A lonely woman seeks healing and kinship in an isolated island community in this slow-simmering horror from Hugo Award winner Gailey (Spread Me). After four miscarriages and multiple failed attempts to make money with multilevel marketing ventures, Celia is desperate for support and connection. She travels to secluded Kindred Cove for the annual Salt Festival, an event billed as being “about connection, purification, cleansing, and community. It’s about releasing yourself from the anchors that hold you back from the life you could be living. But more than any of that—it’s about celebration.” Celia hopes the experience will give her the answers she seeks both about her life’s purpose and the whereabouts of her missing acquaintance, Adelaide, who grew up in Kindred Cove. What she finds is an intentional community whose characteristics gradually shift from quirky to ominous. The history of Kindred Cove is gradually revealed through suspense-building flashbacks. Meanwhile, captivating characters and evocative prose draw the reader in as dread steadily mounts. Gailey does impressive work making life on the island seem pleasant enough—and Celia disconsolate enough—that it’s understandable how warning signs get overlooked or deliberately ignored. Readers are sure to be unsettled. Agent: DongWon Song, Howard Morhaim Literary. (May)

Reviewed on 03/20/2026 | Details & Permalink

In this densely packed and lightly speculative debut novel, Singh spins a complex coming-of-political-consciousness narrative. Forty-something Roma, a Punjabi Queens, N.Y., customer relations manager, is “just another liberal arts coward surfing her feed from the sidelines.” After an existential crisis leads her to Sikhism, she’s drawn into a resistance movement countering Western imperialism. Roma’s stepbrother Ranbir, a local leader in this global alliance, gives her a strange, bioengineered plant capable of turning into a portal they can use to attend Resistance gatherings. At one such meeting, Roma encounters Leila, a Tehran revolutionary, and develops a crush. While agonizing over whether Leila might return her feelings, Roma watches in horror as the war in Gaza unfolds. She also connects through the portal with a jinn who turns out to be one of many survivors of a misguided space colonization experiment. Heady and fascinating, if long-winded, debates about theology, revolutionary theory, and the best path forward take up much of the novel, leaving the speculative elements somewhat shortchanged. The abundance of cultural and historical references occasionally become difficult to parse, but it’s obvious Singh knows her stuff. There’s much to chew on here. (May)

Correction: An earlier version of this review misattributed a previous title to the author and misidentified the protagonist’s age.

Reviewed on 03/13/2026 | Details & Permalink

Entangled in a family curse, two women slip in and out of life and death while seeking vengeance on those that have wronged them—including each other—in this gripping gothic fantasy from Dean (The Book Eaters). Mercy Chan mysteriously washes up on Hong Kong’s shore in 1942, during the Japanese occupation. Joining first the resistance, and later a criminal syndicate, she uses her ability to speak to ghosts to earn a living. Siu Yin, trapped as a spirit, also arrives in Hong Kong but devises a much more destructive agenda. Watching over both is the goddess of mercy and compassion, who tries to stop the feud between the two before it can devastate the ghost-filled Kowloon Walled City district. Though the plot sometimes feels cluttered with flashbacks and POV changes, Dean uses her body-stealing ghosts to have a lot of fun with the slippery nature of identity, and the maogui (“cat ghost”) who stalks bad guys at Mercy’s side is a feline scene-stealer. In the midst of the entertaining drama, serious meditation on the nature of revenge and its effect on its seeker makes a heartfelt argument for the power of forgiveness. Dean’s fans will not be disappointed. Agent: Harry Illingworth, DHH Literary. (May)

Reviewed on 03/13/2026 | Details & Permalink

Simpson (The Last Woman in the World) brings both a powerful understanding of human emotion and a solid background in natural science to this resonant and exquisitely constructed eco-thriller. Teenager Fin Kelvin’s parents were prominent NASA astrophotographers, until her father died and her mother, Dianella, angered the wrong people by highlighting problems with the government’s response to looming environmental disaster and refusing to subject Fin to a mandatory fertility monitoring program. Now, Fin and Dianella have been labeled Illegals and Absconders and are forced to live off the grid. Fin inadvertently discloses their location to teenager Terry, one of a new breed of humans called Incompletes, sending the women on the run even as Dianella continues to prepare for an upcoming eclipse that may provide her one chance to save the planet from environmental collapse. When Terry shows up again, lost and alone after the capture of his parents by the government, Dianella pairs him with Fin to make their way through the woods and up to the top of Mount Kaputar to play a crucial role during the eclipse. Simpson’s worldbuilding is rich and grim, and she succeeds in telling a dystopian coming-of-age story that still offers glimmers of hope and speaks directly to the current moment without falling fully into allegory. It’s a satisfying ode to human resilience and persistence in the face of increased government control. (May)

Reviewed on 03/13/2026 | Details & Permalink

Salomé, the magic-wielding heroine of Lemon’s deliciously dark debut, has felt cursed since birth, when her father attempted to drown both her and her mother. Salomé was saved by midwife Valerie, who went on to raise her and her older sister, Rochelle, until Valerie was accused of witchcraft and burned at the stake. A series of disasters, including Rochelle’s disappearance, then lead Salomé from a convent to a brothel, where she finds a dear companion in fellow sex worker Dacia. When she accidentally kills a man with her magic, however, she’s forced to run once more. Salomé is near death from cold and exhaustion when a dark figure on a black stallion finds her. This is Lord Death, who offers to take her in and teach her to control her abilities. As Salomé both suffers and delights under Death’s care and teaching, something dark festers under the surface of their relationship, draining and frightening her. All the while, girls are going missing from across the barony, including the village where Dacia lives. Lemon does a good job balancing this mystery with the obsessive and abusive relationship between Salomé and Death and the lovely dynamic between Salomé and Dacia. With echoes of Bluebeard and the Hades and Persephone myth, this decadent tale is sure to please fans of gritty fantasy romance. (May)

Reviewed on 03/13/2026 | Details & Permalink

A laboratory experiment to reverse the aging process goes horribly awry in this grisly squirmfest from Cutter (The Troop). Its five principal characters are all chronically ill elders who are forestalled in their plans for medically assisted suicide by Astrid Marsh, a 19-year-old scientific prodigy who offers them a shot at both rehabilitation and rejuvenation at her clandestinely financed facility on a remote Canadian island. Astrid implants each with a “hydra,” a jellyfish-like symbiote capable of restoring damaged body tissue, after which they all enjoy a remarkable reversal of their biological clocks, and revel as self-nicknamed “Dorians,” after Oscar Wilde’s youth-craving sensualist Dorian Gray. But all five face a terrible reckoning when unforeseen circumstances knock them off the path of eternal preservation and force them to contend with the ghastly complications of their altered biology. Though the plot feels formulaic, Cutter drives it to a crackling finale that unfolds, appropriately, during a dark and stormy night. Horror fans with a taste for the gruesome will not be disappointed. (May)

Reviewed on 03/13/2026 | Details & Permalink

This gritty and relentless dystopian novel from Tremblay (Off My Feet) posits a near-future world with an economy built on art. Isobel “Izzy” Ker is a Purist artist, working in an archaic, bland style that makes her an enemy of the New Art Government and the Triggers, celebrated artistic leaders whose “gore-porn” creations are incredibly addictive, and who have cultlike followings of cruel lackeys called Hounds. Living in the resource-poor Dumps outside the protective dome of rich Mahl City, Isobel struggles to survive and keep painting. When Hounds raid her hideout, she’s forced to join the Half-Lights, a crew of anti-art rebels and thieves determined to bring down the government. The Half-Lights send Isobel into Mahl City as their spy—but Isobel’s new life posing as a Trigger proves seductive, and when her friend and fellow rebel Joanie tries to help her, the danger only increases. In an adventure that is twisty, cathartic, and extremely fast-paced, the two friends discover a new side to their world and themselves as they experience both the pleasures and horrors the art-worshipping city has to offer. The worldbuilding occasionally feels heavy-handed, especially in early chunks of exposition, but there’s no denying its originality. Replete with mind-bending thrills and chills, this proves hard to look away from. (June)

Reviewed on 03/13/2026 | Details & Permalink

Set in a dystopian society wracked by illness and war, the gripping first installment of an epic romantic sci-fi series from bestseller Roth (Poster Girl) explores questions of morality, destiny, and societal pressure. Anyone who contracts the Fever dies, but half come back to life with enhanced abilities. The Talusar Empire embraces this plague, coming to “worship the Fever as a god,” while the scrappy nation of Cedre “view the Fever as what it is: a virus whose fifty-fifty survival rate isn’t worth risking.” Elegy Ahn, second child of the Sword of Cedre, the country’s leader in its never-ending war against the Talusar, was born to be the spare in case anything happened to her mother’s heir. Then a prophecy reveals her far weightier fate: either she or Rava Vidar, a Talusar general with a reputation for brutality, will lead their respective people to victory; which of them succeeds will be determined by the love of one man. As the ensuing political intrigue plays out, Roth complicates the already intricate worldbuilding with the people of Cedre’s belief that they were once contacted by alien beings and their hope that these beings may return to save them. Roth’s careful character work impresses as Elegy comes to accept her destiny. With high stakes, plenty of betrayals, and just a hint of humor, this will have readers eager for more. (May)

Reviewed on 03/13/2026 | Details & Permalink

Allen debuts with a raucous, dimension-spanning sci-fi romance, whose protagonist, Acrasia, is impossible not to root for as she travels through space and time with her sometime enemy, sometime lover Opus Zhao. Acrasia is many things: a moth goddess, a Black trans woman, and a writer fond of sprinkling her speech with French phrases. Opus, meanwhile, is a space pilot, a trans man, and a “fuckboi,” according to Acrasia’s cousin and fellow moth goddess Marina, who is trapped in a mirror world. The expansive, ever-fluctuating universe across which their love story plays out can be slippery to grasp, and Allen refuses to hold her readers’ hands. Dimensions change, names and aliases change, Acrasia and Opus’s relationship changes, all with no warning and little explanation. The prose itself, while always clever, is similarly careening, studded with footnotes, transcribed text exchanges, and even sheet music. Those invested enough in the dynamism of the central duo and their wildly inventive worlds to persevere will be rewarded with psychedelic imagery, tongue-in-cheek humor, and a relationship that proves genuinely moving. It’s an ambitious experiment, and Allen mostly pulls it off. (May)

Reviewed on 03/13/2026 | Details & Permalink

With this twisty series opener, Vincent (Living Dead Girl) lays the groundwork for a complicated mixture of fantasy, romance, and mystery. Alchemist prodigy Amber Fallbrook awakes one morning to discover she’s lost the last two years of memories, including everything to do with her time as a student in the prestigious and demanding Alchemary of Aethermere. With the dreaded third year Trials fast approaching, she must somehow reconstruct her education and skills from scratch. If she refuses to participate, she’ll be expelled; if she fails, she risks her life. Her only allies are brothers Wilder and Desmond Gregory, her childhood friends, but she’s uncertain how deep her relationship with either of them now runs, or if they can be trusted. As Amber desperately attempts to cram two years of work into six weeks, she also investigates the cause of her amnesia, which may be tied to the Alchemary’s mysterious history. The plot sometimes feels overloaded as Amber is emotionally torn between two very different brothers, swept up by the Alchemary’s secrets, and driven to reclaim what she’s lost, but Vincent does a good job of balancing these elements and crafting subtle tension. While the larger worldbuilding remains murky and answers, when they come, are delivered in somewhat unsatisfying infodumps, the attention to atmospheric detail and alchemical intricacies makes this memorable. Readers will be eager for more. (Apr.)

Reviewed on 03/06/2026 | Details & Permalink