It has been a long quest, forced to aisle after aisle, the confusion of misplaced titles and books stacked clumsily. You are searching for a name, a fictional realm. You want to explore pages of adventures and unfamiliar worlds, the nonsense rhymes and illogical logic. But the needed chapters elude you. They have seemingly disappeared, fled from their appointed shelf and leaving you only with frustration. You need help. And it’s long minutes then of seeking out a store employee. They all seem to bleed into the walls, murals distinguished only by their breathing – but you finally find one, asking for assistance.

It comes in an unexpected form.

Because the book you want (the one you assumed to be pure fiction) has been placed with its truthful counterparts.

It is an easy error of readers that all of literature must be fact or fantasy. The categories are meant to be strict in their rules, unable to meet for any sort of compromise. And, though this rule is often followed, it can still be ignored: with the introduction of semi-fiction.

Defined simply, semi-fiction is the overlap of both history and narrative. Such books blur the lines between the past and the present’s conception of it. They often feature original characters injected into true events (or can even be representations of noted individuals, with all dialogue and thoughts created by the author to explain an era or action). They are not fiction in the purest understanding of the word. They are instead the collision of both reality and assumption.

Semi-fiction is often kept within historical genres or romances. It can, however, be presented in any form. It is composed of detailed research and invention; marking it a rare breed amongst all pages. Because of its less rigid structure, it can be found under any category – which can make seeking it out a complication. Prepare to look in uncommon aisles.

Books are not always as black and white as their print suggests. They can instead be unique.