The perfect cozy fall read when your idea of happily ever after involves living your best life with a witchy friend and eschewing men.
After a tragic fall ends her Olympic running career, Caroline's falls again--this time for Finn, prince of a small, wealthy country. Before she has even begun to develop her sense of self, she is married and trapped in a life everyone else considers a fairy tale. This harrowing novel begins as a romance and descends into horror. A scathing indictment of monarchy and marriage.
This novel opens when Travis is hired to find Maggie St. James, unknowing that he too, will disappear. Then the story takes a turn to the isolated community of Pastoral, where the residents never leave, afraid of the disease-stricken trees surrounding their land. But Theo has been sneaking past the boundary at night....
This is a perfect spooky season read with an atmospheric slow build to an explosive ending.
It doesn't matter if you're a fan of the author's work as a child actor or you've never heard of her before, you should read this book. Short, intense chapters propel this expertly crafted memoir of abuse and exploitation, and McCurdy's mordant wit shines through even the most difficult moments. Clear your schedule when you pick it up because you won't want to put it down until you reach the end.
This deeply affecting graphic memoir opens a window onto the complex world of oil field work. Beaton explores her deep set ambivalence about how the environment warps otherwise familiar men to menacing, threatening figures. In a world where men outnumber women 50 to 1, where safety meetings and fatalities become fodder for jokes, and isolation shapes and deforms everyone's experience, Beaton displays a deep empathy for the people drawn into this kind of work. This book is not to be missed.
This retro novel will hit you right in the 80's movie nostalgia feels. Besides being a great fantasy adventure novel, it's also about father/son relationships, grief, and toxic fandom. Smart and fun!
This unexpectedly dark fantasy novel mixes American folk horror with European fairy tale. When a series of tragedies besets an isolated village, Ellerie, the daughter of a beekeeper, works to keep her family protected through an autumnal season of plenty to a spring of scarcity. The tension ratchets up in town as people become increasingly hostile and the creatures in the woods begin to close in. An atmospheric, bone-chilling read.
After the town of Spokane Falls is nearly destroyed in a fire, we are pulled into the intersecting stories of three archetypal western characters: a banker, a con man, and a prostitute--but each trope gets turned on its head as the banker turns thief, the con man falls in love, and the prostitute surprises them all. Strange and satisfying.
This is sci-fi at its very best: an alien planet, a claustrophobic spaceship, androids that seem to be malfunctioning towards something like humanity, and in the center of it all is Grace Park, a psychologist struggling to make sense of the secrets and mysteries unfolding around her.
This book is like a comforting D&D campaign with all your best friends. The goal? To build a coffee shop in a city that's never heard of a latte. SO WHOLESOME!
What happens when women tell their own stories? For the five modern day fairy tale survivors in group therapy, the answer is: you still get exploited anyway.
This literary page-turner hit me in the gut and gave me more questions than answers. Absolutely fantastic!
Who would think that a novel narrated by the ghost of a girl dead for three hundred years could be so full of life? This deeply sensual book follows the ghost of Blanca as she falls in love with George Sand during her ill-fated stay in Mallorca with her lover Chopin. Blanca spends her days observing and enjoying the scents and tastes of life through those she haunts, taking pleasure in small vengeances against the deserving and desperately trying to be heard by the woman she has come to love. A book to be savored.
A child in danger, a secret coven serving the crown, a diverse cast of women, and a scathing critique of a certain writer who must not be named--the first novel in this fantasy trilogy is impossible to put down!
Aliens called Logi have been working to manage a healthy cultural exchange program with Earth for quite a while when burnt out translater Lydia stumbles upon a murder and a secret plot that could have worldwide repercussions. Fast-paced, funny, and filled with thoughtful ideas.
In this proto-feminist classic, the world is frozen in place beyond an invisible wall and our unnamed narrator ekes out a fragile existence, finding satisfaction in her first potato harvest, her cow, and her isolation. Both an intimate survival story and a profound meditation on what it means to be a woman alone in the world.
In this atmospheric, multi-generational novel, family secrets are transformed into family myth. You will hold your breath for eleven year old Sunshine, precariously situated between innocence and experience and slowly being pulled into deep waters she cannot navigate. Lovely and heartbreaking.
Part literary satire, part campy horror, and altogether fun, Patricia Wants to Cuddle is a slim little knockout of a book! Reality dating show antics meet a lesbian monster story you won't want to miss.
The ten year anniversary of maverick magician Violet Volk's shocking and final vanishing act is coming up and it has set off a wave of podcasts, tv specials, trending hashtags, and internet sleuthing. What happened to Violet? Was she truly the icon her rabid fans believe her to be? The con woman who fooled everyone? Or the complicated woman her sister Sasha remembers? This propulsive book, alternating between press coverage, podcast transcripts, and Sasha's voice, will keep you guessing till the very final reveal.
This book will break your heart but you should read it anyway. Davidson stuns with lush descriptions of the daily lives of an ordinary couple trying to make it in a dying logging town. I fell in love with this novel!
You have never read a book like this before. Sara Novic captures the complexity and beauty of Deaf culture and ASL on the page, all while spinning a story you won't want to end. It left me breathless. Read this book!
Your heart will break and be mended by this story of Katrina Nguyen, a talented violinist being scouted for her soul by a woman trying to escape a deal with the devil. Then there's the alien family fleeing interplanetary war and hiding in a donut shop. An unexpected science fantasy genre mash-up centered on queer and trans characters. And so many donuts!
Set in the magical town of Thistle Grove, this enemies-to-lovers romance has major chemistry, a charming atmosphere, and a mysterious curse our two lovers have to investigate together. Harper enchants!
In this canny and darkly humorous exploration of modern antiSemitism, Horn's thesis is that people love dead Jews...living Jews not so much. Filled with fascinating details you never knew, these essays thrum with anger, vitality, and humor. An impassioned plea to pay attention to the voices we've ignored for too long.
If you've ever wanted to know how language works to create the alternative reality of a cultish group--from Jonestown to MLMs, to SoulCycle, this well-researched book will hook you right away. I couldn't put it down!
There are no easy answers in this complex, multi-character novel about the historical messianic cult figure Jacob Frank. It was controversial in Poland upon its publication for its unflinching look at the pervasive anti-semitism that dominates the country's historical legacy. But there are no simple heroes or humble victims in this story. It is instead a detailed account of how a cult is born, how misinformation becomes a weapon, and how one charismatic man, emboldened by a fervent group of followers, can inspire others to commit truly "strange deeds" in the hope of salvation. This deeply researched philosophical and historical novel is not for the faint of heart, but it is worth the time and effort. Truly outstanding.
This queer romance hits all the right beats: great bisexual rep! A bookstore! Lush descriptions of arthouse photography! It also comes with a villain you love to hate and adorable romantic leads you will root for the whole way through.
Lan Samantha Chang hooked me from the beginning with this tale of three brothers and their difficult father set in the backdrop of their Americanized Chinese restaurant. Chang walks a tightrope in her storytelling, pushing away, pulling in, and ultimately implicating the reader by shining a light on the kinds of lives we are willing to ignore and the ones we care about.
Stella is a descendant of a line of women haunted by their family's own personal God, holed up in a Tennessee Mountain. This Gothis novel pulls you deeper into its mysteries with every page until it unfolds to reveal its final, terrifying truth. Utterly gripping.
