Ten Upcoming Books That Don’t Have Covers Yet #4

Katsu has been writing a lot of spy books lately, so I’m excited to see her going back to horror. I was just approved for this on NetGalley and I’m very happy:-)

3. We Love You, Bunny by Mona Awad. Simon & Schuster, September 23rd.

In the cult classic novel Bunny, Samatha Heather Mackey, a lonely outsider student at a highly selective MFA program in New England, was first ostracized and then seduced by a clique of creepy-sweet rich girls who call themselves “Bunny.” An invitation to the Bunnies’ Smut Salon leads Samantha down a dark rabbit hole (pun intended) into the violently surreal world of their off-campus workshops where monstrous creations are conjured with deadly and wondrous consequences.

When We Love You, Bunny opens, Sam has just published her first novel to critical acclaim. But at a New England stop on her book tour, her one-time frenemies, furious at the way they’ve been portrayed, kidnap her. Now a captive audience, it’s her (and our) turn to hear the Bunnies’ side of the story. One by one, they take turns holding the axe, and recount the birth throes of their unholy alliance, their discovery of their unusual creative powers—and the phantasmagoric adventure of conjuring their first creation. With a bound and gagged Sam, we embark on a wickedly intoxicating journey into the heart of dark academia: a fairy tale slasher that explores the wonder and horror of creation itself. Not to mention the transformative powers of love and friendship, Bunny.

Frankenstein by way of Heathers, We Love You, Bunny is both a prequel and a sequel, and an unabashedly wild and totally complete stand-alone novel. Open your hearts, Bunny, to another dazzlingly original and darkly hilarious romp in the Bunny-verse from the queen of the fever-dream, Mona Awad.

OK, I still haven’t read Bunny, but seeing there’s a sequel coming out means I’m going to catch up with it before September.

4. What Stalks the Deep (Sworn Solider #3) by T. Kingfisher. Tor Nightfire, September 30th.

The next novella in the New York Times bestselling Sworn Soldier series, featuring Alex Easton investigating the dark, mysterious depths of a coal mine in America

Alex Easton does not want to visit America.

They particularly do not want to visit an abandoned coal mine in West Virginia with a reputation for being haunted.

But when their old friend Dr. Denton summons them to help find his lost cousin—who went missing in that very mine—well, sometimes a sworn soldier has to do what a sworn soldier has to do…

I wasn’t crazy about the last book in the series, but I’m here for whatever T. Kingfisher writes, so I’ll definitely be reading this.

5. The Heist of Hollow London by Eddie Robson. Tor Books, September 30th.

In games of betrayal, everyone loses.

Arlo and Drienne are ‘mades’—clones of company executives, deemed important enough to be saved should their health fail. Mades work around the clock to pay off the debt incurred by their creation, though most are Reaped—killed and harvested for organs when their corporate counterparts are in medical need.

But when the impossible happens and the too-big-to-fail company that owns them collapses, Arlo and Drienne find themselves purchased by a scientist who has a job for them.

The reward: Debt paid off, freedom from servitude, and enough cash to last a lifetime.
The job: Infiltrate a highly secure corporate reclamation facility in the heart of dead London, and steal a data drive.

They’re going to need a team.

I really enjoyed Robson’s Drunk On All Your Strange New Words, so I’ll read anything he writes. Heist story + clones sounds like fun!

6. Cinder House by Freya Marske. Tordotcom, October 7th.

Sparks fly in Cinder House, a Gothic fairytale romance from bestselling author Freya Marske. Perfect for fans of Naomi Novik and T. Kingfisher, this Cinderella retelling is filled with yearning and a gorgeous queer romance.

Ella is a haunting.

Murdered at sixteen, her ghost is furiously trapped in her father’s house, invisible to everyone except her stepmother and stepsisters.

Even when she discovers how to untether herself from her prison, there are limits. She cannot be seen or heard by the living people who surround her. Her family must never learn she is able to leave. And at the stroke of every midnight, she finds herself back on the staircase where she died.

Until she forges a wary friendship with a fairy charm-seller, and makes a bargain for three nights of almost-living freedom. Freedom that means she can finally be seen. Danced with. Touched.

You think you know Ella’s the ball, the magical shoes, the handsome prince.

You’re halfway right, and all-the-way wrong.

Rediscover a classic fairy tale in this debut novella from Freya Marske, the queen of romantic fantasy.

I love discovering new fairytale retellings, and I love Freya Marske, so this should be a fun combo!

7. The Last Witch by C.J. Cooke. Harper Collins (UK), October 9th.

Helena Scheuberin should be doing what every other young wife is keeping house, supporting her husband, bearing his children. But when her husband’s footman, Leopold, with whom she was having an affair, is found dead, Helena is accused of killing him. Worse, she is accused of being a witch.

Imprisoned with six other women, Helena is plunged from her bejewelled life of comfort into a world of terror. When a cursed witch totem is smuggled into the prison, the prisoners attempt to use it to conjure escape. But the totem is the severed hand of a murdered woman, and when a ghost appears to possess each of the prisoners, Helena realises her life is in danger both inside and outside the dungeon.

Does Helena risk her life and the lives of others by standing up to a man determined to paint her as the most wicked of all? Or is the world beyond this one the real threat?

Based on a real-life event, this historical horror offers a jewel-bright portrait of female power in the thick of wide-spread female disempowerment, a thrilling addition to the canon of witcherature and silenced voices from the past.

As far as I can tell, the U.S. edition hasn’t been announced, but I wanted to list this anyway. I’m confused by the term “witcherature,” I’ve never heard it before, have you?

8. Girl Dinner by Olivie Blake. Tor Books, October 21st.

From the New York Timesbestselling author of The Atlas Six, Girl Dinner is a darkly-fun novel about power, lust, and eating your fill, as wealthy moms and sorority girls practice a sinister new wellness trend . . .

Good girls deserve a treat.

Every member of The House, the most exclusive sorority on campus, and all its alumni, are beautiful, high-achieving, and universally respected.

After a freshman year she would rather forget, sophomore Nina Kaur knows being one of the chosen few accepted into The House is the first step in her path to the brightest possible future. Once she’s taken into their fold, the House will surely ease her fears of failure and protect her from those who see a young woman on her own as easy prey.

Meanwhile, adjunct professor Dr. Sloane Hartley is struggling to return to work after accepting a demotion to support her partner’s new position at the cutthroat University. After 18 months at home with her newborn daughter, Sloane’s clothes don’t fit right, her girl-dad husband isn’t as present as he thinks he is, and even the few hours a day she’s apart from her child fill her psyche with paralyzing ennui. When invited to be The House’s academic liaison, Sloane enviously drinks in the way the alumnae seem to have it all, achieving a level of collective perfection that Sloane so desperately craves.

As Nina and Sloane each get drawn deeper into the arcane rituals of the sisterhood, they learn that living well comes with bloody costs. And when they are finally invited to the table, they will have to decide just how much they can stomach in the name of solidarity and power.

I’m intrigued by the dark academy, sorority storyline, and yes, especially the title!

9. The Everlasting by Alix. E. Harrow. Tor Books, October 20th.

From the Sunday Times bestselling author of Starling House, Alix E. Harrow, comes a moving and genre-defying adventure through time – as a reluctant lady knight and a not-so-heroic-historian will fight through time and space to rewrite their tragic fates . . . and finally reveal the truths hidden beneath the greatest legend ever told.

It begins where it ends: beneath the yew tree – a girl not yet a knight, and a boy without a story.

It is where she pulls a sword from the heartwood and becomes a legend.

And it is where, more than a thousand years later, he will find her – and lose her – and find her – and lose her again.

It is where a new story will be written – but whose will it be?

The blurb is sort of vague, but this sounds like it could be an epic tale, maybe reminiscent of Harrow’s The Ten Thousand Doors of January. I can’t wait!

10. Enchanting the Fae Queen (Queens of Villainy #2) by Stephanie Burgis. Bramble, Release date ???

No blurb or release date yet, but I’m really looking forward to the next book in Burgis’s series after Wooing the Witch Queen!

Do you plan on adding any of these to your TBR?