Future Fiction #351 – Cover Reveals & Newly Discovered SFF Books

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

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Today I’m sharing three books that skew towards “weird,” but you’re going to want to check them out, even if weird isn’t your thing. Take a look:

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What would you do for a seat at the table? In this deliciously dark thriller set in remote Japan, a desperate gambling addict masquerades as the private chef to a reclusive billionaire with deadly taste—from the twisted mind behind Claire, Darling.

They will kill me soon, Edward Cook thinks. When the Yakuza are unable to collect what he owes, Ed realizes that they’ll go after his wife and child next. Broke, desperate, and unemployed, he stumbles upon an unusual Chef wanted! Private chef needed for a high-profile businesswoman. One million yen per day.

Ed accepts the job. He hasn’t earned any Michelin stars, but he knows his way around a kitchen. Leaving his life in Tokyo behind, he departs for an opulent estate in the mountains owned by Hazeline Yamamoto, his enigmatic and reclusive benefactor, a disgraced socialite with a predator’s smile and exacting palette. Hazeline’s world is one of taste, connoisseurship, and experimentation—she is a certified gourmand. But when you can afford filet mignon for every meal, you begin to seek out the strange and forbidden.

The closer Ed gets to Hazeline and a brighter future that she promises—if only he remains loyal—the closer he is to realizing the chilling truth about her altruism. In this shadow world of unimaginable wealth, there are worse monsters than two-bit gangsters. The wind blowing through Hazeline’s home carries the sound of screaming, and Ed finds himself feeding all kinds of beasts.

Perfect for fans of Parasite and The Menu—enticing as a starter, meaty as a main dish, and full of satisfying just-desserts—Greedy is a suspenseful poison-pen note to classism and an ode to Japanese cuisine, a horror-tinged thriller unsuitable for vegetarians but full of shocking delights for every reader.

Greedy by Callie Kazumi. Releases in February 2026 from Bantam. This is such a stunning cover! And I love the “Not suitable for vegetarians” warning, lol. This wasn’t on my radar until I was offered a review copy (which I quickly accepted), and now I’m putting it on your radar:-)

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Once upon a time, on the edge of a forest, there was a lonely child with only his older sister for company. So his sister made him a playmate — Daye, a girl woven from carefully selected flowers and words. And finally, this boy, Rory, had a friend.

Rory is gloriously happy, until he learns that Daye is a seasonal creature. At the end of each season, she must be woven back together or fall gruesomely apart. And when, one autumn, his sister fails to return home from university in time, Rory has no choice but to watch his best friend slowly crumble, not knowing until the last second if she can be pieced together again.

Realizing he can no longer rely on his sister to keep Daye alive, Rory determines he must leave home to learn how to do it himself. And the more he learns, the more he starts to Why can’t Daye survive more than one season? Can he do anything to break this cycle of bloom and decay? But as Rory grows older, his thoughts turn darker too . . .

While Rory sinks deeper into research and experiments, ensconced in libraries and hunched in university labs, Daye is left to wait for his return. Alone. Sometimes, the silence seems to seep all the way to her branch-bones. Sometimes, the company of birds is the only thing to remind her that she is still alive. And as Rory keeps pushing his experiments further and further, Daye starts to wonder – how far is too far?

An entrancing, inventive and unsettling reimagining of the story of Blodeuwedd from Welsh mythology, Honeysuckle is a feminist Frankenstein with flowers; a deliciously dark, twisted, horror-tinged fairytale with rot at its heart . . .

Honeysuckle by Bar Fridman-Tell. Releases in March 2026 from Tor Nightfire. This sounds completely unhinged, and I am here for it! I love that’s it’s based on a tale from Welsh mythology, and the cover is spectacular. If you click on the Goodreads link, you can also see the gorgeous UK cover, which I might even like better than this one.

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SIT. SPEAK. STAY. 

Lonely, broke, and depressed, Gia is desperate for a lifeline. When Nathan, a wealthy stranger on a sugar dating site approaches her with a very specific offer, she can’t refuse.

The instructions are simple, he says. For eight hours a day, she must wear the collar. Drink from the bowl. Sleep in the cage. Be a dog.

Be his dog.

Then, she can go home and be Gia again, and she ever feels uncomfortable or unsafe, she can always leave.

Those were the terms of the agreement. But Gia soon finds out Nathan isn’t a man who keeps his promises.

In this harrowing tale of survival and revenge, Mia Ballard crafts a visceral, unflinching descent into the dark heart of lost autonomy and the feral rage it awakens. Shy Girl is a scream against the cage of expectation, where justice isn’t quiet—it’s bloody and unapologetic.

Shy Girl by Mia Ballard. Releases in April 2026 from Run For It. OK I am both horrified and intrigued by this premise, and I need to know more. Here’s another fantastic cover!

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What do you think of this week’s Future Fiction picks? Let me know in the comments!