Downton Abbey meets The Danish Girl (with a side of All Creatures Great and Small). British trans history takes a turn when aristocrats fighting over a baronetcy go to court.
Sarah
In this stunning gothic horror, Jane Shoringfield decides the best way to survive the societal pressure of marriage is to arrange one that will allow her to have the independence she has always enjoyed. Her first choice, Augustine Lawrence, agrees on the condition that she must never visiting his family manor on the outskirts of town. Naturally, Jane winds up at the manor on the night of their wedding to find that things at Lindridge Hall, as well as with Augustine himself, are far from normal
Engel
If you want a terribly fun character-driven romance with plenty of angst pangs set against a backdrop of tasty space colonial scifi, Winter's Orbit is your book! In particular, this book is great for people who read/watch scifi and say, "Okay, but if this is set four thousand years into the future, why are all the gender expectations essentially the same as they were on Earth in 1985?" Everina Maxwell does some really neat stuff re: the future of gender, sex, and embodiment.
Piera
Ocean Vuong's On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous grapples with quite a lot, including the consequences of trauma, racism, homophobia, classism, addiction, war, and more. And yet, its execution is nothing short of masterful. The story follows Little Dog, a Vietnamese American boy who writes this story as a letter to his illiterate mother. The story unfolds as Little Dog experiences life--the ups, the downs, and those areas between where hope shines its wavering light in the cracks between closed doors.
Cindy
A man seeks advice from a deep fake of a recently assassinated president on grieving for his dying wife. A UPS driver navigates post-Katrina Louisiana with his infant son living in the back of his work van. A North Korean expat dreams of returning to his homeland. Each of the stories in Fortune Smiles feels like a world unto itself, fully realized, sad, funny, broken, and hopeful.
Dave
A mother's letters to her tragically lost son, Aidt heart-wrenchingly, yet gorgeously, lets readers taste a true embodiment of grief. And yet, she adds beauty and hope in her ballad of loss. This book will remind you of the sheer power an author's voice can have on our normal, everyday lives. You will not regret the time spent reading this.
Kai
A vibrant collection of stories exploring the gap between what makes sense and what life seems to throw at us anyway. The past leaks into the present, the spirit world leaks into our world, the old ways leak into the new but through it all a celebration of living life in this messy world radiates from every story. Perfect for fans of Where the Wild Ladies Are.
Josh
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. This book feels like a ghost story that would get told in the flickering candlelight of your own haunted sleepover (maybe even at a Japanese mansion). The narrator, Cat, is both incredibly intuitive and slightly detached from the situation, watching as her friends make all the wrong decisions but unable to stop them. Familiar without being predictable and self-aware in a way that brings an alarming inevitability to the ending
Katherine
I read this comic in single magazine issues from Comicazi as it came out, and I'm so excited that it's collected and I can finally share it with everyone. NK Jemisin comics writing is as brilliant as her prose, and Jamal Campbell's art is stunning. Far Sector is a poignant look at politics, police brutality, and the power and price of emotions. It may take place on a distant planet, but the story still hits close to home.
Shana
Gyen Jebi is an artist. Artists don't get involved with politics. But when Jebi discovers what goes into the apparently magical paint used to give the occupying government's automatons the semblance of sentience, they decide that they have to get involved, and do something. And holy moly, do they.
Queer, elegantly written, thought-provoking, and comforting all at once, Phoenix Extravagant will leave you reeling and asking for more.Mish
