It’s a new year, and you know what that means? New books! 2016 has just begun, and I’m already getting hyped about all of the amazing books coming out this year. Here are just of a few of the great-looking gothic reads coming out in 2016:
- The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater (Set to be released April 26, 2016)
I’ve been talking about this series a lot lately, especially since the first book was my favorite book I read last year. Well, I hopped on the Raven Cycle bandwagon just in time, because the fourth and final book in this series is finally coming out in April! I’m excited to see if Blue and the raven boys succeed in finding their Celtic king and to find out how exactly my favorite corvid creatures fit into this mythos.
- Strangely Beautiful by Leanna Renee Hieber (Set to be released April 16, 2016)
One of my favorite authors is revamping and re-releasing her debut series! Originally released as The Strangely BeautifulTale of Miss Percy Parker and The Darkly Luminous Fight for Persephone, these two books are being combined, edited, and added to in order to create Strangely Beautiful, coming out in April. I’ve been a huge fan of Hieber’s gorgeous Gaslamp fiction since I first read Darker Still last year, but I’ve been holding off on reading her earlier books until they come out in their new and improved form.
- Eterna & Omega (Eterna Files #2) by Leanna Renee Hieber (Set to be released August 9, 2016)
Leanna Renee Hieber sure has a lot going on this year, which is very exciting for fans of Gaslamp fantasy! Book 2 of her latest series is coming out just four months after the re-release of her debut series. The first book of the Eterna Files (which is about to come out in paperback this February) has been sitting at the top of my to-read list for the greater part of 2015, but kept getting passed over for shorter books as I raced to finished a reading challenge before the new year. Now that 2016 has begun, I’m ready to dive into this intercontinental story of paranormal intrigue, and I know that as soon as I finish it, I’m going to be dying for the sequel.
- Doreen by Ilana Monaster (Set to be released May 10, 2016)
This debut novel by a brand new author is a modernized, gender-swapped YA retelling of The Picture of Dorian Gray, and everything about that sentence makes me excited. Plus, it comes out on my birthday! You know, in case any of you were wondering what to get me…
- Lady Midnight (The Dark Artifices #1) by Cassandra Clare (Set to be released March 8, 2016)
Cassandra Clare is starting up yet another new series in the world of the Shadowhunters, this one taking place five years after The Mortal Instruments. I haven’t been following all of the Shadowhunter books, but I’m excited to get back into the world of Nephilim and Downworlders.
- Wink, Poppy, Midnight by April Genevieve Tucholke (Set to be released March 22, 2016)
I’ve never read anything by this author before, but when one Goodreads reviewer described this book as “Rocky Mountain Gothic,” I was instantly intrigued. Wink, Poppy, Midnight is a YA mystery which combines contemporary high school drama with classic gothic techniques, like unreliable narrators. Definitely looks like it’d be worth checking out.
- Lucifer (Vol. 1) written by Holly Black, illustrated by Lee Garbett (Set to be released July 5, 2016)
Okay, so technically the first issue of this new comic book series published by Vertigo already came out in December, but more issues will be released throughout 2016, and a volume containing the first six issues is set to come out in July. In this new series, one of my favorite authors takes up the tale of a character who first made his appearance in Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman. This “buddy-cop noir,” as Goodreads describes it, stars Lucifer and his fellow angel Gabriel as they try to solve the mystery of who is responsible for the death of God.
- New Directions in Gothic Children’s Literature ed. by Karen Coats and Anna Jackson (Set to be released August 31, 2016)
This one’s not fiction, but it looks super interesting! It’s a collection of essays by prominent literary critics about the intersection of gothic genres in children’s and young adult books and the “contemporary manifestations of the gothic impulse” (source). Basically, sounds like great material for future blog posts. Reading a textbook on gothic kid lit might not be your idea of fun, but both my inner goth and my inner English major are squealing for joy!
- Truthwitch by Susan Dennard (Set to be released January 5, 2016)
I’m not sure how dark this is going to be, but witches are goth-y, right? Anyway, I might be going to the book launch event for this at Books of Wonder, so I’m excited! (Come find me!) Susan Dennard, who I’ve never read before but heard good things about, is launching a brand new epic fantasy series with this first book in January. The story stars two kick-ass witch girls who refuse to let anyone use them as pawns in the constant struggles for power across the Witchlands.
- Sanctuary Bay by Laura J. Burns and Melinda Metz (Set to be released January 19, 2016)
This author duo put out a pretty decent vampire romance book (Crave) that I enjoyed reading quite a few years ago, so I was excited to see that they are working together again. Sanctuary Bay is a YA mystery/thriller about a young girl who thinks she’s finally found a place to belong at her new prestigious prep school, Sanctuary Bay. But things take a dark turn when her roommate goes missing, and it seems Sanctuary Bay may not be the safe place she’d been hoping for. One of my goals for 2016 is to diversify the genres I read, so I definitely want to start getting back into mysteries and thrillers.
That’s all I’ve got so far. What books are you looking forward to that are coming out in 2016? Are there any great gothic finds missing from my list? Let me know in the comments!