One of the very best things about being an author is getting to know other authors! It’s so much fun to read books by people you know.
Here are some upcoming books that I loved reading, all coming out in the next few months! For all of them, I received early copies in exchange for an honest review.
Of Us and Them by TL Coughlin (@TL_Coughlin on Twitter)
Dragons and prophecies are both usually a hard sell for me, but the way TL imagines them here is fresh and interesting and fun. I love the broad inspiration from global dragon lore. The groundedness she conjures by centering an epic story on a few characters really makes the book work. It’s YA through and through, with a lot of the classic teen scenes you’d expect in the genre, but still manages to be unlike anything else I’ve read.
The writing is accessible and the plot somehow both straightforward and unexpected—a great combination to keep you reading! I kept thinking I knew what would happen next, but I kept being wrong.
The characters really felt like teenagers, which is a major strength. So often YA really feels like it was aged down to fit the market, with five years chopped off a character’s age but no change made to their behavior, but these are kids, as they should be. They grapple with difficult issues and complicated scenarios, but the author gave them space to also be young.
It’s firmly in the vein of much recent YA fantasy, so it should find a wide audience there, but I think anyone who’s interested in dragons should check it out!
Blood and Snow by Abi Clarke (@abi_clarke_ on Twitter)
I thought I wasn’t into vampire books, but it turns out I’m just not into how they’re usually portrayed! Specifically, I am usually frustrated by authors’ desires to thrust romance upon us, rather than allowing their characters to be the people and monsters they purportedly are; so often, the only thing that makes a monster inhuman is that they’re even more attractive! In Blood and Snow, the desperation, violence, and tragedy of the situation weigh much more heavily on the plot than I’ve seen elsewhere, to wonderful effect.
This book is unflinchingly dark and full of monsters — as promised by the synopsis — but also very human. I love when stories are about more than plot, and this one definitely is.
Dystopias and apocalyptic books are often my favorite, and Abi brilliantly combines vampires with societal collapse, which is something I haven’t seen done before. Clashing genres leave so much room for interesting stories!
In this world, vampires have taken over the world and humans are on the run. The main character has a rare gene that makes her useful to vampires, but also makes her an especial target. She finds herself at the center of a much larger conflict, confronting humanity and meaning in the middle of a compelling fantasy plot.
Anyone who likes vampire stories is likely to pick this one up, but I actually think it would most appeal to people who like stories of survival and apocalypse.
Fault Lines by Tsveti Nacheva (@guelphed on Twitter)
From the first page, this book grabbed me — I didn’t know where it was going, exactly, but Tsveti wove in enough ominous mentions of the coming plot to intrigue me from the start. The writing style is a bit unusual, with the text in present tense but the narrator clearly already aware of what has happened, and it ends up giving the effect of a person reflecting on their life. The sense of place is very solid and distinct and the writing crisp and easy to read. There’s a familiar sense of modern young adult malaise and timeless search for meaning and purpose, following a somewhat aimless person unmoored from societal expectations but jolted into action.
Like What Happened to Coco (described next), this is the story of a young woman who goes missing. I think it’s interesting to read these close together and compare how very differently the authors handle a similar premise.
This book is definitely dark, but also very realistic. I think it would appeal to true crime fans, especially young women, and anyone looking for a subtle thriller.
What Happened to Coco by VB Furlong (@VBFurlong on Twitter)
Contemporary fiction is hard, in my opinion: too often, it gets bogged down in quotidian concerns, creating real people at the expense of an interesting plot or creating an interesting plot at the cost of realistic characters. Not so here! This book starts from a very simple setup — a wealthy girl has gone missing from her prep school — and expands the world slowly, giving us more and more about her friends and her world until we find ourselves as desperate to learn her fate as her friends are.
It’s not a quick-paced book, instead gradually amping up the tension over flashbacks and slice-of-life chapters. The characters are believable and memorable and flawed in complex, compelling ways. It’s sad, but somehow it’s still easy to read.
If you’re not as interested in fantastical elements in your books, this would be a good choice. It’s realistic and close to real. It is YA, but I still found the issues the kids dealt with complicated enough to be worth contemplation as an adult reader.
I’ve also had the privilege of reading several early drafts by other friends who don’t have their work quite ready for publication yet. One is contemporary crime fiction with a shocking twist. Another imagines demons embedded in our society and focuses on the Japanese-American community in LA. There’s a tantalizing story about witches and a near-future thriller about psychopaths.
I can’t share more here, but they know who they are — and you, reader, should be excitedly awaiting their wonderful work! There are a few novels and a few short stories that I’m very eager to see published.