I firmly believe that everyone, especially teenage girls, should own their right to pick and choose. Life guarantees you’ll run across the opportunity to make “bad” decisions, but these are so much more fun to read about than a path that’s straight and narrow. Cultivating radical empathy for my fellow humans, even those I don’t agree with, is a passion that makes me a kinder person and a more nuanced writer. Plus, I like shouting at books as much as the next reader. It makes my cats come running, which makes them tired, which makes them sit and cuddle. Diabolical, indeed.
An absolute must-read for everyone who looks at villains and goes “I want their story.” Nita dices up monsters and sells their magical parts on the black market with her narcissist mother. And that’s just the beginning. The real conflict starts when mommy dearest brings her a body that’s still alive. This is a book with propulsive, edge-of-your-seat energy. Raw, gory, morally ambiguous, and every other unsettling box YA fantasy should check more often. It’s even got a Webtoon adaptation for visually-inclined readers.
"Twisty, grisly, genre-bending and immersive, Not Even Bones will grab you by the throat and drag you along as it gleefully tramples all of your expectations." —Sara Holland, New York Times best-selling author of Everless Dexter meets This Savage Song in this dark fantasy about a girl who sells magical body parts on the black market—until she’s betrayed.
Nita doesn’t murder supernatural beings and sell their body parts on the internet—her mother does that. Nita just dissects the bodies after they’ve been “acquired.” Until her mom brings home a live specimen and Nita decides she wants out; dissecting a scared…
My first passion, as a youngster, was speculative fiction—stories and comics that set the imagination ablaze with visions of wondrous possibilities and impossibilities. Later, my experiences of being queer, transgender, and autistic led me to an academic career in which I helped create the field of Neurodiversity Studies and something called Neuroqueer Theory (which is what you get when you mix Queer Theory and neurodiversity together and shake vigorously). These days I’m back to writing fiction, including the urban fantasy webcomic Weird Luck, and I’m thrilled to find myself part of an emerging wave of neuroqueer speculative fiction. Here are some of the best so far...
Seriously, I’m not exaggerating, and I say this as someone who’s read all the works of Philip K. Dick:Wallflower Assassin is without exception the weirdest, wildest, most psychedelic, and gleefully anarchistic book it’s ever been my pleasure to encounter. Our narrator, Jack, has near-total amnesia, induced by a trauma he can’t remember (because amnesia). He’s stumbling randomly between alternate universes, stalked and manipulated by agents of the sinister Reality Patrol. Oh, and he’s not in his own body––his mind has somehow been transferred into the body of a deadly former Reality Patrol assassin named Max. And Max’s mind is still in there, too, disoriented and annoyed at Jack’s presence... And all of this only just begins to scratch the surface of how weird it gets.
Wallflower Assassin follows a confused killer on a kaleidoscopic journey through a series of half-familiar worlds. Uncertain of the cause of his chaotic interdimensional travels, fleeting hints from his uncanny intuition suggest he is at the mercy of some unseen foe. As he drifts between drug-hazed parties and scenes of horrific violence, he gradually pieces together parts of the scheme against him, until he uncovers the dreadful secret behind it all…. This second edition includes all-new original illustrations by Skinner, Michael Bukowski, Lenka Simeckova, Builtfromsketch, Brandon Kawashima, Euan Boyd, and Mike Bennewitz.
My name is Polly Schattel, and I’m a novelist, screenwriter, and film director. I wrote and directed the films Sinkhole, Alison, and Quiet River,and my written work includesThe Occultists, Shadowdays, and the novella 8:59:29.I grew up loving fantasy—Tolkien, Moorcock, Zelazny—but phased out of it somewhat when I discovered writers like Raymond Carver, EL Doctorow, and Denis Johnson. Their books seemed more adult and more complex, not to mention the prose itself was absolutely transporting. In comparison, the fantasy I’d read often felt quite rushed and thin, with get-it-done prose. I drifted away from genre fiction a bit, but dove back to it with my first novel, the historical dark fantasy The Occultists.
There’s a valid argument to be made that Shadowlandis perhaps more of a horror novel than fantasy, but it’s never really out-and-out scary.
It’s certainly more magical than bloody, concerning two friends in the 1950s who spend a hallucinatory summer at an uncle’s place in the Vermont woods. And man do things get weird.
After a long, lovely prelude at a boarding school, Tom and Del have to navigate their failing friendship and the strange happenings in the woods, but most of all they have to look out for Del’s uncle Cole, an old-school magician who, it turns out, is far from an avuncular old guardian.
Full of fairy tales and fables and wonderful digressions (with Straub, the digressions are often the point), Shadowlandfeels timeless in a way Stephen King never does. It might be the best book I’ve ever read.
A classic tale of supernatural horror from the acclaimed author of Koko, The Talisman and Mr X. Now part of the Voyager Classics collection.
IF YOUR SHADOW DOESN'T MOVE WHEN YOU DO, THEN YOU'RE IN SHADOWLAND
In a private school in New England, a friendship is forged between two boys that will change their lives for ever. As Del Nightingale and Tom Flanagan battle to survive the oppressive regime of bullying and terror overseen by the sadistic headmaster, Del introduces Tom to his world of magic tricks. But when they escape to spend the summer holiday together at Shadowland -…
In 1662, a man is wrongly executed for signing the death warrant of Charles I. Awaiting execution, he asks to speak with a priest, to whom he declares a curse on the village that betrayed him. The priest responds with a counter-curse, leaving just one option to nullify it.
Over four centuries later, Faith and James move to the country to start a new life and a family. They discover their village lives under the curse uttered by the hanged man. Could their arrival be connected? They fear their choice of new home is no coincidence. Unexplained events hint at threats or warnings to leave. They become convinced the village remains cursed despite their friends’ denials. Who can they trust, and who are potential enemies?
In 1660, a man is wrongly executed for signing the death warrant of Charles I. While awaiting execution, he asks to speak with a priest, to whom he declares a curse on the village that betrayed him. The priest responds with a counter-curse, leaving just one option to nullify it. Over four centuries later, Faith and James move to the country to start a new life and a family. They learn that their village lives under the curse uttered by the hanged man. Could their arrival be connected? Faith and James fear that their choice of a new home is…
Growing up in Los Angeles, I am well familiar with strange, grotesque, illogical, and wonderful cities. My love of fantasy has always been for the odd ones out, less the bucolic farmlands and forest, more for those that present a twisted mirror of modern urban life. As an amateur lover of history, I love to study the evolution, mutation, and decay of cities. I find most interesting cities, in both real life and fantasy, to be those shaped by not one single culture, but by many over history and space.
If dragons and elves are the mainstays of traditional fantasy, then mushrooms and squids are the mainstays of weird fantasy. And there’s no city with more squids or mushrooms than Vandermeer’s Ambergris. A haphazard port town infested by fungi and built on ancient ruins holding dark secrets, there’s nothing quite like Ambergris.
What I love so much about Vandermeer’s trilogy is that the city evolves and changes. City of Saints and Madmen is an excellent short story collection that introduces the setting in peacetime, and by the end of Finch it has seen so much conflict and upheaval that Ambergris evolves into a completely different and yet equally fascinating city.
From the author of Annihilation, now a major motion picture on Netflix.
From Jeff VanderMeer, an author praised by writers such as Laren Beukes, China Mieville and Michael Moorcock, City of Saints and Madmen is by turns sensuous and terrifying. This collection of four linked novellas is the perfect introduction to VanderMeer's vividly imagined world.
In the city of Ambergris, a would-be suitor discovers a sunlit street can become a killing ground in the blink of an eye. An artist receives an invitation to a beheading and finds himself enchanted. And a patient in a mental institution is convinced he's…
My first books were little Golden Books. I loved reading those stories of the sleepy little puppy and the engine that could. I moved on from there to all kinds of books and I remain a very happy reader. I have channeled my love for reading to a love of writing. My writing career started with a focus on journalism and writing for magazines, newspapers, and radio. About 18 years ago I began writing romance novels. I read all kinds of different genre but I thoroughly enjoy following the expanding relationships that make up the core element of all romances. That’s the thing about romance novels. There’s something for everyone.
Elena Michaels is walking through life with one foot in the human world and the other in a shifter world.
Clayton Danvers is the reason for that. So she left her pack to forge a life among the humans. But when the pack calls her back to solve problems only she can, reluctantly she returns…to the life of a shifter within a pack…and in close quarters with Clay.
You don’t have to be a paranormal reader to get sucked in to this book. I like when I lose track of time, and this book achieved that for me. Kelley Armstrong brings the world of wolf shifters right into your face. The pages fly by and you’ll become immersed in the story. Her wolf pack is filled with sexy, hunky werewolves, but no one can top wild-hearted Clayton.
I enjoyed the moments of fierce passion and couldn’t wait to read the…
THE FIRST NOVEL IN THE #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING OTHERWORLD SERIES.
"Frisky...Tells a rather sweet love story, and suggests that being a wolf may be more comfortable for a strong, smart woman than being human."-The New York Times Book Review
Elena Michaels is the world's only female werewolf. And she's tired of it. Tired of a life spent hiding and protecting, a life where her most important job is hunting down rogue werewolves. Tired of a world that not only accepts the worst in her-her temper, her violence-but requires it. Worst of all, she realizes she's growing content with…
This
book has everything I love: witches, found family, LGBTQ+ and Indigenous
representation, and burning down the patriarchy. Did I mention witches?
The
main character, Métis witch Lucky St. James, is profoundly relatable, as are
the other witches in her coven; the magic systems are authentic and intriguing; and the villain is appropriately dark and menacing.
It was a fun, engrossing
read, and I was sad when I closed the cover for the final time. I’ll be
rereading this one, and I hope Dimaline has more stories planned for these
remarkable witches!
"Once I opened VenCo, I was propelled through an entire night of charmed reading. Cherie Dimaline creates a world utterly fantastical, yet real. VenCo is funny, tense, and cracking with a dark, divine energy." ---Louise Erdrich, New York Times bestselling author of The Sentence
For fans of The Once and Future Witches and Practical Magic, comes an incredibly imaginative, highly anticipated new novel featuring witches, magic, and a road trip across America—from Cherie Dimaline, the critically acclaimed author of Empire of Wild.
Métis millennial Lucky St. James is barely hanging on when she learns she’ll be evicted from the tiny…
Having completed military survival courses as well as stints in an improv comedy troupe, James Schannep knows the best zombie stories are those presented with a wry grin while staring down the end of the world. The product of an overactive imagination, the genre-hopping Click Your Poison series puts you in the driver’s seat against zombies, pirates, international spies, a detective whodunit, superheroes (and villains), exploration through a haunted house, and more!
This is another interactive, choose-your-path zombie book that I discovered after I’d published Infected. It’s off-the-wall zany. You play as a stuffed bunny who wields a chainsaw in the apocalypse. If most zombie stories are caused by viral pandemics these days, then Zombocalypse Now must be the resultant lucid fever dream. If you like nonsequiturs, this is the zombie book for you.
You're a stuffed bunny and it's the end of the world.Between you and safety are forty or fifty zombies gorging themselves on the flesh of the living. If you disguise yourself as one of them and try to sneak past the feeding frenzy, turn to page 183. If you grab a tire iron, flip out and get medieval on their undead asses, turn to page 11.Zombocalypse Now is a comedy/horror reimagining of the choose-your-own-ending books you grew up with. You'll be confronted with undead hordes, internet dating, improper police procedure, and the very real danger that you'll lose your grip…
As a genderqueer non-binary person who always felt alone and invisible, it has been incredible to see the change taking place, particularly in YA, as more and more trans and non-binary authors get to tell their stories. Had I been able to read even one of these books as a teen, I might’ve avoided many years of unhappiness. Also, I’ve always been drawn to fantasy and science fiction, perhaps due to my need and desire to escape mundane reality, but I truly love how these genres let the imagination run riot, particularly when authors imagine kinder and more accepting worlds for LGBT+ people.
This, and its sequel, is truly one of the strangest books I’ve ever read. It’s a punk rock road trip following Danielle Cain as she struggles to deal with the grief of losing her best friend while also going up against some truly bizarre characters and creatures in a utopian squatter town called Freedom. I loved the raw and unapologetic attitude of the main protagonist and the diversity of the supporting cast. This book is dark and brooding, fun and poignant in equal measure. It’s a paranormal riot and I loved every minute of it, and the follow up called The Barrow Will Send What It May.
Danielle Cain is a queer punk rock traveller, jaded from a decade on the road. Searching for clues about her best friend's mysterious and sudden suicide, she ventures to the squatter, utopian town of Freedom, Iowa. All is not well in Freedom, however - things went awry after the town's residents summoned a protector spirit to serve as their judge and executioner. Danielle shows up in time to witness the spirit - a blood red, three antlered deer - begin to turn on its summoners. Danielle and her new friends have to act fast if they're going to save the…
Sci-fi and fantasy give us permission to go places we might not go in this world. I am a big daydreamer and always have been. One of the most magical things about being a writer is that you get to design a world that lives only in your mind, and then share it with the reader. Like George R. R. Martin wrote, “A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. The man who never reads lives only one.”
I loved this book from the first page. The voice of teenaged Ropa is fiery and laugh-out-loud funny.
A paranormal medium, Ropa becomes a detective for cash, and the humans who want answers from ghosts are her clients. The relationships with her grandmother and sister are sweet and the story is fast-paced and a lot of fun.
"An absolute delight . . . kept me totally hooked." – Genevieve Cogman, bestselling author of The Invisible Library
Sixth Sense meets Stranger Things in T. L. Huchu's The Library of the Dead, a sharp contemporary fantasy following a precocious and cynical teen as she explores the shadowy magical underside of modern Edinburgh.
WHEN GHOSTS TALK SHE WILL LISTEN
Ropa dropped out of school to become a ghostalker – and they sure do love to talk. Now she speaks to Edinburgh’s dead, carrying messages to those they left…
I love books and movies that contain paranormal, supernatural, or Sci-fi elements. I also enjoy a good romance, especially when it contains “forbidden” elements or some major obstacles. However, I don’t always appreciate work that is too graphic. As a person of Christian faith, I have often found it challenging to find books and movies that pique my interests but that aren’t preachy or full of pat answers, especially if they come from a Christian worldview. I’ve listed some of my absolute favorites that meet all the criteria: suspense, thrills, a bit of edgy content without being too graphic, and a touch of the unexpected.
This thriller has residents reeling from multiple unexplained murders. Gore at the crime scenes along with other factors have people afraid that it’s something supernatural. The book has an unexpected outcome, and even highlights some possible creationist vs evolutionist debate. Peretti keeps readers on the edge of their seats with his unconventional setting, characters, and outcomes while maintaining a Christian worldview. It is one of my all-time favorite books.
The suspense is bone-chilling when you realize the monsters are real . . .
Miles away from the hectic city, Reed and Rebecca hike into the beautiful Northwester woods. They are surrounded by gorgeous mountains, waterfalls, and hundreds of acres of unspoiled wilderness.
During their first night camping, an unearthly wail pierces the calm of the forest. Then something emerges from the dense woods. Everything that follows is a blur to Reed-except the unforgettable image of a huge creature carrying his wife into the darkness.
Enter into deep wilderness where the rules of civilization no longer apply. A world where…
