A Plea for More Cozy Fantasy
If you’ve been looking for a new comfort read, try a cozy fantasy.
What is Cozy Fantasy?
These fantasy books provide feel-good reads. They are light-hearted, warm, and uplifting.
They offer a reader an immersive experience into a kinder, gentler world. The characters are typically on a quest for connection, and the books focus on themes of hope, understanding, empathy, and community.
Cozy fantasy provides us with the opportunity to live in a magical world, instead of merely traveling through one.
Is Slice of Life Fantasy the same thing?
Sometimes readers refer to cozy fantasy as slice of life fantasy, because both types of stories allows us readers to immerse ourselves in the typical daily lives of the characters.
Slice of life fantasies focus on the mundane, ordinary aspects of the characters’ lives. They explore the day-to-day reality of living in a world filled with magic. As an example, instead of following Jack up the beanstalk to battle giants, a slice of life fantasy might focus on the daily trials of the guy who makes boots and belts for the giants.
While all cozy fantasy includes slice of life scenes, not all slice of life fantasy is cozy. In the example above, the guy making boots could get fed up by the local heroes killing off his best customers. If he poison’s the village’s well to weaken or discourage new heroes, we’re certainly not in a cozy fantasy.
Cozy Stakes
Some critics say cozy or slice of life fantasy has “no plot”, but I disagree.
They are still stories.
Their characters want something and will have to overcome obstacles to gain their heart’s desires. Instead, I’d argue these stories have low stakes.
This doesn’t mean the character doesn’t care desperately about their goal. The goal is of immense importance to the main character and, by extension, it’s also meaningful to the supporting cast.
But the story’s scope is smaller, and the world won’t collapse if the character doesn’t achieve their goal.
Spoiler alert, in a cozy fantasy, the character will achieve their goal. Like a romance, these fantasies guarantee the reader a happy ever after.
Why We Need More Cozy Fantasies
First, I love reading these stories. Because the stakes are lower, the authors of cozy fantasies spend a lot of time crafting an immersive experience for their readers. The authors pay particular attention to creating community and writing interesting characters.
I find I connect to the characters in cozy books on a deep, complex level. They become my friends. The greater emotional investment means these books can tear my heart out. The novels that make me cry are nearly always cozy books.
Many of the authors I read as a kid wrote cozy, slice of life stories. Some of my early influences were Jane Austen, James Herriot, Brendan O’Carroll, Rachel Maddux, Jane Yolen (Pit Dragon Chronicles), and Anne McCaffrey (Pern books). I loved spending time in their fictional communities.
When I first came up with the idea behind the Elemental Artist series, it was important to me to provide many slice of life scenes. While the setting is technically a post-apocalyptic world, I imagined the small, isolated communities having cozy vibes. I intended the world to be more like Tolkien’s idyllic Shire than the grim, fortress-like, post-apocalyptic communities popularized in film and fiction.
Maybe I Don’t Want to Save the World Today…
I often read fantasy to escape my problems. But that doesn’t mean I want to take on the anxiety of someone else’s much bigger problems! The cozy stories allow me to forget about family drama, neighbor disputes, filing taxes, and the next trip to the dentist.
More Cozy Fantasy will Lead to Better Classification
Unfortunately, there are no “slice of life” or “cozy fantasy” subgenres.
I looked up several of the top books and found them classified as:
- Romantic Fantasy
- Paranormal & Urban Fantasy
- Occult Fiction
- Paranormal Witches & Wizards Romance
- Gaslamp Fantasy
- LGBTQ Fantasy
- Fantasy Action & Adventure
- Fantasy
- Magical Realism
With luck, and enough cozy fantasy written, we’ll get additional categories from booksellers. Having a cozy subgenre of fantasy will also make it easier for readers to find these books!
Last, cozy fantasies uplift me and buoys my spirits. Reading these stories are a helpful way to combat the onslaught of the daily news where people commit heartbreaking, evil, and senseless crimes.
These wonderful books are a reminder that people are good and decent at heart. What I enjoy most about cozy fantasies is that their authors crafted stories for us to love. They are gifts for the world.
What is your favorite cozy fantasy novel?
Header Photo by Alisa Anton on Unsplash
I also love and write cozy fantasy. I found your books early in the pandemic and I think much of the world was looking for the same thing. People are following your Matthew Sugiyama and Akiko (in the Oil and Dust series) or my Zren Janin and the Wrens in (the Tales of Zren Janin series) on their quests to find family and a place to belong, because they offer a message of kindness and of hope. And the world is in such a short supply of both.
Yes! Kindness and hope, and a place to belong. The worse the news gets, the more I want to escape into these marvelous worlds. I’m excited to check out your series!