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
A little something for everyone this week, take a look:
Of all the things aspiring artist Haven Marbury expected to find while clearing out her late father’s remote seaside house, Bedtime Stories for Monsters was not it. This secret handwritten manuscript is disturbingly different from his Pulitzer-winning works: its interweaving short stories crawl with horrific monsters and enigmatic humans that exist somewhere between this world and the next. The stories unsettle but also entice Haven, practically compelling her to illustrate them while she stays in the house that her father warned her was haunted―clearly just dementia whispering in his ear.
Reeling from a failed marriage, Haven hopes an illustrated Bedtime Stories can be the lucrative posthumous father-daughter collaboration she desperately needs to jump-start her art career. However, everyone in the nearby vacation town wants a piece of the manuscript: her father’s obsessive literary salon members, the Ink Drinkers; her mysterious yet charming neighbor, who has a tendency toward 3:00 a.m. bonfires; a young barista with a literary forgery business; and of course, whoever keeps trying to break into her house. But when a monstrous creature appears under Haven’s bed right as grisly deaths are reported in the nearby woods, it’s clear she is about to uncover dark, otherworldly family secrets―and completely rewrite everything she ever knew about herself.
Malice House by Megan Shepherd. Releases in October 2022 from Hyperion Avenue. I’ve really enjoyed Shepherd’s YA books in the past, and I’m curious to see what she does in the adult age group. I love this cover, I mean you can’t go wrong with a spooky, cliffside house:-D
England, 1882. In Victorian London, two children with mysterious powers are hunted by a figure of darkness —a man made of smoke.
Sixteen-year-old Charlie Ovid, despite a lifetime of brutality, doesn’t have a scar on him. His body heals itself, whether he wants it to or not. Marlowe, a foundling from a railway freight car, shines with a strange bluish light. He can melt or mend flesh. When two grizzled detectives are recruited to escort them north to safety, they are forced to confront the nature of difference, and belonging, and the shadowy edges of the monstrous.
What follows is a journey from the gaslit streets of London, to an eerie estate outside Edinburgh, where other children with gifts—the Talents—have been gathered. Here, the world of the dead and the world of the living threaten to collide. And as secrets within the Institute unfurl, Marlowe, Charlie and the rest of the Talents will discover the truth about their abilities, and the nature of the force that is stalking them: that the worst monsters sometimes come bearing the sweetest gifts.
With lush prose, mesmerizing world-building, and a gripping plot, Ordinary Monsters presents a catastophic vision of the Victorian world—and of the gifted, broken children who must save it.
Ordinary Monsters (The Talents Trilogy #1) by J.M. Miro. Releases in June 2022 from Flatiron Books. This cover has been around for a while, but the book just made it onto my radar. This is a long puppy at nearly 700 pages, and I don’t get along too well with long books, but I have to say I’m intrigued!
A darkly humorous, surprisingly poignant, and utterly gripping debut novel about a guy who works in Hell (literally) and is on the cusp of a big promotion if only he can get one more member of the wealthy Harrison family to sell their soul.
Peyote Trip has a pretty good gig in the deals department on the fifth floor of Hell. Sure, none of the pens work, the coffee machine has been out of order for a century, and the only drink on offer is Jägermeister, but Pey has a plan—and all he needs is one last member of the Harrison family to sell their soul.
When the Harrisons retreat to the family lake house for the summer, with their daughter Mickey’s precocious new friend, Ruth, in tow, the opportunity Pey has waited a millennium for might finally be in his grasp. And with the help of his charismatic coworker Calamity, he sets a plan in motion.
But things aren’t always as they seem, on Earth or in Hell. And as old secrets and new dangers scrape away at the Harrisons’ shiny surface, revealing the darkness beneath, everyone must face the consequences of their choices.
Sign Here by Claudia Lux. Releases in October 2022 from Berkley. I think this sounds like fun! I don’t usually look on NetGalley for books to share, but I spotted this and thought it would be a good one. Hell as a workplace? Ha ha, must read.
The third one LOL.
Ha ha right?
Ordinary Monsters sounds particularly fascinating . . . Maybe because ‘I like big books and I cannot lie’! xD Really, I’ll keep that one in mind 😉
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LOL I think it sounds amazing.
Three different but equally intriguing books I will have to keep at the center of my radar! Thanks for sharing 🙂
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My pleasure!
Ordinary Monsters sounds eerie and good. I tried to get Sign Here from NetGalley but was refused.:-( I’ll have to wait.
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Oh sorry to hear that…
The second cover is so good! I hope you enjoy these books
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Thanks Emma, I love that cover too.
These all look great, but I especially like the sound of Malice. Can’t go wrong with a spooky house full of secrets!
I agree, can’t wait!
I just added Malice House to my TBR this morning. It sounds so good.
It does! I hope we both get the chance to read it:-)
These all sound pretty good!
They do, right?
I was just looking at Megan Shepherd’s book earlier! I really loved The Madman’s Daughter by her and am so curious to check this one out. I also just got an ARC of Ordinary Monsters taht I’m so excited to read–and seriously, I feel like so many fantasy books lately are just so big, haha.
Ordinary Monsters is one long book I think I’d love:-)
Sign Here sounds like a riot! It’s new to me but who wouldn’t want to read a book about a protagonist named Peyote Trip?
Ha ha exactly!
Oh I am all over Sign here! It sounds hilarious!
Right? I’m so curious about it:-)
I want Ordinary Monsters in my life – it sounds like my thing.
Lynn 😀
I agree, it does sound really good:-)
I love the sound of Sign Here – it’s not available yet on Netgalley UK, but I’ll keep an eye open for it, as I’ve noticed that books comes available at different times depending on whereabouts you live… But as ever, a classy selection of books, Tammy:).
Thanks Sarah, good luck finding Sign Here:-)
They all sounds intriguing! Thanks for sharing!!
Thanks Susy!
If not for that last one I’d say there was a hint of a horror vibe going on. So that last one is perhaps a great addition, adding in some humor to the reading pile.
Although it sounds like humorous horror:-)
I recently found out about Malice House too & can’t wait to see what it’s like. So many YA authors seem to have been writing adult novels over the last few years.
I think I saw Joe Hill do an awesome sounding blurb for Ordinary Monsters which only made me want it more!
Sign Here looks so FUN! And I too have enjoyed Megan Shepherd’s YA books, and am curious about this one too. With the middle one though… I think you lost me at 700 pages
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