September Hype Post!
Better late than never, right? I usually do these in the middle-ish of the month looking out but oops, it’s already the second of September and I’ve been remiss in getting this out to you all… I’m going to blame this on *gestures at world*. So without further ado, some books to look out for in September – it’s going to be a short one and an all adult one this month.
Summer Sons by Lee Mandelo, out from Tordotcom on the 28th. Think of this as the gay answer to Leigh Bardugo’s Ninth House and Victoria Lee’s A Lesson In Vengeance, two books I absolutely adored. Not that they aren’t plenty queer themselves, but Summer Sons features THE best disaster gay boy ever: Andrew. Mr. why-of-course-I-am-straight-why-ever-would-you-ask. The book coasts by on vibes, excellent writing and some of the best characters and character tension I have ever read. Oh, and of course there is creepy ghostly goings on, dark academia and drag racing. And a hot drug dealer. If you haven’t hit pre-order by now, I don’t know what to tell you, this is just such a brilliant book – my review will be up over at Grimdark Magazine soon, and you can grab your copy via Blackwell’s here.
I am quite salty that I haven’t managed to get my hands on an ARC of Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki. Out from Tor on the 28th as well, I’ve got a bunch of friends who have had the privilege of reading and reviewing this one already and every single one of them has absolutely raved about this book. From the blurb: “Shizuka Satomi made a deal with the devil: to escape damnation, she must entice seven other violin prodigies to trade their souls for success. She has already delivered six. When Katrina Nguyen, a young transgender runaway, catches Shizuka’s ear with her wild talent, Shizuka can almost feel the curse lifting. She’s found her final candidate.” This just sounds like such a delightful book and I know I will absolutely fall for it when I finally get it. Order a copy from Blackwell’s here.
The third book on this list is Zoraida Córdova’s The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina, published by Atria on the 7th. Zoraida’s basically got me convinced to read anything she writes these days so I wanted to read this before I read the blurb (and damn, if the cover alone isn’t reason to pick this up) – but the blurb also sounds fantastic. It’s a generational story set in around a family used to a life filled with small magic that they never ask many questions about. But when Orquidea, the Matriarch, invites the family to her funeral, they hope for answers, only to be faced with more questions. And as time passes and their gifts manifest in different ways it becomes more and more pressing to find those answers… It sounds like a magical story to fall in love with. Pre-order it from Blackwell’s here.