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The Best New Books Out in February, According to Indie Booksellers

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Every month, the American Booksellers Association puts together a list of the top 25 new book releases of the upcoming month as their Indie Next List Preview. These are books that were nominated by booksellers at independent bookstores across the country, and they cover all genres and categories. Each book has a quote from a bookseller about why they recommend this book, and these recommendations can be printed out as “shelf-talkers” to display in store.

What better way to get book recommendations than from independent booksellers? These are passionate readers who have their finger on the pulse of the buzziest books of the moment — the ones they’re eager to get into readers’ hands. So, here are ten of the best books out in February, according to indie booksellers. Many of these we also recommend on Book Riot, so I’ve quoted our relevant recs when available—some of these are actually previews of recommendation lists to come, so if a link is broken, check back later for when the full post goes up! Be sure to click through to the ABA website for all 25 of their picks, as well as six Indie Next Picks that are now out in paperback.

(Some of these actually came out in January, likely because the publication dates shifted after they were nominated.)

Victorian Psycho by Virginia Feito

This is the #1 Indie Next List Pick for February!

Gothic horror novel Victorian Psycho follows governess Winifred Notty. Winifred comes to Ensor House to tutor and care for her two charges, Drusilla and Andrew Pounds. Winifred has promised herself she will quell her more violent urges and stick to being a good, obedient governess. But the more time she spends with the Pounds family, the more she feels her dark compulsions bubbling to the surface. —Emily Martin

we could be rats book cover

We Could Be Rats by Emily Austin

We love off-kilter girl stories, and this latest from Emily Austin (Interesting Facts about Space) focuses on Sigrid, who works at the local dollar store and hates it. She doesn’t really like the idea of being a full adult, either, much to her older sister Margit’s chagrin. It’s this frustration with Sigrid that causes Magrit to go out of her way to finally understand Sigrid and her detachment. What she finds is a deep sensitivity that’s tried to protect itself from their troubled childhood through imagination. It’s had to turn their arguing parents into swamp monsters, contend with the loss of best friends, and even a town beset with opioid addiction. Magrit also learns that revisiting that imagination might save her sister. —Erica Ezeifedi

cover of Out of the Woods

Out of the Woods by Hannah Bonam-Young

This title is doing double work as a couple uses a grueling hiking program to help them mend their relationship. Sarah and Caleb were high school sweethearts and have been each other’s support system and partner for going on two decades. After Sarah tries to complete a large project on her own and Caleb sweeps in to save the day, the pair struggle with who they are as a couple and on their own. So they decide to take part in a hiking trip (even though they’re both “nature averse”) that will include little exercises to help bring them back into sync. If you liked Bonam-Young’s Out on a Limb, these and a few other characters will be familiar. —Jessica Pryde

cover of Blob: A Love Story by Maggie Su

Blob: A Love Story by Maggie Su

Yes, this is literally a story about an amorphous blob, and yes the main character falls in love with it. Or, at least tries to. Kinda. I think it goes without saying that finding a blob with black, beady eyes in the dark alley of a drag show bar one night and taking it home and teaching it to be your perfect boyfriend once it gains sentience is the definition of delulu. In her defense, it’s a result of growing up the daughter of a Taiwanese father and a white mother in a Midwestern college town, never fitting in, and an ex-boyfriend unfriending her. Which is why our girl Vi has a glimmer of hope once all the sugary cereal and pop culture she’s been feeding the blob turns it into a Hollywood handsome white man. But, like, it’s a blob deep down, sis. —Erica Ezeifedi

the lamb book cover

The Lamb by Lucy Rose

Fans of folktale horror should pick up Lucy Rose’s debut novel The Lamb this month. This novel is set in contemporary Cumbria. Margot lives with Mama in the forest. They live a quiet life waiting for Strays to knock on their door. At least that’s what Mama calls the strangers who come to visit them. Mama welcomes them in, offers them shelter and food, and then feeds on them. But there’s something about Eden, a Stray who shows up during a snowstorm, that will change everything. —Emily Martin

Mutual Interest book cover

Mutual Interest by Olivia Wolfgang-Smith

Olivia Wolfgang-Smith, author of Glassworks, illuminates the inner workings of a lavender marriage between an ambitious young woman and a middle manager at a soap company. Vivian intents to mold Oscar into the man she wants him to be, and that means rising about his middle management position, teaming up with scion of a wealthy American family, and founding Clancey & Schmidt, their very own soap and perfume manufacturer. But when the truth about the relationship between Oscar and Squire Clancey threatens to topple their empire, they’ll have to decide what exactly they’re willing to lose in the name of power and love. —Rachel Brittain

too soon book cover

Too Soon by Betty Shamieh

Arabella is 35 and feels like opportunities surrounding her love life and career are becoming fewer and farther between. As a director, she gets offered a chance to direct a gender-bent rendition of a Shakespeare play in the West Bank, and her grandmother Zoya is hoping to set something up between her and Aziz, a Palestinian American doctor volunteering in Gaza. Then Zoya is reminded of how she really wanted to be with Aziz’s grandfather back in the day but was instead paired with another man by her father. She then married her younger daughter Naya off—who gave birth to Arabella at 16—who also had other plans for her future (which involved the Jackson 5, naturally). But it’s a new day, and each of the women must reckon with what it means to be Palestinian, American, and women in their own ways. —Erica Ezeifedi

Now in Paperback Picks

The Warm Hands of Ghosts paperback cover

The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden

From Katherine Arden, the bestselling author of The Bear and the Nightingale, comes the supernatural historical horror novel The Warm Hands of Ghosts. During the First World War, Laura Iven is a combat nurse who is discharged only to find out shortly after that her brother Freddie died in combat. Only, Laura is sure it isn’t true. Searching for the truth, Laura returns to Belgium in search of her brother. Everywhere, people whisper about ghosts in the trenches. Laura wonders if her brother really is still alive, or if something else has happened to him. —Emily Martin

cover of The Book of Love by Kelly Link; red with different phases of the moon

The Book of Love by Kelly Link

Kelly Link has been astonishing readers with her brilliant speculative short stories for over two decades, so of course, her debut novel was one of 2024’s most anticipated books! The Book of Love is a spectacular story of magic, love, family, and loss. It’s set in a small Massachusetts seaside town, where three teens are brought back from the dead by their music teacher (although they don’t remember dying.) Agreeing to complete a series of magical tasks, the teens will face supernatural dangers and all the complications that accompany being alive. It’s a heart-squeezing tale of wonder and life that hugs your brain in the best way. —Liberty Hardy

The Storm We Made cover

The Storm We Made by Vanessa Chan

In Malaya in 1945, Cecily Alcantara is walking on a tightrope trying to keep (what’s left of) her family intact during a brutal Japanese occupation. Her son is missing, her eldest daughter has to contend with drunk Japanese soldiers at the tea house where she works, and Cecily’s youngest daughter is kept in the basement to stop her from becoming a comfort woman. But Cecily can’t really complain because everything is kind of her fault… —Erica Ezeifedi

Read the full list of 25 books plus six paperback releases at the ABA website.

Find more news and stories of interest from the book world in Breaking in Books.