Fiction Five: Speculative Reads

This month’s Fiction Five features stories with doors — some quite literally — that cross the threshold into other worlds. Journey into these speculative tales that unveil new worlds both familiar and uncharted. Open the door to a magical June with the latest in fiction.

The Loom Tree by Angela Mi Young Hur

Sharon is a Korean American who was raised by a single mother. She spent her teen years searching for identity in a California suburb. Now Sharon is raising her teenage daughter V alone and V is searching for identity.

During a high school finals week celebration V, compelled by strange impulses, crawls into a hollow tree trunk. That night in a fever haze she sees gleaming strands of illegible text hovering over her body that lead her to a long-forgotten diary.

With the aid of a luminous quill Sharon’s memories spill onto the diary's pages. V witnesses her mother map out her brief time at Alvsdahl, an exclusive East Coast college where legacies and heiresses grappled for control over family stories that could grant them terrifying abilities or burn them to ash. Sharon, an Asian girl with an unknown family history was no one until her discoveries cracked open Alvsdahl’s secrets.

Sharon’s narrative of classroom rivalries, animal professors, debauchery in the woods, threatening Godmothers, and world-shattering powers unfolds line by line as V desperately tries to help her mother. V ultimately learns how to wield Sharon’s story to transform them both.

“Magical, surreal, and wonderfully eccentric. … I highly recommend for lovers of fairytales and mythology, particularly for anyone who longed to see themselves in those stories, or who searched for a story where they could belong.” — Olivie Blake, New York Times bestselling author of The Atlas Six

The Door in Penrose Forest by Sean David Robinson

As a boy Nico accompanied his mother on a research trip to investigate a stalled migration of monarch butterflies. One night upon hearing her sneak out of their cabin he followed her to a clearing in the forest. Paralyzed with fear he watched his mother climb a staircase and vanish along with the stairs and the strange glowing door at its peak. No one believed his story. As he grew older he too stopped believing it was real.

As an adult Nico returns to his hometown to care for his ailing father. But something strange is happening to the town. There are unexplained power fluctuations, people are going missing and phantoms are roaming the woods. When Nico finds his mother’s field journal from the week she disappeared, including her account of the vanishing staircase, he begins to pick apart the mystery.

All the tangled strings trail back to the same starting point: the Gilded Age family whose mansion burned down under mysterious circumstances in those very same woods where his mother vanished.

“Robinson keeps readers on tenterhooks throughout, stirring up an eerie, Twilight Zone–like atmosphere that pays off with satisfying reveals. This brilliant brainteaser delivers the goods.” — Publishers Weekly, starred review

The Reimagining of Thornwood House by Jaleigh Johnson

Evelyn Sharpe is accustomed to dealing with natural disasters as a land witch, but she longs for a life with a little less danger for her and her daughter, Ruby. When the opportunity to take over as caretaker of Thornwood House, a sentient home that acts as the magical heart of the village of Iskendra, arises it seems almost fated.

When they arrive Evie and Ruby find the house is nothing like what they expected. First, it has walked away from the address. Thornwood House is also grumpy, guarded and extremely hesitant to allow the two witches through its doors.

Armed with gentle hearts and wild magic, Evie and Ruby begin to form tentative bonds with the house and the citizens of the small town. But there’s something deeply damaged about the building seeping into the forests surrounding Iskendra. Evie will need all her power to protect the roots she’s started to grow.

"Absolutely delightful! The Reimagining of Thornwood House is everything you want it to be: warm, wonderful, and magical in all the best ways! I loved every page! A new favorite!" —Sarah Beth Durst, New York Times bestselling author of The Spellshop

Voyagers by Meg Charlton

When the Signal, a mysterious transmission pulsing from the edge of the solar system, arrives the world changes overnight. Planes are grounded, satellites fail and speculation abounds. Many believe this could be first contact with extraterrestrial life. For Alex, a lawyer who’s spent years distancing himself from the unexplainable, the Signal feels deeply personal and it's the opening of an old wound.

Decades ago, Alex and a girl named Ana vanished for 36 hours while on vacation near Palm Springs. When they returned, dazed but unharmed, the 6-year-olds’ account of their experience had all the hallmarks of an alien abduction. The media frenzy that followed made them famous. The long months of child stardom forged a bond between them until the mystery behind their disappearance began to tear them apart.

Now with the world on edge and the Signal growing stronger, Alex is drawn back to the one person who might have answers. Ana, now a professional advocate for extraterrestrial contact, is leading a retreat near Palm Springs. As the former best friends tentatively reunite they reckon with what it means to see the stories they tell themselves for what they really are.

"Charlton strikes just the right notes of smarts and warmth, and the result is an uncommonly confident debut novel. Readers who miss Mulder and Scully’s lighthearted side should dig in—but there’s satisfaction here for anyone." —Kirkus

The Traveler by Joseph Eckert

It’s a day like any other when Scott Treder first jumps forward through time. One moment he’s on his way to work, fingers drumming the steering wheel. The next he’s tumbling headlong down the road, his car gone, a dozen panicked voicemails from his wife waiting on his cell. An entire 24 hours gone in the blink of an eye.

This one moment, this first spontaneous slip, marks a change in the course of Scott’s future and the world. From this point on, at precisely 7:52am every morning, Scott inexplicably travels forward in time in ever-doubling intervals. First one day lost in a blink, then two, then four, until weeks, even years, are passing him by in an instant.

Meanwhile, his wife is left alone to pick up the pieces of the life they once shared together. Before long, Lyle, Scott’s genius 7-year-old son, will surpass him in age.

While his dad is rocketing forward in time, Lyle is growing up,graduating early, studying at Berkeley and becoming the foremost scholar of quantum physics. All this is an attempt to bring his father back.

"Moving and profound … a story that's heart-rending yet a powerful cry of hope." ―Claire North, author of Ithaca