ARCs

• The Good Girls by Claire Eliza Bartlett (2020, YA contemporary thriller, queer)
  • A girl goes missing presumed dead and three seemingly unconnected classmates are possible suspects
  • Complex, evenly-paced, with compelling characters who are neither good nor bad
• Rise of the Red Hand by Olivia Chadha (2021, YA science fiction, SEA rep)
  • Cyberpunk world that’s grounded in its dystopia
  • These kids just want to save each other, not necessarily the world
• The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey (2021, Adult science fiction)
  • A researcher teams up with her illegal clone to figure out how to get away with her husband’s murder
  • Heart-wrenching and hopeful
• A Dowry of Blood by S.T. Gibson (2021, Adult fantasy, queer)
  • Emotional, sexy retelling of Dracula’s brides
  • Epistolary and told in second person
  • First author interview of the year (link)
• The Witch’s Heart by Genevieve Gornichec (2021, Adult fantasy, queer)
  • Retelling of Angrboda, her idiot husband Loki, and Ragnarok
  • Norse mythology fans are in for a treat
• Across the Green Grass Fields (Wayward Children #6) by Seanan McGuire (2021, Adult fantasy, intersex rep)
  • A book written specifically for horse girls
  • Being a ten-year-old is so hard
• The Memory Theater by Karin Tidbeck (2021, Adult fantasy, queer)
  • Reads like a fairy tale where names have power and there are gardens of immortals
  • A noblewoman also discovers time
• A Swim in a Pond in the Rain by George Saunders (2021, Adult non-fiction, writing craft)
  • Goes through short stories page by page
  • Very aware that the advice might not be universally relevant

Audiobooks

• What Girls Are Made Of by Elana K. Arnold (2017, YA contemporary)
  • Girls works at a high-kill shelter while pondering the conditions of love
  • About sexual and personal autonomy, cw: abortion
• The Blade Between by Sam J. Miller (2021, Adult horror, gay)
  • Gentrification, whale ghosts, disaster gays
  • It’s interesting to me what seems scarier or more heart-breaking on audio
• Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer (2016, Nonfiction, American Indigenous)
  • Deeply personal and poetic creative nonfiction
  • Introduced an interesting way of thinking about the ways people, plants, gifts, and thanks are all connected
• The Abstainer by Ian McGuire (2020, Adult historical fiction)
  • Cover nineteenth century English-Irish tensions through two specific POVs
  • Brutal in a way that is period-appropriate
• Red Pill by Hari Kunzru
  • Writer goes to an exclusive workshop, does research on the violent cop show he’s binging
  • Not as subversive and clever as White Tears was