Middle Grade
Splinter & Ash 2: City of Secrets by Marieke Nijkamp
The second book in New York Times bestselling author Marieke Nijkamp’s immersive medieval fantasy trilogy! A shadowy conspiracy threatens the city, and two determined misfits must uncover the secret plot—and reveal their own secrets—in order to save everyone.
It’s only been a few months since Princess Adelisa, who goes by Ash, returned to the city of Kestrel’s Haven after her abduction by the treasonous group of nobles called the Larks. Ash’s best friend, Splinter, is slowly advancing in her squire training and feeling more protective of Ash than ever.
But Splinter and Ash’s work is not nearly done. Anyone could be a Lark, and it seems that everyone is hiding a secret. When the queen’s spies learn that the Larks plan to disrupt the city’s Harvest Festival, Splinter and Ash are determined to do their part to stop it. They’ll face traitors, assassins, and a ticking clock to prevent everything from going up in flames.
Lulu Sinagtala and the Battle for the Realms by Gail D. Villanueva
This is the second book in the series
Lulu should never have let Maligno get away. Corrupt souls are escaping the Underworld in droves, unrest is plaguing the Middleworld, and factions are pitting gods in the Upperworld against each other. Nothing Lulu, Bart, and Kitty can’t handle, right?
Then Lulu finds outs that the Maligno intends to awaken the king of destruction, the primordial serpent god Ulilang Kaluluwa, in order to control the god’s power with the Sacred Niyog of legend—a powerful and ancient magical artifact that has been broken in three and kept hidden by the Salamangkeros of the past. But the Maligno isn’t the only one in search of the niyog. Bathala, the god of gods, wants to use it to vanguish Ulilang Kaluluwa once and for all in a battle that would destroy the universe.
To protect all three Realms, Lulu, Bart, and Kitty set off on a secret mission to find the three parts of the niyog before their enemies. But will they be able to keep the universe from falling into total chaos before it’s ripped apart?
Young Adult
No Charm Done by Tori Anne Martin
Welcome to Thornhaven, a quaint coastal town where witches hide in plain sight.
Lily Allerton is descended from Thornhaven’s most illustrious magical family. When her tarot cards tell her that acquiring a boyfriend is essential for a successful senior year, she decides to do whatever it takes to bag the cute new boy at school—including overcoming her total lack of interest in him. Determined to make her parents proud, appear “normal” (the fact that she’s never liked a boy is a closely guarded secret), and stay on top of the popular-kid food chain, future valedictorian Lily makes sure that nothing stands in the way of her goals.
But Chrysanthemum Quinn might.
When Chrys moved to town three years ago, she had high hopes that she’d no longer be the outcast with weird powers—hopes that Lily quickly dashed by ostracizing her from the other witches at school. She was too poor, too grunge, and too sarcastic for Lily’s tastes, with a major resting witch face. Nothing like a proper Thornhaven witch. Since then, she and Lily have despised each other and competed relentlessly. Chrys is going to beat Lily for valedictorian—and if Lily wants the new boy, then Chrys is going to win him first.
But when Lily’s and Chrys’s attempts to hex each other create a curse that threatens the town, they’ll have to put aside their animosity to stop it… and reckon with some deeply buried emotions. Because breaking the curse will take more than magic—it’ll take acknowledging that it’s not the boy either of them wants.
A Feast for the Eyes by Alex Crespo
On the dreary Oregon coast, an all-seeing beast—known as the Watcher—lies in wait. When Shay and her girlfriend, Lauren, get into a fight over whether to go public with their clandestine relationship, they awaken the creature. Although Lauren is badly injured, the girls escape with their lives but can’t shake the feeling of the creature’s eyes tracking them.
Meanwhile, aspiring photographer Zoe is desperate to put together a portfolio worthy of earning a scholarship to attend art college. Her photography teacher praises her skill but urges her to select more daring subjects for her submissions—a tall task when Zoe’s camera acts as a barrier between herself and the rest of the world.
As rumors swirl about Lauren’s injuries, Shay remains steadfast in that the Watcher is to blame, not her. She asks for Zoe’s help in snapping a photo of the local legend. Proof would help Shay clear her name and certainly be daring enough for Zoe’s scholarship. Together with their friends Jack and Parker, they set out to expose the Watcher before its ever-creeping eyes cast the secrets they’re all keeping from the town—and one another—into the light.
Wavelength by Cale Plett
Teen pop sensation Sasha may be famous, but they’ve always kept a layer of anonymity by covering their face to perform. Facing pressure to unmask in public, Sasha runs away to a nowhere midwestern city, planning to finish senior year and come out as nonbinary away from the limelight. But their plan falters from the moment they meet Wavelength, an alt-rock band, and their lead singer.
Lillian is struggling to keep the band together, caught in a mess of lyrics, late-night texts and ill-conceived love notes. She’s torn between feelings for her ex-girlfriend (and ex-bandmember) and her new infatuation with Sasha. Maybe this stranger is the new singer and the new love she’s looking for ― even though Sasha’s stories don’t seem to quite add up.
If a whisper of Sasha’s fame gets out, their new life is over. Sasha’s manager is tracking them down, Wavelength is on the rise, and everyone’s hearts are in the mosh pit. Turn off the houselights. The band’s counting in.
Secrets of the Blue Hand Girls by Rowana Miller
When the first letter appears in Kay Anderson’s locker, it carries one instruction: dye your hand blue.
She definitely shouldn’t follow it. Kay doesn’t have time for secret societies: as a scholarship student at up-and-coming Manhattan prep school Davison High, she knows her job is to work hard, get into Northwestern, and ignore her wealthy classmates’ fun-filled Instagram stories. Besides, her first and only real friend at Davison died suddenly freshman year.
Still, Kay’s intrigued, so she stains her palms with ink to join the mysterious Blue Hand Girls, sharing an unspoken thrill with the classmates who do the same. More letters show up, assigning risky initiation tasks, and Kay realizes the group is set on exposing the shady business that Davison’s founders would rather keep hidden―things that her dead friend might have known about.
But the anonymous instructions also demand the girls reveal their own secrets, bonding them all too close to abandon the society. Soon Kay doesn’t know who’s more dangerous: the powerful people who run her school, or the Blue Hand Girls themselves. And then there’s Zola Wolfe, the beautiful redhead in Kay’s Calculus class, who’s never been seen with a blue hand, and who just might become her girlfriend. Yet Kay can’t help but wonder, even as she kisses her on the roof of Davison High, if Zola is the most dangerous of them all.
Angelica and the Bear Prince by Trung Le Nguyen
Angelica was the girl who could do it all—until suddenly, she couldn’t. Burnout hit hard. Now, after some very low moments, she’s ready to get her life back together, thanks to her friends, and one very surprising source of comfort.
A bear.
Peri is the mascot of the local theater. He’s been sending Angelica supportive messages from his social. They’ve become friends, and Angelica might even have . . . a crush?
Determined to find the human behind the bear costume, Angelica gets an internship at the theater. She might never go back to being the girl who can do everything, but perhaps she is becoming the girl who can magically have it all.
Adult Fiction
Her Wicked Roots by Tanya Pell
In this queer retelling of Nathaniel Hawthorne classic gothic story, Rappaccini’s Daughter, a young woman is lured to a lush estate owned by a botanist who might be hiding dark secrets.
Cordelia Beecher is on the run. In search of her missing brother Edward, she has fled the oppressive charity school she was raised in, desperate to find the only family she knows. Using clues from his past letters, she sets off for the sleepy town of Farrow but everyone there claims to have never heard of Edward—not even the man he was supposedly working for as an apprentice.
With nowhere to go, Cordi turns to Lady Evangeline, a local botanist who owns the magnificent Edenfield estate. The benevolent lady of the manor has made it her mission to take young, often traumatized, women into her employ and protect them from man’s world of wicked desires and deceits. Hired as a maid and companion to her enigmatic daughters, Prim and Briar, Cordi quickly settles into Edenfield. Even as her relationship with Briar blossoms, Cordi can’t help but suspect that there are secrets in the estate…and when she stumbles across evidence that Edward was once there, she’s determined to find answers.
And I’ll Take Out Your Eyes by A.M. Sosa
Cría cuervos y te sacaran los ojos: Raise crows and they’ll take out your eyes.
Since the age of seven, Christian has been under the thumb of a curse. He reads its dark signs everywhere: in his bedridden mother’s wilting plants; in his brother’s estrangement; in his father’s eager fists and glassy stare. He reads it in his nightmares, in Stockton’s soundtrack of sirens and gunshot. Above all, he reads the curse in the mirror, watching himself “turn” into the crow his father always predicted he’d become.
Maddened by the city’s heatwaves and his own unthinkable desires, often high and drunk, Christian rips through his neighborhood, desperate to escape not only the city but the monster of his pain. But even when he leaves, the curse follows. Can Christian ever be absolved? Or is he condemned to be consumed by the same violence as his father?
Savage Blooms by S.T. Gibson
For as long as Adam can remember, the legends passed down from his world-traveling grandfather have called him to a crumbling manor in the Highlands. His closest friend Nicola longs for the same adventure, as well as for Adam himself. She’ll follow him just about anywhere – even to the remote wilds of Scotland – if it pushes the pair to surrender to their shared attraction.
But when a storm strikes and strands them unexpectedly, Adam and Nicola find themselves at the mercy of the eccentric owner of the infamous house, Eileen, as well as her brooding groundskeeper, Finley.
Trapped by the weather, and bound by ancient faery magic, Nicola and Adam get more than they bargained for as they become entangled in Eileen and Finley’s world of mind games, deceit and forbidden desire. As ancestral sins are unearthed, Adam and Nicola will have to reckon with the spell Eileen and Finley have cast over them – and whether or not they even want to be free.
Herculine by Grace Byron
Herculine’s narrator has demons. Sure, her life includes several hallmarks of the typical trans girl sob story—conversion therapy, a string of shitty low-paying jobs, and even shittier exes—but she also regularly debates sleep paralysis demons that turn to mist soon after she wakes and carries vials of holy oil in her purse. Nothing, though, prepares her for the new malevolent force stalking her through the streets of New York City, more powerful than any she’s ever encountered. Desperate to escape this ancient evil, she flees to rural Indiana, where her ex-girlfriend started an all-trans girl commune in the middle of the woods.
The secluded camp, named after 19th-century intersex memoirist Herculine Barbin, is a scrappy operation, but the shared sense of community among the girls is a welcome balm to the narrator’s growing isolation and paranoia. Still, something isn’t quite right at Herculine. Girls stop talking as soon as she enters the room, everyone seems to share a common secret, and the books lining the walls of the library harbor strange cryptograms. Soon what once looked like an escape becomes a trap all its own.
While trying to untangle the commune’s many mysteries, the narrator contends with disemboweled pigs, cultlike psychosexual rituals, and the horrors of communal breakfast. And before long, she discovers that her demons have followed her. And this time, they won’t be letting her go.
Colin Gets Promoted and Dooms the World by Mark Waddell
WARNING! Under no circumstances must employees strike a deal with unauthorized personnel on Dark Enterprises property. Such behavior could result in death…or the end of the world.
Colin is a low-level employee at Dark Enterprises, a Hell-like multinational corporation solving the world’s most difficult problems in deeply questionable ways. After years of toiling away in a cubicle, he’s ready to climb the corporate ladder and claim the power he’s never had.
The only problem is, he’s pretty sure he’s about to be terminated. Like, terminated. That’s tough, because his BFF has just set him up with a great guy. In fact, maybe he’s a little too great. And asks a lot of questions…
When Colin meets a shadowy figure promising him his heart’s deepest desire, he can’t resist the urge to fast-track his goals. In return for a small, unspecified favor, he asks for the one thing that will improve his life: a promotion.
But that small favor unleashes an ancient evil. People in New York are disappearing, the world might be ending, and Management is starting to notice. Getting to the top is never easy, and now it’s up to Colin to save the world. It’s the ultimate power move, after all.
Crafting for Sinners by Jenny Kiefer
Ruth is trapped. She’s stuck in her small, religious hometown of Kill Devil, Kentucky, stuck in the closet, and stuck living paycheck to paycheck. After her manager finds out that she lives with her girlfriend, Ruth is fired from her job at New Creations—a craft store owned by the church that dominates life in Kill Devil.
In an act of revenge, Ruth attempts to shoplift some yarn but is caught red-handed. Instead of calling the police, the employees lock her in the store—and attack her. As Ruth fights for her life using only the crafting supplies at hand, she plunges deeper into the tangled web of the New Creationists, who are hiding a terrible secret that threatens not only her but the entire town.
Cinder House by Freya Marske
Ella is a haunting.
Murdered at sixteen, her ghost is furiously trapped in her father’s house, invisible to everyone except her stepmother and stepsisters.
Even when she discovers how to untether herself from her prison, there are limits. She cannot be seen or heard by the living people who surround her. Her family must never learn she is able to leave. And at the stroke of every midnight, she finds herself back on the staircase where she died.
Until she forges a wary friendship with a fairy charm-seller, and makes a bargain for three nights of almost-living freedom. Freedom that means she can finally be seen. Danced with. Touched.
You think you know Ella’s story: the ball, the magical shoes, the handsome prince.
You’re halfway right, and all-the-way wrong.
All of Us Murderers by K.J. Charles
When Zeb Wyckham is summoned to a wealthy relative’s remote Gothic manor, he is horrified to find all the people he least wants to see in the world: his estranged brother, his sneering cousin, and his bitter ex-lover Gideon Grey. Things couldn’t possibly get worse.
Then the master of the house announces the true purpose of the gathering: he intends to leave the vast family fortune to whoever marries his young ward, setting off a violent scramble for her hand. Zeb wants no part of his greedy family―but when he tries to leave, the way is barred. The walls of Lackaday House are high, and the gates firmly locked. As the Dartmoor mists roll in, there’s no way out. And something unnatural may be watching them from the house’s shadowy depths…
Fear and paranoia ramping ever-higher, Zeb has nowhere to turn but to the man who once held his heart. As the gaslight flickers and terror takes hold, can two warring lovers reunite, uncover the murderous mysteries of Lackaday House―and live to tell the tale?
The Hearth Witch’s Guide to Magic & Murder by Kiri Callaghan
“For all intents and purposes, we are still blissfully separated from the mortals, but there have been…complications.”
When a rise in London’s supernatural crime puts Fey society at risk of discovery, the Winter Council turns to an unlikely solution: Avery Hemlock, the changeling they sentenced to 500 Years of Nightmares. Inherently lacking social grace and missing approximately two centuries of world knowledge, Avery must find a way to acclimate and solve the case or lose her probationary freedom.
After being left at the altar and dropping out of medical school, Saga Trygg attempts to rekindle her faith in life, humanity, and witchcraft. But when her new neighbor, Avery, accidentally reveals the Fey that have been living among humanity all along, Saga realizes magic is far more than prayers, intention, and candles.
Each faced with navigating an unfamiliar world, the two form an unexpected partnership―but shortly into Avery’s investigation, they discover the threat might be closer to Saga than either of them imagined, and Avery will do anything to protect the first friend she’s had in more than two hundred years.
Vampires at Sea by Lindsay Merbaum
Immortal beloveds Rebekah and Hugh are on vacation! Against a backdrop of ongoing war, this pair of chic emotional vampires from San Francisco sets off on a queer Black Sea Cruise, eager to relax, join an orgy, and feast upon their fellow passengers’ desires and sorrows. When Hugh becomes enchanted by an alluring—and possibly magical—nonbinary social media influencer named Heaven, Rebekah’s reality capsizes, and her true nature is unleashed.
The Salvage by Anbara Salam
It is 1962, and Marta Khoury, a trailblazing marine archaeologist, has been called to Cairnroch, a small island off the east coast of Scotland. A Victorian shipwreck, dragged from arctic waters, holds the remains of a celebrated explorer and the treasures of his final expedition. But on her first dive down to the ship, Marta becomes convinced she has seen a dark figure lurking amid the wreckage.
When the Cuban Missile Crisis and the deep chill of a record-breaking winter keeps Marta stranded on Cairnroch, she forms a relationship with Elsie, a local woman working in the island’s only hotel. When the ship’s artefacts inexplicably disappear, Marta and Elsie have to brave the freezing conditions to search for the missing objects before anyone else catches on. As something eerie seems to follow her at every step, Marta must confront if the haunting is a figment of her imagination, the repercussions from a terrible mistake from her past, or if something more sinister is at play that will trap her and everyone on the island―and their secrets―in an icy wilderness.
Hollow by Karina Halle
A sexy, dark fantasy reimagining of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, where Katrina Van Tassel doesn’t have to choose between Brom Bones and Ichabod Crane, and there are worse things haunting them than the Headless Horseman.
Kat Van Tassel’s life was predestined from childhood; she was to marry her best friend, Brom Bones. But Brom vanished from Sleepy Hollow years ago, leaving Kat alone to enroll in Sleepy Hollow Institute, a shadowy university for advanced witchcraft run by her powerful family. And now she finds herself drawn to the school’s enigmatic new teacher, Ichabod Crane, as he delves into dark magic.
When Brom returns, suffering from amnesia and a dark transformation, the trio must confront gruesome murders attributed to a vengeful spirit, The Headless Horseman, while navigating their tangled relationships.
As Kat, Ichabod, and Brom seek answers, their bonds deepen, and forbidden desires take hold. But Sleepy Hollow holds secrets more sinister than they imagined. The Headless Horseman lurks, threatening to claim them, while something even more terrifying looms in the shadows.
Mirage City by Lev A.C. Rosen
This is the fourth book in the Evander Mills series
Private Investigator Evander “Andy” Mills’ next case takes him out of his comfort zone in San Francisco―and much to his dismay, back home to Los Angeles. After a secretive queer rights organization called the Mattachine Society enlists Andy to find some missing members, he must dodge not only motorcycle gangs and mysterious forces, but his own mother, too.
Avoiding her proves to be a challenge when the case leads Andy to the psychiatric clinic she works at. Worlds collide, buried secrets are dug up, and Andy realizes he’s going to have to make some hard choices. With secrets, drugs, and doctors swirling around him, time is running out for Andy to locate the missing and get them to safety. And for him to make it back to San Francisco in one piece.
The River and the Star by Gabriela Romero Lacruz
In the gripping conclusion to the Warring Gods duology, two women find themselves caught in an ancient feud between ruthless entities, and embark on an epic quest for power and liberation.
Reina is full of hope.
At long last, Reina has the peace she’s been searching for on the idyllic islands of Tierra’e Sol with the lover she’s always wanted and in service to the god of the sun. But she can’t quite trust how long this will last. When monstrous creatures of the Void appear on the isle’s shores, she is certain she knows who is behind the attacks. Reina will stop at nothing to protect the woman she loves, but it could cost her everything she’s fought so hard for.
Eva is cherished.
Finally reunited with her father, the Liberator, Eva struggles to prove herself worthy of being his heir while keeping secret her alliance with the god of the Void. As destruction, both human and magical, tears across the lands, Eva is thrust into a power struggle she’s ill-prepared for. Confronted with the limits of her own ambition, Eva must fight to save herself from the powerful corruption of the Void before she loses the family she holds dear.
The warring gods are returning and the only thing between them and absolute power are two young women. But for the first time in their lives, Reina and Eva have something to fight for. And they won’t back down.
A Mouthful of Dust by Nghi Vo
This is the sixth novella in the Singing Hills Cycle. The novellas are standalone stories linked by the Cleric Chih, and may be read in any order.
Wandering Cleric Chih of Singing Hills and their hoopoe companion Almost Brilliant come to the river town of Baolin chasing stories of a legendary famine. Amid tales of dishes served to royalty and desserts made of dust, they discover the secrets of what happens when hunger stalks the land and what the powerful will do to hide their crimes.
Trapped in the mansion of a sinister magistrate, Chih and Almost Brilliant must learn what happened in Baolin when the famine came to call, and they must do so quickly… because the things in the shadows are only growing hungrier.
Blood, Sweat, & Queers ed. by Margaret Hall and Jamie Ryu
Peek Inside the Anthology here.
CRACK OPEN THE COFFIN AND UNLEASH THE VAMPIRE.
An ancient beast stirs in the shale beneath an oil rig. A dancer languish in a lakeside cottage. A man swipes right, hunting flesh with a predator’s patience. A woman reels from government-sanctioned body horrors.
All queer. All ravenous. All vampires.
Vampires have always been vessels of longing, craving not only blood, but sex, power, and the sanctity of the taboo. And what hunger is more righteously denied, more persistently policed, than queer love? Like the vampire, the queer spirit endures, unkillable and unashamed.
With a foreword by vampire scholar Margaret Hall, Blood, Sweat & Queers presents decadent tales of queer love from eight LGBTQ+ authors, all intertwined with the eternal allure of the vampire— stories of desire unbound, of passion unending, and hunger that threatens to consume everything in its path. Crack open the coffin, if you dare.
Buy it: Contrarian | Amazon
Smoke Gets in Your Eyes by Anaïs Flogny
Chicago, 1930. Jules Tivoli is a penniless Italian immigrant doing odd jobs to make ends meet. A twist of fate causes him to cross paths with Adam, a kingpin in Chicago’s criminal underworld who sees something in Jules that nobody else does—something special.
Under Adam’s wing, Jules becomes somebody and falls in love hard with the man who made him. But after an FBI crackdown, Adam and Jules must flee to New York to escape being caught in the ensuing chaos.
In New York, Jules’s Italian heritage gains him access, recognition, and power in the Cosa Nostra crime family. As he becomes more important in a city where Adam can’t seem to catch a break, he meets Eufrasio—his handsome, violent, and ambitious new partner who insists that Adam is holding Jules back. But Jules would be nothing without Adam—wouldn’t he?
Torn between his past and his future, a sudden betrayal forces Jules to find a way to protect his love and prove his loyalty—if he can even manage to make it out alive.
Non Fiction
Queers at the Table: An Illustrated Guide to Queer Food (With Recipes) ed. by Alex D. Ketchum and Megan J. Elias
An anthology of essays, comics, and recipes that reveals the dynamic and transformative relationship between queerness and food
Food has long played an important role in queer culture. Lesbian- and queer women–run feminist restaurants, cafes, and coffeehouses have been safe spaces for queer and trans folk where gender norms can be challenged and where female authority is legitimized. During the AIDS epidemic, gay men and their allies centered food as an expression of collective care for those who needed it most. And queer and trans folk have asserted themselves in a restaurant culture largely controlled by white cisgender men.
Queers at the Table celebrates the various intersections between queers and food. In its essays, comics, and recipes, the book shows how this shared culture fosters connections, defies norms, honours legacies, and creates community. Taylor Hartson and Tristian Lee write about a queer farming community in which queerness is part of a broad network of living things to be enjoyed and shared; Danielle Kydd writes about food security issues as faced by LGBTQ2S+ folk; and Blue Delliquanti’s comic on urban foraging in Minneapolis demonstrates the role of a queer friend group in a local ecosystem.
In full color throughout, Queers at the Table is a diverse and enriching anthology that reveals the myriad nurturing ways that queerness informs food production and restaurant culture and how food empowers, transforms, and unites queer and trans folk.
Uncanny Valley Girls: Essays on Horror, Survival, and Love by Zefyr Lisowski
This is how it worked: first I loved them, and then I loved myself.
At twenty-seven, poet Zefyr Lisowski found herself in the place she feared most: a locked psych ward. While inside, she turned to horror movies—her deepest, most constant comfort.
Rather than disturb, scary movies have always provided solace and connection for Lisowski, as they do many others—offering a vision of a world filled equally with beauty and pain, and a reason to reach out to others and hold them tight. After all, as Lisowski argues, what terrifies us most about these movies is our own uncanny reflection—and at the root of that fear, a desperate desire to love and be loved.
In these wide-ranging essays, Lisowski weaves theory and memoir into nuanced critiques of films such as The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Saint Maud. From fears about sickness and disability, to trans narratives and the predator/victim complex, to the struggle to live in a world that wants you dead, she explores horror’s reciprocal impact on our culture and—by extension—our lives. Through it all, Lisowski lays bare her own complex biography—spanning from a trans childhood in the South to the sweaty dancefloors of Brooklyn—and the family, friends, and lovers that have bloomed with her into the present.
