This bracing, incisive collection of 12 short stories immerses readers in the lives of characters who, as the title suggests, find themselves disconnected from the world and people around them while facing personal struggles and disappointments—plus social workers, security guards, awkward tennis partners, and more. Each entry delves into the sharply delineated life of a character trying to navigate an existence that’s not working out how they expected, like the former stunt performer who now sells insurance, or the street-reporting journalist facing the death of great weekly papers, as Harris, a documentary filmmaker (Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport) and author, finds fresh, pained perspectives on feelings of being alienated or left behind.

The opener, “Land Mines,” quickly seizes attention as protagonist Dana is caught shoplifting a scarf at Bloomingdales and forced to visit a psychiatrist to deal with her problem. The crisp, potent prose that showcases her background—she was abandoned by her mother as a child, and a boyfriend in later years, and finds shoplifting a surprise source of instant gratification—exemplifies Harris’s concision and humanity. Those qualities likewise power “The Mink Coat,” in which a woman moves back to Chicago after separating from her husband and finds surprising freedom through a coat gifted to her by her mother. “Tikkun Olam” and “Chicken Soup” plumb different spectrums of loneliness, the first centered on a troubled teenager craving family, and the second a woman abandoned by her children. Not that family life is easier: the standout “Mute” finds a couple at odds over how to parent a boy diagnosed with autism.

The cast is diverse, but alienation unites them. Pained and resonant, Misfits lays bare people who are so convincingly drawn that they seem to be reported on rather than imagined. Harris breathes life into his characters by employing evocative imagery and succinct storytelling. He lets his characters express themselves not only through dialogues, but also through actions.

Takeaway: Urgent, incisive short fictions of people facing lives that aren’t quite working out.

Comparable Titles: Patrick Dacey’s We’ve Already Gone This Far, Adam Haslett’s You Are Not a Stranger Here.

Production grades
Cover: A_
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A

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High-school poet Banerjee’s second collection, following In Solitude: Thoughts And Feelings Of An Eleven-Year-Old During The Coronavirus Pandemic offers a frank survey of climate disaster in thirty bleak yet hope-tinged poems that seek to inspire environmental activism and honor the earth and its creatures. The opening chapters explore the poet’s individual experience of nature in Georgia, calling attention to the seasons, weather patterns, and the small, brilliant wonders of all earth’s faces: “The calla lilies lash their tongue out, heads high, // and the bluebells hand low, being shy. // The lavender fills hills with its violet hue, // and daily, the morning glory blooms anew.” However, Banerjee’s poems dig beyond the floral; they’ve also been crafted to fight against overconsumption of the Earth’s resources.

Banerjee addresses the planet’s landscape of climate horrors, from the extinction of the dodo bird to the animal cruelty required to make foie gras to plastic waste in the ocean. “What will we do when we run out of land // and all that remains is plastic and concrete?” the poet asks in the haunting “The Loss of Use and Toss.” Though Harmony is often despairing, Banerjee also laces the collection with visions for a better future. “Toccoa and Train” creates a parallel between the female-imagined Toccoa river and the male-imagined train running alongside it, each carrying their burdens and forming a partnership, with the train using the river for “her inspiration.” Together “they both ran and ran and ran, for every generation.”

This recontextualization has power. Banerjee imagines a world where the train, once the very emblem of the industrial age, and the river are not opposing forces, but instead part of a flowing harmony. As a love letter and call to action for the earth, Banerjee’s saga is a worthy addition to the genre of climate-change activism poetry by young authors.

Takeaway: Impassioned collection of climate activist poetry written by a student.

Comparable Titles: Luisa A Igloria, Aileen Cassinetto, and Jeremy S Hoffman’s Dear Human at the End of Time, Betsy Franco’s Things I Have to Tell You.

Production grades
Cover: B+
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: B
Editing: B+
Marketing copy: A

Click here for more about Harmony

Sufi counselor Driskell (author of Be in Your Heart) offers a collection of 62 short teaching stories focused on the concept of Oneness that will edify readers ready to explore a Sufi spiritual approach. Many of the stories feature a relatable character named Esmeralda, who progresses in the stories from teen to teacher and beloved Elder, though others focus on a more generalized seeker and an “invisible teacher.” The fifth story, “The Oneness As the SUN”, gives the most explicit explanation of Driskell’s understanding of Oneness. A few of the stories feel more like classic koans or affirmations, but the majority focus on accessible student-teacher advice and wisdom sharing around increasing awareness. Throughout, Driskell offers gentle and kind teachings that always point at human compassion and at reconnection with others and with the universal.

Driskell’s spiritual storytelling is accessible without being overly casual, and she omits most technical spiritual language in favor of easy to understand narrative with a natural conversational tone. Although she offers a variety of framings of the essential concepts, her focus on the primary teaching of living mindfully in the Oneness stays crystal clear throughout. She establishes Esmeralda as a point of view character, but develops her personal story lightly; Driskell seems to suggest but never says that Esmeralda’s experiences ressemble her own, and she emphasizes the teachings rather than her story.

Driskell resists editorializing, letting the stories speak for themselves, but provides an annotation index in the endnotes which explicitly specifies the teaching topics for each tale, helping readers to hook into the meanings through additional research or to easily choose an appropriate story for any particular contemplative moment. Each piece after the first few stands well on its own as a teaching story, so readers can engage the book non-sequentially; however, those who choose to read straight through will find the pieces varied enough that the experience proves fresh and engaging throughout.

Takeaway: An introduction to Sufi spiritual approach, presented in 62 short narratives.

Comparable Titles: Eckhart Tolle’s Oneness with All Life, Nevit O. Ergin’s Tales of a Modern Sufi.

Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: A-
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A

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With an eye toward environmental education and adventure, Colless (Eye of the Stormlord) brings 11-year-old Peter Blue and his friends to brilliant life in the series’ second science-fantasy for young readers. As initiates of the Spiral Hall School, an elite school raising eco-intelligent and environmentally conscious aware young people, Peter and his band are just beginning on their journey. Spiral Hall is connected to GAIA—Global Advanced Intelligence Agency —offering the students unheard-of opportunities to learn from the best. From serious Riva to expansive-thinking, social media-minded Wanda to Chu, the team’s scientist, the tweens band together, with others, when Agent Artiss Fleur, a friend of Peter’s newly rescued GAIA-agent father, gives Peter a mission: capture three juvenile Anthrogs, known as Renegales, who managed to breach the school’s force field and are bedeviling the area.

Meanwhile, the adults are busy dealing both with a mysterious fog that only targets children, plus the looming threat of Big Garbage Inc. and its army of elemental Anthrogs. This adventure sends our heroes on epic quests to save the world—literally and figuratively as Colless explores both science heroism and relatable, easy-to-achieve goals to help on a local and global scale. Each of the very diverse characters has something to offer the team—whether it be technical savvy, out-of-the-box thinking (as is the case with Wanda’s big idea to learn more about the yellow fog) or Riva and Peter’s leadership skills.

Scientific principles are celebrated, but fantasy also plays a large role in the novel, particularly in the anthropomorphizing of elements such as wind in such a way that they’re seen as complementary rather than opposing forces, offering fresh options for flights of imagination. While the adults and villains may come across at times as stereotypical and two-dimensional, the message underlying the narrative speaks to tolerance, grace and the importance of making one’s own decisions in situations—teaching children to follow their instincts. Readers will be captivated by this unlikely band of heroes.

Takeaway: Young eco-warriors take to sea and sky to save the world.

Comparable Titles: Jess Redman’s The Adventure Is Now, Emma Shevah’s How to Save the World with a Chicken and an Egg.

Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A

Click here for more about Renegale Tales

The charming second volume of Turetsky’s HR Data Doodles series finds the four-panel comic—much like its cast—expanding its ambitions, as Turetsky moves from a (mostly) gag-oriented format into dedicated serialized storytelling centered on the Played Much Game Company in a time of crunch and transition. Drawing on discussions and insights from Turetsky's HR Data Labs Podcast, the comics depart from most workplace comedy in their upbeat consideration of the role that smart human resources teams can play in generating inspired solutions company-wide challenges, in this case issues like a potential acquisition, possible layoffs of sales staff when a key product gets delayed, and what it really means to strive for pay equity.

The first volume of HR Data Doodles—a name referring both to the comics format and to the now-expanded cast of diverse and appealingly designed characters—offered insights, too, though the emphasis was often on punchlines, usually coming from the pajamas-wearing young HR analyst Teddy. This time, Turetsky often dares to end strips without a joke, instead capturing, in four chatty panels of static composition, the upshots of meetings, both in-person and digital, as the teams at Played Much strategize, listen to each other, and implement their plans. (Occasionally, speech balloons are laid out in an unintuitive order, but much less often than in the previous entry.) The change in emphasis makes a point: teams working well together are no joke, and neither are demonstrations of agreement, understanding, and the embrace of clear takeaways.

That’s not to say there aren’t laughs, here. But quickly the story of Played Much’s possible acquisition by OrangeU, another game company, plus Played Much’s struggles to finalize a “transformative” platform and gather crucial demographic data, proves compelling. Innovative solutions to problems, like “re-skilling” employees for current needs rather than “re-staffing,” work out for the team, and the new advice from an old consultant regarding OrangeU and the platform issues is heartening.

Takeaway: Upbeat comics about the essential role HR plays in business.

Comparable Titles: Eliyahu M. Goldratt’s The Goal, Josh Bersin’s Irresistible.

Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: A-
Editing: A-
Marketing copy: A

Click here for more about HR Data Doodles: Season 2 - Back to Work

Set in a New Mexico where the ““the sun melt[s] behind the blue mountains, oozing streaks of gold and violet,” Reine’s suspenseful but humane domestic drama, the second in the Pioneer Ranch series (after She Died Then Showed Me), centers on a mother, the successful artist Peyton, and her and her family’s dread of her youngest son, “the dreaded Gideon,” a pugnacious and aggrieved know-it-all who locals joke “might be possessed.” Reine builds up to Gideon’s arrival in the story, on the occasion of a dinner celebrating his showjumping, veterinarian-to-be sister Bryce, with unsettling power, establishing a desert ranch world of good taste, loving mixed family, Art in America interviews, and disquiet about Gideon’s imminent entrance, which is announced by nothing less than “skidding wheels, crunching metal, and shattering porcelain.”

Reine again showcases an ability to touchingly weave sorrow, grief, humor, and love with complex and resonant blended family dynamics and an eye for environments, especially physical landscapes. While the opening chapters might seem to paint Gideon as an antagonist or even villain, an agent of discord speaking viciousness he seems to believe is truth, Reine is too shrewd and empathetic to keep things simple. As the pages quickly pass, and the story seems to edge toward tragedy, readers get a deeper look into these people, their pasts, and their rifts, the central relationship as rocky yet fascinating as the terrain on which they live.

Fearlessly untangling the complexities of relationships, loss, and perseverance, this is a novel that is both hopeful and relatable. Peyton’s marriage to cowboy Blake, who is not Gideon’s father, is eventually put to the test as they navigate the destruction left by her son. Her identity as an artist is threatened, a bitter rivalry ensues, an old love returns, and Peyton finds herself facing hard choices and opposing paths. The magical realism, respectful interest in Navajo and Ute cultures, and deep spirituality contribute in bringing captivating depth to every character.

Takeaway: Stellar family drama of an artist mother, a difficult son, and hard choices.

Comparable Titles: Lynne M. Spreen; Marylee MacDonald’s Montpelier Tomorrow.

Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A

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In this raw, straight-talking, but ultimately heartening guide to healing from intimate partner abuse and trauma-bonded relationships, Macaluso explores how to understand these relationships of abuse, manipulation, how to safely get off “the Merry-Go-Round of insanity,” how to recover emotionally afterwards—and, crucially, how to grow and thrive, with the tools to recognize unsafe men. Macaluso draws from her personal story of being married to the infamous "Wolf of Wall Street" and her expertise as a marriage and family therapist advocating for women she calls "surthrivers," offering hard-won advice (“Never tell an intoxicated partner you are leaving”) and crucial understanding, support, and validation.

"We are often pawns in a love game we do not understand," Macaluso writes, and Run Like Hell, packed with eye-opening research and detailed case studies from a host of women, is a comprehensive guide on the complexities of trauma bonding, the types of behaviors and signs to look out for in potential partners, and safe ways to break free from toxic relationships with PLs (“pathological lovers”). With empathy and insight, Macaluso lays out the who, what, when, where, how, and why people are likely to trauma bond and the people who seek to manipulate and control them, laying bare "pathological lovers” and their motives, patterns, and manipulative tactics—and also how women can get trapped by them.

Macaluso proves especially compelling when addressing the shame, guilt, and embarrassment that can keep women silent when it comes to abusive relationships. Run Like Hell salves the stigma attached to falling prey to charming, charismatic men who turn out to be manipulative and controlling, offering commiseration and a path out of the nightmare. Throughout, Macaluso and the women whose stories she shares speak hard truths (“Your PL will always flip the script and claim to be the victim”) that could help readers make major changes. Positive, informative, and urgently necessary, this guide demystifies these relationships in inviting prose and with ample heart.

Takeaway: Standout guide to leaving and healing from toxic relationships.

Comparable Titles: Jackson MacKenzie's Whole Again, Bruce D. Perry and Oprah Winfrey’s What Happened to You?.

Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A

Click here for more about Run Like Hell

“The final aspect of the simple gospel is that when you believe, you are saved,” Randolph writes in this debut, a spiritual self-help book that explores the ways Christians can walk through life “ clumsily in the dark … building our own kingdom without God.” Inspired by the teachings of Aaron Budjen with Living God Ministries, Randolph, a believer who at times has worried that his efforts to live a Christian life were not enough, offers a hard-won perspective on how to correlate the “labyrinth of negative emotions and thoughts” in human hearts with Jesus's sacrifice on the cross. Sharing evidence through biblical text, personal anecdotes, and knowledge through his time at seminary, the author highlights the ways believers in Christ can “acknowledge our sins and brokenness, receive His forgiveness, and decide to put our trust in Him.”

Aligning hearts and adjusting mindsets, Randolph writes, can allow imperfect believers to "accomplish things in our lives and with our lives that we have not dared to dream of.” In raw, transparent moments he considers his own personal stumbles with his faith due to his traumatic childhood with an abusive father and the ways in which he had to unlearn a worldly view he had developed of Christian life and God's love. Resurrecting the Cross delves deeply into the teachings of Jesus and the meaning of sacrifice and forgiveness. Drawing from scripture, Randolph shares with readers the one simple statement that he argues "summed up the whole gospel": by placing belief in Jesus "you will be saved.”

Resurrecting the Cross is a warm, inviting, and readable study, touched with memoir, even when Randolph digs into complex ideas about free will and the nature of love. Christian readers looking for new insight into the faith and an understanding of God's transcendent love will find nourishment.

Takeaway: Inspirational Christian study of human brokenness and Jesus's sacrifice.

Comparable Titles: R. T. Kendall; F. Remy Diederich’s Starting Over.

Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: N/A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: B+

Click here for more about Resurrecting the Cross

Neurodivergent psychologist Loo debuts with this uplifting compendium of recommendations and techniques for late-identified neurodivergent adults to build healthy relationships, self-acceptance, and more.With a goal to “not just be ‘aware’ of neurodivergence, but also embrace and celebrate it,” Loo opens with the need to use neurodivergent language and a brief, but thorough, consideration of just what neurodivergence encompasses, followed by tips that range from how to cleanly communicate to positive self-care approaches. The tone is warm and inviting, and Loo makes it clear that readers should absorb the information at their own pace and take time to rest when needed.

Loo acknowledges that neurodivergence is a relatively new revelation and should be viewed through a flexible lens, with an understanding that appropriate language and methodology may change over time. “Ongoing reflection from society is necessary to ensure that we’re always trying to better understand, represent and support the neurodivergent community” she urges, and readers will find a wealth of affirmative ideas and approaches here that attest to those beliefs. Topics of note include masking neurodivergence to be viewed as “socially acceptable” (and the harm that goes along with that), healthy versus unhealthy power dynamics in relationships, and the need to avoid the common neurodivergent pitfall of people-pleasing.

Readers will find the colorful graphics, diagrams, and journaling opportunities particularly useful; Loo utilizes mind maps to illustrate complex topics, and visuals such as a “self-care menu” and a layout of creative stims ideas—self-care activities to help regulate emotions—are bold, bright, and incredibly helpful. The message is clear: “Being pressured to live like a [neurotypical]… is like forced cultural assimilation in the ethnocultural context.” While she writes that the material is meant for those who identified their neurodivergence in adulthood rather than childhood, this handbook will also prove a valuable tool for any neurodivergent or neurotypical reader.

Takeaway: Enlightening, supportive resource for late-identified neurodivergent adults.

Comparable Titles: Steve Silberman’s NeuroTribes, Zosia Zaks’s Life and Love.

Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A

Click here for more about Nurturing Neurodivergence

Authors Z.N. and Nelson follow their Nano Adventures series with a fanciful interstellar journey brimming with color, creativity, and fun. The story centers on a young, unnamed narrator daydreaming about the possibilities that would exist if they owned a spaceship—a spaceship that could transport them to faraway, magical lands where there are no chores and no one to tell them what to do. As they ponder the opportunities that spaceship would provide, their fantasy surges, taking them to multiple planets, real and imaginary, on an intergalactic display of iridescent scenery, mind-boggling creatures, and more.

Though the storyline is simple, this cosmic adventure delivers plenty of fun—and room for kids to stretch their imagination muscles. The narrator zooms through “planets where the snow is purple, and rivers flow with diamonds” and a slew of unusual worlds full of interesting people, including new friends with elephant trunks instead of arms and racecar wheels in place of legs. The locales they visit are a child’s playful vision of cosmic wonders and interstellar life: meatball marina asteroids, comets that have string cheese tails, and imaginary towns that use stinkbugs to collect their garbage, while their children play on bridges built from swings.

The book’s illustrations match the frenetic, multihued pace of the story, splashing each page with brilliant, jeweled tones and kaleidoscopic galaxies. A luscious caramel waterfall takes center stage on an ice cream planet, and on the “planet where everyone has three eyes,” a local devises a secret handshake and plays epic space games with the story’s narrator. The authors close with a message as striking as the narrator’s stellar travels: “At the end of the day, the best place to go in a spaceship, is right back home. To my own room, with my own family, on my own planet.”

Takeaway: An interstellar romp through imaginative planets and galaxies.

Comparable Titles: Aneta Cruz’s Astronaut Training, Beatrice Alemagna’s On a Magical Do-Nothing Day.

Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A-
Illustrations: A
Editing: A-
Marketing copy: B+

Click here for more about If I Had A Spaceship...

A teenaged pirate is captured and forced into servitude alongside her family, but she’s soon embroiled in a plot to remake an entire society in this YA fantasy debut. Despite being one of the two members of her large family interested in finding a Red Island, semi-mythical place where humans can live safe and free, Violet’s entire identity once she is captured revolves around being a fierce, independent pirate who yearns for the sea. After a tiresome series of attempted escapes in which she’s intercepted and then changes her mind each time, Violet chooses to stay with her family while secretly hunting the malevolent being (an Underling) that killed her brother and seems to have followed her to land.

As she and her family settle in, Violet engages in spontaneous mutual pining with Will (the man who took her captive), learns surprising truths about the world from him (because her parents kept her and her siblings in deliberate ignorance), and is quickly inducted into a secret order sworn to overthrow the royal family. Violet is feisty, a touch melodramatic, eager to protect but resistant to Will’s efforts to protect her—in short, she’s fierce, conflicted, and very believably seventeen. This salty world of nightmares, conspiracies, and literal prince of Eerie is fun to discover, especially some spooky beasts and weird magic, though the romantic elements feel familiar. With Violet’s feelings for the men around her often the narrative’s emphasis.

Still, Gray spins Violet’s tale with polished prose, brisk storytelling, and a welcome sense of what a fantastical life actually feels like, from the calloused hands of a pirate to Violet’s father’s surprising proficiency cooking scalloped potatoes to the unique traits of monsters: “Sylks smell like smoke. Shifters hate perfume.” Blending the freshly inventive with genre traditions, Nightweaver and its promised sequel will appeal to YA fantasy fans who adore conflicted love triangles and strong young women on a mission.

Takeaway: Fresh piratical tale of murder, magic, family, and a fierce heroine.

Comparable Titles: Logan Karlie’s Dream by the Shadows, Kate Golden’s A Dawn of Onyx.

Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A

Click here for more about Nightweaver

Game developer Tozour’s assured, highly original debut offers a peek behind the scenes of two fictional gaming companies, the process of producing a ground-breaking video game, and four core values, derived from Tozour’s own experience, that a group of developers learn along the way, each paired with a legendary sword inside their own game of choice, an MMORPG called Dream of Dragons. Like a good RPG, the narrative of The Four Swords kicks off with mystery and character choices. At the insistence of a “synthesized voice,” game developers Tim, Leo, Jake, and Alison—who have just helped release one of the most successful games in industry history—must reveal their surprising story, from the beginning, as the "the voice" considers.

Jake and Leo, who work at Scrub-Liminal Studios, and Tim and Allison, who work at Green Gryphon Games, are central to the inner workings of their respective companies and trade work anecdotes as they bond over gaming sessions. Through their meetups and work days, Tozour tells a story digging into business, gaming, coding, and more, while sharing wisdom and insight into ethical business practices and the taxing roles of leadership. The Four Swords is an epic of epic-making, an adventure about what it takes to craft adventures, set in a world of cutthroat business and workplace antics.

Their journey, in the real world and on bloody raids in a convincingly drawn Dream of Dragons, will find their personal lives, friendships, and careers all beginning to bleed into each other as Tozour spins an engaging story of workplace drama, lessons for leadership, and the discovery of those core values. Lovers of games will appreciate appearances from characters inspired by game history, like the RPG pioneer “Lord Austin,” who aspired to building “a coherent moral framework and actually living by it” in games—and shares inspired advice when a team is demoralized. The Four Swords makes a compelling quest out of what it takes to be an impactful leader in business.

Takeaway: Inventive novel of game development and leadership values.

Comparable Titles: Gabrielle Zevin’s Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, Gene Kim, Kevin Behr, and George Spafford’s The Phoenix Project

Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A

Click here for more about The Four Swords: A Parable of Leadership, Video Games, and Dead Dragons

This fascinating love story from Xavier (author of The Malady of Love) experiments with literary constraint, depicting an intimate and vulnerable couple of days with a couple whose efforts to connect are told entirely through dialogue. Xavier doesn't describe the scene, the characters themselves, or what they do in any way other than through what they say to each other. As the unidentified man and woman nervously approach each other with only a sheet covering them up, they slowly spell out just why they are so hesitant with each other. The woman has debilitating scoliosis that's left her torso twisted and unbalanced after a back brace and multiple failed surgeries. The man has a disfigured face, also shaped by repeated surgeries. They have each spent a lifetime of being rejected and mocked, and they are tentatively trying to break through that trauma to form a connection.

Like the couple, Xavier starts slowly, as the man tells the woman that he sees her as beautiful, but she demands he dig deeper, be more honest, and speak the truth of what he sees. Then when she regards him, he reacts the same way, the reader discovering what each looks like through the other’s words—and by this becoming deeply involved in their exploration of intimacy and trust. That leads to a surreal sequence, real or imagined, where he describes peeling the eyes that stared at her away from her skin and then cutting her open, removing the scars made from "the judgment of others." Soon, she describes ripping his face off. Throughout, both make exclamations of pain.

Finally, that intensely metaphorical experience fades as the couple at last feels comfortable with touch, then foreplay, and then sex, talking through it in the most exacting detail possible. The dialogue at times is so formal and descriptive that it lacks any sense of verisimilitude, but Distortion stands as a complex, vulnerable, and highly emotional narrative of connection.

Takeaway: Humane, sometimes shocking experimental love story.

Comparable Titles: Ryan J. Haddad's Dark Disabled Stories, Philip Roth’s Deception.

Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A

Click here for more about Distortion

Walker’s polished debut imagines a seer’s urgent mission and an uneasy alliance between thieves and assassins in the low-magic realm of Baelon, where ambitions, tragedy, visions, and much political intrigue converge to shape the kingdom's destiny—and to jolt readers with well-executed twists of consequence. The kingdom, ruled by King Axil, becomes the backdrop for a tale that commences with the tragic demise of Princess Lewen and the subsequent death by suicide of her guilt-ridden mother, Isadora. This event serves as a catalyst, setting in motion events of wide-ranging consequence. Several "almons" after the princess’s death, Mari Dunn, who had overlooked a previous vision foretelling Lewen and Isadora’s death, has another glimpse of a possible future: King Axil's murder. Determined not to make the same mistake again, she attempts to make her way to warn the King, her daughter Sibil by her side. Meanwhile, the Takers Guild, a group of skilled thieves, plots the assassination of the king, electing to approach the League of Assassins for help.

Walker skillfully weaves the intricacies of Sibil's skill and friendships, Mari's prescient abilities, and the looming threat of the Takers Guild, employing subjective points of view to keep readers guessing and questioning the reliability of each character. The narrative unfolds through multiple perspectives, but Walker’s commitment to showing what motivates each character never comes at the expense of the brisk pacing, especially as Sibil emerges as a formidable force in crisp, engaging scenes of action. Despite her diminutive stature, her proficiency with a dagger shapes the world around her—and will captivate readers who relish flinty fantasy heroes.

The attention Sibil receives from key figures, including the intrigued Marshal Erik Carson and the enigmatic Rolft, who believes he acts on the deceased princess's orders to randomly kill three victims, adds layers to the narrative, creating a dynamic interplay between characters. This first series entry both promises and delivers an enthralling narrative that leaves readers anticipating the next chapter.

Takeaway: Strong fantasy series starter of thieves, assassins, and a seer’s urgent mission.

Comparable Titles: Paul J. Bennett’s Servant of the Crown, Sarah J. Maas’s A Court of Mist and Fury.

Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A

Click here for more about Six Moons, Seven Gods

The mystery-filled fifth installment of Quaver’s Ordeals of Elly Robin series opens, in the years before the first World War, with Elly Robin, the piano prodigy last seen in a New Orleans bawdy house (in Elly Robin in the Big Easy), taking up an offer of mentorship. Considering Elly's asocial nature—she’s a child of trauma and the road, speaking rarely and lacking basic etiquette, though she’s bold, talented, and a whiz at making friends and helping those she cares for—pianist Vittorio Bellini makes a special arrangement for Elly's training in Chicago with Lillian LaSalle, a woman of means and proper decorum, but with an unspoken mutual agreement: Lillian must know nothing of Elly’s past.

Quaver does not indulge in the familiar story of a gifted musician’s quest for fame and fortune, tackling instead pressing issues concerning Elly’s time. This story is a matter of privilege versus poverty. Elly stands in sharp contrast to the LaSalle family, having lived as an orphan, hobo, and a “defective child,” for the sole reason of resembling a mute after losing her parents in the San Francisco earthquake. Her social ineptness becomes especially clear when she’s the butt of the joke among the unenlightened LaSalle children. But Elly's introduction to a group of anarchists kicks off a series of unexpected events involving the LaSalle family, whose garment shops “are some of the worst for hiring the cheapest sorts of labor, mostly young immigrant girls just off the boat, working for almost nothing, afraid to unionize.”

Quaver writes with historical accuracy but is committed to life as it’s lived rather than textbook details. The story teems with timeless insight on racial prejudice, abuse of power, slavery, radical love, and the courage to break free from the “gilded cage” of ignorance and indifference. Quaver’s world-building is razor-sharp, with a diverse cast and resonant reminders of inequality. The plot twists are smartly teased until revealed in quick succession, leaving readers eagerly anticipating the next installment.

Takeaway: A young woman’s enlightening historical adventure, exposing injustice.

Comparable Titles: Heather Wardell’s Fiery Girls, Nancy Zaroulis’s Call the Darkness Light.

Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A

Click here for more about Elly Robin : Bird in a Gilded Cage (The Ordeals of Elly Robin)

The fourth in Quaver’s Ordeals of Elly Robin series picks up the picaresque misadventures of the turn-of-the-twentieth-century heroine, a musical prodigy, with Elly adrift on the Arkansas river, orphaned and near death, until she’s rescued by the crew of the Jean Lafitte. Her next destination: living rough on the streets of 1913 New Orleans, where Elly, as she always does on her unexpected journeys, makes friends and music, this time falling in with the ragtag Razzy-Dazzy Spasm Band at the dawn of the jazz era. She becomes a piano player in an elegant bordello and befriends the women toiling there, getting involved in their lives. One evening a visitor, the musical maestro Bellini, opines that, though Elly is prodigiously talented, her music reveals a lack of formal learning. Though hurt, Elly realizes this is true. After saving some lives and setting others on track, she leaves New Orleans with plans to learn under Bellini.

Set in the sleazy underbelly of America’s most international city, where a host of global cultures fused into gumbo, this entry in the sprightly series captures the spirit of the city and its great love for music. The parade of interesting and colorful characters includes glimpses of epochal musical figures, founding fathers of what will come to be known as jazz. Also entertaining, as always, is the protagonist herself, whose silence hides not just oodles of talent but reservoirs of grit as well. Then there is the gun-toting, cigarette-smoking “countess,” Estelle, who wants to be child free; Liddie who yearns to be a mother; Dago Annie, the angel of death; and the Karnofsky family with their ‘adopted’ child, Louis Armstrong, boasting a “mile wide smile.”

The pace is brisk and narrative taut. The portrayal of the city and the times is realistic but good humored, imbuing Elly’s adventures with feelings of Twain-like amusement, and bemusement. Readers who relish fun, adventure, history, and a driven protagonist will be eager for more.

Takeaway: A young woman’s vivid, charming adventures in 1913 New Orleans.

Comparable Titles: Ruta Sepetys’s Out of the Easy, Diane C. McPhail’s The Seamstress of New Orleans.

Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A

Click here for more about Elly Robin in the Big Easy (The Ordeals of Elly Robin)