Here is one you’ve probably heard of, and one that might be new. Bone Gap by Laura Ruby and Hour of the Bees by Lindsay Eagar are works of magical realism, offering imagery about our buzzing friends – the bees. I accidentally read both of these books in the same month, and I think it was the best month of my year so far. If you want to bend your reality in a beautiful way, check out these titles!

Bone Gap was 2016’s Printz Award Winner and a National Book Award Finalist. Ruby’s story lives up to the hype by transporting you to the slippery town of Bone Gap. Our anti-hero Finn chases his own love while searching high and low for the mysterious Roza, whose disappearance left Finn’s brother heartsick. While this seems like your typical missing-person novel, the lines between reality and the otherworld are blurred, along with memory and perception. If you are a connoisseur of either YA literature or magical realism, Bone Gap will give you some satisfying twists. Bone Gap is a book that felt alive in my hands.

Hour of the Bees follows Carolina and her family as they prepare Grandpa Serge’s ranch for the real estate market in New Mexico’s desert. Gorgeous flashbacks illustrate what was once where the dilapidated ranch is now, and everyone is challenged to negotiate the “stay or go” mentality that can rule the real world of careers, relationships, and the feeling of “home”. First-time author Eagar’s writing has a way of transporting you to another world while also challenging you to explore the inner workings of your own mind and heart.