Other Book Riot New Releases Resources
This is only scratching the surface of the books out this week! If you want to keep up with all the latest new releases, check out: It’s the perfect venue for a group of thrill-seeking friends, brought back together to celebrate a wedding. A night of food, drinks, and games quickly spirals into a nightmare as secrets get dragged out and relationships are tested. But the house has secrets too. Lurking in the shadows is the ghost bride with a black smile and a hungry heart. And she gets lonely down there in the dirt. Reasons to read it: This is a creepy haunted house story that draws on Japanese folklore and deals with grief. It also has a bisexual main character! Khaw does not pull punches with their horror, so plan to read this one with all the lights on! Seventeen-year-old French lost his family to these schools and has spent the years since heading north with his new found family: a group of other dreamers, who, like him, are trying to build and thrive as a community. But then French wakes up in a pitch-black room, locked in and alone for the first time in years, and he knows immediately where he is—and what it will take to escape. Meanwhile, out in the world, his found family searches for him and dodges new dangers—school Recruiters, a blood cult, even the land itself. When their paths finally collide, French must decide how far he is willing to go—and how many loved ones is he willing to betray—in order to survive. Reasons to read it: This is a sequel to Dimaline’s explosively popular book The Marrow Thieves, continuing French’s story. It’s an action-packed and haunting read, particularly relevant now that residential schools have been in the news in recent months. Teen and adult readers will both appreciate this fresh take on the dystopia genre. It seems a strange occasion―her husband, Winn, has lost his bid for the state legislature―but what better way to thank key supporters than a feast? Liselle was never sure about her husband becoming a politician, never sure about the limelight, never sure about the life of fundraising and stump speeches. Then an FBI agent calls to warn her that Winn might be facing corruption charges. An avalanche of questions tumbles around her: Is it possible he’s guilty? Who are they to each other; who have they become? How much of herself has she lost―and was it worth it? And just this minute, how will she make it through this dinner party? Across town, Selena Octave is making her way through the same day, the same way she always does―one foot in front of the other, keeping quiet and focused, trying not to see the terrors all around her. Homelessness, starving children, the very living horrors of history that made America possible: these and other thoughts have made it difficult for her to live an easy life. The only time she was ever really happy was with Liselle, back in college. But they’ve lost touch, so much so that when they ran into each other at a drugstore just after Obama was elected president, they barely spoke. But as the day wears on, memories of Liselle begin to shift Selena’s path. Reasons to read it: This is inspired by Mrs. Dalloway as well as Sula and Zami. It’s about two women discovering themselves at midlife and reexamining what’s important to them. It’s a character study of the two main characters, what they meant to each other in that charged college romance, and what their lives became afterwards. Lucy Barton is a writer, but her ex-husband, William, remains a hard man to read. William, she confesses, has always been a mystery to me. Another mystery is why the two have remained connected after all these years. They just are. So Lucy is both surprised and not surprised when William asks her to join him on a trip to investigate a recently uncovered family secret—one of those secrets that rearrange everything we think we know about the people closest to us. There are fears and insecurities, simple joys and acts of tenderness, and revelations about affairs and other spouses, parents and their children. On every page of this exquisite novel we learn more about the quiet forces that hold us together—even after we’ve grown apart. Reasons to read it: This is the latest in Elizabeth Strout’s series starring Lucy Barton. It’s a portrait of a decades-long relationship, including how it changed but endured after divorce. Strout demonstrates her skills in creating flawed, realistic characters that are both ordinary and engrossing. When a handsome young heir named Magnus Rorschach reaches out to hire her, she takes the job without question. Never mind that he’s rude and demanding and eccentric, that the contract comes with a number of outlandish rules… and that almost a dozen debtera had quit before her. If Andromeda wants to earn a living, she has no choice. But she quickly realizes this is a job like no other, with horrifying manifestations at every turn, and that Magnus is hiding far more than she has been trained for. Death is the most likely outcome if she stays, the reason every debtera before her quit. But leaving Magnus to live out his curse alone isn’t an option because—heaven help her—she’s fallen for him. Reasons to read it: This is an Ethiopian-inspired fantasy reimagining of Jane Eye that promises to be eerie and romantic. Part haunted house horror novel and part swoon-worthy romance, this is an action-packed story with memorable characters. This chilling read is the perfect pick for a blustery Autumn evening. From wind-breathing dragons to first crushes, This Is Our Rainbow features story after story of joyful, proud LGBTQA+ representation. You will fall in love with this insightful, poignant anthology of queer fantasy, historical, and contemporary stories. Reasons to read it: This is the first middle grade LGBTQA+ anthology for middle-graders, and it features stories with a wide range of genres and representations, including realistic fiction as well as sci fi fantasy stories. There are tons of great authors in this collection, like Alex Gino, Justina Ireland, and Molly Knox Ostertag, andeven authors who have written some of my favourite queer YA and middle grade, like Mark Oshiro, Lisa Jenn Bigelow, and Ashley Herring Blake. I’m so excited to pick this one up!
Book Riot’s YouTube channel, where I discuss the most exciting books out every Tuesday! All the Books, our weekly new releases podcast, where Liberty and a cast of co-hosts (including me!) talk about eight books out that week that we’ve read and loved. The New Books Newsletter, where we send you an email of the books out this week that are getting buzz!
title: “New Releases Tuesday The Most Anticipated Books Out This Week " ShowToc: true date: “2023-01-13” author: “Antwan Morley”
Other Book Riot New Releases Resources
This is only scratching the surface of the books out this week! If you want to keep up with all the latest new releases, check out: Khadija Abdalla Bajaber’s debut is a magical realist coming-of-age tale told through the lens of the Swahili and diasporic Hadrami culture in Mombasa, Kenya. Richly descriptive and written with an imaginative hand and sharp eye for unusual detail, This is sure to be a memorable novel by a thrilling new voice. Reasons to read it: The House of Rust is the first Graywolf Press African Fiction Prize winner. It has beautiful language and really explores the various complexities of coming of age and into one’s own. Aisha is a well-rounded protagonist with a strong will, and a nature that can be both generous and selfish at times. It reminds me a lot of Kiki’s Delivery Service, especially with the sarcastic cat companion, but it’s also a unique story in that we don’t get to see many books with Kenyan magic realism. Enter Lauren Clegg, the former ER therapist hired to keep him in line. Compared to her previous work, watching over handsome but impulsive Alex shouldn’t be especially difficult. But the more time they spend together, the harder it gets to keep her professional remove and her heart intact, especially when she discovers the reasons behind his recklessness…not to mention his Cupid fanfiction habit. When another scandal lands Alex in major hot water and costs Lauren her job, she’ll have to choose between protecting him and offering him what he really wants—her. But he’s determined to keep his improbably short, impossibly stubborn, and extremely endearing minder in his life any way he can. And on a road trip up the California coast together, he intends to show her exactly what a falling star will do to catch the woman he loves: anything at all. Reasons to read it: This is the follow-up to Spoiler Alert that promises to be as fun as the first. Tropes are handled by Dade in an interesting way, and Alex’s love of fan fiction adds more endearing points to the character. Both characters grow individually as well as together. *Note: since recording, the release of of All the Feels has been pushed back to November 16, 2021. It’s just that he’s away so much. So often. He works so hard. She misses him. And he misses her. He says he does, so it must be true. He is the perfect husband and everything is perfect. But sometimes Sophia wonders about things. Strange things. Dark things. The look on her husband’s face when he comes back from a long business trip. The questions he will not answer. The locked basement she is never allowed to enter. And whenever she asks the neighbors, they can’t quite meet her gaze…. But everything is perfect. Isn’t it? Reasons to read it: Comfort Me With Apples is a terrifying new thriller— some may even say horror— from bestseller Catherynne M. Valente, for fans of Gone Girl and Spinning Silver. Read if you want a totally unique and unsettling read that will keep you engaged for all of its brief 112 pages. Some of the sleepers, however, will never wake. As a profound and sinister mystery unfolds aboard the gigantic vessel, its skeleton crew makes decisions that will have repercussions for all of humanity’s settlements—from the scheming politics on Lagos station to the colony planet of Bloodroot, to other far-flung systems, and indeed Earth itself. Reasons to read it: This is a tense and thrilling mystery told in space from the author of Rosewater. It’s space opera adjacent, with wonderful Afrofuturist elements, and quirky characters that bring humor and delightful strangeness. A lush exploration of roses, pleasure, and politics, and a fresh take on George Orwell as an avid gardener whose political writing was grounded in his passion for the natural world. Sparked by her unexpected encounter with the surviving roses he planted in 1936, Solnit’s account of this understudied aspect of Orwell’s life explores his writing and his actions—from going deep into the coal mines of England, fighting in the Spanish Civil War, critiquing Stalin when much of the international left still supported him (and then critiquing that left), to his analysis of the relationship between lies and authoritarianism. Through Solnit’s celebrated ability to draw unexpected connections, readers encounter the photographer Tina Modotti’s roses and her Stalinism, Stalin’s obsession with forcing lemons to grow in impossibly cold conditions, Orwell’s slave-owning ancestors in Jamaica, Jamaica Kincaid’s critique of colonialism and imperialism in the flower garden, and the brutal rose industry in Colombia that supplies the American market. The book draws to a close with a rereading of Nineteen Eighty-Four that completes her portrait of a more hopeful Orwell, as well as a reflection on pleasure, beauty, and joy as acts of resistance. Reasons to read it: For a different perspective on such an iconic writer. This more fully fleshes out a highly influential figure in literature who many may think they have pegged. It shows how, although Orwell was adamant in the idea that there should be “bread for all,” he also believed in the right to roses and other beautiful and enjoyable parts of life for everyone. Vibrant and emotionally riveting, Monster in the Middle moves across decades, from the U.S. to the Virgin Islands to Ghana and back again, to show how one couple’s romance is intrinsically influenced by the family lore and love stories that preceded their own pairing. What challenges and traumas must this new couple inherit, what hopes and ambitions will keep them moving forward? Exploring desire and identity, religion and class, passion and obligation, the novel posits that in order to answer the question “who are we meant to be with?” we must first understand who we are and how we came to be. Reasons to read it: For lyrical writing on how generational issues get passed down and how they manifest into the present day. There’s also an interesting and often unexplored examination of who we fall in love with here. How the people we fall in love with are not just who we see in front of us, but also entire histories.
Book Riot’s YouTube channel, where Danika and I discuss the most exciting books out every Tuesday! All the Books, our weekly new releases podcast, where Liberty and a cast of co-hosts talk about eight books out that week that we’ve read and loved. The New Books Newsletter, where we send you an email of the books out this week that are getting buzz. Finally, if you want the real inside scoop on new releases, you have to check out Book Riot Insiders’ New Releases Index! That’s where I find 90% of new releases, and you can filter by trending books, Rioters’ picks, and even LGBTQ new releases!
