We’ve entered into the book season, and there really are too many highly anticipated books coming out this month to list here. One of the books out this month is even being called one of the best books of the year, if not the century, by The New York Times. Yeah, it’s like that.
The books below that our editors and writers have highlighted as among the most notable releases of the year span genres, and include works by bestselling, award-winning as well as debut authors. They follow queer men in 1980s Jamaica, grapple with identity and coming of age in Taipei, and even get into the lives of scandalous church ladies.
Literary Fiction
The Disappearers by Marlon James
Marlon James is the Man Booker Prize-winning author of A Brief History of Seven Killings. His newest novel follows eight gay men in 1980s in Kingston, Jamaica. They met while rehearsing for a play together. One night, they are the victims of a gay bashing, and one is killed. In the aftermath, some seek revenge and some try to disappear.
The early reviews of this one are effusive, including from The Boston Globe: “Harrowing, hilarious, magnificent …this novel will be read decades from now, pored over in seminars and bookmarked on subway commutes … [James’] defiant queer epic belongs to us all.” —Danika Ellis
Taipei Story by R.F. Kuang
An R.F. Kuang release is always an event. I love that for her as much as I love it for us, and I especially love that her latest is a bit different from what I’ve seen of her so far. In this contemporary coming-of-age novel, we see through Chinese American college freshman Lily Chen how homegoing isn’t always quite like what you think it will be. When Lily sets off for Taipei and the intensive Chinese language summer course she enrolled in, she’s hoping to feel closer to the culture her parents were born into, but that she never fully grasped. But then everything seems to just crumble. Her roommate sucks, her classes are a little too intense, and there’s a piece of nasty gossip floating around about her. Then her grandfather dies, and suddenly, the search for who she is takes a different turn. —Erica Ezeifedi
New Books
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The True Confessions of First Lady Freeman by Deesha Philyaw
Maybe you heard me screaming when I learned that we’re getting a Deesha Philyaw novel this year. I’ve talked at length about my love for Philyaw’s short story collection, The Secret Lives of Church Ladies, and I am so excited to more deeply immerse myself in a Philyaw tale, especially a juicy one about the secret past of a powerful megachurch pastor’s wife. I have the galley and thank goodness because I can’t bear to wait out the fall release. —S. Zainab Williams
Sci-Fi
Exit Party by Emily St. John Mandel
From the author of Station Eleven and Sea of Tranquility comes a time-skipping dystopian centered around a missing person. It’s 2031 in L.A. after the United States collapsed. The curfew has lifted, the troops withdrew from the city, and it’s time to party. The function gunrunner Ari Waker and her roommate go to, once they get past the bomb-sniffing dogs and ravaged towns, has an electrifying energy. Too bad everything changes on a dime: a doppelganger appears and makes their way through the crowd, and then Kareem, the host of the party, disappears. To find out just what happened that night, readers go on a journey that goes from weapons dealers in Greece to a domed city of Paris, and beyond. —Erica Ezeifedi
Nonfiction
Terrestrial by Cristina Rivera Garza
Cristina Rivera Garza is a pro at the genre-bending game, as evidenced by her Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Liliana’s Invincible Summer. She’s back with this collection of stories about young women’s travels on the fringes of Mexico and the United States. Described as a combination of “journalism, novelistic writing, and themes of female freedom, gore capitalism, and class struggle,” this has the potential to scratch the same places in my brain that Liliana did, and that is an exciting prospect. —Vanessa Diaz
Romance
Isn’t He Romantic by Adib Khorram
At nearly 40, Arya has always been wary of love, but maybe it’s time to start looking for something beyond hookups. Things get complicated when Arya discovers his latest partner, Ben, is the committee chair of the charity ball his company is planning. To scare off an ex, Ben claims Arya is his boyfriend. Since they’re already spending time together, what will a little fake dating hurt? —Courtney Rodgers
Graphic Novel/Manga
On Their Frontlines Volume One by Marina Lisa Komiya
Before the war, Yoriko and Haru were the best of friends, and possibly more. But in the tumultuous aftermath, the girls become separated and, unable to find each other, are forced into lives they never expected or wanted. Often dark but never hopeless, On Their Frontlines follows Yoriko and Haru as they try to forget each other and rebuild as best they can. —Eileen Gonzalez
Mystery, Thriller, or True Crime
Justice for Jehanne: The Tale of a Medieval Survivor by Sara McDougal
For readers of history, forensic analysis, and true crime.
In Dijon, France in the late Middle Ages a woman named Jehanne made a criminal complaint that she’d been sexually assaulted. Jaques Borestel was ordered by the mayor to investigate. Now Sara McDougall has used forensic analysis on the witness testimony and painted a picture of Jehanne, the investigation, and the community. —Jamie Canaves
Fantasy
Blacktail by Scott Hawkins
The wait is over! Eleven years since the release of The Library at Mount Char, Scott Hawkins is back with another tremendous, imaginative dark fantasy. It’s about a wolf, Blacktail, who seeks revenge after humans kill his mate. This bloody vengeance novel is full of talking animals, including a cat witch, and is perfect for people who love Richard Adams. —Liberty Hardy
Historical Fiction
American Nightmare by Kelly McWilliams
Inspired by the life and work of Civil Rights activist Walter White, American Nightmare tells the story of a man answering an ad from the NAACP looking for light-skinned Black men to take on dangerous undercover work. Clark Wendell White is sent to investigate lynchings, but a new chapter of the Ku Klux Klan in New York City and the one man who sees right through his disguise threaten to lead him down an even deadlier road. —Rachel Brittain
Horror
Mazywood by Tananarive Due
Tananarive Due blew us away with her literary horror novel The Reformatory in 2023. Now she’s back with Mazywood, a multi-generational horror story following filmmaker Johnny Washington.
Hoping for a quiet retreat with his family, Johnny takes his wife and two daughters to the cabin he inherited from his late grandmother, Mazelle. Instead, Johnny is confronted with the trauma and dark secrets of his family’s past. Something from Mazelle’s past is still there, watching them and hunting them. —Emily Martin
Young Adult
Adam, Mine. by K. Ancrum
Ancrum has become a force in YA over the last several years, and her latest endeavor is being described as a romantic queer horror thriller that is ultimately a love letter to Frankenstein. I’m sold.
Victor Frankenstein has everything he could ever want, except that money and privilege aren’t enough to prove himself or to change the world. He wants to figure out how to bring people who are sick and dying back to life.
It’s not entirely surprising that no one wants to allow him to try this, but after a drunken bet, Victor has to take things into his own hands. He’s taken a teenage boy from a neighboring village as his monster. That boy, Elias, taken under the dark of night, awakens covered in stitches and scars. His loved ones abandon him. Elias is, however, tethered to Victor, who has set out to find a way to reverse what he’s done to Elias. He’s afraid, and he feels guilty about what he’s done.
The connection Victor and Elias feel includes one another’s joys, pains, regrets, and more. Even though both are looking for answers and ways to end the other’s existence, the bond they feel may lead to something else entirely. —Kelly Jensen
Children’s/Middle Grade
Hometown by Shaun Tan
Award-winning author and artist Shaun Tan has created a new book of striking art, about a young girl in an unusual world who questions if she really belongs there after a stranger appears. —Liberty Hardy
Other Book Riot New Releases Resources:
- All the Books, our weekly new book 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’s New Release Index! That’s where I find 90% of new releases, and you can filter by trending books, Rioters’ picks, and even LGBTQ new releases!
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