Clean, by International Booker Prize finalist Alia Trabucco Zerán, opens as the narrator introduces herself: "My name is Estela. Can you hear me?" The context of Estela's situation is unclear at first, but readers soon understand that she is alone in a room with a two-way mirror, offering some kind of testimony or confession. She isn't being interrogated, but the entirety of the novel, rendered in a taut translation from the Spanish by Sophie Hughes, could be seen as Estela's answer to the question: What happened to "the girl"?

Estela works as a maid for the Jensen family in Santiago, Chile, hired one week before their only daughter, Julia, is born. It is Julia who has died, a fact revealed from the start--"The girl dies. Did you hear this time? The girl dies and she's still dead, no matter where I begin." Estela's voice is sharp and incisive, offering commentary on her role in the house and on each member of the family, whom she describes as "an unhappy little girl, a woman keeping up appearances and a man keeping count: of every minute, every peso, every conquest." There is an eerie calm in her telling, which is full of tension and the certainty of her story's tragic end and undercut by a pacing that feels at once urgent and detached. Trabucco Zerán probes issues of power and class, and by the novel's conclusion, readers must consider the broader forces at play, the ones that ask: Who gets to tell the stories and who is actually listening? Readers will swallow Clean in one breathless gulp and then ruminate on it for days. --Sara Beth West, freelance reviewer and librarian

In Absolution, the unexpected fourth installment in his acclaimed Southern Reach trilogy, master weird-fiction author Jeff VanderMeer gives fans longtime and new alike an expansive and thrilling look at the world of Area X and its inhabitants--in all their forms. Split into three sections, Absolution tells the stories of three early expeditions into the Forgotten Coast: a team of ill-fated biologists; a Central investigator named Old Jim who, years later, is determined to unravel the mystery of what happened to those biologists; and Lowry, a member of one of the initial teams to enter the area after the border goes down.

Like the other Southern Reach novels, Absolution delights in its intricate eccentricities. Due in particular to its three-part, nesting-doll structure, the novel seems to be posing as a puzzle-box mystery, but the more readers attempt to slot its pieces into place, the more confounded they may become. Ultimately, VanderMeer uses the novel's neo-noir trappings--especially in the second section, in which Old Jim plays detective as he uses misleading archival documents to track down answers--to remind readers that this set of mysteries cannot (or maybe should not) be untangled. While Old Jim's Sisyphean task of interpreting garbled histories and morphing landscapes guides most of the novel, VanderMeer has yet another surprise in store for readers in the third part, which follows the most unlikable and yet perhaps funniest character to have appeared in the series yet. Irreverent and foolish, entertaining and yet horrifying, Lowry and the fever dream of a finale he creates gives even VanderMeer's biggest fans something new to experience. --Alice Martin, freelance writer and editor

A 19th-century secret lies at the heart of a gripping plot that combines Japanese culture, female samurai, and a puzzle savant with unusual skills in The Puzzle Box, Danielle Trussoni's astounding sequel to The Puzzle Master.

The Puzzle Box brings back Mike Brink, whose brain injury during a high school football game left him with acquired savantism. Now a well-known puzzle creator, Mike sees interlocking patterns in everything.

The imperial family of Japan hires Mike to open the legendary Dragon Puzzle Box, unopened since a blind mechanical master built it in 1868. No one has survived trying to open the box, which is loaded with lethal traps. It can be accessed only once every 12 years, during the first full moon in the Year of the Dragon. No one knows what the box holds, though legend suggests it contains vital secrets. A band of female samurai, underground for decades, also want what's in the box.

Trussoni (Angelopolis; The Fortress) mines extreme suspense through Mike's attempts to open the box, which tests every aspect of his skills. Trussoni continues to explore her complicated character with depth and verve: Mike's genius at puzzle solving led to his solitary existence, and he's reluctant to let many into his inner circle. His closest relationship is with his emotional-support dachshund, Conundrum ("Connie for short"), who accompanies him to Japan.

The Puzzle Box's thrilling plot features fascinating details of Japanese history and culture, a bit of espionage, and the ultimate puzzle-solving challenge. --Oline H. Cogdill, freelance reviewer

The victims of most murderers are obvious: the deceased person and their family and friends, whose pain is never ending. But Jacqueline Bublitz (Before You Knew My Name) showcases a killer's less obvious victims in her emotionally charged second novel, Leave the Girls Behind. These victims are the killer's own family and friends, who may not have known his proclivities and were inadvertently drawn into his web.

Bublitz examines these victims and depicts how their history with the killer affects their present, the kind of people they become, and the kind of people they come to be in relationships with, some of whom may have violence in their veins.

Manhattan bartender Ruth-Ann Baker was seven years old when her best friend Beth Lovely vanished from a playground in Hoben, Conn.; her body was eventually found in a shallow grave. Popular teacher Ethan Oswald was convicted of Beth's murder and died in prison a few years into his sentence. In the ensuing 19 years, Ruth-Ann has become obsessed with Beth's death and believes that Ethan murdered other girls. She's convinced that all their ghosts visit her. When another girl goes missing from Hoben, Ruth-Ann can't help but see startling similarities in their cases, even if Ethan is gone. As she continues her investigation, she finds evidence that Ethan might not have been working alone.

As memories of Ruth-Ann's past surface, her stability unravels. Her pursuit of Ethan's alleged accomplices and the truth of what happened evokes empathy for her and the women she encounters. The ingenious plot of Leave the Girls Behind delivers genuine emotion coupled with intense suspense. --Oline H. Cogdill, freelance reviewer

A young man with a mystical gift is drawn into an adventure out of legend in the stunning, folklore-inspired romantic fantasy The Last Dragon of the East by Chinese Canadian author Katrina Kwan (Knives, Seasoning, and a Dash of Love).

Sai helps his ailing, widowed mother run the family teahouse, but his side hustle is using his ability to see the red strings of fate to help people find their fated soul mates. He has no idea how he came by his ability, nor why his own string is gray and frayed. Then a local doctor sells Sai two dragon scales as a remedy for his mother's illness, and Sai is caught up in the cruel emperor's scheme to capture the last dragon for his own uses. Sai has no hope for his search, but "the green dragon, queen of the bamboo forests and golden wheat fields," soon finds him. The dragon can transform into a beautiful woman, and she holds the other end of Sai's frayed thread. She is his fated mate, but to Sai's distress, she wants nothing to do with him.

Kwan's fantasy world takes inspiration from Chinese mythology. This romantic fairy tale weaves together multiple folktales and is populated by heroes and monsters from legend. At its core lies a tragic story of loss, betrayal, and grief. Fantasy readers who like their novels to contain a strong romantic component will find themselves spirited away by this epic, poetic quest for love and healing. --Jaclyn Fulwood, blogger at Infinite Reads

Clare Gilmore's smart, swoony sophomore rom-com, Perfect Fit, follows fashion start-up CEO Josephine "Josie" Davis as she wrestles with her growing attraction to a handsome consultant and the perennial question of whether and how to balance work, life, and (what might be) love.

Josie has spent her 20s feverishly building Revenant, her Austin, Tex., sustainable clothing brand, and trying to stay out of the spotlight. After an ill-advised kiss in high school that blew up her life in person and on social media, Josie has focused intently on creating a successful company. When her company's new consultant turns out to be Will Grant, her high school best friend's twin brother (see: ill-advised kiss), Josie is forced to confront her inconvenient desire for Will and the distinct possibility that she's invested her entire self-worth into her work. 

Gilmore (Love Interest) highlights the insidious ways a person's self-esteem can become entangled with both productivity and public perception, creating some necessary epiphanies for Josie alongside a sweet slow-burn romance. Josie's "biker gang," fellow cyclists Giovanna and Leonie, and her best friend/right-hand woman, Camila, provide both comic relief and wise female perspectives, while Will proves the perfect book boyfriend: handsome, smart, thoughtful, and impossibly kind, with enough of his own baggage to create a modicum of conflict. Although readers can guess how the love story will unfold, the true "perfect fit" of Josie's story is--satisfyingly--centered on finally designing a life to the measurements she chooses. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams

Long before she created her online book club, Well-Read Black Girl, Glory Edim found solace and inspiration in literature. In her insightful first memoir, Gather Me, Edim (On Girlhood) traces her life's journey through the books and authors that have shaped her as a writer and a person.

The daughter of Nigerian immigrants, Edim adored her father and was devastated when he suddenly moved back to Nigeria after her parents' divorce. She spent much of her childhood caring for her two younger brothers and, when she was older, dealing with her mother's mental illness. But through the conflicts, challenges, and questions about her family and her future, Edim repeatedly turned to books: wise, powerful narratives that helped her see herself more clearly and eventually find her place in the world. Books helped her make sense of her family dynamics while providing an important counter to the prevailing narratives of a white-dominated society.

Edim's memoir reflects on seminal Black texts, as well as texts by white authors such as Louisa May Alcott that she encountered as a student and a young woman. As she kept working to understand herself and find a path forward, her beloved books provided companionship, wisdom, and characters who became Edim's friends. She draws insightful parallels between the books she loves and her own life, and concludes with a letter to her young son, Zikomo, about the influence of stories on a person's identity.

Warm, reflective, and full of literary joy, Gather Me is a dynamic account of one woman building her life on a solid foundation of great books. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams

Journalist Jared Sullivan's compelling Valley So Low: One Lawyer's Fight for Justice in the Wake of America's Great Coal Catastrophe details the aftermath of the 2008 collapse of a holding pond that contained waste byproduct from the Tennessee Valley Authority's Kingston, Tenn., power station. The catastrophe released "more than a billion gallons of coal-ash slurry--about fifteen hundred times the volume of liquid that flows over Niagara Falls each second," burying some 300 acres of property and swamping nearby waterways. The spill is the "single largest industrial disaster in U.S. history in terms of volume," yet the extent of its damage has been little known outside of the region. Until now.

Sullivan focuses on attorney Jim Scott and the workers he represented in a lawsuit against Jacobs Engineering, the environmental recovery firm hired by TVA to clean up after the disaster. These workers, sometimes called " 'the Expendables,' because that was how Jacobs and TVA had treated them," came home covered in coal ash, a substance they were repeatedly told posed no risk to them. But over the next several years, dozens of people would find their health forever compromised.

Their legal battle finally concluded in 2023 with a settlement for the affected workers, over 50 of whom had already died. Yet the settlement, a mere 12% of Jacobs's annual profit, was woefully inadequate. Despite being full of countless struggles and disappointments, Valley So Low is a necessary and inspiring book, with Sullivan's sensitive retelling of these difficult events putting "the best of humanity and the worst of humanity" on display--all in one heartbreaking case. --Sara Beth West, freelance reviewer and librarian

Corrupt oil barons and desperate people struggle to possess a plot of oil-rich land in the meticulously researched, vividly told Ghosts of Crook County: An Oil Fortune, a Phantom Child, and the Fight for Indigenous Land, a work of historical nonfictionby fourth-generation Oklahoman author Russell Cobb (The Great Oklahoma Swindle).

Cobb thoroughly explores the practice of land transfers "from Native hands to the portfolios of white oilmen and their companies" via a single case, that of the allotment granted to a deceased boy named Tommy Atkins. The boy's mother allegedly made a tidy sum by signing the land over to famous early-1900s Tulsa philanthropist and oilman Charles Page, who made much of his fortune from oil drilled on Tommy's land. Cobb digs deeper into the facts of the case and finds "a legal Pandora's box containing vital questions about land ownership, racial identity, and oil wealth." Several trials attempted to decide who owned the rights to Tommy's land. Was it Page, the woman claiming to be Tommy's mother, one of the men who claimed to be Tommy himself, or the Muscogee Nation? Cobb asks the real question: Did Tommy Atkins even exist?

Cobb spent six years researching this book and notes that the historical issues it raises still affect contemporary Oklahoma: "We can only ignore these voices for so long." He introduces readers to swindlers, greed-driven white men, Muscogee citizens caught between opportunists and the law, and a Black woman who peddled liquor and other vices. True-crime and social science readers will find this tangled tale fascinating. --Jaclyn Fulwood, blogger at Infinite Reads

In her thoughtful first essay collection, Relative to Wind, poet Phoebe Wang reflects on her journey from complete novice to experienced sailor, and the parallels between sailing and the creative life.

A first-generation Chinese Canadian, Wang (Waking Occupations) discovered sailing almost by accident when a roommate invited her out on his "new" boat, purchased secondhand. Intrigued by the entirely new world (and language) she found out on the water, Wang began serving as a crew member for weekly races at the Queen City Yacht Club (QCYC) in Toronto, Ontario. Drawn in by the camaraderie she found aboard and the physical and mental challenges of sailing, Wang began delving into the tradition's complex history, including its precise yet oblique language, like a secret code; its roots in colonial history and exploitation; and the long, mostly oral histories of Queen City and other sailing clubs. She takes readers along as she learns to tie knots and trim sails, pores over old maps to pinpoint QCYC's original location, and relishes the adventure of life on the water.

With an eye for telling details, Wang considers the plentiful metaphors that sailing provides for life and creativity. She captures the banter of her fellow crew members, considers how sailing has shaped her adult identity and fed into her existing sense of self, and explores the contrast between an image of serenity and a more chaotic reality, as both a sailor and a writer. As she contends with challenges nautical and artistic, Wang remains devoted to sailing and writing: she is an accomplished "maker of knots, a trimmer of stories." --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams

When Connecticut-raised New Yorker Tommy Silk embarked on a "harebrained scheme to track down as many landmarks in New York City as possi­ble" and photograph them, a popular Instagram account was born (@LandmarksofNY). Hidden Landmarks of New York: A Tour of the City's Most Overlooked Buildings gathers Silk's work into a book that would spruce up a coffee table in any ZIP code.

Showcased here are 120-odd photos of New York City buildings and clusters thereof; each image shares the page with a corresponding text that concludes, when applicable, with the year the subject was landmarked. While roughly half of Hidden Landmarks of New York is devoted to Manhattan sites, Silk dutifully represents each of New York's five boroughs. Readers can expect to see houses of worship, historic hubs of abolitionist activity and gay activism, firehouses (yes, including the one from Ghostbusters), and places that famous people called home (Manhattan's Langston Hughes House, Brooklyn's Truman Capote House, the Bronx's Poe Cottage).

Each large-scale, full-color image is so commanding that it would also make a big impression in a smaller format--think souvenir postcard. Likewise, the texts are punchy, often finding Silk unable to repress his zeal for his subject ("Want to feel Swiss in a formerly Polish neighborhood across from a church built for Italians?"). There are snatches of street life in many photos--outdoor diners here, dog walkers there--as if the book is hinting that, dazzling and humbling as the city's architecture is, New Yorkers are what make the city itself. --Nell Beram, author and freelance writer

After a climbing accident led to a permanent injury and splintered their once unbreakable bond, a brother, a sister, and their best friend hike the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) together in this marvelous contemporary YA novel about love--for others and for the land.

Ever since Hank's (18, white) climbing accident, his half-sister, Molly (17, Metís, "half-white"), has tiptoed around him. The duo's best friend, Tray (18, Metís), has been secretly crushing on Molly--who blames him for Hank's fall--while continuing to burn sweetgrass for Hank's healing. Hank simply wishes both would see that he's "not broken, just changed." The trio decides to hike the PCT together, and over its hundreds of miles, they both prod and soothe each other's mental wounds. Along the way, they "adopt" the sunnily extroverted Brynn, a self-identifying "mid-fat" girl (compared to Molly, who Brynn calls "small fat"). Brynn has wounds of her own and, when the quartet stops in an "only mildly depressing" town, flirting and singing cement momentous new friendships.

A Constellation of Minor Bears by Jen Ferguson (Those Pink Mountain Nights) poetically portrays the messiness and exhilaration of love (of all kinds) against the backdrop of the PCT's breathtaking vistas. The teens' tender hearts are revealed through a lyrical, multi-POV narrative that dips seamlessly into spectacularly funny moments. Tray, to whom it's "important not to pass as a settler," stunningly connects their adventure to Indigenous star stories, to song, to the land. Ferguson roots her novel in current teen struggles, deftly including parental pressure and a fat-positive mindset. A striking story in which accountability coexists with love, and growth is as important as forgiveness. --Samantha Zaboski, freelance editor and reviewer

In their lauded Banned Book Club, Korean creative team Kim Hyun Sook and Ryan Estrada, with illustrator Ko Hyung-Ju, used the graphic novel format to tell Kim's gripping story of book club rebellion under martial law. Kim and Estrada inspiringly continue Kim's autobiographical journey in No Rules Tonight, this time illustrated by Estrada himself.

No Rules Tonight opens in 1984, after Hyun Sook's banned book club was disbanded. The government's draconian curfews have been lifted, but "saying, thinking, watching, writing, or reading anything that the regime didn't approve of could still get me... arrested, beaten, or even killed." Hyun Sook feeds her curiosity and finds companionship through a Masked Folk Dance Team: "I studied Talchum, a thousand-year-old art form that was like band, musical theater, dance, history, and activism all rolled up into one." As winter break approaches, the team prepares for their annual hiking trip. The team's director, however, is unable to accompany them--when he doesn't stand at attention during the daily 5 p.m. playing of the national anthem, he is arrested and imprisoned.

Kim and Estrada highlight a sobering history. Kim is an inclusive storyteller who expands her own experiences through detailed examinations of her family, friends, acquaintances, and school. Her memories of team practices and performances are particularly resonant as she underscores the lifesaving power of art. Estrada displays that energy through full-color pages and comic panels that move, bend, and break, allowing the illustrations--and emotions--to spill out into uncontained full-page bleeds. He adroitly balances the all-too-real fear with humor, connection, and pure joy. --Terry Hong

Ann Clare LeZotte (Show Me a Sign) takes inspiration from a real-life court case and her own experiences as a "completely deaf" member of the Deaf community to sensitively explore language deprivation among deaf children in Deer Run Home, a devastating but hopeful middle-grade novel-in-verse.

Twelve-year-old Effie, who's deaf, speaks American Sign Language (ASL), which her family refuses to learn. She and her sister, Deja, live with their mom and stepdad during the Covid-19 pandemic. When Effie starts having bad dreams, Effie's mom--who will only listen if Effie uses her oral voice--reasons that Effie is "acting out." The girls are sent to their dad's trailer, where he claps in Effie's face or points at things to communicate. Her one comfort is Golden Eyes, a lone deer who's been separated from his herd because of the "new, small-box/ too-close-together houses" being built on the deer's land. When schools reopen, Effie is fortunately assigned to her previous ASL interpreter, Miss Kathy. The interpreter notices that Effie is being neglected and convinces Effie's dad to let the girl stay with her for a month. But Miss Kathy senses that something far worse may have happened to Effie. Is Effie ready to unlock those memories?

Deer Run Home is a heartrending novel that deals with the pain and trauma of child sexual abuse and neglect yet remains encouraging in its exploration of resiliency, advocating for oneself, and self-worth. LeZotte deftly contrasts the neglect and abuse Effie experiences at home with the support and compassion she receives at school, and skillfully connects the community's treatment of nature to Effie's family's view of her. Effie, like the displaced deer population, has no sanctuary. A moving, emotionally affecting novel. --Lana Barnes, freelance reviewer and proofreader

Art educator Geo Rutherford began to make a name for herself on TikTok in October of 2020, when she started posting a yearly "Spooky Lake Month" video series. The overwhelmingly enthusiastic response has resulted in Spooky Lakes the book, a beautifully illustrated work showcasing 25 fascinating and noteworthy lakes from around the globe.

Rutherford highlights lakes from every continent, which include one under ice in Antarctica, another created by a meteorite in Europe, and one accessible only through a hole in the middle of an Australian cow field. She explains the myriad ways lakes develop--volcanoes, glaciers, earthquakes, sometimes even humans--as well as the numerous lifeforms they may contain: sharks, jellyfish, nerpa seals, and more. Rutherford also reveals tantalizing tidbits one typically doesn't associate with lakes. For example, when the season becomes warm enough to melt the ice of Roopkund Lake in India, "the solitude of the lake is exposed as untrue" and hundreds of human skeletons are revealed "hidden beneath the snow." (Rutherford notes that "we still don't know why there are so many human remains there.")

Middle-grade readers may be drawn into the extraordinary world of limnology (the study of lakes) through Rutherford's spellbinding details and amazing facts. As part of the book's backmatter, Rutherford includes an author's note (though no map) that explains how she found a "balance between accuracy and artistic interpretation" in her gouache illustrations. This careful intentionality creates an eye-catching array of images in bright colors and lifelike textures that capture the power and atmosphere of each locale. Rutherford's meticulously researched content and harmonious art make a spectacular splash. --Jen Forbus, freelancer