Four top witchy, weird girl YA books

Gloria Muñoz is the author of They Called Us Wicked and of the poetry collection Danzirly, which won the Ambroggio Prize. She is an Academy of American Poets Poet Laureate Fellow, a Hedgebrook Fellow, an Esperimento Sul Respiro Fellow, a Macondista, a Highlights Foundation Diverse Verse Fellow, and a part of Las Musas. Her debut novel, This Is the Year, a YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults title and winner of the International Literacy Association’s Young Adult Book Award, was hailed as “brilliantly layered” by Booklist in a starred review.

Muñoz's new novel is They Called Us Wicked.

At Book Riot the author tagged four "favorite recent books with witchy, weird-girl YA characters," including:

(S)Kin by Ibi Zoboi

This stunning novel in verse alternates between Marisol, the daughter of a soucouyant in Brooklyn, and Genevieve, a teen whose life is overshadowed by newborn twins and a painful struggle with cystic acne. Both characters are trying to navigate teenagehood and living as girls who have never felt at home in their own skin. Rooted in Caribbean folklore, a family secret comes to light. And they discover a racial trauma and history that binds them and makes them want to fight for answers to questions they’ve held onto for a long time.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Martin Williams's "The Nile Revealed"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: The Nile Revealed: A Deep History of Earth’s Longest River by Martin Williams.

About the book, from the publisher:

The untold story of an iconic river, from its origins to its possible futures on a rapidly warming planet

The Nile River has captivated explorers and scientists for centuries, and its age and origins have been the subject of intense speculation since at least the days of Herodotus. The Nile Revealed is an authoritative account of how Earth’s longest river came into being, how its flow has changed dramatically and at times almost ceased altogether, and how these changes affected human societies in the Nile valley down through the centuries.

An internationally renowned expert on the Nile and its extraordinarily rich geological history, Martin Williams has traveled the length and breadth of the river during his career. In this book, he draws on his own experiences to explain how scientists reconstruct and date past environments in the Nile basin and offers vivid descriptions of the river and its three major tributaries—the White Nile, the Blue Nile, and the Atbara. He guides readers from the Ethiopian Highlands and downstream to the Nile delta and deep-sea fan, where soils and sediments preserve the record of the Nile’s eventful life. Williams visits prehistoric sites in the Nile valley and considers how its inhabitants adapted to floods, droughts, and other climatic changes—and how the river itself might respond to climate change in the future.

Blending evocative storytelling with the latest science, The Nile Revealed provides an incomparable look at a majestic river whose course has fluctuated widely over time, and whose waters have sustained diverse ecosystems and humankind for millions of years.

Visit Martin Williams's website.

The Page 99 Test: When the Sahara Was Green.

The Page 99 Test: The Nile Revealed.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven top horror novels set in the American South

Del Sandeen lives in northeast Florida, where she works as a copy editor and writes speculative fiction. Her work has appeared in FIYAH: Magazine of Black Speculative Fiction and Gay Mag and on the Nightlight podcast.

She is the author of This Cursed House and These Walls Remember.

At CrimeReads Sandeen tagged seven "favorite horror books which just so happen to take place in the hot and sticky South, where the gators aren’t even the scariest things you’ll find." One title on the list:

Daryl Gregory, Revelator

In 1940s Tennessee, Stella has been leading an unconventional life as a bootlegger. When she has to come home, she’s forced to confront her past when she meets young Sunny. Both Stella and Sunny have to face their family history and more importantly, the god they’ve served for generations. This dual-timeline novel is a mix of folk horror and very twisted religion.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten of the best identical twins in fiction

At the Guardian, John Mullan named ten of the best identical twins in fiction.

One title on Mullan's list:

Sam and Eric

The identical twins in Lord of the Flies are so conjoined that they become "Samneric". Together they desert nice Ralph and betray him to nasty Jack. People acting together are even worse than people on their own.

Read about another entry on the list.

Lord of the Flies is on Carole Johnstone's list of five of the best books about eerie islands, Rektok Ross's list of six top survival thrillers, Julia Phillips's top eight list of books set in isolated locations, Kerri Jarema's list of fifteen classic novels with a page count mercifully below 200 pages, Brian Conaghan's list of ten favorite teen books about male friendship, Gillian Philip’s top ten list of islands in children's fiction, Janet Davey’s top ten list of schoolchildren in fiction, Frank Rich's ten top books list, Non Pratt's top ten list of toxic friendships in literature, Francesca Haig's top ten list of the greatest twins in children’s books, Shaun Byron Fitzpatrick list of thirteen favorite, occasionally-banned, YA novels, Matt Kraus's list of six famous books with extremely faithful film adaptations, Michael Hogan's list of the ten best fictional evil children, Danny Wallace's six best books list, Gemma Malley's top ten list of dystopian novels for teenagers, AbeBooks' list of 20 books of shattered childhoods and is one of the top ten works of literature according to Stephen King. It appears on John Mullan's lists of ten of the best pigs in literature, ten of the best pairs of glasses in literature, and ten of the best horrid children in literature, Katharine Quarmby's top ten list of disability stories, and William Skidelsky's list of ten of the best accounts of being marooned in literature. It is a book that made a difference to Isla Fisher and is one of Suzi Quatro's six best books.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Jack Turner's "Die Your Own Death"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Die Your Own Death: Walt Whitman’s Existential Democracy by Jack Turner.

About the book, from the publisher:

Humans fantasize about immortality. Billionaires dabble in cryonics, politicians build monuments to themselves, and writers donate their papers to libraries. In Die Your Own Death, Jack Turner argues that the quest for immortality—literal or symbolic—is politically destructive. He does so through a meditation on the work of Walt Whitman. Whitman held that democracy prepares individuals to “die their own deaths”—free of fear, resentment, and illusion. In Whitman’s “existential democracy,” accepting death strengthens freedom and equality. And yet, Turner finds, Whitman only half succeeded in forging a democratic philosophy of death. As Whitman’s thought evolved in response to changing ideas about nation, race, and empire, he encouraged citizens to seek immortality through racial imperialism—the expansion of white empire from North America to the Pacific Islands—as a monument to American greatness.

Turner explores the poetics of death in Leaves of Grass and its relationship to Whitman’s democratic theory (“I exist as I am, that is enough”). Through a close analysis of Drum-Taps and Memoranda During the War, Turner shows that Whitman sought to redeem the mass slaughter of the Civil War by cloaking it in poetic and national glory. And in Whitman’s greatest prose work, Democratic Vistas, Turner argues, Whitman envisioned an antidemocratic national immortalism that ignored Native sovereignty and Black equality. Turner exposes the dark side of Whitman’s philosophy of death, but he also reveals how that philosophy can still be a resource in the ongoing struggle for freedom and equality.

Learn more about Die Your Own Death at the Princeton University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: Die Your Own Death.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven of the best books about Iran

One title on Tertulia's list of seven books that offer essential insight into Iran’s history, politics, and culture:

Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar

One of the most talked-about literary debuts in recent years, this novel follows the orphaned son of Iranian immigrants on a searching journey that leads him to a terminally ill painter spending her final days in the Brooklyn Museum. Blending history, art, and dark humor, the story probes life between cultures and the lingering legacy of the Iranian Revolution. NPR called it “an unflinching tour-de-force bursting with wit and insight into the complications of diaspora.”

Read about another entry on the list.

Also see Nazanine Hozar's top ten books about Iran.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven essential 1970s NYC noir books & films

Rosanne Limoncelli is a writer and filmmaker living in Brooklyn. Her short fiction has appeared in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, Suspense Magazine, and Noir Nation, and her short films have been screened in festivals around the world. Limoncelli also writes plays, screenplays, poetry, games, mysteries, and science fiction and has taught writing and filmmaking for more than three decades at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.

[My Book, The Movie: The Four Queens of Crime; The Page 69 Test: The Four Queens of Crime; Q&A with Rosanne Limoncelli; Writers Read: Rosanne Limoncelli (July 2026); My Book, The Movie: The Spiral; The Page 69 Test: The Spiral; Writers Read: Rosanne Limoncelli (October 2026)]

Limoncelli's new novel is The Spiral.

At CrimeReads the author tagged seven essential 1970s NYC noir books and films. One title on the list:

Richard Price, Bloodbrothers

Working class eighteen-year-old Stony is struggling to find himself in the macho construction worker world of his father and uncle, while trying to navigate the mental illness of his mother and little brother. In the dark confusion of his life, the social pressures, the family drama, he finds a glimmer of light when he discovers he has a talent and compassion for working with kids. But will the circumstances that surround him allow him to live the life he wants to live?

This 1970s noir portrait of a young man is beautifully drawn in the book, bringing us along with him on his rollercoaster journey. In the film, skillfully directed by Robert Mulligan and adapted for the screen by Walter Newman, Richard Gere gives an inspired performance as Stony and shares the screen with an excellent supporting cast.

Read about another title on Limoncelli's list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Emma Barry's "You, Me, & the Conspiracy," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: You, Me, & the Conspiracy: A Novel by Emma Barry.

The entry begins:

My new book is You, Me, & the Conspiracy, in which two history professors uncover a revolutionary-era secret society and must expose it or risk becoming its latest victims. As you can probably tell from my brief description, I was inspired by adventure romance films such as Indiana Jones (numbers 1 and 3 only), Romancing the Stone, The Mummy, and especially National Treasure. So not only do I have a fan cast for this movie, but I am also feral to see it on screen. It’s meant to be cinema!

First up we have Jessica Wilson, a preppy, rule-following assistant professor whose book was just rejected for publication. Devastated, she dives into the archives, where she discovers a coded message written by a Founding Father that sets the plot in motion. Jess has to be brilliant, warm, and maybe a little bit timid to start, but the tumultuous events in which she finds herself will make her blossom. I would love nothing more than to lure Emma Watson out of retirement and to see her play Jess.

Next is Calloway Morgan, an adjunct history professor with a chip on his shoulder the size of New England. Cal was kicked out of graduate school for...[read on]

Visit Emma Barry's website.

My Book, The Movie: Bad Reputation.

My Book, The Movie: You, Me, & the Conspiracy.

--Marshal Zeringue

Four sweet & satisfying titles to read for Diwali

USA Today bestselling author Sonali Dev writes hilarious and heartwarming stories about families without boundaries. Her novels have been named Best Books of the Year by Library Journal, NPR, The Washington Post, and Kirkus Reviews. She has won the American Library Association’s award for best in genre, the RT Reviewers’ Choice Award, and multiple RT Seals of Excellence. Dev has also earned acclaim as a RITA finalist and has been listed for the Dublin Literary Award. Shelf Awareness calls the author “not only one of the best but one of the bravest romance novelists working today.”

Her new novel, What's Lucky Got to Do with It, arrives in February 2027.

At Book Riot Dev tagged four books "that feel every bit as sweet and satisfying as Diwali goodies." One title on the list:

The Second First Chance by Mona Shroff

Childhood best friends who were almost something more before a tragic fire separated them get a second chance in this deliciously angsty romance. She’s a firefighter now, hiding her profession from her family, and he’s a veterinarian obsessed with healing. If only he could see why she needs to do the work she does.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven books that weigh the choice of motherhood

Alexia Nader is the author of the The Meaning of Daughter. She was a 2023-2024 Steinbeck Fellow. Her work has been published in The Nation, Los Angeles Review of Books, and The New Yorker among other publications. She is from Miami, Florida and currently lives in San Francisco where she teaches creative writing to children and teens.

At Electric Lit Nader tagged seven novels that "have shown me that there are many variations to the questions I grappled with in my novel about what goes into reproductive decisions." One title on the list:

Red at the Bone Jacqueline Woodson

Red at the Bone explores the impacts of an unexpected teen pregnancy, focusing not just on the young father and mother, but their parents too. Through the novel’s first-person rotating point of view, Woodson is able to jump backwards and forwards in time, and we see the teen couple’s parents both as parents—worried about how the pregnancy will affect their children’s futures—and as grandparents, who couldn’t imagine wishing their granddaughter had never been conceived. Through these jumps in time we can also see how the young couple’s respective relationships with their parents affected their desire for intimacy with their daughter once she was born. The novel’s expansive gaze does not shy away from the wounding emotions that can accompany an unexpected pregnancy, as well as the potential for these wounds to change over time.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Mike Jay's "Wireheads"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Wireheads: An Unnatural History of Technology in the Brain by Mike Jay.

About the book, from the publisher:

The story of the mavericks and scientists, crackpots and artistic visionaries who imagined a future where machines fuse with our minds

As humanity and technology become ever more tightly interwoven, Wireheads explores the final and most intimate frontier: the brain, and the electronic devices, magnetic signals, implants, and computer interfaces that promise to merge it with the world of the machine. Will these technologies eventually direct our thoughts and behaviour―or are they doing so already? Will they maintain us in states of artificial bliss, or connect us to higher intelligences, or replace the world of our senses with simulated realities?

Mike Jay, acclaimed author of Psychonauts, now traces the tangled, paranoid history of these real and fantastical brain technologies. From the fictions of H. G. Wells and Philip K. Dick to The Matrix, the CIA’s Cold War experiments and Elon Musk’s Neuralink, scientists and visionaries have long chased the dream of neural enhancement and control, with wildly varying degrees of success.

Encompassing covert military operations and psychedelic art, moral philosophy and cybernetic theory, Jay has assembled a thrilling narrative out of our attempts to understand and rewire the brain―and a brilliant meditation on what it means to be human in a posthuman age.

Visit Mike Jay's website.

The Page 99 Test: Mescaline.

The Page 99 Test: Wireheads.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five top non-traditional crime novels

The staff at Publishers Weekly tagged five non-traditional crime novels for fans of James Sallis, who work "often folds the tropes of genre fiction into strange, contemplative tales of self-discovery." One title on the list:

Clete: A Dave Robicheaux Novel by James Lee Burke

In the gonzo latest from Edgar winner Burke (Harbor Lights), detective Dave Robicheaux’s friend, P.I. Clete Purcel, gets caught up in the bizarre pursuit of a bioweapon in late-1990s Louisiana. Clete wakes one Sunday to find three men disassembling his Cadillac in search of contraband. During a brief confrontation, the men knock Clete unconscious, and from there, the story spins out in a dizzying array of directions. One of Clete’s assailants turns out to be a member of an occult neo-Nazi group; the men appeared to be on a mission that also involves slimy millionaire Lauren Bow and his actor wife, Clara. They’re all after a bioweapon called Leprechaun, which may or may not have been in the Cadillac. Clete gets help from Robicheaux, sheriff Helen Soileau, and Joan of Arc, who appears in prophetic visions to steer him from further harm. Readers will delight in Burke’s sterling prose (Louisiana is “an antediluvian place that could have been formed on the first day of Creation, then forgotten, feral and threatening”) and take heart amid the surreal proceedings in Robicheaux’s assertion that “mysteries exist. The denial of them is an absurdity.” This is a winner.

Read about another title on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven Austen-inspired historical romance novels

Rachel Brittain is a writer, Day Dreamer, and Amateur Aerialist. Her short fiction has appeared in Luna Station Quarterly, Andromeda Spaceways, and others. She is a contributing editor for Book Riot, where she screams into the void about her love of books. Brittain lives in Northwest Arkansas with a rambunctious rescue pup, a snake, and a houseful of plants (most of which aren’t carnivorous).

At Book Riot she tagged seven Austen-inspired historical romance retellings. One entry on the list:

The Heiress: The Revelations of Anne de Bourgh by Molly Greeley

Another notably overlooked Austen character, Anne de Bourgh, discovers there’s more to life than Rosings in this romance retelling. Reliant on the laudanum she was first given as a fussy baby, Anne lives a quiet half-life within the confines of the great estate she was raised to inherit. But when her father dies and she is spurned by the man she was long told she would marry, Anne decides its time to discover whether its the sickness or the cure preventing her from living as she’s always wanted. With the help of her cousin Colonel John Fitzwilliam, she discovers life has more to offer her than she ever could’ve imagined.

Read about another novel on the list.

The Heiress is among Julia Seales's ten top unexpected Jane Austen homages.

The Page 69 Test: The Heiress.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: M. X. Mitchell's "Unsettling Sovereignty"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Unsettling Sovereignty: International Law, Nuclear Weapons, and US Extraterritorial Power in Postwar Oceania by M. X. Mitchell.

About the book, from the publisher:

Marshall Islanders and their ancestral lands and waters played important roles in reshaping the United States’ offshore power, state sovereignty, and the international politics of decolonization.

In the years following World War II, the United States conducted sixty-seven devastating nuclear blasts in the Marshall Islands―yet the archipelago was never a US territory. Working through the United Nations, US diplomats engineered a new, one-of-a-kind extraterritorial status, called strategic trusteeship, to control the Native lands, waters, and peoples of the Marshall, Caroline, and Northern Mariana Islands. Strategic trusteeship permitted the US to militarize a vast expanse of Western Oceania. This novel and racialized legal form of international dependency was integral to US nuclear weapons detonations and damage in the region.

In Unsettling Sovereignty, M. X. Mitchell recounts this untold legal history, exploring how nuclear weapons changed claims and practices of sovereignty from the 1940s to the present. US nuclear blasting in the Marshall Islands troubled conventional renderings of state sovereignty under international law. The explosions, disastrous for Marshallese communities and their ancestral atolls, also caused hazardous nuclear fallout, which spread around the globe. Islanders and their allies turned to law, using legal wrangling over blasting and fallout to raise new questions about the location, time, and subjects of state violence in a period of decolonization; the intersections between race, Indigeneity, and wide-scale technogenic harm; and the pitfalls and unfulfilled promises of international law. Mitchell shows that the Marshallese people and their lands and waters were, and remain, central to redefining sovereignty in an era of boundless pollution and climate change.

Visit M. X. Mitchell's website.

The Page 99 Test: Unsettling Sovereignty.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eight top books about the Romanovs

At Town & Country Lauren Hubbard and Norman Vanamee tagged eight of the best books to explore the history of the Romanov family. One title on the list:

The Romanovs: 1613-1918 by Simon Sebag Montefiore

This is the book to read if you want a sweeping, well-told account of the Romanovs’ entire three-century reign. Montefiore, who has written well-regarded books on Stalin, Catherine the Great’s relationship with Prince Potemkin, and Jerusalem, among others, has a wonderful ability to pinpoint crucial moments and recount them in a way that brings individuals and complex personal and political dynamics to life.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven books that share a comforting charm

At Bustle Grace Wehniainen tagged "seven books as cozy as Gilmore Girls for whatever fall flavor you may be craving." One title on the list:

Not in My Book by Katie Holt

If you loved the romantic and intellectual tension between Jess and Rory, this is a natural addition to your TBR. College classmates Rosie and Aiden have diametrically opposed literary sensibilities, but when they’re forced to team up on a writing assignment, things take a swoony turn.

Read about another entry on the list.

Also see Kristy Woodson Harvey's seven cozy, Gilmore Girls-coded fall novels.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Anna Rasche's "The Cursed Diamond"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: The Cursed Diamond: A Novel by Anna Rasche.

About the novel, from the publisher:

In New York City a century apart, two women’s fates are bound by the dark legacy of the Midnight Diamond

2010. Jennie is working as a runner in the Diamond District when a friend’s sudden death leaves her with a cryptic note: “Not Safe.” Her search for answers leads her to an antique jewelry box, a clue to a century-old mystery and the legend of the Midnight Diamond—a rare blue gem rumored to bring ruin to all who possess it. As Jennie is pulled deeper into a world of secrets and danger, she realizes she is not just chasing a lost treasure; she is uncovering a story that was meant to stay buried.

1910. On an ocean liner bound for New York, heiress Marcella Porter returns home after being disgraced by scandal in London. Her path collides with a charismatic nobleman and the magnificent Midnight Diamond, which she unknowingly smuggles into the city. Mesmerized by its brilliance, Marcella feels an irresistible pull toward the diamond, and when the glittering façade of her charmed life begins to crack, Marcella must decide whether the Midnight Diamond is her salvation—or her doom.

Can Jennie break the centuries-old curse before it brings more ruin? Inspired by history’s most captivating gemstone, The Cursed Diamond is a thrilling mystery about fate, obsession, and the deadly costs of ambition.

Visit Anna Rasche's website.

Q&A with Anna Rasche.

The Page 69 Test: The Cursed Diamond.

--Marshal Zeringue

Three top paranormal thrillers

Kennedy Cole is a speculative author with a BFA in Creative Writing and a Certificate in Publishing. Born in North Carolina, she lives by the beach with her partner and enjoys playing games, puzzling, sipping matcha, and collecting tattoos. Her creative portfolio includes an array of published fiction, poetry, and nonfiction with Oakland Arts Review, Carolina Muse, Second Story Journal, and others.

There Used to Be People Here is her first novel.

At Book Riot Cole tagged three of her favorite paranormal thrillers. One title on the list:

I read We Used to Live Here by Marcus Kliewer in a single sitting, trapped in a coffee shop booth with no choice but to turn the page. It was utterly captivating, so well written, and God, one of the scariest books I’ve ever read. Following a queer couple who’ve recently purchased a new home and are in the process of moving in, things shift quicker than expected in this terrifying, lightning-paced novel. I highly recommend it for thriller fans looking to dig their way out of a slump.

Read about another novel on the list.

We Used to Live Here is among Victoria Helen Stone's nine icy thrillers to get you through the sweltering summer.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Emily G. Shanahan's "Penelope and Her Maids"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Penelope and Her Maids by Emily G. Shanahan.

About the book, from the publisher:

Penelope and Her Maids reconsiders the Odyssey from Penelope's point of view. Her decisions have long been considered to be the product of a fractured characterization, with no coherent human psychology possibly explaining everything she says and does. Emily Shanahan investigates this characterization, and all of Penelope's decisions, in context, reading each one of her scenes diachronically. In doing so, Penelope and Her Maids reveals how the pervasive threat of gendered violence in homeric society―a rape culture―constrains what Penelope may say and do openly.

The suitors attempt to fill a power vacuum in Odysseus's absence―by either marrying his wife, Penelope, or alternatively, diminishing his honor, geras, which includes the value of his possessions. As Penelope is an asset in his ledger, the only way to stay safe is to lead the suitors to believe she may become theirs at any moment. Penelope ultimately survives the Odyssey's violence. However, twelve young, enslaved girls in her home do not and ultimately demonstrate the inherent danger that men pose to women in Homer's world.

Learn more about Penelope and Her Maids at the Cornell University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: Penelope and Her Maids.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five timeless historical fiction books

At Mental Floss Chelsea Thatcher tagged five novels "that paint vivid pictures of history," including:

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

Chinua Achebe was a Nigerian author who worked to unravel the stereotypes of African people. His first novel, Things Fall Apart, is set in 1890 Nigeria as the land and people are colonized by the British. Where most literature on colonialism continued racist tropes about "primitive" tribes, Achebe humanized the Igbo people through Okonkwo's story.

Things Fall Apart has become one of the pivotal works of post-colonial literature, and it gives perspective to parts of history that have long been silenced. It truly makes the reader sit with the heavy emotions Okonkwo feels, adding even more depth to the tragedy.

Read about another book on the list.

Things Fall Apart is among Ore Agbaje-Williams's seven scandalous betrayals in fiction, Claire Fuller's top ten novels set in villages, Jeff Somers's twenty-five books you probably should have read already, Barnaby Phillips' top ten books about Nigeria, Pushpinder Khaneka's three best books on Nigeria, Hallie Ephron's ten best books for a good cry, Helon Habila's three books to help understand Nigeria, and Martin Meredith's ten books to read on Africa.

--Marshal Zeringue