Book picks similar to
Glimmerglass Girl by Holly Walrath
poetry
netgalley
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Lycanthropy and Other Chronic Illnesses
Kristen O'Neal
. . werewolves.Priya worked hard to pursue her premed dreams at Stanford, but the fallout from undiagnosed Lyme disease sends her back to her childhood home in New Jersey during her sophomore year—and leaves her wondering if she’ll ever be able to return to the way things were.Thankfully she has her online pen pal, Brigid, and the rest of the members of “oof ouch my bones,” a virtual support group that meets on Discord to crack jokes and vent about their own chronic illnesses.When Brigid suddenly goes offline, Priya does something out of character: she steals the family car and drives to Pennsylvania to check on Brigid. Priya isn’t sure what to expect, but it isn’t the horrifying creature that's shut in the basement.With Brigid nowhere to be found, Priya begins to puzzle together an impossible but obvious truth: the creature might be a werewolf—and the werewolf might be Brigid. As Brigid's unique condition worsens, their friendship will be deepened and challenged in unexpected ways, forcing them to reckon with their own ideas of what it means to be normal.
We Came Here to Shine
Susie Orman Schnall - 2020
She’s assigned the leading role in the heralded Aquacade synchronized swimming spectacular at the World’s Fair, a fate she believes will destroy her film career. If she performs well, she’ll have another chance at stardom, but with everything working against her, will her summer lead to opportunity or failure?Plucky Max dreams of becoming a serious journalist, but when her job at the New York Times doesn’t pan out, she finds herself begrudgingly working for the daily paper of the World’s Fair. As her ideas are continually overlooked by her male counterparts and her career prospects are put in jeopardy, Max must risk everything to change the course of her life.When Max and Vivi’s worlds collide, they forge an enduring friendship. One that teaches them to go after what matters most during the most meaningful summer of their lives.
Sea of Tranquility
Emily St. John Mandel
Andrew is eighteen years old when he crosses the Atlantic by steamship, exiled from polite society following an ill-conceived diatribe at a dinner party. He enters the forest, spellbound by the beauty of the Canadian wilderness, and suddenly hears the notes of a violin echoing in an airship terminal--an experience that shocks him to his core.Two centuries later a famous writer named Olive Llewellyn is on a book tour. She's traveling all over Earth, but her home is the second moon colony, a place of white stone, spired towers, and artificial beauty. Within the text of Olive's bestselling pandemic novel lies a strange passage: a man plays his violin for change in the echoing corridor of an airship terminal as the trees of a forest rise around him.When Gaspery-Jacques Roberts, a detective in the Night City, is hired to investigate an anomaly in the North American wilderness, he uncovers a series of lives upended: The exiled son of an earl driven to madness, a writer trapped far from home as a pandemic ravages Earth, and a childhood friend from the Night City who, like Gaspery himself, has glimpsed the chance to do something extraordinary that will disrupt the timeline of the universe.A virtuoso performance that is as human and tender as it is intellectually playful, Sea of Tranquility is a novel of time travel and metaphysics that precisely captures the reality of our current moment.
In the Dark, Soft Earth
Frank Watson - 2020
Ruminate the searing to the sultry as you absorb this haunting lilt of burning carnality. The poems ignite rapid and surprising shifts in focus and perspective as they twist and turn your preconceptions, allowing the implications to linger in your thoughts.Vignette verses explore the workings of love, nature, spirituality, and dreams with sprinklings of tarot symbolism and jazzy blues. Together these verses contemplate the subtle underpinnings of a soft earth.Hear what readers and reviewers have said about Frank Watson’s poetry:"This collection is truly captivating and beautifully written." —Lenore Jordan, NetGalley (In the Dark, Soft Earth)“Compact poems replete with stunning and visually arresting images.” —Kirkus Reviews (The Dollhouse Mirror)“Watson left me wanting more. More poems. More imagery. More blue nights and haunted dreams. More weeping wood and moonlit ecstasy.” —The Portsmouth Review (The Dollhouse Mirror)“This book was HAUNTING. There is no other word for it. Fantasy, romance, contemporary, mystery, and historical all rolled into one; each poem brought all of my emotions bubbling to the surface. It’s not something I will soon forget.” —Shawna Brooks, Goodreads (The Dollhouse Mirror)“A collection that is both sensuous and graceful; I found myself drifting into a tranquil garden of dancing words and imagery. The eloquence is revealed in the rhythm as each page prances past the reader. A highly recommended compilation of words become art.” —Patricia Zarounas Murphy (Seas to Mulberries)
Showtime
Chloe Kayne - 2012
Behind the gates of the legendary Marvelle Circus, she is thrust into a mysterious world she never knew existed—a paradise populated with outcasts. It’s in this glamorous new home that Laila sparks a controversial romance with notorious sideshow performer, "The Disappearing Man," and learns just how dangerous her new life can be.Touring the picturesque eastern coast of America, Laila’s immersed in friendship, vaudeville, festivals, sequins, and serial killers. But behind the curtain, a sadistic plan is brewing that will crack the very foundation upon which she’s become so dependent.
Winter of the Wolf
Martha Hunt Handler - 2020
Though all evidence points to a suicide, her heart and intuition compel her to dig deeper. With help from her friend Julie, they retrace Sam’s steps, delve into his Inuit beliefs, and reconnect with their spiritual beliefs to uncover clues beyond material understanding. Both tragic and heartwarming, this twisting novel draws you into Bean's world as she struggles with grief, navigates high school dramas, and learns to open her heart in order to see the true nature of the people around her. Winter of the Wolf is about seeking the truth—no matter how painful—in order to see the full picture. In this novel, environmentalist and award-winning author, Martha Handler, brings together two important pieces of her life—the death of her best friend’s son and her work as president of the Wolf Conservation Center—to tell an empathetic and powerful story with undeniable messages.
Planetfall
L.E. Howel - 2014
That had always been understood, so when Major Thomas Birch and his bedraggled crew limped back hundreds of years later it was clear that something had gone wrong. Stumbling from a failed past into an uncertain future the crew of the Hypnos III find that sometimes the only thing worse than what you run from is the thing you run to.
The Dead Girls Club
Damien Angelica Walters - 2019
Obsessed with the macabre, the girls exchanged stories about serial killers and imaginary monsters, like the Red Lady, the spirit of a vengeful witch killed centuries before. Heather knew the stories were just that, until her best friend Becca began insisting the Red Lady was real--and she could prove it.That belief got Becca killed.It's been nearly thirty years, but Heather has never told anyone what really happened that night--that Becca was right and the Red Lady was real. She's done her best to put that fateful summer, Becca, and the Red Lady, behind her. Until a familiar necklace arrives in the mail, a necklace Heather hasn't seen since the night Becca died.The night Heather killed her.Now, someone else knows what she did...and they're determined to make Heather pay.
Fractured
Catherine McKenzie - 2016
Since Julie doesn’t know anyone in her new town, when she meets her neighbor John Dunbar, their instant connection brings measured hope for a new beginning. But she never imagines that a simple, benign conversation with him could set her life spinning so far off course.After a series of misunderstandings, Julie and her family become the target of increasingly unsettling harassment. Has Julie’s stalker found her, or are her neighbors out to get her, too? As tension in the neighborhood rises, new friends turn into enemies, and the results are deadly.
Breakfast at the Honey Creek Café
Jodi Thomas - 2020
. . Piper Jane Mackenzie, mayor of Honey Creek, won’t let a major scandal rip her quirky hometown apart, or jeopardize her dream of one day running for higher office. So she’s willing to welcome undercover detective Colby McBride, hired to help solve the mystery behind her wannabe fiancé’s disappearance. Colby’s cover? That he is an old boyfriend now begging Piper for a second chance—always when there are plenty of townsfolk around to witness his shenanigans. Piper hardly knows whether to laugh or cry, especially when she finds herself drawn to the handsome rascal. He's not the only newcomer she has to deal with. There’s a new interim preacher in town, Sam Cassidy. Drifting from one assignment to another since his one love died, Sam isn’t sure he’s the right fit for Honey Creek. But as Piper knows, this is a place chock-full of surprises. And if she can keep her town—and her heart—from going completely off the rails, there may be a sweet, unexpected future in store . . .
The Hiding Girl
Dorian Box - 2020
Engaged me from the first page.” — Feathered Quill Medal Winner in Mystery/Suspense"[A] great, suspenseful read." — Readers' Favorite Award for SuspenseTwelve-year-old Emily Calby was a good girl from a religious family in rural Georgia. She loved softball, her little sister and looking up words to get her allowance. Then two men came and murdered her family. Only the killers know she survived.On the run, surviving by wits and animal instinct, she makes an unlikely ally in an ex-gang member who lost his own family to violence. He takes her in and trains her in “self-defense” before more tragedy launches her on a terrifying journey for justice. Nothing will stop her—not cops or creeps, not even her own splintering mind. Through it all, Emily fights to hold onto hope and the girl she once knew, kept buried deep inside.Dark and gritty, but filled with heart and hope, The Hiding Girl is a twisty, fast-paced thriller and a testament to the boundless limits of human love, sacrifice and the will to survive.Praise for The Hiding Girl“In Emily, Author Dorian Box has created a rarity—a teenage protagonist that is at once sympathetic, vulnerable and largely fearless. … This sharp characterization within a fast-paced work of suspense makes The Hiding Girl one of the year’s most exciting series openers.” — BestThrillers.com (Best Psychological Thriller of 2021)"Dark and gritty … an exceptional, heart-pounding story full of raw emotion, deep-seated fear, and an undercurrent of hope and innocence. Deeply atmospheric … without peer in contemporary mysteries/thrillers.” — Publishers Weekly BookLife Prize Semifinalist“The story that author Dorian Box has created for Emily Calby is nothing short of thrilling, but it’s The Hiding Girl's masterful interplay of character, setting, and theme, along with its fast-pace and high emotional stakes that makes it a real page-turner.” — 2021 IndieReader Discovery Award in Fiction“[A] unique mix of hope, shattered innocence, pain, fear, and vulnerability … a great, suspenseful read.” — Readers' Favorite Award in Suspense Fiction“You root for the lead, Emily, and stick with her throughout. Engaged me from the first page. Excellent story. Dark and grisly, yet a lot of hope comes with this one.” — Feathered Quill Medal Winner in Mystery/Suspense“[S]tunning, captivating, heartbreaking but also heartwarming. … [T]he characters were so alive, believable, with heart and warmth, humor and love. … This book is certainly on my ‘best ever books’ list.” — NetGalley“A fantastic book that completely demolished my expectations. … This novel is fast-paced and action-packed but it has a profound human element that sets it apart from other novels in its genre.” — BookishFirst
Warriors, Witches, Women: Mythology's Fiercest Females
Kate Hodges - 2020
Each powerful character will fire the imagination, entertain, and provoke debate.
Limbo.
Marko Pandza - 2016
A place beyond time and space as we know it where psychopaths compete for perverse honour and status as they carry out their deathly duties. As Grim struggles to hold onto the memories of the life he’s lost, he discovers that the insane being who shaped him (and the course of existence itself) may have sinister plans for the one thing he values most.In Limbo, the end is only the beginning.
Violet Grenade
Victoria Scott - 2017
But the voice inside her head has a different name. When the mysterious Ms. Karina finds Domino in an alleyway, she offers her a position at her girls’ home in secluded West Texas. With no alternatives and an agenda of her own, Domino accepts. It isn’t long before she is fighting her way up the ranks to gain the woman’s approval…and falling for Cain, the mysterious boy living in the basement. But the home has horrible secrets. So do the girls living there. So does Cain. Escaping is harder than Domino expects, though, because Ms. Karina doesn’t like to lose inventory. But then, she doesn’t know about the danger living inside Domino’s mind. She doesn’t know about Wilson.