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Magical/Realism: Essays on Music, Memory, Fantasy, and Borders
From award-winning poet Vanessa Angélica Villarreal comes a brilliant, singular collection of essays that looks to music, fantasy, and pop culture to excavate and reimagine what has been disappeared by the forces of migration and colonialism. In Magical/Realism, Vanessa Angélica Villarreal offers us an intimate mosaic of migration, violence, and colonial erasure through the lens of her marriage and her experiences navigating American monoculture. As she attempts to recover the truth from the absences and silences within her life, her relationships, and those of her ancestors, Vanessa pieces together her story from the fragments of music, memory, and fantasy that have helped her make sense of it all. The trauma of remembering gives the collection its unique Each chapter is an attempt to reimagine and re-world what has been lost. In one essay, Vanessa examines the gender performativity of Nirvana and Selena; in another, she offers a radical but crucial racial reading of Jon Snow in Game of Thrones; and throughout the collection, she explores how fantasy can provide healing when grief feels insurmountable. She reflects on the moments of her life that are too painful to remember—her difficult adolescence, her role as the eldest daughter of Mexican immigrants, her divorce—and finds a new way to archive her history and map her future(s), one infused with the hope and joy of fantasy and magical thinking. By engaging readers in her project of rebuilding narrative, Vanessa broadens our understanding of what memoir and cultural criticism can be. Magical/Realism is a wise, tender, and essential collection that carves a path toward a new way of remembering and telling our stories.
370 pages, Hardcover
First published May 14, 2024
179 people are currently reading
13517 people want to read
About the author
Vanessa Angélica Villarreal
8 books108 followersVanessa Angélica Villarreal was born in the Rio Grande Valley to Mexican immigrants. She is the author of the essay collection Magical/Realism: Essays on Music, Memory, Fantasy, and Borders (Tiny Reparations Books, an imprint of Dutton Books and Penguin Random House, 2024) and the poetry collection Beast Meridian (Noemi Press, 2017). She is a recipient of a 2019 Whiting Award, a Kate Tufts Discovery Award nomination, and winner of the John A. Robertson Award for Best First Book of Poetry from the Texas Institute of Letters. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, New York Magazine’s The Cut, Harper’s Bazaar, Oxford American, Paris Review, Poetry Magazine, and elsewhere. She is a recipient of a 2021 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, and holds a doctorate in English Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, where she lives with her son and a loyal dog. Find her on Twitter @Vanessid.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 159 reviews
February 13, 2025
Poignant and impressive work on colonialism, racism, feminism, domestic violence and, of course, fantasy.
Seems like a lot for just one book, but personal autobiographical approach allows the author to make it simple and very relatable.
The beginning was slow and confusing, but the book quickly fixes it. Although, as for a person with non-existing Spanish skills, it was sometimes hard for me to understand all the references.
P.S. the notion about AI changed my perception of this issue a bit. Before the author mentioned it, I hadn’t realised that the fact that AI is trained on culture that is full of racial and misogynic biases is doomed to become an instrument of the same prejudices. And now I don’t believe AI to be simply cringy and overrated, I think it’s terrifying.
Seems like a lot for just one book, but personal autobiographical approach allows the author to make it simple and very relatable.
The beginning was slow and confusing, but the book quickly fixes it. Although, as for a person with non-existing Spanish skills, it was sometimes hard for me to understand all the references.
P.S. the notion about AI changed my perception of this issue a bit. Before the author mentioned it, I hadn’t realised that the fact that AI is trained on culture that is full of racial and misogynic biases is doomed to become an instrument of the same prejudices. And now I don’t believe AI to be simply cringy and overrated, I think it’s terrifying.
September 24, 2024
This book is very good. The first half where she relies more on memoir was less good to me than the second half where she really digs into the cultural criticism. The criticism is there in the early parts too, but it really works in the end. So razor sharp and thought through. Pop culture treated as high art (thank god) and it really works.
October 2, 2024
Nominated for the National Book Award for Non-Fiction 2024
This genre-bending amalgamation of memoir and cultural criticism is intriguing and highly readable, but it also shows how we all perceive the world through our own frames - and we have to, because we only have our own experiences, which is why exercises in empathy are foundational for building more just societies. Villarreal explores her themes through the possible functions of magic as it relates to reality; for instance, both magic and trauma start in disbelief, magical thinking can be a coping strategy, fantastical stories can study truth without being limited to realism, memory and history are to a degree inventions, and magical practices can be metaphorical performances to express emotion. In a flowing style that oscillates between the author's own family history, from the abusive marriages of her grandmother, her father's struggles as a musician, and her own divorce, to thoughts about singers like Cobain and Selena as well as ponderings on various movies, books, and series. And it all fuses together excellently.
The quality of such a very personal work is not determined by whether you agree with the author or not, but the quality of the argument. And that's where I had some issues, because IMHO, some takes were pretty undercomplex. It's hard to maintain that in "Narcos", the horrible role of the US/the CIA in the drug war is omitted in order to other and exoticise the Latin American characters - on the contrary, CIA agent Stechner is an outright villain, his whole operation is shown as cynical, even more so in "Narcos: Mexico" (the author is Mexican-American, life at the borderlands is a central theme of the book). "Narcos: Mexico", starring Diego Luna, then plays no role in the book, but "Andor", also starring Diego Luna, where it's, in the context of the author's argument, easier to praise the Mexican actor as a hero who defied Disney stereotyping, while he played an exceptionally slick and not exactly politically correct Mexican drug lord in "Narcos: Mexico" (don't get me wrong, I always love Diego Luna).
At another point in the book, Villarreal condemns capitalist realism as opposed to socialist realism - as a German, so someone whose country produced both types of art during the German division, I was stunned by the claims made here, as art in the East was regulated, so artists weren't free to create as they deemed fit and HAD to stick to the limitations of socialist realism, which, you know, sucked. But because in the logic shown here, "capitalism = bad", these realities remain outside the frame. To name one last example, Kurt Cobain is shown here as a cipher, as a one-dimensional hero, not the messy human he was (and we all are), and, as Kurt himself always stressed out, the hero-worship is a kind of de-humanization, it turns him into a function, also a function of this text. Ironically, the text states Cobain's attitude without realizing that it plays into what he stood up against. And there are several other examples where the frame bends to the intended argument, IMHO.
Still, there are many very interesting thoughts in here, especially regarding the erasure of people and perspectives in the historical archives, and representation in stories and art as a type of power that transforms public discourse. Plus, it's just a pleasure to read.
This genre-bending amalgamation of memoir and cultural criticism is intriguing and highly readable, but it also shows how we all perceive the world through our own frames - and we have to, because we only have our own experiences, which is why exercises in empathy are foundational for building more just societies. Villarreal explores her themes through the possible functions of magic as it relates to reality; for instance, both magic and trauma start in disbelief, magical thinking can be a coping strategy, fantastical stories can study truth without being limited to realism, memory and history are to a degree inventions, and magical practices can be metaphorical performances to express emotion. In a flowing style that oscillates between the author's own family history, from the abusive marriages of her grandmother, her father's struggles as a musician, and her own divorce, to thoughts about singers like Cobain and Selena as well as ponderings on various movies, books, and series. And it all fuses together excellently.
The quality of such a very personal work is not determined by whether you agree with the author or not, but the quality of the argument. And that's where I had some issues, because IMHO, some takes were pretty undercomplex. It's hard to maintain that in "Narcos", the horrible role of the US/the CIA in the drug war is omitted in order to other and exoticise the Latin American characters - on the contrary, CIA agent Stechner is an outright villain, his whole operation is shown as cynical, even more so in "Narcos: Mexico" (the author is Mexican-American, life at the borderlands is a central theme of the book). "Narcos: Mexico", starring Diego Luna, then plays no role in the book, but "Andor", also starring Diego Luna, where it's, in the context of the author's argument, easier to praise the Mexican actor as a hero who defied Disney stereotyping, while he played an exceptionally slick and not exactly politically correct Mexican drug lord in "Narcos: Mexico" (don't get me wrong, I always love Diego Luna).
At another point in the book, Villarreal condemns capitalist realism as opposed to socialist realism - as a German, so someone whose country produced both types of art during the German division, I was stunned by the claims made here, as art in the East was regulated, so artists weren't free to create as they deemed fit and HAD to stick to the limitations of socialist realism, which, you know, sucked. But because in the logic shown here, "capitalism = bad", these realities remain outside the frame. To name one last example, Kurt Cobain is shown here as a cipher, as a one-dimensional hero, not the messy human he was (and we all are), and, as Kurt himself always stressed out, the hero-worship is a kind of de-humanization, it turns him into a function, also a function of this text. Ironically, the text states Cobain's attitude without realizing that it plays into what he stood up against. And there are several other examples where the frame bends to the intended argument, IMHO.
Still, there are many very interesting thoughts in here, especially regarding the erasure of people and perspectives in the historical archives, and representation in stories and art as a type of power that transforms public discourse. Plus, it's just a pleasure to read.
July 3, 2024
A beautiful collection of essays from Villarreal. The author examines modern magical realism through her life experiences and pop culture.
I try to read books by authors with experiences different than my own, and it was important for me to read this work. It made me see modern fantasy in a different light .
I recently reread the Hobbit and after reading these essays I am thinking about that story in a whole new light.
I will be sharing this book with friends and family! Thank you!
I try to read books by authors with experiences different than my own, and it was important for me to read this work. It made me see modern fantasy in a different light .
I recently reread the Hobbit and after reading these essays I am thinking about that story in a whole new light.
I will be sharing this book with friends and family! Thank you!
June 27, 2024
I've followed Villarreal's work as a poet for a while and was excited she'd written a memoir. Structurally, this reminds me a lot of White Magic by Elissa Washuta and Creep by Myriam Gurba, which are both excellent non-linear accounts that combine memoir, cultural criticism, histories of race, and pop culture. Did this one on audio and it did not disappoint.
June 29, 2024
I literally do not have the words to express what a fking BANGER this is. Lives up to its cover and its blurbs. Brilliant. Gorgeous. Accessible to someone who hates theory lol. I feel very tender about this book, but also obnoxiously enthusiastic about it.
December 18, 2025
A veeeeeery solid memoir and critical analysis on the intersections of pop culture/music and race in society.
Villarreal is honest in her stories about her childhood, her father's experiences in the music industry, and her own life as a (former) wife and mother. She points out how her race has helped shape her life in how people view/treat her, her access to opportunities, and how she views media. She never victimizes herself, rather, she shares real life moments and weaves in cultural narratives through movies, tv shows, music, and video games. She is insightful and thoughtful as she makes her case and while she doesn't place blame, she does expose how Latin Americans are shown in these various media types and how they lead to real life consequences.
I would highly recommend giving this a read if you're interested in better understanding the Latin American/immigrant experience. However, maybe pick up the physical book over the audio because the first section includes a long list of footnotes that was jarring in the audio version.
Villarreal is honest in her stories about her childhood, her father's experiences in the music industry, and her own life as a (former) wife and mother. She points out how her race has helped shape her life in how people view/treat her, her access to opportunities, and how she views media. She never victimizes herself, rather, she shares real life moments and weaves in cultural narratives through movies, tv shows, music, and video games. She is insightful and thoughtful as she makes her case and while she doesn't place blame, she does expose how Latin Americans are shown in these various media types and how they lead to real life consequences.
I would highly recommend giving this a read if you're interested in better understanding the Latin American/immigrant experience. However, maybe pick up the physical book over the audio because the first section includes a long list of footnotes that was jarring in the audio version.
Read
December 10, 2024This book will change the way you think about fandoms. Vanessa is BRILLIANT.
Full review to come.
Full review to come.
January 13, 2025
It just really wasn't very good. The book is 80% memoir, where I was promised essays on various topics. Only the last few chapters were essays. But even there, it felt poorly argued, overly sensitive, and just not very good. Some good points were made, but as a whole, I was rolling my eyes a lot.
October 14, 2024
2024 National Book Award for Nonfiction Longlist
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December 24, 2024I am shelving this for now because it is TOO GOOD and TOO SMART and my brain is in simple mode right now
But what I've read so far is really really gorgeous and great and I really want to read it when I'm properly attuned to it so I'll check back in with you later Vanessa
But what I've read so far is really really gorgeous and great and I really want to read it when I'm properly attuned to it so I'll check back in with you later Vanessa
January 22, 2025
All my reviews live at https://deedireads.com/.
This burst onto my radar seemingly out of nowhere around the time of its publication, and then it was longlisted for the National Book Award for nonfiction. As a lover of all things fantasy and magical realism, obviously I had to pick it up. And the hype is so justified.
There’s a little something for everyone here — this is cultural criticism combined with memoir, and Villarreal loves not only magic but also music. And of the best essays is on Game of Thrones (considering it through the lenses of border walls and migration), which of course has mass appeal. The chapters on music didn’t hold my attention as well as the others, although that makes sense as I’m not a big music junkie.
But above all, this collection is SO SMART. I loved every single connection Villarreal drew, almost none of which had occurred to me before reading this book. The way she considers pop culture, colonialsm, and consumerism is just plain excellent.
I would like more books like this, where people take pop culture seriously by considering it to be culture (which it is), worthy of criticism. Thank you!
Content and Trigger Warnings:
Racism/Xenophobia; Grief; Suicide attempt; Domestic violence
This burst onto my radar seemingly out of nowhere around the time of its publication, and then it was longlisted for the National Book Award for nonfiction. As a lover of all things fantasy and magical realism, obviously I had to pick it up. And the hype is so justified.
There’s a little something for everyone here — this is cultural criticism combined with memoir, and Villarreal loves not only magic but also music. And of the best essays is on Game of Thrones (considering it through the lenses of border walls and migration), which of course has mass appeal. The chapters on music didn’t hold my attention as well as the others, although that makes sense as I’m not a big music junkie.
But above all, this collection is SO SMART. I loved every single connection Villarreal drew, almost none of which had occurred to me before reading this book. The way she considers pop culture, colonialsm, and consumerism is just plain excellent.
I would like more books like this, where people take pop culture seriously by considering it to be culture (which it is), worthy of criticism. Thank you!
Content and Trigger Warnings:
Racism/Xenophobia; Grief; Suicide attempt; Domestic violence
July 29, 2024
This style of nonfiction that interweaves personal narratives with pop culture is quickly becoming my favorite niche of nonfiction to read. This one is no exception, it was phenomenal! Highly recommend.
Read
August 14, 2025
”If all written history is colonial, then the past is irretrievable. Stories, myths, folktales-these are the echoes of a past before history.”
“In the rift between countries and identities, what lies beyond the threshold is fantasy. A threshold is a site of possibility, transformation, the passage from one reality to another. Fantasy is formed by the presence of a border, what we believe will emerge beyond the bordered terrain. Borders are where one side imagines the other, where one side imagines itself. Fantasy is the imagination crossing a border, tis the practice of immigrant dreaming, where if we love American music, films, and television enough, America may love us back.”
This book is truly excellent. I could not stop reading. My favorite books are the ones that challenge my thinking and take me into terrains of humanity that I have yet to explore—and this book does exactly that. I am so very glad I got to read this book. And you should too.
“In the rift between countries and identities, what lies beyond the threshold is fantasy. A threshold is a site of possibility, transformation, the passage from one reality to another. Fantasy is formed by the presence of a border, what we believe will emerge beyond the bordered terrain. Borders are where one side imagines the other, where one side imagines itself. Fantasy is the imagination crossing a border, tis the practice of immigrant dreaming, where if we love American music, films, and television enough, America may love us back.”
This book is truly excellent. I could not stop reading. My favorite books are the ones that challenge my thinking and take me into terrains of humanity that I have yet to explore—and this book does exactly that. I am so very glad I got to read this book. And you should too.
September 22, 2024
4.75/5 shout out to my library for giving finished copies away 🔥
Insightful observations of American pop culture, colonialism/consumerism, and magical realism/fantasy genres. While I didn’t get all the references, the author does a great job explaining why critical thinking of cultural phenomena matters—from J Lo, LOTR, GoT, to video games.
I also love how the “memoir” portion is incorporated throughout the essays. For readers who prefer chronological or structured memoirs, this book might be too structurally inventive.
My favorite essay is When We All Loved a Show about a Wall, an incisive analysis of GoT through the lenses of migration and borders.
Since the essays were published separately in different journals, some information can seem a bit repetitive. But ignoring these very small imperfections, MAGICAL/REALISM is a great work of cultural criticism!
Insightful observations of American pop culture, colonialism/consumerism, and magical realism/fantasy genres. While I didn’t get all the references, the author does a great job explaining why critical thinking of cultural phenomena matters—from J Lo, LOTR, GoT, to video games.
I also love how the “memoir” portion is incorporated throughout the essays. For readers who prefer chronological or structured memoirs, this book might be too structurally inventive.
My favorite essay is When We All Loved a Show about a Wall, an incisive analysis of GoT through the lenses of migration and borders.
Since the essays were published separately in different journals, some information can seem a bit repetitive. But ignoring these very small imperfections, MAGICAL/REALISM is a great work of cultural criticism!
August 11, 2025
I should've just gone outside and slammed my head in a car door, because at least then I would have learnt something from the time I wasted.
March 14, 2025
a glorious accomplishment
July 17, 2024
I appreciated the perspectives and ideas brought here. Some essays resonated while others lost me but that’s often to be expected with collections of essays.
I loved the deeper dive of magical realism as an escape and healing for oppressed & minoritized communities where alternate realities are possible. magical realism about the powerless gaining power, unlocking imagination, and coming together to fight oppression against impossible odds. Villarreal’s unpacking of whiteness and European / western contexts, the co-opting, the genre of fantasy vs magical realism etc in these fields were great. Her examination of identity was strong and I learned a lot about video games, a realm of fantasy I don’t explore but have learned more about as they’re the way my partner engages with the genre.
There were aspects of fantasy vs magical realism I felt aware of but Villarreal articulated the differences so well I felt it in my body.
✨Fantasy discovers the new world, whereas Magical realism is a world invaded by violence. If fantasy is the literature of world building, then magical realism is the literature that results from world breaking.✨
Another -
“Magical realism occurs in the post colonial fall out whereas fantasy occurs in the historical context of a first world view, war battles kingdoms etc.” // “Both fantasy and magical realism are fabulation. What separates the two is power.” 🤯
While I’ve always loved the genre of fantasy, stories that stuck more with me were those of what I now understand to be magical realism.
I also was so enamored by one of the final essays on video games and Viking culture. “Vikings as fantasies of white indigineity supplant the stories of indigenous people” OOF and the rise in Viking culture post Obama and rise of Trump.
Yall there is so so much I can say about this one. I didn’t even touch on the aspects of music and pop culture. I will continue to think of these essays for a long time and will definitely be buying this book to have a copy of my own.
- “The root of magical realism—fabulation, the fable, the myth, the fantasy—as the radical, reparative speech of the counter public”
- “What is memory but a battle ground? a border terrain between two versions of the truth”
- “For culturally alienated children, this secret third self—the fantasy self, the displaced self, the forbidden self, the self not identified by others from the outside—is the avatar self. The self free from outside projections.”
- “If magical realism is the global south of stories then what is the global north? Fantasy.”
- “Western history is a project of domination through narrative omission”
I loved the deeper dive of magical realism as an escape and healing for oppressed & minoritized communities where alternate realities are possible. magical realism about the powerless gaining power, unlocking imagination, and coming together to fight oppression against impossible odds. Villarreal’s unpacking of whiteness and European / western contexts, the co-opting, the genre of fantasy vs magical realism etc in these fields were great. Her examination of identity was strong and I learned a lot about video games, a realm of fantasy I don’t explore but have learned more about as they’re the way my partner engages with the genre.
There were aspects of fantasy vs magical realism I felt aware of but Villarreal articulated the differences so well I felt it in my body.
✨Fantasy discovers the new world, whereas Magical realism is a world invaded by violence. If fantasy is the literature of world building, then magical realism is the literature that results from world breaking.✨
Another -
“Magical realism occurs in the post colonial fall out whereas fantasy occurs in the historical context of a first world view, war battles kingdoms etc.” // “Both fantasy and magical realism are fabulation. What separates the two is power.” 🤯
While I’ve always loved the genre of fantasy, stories that stuck more with me were those of what I now understand to be magical realism.
I also was so enamored by one of the final essays on video games and Viking culture. “Vikings as fantasies of white indigineity supplant the stories of indigenous people” OOF and the rise in Viking culture post Obama and rise of Trump.
Yall there is so so much I can say about this one. I didn’t even touch on the aspects of music and pop culture. I will continue to think of these essays for a long time and will definitely be buying this book to have a copy of my own.
- “The root of magical realism—fabulation, the fable, the myth, the fantasy—as the radical, reparative speech of the counter public”
- “What is memory but a battle ground? a border terrain between two versions of the truth”
- “For culturally alienated children, this secret third self—the fantasy self, the displaced self, the forbidden self, the self not identified by others from the outside—is the avatar self. The self free from outside projections.”
- “If magical realism is the global south of stories then what is the global north? Fantasy.”
- “Western history is a project of domination through narrative omission”
July 7, 2024
I love a memoir outside of the traditional structure. I enjoyed the cultural criticism and the way it blended into the author’s life.
April 1, 2024
3.5 ⭐️ - rounded up
Brb I will finish this review I have to get my thoughts together :)
Brb I will finish this review I have to get my thoughts together :)
July 11, 2025
"It is safer to read, so you read every book. This is what saves you."
3.5 stars
Passionately written and argued, Magical/Realism gave a lot of food for thought. I especially found the last couple of essays strong, those being the most laser focused on fantasy and sci-fi. The book combined memoir and analysis, though I wish the memoir elements were overall better connected to the pop culture discussion. This collection could have been more streamlined, though I liked quite a lot of it and saved several quotes.
TWs: racism, rape and sexual assault, trauma, abuse, pregnancy.
3.5 stars
Passionately written and argued, Magical/Realism gave a lot of food for thought. I especially found the last couple of essays strong, those being the most laser focused on fantasy and sci-fi. The book combined memoir and analysis, though I wish the memoir elements were overall better connected to the pop culture discussion. This collection could have been more streamlined, though I liked quite a lot of it and saved several quotes.
TWs: racism, rape and sexual assault, trauma, abuse, pregnancy.
September 12, 2024
"Anyway, it doesn't matter if we change. The orcas are already organizing. They will sink Jeff Bezos's yacht. At our end, the earth will defeat the final boss. And then it will live on, without us."
October 28, 2025
4.5 stars
November 9, 2025
4.5
could not stop reading
could not stop reading
July 10, 2024
My favorite book of the year so far
June 19, 2024
Fans of In the Dream House by Machado should definitely read this! I’m so glad I read this collection of essays! What unique and truly brilliant book. I was underlining all the time because Villarreal is such a beautiful and insightful writer! I wish I’d had this book when I was writing my thesis but I’m glad to have it now nonetheless. The last handful of essays didn’t capture me as much as the rest but that’s probably to be expected as my interests are more aligned in the first handful. I have fantasies of teaching some of these essays in a class one day!
June 22, 2024
I am still only about halfway through Magical/Realism, but I need to shout praises for it sooner rather than later. The writing is exactly as it says in the title: magically engrossing and incisively real. Interspersing the personal essays is a series of short commentaries in which Villarreal holds a seance with their ghosts, ghosts of selves they were in the past, selves they hoped to become, selves others saw for them, saw in them. They summon these past lives and engage in a dialogue with them. By reconstructing these daughters they could not be from their memories, Villarreal forges a personal history. Reading these essays, I feel like I am witnessing an astounding act. A Mexican-American, child of migrants -- the taken advantage of disadvantaged, abused at every turn -- a person whose ancestry (gender, mental health) is defined by its lack of documented definition, here that person casts a spell to write their own history.
August 29, 2024
ahhhhhhhHhhhhHHHHHH why do i want to go back to grad school !!!!!!
May 4, 2025
As an immigrant, a latina, and a huge nerd that is in DEEP into fandom culture, this book hits. Hits HARD. Beautifully written, witty, thought provoking, both hilarious and heartbreaking, the whole nine yards. I was SO annoying reading this book, because so many passages in this book were just THAT good. I'd read them out loud, send pictures of the passages to my friends, girl I was infuriating.
Idc yall this book was genius, read it.
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Idc yall this book was genius, read it.
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
July 15, 2025
“Perhaps I am so drawn to fantasy because [of]…its central question: Forces larger than myself have estranged me from my home; what can displacement into new lands make me capable in me?”
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