Cozy fiction is having a moment in the speculative world. It started with cozy fantasy, which has been growing in popularity for the last few years, but has now spread into the adjacent genres of sci-fi and even horror, and the publishers looking for cozy fiction have been popping up like toadstools since 2020.
For some context, the term “cozy” is borrowed from cozy mysteries. While the style the term describes has its roots in the 1920s, the term wasn't coined until the 1980s. It describes a mystery that focuses on solving a crime rather than the dark, gritty details. There are other typical tropes of the genre, like that they often have an amateur detective as the protagonist and typically take place in an isolated or secluded location, but the pertinent detail that earned the nickname “cozy” is that the stakes and the violence and both relatively low. The initial crime can be a murder, but it usually happens off-screen and to someone that neither the reader nor the protagonist care about too deeply.
This is the spirit that the term “cozy” represents when it's ported over to other genres. In a sense, it's become like the ”-punk” suffix, carrying implications of a specific tone that can be mixed and matched with other terms to create new subgenres. And, just like with -punk, different people seem to have different interpretations of exactly what it means. In the case of cozy, its use outside the mystery genre is relatively new, which adds to the confusion. But it's becoming enough of an established trend that the borders of the genre, and just what editors are looking for when they put out calls for it, are becoming more defined.
The rise of cozy fantasy
Cozy mystery's rise in popularity in the '80s was a reaction to the trend toward more realistic and violent fiction in mystery and crime writing during the '60s and '70s. Readers who enjoyed the stories of writers like Agatha Christie were eager for a return to stories that invited readers to solve puzzles rather than focusing on the grim details of the crime itself or its broader emotional implications.
The rise of cozy fantasy had more to do with readers' emotional states than their literary tastes. It started to gain prominence in the 2020, in the heart of the pandemic, when the world was on fire in more ways than one and many people were operating at a baseline level of stress and anxiety well above their norm. Readers didn't want to deal with heavy shit in stories. They wanted to escape to somewhere pleasant and peaceful, and cozy fantasy stories perfectly fit the bill.
As is the case with many speculative subgenres, work that fits the label existed before anybody gave it a special name. In the case of cozy fantasy, it existed well before. The earliest stories that can be seen as laying the foundation of later cozy fantasy date back to the early twentieth century, books like The Wind in the Willows, which includes things that have since become key tropes of cozy fantasy like a focus on community and an idyllic setting that often focuses on homey things like meals instead of descriptions of epic battles and world-scale stakes. Other early precursors of the subgenre came in the 1980s, like the novel Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones and movies made by Studio Ghibli.
The book that many see as the seminal work in the genre is the 2020 novel The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune. What's interesting is that it was published in mid-March of 2020, which means it was written and slated for publication well before that. In other words, it's the genre's readership and popularity that were influenced by the pandemic, not the book's writing. People have been writing this kind of quieter fantasy for years, but it wasn't until the 2020s that there was a strong enough interest in them for people to actively seek out other stories that share those traits, and justified forming a new subgenre for them.
Common tropes of cozy stories
I mentioned some of these in passing already, but each of the cozy subgenres has its typical set of tropes and traits that readers expect. This doesn't mean that every story includes all of these things, but if it doesn't have at least a couple of them readers might question whether it really belongs to the genre.
A cozy mystery can be generally defined as a lighthearted story centered around a crime being solved by an amateur sleuth, and which doesn't show any on-page gore, graphic violence, or explicit sex. Typical tropes of the genre include:
- A setting that could be described as quaint or charming, like an English village or a bed-and-breakfast on the New England coast
- A protagonist with a comforting, quiet, or hobby-related job, like librarian, antique dealer, cafe owner, or baker
- Protagonist often has a side-kick best friend to help them solve the case and share sarcastic banter
- Protagonist frequently has a love interest, though it's often complicated (a love triangle, a re-appearing ex, etc.)
- Cast of quirky secondary characters, often including archetypes like a local gossip, nosy neighbor, absent-minded professor, charming outsider, wealthy old eccentric, etc.
- A pet frequently features prominently in the story, either as a comforting companion to the protagonist or as a plot mover that notices clues or otherwise helps with the investigation
- While a murder is often the central crime, it takes place off-page
- The crime often takes place during a community or social gathering like a local festival or a major event like a wedding
- Active investigation scenes are usually interspersed with the protagonist's daily routine, which involves comforting, calm activities like gardening, cooking, or having coffee with friends
- Several false suspects are introduced, each with a believable motivation to comimt the crime, then ruled out in the course of the story
- The investigation often unearths the gossip, feuds, and scandals happening in secret in the small town
- Law enforcement often gets involved, and may be friendly toward hte protagonist or tell them to keep out of the investigation
- The perpetrator is caught at the end, and is usually someone who was introduced early from among the town's residents or the victim's friends, family, or neighbors
- The perpetrator is revealed in-scene, with the protagonist talking through what happened step-by-step, often explaining it to a group
- Often riff off of themes like found family, community, and contrasts like tradition vs. change or appearance vs. reality
For cozy fantasy, it can be defined as a kind of “feel-good” subgenre of fantasy, with a focus on more everyday activities and less on global, good vs. evil, let's-save-the-world type plots. The setting is often similar to what you'll find in high fantasy, and it may use a lot of the same character archetypes, but without the violence and epic journeys. Some common traits include:
- Hopeful and optimistic tone, with an emphasis on teamwork and kindness
- Focus on community and character relationships, particularly found families
- Frequently feature queer characters as the protagonist and/or in the central cast
- Protagonist often runs a business like an apothecary, bakery, or similar type of shop
- Protagonist may have a love interest, but it's not the central plot and there's little to no on-page physical romance
- Cast of characters often includes archetypes like a gruff mentor, awkward apprentice, cheerful innkeeper, absent-minded wizard, etc.
- Often take place within a single town and feature locations like tea shops and inns
- Setting is usually a calm, charming, and close-knit community
- Food and drink are usually worked into the book, especially comforting foods like tea or pastries
- Does have conflict, but the stakes are at the community or individual level (renovating a home or business, organizing a local festival, resolving a feud between neighbors, etc.)
- The world is magical, but magic is mundane and everyday, including things like sentient houses, magical knitting needles, enchanted gardens, etc.
- Features kindly fantasic creatures like friendly house spirits or talking cats
- Frequently riffs on the theme of rebuilding or recovery, and the protagonist is often in the process of starting a new life in the town when the story opens
...so you can see from comparing the two that there is a lot of overlap here, and that overlap is the space that I see the term “cozy” inhabiting. Cozy stories are character-driven and chock full of comfort, whether that takes the form of a garden-ringed Victorian inn or a festival in fairy town.
This same idea can be applied in other genres, too. There's cozy horror, which at first glance might seem like an oxymoron but describes stories that have low-intensity jumpscares or an ominous atmosphere but stop short of major violence and end with all the major players still safe and sound. Cozy sci-fi is the same idea as cozy fantasy but with technology instead of magic, usually set on a space station, colony, or alien planet. I've also seen the term cozy romance, which in my mind is a bit redundant but specifically describes a sweet romance set in a small town that features similar protagonists and settings to the other cozy genres.
Now, there are some who would define these subgenres more narrowly than I've done here. The must-haves for each of these genres vary depending on who you're talking to, which is honestly the case for any subgenre. But if you check those big-picture boxes, you'll write the types of stories publishers of these genres look for.
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