The Grand Scheme of Things is a brilliant debut by Warona Jay--a complex, layered satire of artistic pursuit and bias that poses questions about how far from meritocracy the world really is. Relebogile Naledi Mpho Moruakgomo, an immigrant from Botswana, is a talented playwright who goes by "Eddie." But as the rejections from talent agencies stack up, she starts to wonder if they really have anything to do with the words on the page.

She turns to Hugo Lawrence Smith, with his recognizably white name and his wealthy background. Looking for an exit from a career in law and harboring secret dreams of acting, Hugo is eager to help. He agrees to Eddie's plan to submit the play under his name to a British competition. But when they get not just an agent but an acclaimed production of Eddie's play, the situation begins to unravel.

Jay is a sharp and insightful writer, especially on questions of human nature. Eddie is delightfully chaotic and driven by deep, conflicting feelings about her identity in ways that make her character feel intensely alive. Meanwhile, Hugo's apparently genuine desire to support Eddie and see her succeed allows him to be more than just an aristocratic cutout. Still, he at times seems infuriatingly determined to ignore what the women of color around him are telling him about the reality of bias.

All the characters are so thoughtfully drawn, full of flaws and strengths, that they're guaranteed to spark intense emotions in readers. As the friction between them escalates toward a wild climax, Jay executes her fascinating setup to perfection in this novel of fraught conflicts with no easy answers. --Carol Caley, writer

Discover: This brilliant debut novel is a complex, layered portrait of artistic pursuit and bias that plays with questions about how far from meritocracy the world really is.

Hannah Deitch's first novel, Killer Potential, is a bloody, class-conscious, suspenseful thriller starring two young women caught in a spiral of violence, blame, and bonding. This rocket-fueled debut is a deliciously dark, twisting, entertaining read, so beware the urge to stay up all night finishing it.

The novel's primary narrator is Evie Gordon, who opens by saying, "I was once a famous murderess.... It isn't true." Labeled "Talented and Gifted" from the age of eight, Evie thrived on the simple, clearly outlined goals and rewards of formal education. As a graduate, she foundered and eventually landed in Los Angeles as an SAT tutor to the children of the rich and famous. On a Sunday afternoon, she appears at the Victor mansion as usual, only to find Peter and Dinah Victor very freshly and brutally murdered, and an emaciated, traumatized, and nearly mute woman tied up in a closet. In an adrenaline-fueled haze of terror and confusion, they flee the bloody scene together. The bulk of the novel follows Evie and the woman, Jae, as they go on the run, presumed to be the murderers of the Victors, and commit a series of crimes along the way.

Through Evie and Jae's fragile, yearning, mistrustful bond, Deitch explores privilege and the divide between the haves and have-nots; sex and sexuality; trust and betrayal; what it means to be a "nice" or "good" person; and ambition and aimlessness. The interplay between them offers a taut psychological drama as backbone to a propulsive thriller of gruesome crime, exhilaration, and deception. Killer Potential is disturbing, fun, and unforgettable. --Julia Kastner, blogger at pagesofjulia

Discover: Two young women on the run offer mesmerizing complexity in this smart, propulsively paced, thought-provoking, and electrifying debut novel.

Politics and men: two concepts that theoretically hold the promise of stability but are often more vexing than one had hoped. Such is the perspective, anyway, of the four Nigerian women in Dream Count, a jam-packed novel by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Americanah) that addresses these topics, as well as the African diaspora, immigration, and justice in the United States.

Chiamaka is a travel writer who comes from wealth and now lives in Maryland. At the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, unmarried Chia decides "at first to make the most of this collective sequestering" but ends up brooding about lost loves, among them Darnell, "the Denzel Washington of academia." Her best friend, Zikora, a corporate lawyer in Washington, D.C., has a different problem. She's giving birth, yet the child's father is long gone from her life, an unsurprising event for a woman who refers to men as "thieves of time."

Their stories overlap, as do those of two more women. One is Kadiatou, Chia's housekeeper, who came to the U.S. with her daughter, Binta; works as a hotel maid; and becomes the center of unwanted media attention after a prominent guest sexually assaults her. The other is Omelogor, who worked in banking in the U.S. before returning to Nigeria, but not before enrolling in a graduate program to study pornography and figure out "how the industry was built, so she could learn how its influence could be undone." With its blending of the political and personal, this is a very modern story of women enduring more than their share of injustice and heartache. It's all brilliantly done. --Michael Magras, freelance book reviewer

Discover: In the novel Dream Count, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie tells the stories of four Nigerian women and the travails they endure in the U.S. and Nigeria, including difficult men and political inequities.

Floridian author Kristen Arnett (Mostly Dead Things; With Teeth) serves up equal doses of humor and emotion in Stop Me if You've Heard This One, a perversely funny novel about family, ambition, and desire.

Cherry Hendricks isn't your average Floridian--if such a thing exists. A professional clown, Cherry travels around Orlando trying to entertain children but more often entertaining their horny mothers. Her hypercritical mother, and maybe even her similarly eccentric friends, think she needs more stability in her life. But Cherry is determined to live for her art, particularly since the death of her beloved, if also annoyingly adored, brother.

Cherry thinks her luck might be changing when she is pulled into the orbit of Margot the Magnificent, a much older woman whose career as a magician has all the signs of success Cherry's lacks. Margot might be acerbic, challenging, and still emotionally caught up with her ex, but she's also willing actually to engage with Cherry's dream--and have hot sex while she's at it. As Cherry gets further entangled in Margot's world, she has to sort out how she can build a serious life for herself (even as a clown).

As always, Arnett excels at striking a pitch-perfect tone of dark humor, delighting in irreverent jokes and descriptions while always probing at something deeper, something closer to the heart. Cherry's cackling first-person sticks to dry comedy that hits hardest when it is cringingly self-aware. At moments like this, readers will be tempted to flinch and snort at the same time, an experience that's probably similar to that of the audience watching Cherry's final, eye-popping clown performance. --Alice Martin, freelance writer and editor

Discover: A darkly comedic tale about ambition, unexpected forms of art, and queer desire, Stop Me If You've Heard This One is another brutally funny and surprisingly emotional novel from Kristen Arnett.

Laura Anthony's powerful novel, The Women on Platform Two, immerses readers in the fight for contraceptive access in Ireland, through the stories of several brave women determined to make their own choices about motherhood.

In present-day Dublin, Saoirse is relieved when her pregnancy test is negative, but the news is a disappointment to her partner, Miles. Frustrated and upset, Saoirse impulsively boards the train to Belfast. In transit, she meets Maura--now elderly, but once a young wife hoping to avoid a pregnancy. As Maura shares her history, Saoirse is stunned at the grit of the women who mobilized to gain access to contraceptives in 1971, and how their actions affected thousands of lives, including her own.

Anthony (who also writes as Brooke Harris) immerses readers in 1960s Dublin, where Maura works as a shopgirl. Swept off her feet by a handsome doctor, Maura is already married when she realizes her husband is a dangerous man. As she suffers his abuses, Maura befriends her butcher's wife, Bernie, and the two connect with a group of women agitating for free access to contraception. Soon, they join in the plans for a bold protest: boarding the train to Belfast to purchase contraceptives for themselves. Anthony sensitively depicts the growing friendship between Maura and Bernie and the social risks faced by women who dared to call for open access to contraception. Drawing on real-life accounts of the Irish Women's Liberation Movement, Anthony spins a captivating narrative of courage, female friendship, and the ongoing struggle for a woman's right to choose. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams

Discover: Laura Anthony spins a captivating narrative of courage, female friendship, and the fight for access to contraception in 1970s Ireland.

Early in Sophie Madeline Dess's extraordinary debut novel, readers come to understand two things: 1. Artist Ava's solo show consists entirely of portraits of her filmmaker brother, Demetri; 2. Demetri is dying. This setup could portend a maudlin sentimentality, offering little more than the catharsis of a good cry. But Dess demands so much more, both from her story of these brilliant and broken siblings and from her audience.

The novel, framed as the unconventional catalog written by Ava to accompany her show, is awash in painterly observations of color, texture, light, stance. Though it does, in fact, catalog the work, (ex: "Pupils, oil on linen, medium/ Please look at this one the longest.") it also tells the story of the siblings' overlapping and often tortured existence. Dess plays with imagery of reflections and mirrors throughout, underscoring the way Ava and Demetri seem to exist only through the creative perceptions of the other. Their estranged father probes, "neither of you are free, do you see?" and though he adds, "But I'm sure you already understand that," his words are more hope than certainty.

Despite the raw candor Ava seems incapable of hiding, readers will doubt her, marveling at the details of all she looks at while noting the things she may never fully see--her brother, her art, and herself. But they will not question the energy coursing through What You Make of Me nor the undeniable talent that created it. This is a fierce and unapologetic debut from a writer to watch. --Sara Beth West, freelance reviewer and librarian

Discover: A fierce and unapologetic debut about art and art-making and the unusual bond between a brother and a sister who simultaneously create and destroy each other.

Linda Holmes (Evvie Drake Starts Over; Flying Solo) explores the world of podcasting in her charming romantic comedy Back After This. Cecily Foster, who has been producing podcasts for years, finally gets to escape from behind the scenes to be a host of a podcast about dating. Her boss pairs Cecily up with Eliza, a "dating coach, life coach, influencer, whatever," and the podcast follows along as Eliza sets Cecily up on dates with 20 different men.

The problem is, just as the show is beginning production, Cecily meets a man named Will as he is chasing a runaway dog. Will is funny and attractive, and he and Cecily hit it off. And then, when Cecily goes on her first date for the podcast, the server at the restaurant is Will. Cecily is appalled that she can't take her eyes off him. "Stop gazing, I told myself, while still doing it." But she's worried that the podcast's production company will fold if she messes up the show, so Cecily forces herself to forget about Will as she goes on the 20 dates. Among her dating partners are Maxim the adjunct professor, Rafael the print journalist, and three different Michaels, including a doctor and an architect who snores at the symphony.

Clever and amusing, Back After This is perfect for podcast fans and anyone who has ever felt stuck at work or in a relationship. As Cecily's dating journey continues, she muses about the choices she has made in life and love, which leads her to some personal revelations that readers are sure to find relatable. --Jessica Howard, former bookseller, freelance book reviewer

Discover: In this clever romantic comedy, a podcast producer agrees to be set up on dates with 20 different men for the sake of her show.

Grief, out-of-control crowds, dangerous traditions, and a bit of the supernatural swirl around a teenage girl suspected of being a witch in Daisy Pearce's satisfying melding of mystery and horror. Set in 1989 England, Something in the Walls combines a poignant plot with accelerating action derived from intense emotion.

A recent graduate in child psychology, Mina Ellis knows she should be planning her wedding to Oscar, an older, controlling scientist who has little patience that she still grieves her brother, who died six years ago when he was 14. However, at a bereavement support group, Mina meets Sam Hunter, a journalist mourning his seven-year-old daughter's death years before. Their connection is immediate. Sam asks Mina to help him investigate teenager Alice Webber, whose rural neighbors gather daily outside her home, convinced she can talk to the dead. Sam sees a major story while Mina hopes her examination will jumpstart her career. While they both outwardly want to help Alice, they each believe the girl will help them contact their loved ones.

As Alice becomes erratically violent, she faces accusations of being a witch and increasing rumblings about an old ritual to cure her. Alice's family, friends, and neighbors want to exploit her, but while Mina and Sam appear to want the best for Alice, their intentions are also shaded by their own interests. Pearce skillfully haunts her novel with classic horror elements, devising several extremely frightening, believable scenes. Something in the Walls affectingly shows how easily the vulnerable are manipulated. --Oline H. Cogdill, freelance reviewer

Discover: A journalist and a newly graduated child psychologist try to help a teenage girl suspected of being a witch in this frighteningly believable modern horror tale.

A seems-too-good-to-be-true romance sets in motion Adele Parks's juicy and contemplative First Wife's Shadow, a thriller that's ready-made for a celebrity book club selection and the ensuing miniseries treatment.

Forty-seven-year-old Emma Westly is the CEO of a British wind-harvesting company. At a conference where she's making a speech, she meets Matthew Charlton, a hunky freelance photographer a decade her junior. They flirt and chat, and Emma learns that Matthew's wife died the previous year. Emma and Matthew start dating, and a few months in, her friends think it's odd that he still hasn't shown her his flat or introduced her to his social circle; a smitten Emma remains unfazed because "the rom-com vibe is there in all its glory." Her only problem is that her home keeps getting vandalized. It doesn't seem logistically possible for Matthew to have done the damage, so he can't be to blame... can he?

This may sound like a plot that relies on the protagonist's stupidity at the expense of readers' patience, but Emma is savvy and given to mulling over things like the double standard that says men should be older and better earners than their female partners--in other words, she's a feisty, fully formed character. Across the span of First Wife's Shadow, Parks (Woman Last Seen; Two Dead Wives) gets in three and a half good gotchas (she was going for four, but readers may guess the last one). That's quite the rate of return on readers' investment. --Nell Beram, author and freelance writer

Discover: There are several good gotchas in this thriller centered on the CEO of a British wind-harvesting company and her seems-too-good-to-be-true new boyfriend.

In Maithree Wijesekara's debut novel, The Prince Without Sorrow, the mayakari--witches--of the Ran Empire emit blue and white flames when burned. The mayakari might have power that the rest of the empire does not understand, but their code requires that they always use it to uphold peace. That does not stop Emperor Adil Maurya from viciously hunting the mayakari, blaming them for everything that goes wrong in the empire, and even burn-testing suspected women to ensure that they are not a threat. Learning about them, their history, and their ways is forbidden, with libraries burned alongside the women targeted by the Empire.

The emperor's youngest son, Ashoka, does not agree with either Adil's persecution of the mayakari nor his thirst for conquest, but Adil spurns his son's push for pacifism, instead choosing violence. But he won't be the only one to make that choice. When Adil brings the full force of the Ran Empire to bear on the mayakari of Shakti's village, burning them all, Shakti's need for vengeance is born in the blue flames. The curse she casts in response will have devastating consequences for the Emperor, his children, and the whole Ran Empire.

Drawing influences from the Maurya Empire of Ancient India and loose inspiration from Emperor Ashoka the Great, this first volume in a projected trilogy explores questions of good and evil, and what it means to do harm on individual and institutional levels. Where Shakti and Ashoka's paths through peace and violence will lead them promises readers a fast-paced ride full of murder, retribution, and the search for justice, right up to the novel's final cliffhanger. --Michelle Anya Anjirbag, freelance reviewer

Discover: Wijesekara's thrilling, imaginative debut will leave readers clamoring for the rest of the trilogy.

Alexandra Kiley takes readers on a journey through Scotland in her adventurous, emotionally charged, second-chance romance, Scot and Bothered.

Told in two timelines seven years apart, Kiley (Kilt Trip) explores the lives of two lost souls--former lovers who, in the years since they split, struggle to find their places in the world while nursing broken hearts.

When Colorado native Brooke Sinclair was 22 years old, she was an aspiring writer studying abroad at the University of Edinburgh. But just as she was about to graduate, her hopes and dreams came crashing down. Seven years later, Brooke is working as a ghostwriter, and her former writing professor, mentor, and now devoted friend, Mhairi McCallister, hires Brooke to help write her memoir. In order to authentically portray Mhairi's storied past, Brooke decides to hike the stunning yet treacherous Skye Trail of Scotland, a passionate journey that came to define Mhairi's life. But when the photographer whom Brooke plans to accompany on the 80-mile trek breaks his leg and has to cancel, his substitute turns out to be Mhairi's nephew, Scottish-born photographer Jack Sutherland--the man who broke Brooke's heart in college. Thrown together under duress, the two navigate the beauty and travails of nature amid a host of complications, forcing them to rely on each other while dealing with the rugged terrain of their former, and current, relationship.

Readers will be charmed by a suspenseful plot, lively banter, and a swoon-worthy romance in Kiley's well-drawn, atmospheric literary love letter to picturesque Scotland. --Kathleen Gerard, blogger at Reading Between the Lines

Discover: A swoony, adventurous romance about old flames who are forced to reunite on a trek through the scenic, yet treacherous Skye Trail of Scotland.

Love and Other Paradoxes, the second time-travel novel from Catriona Silvey (Meet Me in Another Life), ponders the implications of knowing how the future will turn out and trying either to stay the course or to change it, pulling together profound questions and intense romance.

Joe Greene hasn't written a single poem since he arrived at Cambridge University, despite his dreams of becoming a renowned poet. Now in the final year of his degree, he faces the prospect of not graduating and retreating shamefully to his small, working-class village in Scotland. But then he runs into Esi, who has come from the future and escaped her time-travel tour group in an attempt to change her fate. She holds proof that, in the future, Joe does become a renowned poet and marries Diana, a famous actress who is, in Joe's present, also at Cambridge in the same year as Joe. Thinking his success is inevitable, Joe begins to spend even less time on his studies. After he approaches Diana and thoroughly embarrasses himself, Esi must help him win over Diana or risk endangering her own mission. As Joe and Esi work together, one attempting to save the future and the other to change it, their ideas about destiny, privilege, and love are tested and threaten--or promise--new paths for them both.

Silvey vividly portrays the inequities of an elite institution through Joe's working-class background, with additional inequities faced by Black people highlighted through Esi's story. The philosophical issues posed by the plot are fascinating, and the novel is a gorgeous read thanks to its fully rounded characters and their palpable emotional conflicts. --Dainy Bernstein, freelance reviewer

Discover: An aspiring poet and a time traveler work to save or alter the future in this captivating novel of dreams, destiny, and romance.

A mix-up at a fertility clinic upends lives in the  steamy, provocative romance One in a Million by Beverley Kendall (Token).

The story starts with the unraveling of a tumultuous three-year marriage between Myles Redmond--a former defense attorney, now the president of the California Bar Association--and his second wife, Holly, a top-producing real estate agent. But Holly, of Swedish descent, demands a DNA test be done on Haylee, their six-month-old daughter birthed via surrogate, as with her "darker complexion, dark brown curly hair, and brown eyes" she could not possibly be the product of "two white, blue-eyed parents." The test confirms that an error occurred "during the egg selection portion of the fertilization stage, not the implantation stage," meaning Myles is Haylee's biological father, but Holly's not the biological mother.

The accidentally fertilized egg that created the child belongs to a world-famous Black entertainer--Whitney Richardson, 30, known professionally as "Sahara," is a Grammy-winning singer, Oscar-nominated actress, and owner of a lucrative fashion company who froze her eggs for future use. When she learns of Haylee's existence, the news upends her career-centric life. After meeting her precious daughter, Whitney falls in love with Haylee and in the process of visiting her, romantic sparks ignite between biological father and mother, making matters grow even more complicated.

A strong supporting cast and complex subplots reinforce Kendall's spicy romance that probes issues of identity, commitment, and modern family dynamics. --Kathleen Gerard, blogger at Reading Between the Lines

Discover: A steamy romance ensues after a baby birthed via a mix-up at a fertility clinic introduces and unites the biological parents.

Susanna Kearsley (The Vanished Days; Bellewether) is known for her impeccable research and engaging characters, but The King's Messenger reaches a new level of gorgeous immersion. Set in 1613, the novel follows Andrew Logan, one of the titular King's Messengers, who is sent into Scotland on a secret mission to arrest a popular nobleman who had been a mentor to the king's recently deceased son, Prince Henry.

The prickly King James (for whom the translation of the Bible is named) assigns the reluctant Logan a scrivener, who will record the testimony of the man they arrest. Because the hired scrivener, a man named Laurence Westaway, is older and in poor health, he is joined by his lively daughter, Phoebe, who is practically engaged to one of the nobles in King James's court and strongly dislikes Logan. Phoebe is determined to make sure that her ailing father survives the long journey and to avoid Logan as much as possible. But with brigands and harsh weather and the long tentacles of court intrigue all threatening them over the course of their monthslong travels, Phoebe finds herself beginning to rely on the taciturn Logan.

Kearsley portrays an era of English history less well trod than the Tudors and has stuffed The King's Messenger chock-full of historical figures. Perfect for fans of Philippa Gregory, The King's Messenger is a delightful exploration of a complicated king and the people who served him. --Jessica Howard, former bookseller, freelance book reviewer

Discover: In this immersive, romantic historical novel, King James sends one of his messengers on a perilous journey.

Pieces You'll Never Get Back: A Memoir of Unlikely Survival by Samina Ali is both a story of motherhood horribly derailed by a traumatic neurological injury and the rebirth of a woman refusing to remain broken. Ali's skillful narrative is rooted in her Islamic upbringing, and it contrasts her life as a vibrant mother-to-be with the aftermath of a disastrous labor and delivery, one that left her brain damaged and her newborn son struggling to survive.

Despite access to excellent obstetric care near her Northern California home, Ali's high-risk pregnancy fell through the cracks. The symptoms she reported, classic signs of preeclampsia, raised no red flags among her care team. Scenes from the delivery room are harrowing and arresting in equal measure, with the attending obstetrician coldly dismissing his patient's alarming signs of cardiovascular and neurological distress. After suffering multiple strokes on the delivery table, Ali fell into a coma. The doctors gave up on her, but her religious family did not.

The acute brain damage Ali (Madras on Rainy Days) suffered was preventable. How does one find the peace and acceptance to move on from a tragedy such as this? Ali's ability to focus on healing and rebuilding severed bonds with her past and present self is a remarkable exercise in letting go. A determination to write helped establish new neurological pathways in her brain to replace those that "were simply gone."

There are astonishing developments and spiritual detours in Pieces You'll Never Get Back, with flashes of the trailblazing Muslim women's rights activist Ali was destined to become after her miraculous recovery. --Shahina Piyarali

Discover: A writer and activist in Northern California shares her harrowing and mesmerizing story of motherhood horribly derailed by a preventable brain injury and her miraculous recovery.

The late Mayumi Inaba (1950-2014) makes a posthumous debut-in-translation with the heartstring-tugging, haunting Mornings Without Mii, originally published in Japan in 1999. The memoir lovingly chronicles her 20-year-relationship with her "precious partner"--her beloved cat, Mii. That "end of summer, 1977," Inaba first heard the cries before discovering "a little ball of fluff. A teeny tiny baby kitten" suspended high up on a junior high school fence: "It was obvious that she... had been put there deliberately out of malice or mischief." Inaba immediately takes home the starved, flea-riddled feline--"a calico, with white, black and tan stripes... and a belly that was pure white."

In the two decades that follow, Mii (named for her high-pitched mii-mii, temporarily shortened to Mimi, truncated further to Mii) remains the single constant in Inaba's life. Inaba dissolves her marriage, moves multiple times (finding a pet-friendly rental as her top priority eventually leads to buying a home), and transforms her career, eventually becoming a prize-winning poet and writer. As Mii matures--a helpless baby, an almost-mother, a free-roaming adventurer, an affectionate greeter, a cherished presence--Inaba experiences her own metamorphoses, claiming her independence, her voice, her place in the world.

Inaba, nimbly translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori, writes in precise, affecting verse, but when emotions overwhelm, she resorts to the multi-layered promises of poetry: "So      let's sleep/ So as not to hear your departing footsteps," she writes, confronted by Mii's mortality. Grateful readers will recognize Inaba's visceral connection and find deep comfort here. --Terry Hong

Discover: The late Japanese writer Mayumi Inaba's remarkably enduring memoir affectingly captures two transformative decades she shared with her "precious partner" Mii.

There is no shortage of biographies of iconic 19th-century American writer Edgar Allan Poe, best known for his poems, such as "The Raven," as well as fiction, such as "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" (often cited as the first contemporary murder mystery). What sets Edgar Allan Poe: A Life by Richard Kopley, Distinguished Professor of English Emeritus at Penn State DuBois, apart is the sheer scope of the work and the depth of the world it depicts.

Woven together with biographical details are explorations of the critical reception and controversy surrounding Poe's work. This substantially researched volume handsomely rewards readers' attention. As exhaustive as the biography is, it generally avoids becoming dry or academic, instead taking readers through Poe's turbulent life and work at a brisk clip.

What further distinguishes this biography is its focus on the context in which Poe created his classics. Kopley delves into the literary influences that contributed to Poe's work and the intellectual currents of the time, and considers the specific circumstances that led to the creation of some of Poe's most famous stories and poems.

This approach provides a richer understanding of Poe's creative process and his engagement with the cultural conversation of the day. It's particularly fascinating to read about Poe's lecture series, one address in which was titled "The Poetic Principle," and his lifelong aspiration to helm a literary journal called the Stylus, which he referred to as his "darling scheme" and which he was trying to fund until the last days of his life. Edgar Allan Poe is a brilliant biography that brings the celebrated Poe to life. --Elizabeth DeNoma, executive editor, DeNoma Literary Services, Seattle, Wash.

Discover: This brilliant biography brings the iconic American writer Edgar Allen Poe to life.

Readers are the "main character" in Felipe Torres Medina's irreverent debut, America, Let Me In: A Choose Your Immigration Story, a game book for those curious about what legally immigrating to the United States entails. Torres Medina is an immigrant to the U.S. himself, hailing from Bogotá, Colombia. His work has been featured in the New Yorker as well as on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, earning him five Emmy nominations. Deploying his trademark humor to poke fun "at the expense of our ridiculous immigration system," Torres Medina renders the process relatable to readers who may have little understanding of the complex hoops people jump through to come to the U.S.

After selecting from four immigration paths ranging from "easy" to "very hard," readers follow fictional characters through the immigration visa process. Options include a model, a millionaire, an elite athlete, a college student, and a skilled worker. The similarities shared by all visa applicants are the mountains of paperwork and the exorbitant fees.

Despite the tongue-in-cheek approach, America, Let Me In incorporates practical advice about the immigration system and offers a glossary of terms with which some readers may be unfamiliar. Torres Medina is grateful to live in a country that considers itself a "Great Experiment" and has, throughout history, shown a willingness to fix its mistakes. Despite its many problems, he writes, people want to move to the U.S. because the country keeps striving "to be better."

Entertaining and enlightening, America, Let Me In gives readers "the gift of choosing the United States." --Shahina Piyarali

Discover: This entertaining and enlightening game book by a Colombia-born writer is ideal for readers curious to know what legally immigrating to the United States entails.

Jennifer Lucy Allan offers a rapturous ode to the marvels of clay in her delightfully comprehensive Clay: A Human History. Allan (The Foghorn's Lament) nimbly sifts through the millennia to relate humanity's intricate history with the substance. She blends her own journey as a potter with profiles of renowned ceramic works, which are replete with archival information and historical context.

Each chapter has a single-word title, such as "Mud," "Fire," "Figures," "Wheels," and "Sound." Within each chapter, readers can expect to find an exploration of the titular word as it relates to clay through history, with illustrative examples. For instance, in "Figures," Allan begins with the 27,000-year-old "Venus of Dolní Věstonice," "the oldest ceramic object that has ever been found." She touches on her personal experience copying clay figurines found in Mycenaean Greece; discusses the predominance of ceramic figurines across the world; introduces the utterly fascinating ethnoarcheologist Marija Gimbutas, who "spent a decade sourcing and photographing over 30,000 miniature sculptures"; then, finally, returns to the 21st century with an account of artist Ceylan Öztrük's 2014 reinterpretation of the Venus figure.

A master compiler, Allan seamlessly includes interviews, anecdotes, and amazing facts, even highlighting holes in the archive, such as those surrounding Ladi Kwali, a famous Nigerian potter whose words are not captured firsthand anywhere, despite her widespread acclaim. Readers can expect to range remarkably far and wide with this book, from prehistoric societies to Mars, all in pursuit of clay. --Nina Semczuk, writer, editor, and illustrator

Discover: Clay: A Human History is a glorious journey into the myriad realms of clay, including its many uses in the present and historically, its cultural context, famous potters, and so much more.

Tyler Page's mostly lighthearted graphic memoir sensitively and approachably explores an important but seldom covered topic in books for middle schoolers: body image in boys. Page also addresses a subject that, while more common, is not always approached with the nuance it deserves: bullying.

Seventh grader Tyler is an appealing protagonist: smiley, game, and as he approaches adolescence, increasingly self-reflective. He notices how the bodies of other boys are changing, with new "sculpted muscles" and "bulging veins," and wonders where his softer, rounder shape fits in. Teasing at school takes a more mean-spirited tone, with Tyler by turns a recipient, a bystander, and even a participant, although all of it makes him uncomfortable. When classmates make fun of a new girl's seemingly normal ears, for example, Tyler is perplexed. "But everyone continued to make fun of her.... So eventually, I just went along with it." When his own friends take teasing too far during a water gun game, though, Tyler has had enough and begins distancing himself from the negativity.

Page (Button Pusher) balances his character's sweet innocence with his confusing new impulses toward cruelty, and his feelings of being a misfit with his generally positive sense of self. Page's demonstrative mixed-media art pops with 1980s neon and lively action, and the narration and dialogue seem to be pulled whole cloth out of a 12-year-old boy's mind, in all its awkward, goofy charm. With its nonjudgmental and empathic approach, Extra Large might even get a certain population of lapsed bookworms reading again. --Emilie Coulter, freelance writer and editor

Discover: This graphic memoir has extra-large appeal, exploring with fine-tuned nuance the middle school ordeals of bullying and male body image.

In the compelling final installment in the Dear Martin trilogy, Dear Manny, bestselling author Nic Stone features Jared Peter Christensen, a white, entitled character first introduced in Dear Martin. Here, Stone focuses on the college student's personal growth as he grapples with his privilege while running for junior class president.

It's two years after Jared's Black best friend, Manny Rivers, was murdered by an off-duty cop and Jared, now a college student, actively works to be an ally. He is running for Junior Class Council president against John Preston LePlante IV, a student Jared is certain he can beat, as the young man represents the worst of everyone. When a Black transfer student, Dylan Marie Coleman, joins the race and presents a strong platform, Jared is forced to reevaluate his stance. The young man struggles to decide what's "right," and reaches out to friend Justyce (the protagonist of Dear Martin) for advice. Justyce valued the experience of writing letters to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and suggests Jared try something similar. The young man begins to write out his feelings about Dylan and the election in letters to his missing best friend.

As she did in Dear Martin and Dear Justyce, Stone develops a sophisticated, introspective narrative told in first-person letters and third-person narration. But unlike the first two installments, here she writes through the lens of a privileged white young man. Stone doesn't shy away from discussing race, unearned privilege, or the mental toil that Jared feels as he self-reflects. Stone invites readers to sit with the discomfort and consider how societal systems of power affect us all, while also offering readers hope for future changes. --Natasha Harris, freelance reviewer

Discover: In this thoughtful follow-up to Dear Justyce, a college student is forced to confront his white privilege as he runs for junior class president.

Jane Park's kindhearted and insightful picture book, Outside Mom, Inside Mom, is a tender representation of code-switching within families, dynamically depicted by author/illustrator Lenny Wen (Wolfgang in the Meadow).

On the first day of school, a child chooses to wear sneakers instead of their favorite red shoes: "I want to fit in, not stand out." The kid would like Mom to wear her "sparkly top," but Umma replies, "Not today... I want to look like the mom of a hardworking student." Other adults have quick, unsolicited judgments of Outside Mom: she's "quiet," "so serious," and doesn't "seem to like change." But the child knows that Inside Mom "speaks Korean quickly and loudly," "has a story about everything," asks endless questions, sings, and laughs. Most of all, "change" has defined her life since leaving her family, friends, homeland, and language "to live in a new country." As the child struggles to adjust to an unfamiliar new classroom, they realize they're "not like myself," but rather "an Outside Me." That night, Umma's encouragement gives both child and parent the courage to choose red shoes and sparkly garb the next morning.

Park (Juna's Jar) deftly recognizes how the pressure to assimilate diminishes individuality in immigrant families. She highlights Umma's sacrifice and unconditional love, while honoring wholly Korean moments by not translating certain words ("jamot" for pajamas). Wen's whimsical illustrations also underscore Umma's polyglot adaptability, with freely inserted Korean script and phrases. The artist nimbly highlights myriad emotions throughout her charming gouache and colored pencil art, gloriously celebrating the child's joy "when I get to see Inside Mom... OUTSIDE." --Terry Hong

Discover: Jane Park's illuminating Outside Mom, Inside Mom poignantly, brilliantly captures the code-switching challenges of immigrant families.

Elle Tesch's debut, the YA gothic fantasy What Wakes the Bells, intricately builds the sentient city of Vaiwyn and uses stirring prose to depict how one young woman fights to save it.

Vaiwyn, built by five divine beings known as the Saints, "bleeds through veins that serve as cobbled streets, settles its growing bones in the creaks of the beams, and claims the airy hollows of its ancient buildings as lungs." For a thousand years, 17-year-old Wilhelmina Strauss's family has cared for the city's Vesper bells, which both protect Vaiwyn from an evil entity known as "the Bane" and invite the demon in: "Twelve peals to raise the alarm; a thirteenth to revive the evil from wherever it lies banished." Bell keepers thwart the Bane's awakening daily by stilling their assigned bell's clapper before the 13th toll. Mina, who assumed her deceased father's role as the keeper of Arbutus eight months ago, does everything right, but an unknown magic makes Arbutus sing its "horrid song": the Bane is unleashed. Mina must reveal the bitter secrets in the sinews of her city if she hopes to save it.

Tesch unveils the full extent of the Bane's horrors through riveting episodes of the living city's malfunctioning lifeforce (for example, the Bane animates gargoyles and statues to attack Vaiwyn's townspeople). Mina, the citizens under siege, and Vaiwyn itself all have distinct personalities and individual histories, and readers will likely sympathize with Mina's perseverance and appreciate the visibility of her demisexuality. Teen readers hungry for dark academia and complex magical lore are sure to devour What Wakes the Bells. --Cristina Iannarino, children's book buyer, Books on the Square

Discover: An enthralling gothic fantasy debut in which a young woman is compelled to save her sentient city from corruption by an evil power.

In Stalactite and Stalagmite, Drew Beckmeyer (The First Week of School; I Am a Tornado) crafts a playfully inventive and quietly profound look at time, friendship, and change. The story follows two "little mineral piles" that become tiny rock nubs that grow ever so slowly in the depths of a cave. As millennia pass, they witness the comings and goings of prehistoric creatures--a trilobite, a triceratops, even a giant ground sloth that pauses to lick the speleothems. Eventually, humans appear, starting with a cave artist leaving drawings on the walls, followed by a lost miner, and then a passing tour group. Through it all, the two formations remain, growing ever closer until, at last, they touch--becoming something new, together.

The book's humor shines, for example when a skeptical bat insists the stalactite must be a bat too, since it is "dripping pee" (water). Young readers will likely love this bit of potty humor. The bat's dialogue is cleverly arranged so readers must rotate the book, enhancing the lighthearted charm and inviting active participation.

Beneath the humor, though, is something grander. In a poignant moment, Stalagmite imagines the picture it would draw if it could: "the whole infinite universe throughout all time.... Everyone who saw it... would find comfort finally knowing their place in its endless giganticness." That invitation to contemplate deep time and connection is what makes the book so resonant. Beckmeyer's richly textured, mixed-media spreads bring warmth and depth to this dynamic world. With just two eyes and a mouth, the formations feel full of personality--patient witnesses to the slow, wondrous passage of time. --Julie Danielson

Discover: Stalactite and Stalagmite turns deep time into something poignant and full of wonder--perfect for sparking curiosity about the vastness of history and the quiet magic of slow, inevitable change.