Welcome to Future Fiction, my reimagining of the Waiting on Wednesday meme! There are so many amazing new books coming out, that I can no longer pick just one. My goal with Future Fiction is to share at least three new books each week, a combination of recent cover reveals and books that I’ve recently added to my TBR pile. I’m still going to be linking up with Wishful Endings/Can’t Wait Wednesday, and I also want to give a shout out to Jill at Breaking the Spine for starting the original Waiting on Wednesday meme. I hope you’ll find some new books to add to your TBR piles, and as always, I look forward to hearing what YOU’RE looking forward to:-D
Today I have an exciting cover reveal, as well as two intriguing supernatural mystery/thrillers, take a look:
Five years ago, ordinary Americans fell under the grip of a strange new malady that caused them to sleepwalk across the country to a destination only they knew. And they were followed on their quest by the shepherds: friends and family who gave up everything to protect them.
Their secret destination: Ouray, a small town in Colorado that would become one of the last outposts of civilization. Because the sleepwalkers were only the first in a chain of events that led to the end of the world—and the birth of a new one.
The survivors, sleepwalkers and shepherds alike, have a dream of rebuilding human society. Among them is Benji, the scientist struggling through grief to lead the town; Marcy, the former police officer who wants only to look after the people she loves; and Shana, the teenage girl who became the first shepherd—and an unlikely hero whose courage will be needed again.
Because the people of Ouray are not the only survivors, and the world they are building is fragile. The forces of cruelty and brutality are amassing under the leadership of self-proclaimed President Ed Creel. And in the very heart of Ouray, the most powerful survivor of all is plotting its own vision for the new world: Black Swan, the A.I. who imagined the apocalypse.
Against these threats, Benji, Shana, Marcy, and the rest have only one hope: Each other. Because the only way to survive the end of the world is together.
Wayward (Wanderers #2) by Chuck Wendig. Releases in August 2022 from Del Rey. This cover reveal caught me by surprise last week, but I’m so happy to see it. The first book in the series, Wanderers, was in my top five books of 2019, so you can imagine how excited I am for this sequel!
From Jason Rekulak, Edgar-nominated author of The Impossible Fortress, comes a wildly inventive spin on the classic horror story in Hidden Pictures, a creepy and warm-hearted mystery about a woman working as a nanny for a young boy with strange and disturbing secrets.
Fresh out of rehab, Mallory Quinn takes a job in the affluent suburb of Spring Brook, New Jersey as a babysitter for Ted and Caroline Maxwell. She is to look after their five-year-old son, Teddy.
Mallory immediately loves this new job. She lives in the Maxwell’s pool house, goes out for nightly runs, and has the stability she craves. And she sincerely bonds with Teddy, a sweet, shy boy who is never without his sketchbook and pencil. His drawings are the usual fare: trees, rabbits, balloons. But one day, he draws something different: a man in a forest, dragging a woman’s lifeless body.
As the days pass, Teddy’s artwork becomes more and more sinister, and his stick figures steadily evolve into more detailed, complex, and lifelike sketches well beyond the ability of any five-year-old. Mallory begins to suspect these are glimpses of an unsolved murder from long ago, perhaps relayed by a supernatural force lingering in the forest behind the Maxwell’s house.
With help from a handsome landscaper and an eccentric neighbor, Mallory sets out to decipher the images and save Teddy—while coming to terms with a tragedy in her own past—before it’s too late.
Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak. Releases in May 2022 from Flatiron Books. I can’t remember where I came across this book, but I immediately added it to my Goodreads list. Just like Come With Me, one of my favorite books this year, I feel like this might be an intriguing combo of mystery and the supernatural.
A rural island community steeped in the mystical superstitions of its founders and haunted by an unsolved murder is upended by the return of the suspected killer in this deeply atmospheric novel.
Emery Blackwood’s life was forever changed on the eve of her high school graduation, when the love of her life, August Salt, was accused of murdering her best friend, Lily. Now, she is doing what her teenage self swore she never would: living a quiet existence among the community that fractured her world in two. She’d once longed to run away with August, eager to escape the misty, remote shores of Saiorse Island and chase new dreams; now, she maintains her late mother’s tea shop and cares for her ailing father. But just as the island, rooted in folklore and tradition, begins to show signs of strange happenings, August returns for the first time in fourteen years and unearths the past that no one wants to remember.
August Salt knows he is not welcome on Saiorse, not after the night that changed everything. As a fire raged on at the Salt family orchard, Lily Morgan was found dead in the dark woods, shaking the bedrock of their tight-knit community and branding August a murderer. When he returns to bury his mother’s ashes, he must confront the people who turned their backs on him and face the one wound from the past that has never healed—Emery. But the town has more than one reason to want August gone, and the emergence of deep betrayals and hidden promises that span generations threatens to reveal the truth behind Lily’s death once and for all.
Evocative and compelling, Spells for Forgetting is a vivid exploration of lost love and the unraveling of a small town and its many secrets.
Spells for Forgetting by Adrienne Young. Releases in August 2022 from Delacorte Press. Adrienne Young is known for her YA fantasy, so this seems like a big change for her! I’m loving all the mystery/supernatural thrillers that are showing up lately, and this sounds like a good one.
Spells for Forgetting catches my eye. It sounds like a contemporary Gothic crime novel, cool.
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I’m really looking forward to Spells for Forgetting too:-)
All three of these sound good, Tammy. I meant to read Wanderers when it came out, but never got a copy of the book. The second book sounds really interesting. Thanks for reminding me of this series. I’ll have to take a look at all of these!
Wanderers was so good, lots of layers and super interesting science too.
Um I have the Wanderers but have yet to read it. Maybe I will and can catchup before the next one.
It’s really good!
I’m very glad to see we have Wayward to look forward to next year. It’ll be great to get back into that story, I really enjoyed Wanderers. I also just picked up an audiobook of Zer0es. 🙂
I really enjoyed Zeroes too, but yep, Wayward is going to be epic:-)
These all look great, but the Wendig book is #1 for me! I loved Wanderers, so excited at the idea of a sequel!
Me too! I’m super excited:-)
Hidden Pictures sounds like something I would dive in and not come up for air until the end… 😉
Agreed, I can’t wait:-)
OMG! All of these covers have such fantastic night themes! Awesome picks!
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Thanks!
I’m adding Spells for Forgetting to my tbr right now!
Doesn’t it sound good?
I am so HERE for Wayward! Another 800 pages? Bring it ON! I loved Wanderers as well, so I am pretty excited! Idk how I missed the Adrienne Young one, but it sounds really good, adding it now! Hidden Pictures sounds really interesting too, and I LOVE the cover! Thanks so much for sharing these!
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Ha ha I am actually looking forward to those 800 pages, and I often get scared of long books, lol.
I had no idea Wanderers was going to be a series, I haven’t even read the first one yet!
It wasn’t going to be a series, but then he came up with a story idea and voila!
I like the sound of all of these, and the covers are great too especially the one for Wayward 🙂
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I love the way Wayward goes with Wanderers:-)
I particularly like the look of Wayward! I’m gonna check the previous book first, though, so that I don’t get any spoiler 😉
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I think you need to read Wanderers first, but it’s very good:-)
The cover of Wayward is really something. I love covers that have a cabin and woods!
I’m already freaked out about Hidden Pictures after reading that synopsis. Eeeeehhh
And oooh different for Adrienne Young! Definitely don’t mind it! 😀
Stephanie @ Bookfever recently posted…Review: Phantom Heart by Kelly Creagh
Yes, Hidden Pictures is freaking me out too:-)
I admit to looking up how many pages Wayward is and… nope. I am excited about Hidden Pictures, though!
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Ha ha. I feel like Chuck’s books are long but they read really fast.
I actually (finally!) started reading the first book in the Wanderers series today. I’m off for the rest of the year so it seemed like a good time to try to squeeze it in. I’m excited for that Adrienne Young book too. I’ve had really good luck her books so far.
Me too, I’ve really loved the two Adrienne Young books I’ve read.
I am SO excited for Wayward, too! I absolutely love the sund of all of these, especially the new Adrienne Young one!
I love the sound of Spells for Forgetting and that Wendig cover is definitely my ‘catnip’. Dark night, cosy but lonely looking cottage. Oh yes. But, I haven’t read the first – drat this lack of time issue.
Lynn 😀