Five titles that dive into the drug-fueled darkness of the club scene

Ivy Pochoda is the author of the critically acclaimed novels Wonder Valley, Visitation Street, These Women, and Sing Her Down which won the LA Times Book Prize. Her new novel is Ecstasy.

[The Page 69 Test: The Art of Disappearing; The Page 69 Test: Wonder Valley; The Page 69 Test: These Women]

Pochoda won the 2018 Strand Critics Award for Best Novel and the Prix Page America in France, and has been a finalist for the the Edgar Award, among other awards. For many years, she has led a creative writing workshop in Skid Row, Los Angeles where she helped found Skid Row Zine. She is currently a professor of creative writing at the University of California Riverside-Palm Desert low-residency MFA program. She lives in Los Angeles.

At CrimeReads Pochoda tagged "five books that mix nightlife with noir, where the dance floor becomes a crime scene and the come-up always ends in a comedown." One title on the list:

Ecstasy: Three Tales of Chemical Romance by Irvine Welsh (1996)
Rave culture, revenge, and pharmaceutical love stories

Welsh’s triptych of stories isn’t just about popping pills in neon-drenched clubs—it’s about what happens to your soul when the high fades. In classic Welsh fashion, the stories are raw, aggressive, and shot through with political venom. From a twisted revenge plot to a love story between damaged outsiders, Ecstasy captures the late-90s dance scene as both a cultural revolution and a minefield. The writing is visceral, the dialogue cracked with street poetry, and the characters burn bright before inevitably burning out.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eight titles about the quiet power of libraries & museums

Marian Womack is a bilingual Hispano-British writer of Weird fiction, speculative and hybrid fiction, and fiction of the Anthropocene. Her novels include The Swimmers (one of the best ten SF books of 2021, The Sunday Times) and in the Walton & Waltraud uncanny mystery series The Golden Key (2020) and On the Nature of Magic (2023). Her short fiction has been collected in Lost Objects and Out of the Window, Into the Dark, nominated to two British Fantasy Awards and one British Science Fiction Association Award, and selected for Year’s Bests. She lives in Cambridge (UK).

At Electric Lit Womack tagged eight books about the quiet power of libraries and museums, including:

To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis

One of the reasons jokes work is said to be that they offer us sidelong ways into things that, if contemplated seriously, would drive us mad…or to tears. I put Connie Willis’s To Say Nothing of the Dog very firmly into this category—it’s one of the funniest novels one could ever read, yet the air of melancholy, of climate grief, that stands behind its best scenes gets me every time. We begin in the ashes of Coventry Cathedral, destroyed in a bombing raid in November 1940, with a group of time-travellers sent back to find various McGuffins that their patron, the impossible Lady Schrapnell, needs to fulfil her unnecessary plan to rebuild the cathedral as it was before the Blitz. But what sets the novel’s plot in motion is a sharp dig at the perpetual state of academia—the projects that can only get underway because of external support (for Schrapnell read Sackler), and the way in which use-value is prioritized above everything else when money is concerned. The main body of the novel, a reworking of Jerome K. Jerome’s perfect comedy, Three Men in a Boat, takes place with this disastrous future always lapping at its edges: a bittersweet reading experience.

Read about the other entries on the list at Electric Lit.

To Say Nothing of the Dog is among Sarah Gailey's ten sci-fi & fantasy books that will remind you what joy feels like.

--Marshal Zeringue

Top ten fantasy novels

Kate Elliott has been publishing science fiction and fantasy for over thirty years with a particular focus in immersive world building and epic stories of adventure & transformative cultural change. She’s written fantasy, science fiction, space opera based on the life of Alexander the Great (Unconquerable Sun), Young Adult fantasy, the seven volume (complete!) Crown of Stars epic fantasy series set in a landscape reminiscent of early medieval Europe, and the Afro-Celtic post-Roman alternate-history fantasy with lawyer dinosaurs, Cold Magic, as well as two novellas set in the Magic: The Gathering multiverse. Her work has been nominated for the Nebula, World Fantasy, Norton, and Locus Awards.

Elliott's new novel is The Witch Roads.

At The Strand Magazine she tagged her top ten fantasy novels, including:

The Green Bone Saga by Fonda Lee

What if a crime family in an East Asian inspired fantasy island city had access to magical martial arts powers and were engaged in a long-standing turf war with a rival crime syndicate? Lee’s Jade City and its two sequels ask and answer this question. Lee brilliantly sets her story in an equivalent of the second half of our 20th century (although it is not our world). This allows her to follow the characters across decades of societal, cultural, diaspora, political, and technological change both in terms of their personal lives and in terms of how subsequent generations adapt to and make decisions about the family business they’ve been born into. Great stuff.

Read about the other entries on Elliott's list.

Jade City is among Roseanne A. Brown's five SFF books where magic has a steep cost, Chloe Gong's five top SFF books about warring families, Mike Chen's five recent titles featuring superpowered characters, David R. Slayton's ten favorite urban fantasies that break new ground, Emily Temple's top six epic fantasy series for fans of Game of Thrones and R.F. Kuang's five top East Asian SFF novels by East Asian authors.

The Page 69 Test: Jade City.

--Marshal Zeringue

Six books exploring romantic obsession

Olivia Worley is an author born and raised in New Orleans. A graduate of Northwestern University, she now lives in New York City, where she spends her time writing thrillers, over-analyzing episodes of The Bachelor, and hoping someone will romanticize her for reading on the subway. She is the author of the young adult novels People to Follow and The Debutantes. Her newly released adult debut is So Happy Together.

At CrimeReads Worley tagged six "books about romantic obsession that either inspired So Happy Together or that I’d be honored to see it shelved beside. ... [T]hese books all have one thing in common: they’re sure to get your heart pounding." One title on the list:

You by Caroline Kepnes

One of my all-time favorite series, You is like the mother of modern-day stalker stories. The first book, like the first season of the Netflix show it inspired, follows the infamously relatable Joe Goldberg as he falls in love with aspiring writer Guinevere Beck…and will stop at nothing, including murder, to keep her by his side.

Read about the other entries on the list.

You is among Sara Flannery Murphy's top ten stories of obsession and Peter Swanson's ten top books about voyeurs.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eight epic BIPOC crime novels

Elisa Shoenberger is a freelance writer and journalist. At Book Riot she tagged eight of "the best BIPOC crime novels you can read right now." One title on the list:

House of Bone and Rain by Gabino Iglesias

This book really takes the idea that violence begets violence to heart. Taking place in Puerto Rico, five teenage boys have been friends since childhood and have literally weathered the constant threat of death. But this time, death has come too close: the mother of one of five friends, Maria, has been gunned down, just as a hurricane is about to hit the island. Bimbo, the dead woman’s son, demands revenge, and his four friends are all going to help him. But the murderer may be connected to a powerful cartel on the island. Can Bimbo finish his quest, or will he and his friends die trying? Or will the hurricane sweep them away first?

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Six high school novels for adult readers

Miriam Gershow is the author of Closer, Survival Tips: Stories and The Local News. Her writing is featured in The Georgia Review, Gulf Coast, and Black Warrior Review, among other journals. She is the recipient of a Fiction Fellowship from the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing, an Oregon Literary Fellowship, and is a two-time finalist for the Oregon Book Award. She is the organizer of “100 Notable Small Press Books,” a curated list of the year’s recommended books from independent publishers.

[The Page 69 Test: The Local News]

At Lit Hub Gershow tagged "a half dozen books worth the trip back into the classrooms and corridors of high school." One title on the list:

Sara Nović, True Biz

I came to True Biz because it has everything I love in a high school novel: a cloistered school environment, in this case the residential River Valley School for the Deaf; aching students straining to grow up, with fitful rebellions and first loves; and a nearby adult, the personally and professionally beleaguered headmistress, whose story is braided through the students’ and the school’s. I stayed for the intimately drawn world of Deaf culture. Nović takes us inside the unique strains and joys of deaf characters, one coming to ASL for the first time as a teen, another contending with a hearing sibling. The plot is a page-turner, to be sure. But one of the unexpected beauties of this novel is how Nović renders oral speaking, signing, and sign language itself, including chapter headings. Nović makes a home for Deafness on the page that is as powerful as the story itself.

Read about the other books on the list at Lit Hub.

True Biz is among Olivia Wolfgang-Smith's ten novels about the drama of working for the family business and Alexandra Robbins's seven books with positive portrayals of educators.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven books about marital murder

Peter Swanson's novels include The Kind Worth Killing, winner of the New England Society Book Award, and finalist for the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger; Her Every Fear, an NPR book of the year; Before She Knew Him, and Eight Perfect Murders.

[My Book, The Movie: The Kind Worth Killing; The Page 69 Test: The Kind Worth Killing; Writers Read: Peter Swanson (February 2015)]

His new novel is Kill Your Darlings.

At CrimeReads Swanson tagged "seven books and one play on the theme of marital homicide," including:

A Suspension of Mercy (1965) by Patricia Highsmith

Speaking of Highsmith, there’s no shortage of ugly marriages in her body of work, some of which culminate in murder. In this rather odd and clever story, the main protagonist Sydney Bartleby is an aspiring crime writer, who acts out scenes from his books and screenplays, including one in which he pretends to carry his wife’s body out of his English country cottage in a rolled carpet. When his wife actually does go missing, he naturally becomes the prime suspect.

Read about the other books on the list at CrimeReads.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five of the best modern vampire novels

V. E. Schwab was born in California, raised in Tennessee, and currently splits her time between Denver, Colorado and Edinburgh, Scotland. She got her undergraduate degree in book design at Washington University in St. Louis, and her masters in depictions of monstrosity in medieval art at the University of Edinburgh.

Schwab's new novel is Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil.

At the Waterstones blog the author tagged "five modern vampire novels with real bite." One title on the list:

Woman, Eating by Claire Kohda

Genre collides with the literary landscape in Kohda’s Woman, Eating, a cerebral and surreal work following Lydia, a young, struggling artist and gallery intern who longs to consume the food from her youth, while only being able to digest blood. What follows is at once eccentric and compelling, an examination of race, misogyny, body image and one not-entirely-human woman’s relationship with her own hunger—what she craves, compared with what she needs.

Read about the other novels on the list.

Woman, Eating is among Brittany K. Allen's ten books for fans of Sinners and Isabelle McConville's eleven greatest recent bloodsucking books.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five titles featuring disastrous party scenes

Jonathan Parks-Ramage is a Los Angeles based novelist, playwright, screenwriter and journalist. His critically acclaimed debut novel Yes, Daddy was named one of the best queer books of 2021 by Entertainment Weekly, NBC News, The Advocate, Lambda Literary, Bustle, Goodreads and more. Yes, Daddy was also optioned for television by Amazon Studios.

Parks-Ramage's new novel is It's Not the End of the World.

At Lit Hub the author tagged five "novels which feature some of the worst (but most entertaining) parties-gone-wrong." One title on the list:

Raven Leilani, Luster

There are few things sadder than a sparsely attended birthday party. And when that birthday party happens to be for a child, it is particularly heartbreaking. Raven Leilani’s brilliant debut novel Luster features one such scene—a roller rink celebration with a mere two guests and a disco ball disaster which I will not spoil here, other than to say it perfectly encapsulates the feeling of a very bad birthday.

Adding to the particularly impactful nature of this scene, is the fact that it perfectly encapsulates the complicated dynamic between the four main characters of the book. Luster follows the thorny misadventures of Edie, a disaffected publishing employee who enters a somewhat kinky affair with Eric, a digital archivist living in New Jersey.

Surprisingly, Eric’s wife doesn’t banish Edie from their home upon finding out about her husband’s dalliances. In fact, she invites Edie deeper into their family’s life. Soon, Edie becomes a significant role model to Akila, Eric’s adopted daughter, and it becomes clear that Edie may be the only Black person in Akila’s life, adding an intense complication to an already complex dynamic.

Luster brims with dark humor, poignant human insight, and sentences that shine with stylistic verve.

Read about the other books on the list at Lit Hub.

Luster is among Emily Everett's five top novels about coming of age later in life, C. Michelle Lindley’s five best novels about art, Alana B. Lytle's eight top novels about destructive women, and Forsyth Harmon's five top obsessive female relationships in literature.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five great robot sci-fi books

At Book Riot Liberty Hardy tagged five great sci-fi books about robots, AI, and cyborgs, including:

Annie Bot by Sierra Greer

Annie Bot is a companion robot, designed to be the perfect girlfriend for her owner, Doug. Annie’s days are filled with chores, like cleaning and cooking, and she also fulfills Doug’s physical requests. But as Annie goes about her responsibilities, she is learning, too, becoming more sentient and responsive to Doug’s reactions to her. As their relationship moves forward, it turns more human, with complications and misunderstandings. Will Annie always stay with Doug, or will her growing free thought lead her away?

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five novels about the end of democracy

Otho Eskin burst onto the thriller scene in 2020 with The Reflecting Pool, to great reviews and much book club interest. The novel introduces readers to Marko Zorn, a Washington, DC homicide detective with a strong moral compass who isn’t afraid to bend the rules to get results. The second thriller, Head Shot, was released in 2021 and the third book, Firetrap, was released in 2024. The Reflecting Pool, Head Shot, and Firetrap were all named Amazon Editors Picks for Best Mystery, Thriller or Suspense. The fourth book in the Marko Zorn series, Black Sun Rising, is now available, and has received enthusiastic advance praise: “Another Otho Eskin thriller that delivers double the trouble, twice the action, and quadruple the enjoyment.” —Steve Berry, New York Times and #1 internationally bestselling author.

At CrimeReads Eskin tagged five "novels that depict the end (or near-end) of democracy." One title on the list:

Stacey Abrams’ While Justice Sleeps (2021)

Abrams does not only fight authoritarianism in her work as a community organizer and voting rights activist, she takes the cause of democracy to the page. Her latest legal thriller, While Justice Sleeps, follows Avery Keene, an up-and-coming law clerk for Supreme Court Justice Howard Wynn. When the enigmatic justice falls into a coma, leaving Keene as his legal guardian and power of attorney, she must continue his investigation of a biotech firm and genetics company whose merger will empower the government to use a biological weapon against specific ethnic groups. This book is a vivid reminder of the longstanding alliance between medico-scientific research and fascist government—something that I explore in Black Sun Rising.

Read about the other novels on the list at CrimeReads.

While Justice Sleeps is among Brittany Bunzey's eight best legal thrillers.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven books to scratch that "Pride and Prejudice" itch

Brittany K. Allen is a writer and actor living in Brooklyn.

At Lit Hub she tagged seven novels "if you’re craving an Austen-y fix." One title on the list:

Mariam Rahmani, Liquid: A Love Story

With its emphasis on the ruthless economic factors that affect one’s choice of mate, this debut novel scales the rom-com to late capitalist proportions. Here’s a truth universally experienced: a young scholar sets out to marry the richest man she can find. But sensibility gets in the way of good sense.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue