What Counts as Cozy Fantasy? || A Cozy Fantasy Book Discussion

High stakes vs low stakes stories, LGBT+ and an extreme case of the warm, fuzzy feelings. What makes a cozy fantasy book and why have these books exploded in popularity over the past few years (especially on booktok )? In this episode, Sabrina talks about all the criteria of a cozy fantasy book along with some of her favourites in the genre...though some may be a bit controversial!

Grab a cuppa/hot chocolate and a warm blanket and lets get snuggly!

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Sources:
Legends and Lattes
The Hobbit
The House in the Cerulean Sea
Good Omens

Transcript

Hello and welcome to Greeks and Geeks, the podcast where I take us on a persnickety but fun journey deep diving into the lore behind our favourite stories. I’m your host Sabrina and today we’re grabbing our blankets, warming up our pastries and maybe calling our local apothecary to ask for a good luck potion or two as we dive into the world of cozy fantasy. What is this burgeoning genre? Why has it gained popularity so quickly? And what examples of this genre are there? Let’s dive in.
If you’re on booktok, the subculture of tiktok that talks about books, then you’ve probably heard of cozy fantasy already. Cozy fantasy, by definition, it a subgenre of fantasy where the stakes are fairly low, where stories are usually character driven, there’s an element of community or found family, and the story has a feel-good, warm and fuzzy vibe to it. It can’t be called cozy fantasy if it doesn’t leave the reader feeling warm and content afterwards. Just like a book can have romance in it, but it cannot be called a romance book unless it has a happily ever after (or a happily ever after for now). Like any genre, there are slight variations to the above criteria, but that’s generally it.
The genre of cozy fantasy, or cozy literature in general, has been around for a while. Anime in particular, has had a HUGE cozy fantasy vibe for years in some of its films and tv shows. Think about Studio Ghibli movies like Kiki’s Delivery Service, My Neighbour Totoro or Howl’s Moving Castle….
Sorry I went to the place in my head that has Christian Bale’s Howl saying “There you are sweetheart” to Sophie on repeat for a second. Apologies. The girlies will get it. Let move on.
So yeah anime! This genre used to be called slice-of-life. The concept basically taking the mundane and everyday experiences of people, friends, family, communities, and sometimes offering a magical twist to them. Sometimes, but not always. You could just have regular people, doing regular people things (mainly highschool kids to be honest although I don’t know what’s so cozy about high school. My memories of high school involve frustration, sleepiness, confusion, and anxiety and that was in the subjects I was good in).
In these animes, it truly was the characters that made the show. Nobody watches Howls Moving Castle and cares too much about the war in the background of the story. The war is a minor detail that helps Howl and Sophie with their character development. Ok Hayao Miyazaki cared about the war of course. He deliberately wrote that part because he was putting an anti-war spin into the story, which I mean it was good, but he didn’t really need to. If you want an anti-war Ghibli movie, you can just watch Grave of the Fireflies which is fantastic but DEFINITELY not cozy in any way shape or form noooo. It’s the best film I’ll literally never watch again though!
Where was I?
Anywho, cozy fantasy as a genre has been around for a little while kind of mingling with other sub-genres like slice of life and cozy mystery. But in the last few years, the genre has really taken off on social media. People are clamouring for comforting, low stakes stories with a bit of magic. Why it that?
Well, I believe it has something to do with how chaotic the past few years of our lives have been. Almost overnight, the world changed with the pandemic. Endless scrolling social media apps like tiktok, Instagram, reddit, all are designed to keep us on them for as long as possible. Enter the era of “doom scrolling”. A lot of us have fallen victim to the endless feed of unhappy, scary, chaotic news from around the world. But what did that do to us psychologically? Well if you’re Taylor Swift you end up creating the best album of your career, yes I’m a folklore girlie DO NOT AT ME I DON’T CARE I ALSO LOVE SPEAK NOW BUT WE DON’T HAVE TIME TO YELL ABOUT TAYLOR SWIFT IM DOING A THING HERE. Basically, unfortunately, most of us aren’t Taylor Swift, and fear and uncertainty brought out a desperate need for stability. One of the trending colours, especially in interior design but also in fashion, in 2020 and 2021 was the colour brown, which is psychologically one of the most stable colours. Other popular tones were neutrals, warm earthy hues like dark green, warm creams and greys. As we were stuck inside most of the time, our minds were drawn to warm, cozy colours- I’m just saying that the colours for Folklore and Evermore are grey and brown respectively. I’M JUST SAYING. So if we looked for those stable, comforting colours in our homes, in our fashion and in the album art of one of our favourite artists, it’s also likely we looked for such a thing in the media we consumed too.
Ok the chaos of the past few years aside I believe there’s another factor in why the cozy fantasy genre has become so popular. And that factor is *dum da da daaaa* Capitalism. I know what you’re thinking, oh that old chestnut. It’s easy to blame capitalism for everything. And you’re right. It IS easy to blame Capitalism for most problems because the current STATE of capitalism is pretty rubbish. I don’t know if any of you have watched the TV show “The Good Place” but it really eloquently shows how there’s no ethical consumption under capitalism, and it’s also just a really great show in general so I highly recommend it. But listen, I’m not an economist and I’m not here to talk about capitalism in too much detail except to say that our current working and living conditions have made communities harder and harder to find. 
Western society especially is growing evermore isolated. People have to work 2-3 jobs just to make ends meet. In Britain in particular, harsh cuts to public services has meant that a lot of community spaces have shut down over the years. There’s talk about how there’s a severe lack of public or “third spaces” these days (third places are places separate from home or work where you’d regularly hang out with friends. Think Central Perk in Friends or the Café Nervosa in Frasier, or your local public library in the school holidays). And anyways, even if there were public spaces open outside regular office hours, who would have time to actually go to them? With more and more people working from home, too, even the second space “the work space” has disappeared from their lives. And humans are social creatures by nature. We crave community.
Bloody hell this is all getting a bit depressing, isn’t it? You came here for cozy fantasy chatter and I’m out here bumming you out talking about all this gloomy stuff. This is my inner Sally Jackson talking but I feel like I need to bake you all cookies now I’m sorry! Ok, to make it up to you, I’ll say this, although it might seem like it the world isn’t all doom and gloom, and out of all these terrible things, beauty can emerge and lives can change for the better. After all, we’re here talking about the popularity of a genre of literature booming due to all this sadness and uncertainty, a genre that has bought joy and comfort to millions and millions of people. And I think that’s really lovely.
One thing I forgot to mention about the cozy fantasy genre that I feel is a real important element, is how kindness is often a key feature in the characters. Our protagonists and the community or found family they’re surrounded by are always kind. If there are any antagonists, they’re usually not pure evil, usually they’re just mean or grumpy, or misunderstood or ignorant. And their minds or hearts can usually be swayed. Unlike regular fantasy where a common feature is rough and scary settings, where nobody can trust anybody. I don’t know about you, but one of the fastest ways to get me to DNF a book (besides pregnancy tropes or love triangles) is to have a character surrounded by people whom he/she can’t trust, even people they thought were their best friends. It’s one of the reasons why I could never get into Game of Thrones, if everyone can die- why should I get attached to the characters? Why should I get invested in their character arcs if they’re going to get killed for shock value or subverting expectations- the listener should note that I’m using very heavy air quotations for subverting expectations here. I know that’s the exact reason why lots of people LOVED the show, but yeaaaah not for me. Even with the dragons, which aren’t dragons they’re actually wyverns and YES that DOES bug me I’m one of those people I’m sorry.
Now I’m not saying all regular fantasy is that kind of edgy, grim dark stuff. Not at all. Even so there’s a lot of room for that kind of book if it’s written well, and I’m always willing to give any trope a chance (except surprise pregnancy I’m sorry I just can’t with that one). I enjoy darker settings, but not so much the grimdark ones. Though that’s a personal preference.
I really don’t think that it’s a coincidence that softness, kindness and community are a staple of the cozy fantasy genre. The world can be a mean, isolating, scary place- which I feel like we as a world have especially seen over the past few years. Cozy fantasy then, reminds us that we can find spaces like it if we have the courage to seek them out. Much like our discussions around the book Good Omens in episode 3, it offers up a much more optimistic view of humanity. 
Side note- I really do want to consider Good Omens cozy fantasy. It has incredibly high stakes, what with preventing the whole apocalypse, end of days, Armageddon business what not. HOWWWWWWWWEVER like I said, the stakes part of the cozy fantasy genre is generally the most flexible definition in my opinion. Because what are stakes? Stakes can be high or low but its how the reader responds to those stakes which defines them I feel. I mean, I read Good Omens and automatically the silly, tongue-in-cheek, parody-like tone of the novel makes me realise that whatever happens, things will turn out ok. Think about the film Shaun of the Dead. It’s a horror comedy because yes the zombie outbreak is horrific and people die or get turned into zombies. The stakes are incredibly high but the tone of it is so comedic and silly that it makes you feel happy and the ending is quite sweet. But then we start getting into arguments about how “just because something is a comfort movie, doesn’t mean it’s in the cozy fantasy genre” and all that spiel. Which I agree with yes, because I mean…some peoples idea of a comfort movie is American Psycho and I don’t think that’s cozy at all. I actually walked out of a viewing of that movie when I was 18 because I found it too scary, because for some reason, I can play horror games for days but plonk me in front of a horror film and I just CAN’T deal with it.
I mean I love, Jurassic Park, huge comfort movie for me, but it doesn’t exactly give an optimistic outlook on humans and it hardly gives you a sense of comfort and community. Especially not the book like bros, dudes, broskis, have you read the Jurassic Park book? Babies get eaten in that book! It is DARK. I should talk about Jurassic Park- the book and the film in a future episode because I have some rants about it (good ones).
So what do you think? Is Good Omens an example of cozy fantasy or not? Let me know!
We’ve established cozy fantasy as a genre and discussed why I think it’s now more popular than ever. Now I’m going to go through a couple of examples of some books which are considered cosy fantasy. I’ll give my opinions on each book as well as break down what exactly makes them cosy fantasy. I won’t be spoiling any of these books beyond what you could find on the blurb or other reviews so you can keep listening even if you haven’t read these yet! Let’s start off with one of the earliest examples of a cosy fantasy book, the Epic of Gilgamesh…
Just kidding it’s the Hobbit.
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The Hobbit
There are some people in the cozy fantasy world who are very much sticklers for the “low stakes” rule that absolutely insist that The Hobbit cannot be cozy fantasy and I tend to agree with them… if you’re referring to the trilogy, which is less cozy fantasy and more deeply uncomfortable nightmare. I mean what exactly is the opposite of the warm and fuzzy feelings? Because whenever that one token lady elf loses her dwarf boyfriend and goes “why does it hurt so much?” and Legolas’ daddy replies “because it was real” gives me that feeling. Ugh just thinking about it makes me want to lie on the ground. I’m going lads, see you next month byeee….
Ok I’ll cringe later I gotta finish this podcast!
The Hobbit is a book written by JRR Tolkien, the author of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. The story centres around a hobbit named Bilbo Baggins who lives in a quaint little hole in the ground (a fancy hole!) in a place called the Shire- a hamlet of rolling green countryside, pretty gardens, sumptuous foods and gossipy neighbours. Hobbits never do anything so brash as go on adventures until, one day, Bilbo gets tricked into one by the wizard Gandalf. Off we go on a series of episodic-like adventures, with an overarching plot to save his new dwarven companions treasure from the clutches of the nasty dragon Smaug. 
Why is the Hobbit cosy fantasy then? Isn’t there big, scary dragon and stuff? Aren’t there terrifying trolls? Isn’t there even a war in the latter half of the book? Last time I checked, wars were kind of the opposite of low stakes. I mean they’re pretty much the highest of stakes you can go, right along with alien invasions and stuff. So I guess Independence Day wouldn’t count as cozy fantasy, or cozy Sci-Fi really.
Anyways where was I?
The Hobbit is cozy fantasy despite the raising stakes of its episodic nature. Bear in mind that this is book that, whilst enjoyed by adults, was aimed at children first and foremost. Plus when many people think of the hobbit, they don’t think a lot about the battle at the end, which Bilbo missed a chunk of because he got bonked on the head by a rock and didn’t even really fight before that anyways. No most people consider this cozy fantasy because of the start of the book. Specifically The Shire.
The Shire is held up as this place of perfect serenity. Country life, beautiful flowers, long summery days and a party here and there. It’s a place where you can get comfy and eat as much as you want and being a fat little homebody is a good thing. There’s no body shaming, no 9-5 job, no seasonal affective disorder (I’m writing this with the clocks having gone back and so now I’m leaving work in the dark please send help, the hot chocolate isn’t enough). In todays go-go-go attitude, the Shire represents the same thing that a beach holiday or a cabin in the woods does. A chance to pause. To stop and smell the roses and the loaves of bread. To listen to local gossip without a care in the world. Even in-universe, the Shire is considered pretty sheltered to the political happenings of middle earth.
Beyond the Shire though, The Hobbit has a certain British charm to it. It’s cozy because of Tolkeins ability to write in such a delightful way. A message of hope and goodness is carried through The Hobbit as well as The Lord of the Rings. And hope is one of the key elements of a cozy fantasy story. Much like Good Omens in the previous episode, it has a fundamental optimism about the nature of humanity. For context, JRR Tolkein was a soldier in World War 1. He was a man who saw the worst human kind had to offer, and he wrote stories of bravery, of home, of good overcoming evil. I’ll leave you with a quote from the Hobbit now, which perfectly sums up why it’s a cozy fantasy for me.
“I have found that it is the small everyday deed of ordinary folks that keep the darkness at bay. Small acts of kindness and love.”
So we’ve established kindness, optimism and hope are key elements of a cozy fantasy. The stakes thing is a bit of touch and go and I know people will still disagree with me that the Hobbit is cozy fantasy- regardless of Bilbo’s battle-missing bonk on the head. Well then, what about the opposite then? What if we go the lowest stakes possible? The next book we cover can only be described as genre defining. The lowest of the low stakes…
And it doesn’t have a movie adaptation with any of its main characters jumping on falling rocks like freaking Super Mario either. LEGOLAS WHAT ARE YOU EVEN DO HERE WHY IS THERE A LOVE TRIANGLE I HATE IT SO MU-
(midi music)
Legends and Lattes
If you ask any cozy fantasy lover what book they think best encapsulates the genre, if they didn’t say The Hobbit, they’re probably going to mention Legends and Lattes. 
Legends and Lattes is a book written by Travis Baldree, a voice actor and author. The tale is about Viv, an orc swordsman and now retired adventurer who decides to open up a coffee shop in a town that’s never heard of coffee before. Her journey from retired adventurer to business owner is the main plot of the book and eventual employees and customers become a found family throughout the novel.
So from stealing treasure back from dragons and sleeping through a war, to trying to set up a coffee shop using a magical stone that helps you find your fortune. It’s definitely a low stakes book in the traditional sense, but I want to take some time to get a bit ranty about the concept of high and low stakes, because I feel like this is such a subjective phrase. Who decides what is high stakes and low stakes? After all we don’t think opening a coffee shop is very high stakes but for Viv its success determines her livelihood moving forward. I think this is why the high stakes/low stakes thing causes the most disagreements amongst cozy fantasy lovers and why I don’t think we should put as much of an emphasis on it and instead focus on “does it leave you with a warm, fuzzy feeling at the end?” criteria.
The themes of the book are, obviously, found family. But also the benefits of selflessness and community over selfishness and greed. One of the biggest reasons why people love it is that it’s an extremely character-driven novel, which focuses on the growing relationships between the characters. Cozy fantasy is much more character focused over plot focused, which leans into the idea that people are drawn to cozy fantasy because of the connections involved. In Legends and Lattes the characters are ones who’ve been subjected to stereotypes over the years, but whom are so much more than meets the eye. Even Viv. When I describe an orc swordsman you for sure pictured someone violent. But Viv is calm, intelligent and almost matronly in parts of the book. We most see this in the succubus Tandri. A succubus is a demon who specifically targets men to tempt. Tandri, however, doesn’t enjoy the attention she gets in that way. There are other characters who also defy their stereotypes.
Like the Hobbit, the fantasy backdrop serves to highlight the cozy nature of the book but in a slightly different way. Legends and Lattes is set in a world heavily inspired by dungeons and dragons, so that draws in the crowd who loves DnD. If the reader is familiar with DnD, this invites them into a world of play rather than the strictly  pre-built world of other novels. It’s sort of a strange mix between a well written book universe, and a game universe. It’s like reading a game of DnD where the players have gone off on a comfortable little side quest, or where the NPCs have carried on when the main party have already left. This, especially for lovers of DnD, feels very comfortable. Dare I say, almost fanfiction like? And I use the term fanfiction with fondness in this instance. When most people think of DnD they think of big adventures with a party of characters off to save the world from evil creatures and big bad evil guys (like Strahd or Vecna). So the contrast between stopping an evil vampire and trying to find the right pastry chef, is stark.
But there are other reasons why I think cozy fantasy has popped off the way it has. Wait. Did I just type “popped off?” oh my god ok I can only blame the fact that I’ve only half finished my tea. The Gen Z slang took over my brain for a second there. Regardless of my half-caffinated head, its time to talk about the value of acceptance in detail, with the final book we’re going to discuss. The House in the Cerulean Sea.
(midi music)
The House in the Cerulean Sea
The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune has one of the greatest honours on my reading list in that it is one of the very few books to have made me cry. And I don’t cry easily. But as a 30-something bisexual lady with a full time job who works with kids? It felt like TJ Klune was grabbing me by my rose-embroidered Doc Martins and hanging me off the side of Tower Bridge yelling “FEEL EMOTIONS OTHER THAN TIRED YOU OVERWORKED MILLENIAL DOUGHNUT”
I feel like I need to expand on that a little don’t I? Like maybe I should explain that weird image I just popped into your brains. Hmmm….nah. It’s more fun if I just leave you with that image. But I’ll tell you what the synopsis of the book is! 
Disclaimer: I don’t think TJ Klune would ever hang me off a bridge. Nor would he call me a doughnut. I’m sure that he’s a very nice man. Besides he’s American. They don’t use doughnut as an insult- if Homer Simpson is anything to go by. Maybe butthead? Is that it? Would TJ Klune call me a butthead? I’m getting really off topic here but I’m curious to know if Americans have like, lighthearted insults they give to their friends. Please let me know I’m really curious.
The House in the Cerulean Sea is about a 40-something man called Linus Baker, who works for the Department in Charge of Magical Youth (Or Dicomy as it’s often abbreviated to). He’s very good at his job, which comes across as really similar to the start of Stardew Valley if you’ve ever played that video game. He’s another cog in a relentless machine and lives alone with his cat. You get the sense of a very sad, grey life. Speaking of his job, it’s his role to inspect the government-sanctioned orphanages which house magical children. These magical children could be anything, any creature or show any signs of magical powers. You get the feeling that magical people are very much marginalised in this society. One day Linus gets a very important job. He is to inspect the orphanage of a man named Arthur. Why is this an important job? Because the magical orphans at Arthurs orphanage are special, powerful and dangerous.
Linus is, quite rightly, terrified. But so begins his journey to the house in the cerulean sea. I won’t go into what exactly happens there, but this is a tale of love, friendship, found family and acceptance. Linus has one of the most beautiful, heartwarming character arcs that I’ve read in a long time. It’s predictable, you can definitely see it coming, but does that mean it’s bad? I’ve never thought predictable is bad on it’s own, if the story is well written enough. There are also themes of change, and how hopeful it is that society can be more accepting to people they view as scary or different. I’m also warmed by how nobody bats an eyelid at the LGBT+ relationships which develop throughout the novel. Despite societies faults, this is not an issue. I’m reminded of an anime called Yuri on Ice, which was absolutely groundbreaking for it’s depiction of LGBT+ relationships when it came out in 2016. There, the creator said that they wouldn’t address homophobia in show because it simply didn’t exist in the world she created.
This is true with a lot of cozy fantasy novels. I have noticed that a lot of cozy fantasy readers are either allies or part of the LGBT+ community themselves. There are some novels, like the one I’m currently writing, that might lightly touch on the worries of acceptance in a wider society, but the characters in cozy fantasy novels generally never have to deal with homophobia in their immediate circles. If they do, it’s very mild and kind of goes along with the earlier mentioned “villains are usually grumps who change their tone” trope. This adds to the heartwarming, cozy feeling. A story suddenly turning into a muddled coming out drama isn’t something that I see happen in these stories. Even the cozy fantasy stories where characters aren’t in a relationship or the main couple is straight, the world the authors have built is usually an accepting one. It’s a comfort and relief. The same feeling as watching a terrible Netflix Christmas movie and knowing you aren’t going to suddenly get Jack the Ripper stalking all the characters in a santa hat. Although I’d kinda want to see that not going to lie. Except no I wouldn’t because I’m a giant baby who hates horror movies.
Thank you for listening to this episode of Greeks and Geeks. Next week is our final episode of this series and it’s going to be a little fun, a little silly, and I’m probably going to yell a lot as we take a look at a famous Greek Heroe, and roast the ever-loving daylights out of them. Until then, please like the podcast, follow and don’t forget to leave a review or rating as this really helps this podcast! I’m Sabrina and I’m Geeking Out! See ya next time, bye!