Sixth-grader Cameron Poole is trying to enjoy his summer at Camp Pontchartrain, but fear and anxiety hold him back. Name calling and torment from bullies erode Cameron’s fragile confidence and cause his inner voice to spiral into negative self-talk. Even his therapist’s techniques to assuage his inner anxiety Beast do little to keep his fear at bay, but when the fate of the Earth is dropped on his weary shoulders, he must make the hardest decision of his life: fight or flight. Luckily, it’s a choice he doesn’t have to make alone. With his best friends by his side, Cameron must come face-to-face with his personal demons and battle the forces of darkness.

Cameron and his friends bravely face their own insecurities while fighting Malphas, a demon who lives in a parallel universe and longs for global domination. Under Malphas’s command, imps, gremlins, and banshees unite to collect seven Skull Keys, the cumulation opening the door between worlds so the most horrific monsters can rush through. Age-friendly spooky descriptions describe “jagged howls” and “pointed teeth” to create tension that’s just scary enough without alienating young readers who may frighten easily. While the tone is eerie, the heart of the story remains firmly planted within the internal fears of the characters.

Cameron’s emotional turmoil in contrast with his desire to overcome his own insecurities makes him a relatable and sympathetic young protagonist. In order to combat his persistent self-doubt and gut-turning anxiety, he employs several useful therapeutic techniques including the 4-7-8 breathing method, grounding exercises such as counting by eights, and challenging Automatic Negative Thoughts by focusing on what is real versus the “what-ifs” of a situation. Young readers walk away from Cameron’s journey with new and useful stress-management skills applicable to their daily lives as well as powerful life lessons about friendship, bravery, and managing fear. In addition, Cheverton provides parental resources from the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry website for extra support.

Takeaway: Inspiring adventure featuring demons and helpful therapeutic techniques.

Comparable Titles: Stacy McAnulty’s The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl, B. B. Alston’s Amari and the Night Brothers.

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

Click here for more about Facing the Beast Within

Fargnoli (The Deacon) sets this spiritually contemplative story at the Warwick Tavern, affectionately coined the “the Wick” by locals, in suburban New Jersey. Though no one is certain where newcomer John is from—or why he’s chosen the Wick to frequent—one thing’s undisputed: he’s stirring something among the regulars, with heartfelt advice that's changing lives. It starts with Bob, a “lukewarm Catholic,” who, after hearing John offer to pray for a friend at the tavern, asks him “Do you really think the prayers have any effect at all?” John delves into the deeper meaning behind that question, gently coaxing Bob to re-examine God’s presence in his own life, in a profound conversation that kindles something real at the Wick.

More “spiritual autobiography” than a traditional novel, Fargnoli’s story plumbs what makes humans tick, connect, believe, and hope. Bob’s awakening eventually leads him to forgiveness and a renewed love for family, but he’s just the first of John’s acolytes: Beth, struggling with career decisions, wishes God “were more real to me”; Louise is eager to understand the difference between a soul and a physical body; and Mike is wondering how God can be real, given the terrible events happening in the world. John takes their questions in stride, drawing diagrams to help explain ( Fargnoli includes the hand-drawn diagrams throughout) and tapping into biblical passages for understanding.

John’s origins stay mysterious, but his influence lingers long after he leaves the Wick. As the locals reflect on his advice, musing that he’s “the same John who wrote the Gospel,” they agree to meet regularly to keep his ideas alive, building on his parting guidance that “Fear gets in the way of our faith so often. They are both powerful forces. The one you surrender to will control you.” Fargnoli closes with a celebration of the real Wick, in Somerdale, New Jersey, and its history.

Takeaway: Warm story of a stranger kickstarting a spiritual awakening in a suburban bar.

Comparable Titles: Daniel Quinn’s Ishmael, Neale Donald Walsch’s Conversations with God.

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

Click here for more about Wisdom from the Wick

In this engaging self-help guide to shifting leadership and employee emotions for a better workplace environment, executive coach Lomb shares and explains the “ASPIRE Leadership Model,” built upon understanding emotions as “drivers of or barriers to the desired leadership behavior.” To that end, Lomb introduces seven “emotional drivers” (such as empathy, trust, and positivity) for leaders to understand in themselves and in others, as well as seven corresponding “leadership behaviors” (“the gate to caring,” “the fuel for collaborating,” and “being resilient”) through which leaders can help inspire others to meaningful—and “aspirational”—change. At his system’s heart: learning the drivers and when to shift from one leadership behavior to another to fit them.

Lomb has packed Aspire with informative anecdotes, examples of his emotional shifting model in action, easy-to-follow charts and diagrams, and much practical, concise advice on ways to implement these behaviors in the workplace and during employee interactions as a leader, all anchored to a clear framework of ideas. Lomb also examines potential barriers to navigating the emotional drivers and the best practices for implementing these leadership behaviors. Through the interactive reflection section at the end of each chapter, he tasks readers with self tests to gauge individual emotional responses to each driver and what potential barriers may be holding them back from mastering their emotions. Each chapter, driver, and behavior builds upon the previous to create a foundation—rooted in empathy, compassion and interest—for effective leadership.

Lomb draws on his own experiences plus some surprising international examples, such as negotiations surrounding the end of the partitioning of East and West Germany, to make the case for emotional intelligence in leaders and changemakers.Aspire is an inviting resource for readers looking to make a more human and personal connection with their co-workers and employees. This guide explores the more interpersonal aspects of business and leadership and cultivates the development of a nurturing and caring work culture and work environment.

Takeaway: Incisive guide linking leadership to emotional drivers.

Comparable Titles: Karla McLaren’s The Power of Emotions at Work, Anne Kreamer’s It's Always Personal.

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

Click here for more about ASPIRE

The second novel from Williams boasts a premise certain to provoke a reaction: “a love story between Jesus and a modern-day woman sent back in time.” While Saving Christ has been categorized as a romance, readers should not expect the passionate clinches the genre’s known for. Most of the kisses are to feet and hands, in the chastely worshipful way of Bible stories, though protagonist Jennifer, a 30-year-old FBI agent with a degree in comparative religions, does inspire in the Jesus of the Gospels a taste for Chanel body lotion. The story’s high concept might seem playful, and Williams does offer some spirited comedy, but the execution is thoughtful and even pious. While Jennifer is often seen by many ancients as either an angel or temptress, Saving Christ never depicts Jesus as tempted by flesh or a chance to avoid a redeemer’s faith.

That’s in spite of Jennifer’s desire to talk Jesus out of surrendering to the Romans. In fact, in the present, the president himself has tasked Jennifer and her contemporary companions with convincing Jesus not to die—and to come back with them to today. (And if Jesus doesn’t agree? “We’ll kidnap Him,” the president declares.) But once she’s in the ancient world, Jennifer, who has never committed to faith, grows close to Jesus in the days before the crucifixion, even as she strives not to reveal that she’s from the future. Williams plays that both for comedy but also pathos, as Jennifer encounters disciples, family members, and other familiar figures who do not know what she does about Jesus’s fate.

Williams plays that both for comedy but also pathos, as Jennifer encounters disciples, family members, and other familiar figures who do not know what she does about Jesus’s fate. The surprise is that Jennifer eventually yearns to talk Jesus out of that destiny for her own reasons. But Williams’ interests are not in what-if?s about the life of Jesus, whose resolve to self sacrifice is only firmed up by story’s end. Williams is after how Jesus changes Jennifer. Believers open to the premise will find this a warm, polished, faith-affirming read.

Takeaway: Faith-affirming time-travel adventure of a contemporary woman meeting Jesus.

Comparable Titles: Frank Viola and Mary DeMuth’s The Day I Met Jesus, Gary M. Burge’s A Week in the Life of a Roman Centurion.

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

Click here for more about Saving Christ: Starway Seven

Growing up, before he knew much, Leslie had a firm grasp on three facets of his identity: “I love God. I love my family. I am gay.” Though those three pillars have stood firm throughout Leslie’s life, and throughout this vivid memoir, the process through which he reconciled them during his childhood, adolescence, and eventual coming-out proved long, lonely, and at times seemingly hopeless, due to his Catholic family’s zero-tolerance beliefs regarding homosexuality and literary and pop culture’s distinct lack of out gay figures during the 1960’s and ‘70s. At times, Leslie’s depression reached critical points of severity, but what pulled him from the depths time and time again was his persistent faith.

Leslie is the author of several spiritual/inspirational guides (Divine Destiny, My Last First Year), but in his memoir, he focuses on his childhood and adolescence, with particular emphasis on his complex relationships with his emotionally absent mother and with a God who, Leslie was told, would condemn him to hell. In clear, direct prose, Leslie recounts a childhood marked by loneliness and discomfort, yet facing this adversity he managed to engage in the challenging psychological and theological questioning it took to harmonize his faith, sexuality, and love of family and forge an unshakable identity from the ashes of despair.

Though the emphasis on loneliness and depression at times can be repetitive, this focus does elevate the impact of Leslie’s eventual spiritual and sexual transcendence at the conclusion, while also serving as corollary of Leslie’s theory that heaven can be accessed in life through dedicated spiritual work. As he puts it, “the Universe provides us with Heaven at birth. But as reflections of God, we must claim Heaven ourselves.” Leslie makes the case that only through such a journey could he experience this spiritual change and “earn [his] place among the seraphim.”

Takeaway: Touching memoir of finding one’s self and faith growing up gay and Catholic.

Comparable Titles: Kate Bornstein’s A Queer and Pleasant Danger, Kevin Sessums’s Mississippi Sissy.

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

Click here for more about Light Come Out of the Closet: Memoir of a Gay Soul

Set mainly in Aguagria, a border town in Texas, the complex coexistence of good and evil is the theme of Notzon’s existential sophomore novel, which concerns a former lawyer hunting for a more meaningful life, while facing the secrets of the past and the worst of humanity. Home for his father’s funeral, Jacob Kazmareck is concerned about his adopted sister Grace’s slide into a dark place. A talented violinist and survivor of childhood tragedy, Grace mysteriously gives up recording music, muttering to herself "Grace is a mistake.” Meanwhile, Jacob suffers an assault he can’t remember and a bout of amnesia, and he experiences a wrenching encounter with his former lover, Dolores Martínez, a friend of Grace’s confined in a mental health institution for killing her mother.

Amid all this, despairing over the “pointlessness of a human pursuit” and haunted by intense discussions with a Holocaust survivor, he discovers that the truth of that murder is somehow linked to his sister’s withdrawal from the world. “What are we?” Jake asks, and Notzon captures his searching despair in pained, charged language touched with the philosophical and the poetic, balancing the dark (“I spent Saturday in the hollow depths of hell”) and the sumptuous (“the endless azure sky clutched at the fish-boned wispiness of diaphanous cloud”.) At times, the prose’s density comes at the cost of narrative momentum, but the diverse characters cast a serious spell. Especially moving is the tender bond and profound understanding between Jake and Grace. The impact of childhood sibling rivalry, another urgent theme, resonates.

Divided into two parts based on Jake’s journey, the novel succeeds in weaving together the cast’s disparate stories with a considerable degree of skill, illustrating its themes but never feeling schematic. A prologue highlights key ideas but gives away much of the denouement, so the resolution doesn’t surprise, exactly, but it makes a potent case for empathy, communication, and human resilience. Readers who relish fiction that interrogates the “human pursuit” will find this entertaining and edifying.

Takeaway: Engrossing existential novel about a brother-sister bond and an urgent mystery.

Comparable Titles: Burhan Sönmez’s Labyrinth, Brian Phillip Whalen’s Semiotic Love.

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

Click here for more about And Ye Shall Be As Gods

This delightfully quirky read from the Schwartzes, enthusiastic consumers and historians of all things Costco, offers a thorough A-Z accounting of the history and current practices of the wholesale company, one of the largest retailers in the world. This book has been written independently, without Costco's sponsorship, but is still joyful—even celebratory—in its charting of Costco stores, the different offerings in different countries and regions, and the history and popularity of Costco favorites, such as the rotisserie chicken and the $1.50 hot dog. (The chain “sells seven times more hot dogs than all US baseball stadiums combined,” they note.) The authors have visited over 200 of Costco's 850 warehouses in 46 states and 13 countries.

When Schwartzes say they love the Costco experience, they mean it. Still, while a labor of love, the book is well-researched and delivers information in a fun, concise way. The layout and the presentation invite readers to browse or read straight through but the text goes beyond factoids to share great detail on subjects even the Costco faithful might never have thought of, such as how changing the sourcing of certain products has real implications on the economies of the areas that produce them, what goes into selecting books and seasonal items, and the incredible boost that Costco can give to manufacturers once it puts a product in stores. None of this nitty gritty insight is dry, and readers who are Costco regulars may find their familiar errands to get groceries transformed into an educated and informative shopping experience.

Among the most engaging sections are those that feature unique items in different states’ and countries’ Costcos, as well as products you might not have considered purchasing from the chain: a six-person dark room tent in Alaska, a $350,000 necklace in France, gold ingots in Iceland. This is a surprising, entertaining book on an everyday subject close to readers’ lives.

Takeaway: Fun, fascinating study of Costco, filled with surprises.

Comparable Titles: Larry Gerston’s The Costco Experience, Bertil Torekull’s Leading by Design.

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

Click here for more about The Joy of Costco: A Treasure Hunt from A to Z

This surprising story from Williams (author of How to be a Dragon... Without Burning Your Tongue) blends science fiction, mystery, and fantasy, while centering on that most pressing of real-world concerns, climate change. Bereft of her mother and brother, and finding her relationship with her businessman father and her new small town strained, teenage Kaye comforts herself through photography and art and small acts of rebellion. One night finds a strange light pulsing from her laptop. That light eventually becomes a pixelated eye looking right at her. It's not a hacker—someone is there. Soon, she’s charged with an urgent mission worthy of any YA fantasy: a quest to save our world by taking back one single degree of global temperature rise.

That charge comes from Sol, a being communicating from the desolate future and kicks off the adventure of Kaye’s life. Her journey to change the future will take her into avenues she never dreamed of with new friends, enemies, advocates and opponents, a number of whom she finds she never really knew. Sol informs Kaye that the Earth will be in tatters without her intervention, and Williams cleverly makes it clear that the mission starts at home: Kaye’s father has always assured her that climate change isn't real, but that’s before she discovers the luxury bunker hidden on their estate to keep them all safe when the devastation comes. Other secrets will jolt her, too, including possible murder.

For sensitive readers, there are a number of subjects touched upon here which might be triggering, including the death of a parent, suicide, addiction and the global effects of climate change. Most are delivered with a lighter touch, nothing too heavy handed. Kaye is a believably flawed and relatable character, struggling with sadness and not feeling like she belongs, with the pull between being angry with her father but desiring his love and approval, and with her urge toward independence while still relying on—and feeling embarrassed by—his wealth. Readers will cheer her on and care for the friends she makes on the way as the book offers an inviting introduction to climate awareness and the power of activism, all touched with both realism and magic.

Takeaway: Surprising YA adventure pitting a teen and the future against climate change.

Comparable Titles: Lauren James’s Green Rising, Rachel Griffin’s The Nature of Witches.

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

Click here for more about The EarthStar Solution

The third of McVeigh’s celebrated “variations” on Jane Austen offers a delightful spin on Pride and Prejudice, telling the story largely through the eyes of the sometimes-maligned but always swoon-worthy Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy. The Bennet sisters—Eliza, Jane, Mary, Lydia and Kitty—may be fetching, but in the class-conscious 19th century of Great Britain, only dowries and high-born social status counts when it comes to making a match. While Darcy reluctantly falls for Eliza after meeting her at a ball, he asks for her hand but is shocked when she turns him down and gives him an unexpected tongue-lashing based on faulty information fed to her by Darcy’s father’s godson, George Wickham.

As McVeigh, writing with crisp style and wit, offers a new look at the familiar story, Eliza comes to realize that the true rogue is Wickham, not Darcy, a point driven home when Wickham attempts to elope with one of Eliza’s younger sisters and Darcy saves the day. Slowly, Eliza falls completely under Darcy’s spell—and even after Darcy’s haughty aunt attempts to dissuade her attentions, Eliza admirably stands firm in her own defense (and in so doing, demonstrates to Darcy that his hopes of a match are not dead.) Readers will relish Eliza’s 19th century version of girl power and root for her to claim the hero.

McVeigh, of course, is both scholar and student of Austen’s work, again penning dialogue that’s not just a faithful tribute to Austen’s delectable exchanges but a convincing, natural-feeling continuation of them. McVeigh also again reveals an admirable eye for detail, finding fresh and surprising angles while always staying true to the major tenets of the original story (and even sprinkling in a few engaging, appropriate characters not created by Austen). This sparkling tale will enchant Austen fans everywhere. For readers new to the Austen’s Regency world, McVeigh offers a comprehensive cast of characters as the story begins—and an introduction to a lifetime of reading pleasure.

Takeaway: Delightful retelling of one of Austen’s most beloved stories.

Comparable Titles: Jo Baker’s Longbourn, P.D. James’s Death Comes to Pemberley.

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

Click here for more about Darcy: A Pride and Prejudice Variation

Dordal (author of Mosaic in the Dark) dives into fruitful genre-bending territory with this collection of “something between letters and poems,” derived from a selection of letters written by her late mother in the last eighteen years of her life. Rather than transcribe the letters word for word, Dordal shapes excerpts into brief poems that offer an intimate, authentic glimpse into the later life of Milly Dordal and touchingly emphasize “that ‘small’ moments are not small at all; they are everything we have.”

Dordal distilled letters from her mother written between 1983 and 2001, and Milly’s pained references to the era’s historical disruptions, such as the beating of Rodney King and the first Persian Gulf War, have jolting, plainspoken power: “The Thomas hearings really upset me— / all those white male faces discounting Hill’s testimony. / I’m sorry he was confirmed. She’s the victim, not him.” These observations, preserved, connect past to present with startling clarity. They also remind readers of what has been lost when our records of our thoughts are stored on the servers of social media companies rather than in hand-written correspondence. What results is at times a double-edged grief, for the loss of Milly herself as well as for earlier, more permanent and personal methods of communication.

In the poem-letter “October 1992” Milly speaks to a truth that’s only gotten more so in the last thirty years: “there’s too much to take in.” Yet she strives to take it all in anyway, placing equal importance on inflection points in history, her daughter’s gym shoes, the heartening sight of an oriole “alight”ing on her back porch. In Dordal’s selections, the distinctions between trivial and profound dissolve, the results stirring refreshed appreciation for all moments in life, whether an adventure in cooking, an adventure across the world, or the kind of aching outrage any of us feel facing the news. All of it matters because all of it is part of our fragile, extraordinary existence.

Takeaway: Poignant epistolary collection sculpted from letters from the poet’s late mother.

Comparable Titles: Emma Reyes’s The Book of Emma Reyes, James Shuyler’s “A Stone Knife,” Evie Schuyler’s “From the Lost Letters of Frederick Douglass.”

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

Click here for more about Next Time You Come Home

This charming autobiography through food celebrates, with recipes and delicious anecdotes, a family’s eating traditions from 1950s to today but also into the past and overseas. Gale opens with touching memories of her mid-century childhood on Long Island and then Woodbury, New York, from the horrors of then-new commodities like canned baked beans (plus eating “Cheese Doodles, Devil Dogs, and our beloved cherry Kool-Aid” at a friend’s house) to the pleasures of lobster and the heartier, more flavorful fare prepared by her parents’ mothers, one from Prussia and the other from Austria. Her accounts will set taste buds tingling as she considers borscht, stuffed cabbage, chicken fricassee made from “ground beef, chicken wings, and pupiks,” and so much more. She notes, with her customary light touch: “Bubbe told my brother, Owen, and me that pupiks were the chickens’ belly buttons. We found the idea hilarious! But they are in fact, the gizzards.”

Don’t expect gizzards in Gale’s updated chicken fricassee, one of the many recipes here that both honors family tradition, Jewish culture, and contemporary tastes. The book abounds in flavor and feeling, as Gale pins down in vital, unfussy prose what these dishes have meant to her and her loved ones over the years, from “the amazing light and fluffy matzo balls in chicken soup from the Second Avenue Deli” from Manhattan’s storied 2nd Avenue Deli, to her mother’s homemade hamantaschen cookies that, one Purim, Gale shared with her college floor-mate, the daughter of Donald Rumsfeld, then the secretary of defense.

Other highlights include a “light, airy, and fluffy” cheesecake, Gale’s go-to Seder dessert; a hamish (read: homey) Rosh Hashanah apple cake that’s easy to make for a crowd; and global surprises like chicken and chorizo paella. While appetizing and written with welcome practical clarity, the recipes illustrate a memoir that’s engaging and edifying enough to stand alone, a portrait of a woman and a family who travel the world and take unexpected turns—like moving from Westchester County to farm country—while always finding connection and nourishment. Photos of family and illustrations of the dishes and key ingredients keep the spirits high.

Takeaway: Life, family, and Jewish tradition in appetizing recipes and touching memoir.

Comparable Titles: Jessica Fechtor’s Stir, Ruth Reichl’s Tender at the Bone.

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

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“When I close my eyes at home, I hear neighbors yelling, parents fussing, siblings whining, and doors slamming,” writes one of the many anonymous authors of BenchTalk, an inviting collection of celebrations and musings left by visitors to over 100 green and contemplative “Sacred Spaces” created in the last quarter decade by Nature Sacred. That writer continued, penning their words on a waterproof journal left for just this purpose at Baltimore’s Northeast Interfaith Peace Garden: “When I close my eyes at home, I feel hurt, fury, doubts, and mistrust … When I close my eyes here, I feel weariness wash away, peace within, serenity all around, and well-being at heart.”

Such moments of peace abound in BenchTalk, as a host of note-leavers relish being—briefly—away from the concerns of their lives. “Those trees, these turtles, they don’t care about politics,” one writes from Waterworks Park in Annapolis, Maryland. “They don’t worry about how they’re going to pay their bills … . And while we’re here, we get to feel that too, even if it’s just for a minute.” Other notes offer life advice (“Don’t rush—Listen instead of talking”), welcome encouragement (“You make joy and peace from the chaos. One can not exist without the other”), and bursts of playful mystery.

The feeling throughout this secular devotional is of a yearning for escape and connection—even during these brief respites, as they attest to the nourishing power of nature, the authors often seem a touch melancholic, all too aware that the moment is passing even as they commemorate it. That tendency serves as a welcome reminder of the urgency of Nature Sacred’s mission and that such moments shouldn’t be so rare in our lives. Introductory material introduces the mission of Nature Sacred, and the notes are accompanied by joyous unsigned sketches of bees, butterflies, sailboats, and more. A few notes are fully reproduced, in the authors’ original handwriting.

Takeaway: Rousing notes from everyday people’s encounters with a refuge in nature.

Comparable Titles: Hannah Anderson’s Turning of Days, Davy Rothbart’s Found.

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

Click here for more about BenchTalk

Rivers’s ambitious sci-fi thriller debut offers a singular mashup of the historical and the speculative, boldly juggling an expansive cast across two timelines, as the story jumps from 2050s Texas to 1500s Mesoamerica. It all kicks off with struggling Dallas hoverbike maker Max Winston finding himself in serious trouble when he chooses to cancel business with an outlaw motorcycle gang after a brutal murder. He travels down to a recently-bequeathed family ranch with his best friend, Kevin Davidson, hoping to lay low until things die down. But, when the two uncover Aztec gold buried on the grounds, the bikers become the least of Max’s worries—especially when highly trained operatives arrive on the scene, kicking off events that will touch on a shadowy government organization, the world’s smartest computer, and a shocking discovery from beyond our Earth.

Rivers’s technology background shines when detailing the various high-tech advancements and gadgetry of near-future America, including mind control and artificial intelligence, as does his love of history and folklore when engaging with the Aztec subplot. His passions are on clear display as he crashes together high-tech military action, historical fiction, and an explosive thriller committed to the practicalities of making off with “a moving van of gold.” The novel’s long, but it’s got life, pulsing with strong scenes, memorable characters (Minty Jackson, a “private dick” with a way with AR-17s, is a standout), and entirely unpredictable twists.

Inevitably, of course, such a surfeit of ideas at times comes at the expense of narrative momentum and clarity. Chapters set centuries ago may try the patience of some readers, though Rivers shrewdly connects them to the novel’s tense and fascinating present, and each element of the story boasts its own intrigues that ultimately tie into the others. Fans of futuristic high-tech stakes with a historical backbone and bold storytelling leaps will surely be enticed by Rivers’s mysteries, surprises, biker-gang showdowns, and often evocative prose: “The fat moon was like raw meat to the pack of wolves, and they were hungry for the kill.”

Takeaway: Near-future thriller of ancient gold, new tech, and swaggering ambition.

Comparable Titles: Cesar Torres’s 13 Secret Cities, Thomas Harlan’s In the Time of the Sixth Sun series.

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

Click here for more about Blood Fortune

Seamlessly blending horror, speculative fiction, and urgent domestic drama, Downpour offers a fast-paced thriller fueled by themes of family discourse, childhood traumas, and a gripping and original environmental danger worthy of The Birds—a day of relentless rain that seems to transform people into monsters. Hawkins (Suburban Monsters) sets the story in a dilapidated old farmhouse, where Scott, his wife, Dana, and their two children—a teenage son, Jacob, and younger daughter Tallie—live a seemingly quiet life in the rural town of Scott's childhood. With tension in his marriage, dark feelings from his upbringing he still struggles with, and his neighbor, Ned, putting pressure on him to sell his inherited land, Scott is already stressed when he notices an unusual storm cloud looming overhead. Once the rain starts and upsetting videos surface of strange occurrences, Scott realizes that he was right to worry—and that it’s up to him to keep his family safe.

Hawkins uses the tension of the central family and the unknown effects of the rain to build an intense tension that escalates throughout the story. With relatable and fully developed characters, and a commitment to moment-by-moment detail, readers of survival horror will quickly become invested in Scott, his family, and the impending storm and whatever it portends, especially as the rain seeps into their home, exposing not only the cracks in the farmhouse, but in their family dynamics.

Scott will stop at nothing to protect his family, but Hawkins demonstrates throughout that this demands hard choices that keep the stakes rising, especially when Scott makes the startling realization that they may be safer venturing into the storm. Hawkins’s transformation of a common natural phenomenon into a force of terror adds to the psychological suspense, creating a com[pelling mystery and sense of humanity’s helplessness. This is a propulsive horror story, suspenseful throughout, and readers who enjoy genre-blending thrillers will tear through the pages.

Takeaway: Tense, smart horror that pits one man and his family against the rain.

Comparable Titles: Josh Malerman’s Bird Box, Darcy Coates’s Dead of Winter.

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

Click here for more about Downpour

In this thriller debut, Zona conjures a twisting—and twisted—tale of a town shaken by tragedy, and the three men drawn together in its wake. While reading for a charity event at Baxtor’s Books, Joseph Bailey, the rising author of Rabbit’s Revenge, encounters lonely whiskey bar manager Arturo de Leon, sparking a breathlessly paced romance. But, as the two men explore their present, former prisoner Noah Crane seeks answers about the past, namely, how Joseph’s book mirrors his murder of an old man, forcing them, and the town, to confront the traumatic events simmering below their cultivated surfaces.

The Recordings is a bold endeavor, boasting a complex cast with alternating perspectives and a tough-minded approach to topics like childhood trauma and suicide, all wrapped in a compelling narrative that blends romance, mystery, and even tech thriller—Zona makes clever use of H.D., the digital assistant whose apparent mis-hearing of a drunk command yields a jolting piece of evidence that both upsets and inspires Joseph and leads to unforeseen consequences. That thread opens the novel up to explore rich thematic material, such as questions over who has the right to retell stories of crimes. Zona’s emotive, often shorthanded storytelling brings exciting life to scenes and moments of connection or danger, though it feels most assured in the novel’s first half, before the thriller elements push the characters into an escalating chain of complex scenarios, some that strain credulity or feature over-the-top violence.

The character work and prose are both strong, and Zona is committed to capturing not just suspense but a rich sense of this cast’s lives without slowing down the narrative momentum. Zona brings welcome authenticity and forward-thinking views to his largely LGBTQ+ cast that refreshes, though a few stereotypes-played-as-jokes may divide some readers. A passionate heart drives The Recordings, and readers of thriller fiction powered by convincing, complicated people will find Zona an author to watch.

Takeaway: Twisting, surprising, emotional thriller debut, with touches of tense romance.

Comparable Titles: Christopher Murphy’s The Other Side of the Mirror, Tal Bauer’s The Grave Between Us, Eva Robinson’s Influenced.

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

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This marvelous collection from Levy (Seven Days in Rio) presents thirty-odd comic, unsettling miniatures revealing lives and minds of people not quite equipped to deal with this world. Imagine the academics toiling in the department of the title story: brainy, nervy, neurotic, often paralyzed. When the academics in the Kafka Studies Department get a letter announcing that funding has been cut, their response is utterly passive: “no solution was proposed,” Levy writes. Pages later, the residents of a neighborhood gape at the nightly runs of a man who seems to be sprinting himself to death. Their response reads like a diagnosis of what it’s like to be alive today: “None of those who thought something should be done knew exactly what to do.”

And so it goes in these short, sharp, irresistible fictions, penned with brisk precision and often centered on characters who hold firm to points of self-invented principle no matter what it costs them—and no matter that impossibility of articulating what said principles even are. The literary novelist of “Happily Ever After” achieves surprise popular success and then is stymied by fear of what publishing again might reveal about his self-conception and his own ambitions. Two intensely close friends sunder their decades-long relationship and then encounter each other on independently booked vacations—and each, out of pride, barely acknowledges the person who has given her life meaning.

The collection’s back half focuses on a man named Spector, sometimes a businessman and sometimes employed at the Kafka Studies Department. In a series of sharp-elbowed but quietly empathetic stories—all blackout length, like the rest of the collection—Spector is revealed as a miserable horndog who will cheer his father’s failing marriage, will propose to a woman whose company he deplores simply because he adores her breasts, and will spend his last minutes on this Earth trying to prove some point to his wife that she neither understands nor cares about. The stories are hilarious, cutting, endlessly surprising, and utterly human.

Takeaway: Sharp, incisive miniature fictions that pin down contemporary anxieties.

Comparable Titles: Donald Barthelme, Ken Kalfus.

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

Click here for more about The Kafka Studies Department