11 of the Best New Books of October in Every Genre

Hole in the Sky by Daniel H. Wilson

The Hong Kong Widow by Kristen Loesch

A massacre that the police say never took place. A woman haunted by the past. In 1950s Hong Kong, a young Chinese refugee still trying to put her past behind her is recruited into a strange seance competition in a notoriously haunted house. She’s not the only one. Six mediums are invited to take part in six seances over six nights. But on the last night, police are called in to handle the aftermath of a brutal massacre—one they find absolutely no proof of. — Rachel Brittain

We Survived the Night by Julian Brave NoiseCat

Julian Brave NoiseCat grew up with a Secwépemc and St’at’imc father and a non-Native mother. But when his father disappeared, NoiseCat threw himself into studying Native history. Now in We Survived the Night, NoiseCat presents the history of First Peoples across the centuries as they face ongoing colonization and press forward for a better future. — Kendra Winchester

Female Fantasy by Iman Hariri-Kia

Equal parts satirical, steamy, and swoony, Female Fantasy is a romance novel tailor-made for book lovers who can’t resist a meta twist. Joonie, a copywriter by day and fanfic writer by night, knows no real guy can measure up to her ultimate book boyfriend—a merman hero named Ryke. But when she learns Ryke is based on a real person, she sets off to track him down, dragging along her brother’s infuriating best friend as an unwilling road-trip companion. What follows is a hilariously chaotic, self-aware journey through romance tropes that doubles as a genuine story about finding love where you least expect it. This is a joyful reminder of why readers fall in love with the genre in the first place. — Nikki DeMarco

Angelica and the Bear Prince by Trung Le Nguye

When Angelica’s perfect life comes crashing down around her ears, she has Peri, the bear mascot of a local theater, to provide encouragement and support. But who is Peri behind the mask? Angelica takes a job at the theater to find out! — Eileen Gonzalez

The Isle in the Silver Sea by Tasha Suri

Here’s a new sapphic fantasy from the award-winning author of the Burning Kingdoms series! A witch and a knight fated to fall in love and be torn apart over and over must find a way to halt the cycle of their story. Meanwhile, a mysterious assassin is on the prowl, looking to permanently destroy anyone with a story like theirs. — Liberty Hardy

Capitalists Must Starve by Seolyeon Park, translated by Anton Hur

Capitalists Must Starve tells the fictionalized story of a real-life labor activist who led a strike for workers’ rights in 1930s Pyongyang. The novel, set in Japanese-occupied Korea, follows a woman willing to risk everything to fight for better conditions for working-class women in a world determined not to hear what they have to say. It’s a story that can find comparisons the world over through the struggle for humane working conditions within the unrelenting capitalist machine. — Rachel Brittain

The Unveiling by Quan Barry

The Unveiling is a literary survival horror novel that takes place on a luxury Antarctic cruise. Striker is a Black film scout who has joined the cruise in the hopes of capturing locations for a big-budget movie. But nothing about the cruise goes according to plan, and when an excursion goes terribly wrong, Striker and a small group of survivors find themselves stranded in the middle of the Antarctic. As things grow more dire, hostilities and people’s true nature come to the surface. — Emily Martin

Blood & Breath by Qurratulayn

The Beasts Beneath the Winds: Tales of Southeast Asia’s Mythical Creatures by Hanna Alkaf

This illustrated anthology is perfect for young mythology lovers! In each chapter, children encounter cryptids from Southeast Asian folklore and find both danger and adventure in their midst. — Andy Minshew

Boom Town by Nic Stone