YA Magical Realism

Xochi is alone in San Francisco, running from her painful past. One day, she meets Pallas, a precocious 12-year-old who lives with her rockstar family. Xochi accepts a position as Pallas’s live-in governess and quickly finds her place in the girl’s tight-knit household. But on the night of the Vernal Equinox, Xochi and Pallas perform a riot-grrrl ritual in good fun, accidentally summoning a pair of ancient beings bound to avenge the wrongs of Xochi’s past.

On the corner of American Street and Joy Road, Fabiola thought she would finally find "une belle vie"—a good life. But after they leave Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Fabiola's mother is detained by United States immigration officers, leaving Fabiola to navigate her new life all on her own. Just as she finds her footing in this strange, new world, a dangerous proposition presents itself. Trapped at the crossroads of an impossible choice, will she pay the price for the American dream?

Matt hasn't eaten in days. He can resist the siren call of food because he has discovered something: The less he eats, the more he seems to have powers. He has a knack of tuning in to thoughts right out of people's heads, and he maybe even has the authority to bend time and space. Matt decides to use his powers to to find out just how Tariq and his band of high school bullies drove his sister, Maya, away. But Matt doesn't realize there are many kinds of hunger...and he isn't in control of all of them.

Leigh Chen Sanders is absolutely certain about one thing: When her mother died by suicide, she turned into a bird. Leigh travels to Taiwan to meet her maternal grandparents for the first time, and while there, she's determined to find her mother, the bird. In her search, she winds up chasing after ghosts, uncovering family secrets, and forging a new relationship with her grandparents.

Echo Brown is a wizard from the East Side of Cleveland, where apartments are small and parents suffer addiction to the white rocks. Yet there is magic everywhere. Every day, Echo travels between worlds, attending a rich white school on the West Side. But there are dangers to leaving behind the pace that made you.

Blanca and Roja have never just been sisters; they're also rivals. Their family is bound to a generations-old spell where one day, it will leave one of them a girl and trap the other in the body of a swan. But when two local boys become drawn into the game, the swans' spell intertwines with the strange and unpredictable magic lacing the woods, and all four of their fates depend on facing truths that could either save or destroy them.

Everyone knows Bone Gap is full of gaps. So when Roza went missing, the people of Bone Gap weren't surprised. But Finn knows what really happened to her. He knows she was kidnapped by a dangerous man whose face he cannot remember.

Sora lost her mother to an earthquake so powerful that it cracked time itself, blamed on a giant catfish that lives under Japan. Sora has been conducting her own research, tracking down a time expert in Tokyo and surprising herself with a crush on a girl named Maya. But when Sora's father disappears, she has no choice but to return home, with Maya in tow, and venture into the abandoned time zones to find him and perhaps the catfish itself.

For the past century, every girl has been born with a special talent, like the ability to fix any object, heal any wound, or find what's missing. To best friends Rome, Lux, and Mercy, their abilities often feel more like a curse. As Rome struggles to keep her friendships close, she discovers the truth about life in Cottonwood Hollow, that friends are stronger than curses, that trust is worth the risk, and sometimes what you've been looking for has been under your feet the whole time.

Eulalie Island should be a paradise, with its secluded beaches and forests full of white flowers, but there's something eerie and unsettling about the place. She can't stop sleepwalking at night, the birds keep calling her name, and there's a strange little girl in the woods who wants to play hide-and-seek. She wonders if there's more to this place, things only she can see.

Grace struggles to understand the "echoes" she inherited from her mother: visions which often distort her reality. One morning as her sister, Mercy, rushes off for work, a disturbing echo takes hold of Grace. Within moments, tragedy strikes. Grace begins to recover, but she's estranged from Mercy. As Grace's echoes brings ghosts and premonitions, they also bring memories of when Grace fled to Mexico to the house of her maternal grandmother—who Grace had been told died long ago.

When Ilana discovers a forgotten Jewish cemetery behind her aunt’s cottage, she meets the ghost of a boy named Benjamin, who died over a century ago. As Ilana restores Benjamin’s grave, he introduces her to the enchanted side of Prague. Rudolph, a man with no shadow, has become fascinated with Ilana's music and offers to share his magic so she can pursue violin. But after Ilana discovers the truth about Rudolph and Benjamin, she resolves to save the boy she loves.

Armed with talismans, including an enchanted jacket that gets people to do anything, a baseball bat that fixes anything it breaks and a manifestation stone that makes anyone fall in love, Rosie, her older sister Caro, and Zeke find their lives intertwined in magical and hilarious ways.

Syd (no pronouns, please) has always dealt with big, hard-to-talk-about things by baking. Being dumped is no different, except now Syd is baking at the Proud Muffin, a queer bakery and community space in Austin. And everyone who eats Syd's breakup brownies...breaks up.