Text says 'Jess Walter #1 New York Times Bestselling Author of Beautiful Ruins So Far Gone a Novel" Image of woods, water, a raccoon and a sign that says 'TURN BACK NOW.'

So Far Gone

Review / By

SO FAR GONE rating: four stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐. I love the concept of SO FAR GONE by Jess Walter (HarperCollins, June 10, 2025). In 2016, former writer and journalist Rhys Kinnick pitches his smartphone out of his car window, drives to 40 acres in Northwest Washington State (where his grandfather left a cinderblock dwelling now inhabited

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Image of a green spirit twisted in green reeds and pink flowers smiling with dozens of needle teeth, with long green claws, looks peaceful with her eyes closed. Text says 'Molly O'Neill Greenteeth' Cover blurb: "'A charmingly monstrous debut.'-T. Kingfisher"

Greenteeth

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GREENTEETH rating: four stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐. What a debut! After yesterday–because I read the cozy fantasy GREENTEETH (Orbit/Hachette, February 25, 2025) in a single day–I’m a new fan of author Molly O’Neill. She knows her myths. A goblin, a river spirit, and a witch walk into a bar. . .no, actually, they walk into the court

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Covers of the books from the Ana and Din mystery series by author Robert Jackson Bennett featured in this review. Both are highly stylized, with metallic florals and scrolls and curlicues on a dark background.

Shadow of the Leviathan

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THE TAINTED CUP and A DROP OF CORRUPTION ratings: five stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐. Robert Jackson Bennett’s world-building is rock solid in THE TAINTED CUP (Penguin Random House, 2024) and A DROP OF CORRUPTION (Penguin Random House, April 1, 2025). The Empire in his fantasy/mystery Shadow of the Leviathan series, with its three rings, grabs the imagination

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Old black and white Wikipedia photo of Neil Gaiman, cartoonized with a red banner over his eyes.

There Goes My Hero

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No, I’m not talking about Dave Grohl; he went down awhile ago. I’m talking about Neil Gaiman. I didn’t know him, but I loved his stories. So much. Dearly. An article about Neil Gaiman by Lila Shapiro hit the literary world like a bomb yesterday. It’s been published in Vulture and in New York Magazine.

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Liann Zhang Julie Chan is Dead a Novel. Book cover image of 17 blonde white women with pink phones, eyes closed. In the third row in the middle, an Asian women holds up her white phone as if taking a photo and her eyes and eyebrows show through the phone.

Julie Chan is Dead

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JULIE CHAN IS DEAD rating: four stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐. The grass is always greener on the richer side–or so retail worker Julie Chan supposes in the psychological thriller JULIE CHAN IS DEAD by Liann Zhang (Simon & Schuster, April 29, 2025). Identical twins Julie and Chloe were orphaned and adopted by different families and separated at

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Cover of James by Percival Everett.

James

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JAMES rating: five stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐. My favorite book of 2024 so far is JAMES by Percival Everett (Doubleday/Penguin Random House, March 19, 2024), a retelling of Mark Twain‘s classic THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN from the point of view of Jim, Huckleberry Finn’s companion on that legendary raft trip down the Mississippi River. I can’t

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Cover of The Drowning House by Cherie Priest.

The Drowning House

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THE DROWNING HOUSE rating: four stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐. When not reading THE DROWNING HOUSE (Poisoned Pen Press/Sourcebooks, July 23, 2024), I felt myself being lured back onto the island setting, almost as if it were a waking dream. Cherie Priest has a way of creating an atmosphere that carves out permanent space in your consciousness. I

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Image of a girl in a dress surrounded by trees and monsters at the bottom with a golden city at the top on the other side of a wall. Text says "The scariest monsters are the human-shaped ones. Genoveva Demova FOUL DAYS." Cover blurb text: "'A fresh, gritty world bursting with wonderful characters–and monsters galore!'-Allison Saft."

Foul Days

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FOUL DAYS rating: four stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐. Set in Chernograd, Bulgaria, FOUL DAYS by Genoveva Dimova (Tor/Macmillan, June 25, 2024) is a fantasy novel with a sassy, rough-and-tumble urban feel (think the Six of Crows duology by Leigh Bardugo). Chernograd is split by a Wall in which an evil magical creature is trapped, making passage next

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