Katherine

A complex, yet succinct narrative of colonialism, trauma, and sapphic longing, FIREHEART TIGER is wonderfully beautiful. Princess Thanh feels out of place at home in the imperial court, which makes sense since she was sent away to live in the cold northern country of Ephteria as a hostage when she was a child. Now, she must navigate the negotiations not just with Ephteria, but with her old flame, Eldris. Throw in a fire elemental to the mix, and things are bound to go sideways.  This book is captivating, and raw, and perfect for fans of political intrigue. -Katherine

I’m a sucker for retellings and also for The Island of Dr Moreau, so I was expecting to love this book. After all, a murder mystery where the five main subjects are all members of a boyband and, oh yeah, also refugees from the Island of Dr Moreau? This was bound to be a good time. What I wasn’t expecting was the heart of the story, which explores the greed and exploitation of human nature, as well as what it means to be human at all.

Nothing but Blackened Teeth is kind of the perfect ghost story. Right from the beginning, it establishes a sense of dread that only grows with every page. Five friends, with fraught histories of their own, rent out a haunted Japanese mansion for a wedding. In order to provide a welcoming environment for the ghosts, the group lights a hundred candles to blow out one by one as each person tells a ghost story. When the last candle goes out, things go from tense to hostile.

One of the most thrilling and inventive vampire novels I have read in a long time (and trust me when I say I have read a lot), this new edition of CERTAIN DARK THINGS is a masterpiece. Atl flees to Mexico City after her family is slaughtered by a rival Vampire clan, teams up with a lonely garbage-collecting street kid. A classic noir with a twist, I couldn’t put this book down.

If you’re looking for science fiction that will reach into your chest and grab onto your heart, you can always depend on Cat Valente. Decades after the Polar Ice Caps melt, Tetley Abednego lives in Garbagetown, a floating patch of garbage that has been shaped into its own continent. This book brings joy to a future that feels bleak, and grapples with how fragile hope is. Like much of Valente’s work, this book perfectly balances wit and humor with lines that made me put the book down and stare at the wall. You won’t want to miss out on this journey through a post-apocalyptic wasteland.

This book is a queer magical retelling of The Great Gatsby, and is one of the most compelling books I’ve ever read. Vo infuses the story with magic in such a way that I find myself going “oh, the 1920’s were just Like This.” She has captured the essence and atmosphere of the original novel while crafting the characters into more compelling versions of themselves. The prose is in turns witty and breathtaking, the dramatic irony of retelling such a classic story is woven in beautifully, and the ending made me gasp out loud.

I loved Red, White, and Royal Blue so my expectations were high going in. That being said, Casey McQuiston still managed to blow me away with this stunning love letter to queer communities and found families, not to mention the families you're born with and may leave but never can quite forget in all their complicated messiness. The romance was very good, but one of the place this book shines is in how wonderful the supporting cast is. I wanted to be friends with every person in it. -Shana

Silvia Moreno-Garcia is a master of genre fiction, and nothing exemplifies that more than The Beautiful Ones. This novel captures all the longing and intricate rituals of a historic romance with the fantastic world-building of a fantasy novel. When she was sent to stay with her cousin for her first season, Nina, a young girl with telekinetic powers, does not expect to enter a dance with the famous telekinetic performer, Hector Auvrey, and her own cousin-in-law, Camille. I read the last half of the book in one sitting because putting it down was nearly unthinkable.

What a GREAT book. It makes you think about what is real, how much power belief can have, and the good that can be accomplished by regular people. The main character was raised by a cult and even when the cult gets busted up by the FBI, he can't stop thinking along the lines that he's been taught. He goes on the run, determined to fight some monster that may or may not really exist depending on if the cult leader was telling the truth or not.

Every story in this book is filled with magic and legend and power. My favorite thing about a short story is when it captivates me so completely I forget that only a fraction of the book is dedicated to this one world, and Never Have I Ever accomplished this again and again. In one story, a woman befriends a kelpie while her husband convalesces in the hospital, in another a witch believes he has bespelled his boyfriend into loving him. Fans of folklore and myth will be swept up in this wonderful collection.