#WickedGoodReads That Are Magical Realism … Stranger Things Have Happened

Here at GXO, #WickedGoodReads is a love-a-thon for books with wicked people & creatures + dangerous places & things. This week we’re looking at #WickedGoodReads that incorporate fantastic or mythical elements into otherwise realistic fiction – also known as magical realism.

Someone Like Me, M.R.Carey

M.R. Carey landed on our 5 New-to-Us Awesome Author Discoveries when both Kim and I read, The Girl With All the Gifts. In Someone Like Me, Carey examines – what if the voice you heard inside your head was real?! … y’all have that voice inside your head right … or is it just me?! Would that person turn out to be your good side – your bad side … or want to take over your life and shut you out?!

Liz Kendall wouldn’t hurt a fly. She’s a gentle woman devoted to bringing up her kids in the right way, no matter how hard times get. But there’s another side to Liz—one which is dark and malicious. A version of her who will do anything to get her way, no matter how extreme or violent. And when this other side of her takes control, the consequences are devastating.

Recursion, Blake Crouch

Blake Crouch wrote a science fiction book that’s dark as f%c*! It ate away at my emotions as 2 people, who know the World is going to end, try for years to stop it – failing over and over … and over again. I was literally begging for them to save us all … no spoilers here on whether they did or not.

Barry Sutton is learning as he investigates the devastating phenomenon the media has dubbed False Memory Syndrome – a mysterious affliction that drives its victims mad with memories of a life they never lived. Helena Smith has dedicated her life to creating a technology that will let us preserve our most precious memories. As Barry and Helena search for the truth, they comes face-to-face with an opponent more terrifying than any disease – a force that attacks not just our minds but the very fabric of the past. And as its effects begin to unmake the world as we know it, only by working together will they stand a chance at defeating it.

The Outsider, Stephen King

First off … listen to the audiobook if you can. The narration by Will Paton is amazing – he became the characters, brought out all the emotions and made the book suspense in a a masterful way. King brings us a thriller where a terrible crime has been committed, and although all signs point us in the direction of the Little League coach, he has a solid alibi … and some things point to a more … King-like explanation … a.k.a. some weird shit might be going down.

An eleven-year-old boy’s violated corpse is found in a town park. Eyewitnesses and fingerprints point unmistakably to one of Flint City’s most popular citizens. He is Terry Maitland, Little League coach, English teacher, husband, and father of two girls. Detective Ralph Anderson, whose son Maitland once coached, orders a quick and very public arrest. But Maitland has an alibi, and as the investigation expands, horrifying questions and answers begin to emerge.

Have you read any of these books? What did you think?