Books coming out this week that I have either read as an ARC or have my eye on!
Source for the quotes is Edelweiss, synopsis and about the author provided by the publisher/platform.
Fantasy
Seasons of Glass and Iron by Amal El-Mohtar
I am so excited that this short story collection is now out in the world. It brought me to tears many times as the stories were so heartful and beautiful. Highly highly recommend. One of my favorites of this year. READ MY REVIEW HERE.
If you were waiting for the paperback version of The River has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar, it’s also out today!
Aicha by Soraya Bouazzaoui
I LOVED this book. However, it’s a tad mismarketed. I don’t know where this came from, but I’ve seen several people mention that this includes something about a mythical creature that seduces and kills men. I don’t remember this being a part of the book…
This book is a story of life under occupation by invaders. Aicha and her family live in a place under occupation however there is a campaign coming to liberate them, but they might not make it there in time. So, in the meanwhile, Aicha and her family lead resistance efforts against the colonizers while trying to stay alive. There’s a mounting pressure and rage building within Aicha that she tries to keep in check. This is a slow ramp up to an explosive ending and it’s every bit worth the journey.
READ MY REVIEW HERE.
Aicha is the story of Morocco’s warrior goddess, her strange magic, fierce rebellion, and devastating romance. Soraya Bouazzaoui weaves an epic tale of female rage and hidden myths, perfect for fans of The City of Brass and The Stardust Thief.
The Portuguese empire has planted its flag across Morocco, ruling with an iron fist. But eventually, all empires must fall.Aicha, the daughter of a Moroccan freedom-fighter, was born for battle. She has witnessed the death of her people, their starvation and torture at the hands of the occupiers, and it has awakened an anger within her. An anger that burns hot and bright and that speaks to Aicha’s soul.
Only Aicha’s secret lover, Rachid, a rebellion leader, knows how to soothe her. But as the fight for Morocco’s freedom reaches its violent climax, the creature that simmers beneath Aicha’s skin begs to be unleashed. It hungers for the screams of those who have caused her pain, and it will not be ignored.
About the author:
Soraya Bouazzaoui is a born and bred London babes raised on Jacqueline Wilson, R.L. Stine and Malorie Blackman. Stories – in all their forms – are a central part of who she is. Soraya’s day job is book editing, and she has also written for publications such as Stylist, Bad Form, Strategist UK, Metro and Aurelia. A lover of contemporary, commercial, SFF, horror and YA fiction, her head is full of nonsense and daydreams, but she likes it that way.
Honeysuckle by Bar Fridman-Tell
The Bear and the Nightingale meets Weyward in this enchanting, deeply compelling debut about love and power, autonomy and consent.
Once upon a time, on the edge between meadow and forest, there was a lonely child with only his older sister for company. In exchange for being left in peace, his sister made him a playmate—Daye, a girl woven from flowers and words. And for the first time, this boy, Rory, had a friend.
Rory couldn’t be happier, until he learns that Daye is a short-lived creature. At the end of each season, she must be woven back together or fall gruesomely apart. And every time Daye falls apart might be her last.
As Rory and Daye grow older and the line between friendship and romance begins to blur, Rory becomes desperate to break this cycle of bloom and decay. But the farther Rory pushes his research and experiments to lengthen Daye’s existence, the more Daye begins to wonder just how much control she really has over her own life.
As a loose reimagining of the story of Blodeuwedd from Welsh mythology, Honeysuckle is an entrancing, inventive, and unsettling debut.
About the author:
Bar Fridman-Tell is a former bookseller, a translator, and a student at the University of Toronto, studying for her master’s in library and information science. She lives in Toronto with her professor husband and two very fluffy cats.
Horror
The Cellar Below the Cellar: A Folk Horror Novella by Ivy Grimes
A playfully dark folk horror inspired by the fairy tale “Vasilisa the Beautiful” and the mythology around Frau Perchta, set under the blazing sky of endless auroras.
When a wild solar storm wipes out all electronics and traps Jane at her grandmother’s house in the woods, she is forced to start a new life off-grid as part of a small, isolated community.
However, there is something very strange about her new neighbors, and the longer she lives under the eerie glow of the auroras, the more she feels her grandmother may be hiding unsettling secrets.
To have any hope in her new world, Jane must find the courage to step into her power and claim her identity, but that would mean facing whatever hides in the cellar below the cellar—a place that seems to be waiting for her.
Full of delightfully weird surprises and off-kilter characters, this adult coming-of-age story explores themes of female empowerment, spirituality, identity, and community. For fans of Kelly Link, Karen Russell, Ottessa Moshfegh, and Leonora Carrington.
About the author:
Ivy Grimes is originally from Birmingham, Alabama and currently lives in Virginia. She has an MFA from the University of Alabama. Her stories have appeared in The Baffler, Vastarien, hex, Maudlin House, ergot., Potomac Review, and elsewhere. She is the author of the collection Glass Stories (Grimscribe Press) and The Ghosts of Blaubart Mansion (Cemetery Gates).
Author’s website here.
Wolf Worm by T. Kingfisher
Something darker than the devil stalks the North Carolina woods in Wolf Worm, a new gothic masterpiece from New York Times bestselling author T. Kingfisher
This gorgeous hardcover edition features endpapers illustrated by the author and a foil case stamp.
“I saw the devil in these woods.”
Sonia Wilson is a talented scientific illustrator—but she is only able to follow her dream because of her father’s reputation as a renowned scientist. Such is the lot in life for a woman in science in 1899. And after his death, she is left without work, prospects, or hope.
So when the reclusive Dr. Halder offers her a position illustrating his vast collection of insects, Sonia jumps at the chance to move to his North Carolina manor house and put her talents to use.
Once there though, she encounters dark happenings in the Carolina woods, and even darker questions come to light, like what happened to her predecessor? Why are animals acting so strangely, and what is behind the peculiar local whispers about “blood thiefs?”
With the aid of the housekeeper and a local healer, Sonia discovers that Halder’s entomological studies have taken him down a twisted road. His ground-breaking discoveries come with a cost—one that Halder is paying with human flesh.
If Sonia can’t find a way to stop the monstrosity, she may be next under the knife.
About the author:
T. KINGFISHER writes fantasy, horror, and occasional oddities, including Nettle & Bone, Thornhedge, A Sorceress Comes to Call, What Moves the Dead, and A House with Good Bones. Under a pen name, she also writes bestselling children’s books. She lives in New Mexico with her husband.
The Fortune Tellers of Rue Daru by Olesya Salnikova Gilmore
A fearless fortune teller in 1920s Paris must use her powers to divine who she can trust when an exiled Romanov princess and her brother come to her seeking answers about a decades-old mystery…
Spirited Zina and her secretive grandmother, Baba Valya, run a tearoom on rue Daru in Paris, where they have lived quietly since Zina’s mother’s untimely death. By day, the women serve tea, mostly to members of the bustling Russian émigré community, but when dusk falls, they tell fortunes and perform séances for their loyal clientele.
Then the charming Princess Olga and her brother arrive, searching for knowledge about the disappearance of their father, the exiled Grand Duke, cousin of the last Tsar of Russia. Zina, eager to learn more about the spirit world and her powers, performs the séance. She is able to summon the Grand Duke, but to her horror, he starts to haunt the shop, and he seems to know something sinister about her mother’s death.
As Zina delves into her family’s hidden past, dark secrets are unearthed, threatening the home and tearoom Zina and her grandmother have worked so hard to build, not to mention their very lives.
About the author:
Olesya Salnikova Gilmore was born in Moscow, Russia; raised in the US; and graduated from Pepperdine University with a BA in English / political science, and from Northwestern School of Law with a JD. She practiced litigation at a large law firm for several years before pursuing her dream of becoming an author. She is happiest writing historical fiction and fantasy inspired by eastern European folklore. She lives in a wooded lakeside suburb of Chicago with her husband and daughter.
Bochica: A Novel by Carolina Flórez-Cerchiaro
This is the paperback release, the hardcover was released last year.
A real-life Latin American haunted mansion. A murky labyrinth of family secrets. A young, aristocratic woman desperate to escape her past. This haunting debut “introduces a powerful new voice in gothic horror” (Ana Reyes, New York Times bestselling author) and is perfect for fans of Mexican Gothic and The Shining.
In 1923 Soacha, Colombia, La Casona—an opulent mansion perched above the legendary Salto del Tequendama waterfall—was once home to Antonia and her family, who settle in despite their constant nightmares and the house’s malevolent spirit. But tragedy strikes when Antonia’s mother takes a fatal fall into El Salto and her father, consumed by grief, attempts to burn the house down with Antonia still inside.
Three years later, haunted by disturbing dreams and cryptic journal entries from her late mother, Antonia is drawn back to her childhood home when it is converted into a luxurious hotel. As Antonia confronts her fragmented memories and the dark history of the estate, she wrestles with unsettling questions she can no longer ignore: Was her mother’s death by her own hands, or was it by someone else’s?
In a riveting quest for answers, Antonia must navigate the shadows of La Casona as she unearths its darkest secrets in this “delicately told story of how the past always finds us—and how people can be haunted just as surely as places can” (Hannah Whitten, New York Times bestselling author).
About the author:
Carolina Flórez-Cerchiaro is a Colombian author of genre-bending speculative fiction based in Bogotá, Colombia. She’s always been passionate about stories, whether her own, fictional or not, or those that belong to others. Her work is fueled by curiosity, her love of history and the supernatural, and the desire to give voice to traditionally marginalized perspectives. When she’s not writing, she can be found sipping black coffee, puzzling, and listening to audiobooks. Find out more at CarolinaFlorezAuthor.com.
The Extra by Annie Neugebauer
Ten people head out on a backpacking trip, but the first night eleven set up camp. Everyone remembers everyone else. Who is the extra?
About the author:
Annie Neugebauer is a novelist, blogger, nationally award-winning poet, and two-time Bram Stoker Award®-nominated short story author. She’s the author of The Outsiders Sequence (The Extra, The Other, and The Spare) and You Have to Let Them Bleed. Visit her at annieneugebauer.com, in most places under @AnnieNeugebauer, or frolicking through the abyss.
That’s all for this week – see you next time!
