AN EXTRAORDINARY MEMOIR OF BETRAYAL combines the power and insight of a poet’s voice with a clear-eyed look at how society marginalizes female experiences, but celebrates the strength found in women’s friendships. Searing and beautiful. A MINUS
SLEEK, TWISTY THRILLER starts with a car crash and a case of mistaken identity, then keeps up the pace with surprise after surprise. Lots of fun in this polished page-turner. B PLUS
THE POTENTIAL OF PSYCHEDELIC DRUGS as medications for mental health challenges, explored by a reporter through a combination of research and personal experiences—from tracking US clinical trials to rituals in remote Amazon villages. B PLUS
AN EPIC DYSTOPIAN THRILLER is also a profound, insightful parable of race relations, the cruelty of power, and the potential that everyone has for both good and evil. A MINUS
TENSE POLICE PROCEDURAL set in Wales has a tight plot, high stakes, memorable characters, and a powerful sense of the distinctive beauties of the countryside and the determination of its people. B PLUS
Read INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE by Anne Rice if you love recalling the past, grave mistakes, small things, New Orleans, chasing rumors, theatrics, asexual relationships, disconcerting dynamics, ruminating on evil, Paris, sad boys, revenge, losing your humanity & tape recorders.
A LOST, LEGENDARY MOVIE revived and remade after thirty years is at the heart of this spooky, evocative tale of how we create monsters and how we create ourselves. Cannily uncanny, thoughtful, and with touches of devastating satire. A MINUS
A SPACESHIP IN CRISIS NEEDS a captain, but Harold Galahad may be too overcome by loss to save his crew—and their troubles are getting worse by the day. Intergalactic adventure with a lot of psychological nuance! B PLUS
Read THE WONDER ENGINE by T. Kingfisher if you love sequels, hotel rooms & hot baths, talking badgers, plagues, clockwork monstrosities, grey markets, stupid paladins, crazy forgers, morally bereft assassins, idiot geniuses, the will of the gods, demonic cows, and indexes.
FROM HER TEENAGE ARRANGED MARRIAGE in a high-demand Hasidic Jewish community to her life now as a lesbian mom with a doctorate, a woman looks at her transformations through the years with clarity and deep compassion. B PLUS
THE SEARCH FOR BIGFOOT carries a journalist across the US and into a passionate community of amateur researchers—and beyond that into intriguing thoughts about legends, nature, and how shared endeavors bond us. B PLUS
Read CLOCKWORK BOYS by T. Kingfisher if you love road trips, getting an elite team together for a secret mission, paladin's overcome with guilt, rosemary, sparrows, assassins, scholars, damaged goods, demons, when things start to get strange, excellent potatoes tattoos & rats.
Read MAMMOTHS AT THE GATE by Nghi Vo if you love coming home, abbeys, clerica, being changed by grief, magical black boxes, memories & stories, rituals, the debris of a life well lived, allowing people to change, and birds.
A SCOTTISH RIFF ON FRANKENSTEIN is beautifully evocative, filled with both the mundane horrors of isolated, hardscrabble peasant life in 1797 and the otherworldly horrors of raising the dead. B PLUS
THIS STORY OF SEPARATION AND SACRIFICE could not be more timely: a young writer’s thoughtful memoir of finishing high school and college in the US on her own, after her parents had to return to Mexico, emphasizes the human costs of public policy. B PLUS
Read INTO THE RIVERLANDS by Nghi Vo if you love barroom brawls, traveling, bandits, people containing multitudes, martial arts, burials, dark smokey tea, being told your own story, heros, pretty girls, ugly woman, wild boars, standing watch, legacies & making friends on the road.
THE FIGHT FOR DISABILITY JUSTICE presented with passion, clarity, and wit by a writer and activist living with facial and skeletal differences who uses a wheelchair. Lovely mix of personal stories and a broader history and vision. B PLUS
Read WHEN THE TIGER CAME DOWN THE MOUNTAIN by Nghi Vo if you love campfire stories, shapeshifters, how stories differ & change as they're told, snowy snow snow, meat, cultural differences, wooly mammoths, unconventional love stories, taking notes, surviving the night & poetry.
Read THE EMPRESS OF SALT & FORTUNE by Nghi Vo if you love novellas, nonbinary clerics, snarky birds, ephemera & debris, political marriages, quiet revolutions, friendship, ghosts, knowing the ending but not how you'll get there, fortune tellers, games, anger & imperfect records.
A DISGRACED DETECTIVE RETURNS to help catch a serial killer whose unique signature is creating sculptures from victims’ bones. Gritty Louisiana thriller adds some fresh twists and a strong sense of place. B PLUS
Read CAN'T SPELL TEA WITHOUT TREASON by Rebecca Thorne if you love adorable lesbians, evil queens, running away, endless cups of tea, small towns, ley lines, dragons, baked goods, starting over, home renovations, so many books, griffins, moonstones & not so secret identities.
THE DIARY OF A SLACKER MOM starts in a whirl of exhaustion, playground angst, and post-partum libido, then expands as the protagonist faces her deep grief at the recent loss of her beloved sister. Gritty, distinctive voice with heart. B PLUS
THE COMPLICATIONS OF TIME TRAVEL prove to be bureaucratic, logistical, psychological, and even romantic in this high concept, high energy science fiction thriller. B PLUS