DMLA extends its congratulations to the Murderbot team on becoming an Emmy-nominated television program! Based on the original works of DMLA author, Martha Wells, Murderbot on Apple TV+ has been nominated for an Emmy in the following three categories:
Publishers Weekly: In a stunning contemporary fantasy from Lipan Apache Newbery Honoree Little Badger and featuring artwork from Rajunov (Looking at the Sky), three teens determine to save their home from forces both supernatural and benign. Sixteen-year-old Maisie’s peaceful life in Sunny Parks, a mobile home community populated by her extended family, is upended following a meeting with the son of the legendary Big Owl, a prominent figure in Lipan Apache stories, who warns Maisie that “a terrible fate looms.” With few details to work with (“It’s imminent, this tragedy. That’s all I know”), Maisie is pulled into a tangle of overlapping mysteries while trying to prevent impending disaster: a vengeful ghost haunts her cousin, new information in a long-unsolved murder case incriminates another relative, her late best friend’s time capsule disappears, and a recently arrived foster cat has been behaving strangely. Competing clues and rising tensions within Sunny Parks repeatedly stymie Maisie’s attempts to sidestep catastrophe. Omniscient narration is peppered with letters and diary entries from two of Maisie’s cousins as well as ethereal, earth-toned comics, layering contextual and visual excitement atop a lush, multifaceted tale. Mystery and speculative elements converge in this fluid, intricately constructed story that balances suspenseful plotting with emotional resonance and cultural depth.
Kirkus: Fancy pants prove no match for madcap ursine rage. On the heels of Don’t Trust Fish (2025), Sharpson and Santat re-create the magic of their previous collaboration. This time our hero is a tan-skinned, dark-haired man with some seriously choice orange cargo pants. After flying from Ireland to Alaska, the man almost immediately comes face-to-face with a bear. The encounter doesn’t go well, culminating (after some seriously Looney Tunes–esque capers) with our hero in the hospital after briefly being devoured (he makes it out alive, but the “FANCY TRAVELING PANTS” are tragically shredded). Fortunately, all turns out well when human and bear are reunited for a surprising literary collaboration. Sharpson packs all manner of verbal jokes into this telling, each one deftly picked up and illustrated with additional flourishes by Santat. (When the protagonist confesses that the bear has been following him everywhere, even virtually, the bear’s online comment reads, “I see you bro.”) At times, the narration drags a bit due to the sheer plethora of wordplay. Still, it’s a small criticism given the enjoyment that this tale will provide; Santat’s silliness more than keeps the energy afloat. A worthy entry in the pantheon of consumed picture-book protagonists, with jokes that come as fast as a furious bear. (Picture book. 4-8)
Booklist: Mohamed’s latest (after The First Thousand Trees, 2025) starts with Ferec, a secret agent, and his partner, Tanczel, searching for a rare object that could be very dangerous if misused. This leads to a grave outcome, with Ferec left to pick up the pieces. His suspicions that he and his partner were set up increase as the story plays out, and he is determined to find out who may have done this. Unfortunately, this makes his employer regard him as a dissident and untrustworthy. Mohamed’s rich, atmospheric descriptions of the setting of Wickhills call to mind a modern-day steampunk version of London. The theme of surviving a rough city with precarious rules runs steadily throughout the book in tandem with the fantastical elements. Ferec’s struggle to survive the increasing forces against him intensifies as each new discovery puts him in more danger. Fans of China Miéville’s novels, particularly King Rat (1999) and Perdido Street Station (2001), as well as Jeff Vandermeer’s Southern Reach series will enjoy.
Congratulations to DMLA authors Premee Mohamed (One Message Remains) and Tashan Mehta (Mad Sisters of Esi) for making the 2026 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction shortlist!
Publishers Weekly: Eden Robins (Remember You Will Die) and MW Garguilo (The Stupendous Switcheroo) join forces under a new pseudonym for this witty and wacky millennial sleuthing story. After 29-year-old Mo Ellery loses her Chicago office job, her boyfriend, and her apartment all at once, she becomes a school crossing guard. When her daily nemesis, whom she’s nicknamed “Poodle Dude” for the dogs he drives around recklessly in his Kia Sportage, ends up dead in a sinkhole near Mo’s crosswalk, Claudia, an energetic old woman who has been refusing her assistance crossing the street, claims there’s foul play involved. She insists Mo take the dogs home and help her investigate. Though Mo is reluctant, Claudia’s bullying and the help of clever pink-haired tween Marlowe rope her into an investigation that intensifies when another character ends up dead. Mo is an appealingly reluctant investigator, and her disappointments and romantic troubles will resonate with readers trying to make their lives work in their 20s and 30s. The authors maintain a bright tone throughout, leaning more into social hijinks than thriller beats, but for mystery fans in Mo’s demographic, this is a winningly relatable diversion.
YOU DESERVE TO KNOW by Aggie Blum Thompson has been picked up by Hulu! Nina Dobrev & Paul Wesley from Vampire Diaries are set to star in the adaptation. Alex Cooper, known for Call Your Daddy podcast, will produce and appear in the show as well – in the first and last episode as the interviewer. From Alex Cooper‘s Unwell and Aaron Kaplan‘s Kapital Entertainment.
Written by Grand Hotel developer Brian Tanen based on the 2025 novel by Aggie Blum Thompson, You Deserve to Know follows three suburban couples — next-door neighbors and best friends. When one of their husbands is murdered, a shocking trail of secrets is revealed, and their friendship cracks wide open.
Thompson, whose books also include I Don’t Forgive You, Such a Lovely Family and All the Dirty Secrets, is repped by WME and Katie Shea Boutillier of Donald Maass Literary Agency.
Kirkus: The Lipan Apache Moreno cousins, who are growing up in the Sunny Park mobile home community, feel powerless after Maisie’s best friend, Mara, dies and they lose their cousin Connor to a wrongful conviction for voluntary manslaughter. When Owl, a winged boy who’s the son of Big Owl, the legendary “father of birds,” cryptically warns Maisie about a tragedy that will befall people close to her, she vows to prevent it. Podcasters are nosing around Sunny Park, trying to find out more about Connor. But Maisie and Verona are sharing a house-sitting job at an apparently haunted horse ranch, while Joel’s days are full looking after foster kittens at their Grandma and Great-Aunt Fran’s house—and complicated by a shapeshifting feline. This coming-of-age tale follows the cousins on a quest that will both challenge and define them. It unfolds in a creative mixed-media format: Little Badger (Lipan Apache) seamlessly interweaves third-person narration with the leads’ first-person chapters, which are printed on ruled notebook pages, and Rajunov’s artful full-color comics panels. The gorgeous, multicolored palette of the book’s pages evokes the Southwest Texas setting. Genre-defying, fantastical, and imbued with deeply human realism, this narrative is grounded in the vulnerability, resiliency, and bravery of young people as they overcome hardship and right historical, generational, and systemic wrongs. A magical story that both haunts and enchants.
Excited to announce that JM Kearl’s THE ASSASSIN’S WAY hit #1 on the Sunday Times!
Never go out at night. Lock the doors. Ignore the screams.
Those are the rules Aesira lives by to survive the monsters that stalk her village. But everything changes when it’s revealed she’s been born with the power to fight the vampires she’s spent her life fearing.
Aesira is thrust into the elite and secretive League of Assassins, where mercy is weakness and fear is forbidden. Now her survival depends on her ruthless trainer, Vander – the most dangerous assassin of them all. And the only thing more lethal than his blade is the desire he awakens in her.
Because the greatest threat in Nighthaven might not be the monsters lurking in the dark…
It might be him.
Publishers Weekly: Clarke (Metal from Heaven) delivers a biting dystopian satire that blends queer speculative fiction, body horror, and Cold War paranoia. Deep beneath the earth, the Felicity Complex, a luxury bunker designed for the wealthy, prepares for the apocalypse, staffed by six lab-grown women (called “specimens”) engineered to embody idealized femininity and service. Among them is Hallelujah, an earnest concierge specimen whose unwavering belief in her purpose begins to fracture when the bunker’s first guests arrive and long-buried secrets surface. Hallelujah’s innocent perspective provides both humor and a sense of unease, and the other specimens, all with their own distinct roles to play, are just as well drawn. Together, they carry the novel’s sharp-toothed commentary about autonomy, gender, power, and ownership. Some revelations feel telegraphed too early, and the relationships among the specimens could use more room to breathe, but the fast pace keeps the tension high, while Clarke’s prose cultivates dread with architectural precision. Fans of Fallout-esque retro-futurism, sapphic speculative fiction, and satirical examinations of privilege and gender will find this both deeply unsettling and darkly entertaining.