In this Bluebeard-inspired story, Sarah Nicole Lemon weaves an eerie fairytale full of dark magic and seduction. Despite her futile attempts, Salomé has never been able to control her mysterious powers or visions of spirits. Her world turns upside down when her sister Rochelle disappears, and Salomé leaves the convent to try to save her. In the Black Forest, Salomé comes face to face with Lord Death. He spares her life and takes her back to his manor, where he promises to teach her to harness her powers—but at what cost? Part horror, part fantasy—with a dash of erotica —A Dark and Wild Wood is the must-read gothic tale of the year.

Yes, I am spending a most anticipated selection on a reissue, but what a reissue and what timing. Percival Everett is at the top of his game with the adaptation of Erasure and the unstoppable James, but how many read this political satire coauthored by James Kincaid when it published in 2004? Not enough. This epistolary novel lampoons publishing, academia, and politics with former South Carolina senator Strom Thurmond hell-bent on penning a history of African Americans at its center. I have cried, now I'm ready to laugh, and there's no one I trust more with a heady searing than Everett.

As a 19th century-set romance, this novel hits all the beats that you’d expect and the language is pitch-perfect. However, the main characters are a lady’s maid named Alice and a young valet she falls for, Charlie. Alice and Charlie’s employers, Lady Jemima Alderwick and Baronet Sir Nigel Wynstowe, are both highly specific in what they want and how they want their servants to act. In order to be together, Alice and Charlie have to trick the finicky aristocrats into a marriage. It’s a very fun upstairs-downstairs novel, perfect to read while traveling around the English countryside.

Grief is a perpetually interesting topic, and a large reason why is because western culture chooses to pretend it's not a foundational, universal human experience. This book, penned by journalist s.e. smith, explores the many manifestations of grief that nearly each and every one of us experiences at some point. smith interviews a range of experts in the field of grief and mourning—including funeral home directors, death doulas, and therapists—to not only understand the complex processes but also shine a light on the role community plays in supporting and healing those living these experiences.

Every single book June Hur has written so far has captivated me, so you can imagine how excited I’ve been for her take on a historical Korean romance inspired by Pride and Prejudice. And that was before I found out this book deals with censorship and characters involved in illegal writing and transcribing of government outlawed fiction. Be still my heart!

All I need to know about Lauren Groff's new short story collection is that it's a collection of short stories by Lauren Groff. Always a sharp observer of human nature and often a cutting one, Groff has become one of the most exciting writers working today. Whether she's dissecting a complicated marriage while exploring the mysteries of perspective or walking right up to the edge of the mystical in a 13th-century convent, she finds a way to speak to the present moment by saying something timeless and deeply original. I don't know what will happen in these short stories, but I know what they will be about: humanity in all its messy, fascinating wonder.

Do you love riotously original novels that make you feel like nothing will ever be the same after you read it? Then get ready to have your brains melted by this incredible debut. It's about Yara, who receives a message from God, telling them they need to slay one of the Earth's Bad Guys. Not one to question a missive from above for too long, Yara strikes a deal and sets off on their assignment. Meanwhile a downcast prophet with a hidden power is hoping to get in good with the man upstairs and carries out her own plan. So prepare yourself: Canon is a mind-bending adventure about life, death, and fate that will ruin your life, in the best way.

The graveyard gays are back! It's been almost six years since Aiden Thomas first introduced us to Yadriel and Julian (and my fave Maritza, a real one). This fall we're headed back to the graveyard in Espíritu, which follows Julian as he navigates life post sacrificial ritual. Things are mostly pretty sweet—except for the part where he sees shadows in his eyes, glowing eyes in the dark, and these ominous dark spots on people that no one can explain. There's also a mysterious new nonbinary bruje in the mix, one who Julian is drawn to but Yadriel is looking at with some side eye for their cutthroat approach to brujeria. Let's gooooo.

A queen of YA is back with her first novel since 2019. This story follows a girl named Finley, whose life is upended when her mother announces they're spending the summer at a family vacation house that Finley didn't know existed. Finley's thrown into meeting aunts and cousins that she's never spent time with before, and she's found community in the teens who work at her aunt's diner. She's also developing feelings for a local boy at the same time her relationship with long-time boyfriend Colin begins to falter. It's a story of a girl finding herself, her voice, and her passion–something Dessen's always done so well.

Cherry’s husband is famous for drawing a webcomic about their life. But now, they’ve split up, and he’s in LA turning the comic into a movie. So Cherry has to see her fictional counterpart “Baby” everywhere. Baby was drawn fat, like Cherry. People make fun of the character endlessly online, even if that’s not what her ex intended. In a rare night out, Cherry runs into her college crush, Ross. He likes her … and even better, he’s never heard of her ex’s comic or movie. I was thrilled to read an early copy of this one. It’s romantic, surprising, and the single best novel I’ve read about fatness in the Ozempic age. I can’t wait to read it again.

If you went through (or are still in) an Egyptology phase, enjoy books that reimagine the stories of maligned women (Circe, Kaikeyi, Malinalli) or read Stacy Schiff's brilliant biography of the Queen of the Nile and wondered why this fascinating woman's legacy has been reduced to seduction and womanly wiles (sexism, it's sexism), you should probably be as excited for this book as I am. I've been waiting for someone to flesh out Cleopatra's story through fiction, and Saara El-Arifi has answered my readerly prayers.

A literary fiction trilogy is already a rare treat for readers, so one from an incredible two-time Pulitzer Prize winner is a glorious freaking gift. Cool Machine closes out Whitehead's Harlem Trilogy about Ray Carney, an NYC furniture salesman and master fence. This third story is set in the 1980s, when Reaganomics has been unleashed on the economy, and the country is lulled into thinking they have money to spend. In need of a loan to get his wife's travel agency off the ground, Ray makes one more questionable (and certainly illegal) business decision. How will Ray and his partner, the lovable sociopath Pepper, fare this last time around?

Swordheart’s long-awaited sequel follows Sarkis’ queer brother in arms, Dervish, whose soul has been trapped in a blade for hundreds of years. When scholar Learned Edmund finds himself in danger on route to deliver the sword, he draws the blade, discovering the captivating warrior inside. Now Dervish is bound to protect Learned —and without falling in love with him. T. Kingfisher is a cozy romantasy expert with the ability to twist the sword and sorcery subgenre to center older, world-worn protagonists who are getting a chance to be heroes. I could not be more excited.

This debut gives us a look at Chinese folklore from a bit of a different angle. In it, Kang Siying is a necromancy priestess who must take a dangerous job retrieving the corpse of a prince for a big commission to take care of her ailing father. But when she reanimates the dead prince, he doesn't respond to her like reanimated corpses usually do. Instead of obeying her commands, he comes back as himself, but he needs life force, or qi, to stay on the earthly plane. The two journey around the countryside, purifying evil spirits for qi for the prince, and uncovering secrets along the way—secrets that could threaten the entire kingdom.

Once upon a time, we were blessed with at least one Alisha Rai book per year, but she took a break to like…grow a human, so I understand not also giving birth to another amazing book. Enemies to Lovers is another adventure romance following the events of Partners in Crime that includes a road trip, some Big Secrets, and two really smart people who don’t want to put up with the other’s crap. Alisha Rai is one of those people who is somehow good at both intense emotional drama and slapstick comedy, so I’m excited to see how she continues the criminal rom-com genre that she is currently queen of.

Alexis Hall had been writing for years before Boyfriend Material came out in 2020, but Luc and Oliver’s fake dating story was his breakout. Like most romance authors, Hall usually takes on a new couple in every book, but he continued Luc and Oliver’s comedic, emotionally rich story in 2022’s Husband Material and is now completing the trilogy with the highly anticipated Father Material. Many, many romance readers have connected with the growth and bumps of this particular relationship, so I know I’m not alone in being ready—in a bittersweet way—to see how Hall brings us a final HEA for this opposites-decidedly-attract couple.

Adora is a single mom and stoic philosopher employed by an eccentric billionaire. She’s given up on dating and, instead, is trying to create a coven of divorced women who support each other in her New York Upper West Side apartment building. But a chance encounter with a handsome man pulls her into a romance she never expected and a high-stakes mystery that puts everything in her life at stake. The way every single highly specific, highly bizarre detail fits together by the end is nothing short of a masterpiece. Seriously, if you want to read a book about #MeToo, art repatriation, stoic philosophy, middle age, and motherhood, this is the book for you.

It's 1918 on Orcas Island, Washington, and Lucy's spent her life working at the estate of an eccentric shipbuilder. She washed ashore in a canoe as a child, and the shipbuilder took her in. Lucy's wanted answers that the island can't give her, but she didn't want to find those answers by stumbling across her employer's severed head. Lucy now not only has to ward off the local rumors of a mischievous spirit being the murderer, but she also has been unexpectedly named heir of the estate—putting her future in peril and casting suspicions that she may be the killer. Stacey Lee does historical mysteries like no other, and this sounds outstanding.

If Sky Daddy was 2025's unhinged take on Moby-Dick, Hell's Heart is 2026's. Given that Moby-Dick is my favorite book of all time, I am always eager to read anything that claims it as an influence. This spacefaring version follows the narrator I in pursuit of spermaceti, a hallucinogen produced by Leviathans swimming in Jupiter's currents. With women cast in the roles of Ishmael, Ahab, and Queequeg, this book promises a story even more queer than the original, and that's saying something.

A decade ago, I read Sonali Dev’s A Bollywood Affair and wrote, “I will now officially read any book she writes.” That still holds true, hence my shouting about her upcoming contemporary novel about sisters having to deal with childhood trauma and a fake marriage scheme. Knowing Dev, it’s gonna be emotional and I’m ready. Also, she had me at a title nod to How Stella Got Her Groove Back!

Song's debut Chlorine was one of the most visceral reading experiences I've had, and her sophomore novel sounds like a more-than-worthy followup. Vicky is obsessed with all things death. It brings her a comfort she's never had in making meaning or relationships in her life. Periodically, her best and only friend Jen can pull her away from spending her non-work time in bed. So when Vicky gets involved with a throuple thanks to a dating app, all seems to be changing for her. But it won't take long before death beckons to Vicky again. This one's got all of the weird girl vibes that make for excellent (and cringey) reading.

Announced on Publishers Marketplace two Halloweens ago (yes, I saved a screenshot of the gleeful news to my desktop), this marks Abdurraqib’s first poetry collection in seven years. An excerpt from the forthcoming title appeared in Harper’s, and I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve revisited “There Are More Ways to Show Devotion.” Two lines my mind keeps circling follow: “at the end of my chain there are two flightless birds / at the end of the anguished birdcall there is a dying.” If you, too, can’t wait for new poems from the beloved author, join me in counting down the days with A Fortune for Your Disaster and The Crown Ain’t Worth Much.

It's 2026, and Lee Turner doesn't know why he killed his college roommate. What he does know is that he needs to get out of New York, and that his father's new house in Japan might make the perfect hideout. But there's something wrong with the place— the bedroom window isn't always a window, and a sword-wielding woman appears at night. Then there's Sen, who, in 1877, is also in exile. She hides from the imperial soldiers in her family's house, and, on top of everything else, there's now a young foreign man who appears outside her window.

And the gag is? "One of these people is a ghost, and one of these stories is a lie."

There's nothing better than a biography written by someone who not only loves their subject but who has studied it as deeply as possible. That's what makes this work about the life of iconic American writer Judy Blume so exciting—Oppenheimer has done as much research as possible, including conducting extensive interviews with the legendary author, and he contextualizes the power of her and her work through the books themselves. What more is there to say about why this book is so exciting for fans of children's and adolescent (and adult!) literature?

From the bestselling, award-winning author of An American Marriage comes a tale of sisterhood, mothers, and daughters in the American South. Vernice and Anne are two motherless girls who grow up as best friends in Honeysuckle, Louisiana, but whose lives are set on very different trajectories. Vernice eventually goes to Spelman, where she enters into a world of affluent and connected Black women. And then there's Anne. The hole left by her mother's absence sends her on an all-consuming journey, which takes her down a road of love and hardship. Throughout it all, we see the various permutations and complexities of women and girls in community.

Putting aside my discomfort that a historical novel can be set in 2007, this is a fantastic meditation on a very particular moment in Brooklyn history. The neighborhood where the main character, Alicia, lives is Fort Greene. She finds joy and possibility in the all-night parties thrown by her neighbor La Garza. Neither Alicia nor her friends realize that the coolness of Fort Greene is going to upend the neighborhood. Before the construction of the Barclays Center, and right at the tipping point of Brooklyn becoming expensive, Alicia and her friends and family try to find their way in NYC.

There is always a remarkable economy of language in Rachel Khong's books. She doesn't waste any time—or any words—getting to the point, but she doesn't sacrifice artistry, either. Khong's generous affection for her characters and ability to capture mundane human moments and anxieties with uncommon grace and humor make her exactly the kind of writer whose novels have made me wonder what she'd do with short stories. I can't wait to find out.

Yui Sanada desperately searches for her missing little brother, Hiro, in a Tokyo park in 1995, only to be transported to 1923, WWII Japan, weeks before a massive earthquake that destroys Tokyo and kills over a hundred thousand. As she goes looking for her brother among temples and samurais, the threat of an impending earthquake intensifies, and she must act quickly to save him and hopefully return to their time. Yui, who’s stuck in a bygone era, meets Chiyo Aiko, and they strike a clandestine romance. This sapphic historical romantasy hits all the right notes.

Murderbot will never not be one of my most anticipated releases whenever a new book is set to come out. It reminds me of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy in that it’s just a warm cup of caf in book form, you know? Give me all that robot sass and some sci-fi shenanigans, and I’m all set.

If you've never read Louise Erdrich, I envy you the joy of discovery wherever you start in her extensive catalog. If you have read Louise Erdrich, you know that her signature blend of the sacred, the mundane, and the mythic is unlike anything else in contemporary fiction. Erdrich's stories are deeply human and real. Her writing is somehow both spare and lyrical. She's a master of her craft with a Pulitzer and National Book Award under her belt, and she routinely shows up as someday-contender for the Nobel Prize for Literature. Wherever she wants to take me, I’m ready to go.

Sashimi is a fishboy. He’s never met his parents or anyone who looked like him. Rumors of a strange beast bring him to Barnacle Bay, where he tries to pass for human at the local school to gather intel. Students question his fishy smell, wet skin, and close connection with Kevin the class fish. But Sashimi is undeterred, hoping the beast might be a long lost relative. Plenty of slap fights, names like Taco Fart and Brocano, and the etymology of the term “poop deck” are peppered in throughout this graphic novel about his journey to find out.

After experiencing the brilliance of her novella The River Has Roots and the Bigolas Dikolas Wolfwood-famed and stunning This is How You Lose the Time War, co-authored with Max Gladstone, I am chomping at the bit for Amal El-Mohtar's upcoming short story collection. Mohtar's writing has always struck me as masterful, lyrical, and mesmerizing, and I can't wait to dive into the full scope of her talent. Seasons of Glass and Iron is sure to be a compendium of beautiful stories, folktales, and imaginings of our world's possibilities. You don't want to miss it.

Sapphic gothic novels are having a moment, and I am here for it. I can't resist the combination of sapphic longing and a creeping sense of doom. At Briarley School for Girls in 1928, something sinister is spreading, rotting meat and curdling milk. Then the body count begins to climb. Emily is convinced her captivating classmate Violet's death was not natural, and she intends to prove it. She teams up with rival Evelyn to try to contact Violet from beyond the veil. Through the medium of Evelyn, Violet warns that the danger has only begun. This promises "teenage repression, queer desire, and the everyday horror of coming of age."

You know what’s even more exciting than “Cat Sebastian’s next book”? Cat Sebastian’s first contemporary. I love her historicals and breathe in every one as they release, but there’s something exciting about an author who is excellent at writing the past translating that to the present. It’s about two guys who definitely don’t like each other, thanks to having extremely opposite personalities and having to work closely together for the past several years. But there’s apparently a road trip! And knowing Cat, there are going to be so many Feelings I won’t be able to handle it. 

After a minor media scandal, First Daughter of the United States Abby Alzona is banished to a rundown inn in a small Virginia town for the summer until things cool off. But Abby makes lemons into lemonade by embracing her chance to be a normal teen: planning an Independence Day festival, going to barbecues and pool parties, and maybe even having her first kiss. I have a feeling a lot of us will be looking for a little escapism from the current political climate in 2026, and this delightful YA Fourth of July romance about the daughter of the first Filipina American president is just the palate cleanser we all need.

This is poised to be a breakout debut novel from a writer whose short fiction has garnered praise and attention. Following an unnamed teenage girl who seeks safety from her abusive father in a boarding house for single women, Tailbone tells the story of two friends surviving a global financial crash, where survival relies on the patronage of wealthy men. By all accounts this sounds like the kind story of friendship, identity, and soul-searching that stays with you long after the last page.

I reach for Steven Rowley's books when I need something that will mend my heart. His characters tend to stay on my mind after I've finished reading their stories. I'm excited to get to know the ones in Take Me With You. It follows Jesse, a college professor who seeks to not just investigate but understand his husband Norman's disappearance. As far as Jesse remembers, Norman stepped into a beam of light and was gone. Even if that really happened and it not a product of his stress-addled spiral, why did he leave Jesse behind?

The moment I first laid eyes on the red shovel and stained glass on this cover, my brain immediately went, "Oh yeah, that's some church horror." My suspicions were confirmed when I saw Bethany C. Morrow describe The Body as being about the horror of churchianity, Godless religion, and of abuse begetting abuse. My own body is likely wholly unprepared for The Body, but in Morrow's capable hands, I look forward to what promises to be an absolutely bloody reckoning.

An apprentice to a master bookbinder discovers a letter hidden beneath the binding of a burned book, one that contains the story of forbidden love—and a confession to murder. She soon learns that there are more letters hidden in more books and is determined to track them down. The trouble is, she's not the only one looking for them, and this quest has put a target on her back. Books about books are already of interest. Now take a book about books, set it in early 20th-century Oxford, and throw in secrets, murder, and a trip into London's literary underbelly, and that's a book I'm absolutely going to read in 2026.

What can looking to the farthest reaches of the cosmos show us about ourselves? Theoretical cosmologist Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein is a professor of astronomy, physics, and gender studies, and her multidisciplinary approach to some of the biggest questions in space-time is nothing short of mind-blowing. From black holes to dark matter to the particle horizon, Dr. Prescod-Weinstein introduces readers to some of the most fascinating conversations in astrophysics, drawing on pop culture, music, and poetry along the way. It’s a brilliant book that explores what we can learn about life here on Earth by looking up.

I adored Kiersten White’s Dracula retelling Lucy Undying, so when I found out she was writing a story about the daughter of Van Helsing and her obsession with the serial killer who killed her father, I was over the moon. Vampires, forensic science, mutual obsession, and blood-soaked correspondence—that sounds like a supernatural story for the ages, and I absolutely can’t wait to read it!

Sunyi Dean's debut novel, The Book Eaters, was a bloody good time and one of my favorite books of 2022, so I was wicked excited to learn she has a new book coming in 2026! It's a historical dark fantasy set in Hong Kong about a woman named Mercy Chan. Mercy arrived in Kowloon years earlier with no memory of who she is and has since made a life as a ghost talker for the triad. But then a murderous spirit starts drowning people, and catches Mercy's attention. The spirit claims to know her and her unremembered past. And if Mercy can't remember where she came from and how she ended up in Kowloon, it may drag her down into the depths for good.

As a fellow Utahn, I may be biased in my love for Terry Tempest Williams' nature essays. Her latest collection, in which she finds the sacred in ordinary moments, sounds especially needed. It speaks to the desire I and many others have to express spirituality, whether that's a connection to the divine or just something greater than themselves. By observing small beauties in nature, she finds hope to sustain her through a global sense of despair.

Silvia Moreno-Garcia could write a guide on knitting sweaters for earthworms, and I'd be out here cheering, "Yesss, clothe the tiny invertebrates!" She has, of course, crafted an irresistible plot in a noir tale of desire, greed, and seduction. In 1940s Mexico, a handsome grifter charms women into giving him their money through letters. Intent on securing a bigger, more reliable bag when the letter scheme runs its course, he sets his sights on the owner of a boardinghouse in a small town in Veracruz. There are two holes in this plan: his intended victim's niece clocks him right away and wants in on the scheme as a means to escape this small town, and his victim is not the gullible mark he thinks she is...

Fresh off her Nebula Award win for best novella, A.D. Sui's debut novel is coming next year, bringing vibes of science fiction, horror, and the found family that we all crave. It's the story of Vessel Iris, who travels the galaxy performing funeral rites. When a 1,000-year-old vessel appears, academics flock to it as an archaeological find. Iris is there to help the long-dead pass on. But the ship is teeming with plants and something more, something predatory that's hunting the newly arrived humans.

By the time The Last Thorn hits bookstores, it will have been half a decade since Talia Hibbert published a brand-new adult romance. She’s been republishing her indie titles (to the deep gratitude of those finding them for the first time), and of course no author owes their audience new books or material of any kind. But for Hibbert to be bringing her comedic and authentic romance storytelling to a “spicy, magical Beauty and the Beast retelling”? There's no question in my mind that Hibbert’s is a return readers will be ready for.

After adoring Magnolia Wu Unfolds It All, talk of another middle grade novel by Miller had me on the edge of my blue sofa. But with a comp like Judy Blume’s iconic Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret (a comfort book of mine), I cozied up with this moving story featuring 12-year-old Luna the day it arrived. When classmates begin confiding in the seventh grader, she and her best friend, Scott, create zines to uplift them. Delving into attentiveness, insecurities, friendship, and growing up, this—with its Mean Girls vibes—made me laugh, and I marked up so many passages and hearted so many sentences that my copy resembles a bathroom stall wall.

I first heard of this book directly from Williams at a writing conference. The Emmy Award-winning producer and podcast host told me the first line, and I was hooked. The Dupree women only give birth to daughters, but that's not the only mysterious thing about them. In 1995, 14-year-old Tati goes down a rabbit hole trying to find out who her father is, but just uncovers more secrets and questions. Like, why did her grandmother Gladys leave Land's End, Alabama in '53, and what happened to Jubi when she tried to pass for white in 1917? At the beginning of it all is the story of one enslaved ancestor who paid the ultimate price for freedom.

I’m so happy to see Perveen Mistry return! She’s the only Parsi woman lawyer in 1920’s Bombay—inspired by the real life Cornelia Sorabji—and the star of this wonderful historical mystery series. This time around we get the exciting early days of Bollywood with a murder mystery + missing person case that involves a movie censor and leading lady!

I fell hard for Fu's writing through their short fiction in Lesser-Known Monsters of the 21st Century, so I was delighted to learn that we're getting a new novel from this award-winning author. I love a novel perched in the uncanny valley and this story about a woman unmoored by the death of her controlling mother, a woman who, ever-obedient, buys a house built on shadowy foundations with her inheritance, sounds right up my alley. Lesser-Known Monsters taught me that Fu is the writer to tell an immersive story grounded in earthly issues and haunted by ghosts.

A witchy book in translation about a mom of twins, written by a Black woman? Did Reparations Club publish this book just for me? I'm new to NDiaye, but I can see this book introducing the prolific and award-winning novelist, playwright, and screenwriter to an even wider audience. Translated from the French, this novel set in modern France tells of a woman, a witch, a mother whose twins fly the coop upon initiation. For anyone who understands or seeks to understand the multitudes motherhood contains, this book is set up to deliver.

Daniyal Mueenuddin earned acclaim through a short story collection that won a Story Prize and was a finalist for major awards, including the Pulitzer. He makes his triumphant return with a novel about caste, culture, and wealth in Pakistan’s contemporary feudal system. Following the lives of characters born with and without privilege, all attached to the estate of a wealthy colonel, and adorned with struggles of the heart, morality, and power, this promises to be one of the year’s seminal literary works.

I recently inhaled the manga series adaptation of Rainbow Rowell's Fangirl, so when I saw that To All The Boys I've Loved Before is getting adapted into a graphic novel, my hands immediately started doing all the gimme gimme gestures. Fans will now have the original books, a great film trilogy adaptation, and soon a graphic novel adaptation. This is just all the wins for lovers of YA romance, Jenny Han, and her characters!

Julie Murphy is an auto-buy author for me, simple as that. In this adult romance, the titular Vera winds up at her grandmother's Palm Springs retirement village full of aging Hollywood eccentrics. There, she reunites with Elias: her college fling, the facility's on-site doctor, and technically her ex-husband! I love second-chance romances, romances between fortysomethings, and stories peopled with quirky retirees, so this promises to be an unabashed delight.

No one writing fiction today is better at dwelling in life's big questions than George Saunders. Whether he's exploring grief through alternate historical fiction (Lincoln in the Bardo) or questions of agency and ethics through robot-filled sci-fi (Liberation Day), he is always ultimately interested in deeply human concerns. What does it mean to be good? Why are we here? How can we reckon with the realities of loss, pain, and death? It’s heady stuff, yes, made manageable by Saunders’s trademark warmth, humor, and amusement at the human condition. A George Saunders book about end-of-life evaluation? Put it in my veins.

Lola and Lisandro are siblings who are actors out to swindle the rich. Lola pretends to be a ghost haunting the home of a wealthy person, while Lisandro pretends to be a spiritualist who can help. Bixby Fairfax, newspaper tycoon and owner of The Coterie estate, is the siblings' next target. But things start to go wrong the moment Lola and Lisandro decide to switch roles. Weird things keep actually happening at The Coterie, and no matter how hard the siblings try to solve the mystery, they’re dragged further in. Can they pull off their biggest scam or is their act about to be unraveled? This historical thriller sounds fun.

Here is a whodunnit that offers the thrill of a mystery in need of solving alongside scrutiny of our incarceration system. T. Kira Madden is best known for her memoir about growing up queer and biracial, Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls, and now we’re getting a debut novel from the writer known for a thoughtful and compassionate approach to storytelling. Whidbey follows the women whose lives are forever altered by an abuser—an abuser who has turned up dead. If Liz Moore’s The God of the Woods was the book club book of 2024, I predict this will be ours for 2026.

Dahlia “Doll” Devine puts all the pain of her childhood into her country music. Part of Chicago’s country music scene, Doll sings weekly at McPhee's Tavern, owned by her childhood rescuer and quasi-boss Alex McPhee. As an adult, things still aren't easy. After she's evicted from her apartment when her boyfriend absconds with the rent, she has to find a new living space and start over. When her estranged mother Marisa shows up wanting to talk to her, it's the last thing Doll wants. But the very next day, a young woman shows up looking for Marisa, and Doll realizes she has a half-sister. Doll reluctantly helps the woman track her mother down, and soon realizes that things may not have been what they seemed throughout her life.

I once read a horror story by L. D. Lewis that frightened me so much that I put the book down for a full year before picking it up again. This is a violent, dark sapphic extension of The Little Mermaid tale that will for sure keep you reading up past your bedtime. We know how Arielle got her fairytale ending, but Yemi, her granddaughter, is living a much different life. Yemi’s father, the king, was assassinated and her mother is dying. A coup forces Yemi into exile and the only place she can think of turning to is to Ursla, the sea-witch. Yemi wants vengeance and so, too, does Ursla. Will Yemi be tempted by her own rage and Ursla’s power?

Papi Ramon is the recently deceased patriarch of a wealthy family, and he's sown a little chaos by dropping this banger in his will: "One of you is a demon I made a bargain with long ago. Get rid of 'em or you'll all be damned. Ciao!" No one takes the proclamation seriously, save for his undisputed favorite, Xiomara. But when the rest of the family sends the lawyer away to retrieve the original draft of the will, a storm hits and leaves them all stranded together. Over the course of 12 harrowing hours, all hell breaks loose, and it will be up to Xiomara to suss out the demon and take them out. If you love a modern Gothic, add this one to your list.