Last week felt like the Week of Comics. We released our list of the best comics of the century so far, and Comic-Con announced the nominees for the 38th annual Eisner Awards. It looks like we’re bringing a tinge of that energy into this week with a graphic adaptation of the megabestselling LitRPG. More on that later.
There’s also some great romance coming out: Olivia A. Cole’s and Ashley Woodfolk’s Queerleaders sounds like YA sapphic fun, and Kennedy Ryan continues her Hollywood romances with the sizzling Score. Now, if you want a little more quirk with your love story, there’s Take Me with You by Steven Rowley (of Guncle fame).
As for the other books out this week that you should know about, there’s an essay collection by Jesmyn Ward, a stunning Native Hawai’ian YA novel, a graphic novel adaptation of Dungeon Crawler Carl, and more.
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New Books
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On Witness and Respair: Essays by Jesmyn Ward
From two-time National Book Award winner Jesmyn Ward, On Witness and Respair collects years of essays into a single volume. In her signature stunning prose, Ward shares her wisdom and gift for storytelling, much of which she learned from her childhood in Mississippi. Readers won’t want to miss this brilliant essay collection from one of America’s greatest living writers. —Kendra Winchester
Dungeon Crawler Carl, Vol. 1 by Matt Dinniman, Aethon, Laurel Pursuit, Tevagah
Dungeon Crawler Carl is having the biggest of moments, and now, it’s getting the graphic novel treatment. Follow along as Carl and his ex-girlfriend’s cat, Princess Donut, try to survive an alien invasion, which has landed them on a sadistic intergalactic game show. —Erica Ezeifedi
An Expanse of Blue by Kauakanilehua Mahoe Adams
Aouli Elizabeth Smith has a lot of feelings, and they’re complicated. She doesn’t feel like she’s heard at home, and because she doesn’t believe in the church, she feels like an outsider there, too. She’s also fighting with her sister and has recently lost her best friend. Aouli pours those feelings into her song journal to make sense of her world.
One thing that does make sense to her, though, is the connection and community she feels with her Aunty Ehu and their weekend gatherings with other Native Hawaiians in western Washington. Those Saturday afternoons are filled with joy and warmth.
So when an explosive secret about her father comes to life, it threatens to unsettle this perfect pocket of peace Aouli has cultivated. Lost for words, it’s a new boy named Nalu who may help her find them again.
This novel in verse is garnering comparisons to Elizabeth Acevedo’s excellent The Poet X. —Kelly Jensen
Glyph by Ali Smith
Family history, the legacy of violence, and ghosts (whether real, imagined, or metaphorical) merge in the story of sisters Petra and Patch. Though the two are estranged, Petra calls her younger sister when she finds a phantom horse destroying her furniture. Once Patch arrives, they must sort through abysmal childhood wartime stories that have taken over Petra’s psyche. —Erica Ezeifedi
A Perfect Hand by Ayelet Waldman
This is giving Bridgerton, but for social climbers. In 19th-century England, Miss Alice Lockey ascends from being the daughter of a tenant farmer to being the lady’s maid of Lady Jemima Alderwick. She’s been about her business, resisting marriage to certain suitors and seeing to her lady’s hairstyles and drawers, until she meets the visiting valet Charlie Wells. Miss Alice would very much like to be Mrs. Wells, so she plots for her mistress and his employer, Baronet Sir Nigel Wynstowe, to fall in love. Nineteenth-century manners and hijinks ensue. —Erica Ezeifedi
Canon by Paige Lewis
Do you love riotously original novels that make you feel like nothing will ever be the same after you read them? Then get ready to have your brains melted by this incredible debut. It’s about Yara, who receives a message from God, telling them they need to slay one of the Earth’s Bad Guys. Not one to question a missive from above for too long, Yara strikes a deal and sets off on their assignment. Meanwhile, a downcast prophet with a hidden power is hoping to get in good with the man upstairs and carries out her own plan. So prepare yourself: Canon is a mind-bending adventure about life, death, and fate that will ruin your life, in the best way. —Liberty Hardy
Other Book Riot New Releases Resources:
- All the Books, our weekly new book releases podcast, where Liberty and a cast of co-hosts talk about the books out this week we’re most excited about.
- The New Books Newsletter, where we send you an email of the books out this week that are getting buzz.
- Finally, if you want the real inside scoop on new releases, you have to check out Book Riot’s New Release Index! That’s where I find 90% of new releases, and you can filter by genre, age category, and even LGBTQ new releases!
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