Comics
True histories, flights of fancy, and philosophical musings get the graphic treatment
All Our Ordinary Stories
Teresa Wong (Arsenal Pulp) $21.95
Wong explores her Chinese immigrant parents’ history with curiosity, wry humor, and moments of aching regret. The language gap is an overarching theme, as Wong struggles to translate a diagnosis into Cantonese for her mother and understand her parents’ separate, harrowing escapes from China during the Cultural Revolution, lamenting how little
they opened up to her about these and other experiences. Simple line drawings aptly
reflect complex emotions in this resonant journey into the past.
Einstein in Kafkaland
Ken Krimstein (Bloomsbury) $32
Bending real history into a fantastical tale, this playful graphic novel by New Yorker cartoonist Krimstein begins at a 1911 salon in Prague, which Franz Kafka and Albert Einstein both attended. Riffing on Alice in Wonderland, Krimstein follows Einstein’s attempt to come up with an equation to explain his theory of relativity, imagining conversations between the theoretical physicist and the writer. Irreverent yet full of tenderness for its subjects, this is a dizzying delight.
Gone
Jock (Dstlry) $30
Batman series cartoonist Jock brings his trademark gritty style to the dystopian adventures of 13-year-old Abi, an accidental stowaway on a labyrinthine spaceship where a virus-like “Entity” is zombifying the passengers. The book’s large panels and double-page spreads impart an epic, cinematic feel as Abi is pitted against the vast and endless emptiness of space. It’s a whip-smart adventure that barrels along at warp speed.
Milk Without Honey
Hanna Harms, trans. from the German by Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp (Street Noise) $21.99
Through elegant black and yellow illustrations, Harms traces the ecosystems that pollinators inhabit and exposes the dangers that threaten their existence. A single bee’s voyage from a small flower petal to a thriving hive is contextualized within the larger systems that bees help sustain, which have been decimated by human behaviors. The big picture solution—“a new world” where humans commit to a holistic, ecological mindset—begins, like the bee’s journey, with a small step: planting a few seeds.
The Mushroom Knight
Oliver Bly (Mad Cave) $19.99
Bly’s riotously imaginative dark fairy tale plunges readers into a “wide green world” of adventure beneath the feet of oblivious humans, who perceive the realm of massive trees, treacherous grass jungles, and complex magical societies as a wooded lot in Philadelphia. The two worlds intersect when Gowlitrot the Gardener, a humanoid mushroom on a quest to retrieve an artifact called the Candle Fly, has a run-in with Lemuelle, a young Black girl looking for her lost dog.
Past Tense
Sacha Mardou (Avery) $30
Mardou begins her frank, clear-eyed memoir when, as a seemingly contented, married 40-year-old with a young child, she’s suddenly wracked by intense anxiety. Initially reluctant to try therapy (“I’m British. We don’t do therapy. We do sarcasm and alcoholism and football hooliganism”), she finds a skillful practitioner and begins to reconcile her suppressed memories of family traumas. Mardou convincingly charts her evolution from therapy cynic to take-charge advocate, resulting in a potent testament to the power of reckoning with the past.
The Puerto Rican War
John Vasquez Mejias (Union Square) $20
The bulk of this Angoulême-winning graphic history takes place in 1950, as members of the Puerto Rican Nationalist movement launch an uprising against U.S. control of the island, initiating several deadly conflicts. Mejias finds surreal moments of beauty amid the carnage, such as a depiction of a boy picking mangoes in a grove. The painstakingly hand-carved woodblocks create vibrant, detailed scenes that lend a poetic touch throughout.
Return to Eden
Paco Roca, trans. from the Spanish by Andrea Rosenberg (Fantagraphics) $29.99
A 75-year-old photograph gives rise to an expansive family portrait in the poignant, sepia-toned latest from Eisner winner Roca. A beachside snapshot Roca’s mother Antonía cherished from her teenage years becomes a pretext for gathering stories, and as the family tree takes shape, a picture emerges of a corrupt, impoverished Francoist Spain. The photo, it seems, represented a lost paradise: “Antonía created her own Eden.” Economical, elegant cartoon realism balances the story’s humble tone with a panoramic scope.
Second Hand Love
Yamada Murasaki, trans. from the Japanese by Ryan Holmberg (Drawn & Quarterly) $24.95
Murasaki, who died in 2009, was one of the most insightful and captivating authors of 1970s and ’80s alternative manga. Most of this exquisite collection comprises the masterfully understated graphic novel A Blue Flame, which tells the story of an affair in a series of vignettes. The other narrative is the title story, which follows Yuko, a café owner haunted by her father’s infidelity. It’s a perfect introduction to Murasaki’s heady feminist dramas.
Zodiac
Ai Weiwei, with Elettra Stamboulis, illus. by Gianluca Costantini (Ten Speed Graphic) $28.99
This poignant graphic memoir from Chinese artist and activist Weiwei is divided into 12 chapters named for the signs of the zodiac, interweaving the story of his development and persecution as an artist with Chinese fables and folktales. Constantini’s understated, intricate black-and-white comics depict Weiwei’s philosophizing anecdotes: “You like speaking in metaphors,” Weiwei’s partner points out. This is a sage and inventive embroidery of philosophy, family history, and culture.
General Fiction
Our picks include books by returning favorites—Jami Attenberg, Richard Powers, Kiley Reid, and more—and exciting newcomers
City of Laughter
Temim Fruchter (Grove) $27
This hopeful intergenerational story of queerness and Jewish folklore follows 31-year-old Shiva Margolin, abandoned by her girlfriend and feeling frustrated and stuck in her New York City life, and her recently widowed mother, Hannah. While Hannah tries to adjust to widowhood and begins reckoning with her own mother’s anxious parenting, Shiva travels to an ancestral Polish town to explore their family’s past. Fruchter draws on real and imagined folk tales for this touching portrait of culture, faith, and community.
Come and Get It
Kiley Reid (Putnam) $29
In Reid’s no-holds-barred comedy of manners, Agatha Paul, a white writer in her late 30s, arrives as a visiting professor at the University of Arkansas and interviews a group of entitled young women who live in a dorm for scholarship students. She decides to write a book about them, eavesdropping on their conversations with the help of Millie Cousins, a Black RA who resents the other students’ shamelessness. Every page sparkles in this blistering send-up of academia.
The God of the Woods
Liz Moore (Riverhead) $30
This gripping and revelatory novel revolves around a prominent banking family’s troubled legacy in the Adirondacks. First, in the 1960s, Peter and Alice Van Laar’s eight-year-old son Bear vanishes from the house; then, in 1975, 13-year-old Barbara disappears from her summer camp. Moore gradually reveals the truth about the disappearances and the Van Laars’ pain and unhappiness, shedding a light on Peter’s reluctance to prioritize the family’s well-being over its reputation. The beautiful and dangerous wilderness setting enhances the suspense.
Great Expectations
Vinson Cunningham (Hogarth) $28
New Yorker writer Cunningham leans on his experience with Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign in this sophisticated bildungsroman. Narrator David, a young Black man adrift in Chicago, connects with the campaign of an Obama-like politician known as “the Senator.” David keenly longs for something to believe in, but his work mainly consists of selling tickets to fund-raising dinners and arranging staged meetings between the Senator and voters. This is a remarkable exploration of the power and limits of believing in something bigger than oneself.
Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books
Kirsten Miller (Morrow) $30
Miller sets her incisive social comedy in a Georgia town where empty nester Lula Dean, starved for attention, finds purpose banning books she deems inappropriate for children, including Anne Frank’s The Diary of a Young Girl and Toni Morrison’s Beloved. Lindsay Underwood, a lesbian teen, sneaks the banned titles into Lula’s makeshift lending library of “approved” volumes, and the locals who read them become inspired to transform the town for the better.
Martyr!
Kaveh Akbar (Knopf) $28
Poet Akbar explores the allure of martyrdom in this electrifying story of a Midwestern poet struggling with addiction and grief. Cyrus, an orphaned son of Iranian immigrants, is fixated on finding meaning in his parents’ deaths. His obsession and habitual substance abuse strain his relationships, including a budding queer romance with his roommate and closest friend Zee. Akbar deploys a range of styles with flair, from funny wordplay to incisive lyricism (“An alphabet, like a life, is a finite set of shapes”).
The Ministry of Time
Kaliane Bradley (Avid Reader) $28.99
The unnamed narrator of this clever novel is selected by the government to aid a new agency to process time travelers from the past. Her assigned “expat” is roguishly handsome real-life polar explorer Lt. Graham Gore; the narrator, whose mother was a Cambodian refugee, feels kinship with Gore’s sense of disorientation. Cloak-and-dagger plotting and a critique of the British Empire offer scaffolding for sly commentary on the disruptions and displacements of modern life.
Playground
Richard Powers (Norton) $29.99
Pulitzer winner Powers delivers an epic drama of AI, neocolonialism, and oceanography. A mysterious American consortium plans to launch floating cities from the Polynesian island of Makatea, a project some Makateans hope will initiate economic renewal and others fear for its potential environmental harms. Following a former literature student, a social media billionaire, and a marine biologist, the novel awes with the elegance of Powers’s prose, the scope of his ambition, and the exacting reverence with which he writes about the imperiled natural world.
A Reason to See You Again
Jami Attenberg (Ecco) $28
In 1970s Chicago, Frieda Cohen is a critical, hard-drinking mother to Nancy and Shelly; their loving father, Rudy, is a gay Holocaust survivor who dies from heart failure. By the late 1990s, Nancy is raising a child with her college boyfriend and Shelly has become an innovator in cell phone tech. They’re brought together in 2001, when Frieda, now living in Miami, falls ill. Attenberg paints a nuanced portrait of a distinctly unhappy family—perfect for the friend or sibling who dreads going home for the holidays.
The Sons of El Rey
Alex Espinoza (Simon & Schuster) $28.99
Espinoza weaves an arresting story of an elderly wrestler’s last days. In hospice, Ernesto Vega is visited by his son Freddy, who is agonizing over having to close Ernesto’s East L.A. gym, and his gay grandson Julian, an underpaid professor. The ghostly appearances of his dead wife, Elena, and his wrestling persona, El Rey Coyote, press Ernesto to reexamine his life. Each character is brought to vivid life, and the lucha libre scenes shine.
Mysteries & Thrillers
Pulse-pounding thrillers, holiday-themed crime tales, and twisty mysteries keep readers happily guessing.
Deadly Animals
Marie Tierney (Holt) $29.99
Fourteen-year-old aspiring forensic pathologist Ava is sneaking out of her South Birmingham home at 2 a.m. to visit the spot where she stashes and studies roadkill when she discovers the corpse of a local teen bully who’s been missing. When a detective comes canvassing, Ava offers keen observations that prompt him to consult her when other children go missing. She’s the clever, compassionate, and resourceful beating heart of this macabre procedural.
Eight Very Bad Nights
Edited by Tod Goldberg (Soho Crime) $27.95
Goldberg presents a winning anthology of 11 Hanukkah-themed crime stories. Stefanie Leder’s entry, “Not a Dinner Party Person,” centers on Rachel, a proud sociopath whose fraught relationship with her family leads to an eventful final night of Hanukkah. And in David L. Ulin’s defiantly dark “Shamash,” a New York City man who’s grown weary of caring for his ailing 90-year-old father uses the family menorah to carry out some drastic action.
Everyone This Christmas Has a Secret
Benjamin Stevenson (Mariner) $19.99
In this meta-whodunit, Australian golden age mystery expert Ernest Cunningham comes to the aid of his ex-wife, who’s been locked up for the stabbing death of her philanthropist partner. The clues are doled out in the form of an Advent calendar, with one fair-play puzzle piece revealed at the end of each chapter. This third outing for Cunningham stands on its own, and as usual, Stevenson hits the sweet spot between self-awareness and sincerity.
Karla’s Choice
Nick Harkaway (Viking) $30
George Smiley returns in this terrific spy saga from John Le Carré’s son. In 1963, when a Hungarian publisher fails to show up at his London office, Smiley is tasked with finding him and figuring out why the Soviets want him dead. Smiley launches a labyrinthine mission that puts him back on the trail of his old nemesis, Karla, head of the KGB. Longtime Smiley devotees will delight in this.
Rough Pages
Lev AC Rosen (Forge) $27.99
Rosen’s immersive third mystery featuring gay San Francisco ex-cop Andy Mills works as a standalone and captures the joys and fears of being queer in 1950s America. When a pair of bookshop owners disappear, Andy worries not only for their safety but also that the subscriber list for their mail-order gay book service could fall into the wrong hands. Readers interested in queer history will be especially enchanted.
The Treasure Hunters Club
Tom Ryan (Atlantic Monthly) $27
After Peter’s estranged grandmother Mirabel dies in a mysterious accident at the family mansion in Maple Bay, Nova Scotia, he meets a teenager named Dandy who tells him about the Obelisk treasure. The collection of pirate jewels was sought by Mirabel, the teen’s late grandfather, and a group of locals known as the Treasure Hunters Club—the members of which are starting to drop dead. It’s a caper tailor-made for fans of The Goonies.
Violet Kelly and the Jade Owl
Fiona Britton (Allen & Unwin) $17.99
Seventeen-year-old Violet recently left the orphanage where she’d lived since birth to work as an escort at Maison des Fleurs. She quickly becomes one of the bordello’s top earners but soon learns that a dangerous acquaintance from the madame’s past has strong-armed her into imprisoning a young Chinese woman named Shen. This rollicking adventure mixes high-energy action
with glimpses at the harsh realities facing the poor in 1930s Sydney, Australia.
We Love the Nightlife
Rachel Koller Croft (Berkley) $29
In 1979, vampire Nicola spots 23-year-old Amber on a London dance floor. Instant attraction moves Nicola to bite Amber and bring her back to her ancestral manse. Fast-forward 50 years and Amber has begun to feel stifled; Nicola feels Amber pulling away, and makes an alluring proposition: they’ll open their own nightclub and recapture their glory days. Croft’s devilish plotting pays heed to classic vampire tropes without succumbing to them.
Wordhunter
Stella Sands (Harper) $18.99
Raised in poverty in Central Florida, 20-something Maggie sees her ability to identify nearly anyone based on their syntax and sentence structure as her only ticket out. Her linguistics professor recognizes Maggie’s talent and connects her to local police, who enlist her to track down the mayor’s kidnapped daughter. This crackling mystery centered on a Lisbeth Salanderesque savant transfixes from the first page.
You Know What You Did
K.T. Nguyen (Dutton) $28
Painter Annie appears to be living the American dream in the Virginia countryside. The facade cracks when she discovers her elderly Vietnamese refugee mother’s dead body among her hoarded goods in Annie’s carriage house. In the weeks that follow, Annie gradually loses her grip on reality. Braiding together psychological suspense and a poignant study of war’s intergenerational trauma, Nguyen adds depth to the familiar setup of the unreliable, mentally ill heroine.
Poetry
A book of verse invites meditation and contemplation on a long winter night.
Being Reflected Upon
Alice Notley (Penguin Books) $20
Pulitzer finalist Notley takes the title of her expansive 50th book from a poem by Frank O’Hara: she is “reflected upon” by people and places witnessed and imagined from a 17-year period of loss, illness, and joyful remembering. After the death of her second husband in 2000, Notley lives in Paris, undergoes chemotherapy, and travels to visit her mother in her California hometown. Notley’s stamina and humor are good company throughout.
Instructions for Traveling West
Joy Sullivan (Dial) $17
In this sunny collection, Sullivan traces a lifelong journey of self-discovery and self-acceptance with deceptive depth. She captures small pleasures even as she faces major challenges, including a bad marriage and a cross-country relocation. These blunt and unpretentious poems suggest that contending with life’s troubles “makes everything simple and urgent: there’s only time to turn toward what you truly love.”
Latino Poetry
Edited by Rigoberto González (Library of America) $40
The breadth of works in this collection—253 poems by 186 Latino poets, spanning the early 17th century through 2023—makes for a comprehensive look at the evolution of Latino poetry. González situates the poems within a larger context of the interwoven legacies of colonialism and imperialism, highlighting the collection’s thematic through lines: cultural identity, memory, social justice, and the interplay of personal and collective histories.
Sonnets for a Missing Key
Percival Everett (Red Hen) $16.95
Those most familiar with Everett as the author of James and Erasure (adapted as the 2023 film American Fiction) may be surprised by this formally virtuosic collection, which interrogates the sonnet as a mode for thought and a vehicle for sonic inquiry and play. In the volume’s first half, he structures his sonnets around the Italian model; the second half incorporates tempo instruction, as in a poem with directions for “liveliness.” Wry and epigrammatic, these poems challenge and expand the possibilities of the form.
This Is the Honey
Edited by Kwame Alexander (Little, Brown) $35
This essential anthology, edited by poet and Newbery medalist Alexander, includes work by more than 100 living Black poets. In his introduction, Alexander centers joy and wonder as guiding principles, describing the anthology as “a gathering space for Black poets to honor and celebrate. To be romantic and provocative. To be unburdened and bodacious.” Featuring a refreshing mix of established and emerging voices, the volume showcases a thriving and multifaceted poetic tradition.
Wrong Norma
Anne Carson (New Directions) $17.95
Carson’s genre-bending latest features the time-splicing mythology readers have come to expect of her fiercely intelligent, mordantly articulate mind. The mostly prose poems revisit classical myth through contemporary idiom, covering a range of material and allusions, and her use of hybrid forms and quest for both surprise and accuracy renew the medium.
You Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World
Edited by Ada Limón (Milkweed) $25
Gathered by U.S. poet laureate Limón, this beautifully curated anthology of 50 previously unpublished poems challenges preconceptions about “nature poetry” while musing on humanity’s relationship to the planet. As Limón writes in the introduction: “these poems represent the full spectrum of how we human animals connect to the natural world.” (One take, in Carrie Fountain’s poem “You Belong to the World”: “You belong to the world, animal. Deal with it.”) The collection stands apart for the strength of its entries and the breadth of its superb meditations on a pressing theme.
Romance
Stories of love and longing—plus at least one Jane Austen cameo and Taylor Swift homage—warm readers’ hearts (and other parts).
The Breakup Tour
Emily Wibberley and Austin Siegemund-Broka (Berkley) $17
In this second-chance romance by a married author duo, pop star Riley Wynn’s latest breakup album is a smash, and her obnoxious ex-husband claims its lead single is about him in order to boost his follower count. This prompts Riley to reconnect with the song’s real subject: Max, her college boyfriend, who broke her heart a decade ago. In a nod to Riley’s real-world inspiration, the authors dedicate the novel “to the Swifties, and Miss Swift.”
The Emperor and the Endless Palace
Justinian Huang (Mira) $28.99
At once page-turning and deeply thoughtful, Huang’s sweeping gay love story unfolds across multiple timelines. In first-century-BCE China, a low-ranking clerk is tasked with capturing the young emperor’s attention, initiating a story of love and betrayal that echoes through centuries to present-day L.A., when a semi-closeted college student is drawn into queer high society by a mysterious artist who has, somehow, captured the student’s face over the ages. Drawing from history and myth, Huang weaves these narratives together, creating a central couple readers will root for.
Here for the Wrong Reasons
Annabel Paulsen and Lydia Wang (Alcove) $18.99
Writing and romantic partners Paulsen and Wang craft a tremendously fun sapphic rom-com. Rodeo queen Krystin and closeted influencer Lauren, along with 33 other women, are vying for the heart of Josh Rosen on season 22 of Hopelessly Devoted, a Bachelor-esque reality show. Instead, they find themselves falling for each other. Studded with dating show staples, like over-the-top excursions and cheesy on-camera dialogue, this is a deliciously addictive tale.
In a Not So Perfect World
Neely Tubati-Alexander (Harper) $30
Broken hearts, hot neighbors, and spontaneous vacations animate this enchanting rom-com. On a night out, Sloane kisses Charlie on a dare; the two later learn that they’re neighbors. Charlie impulsively asks Sloane to join him in Turks and Caicos; he hopes to show Brooke, his ex, that he can move on quickly, and Sloane, likewise hoping to show up an ex, agrees. Over a week of fake dating, a relationship develops with perfect pacing, making Sloane and Charlie’s connection feel honest and credible.
Isabel and the Rogue
Liana De la Rosa (Berkley) $19
De la Rosa’s second Luna Sisters Victorian romance, which stands on its own, puts middle sister Isabel in the spotlight. Forced to leave her native Mexico for England, Isabel is determined to help her homeland fight against the French occupation, and searches the homes of the powerful for British intelligence that might prove useful. Her amateur sleuthing is hindered by war hero Capt. Sirius Dawson, who’s after the same intel and hopes to keep Isabel safe. Attraction ignites as the pair are forced into tight quarters.
Looking for a Sign
Susie Dumond (Dial) $18
Gray is hesitant to date again after ending a 10-year relationship, but she wants nothing more than to find a wife, settle down, and have kids. Prompted by a local astrologer, she challenges herself to go on a date with one person of each star sign. Blending humor, tenderness, and a deep knowledge of astrology, this joyful queer romp will tickle anyone who believes that love is written in the stars.
Pardon My Frenchie
Farrah Rochon (Forever) $17.99
Rochon pairs a canine-averse ex-Marine with a doggie day-care owner. Ashanti Wright hopes to expand her business by buying a nearby property when Thad Sims scoops up the property himself, to convert it to a gathering place for veterans. Despite the lingering real estate tension and Thad’s initial dislike of all things canine, sparks soon fly. The pair’s witty banter and inevitable enemies-to-lovers arc captivate.
Puck and Prejudice
Lia Riley (Avon) $18.99
Pro hockey goalie Tuck Taylor mysteriously finds himself in 1812, and spinster Lizzy Wooddash believes his claim that he’s from the future. Tuck wants to find his way back to his own time; Lizzy wants to avoid ever being forced into an unwanted marriage. On the advice of Lizzy’s friend Jane Austen, the two wed, so that when Tuck disappears, Lizzy will be granted all the freedom afforded to widows. It’s a solid scheme until mutual attraction makes both parties wish for more time together. The conceit that Lizzy inspired Elizabeth Bennett in Pride and Prejudice adds an extra layer of fun.
Someplace Generous
Edited by Elaina Ellis and Amber Flame (Generous Press) $18.99
Acting on Generous Press’s mission “to publish lush, high-caliber romance fiction written by brilliant BIPOC, queer, and disabled authors,” editor Ellis and poet Flame bring together 21 exquisite love stories, including Jessica P. Pryde’s goofy and fantastical romance between an assassin and her impossible-to-kill target, and Temim Fruchter’s tender, sensual meet-cute between two middle-aged Orthodox Jewish women during Shavuot. With lengthy, luxurious stories and shorter, sexy entries, there’s something here for any taste.
The Takeover
Cara Tanamachi (Griffin) $18
On her 30th birthday, reeling from a broken engagement, Nami makes a wish to find her soulmate—and unexpectedly receives a text from her high school nemesis, Jae Lee. As teens, Nami and Jae competed in everything from athletics to academics; he beat her out by 0.245 points to become class valedictorian. Now the ruthless tech giant Jae works for is angling to buy Nami’s struggling startup. The old competition between them heats up again, this time in the boardroom—and then in the bedroom.
Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror
Please your favorite geek with these epic adventures, reimagined histories, and dark tales of things that go bump in the night.
Absolution
Jeff VanderMeer (MCD) $30
VanderMeer expands his Nebula and Shirley Jackson Award–winning Southern Reach trilogy with an eerie prequel set two decades prior. Three discrete narratives involve a doomed research trip, a mind-controlled black op, and a drugged soldier manipulated into a dangerous mission by a rogue agent. VanderMeer provokes, mystifies, and challenges readers in turn.
Floating Hotel
Grace Curtis (DAW) $28
This cozy, compulsively readable sci-fi adventure is set aboard the Grand Abeona Hotel, a luxurious resort starship on a perpetual tour of the galaxy. The subtle plot chronicles the experiences of the hotel’s staff and guests as they delve into the Grand Abeona’s many mysteries, in a feel-good, found-family saga that centers optimism in the face of an increasingly dark universe.
The God and the Gumiho
Sophie Kim. Del Rey, $18
An infamous gumiho—a Korean nine-tailed fox spirit—partners with a disgraced god in this enchanting fantasy. Retired from consuming souls, gumiho Kim Hani is working as a barista when she becomes caught up in a murder investigation conducted by Detective Seokga, the erstwhile god of trickery, who doesn’t realize the culprit he seeks is the woman he’s coming to love. The mix of action, mystery, and deliciously angsty romance reads like the most bingeable K-drama.
Lake of Souls
Ann Leckie (Orbit) $30
Leckie collects 18 stories for a stunning showcase of her talents. She plays with tone—from dark political intrigue in the sci-fi “Another Word for World,” to the Burroughs-esque “Hesperia and Glory” and the rollicking Wodehousian “Saving Bacon”—but in every borrowed style (and in the style that is wholly the Hugo and Nebula Award winner’s own), the detailed worlds, intelligent plotting, and clear-eyed compassion make these stories stand out.
The Last Dangerous Visions
Edited by Harlan Ellison (Blackstone) $27.99
J. Michael Straczynski, close friend of Ellison (1934–2018) and the executor of his estate, honors his commitment to publish the brilliant third and final Dangerous Visions anthology. These 32 stories come from big names, including James S.A. Corey and David Brin, and relative unknowns. The tales are bookended by Straczynski’s essays describing his relationship with Ellison and the process of selecting what’s been included in this volume, which was initially scheduled to appear in 1974.
The Lost Story
Meg Shaffer (Ballantine) $29
In this brilliant riff on the Chronicles of Narnia, Emilie Wendell learns she has a half sister who disappeared 20 years earlier and enlists the help of famous missing-persons investigator Jeremy Cox to find her. As teenagers, Jeremy and his best friend, Rafe Howell, went through a portal into a fantastical realm and emerged six months later completely changed. Rafe joins in the search for Emilie’s long-lost sister, and the investigation takes both men back to that wondrous but deadly world.
Midnight Rooms
Donyae Coles (Amistad) $28
This atmospheric gothic novel set in Victorian England centers on Orabella, a biracial (half Black, half white) orphan whose white uncle marries her off to the mysterious Elias Blakersby to settle a debt. Despite Elias’s kindness, Orabella is plagued by dizzy spells, unexplained bruises, and intrusive, creepy servants, and must uncover the secrets of the Blakersby family before she is subsumed into their dreamlike manor.
Navola
Paolo Bacigalupi (Knopf) $30
Bacigalupi, a Hugo and
Nebula Award winner, dazzles in this addictive account of the rivalries between powerful families in a brilliantly rendered fantastical world inspired by 15th-century Florence. Davico di Regulaif is the scion of an influential, politically ambitious banking family, but his trajectory as his father’s successor is imperiled when he’s betrayed and must undertake a desperate flight to survive. Complicating matters: Davico’s obsession with his father’s rare dragon’s eye orb, and his hints early on that he’s not being entirely truthful with the reader.
The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain
Sofia Samatar (Tordotcom) $18.99
Samatar’s haunting, ultimately uplifting novella examines capitalism and labor exploitation through a sci-fi lens. A boy raised in the hold of a mining spaceship is rescued to the world above through a scholarship program implemented by a professor whose father also grew up in the hold. The relatively familiar academic setting slowly unravels, revealing the deep horrors underlying the characters’ reality. This far-future allegory highlights the power of collective action in the face of oppression.
The Village Library Demon Hunting Society
C.M. Waggoner (Ace) $19
Plentiful humor and endearing friendships lend loads of heart to a story tailor-made for the intersection between fantasy fans and Murder, She Wrote stans. Librarian Sherry Pinkwhistle is a transplant to Winesap, New York, an upstate town with an unusually high murder rate. When her boyfriend is killed, the townsfolk push Sherry, an amateur investigator, to look into it. She becomes certain that something is very wrong—a something that appears to be demon related.
Where the Dead Brides Gather
Nuzo Onoh (Titan) $17.99
In 1977 Nigeria, a child suffering night terrors is subjected to an exorcism. When the ritual goes awry, she wakes up in a dimension of brides who never lived to experience their promised matrimony. What she learns there changes her understanding of the world of the living and imbues her with supernatural abilities that are as much a curse as a blessing. The novel’s many twists are by turns terrifying, hilarious, and heartbreaking.
Womb City
Tlotlo Tsamaase (Erewhon) $27
Tsamaase mixes a potent blend of Afrofuturist sci-fi and body horror set in a dystopian surveillance state that “recycles” the bodies of minor criminals, allowing old souls to reincarnate. Nelah Bogosi-Ntsu, one such body hopper, must go to desperate lengths to hide an accidental killing and save the life of her yet-to-be-born daughter who’s growing in one of the city’s Wombcubators. It all adds up to a thrilling and thought-provoking page-turner.
