As If, Isabel Waidner's fifth novel, features two lookalike strangers who, after a chance meeting, with no spoken agreement, exchange lives. With notes of Stranger on a Train (minus the murders), their mutual obsession threatens both men's tenuous, borrowed realities.

In alternating first-person narratives, readers encounter Aubrey Lewis--"former actor whose career has come to nothing"--at the point where Lindsey Korine enters Lewis's dumpy sublet apartment in central London. Following the losses of both work and wife Laurie (to cancer), Lewis is moldering away. Korine follows him home and lets himself in, drawn to their physical sameness. He's been sleeping rough after walking out on his wife and young child. Discovering that Lewis intends to skip an upcoming audition, Korine decides to attend, and as Lewis, gets the job. Lewis walks out of the apartment and disappears. Korine, with no background or training, seizes the acting opportunity with surprising zeal. While Lewis is camped under the same bridge that his counterpart once used, Korine's wife and son happen by. They call him by the other man's name and take him home.

As the story unfolds, in dual narratives, Korine-as-Lewis struggles on the set of a new television show. Korine's wife, also named Laurie, has recently recovered from cancer treatment. Lewis is enlivened by the chance to care for Korine's son (he and the late Laurie had wanted maybe one day to have a child). Both anxiety-ridden, first-person voices emphasize the men's troubled states of mind, with short, staccato phrasing and abrupt punctuation. The effect is an unsettling novel of doubles, failures, missed and second chances: ghostly, cerebral, and unforgettable. --Julia Kastner, blogger at pagesofjulia

Cecilia Eudave, among Latin America's literary vanguard of "narrativa de lo inusual" (narrative of the unusual), makes her English-language debut with the haunting novel The Summer of the Serpent, translated from the Spanish by National Book Award winner Robin Myers. Reminiscent of interlinked short stories, Eudave's work presents a polyphonic chorus, many of the voices quite young, who are all residents of an unnamed Mexican neighborhood, as they reveal their versions of what happened during the summer of 1977.

That "was an unforgettable year," Maricarmen, the precocious initial narrator, comments, listing global events, lumping together Augusto Pinochet, Son of Sam, Elvis Presley. "And here, in Mexico? The National Family Planning Plan was approved, because we were so many and so violent." She's "still a little girl" visiting the San Antonio Parish fair with her father and younger sister, where she's "a front-row witness to the spectacle of the serpent girl."

Shrouded within this veneer of a seemingly typical community are unexpected inhabitants. One house is home to a "sweetly chameleonic" ghost who first tells the story of a "chubby baby-faced man" who hangs, but somehow doesn't kill, his fox terrier at 7 p.m. every day, except for Sundays. Monika, a neighbor, has a pet boa constrictor that's carefully planning its escape, even as it's admired and occasionally coveted by the local children. Eudave shifts viewpoints between her nine chapters, as if determined to further unsettle readers. She unblinkingly contrasts the innocence of children with the heinous behaviors in their midst that particularly threaten girls and young women. Eudave's startling fiction effectively holds a twisted funhouse mirror up to reveal disturbing realities. --Terry Hong

An exclusive wellness clinic specializing in treating women devastated by the end of romantic relationships provides an intriguing backdrop for The Break-Up Retreat, Camilla Sten's deliciously creepy thriller.

Despite features in high-end publications and the near-celebrity status of its founder, the Himlafall Clinic keeps a low profile. No photographs exist online of the clinic, located deep in Sweden's woods. Founder Dr. Martina Hastings has never been interviewed at the sprawling clinic, only in restaurants or hotel rooms. Rumors persist of abusive therapies and that some patients never return from the clinic.

Journalist Isobel Lindschold can't resist the lure of going undercover to investigate what happened to the missing women so she can write an exposé on Himlafall, nicknamed the "Break-Up Rehab." She checks in as a patient under a false surname and sneaks in a contraband portable recorder and cell phone. Isobel hopes that her article won't just advance her career but also allow her to reclaim her real last name, which was tainted by her disgraced journalist father.

Sten (The Bachelorette Party) escalates the suspense from the moment Isobel arrives at Himlafall, where the patients snipe at one another from the first evening. Staffers are as emotionally cold and intrusive as Martina, "a razor without a handle," whose manipulative approach sets each patient, including Isobel, on edge. Individual rooms don't have locks, and Isobel is convinced someone is peeking in her window. The nearby woods are foreboding, and the stakes rise when another woman disappears. Stern has a knack for intense psychological plotting, and in The Break-Up Retreat, she excels at it. --Oline H. Cogdill, freelance reviewer

At the start of Freida McFadden's The Divorce, Naomi is living her dream life: a perfect house, a perfect husband, and a perfect family. Then one day, she comes home to find her key not working and her husband insisting she spend the night alone in a dingy apartment across town.

Naomi accepts her husband's initial explanation--an anniversary gift of a full house remodel--as the reason for her forced departure, but it soon becomes clear that her husband and their son are not joining her. As it sinks in that Naomi's seemingly happy marriage has come to an abrupt and inexplicable end, she learns that her husband has canceled her credit card and hired the best lawyer in town. The cherry on top is his new, admittedly stunning, 20-something girlfriend, Veronica. Naomi's hope that this will all blow over and she will return to her old life slips away, and her attention--and accusations--turn directly toward Veronica. Through desperate and somewhat obsessive efforts, Naomi discovers disturbing, dangerous details of Veronica's past.

The Divorce is full of McFadden's (The Housemaid; The Tenant) signature twists and riveting turns, and she displays a sharp ability to create covertly cunning characters. As Naomi unravels alongside a mystery full of well-crafted secrets and carefully calculated deceit, this multi-perspective thriller explores just how messy a divorce can be. McFadden astutely depicts a truly exhilarating and downright treacherous narrative of separation and distortion. --Clara Newton, freelance reviewer

"It took Benjamin Franklin twenty-seven minutes and fourteen seconds to discover there was pornography on the internet. It was pretty impressive, considering the boy had started from zero."

These two small sentences at the start of Meg Elison's Foundling Fathers set the tone for this small but mighty work, a brilliant and absurd bit of speculative fiction that considers: What if human cloning were possible?

What follows is a brutal imagining of this kind of scientific potential in the context of 21st-century U.S. politics, driven by power and greed and a desire to be "great," absent the moral reckoning required in unpacking the mythology of history. In Elison's speculative 2026, the ability to clone humans has been used not to advance scientific breakthroughs, cure diseases, or feed the hungry, but instead to rebirth the Founding Fathers in a misguided attempt to return their perceived genius to the political mess that is the United States. "The only way forward is to go back," the moneyed elite argue in a board meeting miles from where the cloned boys are being raised to believe it's 1750; "to re-center this nation on its founding principles."

Like all good satire, some of these revelations are uncomfortable, some disturbing. But Elison's sharp sense of humor keeps the novel from ever feeling heavy or pedantic. Foundling Fathers is a timely send-up (and takedown) of the billionaire ruling class, a delicate unpacking of the myths of the U.S.'s earliest days, and a sharp and insightful work of satire that cracks the very foundations of the present political moment in ways that are as necessary as they are unsettling. --Kerry McHugh, freelance writer

Heaven's Graveyard by Grace Curtis (Idolfire; Floating Hotel) is an intriguing science fantasy exploration of history, myth, and the fine line between fascination and obsession.

Cod's reverence for mythic hero Aleya Ana-Ulai has led her to move far from her home to build a career as an archeologist and search for every grain of truth to prove that the age-old heroine might have been real. But Cod's focus on the ancient and mythic past has left her with a spartan life in the present. She's lonely, isolated, and unaware of the political struggles in her own time and how those struggles are connected to the secrets she is desperate to uncover.

It seems like nothing might call Cod away from her research--until her old mentor sends a wire claiming he has uncovered something she absolutely must return to see. But when Cod arrives home, it is just in time for the professor's funeral. She and her ex-lover Sparrow try to puzzle out his last discovery and who was responsible for his death. Cod unearths the secrets of the myths, a hidden city, the magic of the ancient gods, and pieces of her own past.

Curtis has written an engaging science fantasy crossed with a murder mystery that probes human truths about the dangers of fixation, unrequited love, and meeting one's heroes (or even deities). She does so while maintaining a sense of humor and without becoming heavy-handed. Through Cod, Curtis shows readers the high cost of getting everything you ever wanted, and what it means then to choose to "do the work of being good, the work of being brave." --Michelle Anya Anjirbag, freelance reviewer

Dolly All the Time by Annabel Monaghan (Nora Goes Off Script; It's a Love Story) is another wonderful summer romance perfect for fans of Carley Fortune and Abby Jimenez. Single mother and kindergarten teacher Dolly Brick has moved home to Whitfield, R.I., for the summer to help her father with their family's struggling business, Brick Fish House, and caring for her disabled brother, Christopher.

While delivering shrimp, Dolly stops to change a tire for millionaire Stewart Whitfield (yes, the town is named after his family). A photo of them ends up in the New York Post, giving Stewart the idea to offer Dolly a shocking proposition: if she pretends to date him for the summer, he'll pay her enough to replace the roof on her dad's house and address some of the issues at Brick Fish House. It turns out that Stewart's fiancée has just spectacularly ditched him in favor of a New York Yankees pitcher. Stewart wants to imply that he and his fiancée parted ways amicably, and that he's been seeing Dolly for a while. Dolly can't resist the financial lure and resigns herself to laughing sycophantically at Stewart's jokes all summer. But to her surprise, Stewart turns out to be genuinely funny, kind, and good with her 13-year-old son.

Poignant and amusing, Dolly All the Time is a perfectly atmospheric read. Readers will long to sail with Stewart and Dolly and shop for fresh seafood at the Brick Fish House. With a likable, realistic main character, a pitch-perfect New England setting, and laugh-out-loud parenting moments balanced by day-to-day stress of finances and family, Dolly All the Time is contemporary romance at its best. --Jessica Howard, former bookseller, freelance book reviewer

In her spirited debut novel, Leave and Come Back, Lavanya Lakshmi offers the rom-com-fam-dram of Simran Gopal, an Indian woman who lost her parents as a teen, and her budding romance with her best friend's brother, Leo Bridgers. Returning to New Jersey for a wedding after running away nearly a decade before, Simran must face all the emotions and challenges she escaped. She's also planning a scheme based on the plot of her favorite Bollywood movie to ingratiate Leo with the family before telling them about her relationship with him.

Readers will find themselves as drawn into the range of distinct characters in Simran's family as Leo is. The supporting cast includes the younger generation of women full of secrets, the men content to be included, and the older generation trying to steer their children into happiness. Every one of them play a role in the hijinks concocted by Rishi, the groom, and Simran's cousins to aid Simran's scheme. All the while, Simran is unraveling the complicated relationship between her aunt and uncle and her late parents, and reconciling with the cousin she left behind.

The romance is sweet and tender, and the shenanigans, such as climbing on roofs to impress the aunties and quiet walks admiring trees to win over uncles, prove that Leo puts in his all for Simran as she works through her long-held grief and familial obligations, making the ending feel truly earned. With this delightful debut, Lakshmi shows great promise in the romance/family drama world. --Alyssa Parssinen, freelance reviewer and former bookseller

How does one define home and family? Or, as a character in My Year in Paris with Gertrude Stein, Deborah Levy's ingenious meld of fact and fiction, puts it: How should people "put ourselves together?" A cigar-smoking lesbian in a queer-unfriendly era, Stein has fascinated readers, including the unnamed narrator of this book, with the life she defined for herself. The narrator, a writer from England, has come to Paris to research an essay on Stein but struggles with the process. Two friends ameliorate her situation. One is Eva, a woman from Copenhagen at work on a graphic novel. The other is Fanny, a Frenchwoman with three female lovers. The 2024 U.S. elections loom, as does a smaller problem: Eva's cat, one ear shorter than the other, has disappeared.

Levy's inspired touch is to alternate fictional scenes with biographical information about Stein. She packs a lot into this slender book: Stein's birth in Allegheny, Pa., in 1874; her time as a medical student at Johns Hopkins University; her 1903 move to Paris to begin a new life; her decades with partner Alice B. Toklas; and her years of obscurity until The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas made her a star. Levy (The Position of Spoons) deftly intersperses moments from Stein's life and quotations from her writings with scenes involving Eva, Fanny, and the narrator. "Every century needs an artist to dismantle coherence as we have been taught it and make a space for something new to happen," the narrator writes. Something gloriously new happens here, too, thanks to Levy's clever work. --Michael Magras, freelance book reviewer

William C. Morris Award winner DeAndra Davis's sophomore YA title, The Lovers, the Liars, and Me, is a moving coming-of-age novel featuring a Jamaican American teen searching for her estranged mother.

When 17-year-old Jaliya was four, her mother left her and her dad in Florida, returned to Jamaica, and cut off all contact. "The sting of abandonment" has never gone away, and when Jaliya receives a tattered, unsigned letter in the mail with an unreadable return address, she believes the letter is from her mother. "I want to see you soon," it says, "and I'm hoping we can make that happen." Jaliya accepts her dad's offer to visit family in Jamaica before college and is excited to be a sleuth. She is unprepared, though, for the changes since she last visited seven years ago. Her beloved cousin, Shevaughn, is standoffish; her longtime crush, Andre, is unavailable; and her uncle seems angrier. Jaliya catches up with Shevaughn's friend Deon and is introduced to "drop-dead gorgeous" India. As Shevaughn and his friends help Jaliya search for her mother over the course of the balmy, extraordinary summer, Jaliya discovers she is attracted to India--around the same time that Andre becomes available.

The Lovers, the Liars, and Me is an excellent read for fans of Leah Johnson and Anna-Marie McLemore looking for a deeply authentic and reflective novel with an intimate first-person point of view that explores identity, sexuality, and family. Davis (All the Noise at Once) develops a multifaceted protagonist who seeks clarity--emotionally, culturally, and romantically--but finds as many questions as she does answers. --Natasha Harris, freelance reviewer

A teen girl whose father is a serial killer must figure out where he buried the bodies in the hair-raising and suspenseful first YA novel, Thornbird, from E. Kennedy, pen name of Off-Campus series author Elle Kennedy.

Gabriel Thorn, the Starling Slayer, killed his last victim 10 years ago. His daughter, Gabrielle, went to live with her grandmother in Allentown, Pa. Now Gran has died and the 17-year-old has been forced to take on an alias and move in with her aunt in the small town where her father committed his murders. The families of her dad's victims in Starling, Tenn., still hungry for justice, promise a new reward for information about the undiscovered remains of their loved ones. Gabrielle's alias works and she is invited to join the "body hunt" led by true-crime junkies and obsessed podcasters, though she'd rather spend time with the school's "happy-go-lucky" quarterback or "brooding loner." Then come the threatening texts: "Stop looking or you'll regret it"; "I know who you are." Determined to help her town, Gabrielle starts questioning if the disturbing things her father once said might actually be clues to where the bodies are hidden.

Kennedy presents a whiplashing narrative of terrifying and touching moments. Gabriella battles with the love she still feels for her father and seeks a way to escape his shadow. Her attraction to two very different young men--"the golden boy and the delinquent"--highlights how her father's mental instability shook her understanding of what it means to be cared for. Confession transcripts, screencaps of online forums, and prison letters are compelling incorporations in this twist-filled guessing game. --Samantha Zaboski, freelance editor and reviewer

"Wyatt the Worrier" rebrands himself as "Wyatt the Wild" in this exhilarating middle-grade adventure featuring an 11-year-old who survives grizzly bear attacks, mudslides, and other life-threatening situations, all during a painful family restructure after his parents' divorce.

Wyatt loves "math, machines, and predictability." But life is low-tech and unconventional at the off-grid Montana wildlife-rescue ranch his father runs with his fiancée, Iris, and her outdoorsy son, 12-year-old Emmett. When Wyatt visits for summer break, he connects with Goldie, an injured wolf pup on the ranch that needs antibiotic shots before she can be rewilded. Wyatt, the only human the skittish pup trusts, comes to a conclusion based on Goldie: to "join a pack, you have to be a wolf. You have to be wild. If I want to fit in here... I can't be, well, me." When Goldie escapes before she has healed, Wyatt's desire to appear courageous and his concern for the young wolf lead him to become stranded in the wilderness with Emmett. As Wyatt and Emmett face one perilous situation after another, Wyatt questions what it even means to be courageous. 

As in his earlier middle-grade novel, Rare Birds, Jeff Miller offers a funny, likable, vulnerable protagonist who finds agency during harrowing life struggles. In addition to Wyatt's first-person narrative, Miller includes occasional italicized chapters from Goldie's point of view, describing her own experience and how she perceives "Soft Paw," or Wyatt, as a kindred lonely spirit. Wyatt the Wild unites thrilling action with emotional growth and should resonate with fans of Dan Gemeinhart and Kate DiCamillo. --Emilie Coulter, freelance writer and editor