I can’t believe 2024 is already drawing to an end! This has been another great reading year for me. While not quite the high of 2023—which I called one of the best reading years of my adult life—I’m quite happy with both the quality and quantity of books I read this year.
Happy 2024! First things first: as I mentioned at the end of last week’s post, I will be moving to an every-other-week posting schedule this year. But though I’ll be posting less often, I am still just as excited as always about all of the new books coming out this year! Here are just a few of the new releases I am most looking forward to:
1) The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years by Shubnum Khan (set to be released January 9)
This Gothic horror novel is set off the coast of South Africa in a ruined mansion haunted by a djinn. When a young girl named Sana moves in with her father, she uncovers the estate’s long-buried secrets and a tragic tale of lost love. I always love to see classic Gothic tropes in new, unfamiliar settings. Continue reading Books I’m Excited for in 2024
What a great year for reading it’s been! This is the first year in at least a decade that I haven’t participated in the official Goodreads Reading Challenge, since I stopped using Goodreads to track my reading. I did, however, still set reading goals for myself and keep track of each book I read, and I found 2023 to be one of the best reading years of my adult life.
Happy New Year! One of my favorite parts of this celebratory season is researching all of the exciting new books that will be coming out in the new year. This year, I found so many intriguing titles that I had trouble narrowing them down. Here are just a few of the books coming out in 2023 that are immediately going on my to-read list:
1) Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo (set to be released January 10)
At last, we are getting a sequel to Ninth House, Leigh Bardugo’s dark academia novel about the occult societies of Yale! At the end of the first book, Alex learned that her mentor Darlington had disappeared through a portal into Purgatory and is still trapped on the other side. In this book, she embarks on an impossible rescue mission. Even the esteemed Lethe organization isn’t willing to risk their resources to save one of their own. But if anyone can get to hell and back with only her wits, some arcane texts, and a ragtag band of allies, it’s Alex Stern. And sure, why not throw in a series of unexplained murders for her to solve, as well?
2) Don’t Fear the Reaper by Stephen Graham Jones (set to be released February 7)
Here’s another sequel, this time to Stephen Graham Jones’s My Heart Is a Chainsaw, which I read last year. Book one introduced us to young Jade Daniels, a high schooler in the rural Idaho town of Proofrock who views the world through the lens of her favorite slasher movies. The first book left the reader wondering just how unreliable of a narrator Jade might be, right up until the bodies start dropping during a big party on Indian Lake. Unfortunately, Jade was left on the hook for these murders, and this second book picks up after she’s spent a few years in jail. Jade’s return to Proofrock happens to coincide with the escape of a local serial killer set on seeking vengeance.
3) The Foxglove King by Hannah F. Whitten (set to be released March 7)
I haven’t read any of Hannah F. Whitten’s other books yet, but the description of this first book in a new YA fantasy series caught my eye. In it, a young woman with illicit death magic is thrust into court politics when the king needs her to solve a series of mass deaths.
4) Lone Women by Victor LaValle (set to be released March 21)
I heard Victor LaValle read a few pages from his manuscript of this book at the Fantastic Fiction at KGB Bar reading series in NYC last year and am excited for this book to come out so that I can finally read the rest! LaValle blends horror with western in this tale of a woman trying to outrun her secrets as she journeys from California to become a homesteader in Montana in the early twentieth century.
5) A House with Good Bones by T. Kingfisher (set to be released March 28)
I read my first T. Kingfisher book last year—What Moves the Dead—and absolutely fell in love. Now the author is back with her own spin on the haunted house genre, A House with Good Bones. In this Southern Gothic, a woman arrives at her mother’s house for an extended visit, only to discover that neither the house nor her mother are quite how she remembers them. The house has been painted a sterile white and is littered with unsettling objects like jars of teeth and creepy paintings. Meanwhile, her mother is nervous and jumpy but won’t explain why. Sounds like this family has some buried secrets that are ripe for discovering.
6) Witch King by Martha Wells (set to be released May 30)
Earlier in the pandemic, I absolutely devoured Martha Wells’s Murderbot books. But though I’ve only known her for her science fiction, I’m excited to check out her first fantasy novel in over a decade. And how could I resist the premise of a powerful, long-dead demon who is accidentally resurrected by a foolish lesser mage?
7) The Reformatory by Tananarive Due (set to be released June 27)
To my great shame, I have not yet read any of Tananarive Due’s works, despite how many times she’s been recommended to me. But this book looks like it would be a great place to start! The Reformatory explores the horrors of racism and injustice in a segregated reform school in Jim Crow Florida.
8) Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (set to be released July 18)
Since first picking up Mexican Gothic in 2020, I have yet to be disappointed by a Silvia Moreno-Garcia novel. Her newest book is a dark thriller that combines the horror cinema scene of 1990s Mexico City with Nazi occultism. When overlooked sound editor Montserrat and fading opera star Tristán are roped into helping a washed-up director finish a film allegedly shot using magic-imbued silver nitrate stock, they discover that sorcerers and magic are not just the stuff of movies….
9) Alecto the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir (set to be released October 10)
Perhaps one of the most anticipated books coming out next year is the conclusion to Tamsyn Muir’s Locked Tomb series. Gideon the Ninth, Harrow the Ninth, and Nona the Ninth have all been among my favorite books of the last three years, so I can’t wait to see what Alecto the Ninth has in store. Little information has been released yet about the finale to this epic science fantasy series, if the pattern of the previous books and the final chapter of Nona are anything to go by, this book will likely be told from the perspective of Alecto, the first entity to be resurrected by the Emperor Undying at the end of the world. And it seems like she has some scores to settle.
10) The Pomegranate Gate by Ariel Kaplan (set to be released Fall of 2023)
I’m so excited to see more and more Jewish-inspired fantasy coming out these days. This first foray into adult fantasy by heretofore YA author Ariel Kaplan draws on Jewish folklore and the history of the Spanish Inquisition. Set in a fantasy world with parallels to fifteenth-century Spain, the story centers on Toba and Naftaly, who each have strange abilities and secrets. Toba can write faster than she can speak, in multiple languages, with both hands at the same time, while Naftaly has unusual dreams of square-pupiled strangers in a magical world. While struggling for their survival, both uncover hidden truths about their own identities, their histories, and the connections between the human and magical realms.
What books are on your reading list for 2023? Are you planning on reading any of those listed above? Did I miss any upcoming releases you think should be on my list? Let me know in the comments!
This year has been a year full of major life changes, including all sorts of changes to my reading habits. One major change is that I’m starting to move away from Goodreads, and am reevaluating how I track and document the books that I read. So this may very well be my last time doing the Goodreads Reading Challenge, specifically, though I will still be tracking my books and setting numerical goals. I’m still experimenting with finding the best alternatives, but one that I’ve started using is StoryGraph. I’m not sure how much I’ll be posting on there, but you can follow along with me at TheGothicLibrary.
Now that 2021 is behind us, it’s time to look ahead to the new year. There’s no telling what 2022 will bring us, and I’ve been struggling with feeling optimistic as we head into another year of the pandemic, but at least one good thing is certain: there will always be new books! In fact, there are so many exciting new releases coming, that I was able to compile this year’s list of books to read in record time. Here are just a few of the books I’m looking forward to: Continue reading Books I’m Excited for in 2022
This year has been an amazing reading year for me—though it’s been a real rollercoaster of a year in almost every other way. These days, I’m reading at a pace that I haven’t matched since high school, often finishing more than one book a week. This is the first time in many years that I’ve easily blown past my numerical reading goal. However, I wasn’t quite as successful with my content-based goals. Let me walk you through my year in books:
There are many things I’m looking forward to about 2021—mainly that the seemingly cursed year of 2020 is finally over! While I know that things won’t magically get better just because we’ve turned over a new calendar year, there’s just something refreshing about the feeling of a new start. And part of that new start means planning out a TBR list of new releases for this year! Here are some of the books I’m most excited for: Continue reading Books I’m Excited for in 2021
Well, it has certainly been a strange year! But if nothing else, 2020 has been a fairly good year of reading for me. As always, I participated in the annual Goodreads Reading Challenge, and this was the first time in many years that I easily met my numerical goal well in advance. The pandemic has changed my reading habits significantly, and many of my goals and priorities shifted from what I thought they would be at the beginning of the year. Let’s take a look back at my year in books!
It’s a new year and you know what that means—new books! With 2019 over, it’s time to start planning out my fresh reads for 2020. There are so many great books releasing this year that I had a hard time narrowing it down to a simple list. But here are a few of the books that I’m most excited about adding to my TBR pile: Continue reading Books I’m Excited for in 2020
