New Releases Tuesday: The Most Anticipated Books Out This Week!

A Heian-era mansion stands abandoned, its foundations resting on the bones of a bride and its walls packed with the remains of the girls sacrificed to keep her company.

It’s the perfect venue for a group of thrill-seeking friends, brought back together to celebrate a wedding.

A night of food, drinks, and games quickly spirals into a nightmare as secrets get dragged out and relationships are tested.

But the house has secrets too. Lurking in the shadows is the ghost bride with a black smile and a hungry heart.

And she gets lonely down there in the dirt.

Reasons to read it: This is a creepy haunted house story that draws on Japanese folklore and deals with grief. It also has a bisexual main character! Khaw does not pull punches with their horror, so plan to read this one with all the lights on!

Years ago, when plagues and natural disasters killed millions of people, much of the world stopped dreaming. Without dreams, people are haunted, sick, mad, unable to rebuild. The government soon finds that the Indigenous people of North America have retained their dreams, an ability rumored to be housed in the very marrow of their bones. Soon, residential schools pop up—or are re-opened—across the land to bring in the dreamers and harvest their dreams.

Seventeen-year-old French lost his family to these schools and has spent the years since heading north with his new found family: a group of other dreamers, who, like him, are trying to build and thrive as a community. But then French wakes up in a pitch-black room, locked in and alone for the first time in years, and he knows immediately where he is—and what it will take to escape.

Meanwhile, out in the world, his found family searches for him and dodges new dangers—school Recruiters, a blood cult, even the land itself. When their paths finally collide, French must decide how far he is willing to go—and how many loved ones is he willing to betray—in order to survive.

Reasons to read it: This is a sequel to Dimaline’s explosively popular book The Marrow Thieves, continuing French’s story. It’s an action-packed and haunting read, particularly relevant now that residential schools have been in the news in recent months. Teen and adult readers will both appreciate this fresh take on the dystopia genre.

Liselle Belmont is having a dinner party.

It seems a strange occasion―her husband, Winn, has lost his bid for the state legislature―but what better way to thank key supporters than a feast? Liselle was never sure about her husband becoming a politician, never sure about the limelight, never sure about the life of fundraising and stump speeches. Then an FBI agent calls to warn her that Winn might be facing corruption charges. An avalanche of questions tumbles around her: Is it possible he’s guilty? Who are they to each other; who have they become? How much of herself has she lost―and was it worth it? And just this minute, how will she make it through this dinner party?

Across town, Selena Octave is making her way through the same day, the same way she always does―one foot in front of the other, keeping quiet and focused, trying not to see the terrors all around her. Homelessness, starving children, the very living horrors of history that made America possible: these and other thoughts have made it difficult for her to live an easy life. The only time she was ever really happy was with Liselle, back in college. But they’ve lost touch, so much so that when they ran into each other at a drugstore just after Obama was elected president, they barely spoke. But as the day wears on, memories of Liselle begin to shift Selena’s path.

Reasons to read it: This is inspired by Mrs. Dalloway as well as Sula and Zami. It’s about two women discovering themselves at midlife and reexamining what’s important to them. It’s a character study of the two main characters, what they meant to each other in that charged college romance, and what their lives became afterwards.

I would like to say a few things about my first husband, William.

Lucy Barton is a writer, but her ex-husband, William, remains a hard man to read. William, she confesses, has always been a mystery to me. Another mystery is why the two have remained connected after all these years. They just are.

So Lucy is both surprised and not surprised when William asks her to join him on a trip to investigate a recently uncovered family secret—one of those secrets that rearrange everything we think we know about the people closest to us.

There are fears and insecurities, simple joys and acts of tenderness, and revelations about affairs and other spouses, parents and their children. On every page of this exquisite novel we learn more about the quiet forces that hold us together—even after we’ve grown apart.

Reasons to read it: This is the latest in Elizabeth Strout’s series starring Lucy Barton. It’s a portrait of a decades-long relationship, including how it changed but endured after divorce. Strout demonstrates her skills in creating flawed, realistic characters that are both ordinary and engrossing.

Andromeda is a debtera—an exorcist hired to cleanse households of the Evil Eye. She would be hired, that is, if her mentor hadn’t thrown her out before she could earn her license. Now her only hope of steady work is to find a Patron—a rich, well-connected individual who will vouch for her abilities.

When a handsome young heir named Magnus Rorschach reaches out to hire her, she takes the job without question. Never mind that he’s rude and demanding and eccentric, that the contract comes with a number of outlandish rules… and that almost a dozen debtera had quit before her. If Andromeda wants to earn a living, she has no choice.

But she quickly realizes this is a job like no other, with horrifying manifestations at every turn, and that Magnus is hiding far more than she has been trained for. Death is the most likely outcome if she stays, the reason every debtera before her quit. But leaving Magnus to live out his curse alone isn’t an option because—heaven help her—she’s fallen for him.

Reasons to read it: This is an Ethiopian-inspired fantasy reimagining of Jane Eye that promises to be eerie and romantic. Part haunted house horror novel and part swoon-worthy romance, this is an action-packed story with memorable characters. This chilling read is the perfect pick for a blustery Autumn evening.

A boyband fandom becomes a conduit to coming out. A former bully becomes a first-kiss prospect. One nonbinary kid searches for an inclusive athletic community after quitting gymnastics. Another nonbinary kid, who happens to be a pirate, makes a wish that comes true–but not how they thought it would. A tween girl navigates a crush on her friend’s mom. A young witch turns herself into a puppy to win over a new neighbor. A trans girl empowers her online bestie to come out.

From wind-breathing dragons to first crushes, This Is Our Rainbow features story after story of joyful, proud LGBTQA+ representation. You will fall in love with this insightful, poignant anthology of queer fantasy, historical, and contemporary stories.

Reasons to read it: This is the first middle grade LGBTQA+ anthology for middle-graders, and it features stories with a wide range of genres and representations, including realistic fiction as well as sci fi fantasy stories. There are tons of great authors in this collection, like Alex Gino, Justina Ireland, and Molly Knox Ostertag, andeven authors who have written some of my favourite queer YA and middle grade, like Mark Oshiro, Lisa Jenn Bigelow, and Ashley Herring Blake. I’m so excited to pick this one up!