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Writer TJ Klune has gained immense popularity for his heartfelt stories celebrating queerness within a magical realist lens. Klune has also been an outspoken supporter for why queer stories are more important now than ever, and at the LA Times's Festival of Books, this sentiment was felt deeply in a packed auditorium. 

When asked by a fan during audience Q&A if he writes magical realism because he "lowkey wants magic to be real," Klune had this to say.

"Always, always. When I was a kid I didn't get to see myself in anything, but at the same time I also realized that the magic I wanted to see was something that I had to create myself. And I was very much able to do that because if there's something I want to see that doesn't exist, I could create it, I could write it out and I could make it real.

When you're looking at books like The House on the Cerulean Sea, Under the Whispering Door, In the Lives of Puppets, any of those, what's one thing you don't see in them? You don't see homophobia. That's the real world. Homophobia is all over the place... and at the same time, I don't have to put that in there, and that is kind of a magic to me. That is magic to me that a world can exist where nobody gives a shit who you fall in love with, just the fact that you're happy. But yeah. I wish magic was real. I totally do, because there's so many people that I would want to be like, 'Oh no, you suck, disappear!'" Klune said with a laugh. 

I can think of a few people in the world who I would love to say, "disappear!" to. It's clear that Klune has thought a lot about what it means for a queer writer to construct magical realist stories, and what the definition of magical realism even is when you center queer people in your narrative. And for that, the world is in a better place because of it.  

Just like yourself, the Popverse staff spends a whole lot of time with our respective noses in respective books. It's why we've come up with stuff like:

• The hottest upcoming fiction
• Queer romance to add to your reading list
• A reading guide to Cassandar Clare's Shadowhunter Chronicles

...and a whole lot more. Join our metaphorical library, won't you? There are no late fees and you can be as loud as you want, so long as the people you live with are OK with it.