Anderson (Something in the Woods Loves You) delivers a haunting and atmospheric urban fantasy populated by quirky human characters and fabulously weird mythical creatures. It kicks off with protagonist Green dying and coming back to life, his death having been stolen by a giant crow. After this bizarre encounter, he feels an inexplicable call to the Catskill mountains, where he’s determined to camp while seeking fulfillment. On his first night at the remote Candle-Fly Camp, he barely survives a strange encounter with a glowing, translucent deer and a partially skinned horned wolf that addresses him as “not-man” before vanishing. Fortunately, Green’s new, reclusive neighbor, Valentina, is a cryptonaturalist and expert in such unusual phenomenon and agrees to take him on as an apprentice. Thus begins Green’s education in the unseen and unexpected, as Valentina introduces him to all manner of cryptids and helps him investigate why these creatures are appearing to him. She also reveals that the glass fawn, the technical name for the translucent deer, is said to bring death to all who see it, meaning Green’s time may be running out. Anderson’s worldbuilding is wonderfully bizarre, and there’s an introspective bent to the ecologically minded narrative that gives Green’s journey an intimate feel as he finds new friends, purpose, and home. The result is a wholly captivating tale of magic and nature. (Feb.)

Reviewed on 01/02/2026 | Details & Permalink

Somers (The Burning City) riffs on Edward Gorey’s The Gashlycrumb Tinies with a choose-the-outcome novel structure in this sophisticated and darkly comic horror outing. Noting in his introduction that readers should “read until you hit a redirect—a footnote pointing toward one of the stories at the end of the book,” Somers unspools the ghastly fates of the 1995 graduates of Bishop Carlbus Prep school. It kicks off with senior Amy, who is determined to throw the most legendary graduation party ever. But domineering Amy is not well liked by her classmates, and the party quickly spirals into chaos. By sunrise, Amy is dead from a fall down the basement stairs. Over the years, the rest of Amy’s classmates die one by one in ways too increasingly bizarre to be overlooked: Xerxes is eaten by mice, Quentin sinks in a mire, and Fanny suffers from leech-induced anemia. At the funeral of Zillah, who died of alcohol poisoning, the few remaining students realize that someone or something is deliberately picking them off. Through its clever structure, the book posits a number of explanations but offers no easy answers, which may frustrate some. Somers unpicks the seams of Gorey’s original to create portraits of despairing and complicated adults, all broken and haunted by the trauma of their youth. It’s an eerie gem. (Feb.)

Reviewed on 12/12/2025 | Details & Permalink

Assassin’s Creed game developer McDevitt shines in his sci-fi noir debut, plausibly imagining a future in which many have become addicted to “surrogate realities” to the detriment and even death of their IRL bodies. Kennedy Stark was a regular PI until a client came to him about her Cleopatra-obsessed son, whose obsession with an SR program recreating ancient Egypt became a life-threatening addiction. Stark didn’t locate the boy in time to save him, an incident that inspired him to switch jobs to become a halter, a licensed professional who pulls people out of surrogate realities. Now he’s tapped for an assignment by a shadowy duo, Auntie and Friend, who ask him to locate software genius Delia Walsh, a senator’s daughter and SR pioneer, with whom Stark shares a past, for a lucrative fee. Stark accepts, on condition that his compensation will be a shot at a spot on the next shuttle to Mars, which is being colonized in response to catastrophic climate change on Earth. McDevitt’s Chandleresque protagonist finds the path to halting Delia’s immersion challenging and hazardous, creating a gripping and twisty mystery for readers. Fans of Nick Harkaway will be riveted. (Feb.)

Reviewed on 12/12/2025 | Details & Permalink

A magician and the demon that shares his body face off against a familiar foe in Sullivan’s dense and ambitious debut, a retelling of the legend of the Beast of Gévaudan. In 1785, Jacques Avenel d’Ocerne implores ageless magician Sebastian Grave and his “indwelling Spirit,” Sarmodel, to return to Gévaudan, France, and take on the same Beast Sebastian defeated two decades earlier, which is back and ravaging the countryside once more. Sebastian used his arcane knowledge during the earlier hunt alongside Jacques’s father, Antoine, who became his lover as they stalked the nightmarish, supernaturally powerful creature. Drawn by his lingering feelings for Antoine, Sebastian agrees to join Jacques on the new hunt. The novel then toggles between their journey, during which Jacques reveals that he lied about Antoine sending for Sebastian and an unsettling truth about the Beast’s reemergence comes to light; flashbacks to the original hunt; and scenes of a brewing revolution that remix the Joan of Arc story with ancient gods spurring fervent madness among her followers. Sullivan’s sly humor and complex blend of history and mythology will immerse patient readers. This sprawling epic is worth the effort. Agent: Christabel McKinley, David Higham Assoc. (Feb.)

Reviewed on 12/12/2025 | Details & Permalink

Henry (the Scorched Earth series) shows off her impressive gift for worldbuilding in this striking dystopian novel set in the near future. Echo London loves working at Cleveland’s Lewis library. Then her branch is permanently closed and the powers that be appoint her as head librarian at the People’s Library. Instead of books, the People’s Library stores digital humans: advanced AI copies of “history’s most fascinating people,” who supposedly think, talk, and act like their flesh and blood counterparts, though Echo thinks of them as mere “pixelated knockoffs.” Despite her visceral revulsion at the concept, Echo has no choice but to accept the position. Still, her decision is viewed as a betrayal by those opposed to the People’s Library, who fear that all books will be eliminated and that humanity will be replaced by digital duplicates. These anti-tech rebels attack the library, leading to the death of a stranger whose mysterious final words—“It all begins with nothing”—prompt Echo to get off the sidelines and investigate whether the rebels’ fears are valid. Henry folds prescient points about AI and censorship into a gripping and twisty mystery. It’s smart, exhilarating sci-fi. (Feb.)

Reviewed on 12/12/2025 | Details & Permalink

Sallis (Bridge Segments) delivers a fragmented take on social mayhem in this near-future dystopian tale. Following a devastating civil war, the United States has fractured into independent provinces ruled by warring factions, “each one working chiefly to aggrandize itself, then push through some recondite agenda for social order.” Told by a motley crew of survivors, these five loosely connected stories form a collage of political and personal turmoil. A soldier recounts commandeering armaments in Free Alaska while longing to be reunited with a woman rebel fighter he met early during the war; an orphaned boy tells of witnessing his sister’s death at the hands of a soldier returning from battle; and a surgeon relates his tribulations as a “frontier doctor treating cancer with hacksaws and dressmaker’s thread,” and learns more about the state of the world after one of his patients is abducted by soldiers. The stories have a slice of life feel as they eulogize the lost nation and the ruined hopes of its citizens. While the big ideas are resonant and timely, Sallis offers few surprises and favors telling over showing, making it difficult to connect emotionally with the characters. Readers will find more nourishing food for thought elsewhere. (Feb.)

Reviewed on 12/12/2025 | Details & Permalink

Returning to the twilit world of Slatter’s Sourdough Universe, last visited in The Crimson Road, this sparkling standalone fantasy follows Mehrab, a solitary old enchantress who reluctantly takes on a “fosterling,” Rhea, a younger witch fleeing persecution. Rhea arrives at the same time a shadow descends upon both Mehrab’s woodland home and the nearby town. Children go missing and either return changed or not at all. Meanwhile, a mysterious figure stalks Mehrab in the forest. As Mehrab works to balance teaching Rhea her craft and vanquishing the troubles plaguing the town, things are further complicated by the townspeople’s reluctance to turn to a witch for help, the secrets between her and Rhea, and her lingering feelings for her lost love, a blacksmith. Slatter skillfully spins these threads into a hauntingly enchanting fairy tale led by a striking, older heroine. It’s a perfect point of entry to the Sourdough world for new readers and a treat for returning fans. (Feb.)

Reviewed on 12/12/2025 | Details & Permalink

This nostalgic sci-fi caper, the first in the Doomsday series from Mersault (The Silent Hand), follows a charming thief and a down-on-her-luck warrior as they team up for an intergalactic heist. Cherry Aisha, an infamous war veteran, is working as a bouncer on the planet Bethune when criminal Warren Springer Stowe contracts her to help break into a museum and steal a hydrocarbon-fueled antique from a bygone Earth era (read: a motorcycle). Despite Cherry’s training and body enhancements, the pair flub the mission and end up in prison—until they cut a deal with the megacorporation Maktoum and are released to Ajanib, a mysterious alien base. Resembling an ancient Egyptian pyramid, Ajanib appeared on Bethune millennia ago; now Maktoum is developing it as a playground for the rich to race 3D-printed replicas of 1960s Earth vehicles and the company wants Cherry and Stowe to perform high-speed stunts. But danger lurks within Ahanib, and investigating what’s causing Maktoum workers to disappear in the pyramid’s deadly catacombs puts the pair on the scent of an alien treasure trove that could be a massive score. Mersault jauntily juggles heist and space opera conventions, but the plot gets somewhat bogged down in clunky dialogue and a few too many perspective shifts. Still, fans of old-school science fiction will be excited to see where the series goes next. (Feb.)

Reviewed on 12/12/2025 | Details & Permalink

A housewife’s paranoid fears are stoked by a series of inexplicable near-fatal assaults in this uneven domestic dark fantasy from Morrow (So Many Beginnings). Mavis Dwyer is seven years into a fulfilling marriage that has rescued her from the psychological oppression of her belittling ex-lover, disapproving parents, and the church she was raised in. Then her life begins to unravel. In quick succession, she is nearly killed in a car accident, barely escapes injury when an employee at a hardware store goes on a violent rampage, and fends off attackers during a home invasion. When she discovers that the perpetrators were all attendees at her wedding, and that none remembers their violent turn, Mavis is forced to consider that some malevolent influence is turning her acquaintances and loved ones against her. Morrow ultimately provides a novel explanation for Mavis’s travails, but the winding path there occasionally frustrates. The narrative delves deep into Mavis’s neurotic mind, which is often more flighty and distracting than it is illuminating. Still, patient readers will be rewarded with an eerie payoff. Agent: Victoria Marini, Volume Five. (Feb.)

Reviewed on 12/12/2025 | Details & Permalink

Wilson (Of Deeds Most Valiant) wows with this spectacular romantic fantasy. Queen Coralys of the Crocus Isles makes a plea to Okeanos, God of the Sea, to save her people from a terrible storm. In exchange for her kingdom’s safety, she agrees to marry the first man to set foot on her pier, who turns out to be a humble fisherman. Named for the same god Coralys bargained with, her new husband, Oke, is more than he seems. There’s an ever-bleeding godwound on his thigh and a far closer connection to the pantheon than he would have her believe. As Coralys is swept into a burgeoning divine war and seeks revenge against the gods, deities and humans alike make their plays for power. Wilson immerses readers in an atmospheric and well-crafted world filled with lush history and folklore while expertly balancing steadfast Coralys’s efforts to protect her people, the pantheon’s politics, and slow-burning romance. Fans of One Dark Window and Daughter of the Moon Goddess will devour this. Agent: Whitney Ross, High Line Literary. (Feb.)

Reviewed on 12/12/2025 | Details & Permalink