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Review: WICKHILLS by Premee Mohamed

Jul 132026
 

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.

Review: DON’T CROSS MO ELLERY by Birdie Horne

Jul 092026
 

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.

Starred Review: CHILDREN OF OWL by Darcie Little Badger

Jul 062026
 

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.

Review: THE FELICITY COMPLEX by august clarke

Jul 022026
 

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.

Starred Review: A TRADE OF BLOOD by Robert Jackson Bennett

Jul 012026
 

Publishers Weekly: Bennett continues to make genre-blending appear effortless in his stellar third Ana and Din novel (after 2025’s A Drop of Corruption), a suspenseful whodunit set in an immersive and imaginative alternate world. The endearing duo of Ana Dolabra, an eccentric genius, and her assistant, Imperial Investigator Din Kol, whose augmented abilities allow him to perfectly recall crime scenes, are tasked with probing a murder. The solution initially appears obvious: Castus Armenta, a member of a powerful family, was seen fleeing an inn covered in blood; the butchered corpse of his secret lover from a rival family, Zansay Burav, was then discovered within. But as the Burav clan cries for Castus’s head, Ana and Din’s examination of the murder site reveals anomalies, most notably that the victim herself seems to have deliberately staged some aspects of the scene after being attacked. For his part, Castus has no discernible motive and no memory of what happened. The investigative scope widens as each of Castus’s three siblings also perish under odd circumstances. Meanwhile, an unexpected reunion unsettles Din, one of several complications in his personal life that could impact the inquiry. The case is as clever and fairly clued as ever, and it’s a pleasure to revisit these sharply drawn characters. This series shows no signs of slowing down.

Starred Review: THE CURVE OF THE WORLD by Vonda McIntyre

Jun 252026
 

Kirkus: On the Fair Island, the Idaean people live and thrive. A matriarchal society, the Idaeans value close community bonds and peaceful relations with others, including the People, with whom they trade. They engage in the practice of temporarily fostering children from other societies and sending their own off to strengthen alliances. Former bull dancer turner ambassador Iakinthu’s “given” (foster) child, Rhenthizu, goes through an initiation rite and is officially considered an adult man. Rhenthizu’s given-child status wasn’t acquired through diplomacy—he was kidnapped by pirates from his homeland and then later rescued and taken in by Iakinthu. No one, including Rhenthizu, knows where he was born or who his family of origin is—he was so young when he was stolen that he only has vague memories. Iakinthu, who bears the epithet of “Gephyra” (bridge-between-people), prepares to set sail on her ship, Flying Fish, with the now-adult given child Kilinkizu to reunite her with her mother; Iakinthu brings Rhenthizu along on the journey, hoping to find his family. Along the way, the voyagers encounter a plethora of different societies, from the People, who habitually give away male children to keep their society all-female, to the Egyptians, who are led by a woman pharaoh, to the violent, male-dominated Northerner pirates who have been raising the stolen son of Kilinkizu. McIntyre’s final novel, published posthumously, is a sprawling exploration of gender, community, and family in a historical fantasy setting. The pacing is leisurely and steady, and the characters are all deeply compelling. A few mythical beasts, like the kraken and a gryphon, are even included to add interest. Readers will be enthralled by the author’s worldbuilding, and even more captivated by the lush prose: “Iakinthu stood at the prow; striped porpoises played in the bow wave, riding it as birds ride the wind, hardly moving but for a flick of fin or fluke.”

Review: THE FELICITY COMPLEX by august clarke

Jun 242026
 

Science Magazine: “An instantly arresting premise. The book’s prose is crisp and economical, punctuated by sentences sharp enough to do the work of entire paragraphs.”

“[C]aptures the absurdity and menace of its world, where innovation and objectification are inseparable.”

“The satire feels especially acute at a time when several of today’s tech elites indulge fantasies of societal collapse and selective, pronatalist futures. The humans here are often monstrous in their entitlement, while the so-called monsters are tenderly, recognizably human.”

Starred Review: THE FELICITY COMPLEX by august clarke

Jun 162026
 

Library Journal: In the midst of the Cold War, Communists threaten the American Dream, but one way that can be circumvented is through the Felicity Complex, an underground bunker designed by a billionaire and (secretly) marketed as a luxury fallout shelter for the elite. The staff of the Felicity Complex are unlike any people one has ever met—perhaps because they’re not really people. Created in a lab, these six attractive forms of ideal femininity will run the complex and be available to attend to every need. All of them are trained to not only maintain the quarters but provide service and entertainment—whatever the elite survivors desire. Hallelujah, one of the newest specimens, wants to do the right thing, but everything she is taught to embody will soon crash against the experience of surviving until their first residents arrive. Eventually readers will be compelled to consider who are really the monsters here, the lab specimens or the humans who create and use them? VERDICT: Clarke (Metal from Heaven) uses lush prose to create a standout, queer, horror-tinged tale that considers gender roles, traditional values, and personal identity.

Starred Review: A TRADE OF BLOOD by Robert Jackson Bennett

May 282026
 

Booklist: The third book in Bennett’s Shadow of the Leviathan fantasy-mystery series begins with Ana and her assistant Din traveling to a region renowned throughout the Empire for its agricultural products. Ana is incensed at being assigned to investigate the murder of a young gentry girl (such an uninteresting task!), but Din reminds her that the murder suspect belongs to another clan, and there may be many more casualties if the families go to war. Once his investigation commences, Din discovers that his abilities have matured faster than expected. He now hears an internal voice that provides insights based on the memories he has accumulated over the years. Ana says she had expected this development. Still, Din’s initial report on their current case leaves her aghast at the scope and planning involved in the murder. Something sinister and much larger is at work, something that could threaten the Empire itself. Series fans will be delighted with the Romeo and Juliet–inspired plotline involving a complex mystery that astounds even the peevish detective. The introduction of a member of Din’s family plus new hints about Ana’s history will have readers eager for their next adventure.

Starred Review: EVERYBODY’S PERFECT by Jo Walton

May 212026
 

Library Journal: “Readers who loved the mixing of worlds in Marie Brennan’s Driftwood or the world-crossing time-travel of Charlie Stross’s “Merchant Princes” series will enjoy Walton’s latest novel, as will anyone who has ever been caught up in the magic of the Carnival of Venice.”

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