Eight literary horror novels

At Book Riot Addison Rizer tagged eight literary horror novels, including:

I’m Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid

For the first time, Jake has a girlfriend to take home to meet his parents. He’s ecstatic, and the couple sets off on a road trip to the rural farm where he grew up. But his girlfriend is thinking of ending things, and Jake can sense it. Through philosophical discussions, an impending snowstorm, and odd parental dynamics, tensions rise as the couple heads back home, detours halting their progress.

Read about the other entries on the list.

I’m Thinking of Ending Things is among Claudia Guthrie's ten wintery horror novels.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eight books that embrace the expansiveness of queer families

Josefin Dolsten-Kuhel is a New York-based writer and communications strategist. She provides strategic counsel to organizations that work to advance public health, education access, LGBTQ+ equality, reproductive rights and more. Her writing has been published in Daily Beast, GO Magazine, Refinery29, JTA and elsewhere.

At Electric Lit she tagged eight books that "share a nuanced, authentic representation of queer families." One title on the list:

Exalted by Anna Dorn

This is an edgy, captivating, astrology-themed book that follows two women who are trying, but not necessarily succeeding, to get their lives together. Emily is a millennial who makes a living running a famous Instagram astrology account and struggles with a dysfunctional relationship with a guy she refuses to call her boyfriend. 40-something Dawn is searching for meaning while navigating a breakup with a girlfriend and a tense relationship with her son, whose needs she never seems to put before her own. Dorn doesn’t shy away from a characters’ lack of likeability, which makes her examination of psychology, queer identity, and surprising familial relationships all the richer. It also contains a shocking plot twist that will leave you reeling.

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

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven Booker Prize-nominated novels that incorporate sports

Emily Facoory curated a list of Booker Prize-nominated novels "that incorporate sports, whether as a central theme or simply a brief scene." One title on the list:

The Van by Roddy Doyle

The Van, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1991, is the third installment of Roddy Doyle’s acclaimed Barrytown Trilogy, a series which began life with The Commitments in 1987 – a novel that was later adapted into the cult-status film of the same name. His comedy-drama centres around the Rabbitte family in Dublin and in The Van, he follows the escapades of down-and-out Jimmy Rabbitte Sr. and his best friend Bimbo as they buy an old fish and chip van in an attempt to lift themselves out of unemployment.

Football fever has gripped Ireland as the national team finds some unlikely success in the Italia ’90 World Cup, which serves as a backdrop to the novel. The duo capitalise on the baying football crowds outside their local pub, as the fans gather to toast their wins and drown their sorrows. At its heart, The Van is a novel about people, rather than events, one that explores male friendship through the witty and sharp Irish vernacular that Doyle is renowned for.

Read about the other novels on the list.

The Van is among David F. Ross's ten top books about soccer.

--Marshal Zeringue

Nine novels that find comic truth in disability

Brian Trapp is the author of Range of Motion (2025). He is the director of disability studies at the University of Oregon, where he also teaches creative writing and serves as editor of the Northwest Review. His work has been published in the Kenyon Review, Southern Review, Longreads, Brevity, and elsewhere. He grew up near Cleveland, Ohio, with his twin brother, Danny.

At Electric Lit Trapp tagged nine novels by authors who have "lived experience as either a disabled person or a caregiver—and each chose the novel and the comic mode to tell their tales." One title on the list:

A Room Called Earth by Madeleine Ryan

Plotwise, this 2020 novel sounds like a tough sell: a young Australian woman in Melbourne gets ready for a Christmas party, goes to the party, observes people, meets a cute guy near the bathroom, and goes home with him. But Ryan’s narrator, who is on the autism spectrum like Ryan herself, is well-worth following into the night. Written in 60 short chapters, the novel’s special pleasure is the comic digressions that follow this neurodivergent character’s thoughts on everything from Heath Ledger to rules for witches. She feels disconnected from her own species, prone to getting overwhelmed, and more at home alone or with animals (especially her cat, Porkchop). Ryan’s character is a Allistic anthropologist, dissecting “normal” social situations with observations that are acerbic, whimsical, and profound. While Ryan dramatizes its social challenges, autism is not a pathology in this novel. It’s an alternative way of thinking—a vehicle for revelation and, yes, humor.

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

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten cozy mysteries featuring animals other than cats

A former Spanish teacher, Allison Brook writes mysteries, romantic suspense, and novels for young readers.

She loves traveling, reading, knitting, doing Sudoku, and visiting with her grandchildren on FaceTime.

Her new novel, Death on Dickens Island, is the series debut of Books on the Beach Mysteries.

At CrimeReads Brook tagged a collection of cozy mysteries featuring animals other than cats. One title on the list:

Sasscer Hill, Full Mortality

Horses take first place in the Nikki Latrelle Horse Racing mysteries by Sasscer Hill, a former amateur jockey who once bred racehorses herself. In Full Mortality, her first book in the series, jockey Nikki Latrelle looks after a badly treated racehorse and protects the filly from going to the slaughter house.

Read about the other titles on Brook's list at CrimeReads.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five fresh literary spins on classic creatures

Leah Rachel von Essen is an editor, writer, and book reviewer. She is a copyeditor and fact-checker at Encyclopedia Britannica, as well as a contributing editor, Adult Books, for American Library Association’s magazine Booklist. She writes regularly for Chicago Review of Books and is a senior contributor at Book Riot.

At Book Riot she tagged five "stories [that] put an exciting new spin on the classic creature horror we all think we know, from vampires and zombies to sirens." One title on the list:

Mongrels by Stephen Graham Jones

Jones has quickly become the king of Indigenous horror, and in this 2016 novel, he took on werewolves, bringing in fun takes on werewolf daily life and what it might actually look like to be a lycanthrope in the modern world. He tells the tale in a constellation novel format, a series of chapters centering on the young protagonist and his aunt and uncle as the trio tries to survive on society’s margins. This is a gritty werewolf tale complete with coming-of-age energy and a look into the early work of an author who has become a modern, persistent phenomenon.

Read about the other books on the list.

Mongrels is among R.W.W. Greene's five SFF books about road trips and Mallory O'Meara's ten great horror books for wimps.

--Marshal Zeringue

Nine titles that explore the unique intimacy of sisters

Lisa K Friedman is a writer and essayist living in Washington, D.C. Her essays appear in The New York Times, Huffington Post, and other publications.

Friedman's new novel is Hello Wife.

At Electric Lit she tagged "nine novels [that] explore the intricacies of trauma, love, conflict, and support between sisters." One title on the list:

The Turnout by Megan Abbott

This is a psychological drama of twin sisters who are so enmeshed in each other’s lives, they cannot see outside of their own microcosm. Dara and Marie share a business, a dance academy they inherited from their deceased mother. Like ballet dancers in training, their relationship is about control: control over the body, control over the business, and control over each other. The story is rife with tension and kept secrets, and shows the deep emotional conflict of women in competition. The nature of their bond is characterized by intensity and claustrophobia.

Read about the other titles on Friedman's list at Electric Lit.

The Turnout is among Kate Alice Marshall's six top thrillers featuring sisters (and murder), M. M. (Marjorie) DeLuca's six psychological suspense stories that feature young protagonists, and Lynn Slaughter's five memorable mysteries for performing arts lovers.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five top books for understanding why we choose what we choose

Sophia Rosenfeld is Walter H. Annenberg Professor of History and former chair of the Department of History at the University of Pennsylvania, where she teaches European and American intellectual and cultural history with a special emphasis on the Enlightenment, the trans-Atlantic Age of Revolutions, and the legacy of the eighteenth century for modern democracy.

[The Page 99 Test: Common Sense: A Political History; The Page 99 Test: Democracy and Truth]

Her latest book is The Age of Choice: A History of Freedom in Modern Life.

At Lit Hub Rosenfeld tagged five important books for understanding why we choose what we choose. One title on her list:

Alain Corbin, The Foul and the Fragrant: Odor and the French Social Imagination

The Foul and the Fragrant: Odor and the French Social Imagination is essentially a book about the declining tolerance for strong smells in 18th and 19th-century France. But it is more than that. In this and many subsequent books, Corbin makes the case that our sense perceptions and our emotions also have histories that can be recovered—and that doing so helps explain much about our collective social, political, and even everyday familial lives.

Read about the other titles on Rosenfeld's list at Lit Hub.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eleven new & recent 90’s throwback books

Nora Dahlia is a lifestyle writer whose work has appeared in The New York Times, Elle, The Wall Street Journal, Vanity Fair, among others. Dahlia is also a branded content expert, book doctor, ghostwriter, collaborator, and writing coach. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two kids.

She is the author of Backslide and Pick-Up.

At People magazine Dahlia tagged eleven newer "90’s throwback books.... From memoir to literary fiction and from light to dark, these stories—though often complex in content—envelop us in simpler times." One title on the list:

Carrie Soto Is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Carrie Soto’s determination to win at any cost has not made her popular. But by the time she retires from tennis, she is the best player the world has ever seen. Six years later, Carrie finds herself sitting in the stands of the 1994 U.S. Open, watching her record get taken from her.

She decides to come out of retirement and be coached by her father for one last year in an attempt to reclaim her record — even if it means training with a man she once almost opened her heart to: Bowe Huntley. Like her, he has something to prove before he gives up the game forever.

Read about the other entries on the list.

Carrie Soto Is Back is among Adrian Markle's seven sports novels about more than athleticism.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven novels featuring women leading double lives

Lisa Borders is the author of the novels Cloud Cuckoo Land, chosen by Pat Conroy as the winner of River City Publishing’s Fred Bonnie Award and a Massachusetts Book Awards honoree, and The Fifty-First State. A frequent humor contributor at McSweeney’s, her essays and short fiction have appeared in Past Ten, The Rumpus, Cognoscenti, Black Warrior Review and other journals.

Borders’s new novel is Last Night at the Disco.

At Electric Lit the author tagged seven novels in which female protagonists "are all very different characters, but the one thing they share is being trapped between two worlds, even if that trap is of their own making." One title on the list:

The Likeness by Tana French

A common trope in mysteries and thrillers is the imposter: a character pretending to be someone they’re not, living a double life by stepping into another’s identity. Often these imposters are criminals, but The Likeness approaches the genre in a different way: the imposter is Dublin police detective Cassie Maddox, who bears a startling resemblance to a young murder victim and slips into her life to try to solve the crime. As Cassie gets drawn into the young woman’s tight-knit group of college friends—one of whom she suspects might be the murderer—she develops feelings that threaten not only her ability to solve the case, but her own life. Much more than a standard detective story, Cassie’s yearning for this other life of closeness and camaraderie is deeply moving to the end.

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

The Likeness is among Allison Buccola's seven novels featuring imposters among us, Anna Snoekstra's seven titles built on the weight of a shared secret, Louise Hegarty’s eight Irish novels about the rise & fall of Big Houses, Emily Bain Murphy's seven mystery novels with the best twists, Emily Beyda's seven top doubles in the twisted world of mystery fiction, Sophie Stein's eight books about small-town woman detectives, Alison Wisdom's sven great thrillers featuring communal living, Christopher Louis Romaguera's nine books about mistaken identity, and Simon Lelic's top ten false identities in fiction.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven novels featuring demons and possession

K. Valentin works as a senior art director in casual gaming, herding twenty-plus amazing artists into some semblance of organization. She has been published in the Bag of Bones Horror Anthology, the Latino Book Review, and Cosmos: An Anthology of Dark Microfiction. As a comic writer and illustrator, her work has been published in Puerto Rico Strong and Proud: An LGBTQ+ YA Anthology. She has a BA in creative writing from Southern New Hampshire University. An Amateur Witch's Guide to Murder is her debut novel.

At CrimeReads Valentin tagged seven of the latest and greatest novels featuring demons and possession, including:

Henry H. Neff, The Witchstone

In a world where demons have quotas and performance reviews, failing doesn’t mean a salary deduction—it means getting melted into primeval goo. Lazlo, the lazy, vice-riddled youngest son of the powerful demon lord Baalzebul, is forced to take his curse-keeper job seriously for the first time in his long life.

The task? Draw out misery from a young woman suffering under a truly gruesome family curse that will one day transform her into a monster.

This is definitely a more biblically classic yet tongue-in-cheek approach, with demonic hierarchy and rank determined not just by power, but by accomplishments. The horrific is juxtaposed right up against the hilarious, making for a memorable read.

Read about the other novels on the list at CrimeReads.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven works that push narrative boundaries

Molly O’Sullivan is a cybersecurity engineer turned speculative fiction writer with a love of nature, tea, and characters who, despite everything, still manage to hope. Originally from South Carolina, she has lived all over the country but now resides outside Seattle with her husband, two children, and curmudgeonly dog.

O’Sullivan's debut novel is The Book of Autumn.

At The Nerd Daily she tagged six books (plus one short story) that "experiment with form and structure to create an engaging and immersive experience that wholeheartedly sucks you into the story." One title on the list:

Possession by A.S. Byatt

This one follows two scholars researching the love life of two famous fictional poets. Following clues left inside diary entries, letters, and poetry from the nineteenth century attributed to the two poets, the scholars uncover the truth of their secret relationship. The novel flips between present day and past, culminating in a gorgeous narrative exploring art and ownership.

Read about the other titles on O’Sullivan's list.

Possession also appears on Ceillie Clark-Keane's list of nine literary mysteries with a big winter mood, Emily Temple's list of the twelve best descriptions of flowers in literature, Jae-Yeon Yoo's list of ten books about the importance of the post office, Paraic O’Donnell's top ten list of modern Victorian novels, a list of four books that changed Charlie Lovett, Michelle Dean's list of the six best books about university life, Kelly Anderson's top five list of books for newlyweds, Rebecca Mead's list of six favorite books that illuminate the Victorian era, Marina Warner's ten top list of fairytales, Ester Bloom's top ten list of fictional feminists, Niall Williams's list of ten of the best books that manage to make heroes out of readers, Kyle Minor's list of fifteen of the hottest affairs in literature, Emily Temple's list of the fifty greatest campus novels ever written, John Mullan's lists of ten of the best fossils in literature, ten of the most memorable libraries in literature, ten of the best fictional poets, ten of the best locks of hair in fiction, ten of the best graveyard scenes in fiction, and ten of the best lawyers in literature, and on Rachel Syme's list of the ten most attractive men in literature, Christina Koning's critic's chart of six top romances, and Elizabeth Kostova's top ten list of books for winter nights.

--Marshal Zeringue