forest of otherworldly trees"--OCLC.

Fighting his way across the West to rescue his wife and exact revenge on the men who destroyed him, while settling old scores along the way, Ming Tsu is aided by a blind clairvoyant and a troupe of magic-show performers, some with supernatural powers.