I was one of those people who adored Legends and Lattes (by Travis Baldree) when it came out. Like many, I re-read a lot of comforting books and watched a lot of comforting TV during Melbourne’s extended lockdowns (although my comforting may not match anyone else’s… see: my re-watching of Fringe.) So I have found the ongoing discussions about “cosy fantasy” really interesting
In fact, I often find discussions of genre and categories fascinating (at least, when it’s coming from a place of love rather than hate…). In this essay, Dove Cooper looks at the relatively recently named sub-genre of cosy (or cozy) fantasy. In particular, Cooper interrogates the question of whether Robin McKinley’s 1993 novel Deerskin ‘counts’ as a cosy, given that it involves some difficult themes. In doing so, she explores what can be ‘allowed’ in a cosy fantasy, and what that says about the genre.