I thought when I picked up a copy of The Thousandth Floor I was basically going to a vending machine to get some brief, brightly colored enjoyment that might make me feel slightly gross but overall do very little. Instead, I got this rich, deliciously indulgent treat of a book. It’s glitzy and gutsy in …

River Page wants to be a Grace. Within a few weeks of moving to a new town on the edge of the sea, it’s all she wants and all she can think about. She plans her days around them and daydreams about what it might be like, to be accepted by the mystical, magical children …

Marie Brennan is a true chameleon. I would never have guessed that this tough, relentless story was written by the same woman who gave us the intensely High Victorian Natural History of Dragons (plus sequels), but here it is, fast and furious. An unidentified protagonist—let’s not be too creative and call her Nameless Warrior—is brought …

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to your newest obsession. There’s murder. A lot of murder. And there’s mayhem. So much mayhem. Sex and drugs and–well, okay, there isn’t any rock and roll, but there are a bunch of teenagers who do rock. And roll. And poison, stab, seduce, and steal. From each other, from the faculty …

A girl is missing. A student has fled from her rooms in the middle of the night after or with a young man. At first this means only—only!—that the Women’s College might be in jeopardy, a serious enough fate to force Vellitt Boe into action. But this is a world scaffolded by Lovecraft, and the …

There was a moment when I finished this book in which all I could do was sit and stare at the last blank page. I was physically disturbed and awed into stillness. “Holy shit,” I said, somewhat to my husband, mostly just to say it. “This book…” I didn’t finish my sentence. I couldn’t. This …

In honor of Pride and to celebrate the diversity of gender and sexuality in the face of hate, here is a list of books with LGBTQIA characters. Most of these books are also intersectional with issues of class, race, and culture. I hope you find something that reflects your experience, and I hope you also …

I’ll say it: Genevieve Valentine is one of the best authors writing today. She has that spark, that je ne sais quoi that brings both reality and mythology to life on the page, even for the shortest of stories. Here are three. 1. “La Beaute Sans Vertu”: Nothing But Gold Can Stay Do you like …

This is not a light book. Ada Palmer has rewritten the whole history of the modern world and the onrushing future, according to philosophies both new and old, but deeply held and profoundly discussed regardless of their age. Questions of progress, of perfection, of right living. It’s heavy and at times perplexing. But all of …

I first encountered Paul Kearney in the most tragic way possible: I began his Sea Beggars trilogy. Oh, the trilogy itself isn’t any more tragic than any other quality fantasy novel. The tragedy is that, because of some shadowy dispute with the publisher, the third book doesn’t exist. It will probably never come out. It’s …