Fiction Five: Eclectic mix of new reads
Start your reading year by diving into a grab bag of the hottest fiction hitting shelves this January. From Buckingham Palace in the 1850s to a post-apocalyptic landscape governed by AI, these newest titles will appeal to a wide range of readers.
What Happened to the McCrays? by Tracey Lange
When Kyle McCray learns his father has suffered a debilitating stroke, he returns to his hometown of Potsdam, New York, where he doesn’t expect a warm welcome. Kyle left two and a half years ago, abandoning people who depended on him: his father, his employees, his friends and Casey, his wife of 16 years. He plans to lie low and help his dad recuperate until he can leave again, especially after Casey makes it clear she wants him gone.
The longer he’s home, the more Kyle understands the impact his departure had on the people he left behind. When he finds an opportunity for redemption as the coach of the floundering middle school hockey team, he begins to find compassion in unexpected places. Kyle even considers staying in Potsdam, but that’s only possible if he and Casey can find some kind of peace.
"The novel’s emotional range is impressive, particularly the slow-burn rekindling between its two leads, and snowy, close-knit Potsdam comes to life. Readers in search of a perceptive and rewarding family drama need look no further." ―Publishers Weekly
We Lived on the Horizon by Erika Swyler
Bulwark is a walled city, built centuries ago by survivors of an apocalypse. The city was founded on a system where sacrifice is rewarded by the AI that runs it. Over generations, an elite class called the Sainted has evolved from the descendants of those who gave up the most to found mankind’s last stronghold.
Saint Enita Malovis, long accustomed to luxury, feels the end of her life and decades of work as a bio-prosthetist approaching. The lone practitioner of her art, Enita is determined to preserve her legacy by creating a physical being, called Nix, filled with her knowledge and experience. Amid her project, a fellow Sainted is brutally murdered and the city AI inexplicably erases the event from its data. Soon, Enita and Nix are drawn into the growing war that could change everything between Bulwark’s hidden underclass and the programs that impose and maintain order.
“Erika Swyler’s We Lived on the Horizon delivers everything I crave from great science fiction: a pulse-quickening plot, an endless stream of imaginative wonders, and the kind of moral clarity that brings to mind the grand ethical visions of writers like Ursula K. Le Guin and Iain M. Banks. This is an unforgettable novel of ideas, keen to the complex interplays between love and sacrifice, complicity and community.” —Matt Bell, author of Appleseed
Sweet Fury by Sash Bischoff
Accomplished actress Lila Crayne has dreamed of starring in a feminist retelling of F. Scott Fitzgerald's Tender Is the Night. With her fiancé, visionary filmmaker Kurt Royall, set to direct, she is finally making it happen.
To prepare for the leading role, Lila begins working with the charming therapist Jonah Gabriel to dig into the trauma of her past. Soon, Lila’s impeccably manicured life begins to unravel on the therapy couch and Jonah is just the man to pick up the pieces. But everyone has a secret, and no one is quite who they seem.
“Sweet Fury is cunningly ambitious, and rises to all its own challenges: twisty and immersive, it seduces you into a story so compelling that you aren't ready for the sucker-punch of its deeper truths. This is a hell of a debut.”—Rebecca Makkai, author of I Have Some Questions for You and The Great Believers
The Unexpected Diva by Tiffany L. Warren
Born into slavery on a Mississippi plantation, Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield was raised in the safety of Philadelphia’s Quaker community by a wealthy adoptive mother. Sheltered and educated, Eliza’s childhood included music lessons to nurture her unique gift: a glorious three octave singing voice that leaves listeners in awe. On the eve of Eliza's 24th birthday her mother dies, which throws her world into a tailspin.
Her mother’s white cousins contest Eliza's inheritance, leaving her few options. She can marry her longtime beau, though she has no desire to be a wife and mother. Or she can work as a tutor for rich families. Her mother’s dying wish was for Eliza to pursue her talent and become a professional singer, but that grand vision now seems out of reach.
When a chance performance on a steamboat to Buffalo, New York, leads to a surprising opportunity, Eliza seizes her moment. Within a year she is touring America, singing to packed houses and igniting controversy wherever she goes. An unlikely diva, Eliza is tall, dark-skinned and robust of figure compared to the petite European prima donna. However, even the harshest critics can’t deny Eliza’s extraordinary gift. Continually threatened, Eliza lives a public life full of risk that also holds the promise of great riches and freedoms.
"This story is beautifully crafted and captivating. I loved Eliza’s courage as she pressed forward, determined to write her own story. This triumphant tale is sure to be an instant classic." — Victoria Christopher Murray, New York Times bestselling co-author of The Personal Librarian
Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix
Fern, 15, arrives at a home for unwed mothers in the sweltering summer of 1970. She's pregnant, terrified and alone. Under the watchful eye of the stern Miss Wellwood, she meets a dozen other girls in the same predicament. There’s Rose, a hippie who insists she’s going to find a way to keep her baby and escape to a commune. Zinnia, a budding musician who plans to marry her baby’s father. And Holly, a wisp of a girl, barely 14, mute and pregnant by no-one-knows-who.
Everything the girls eat, every moment of their waking day, and everything they’re allowed to talk about is strictly controlled by adults who claim they know what’s best for them. When a librarian gives Fern an occult book about witchcraft, the girls have power in their hands for the first time in their lives. But power can destroy as easily as it creates, and it’s never given freely. There’s always a price to be paid and it’s usually paid in blood.
"Grady Hendrix again brings to life a fully realized ensemble of characters who you'll cry with and root for while deftly molding the historical novel, the supernatural, and gritty, all-too real life horrors into a morally complex and genuinely haunting and moving tale. I couldn't put it down once I started." – Paul Tremblay, author of The Cabin at the End of the World
