Though most associate magic with fantasy books (i.e. dragons, spell-casting, witches, and vampires), magic can also be found in novels about the mundane, everyday world. This is the foundation for magical realism and speculative fiction. This post won't get into the technical or craft considerations for these two genres, but know that there are some. There are also historical, geographical, and canonical differences. Magical realism and speculative fiction have a few things in common, and Inglenook uses these terms interchangeably to communicate that a book feels enchanted and magical, but takes place in a familiar world--either in modern day, a reality adjacent to it, or in the historical past.
Today's speculative fiction is taking us into deeper, murkier places and pasts, infusing a sense of urgency or hope (or both). Our top picks for the best speculative fiction for 2025 combine elements of fantasy, dystopia, magical realism, science fiction, mysticism, and historical revision, and each read is exhilarating.
Described as simply "spellbinding" by nearly every reviewer under the sun, The Strange Case of Jane O. follows a mother who suffers strange episodes of dread, premonitions, hallucinations, and amnesia following the birth of her child. Things come to a head when she's discovered unconscious and dissociated in Brooklyn's Prospect Park. Is it a case of motherhood blues or buried traumas coming to the surface? Part pandemic story, part psychological thriller, this story of dissociative fugue questions our understanding of time, reality, and human perception. Chapters alternate between two narrators and have epistolary vibes, as the book is partly told through journal entries and psychiatric reports. This novel is a master class in backstory, subtlety, and suspense.
Freshwater is an autobiographical fiction novel of alternating perspectives, and only one is human. The book is a stunning, insightful weave about living with a fractured self. Ada, our protagonist, is born in Nigeria still attached to the spirit world, which leaves the door open for deities to make a home in her mind. When a traumatic event in young adulthood brings these alternate selves further to the forefront, Ada becomes subject to the powers of the spiritual realm, and must evolve to embrace the nonbinary nature of her identity. Reading this mythological coming-of-age dreamscape is like riding a current through the multiverse.
Vampire-inspired Americana meets historical revenge novel in The Buffalo Hunter, which follows the tracks of a vampire haunting Montana's Blackfeet Indian Reservation. It starts with the 1912 diary of a Lutheran pastor found stuffed inside a church wall. From there, readers get dragged along as the darkest and most intimate confessions of a Blackfeet vampire named Good Stab who has spilled blood all over the Montana prairie are vivified.
Billed as a madcap romp by reviewers, When We Were Real is an adventure for those with tech and AI on the brain. The story follows best friends JP and Dulin on a cross-country bus trip to visit geographic anomalies and physics-defying glitches in the fabric of simulated reality (a few years back, everyone learned that The Matrix is real. The world is in fact made of binary code. Life is a simulation.) Canterbury Trails Tours is there to make the best of it, taking tourists like Dulin and JP, whose cancer has returned, on a trip that symbolizes the beauty and chaos of human life. A blend of science fiction and surrealism, When We Were Real makes our list of best speculative fiction for its masterful craft and commentary on modern-day life. Also, we like stories with hope. (Case in point.)
Blending generational and mystical themes, The Antidote follows the paths of five quirky characters with intertwining fates as storms shred the heartland around them in the fictional town of Uz, Nebraska. Most notable among them is a prairie witch who stores memories and secrets in her body. As the political and geographical climate of Uz heats up, unlikely bonds and uncanny happenings coalesce on the dusty landscape to rescue Uz from collapse. Haunting and atmospheric, as is classic of Karen Russell, this novel takes historical fiction and makes it speculative.
While 2025 is a great year for genre-bending speculative fiction, there are several great classics and semi-recent picks you might have missed. 2017's Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders is an experimental piece of speculative fiction that imagines Abraham Lincoln's experience in purgatory. For something more heartfelt, The Book of Dreams by Nina George intertwines the stories of four individuals straddling the lines between life, loss, and purpose. For a modern-day struggle between good and evil, a sweeping adventure that spans multiple narrators and locations, The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell will captivate. Finally, for a timeless, poignant, speculative ghost story, look no further than Perla by Carolina de Robertis, which follows a young woman's discovery about her family's harrowing past during Argentina's Dirty War (1976-1983). All four of these reads will offer thoughtful escape, adventures rich with inventive prose and layered themes:
Inglenook Lit is an online literary magazine for magic enthusiasts and enchantment seekers
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