The best new books out this week 📚
 Hello, book lovers! Each week, dozens of new releases hit the shelves. Here are our favorites. ❤️📚 –The BuzzFeed Books team
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 Credit: Andrews McMeel, Graywolf Press, Random House New Names for Lost Things by Noor Unnahar
I cling to poetry that evokes the emotion inside me, the words delicately plucked together to create strings of vivid feelings. This is what I love most about Unnahar's latest collection. Many of her poems peel away at the layers of grief and loneliness. She opens this body of work with the phrase, "This city is forgetting you, which is to say, you should return home." Family and reflection upon birth and death are also prominent here. Paired with thoughtful pieces of art, it's a gorgeously evocative collection. —Farrah Penn
Get it from Bookshop or from your local indie at Indiebound here.
The House of Rust by Khadija Abdalla Bajaber
Bajaber won the first Graywolf Press African Fiction Prize with this unique novel set in Mombasa, Kenya. Aisha's mother died when she was younger, and now her father, a fisher, has gone missing. Her grandmother believes him to be dead, but Aisha refuses to give up hope. With the encouragement and help of a mysterious talking cat, Aisha journeys across the water on a skeleton boat searching for her father. On the water, she meets mythical creatures and beasts from Hadhrami folklore who help her on her quest. With sparse, sharply written prose and surreal imaginings, this vivid coming-of-age novel depicts the complexity of childhood, the importance of family, and the thirst for adventure. —Margaret Kingsbury
Get it from Bookshop or from your local indie at Indiebound here.
Oh, William! by Elizabeth Strout
Consider this novel by Pulitizer-winner Strout a book-length refutation of the idea that exes can't be friends. First introduced to readers in My Name Is Lucy Barton, Barton is now recently widowed and still living in New York City. She's friendly with her first husband, William, whose young wife has unexpectedly left him and taken their young daughter with her. Feeling bereft and with lingering curiosity and grief about his late mother, a Maine woman who married a German prisoner of war, William and Lucy embark on an unconventional road trip to uncover some secrets about her past. Written with Strout's signature compassion, Oh, William! is a moving depiction of family. —Tomi Obaro
Get it from Bookshop or from your local indie at Indiebound here.
 Credit: Berkley, G.P. Putnam's Sons Well Matched by Jen DeLuca
On the verge of becoming an empty nester, single mother April Parker decides to sell her home and asks her best friend, Mitch Malone, for some help remodeling. In exchange, Mitch asks April to attend an upcoming family dinner — as his fake girlfriend. She agrees and everything goes according to plan, but when the weekend ends, so does their fake relationship and any feelings she thought she was starting to have. Cut to summer in Willow Creek, which means one thing: Ren Faire. While April decides to attend for the first time, the Faire is where Mitch — often clad in just a kilt — shines. When Mitch's family surprises him with a visit, he taps April to be his fake girlfriend once again, but the longer they play pretend the more real it starts to feel. —Shyla Watson
Get it from Bookshop or from your local indie at Indiebound here.
A Season for Second Chances by Jenny Bayliss
After Annie catches her husband of 26 years cheating on her, she decides her life needs a change. So, she takes a break from the city and accepts a temporary position looking after an old seaside cottage. She soon finds herself taken with the town and its many residents, all of whom have welcomed her with open arms...except one — John, the curmudgeon nephew of the owner of the cottage. The two butt heads at first, but as the snow falls, their feelings thaw, and grow into something resembling a possible second chance at love. But when Annie's old life comes knocking, she'll have to decide if her new romance is just holiday magic, or the real deal. —Shyla Watson
Get it from Bookshop or from your local indie at Indiebound here.
 Credit: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. Henry Holt & Company, Wednesday Books, Amulet Books That Dark Infinity by Kate Pentecost
After the kingdom of Kaer-Ise is attacked, Flora, handmaiden to the princess, is left as the sole survivor, searching for the princess she served. To do so, she'll make a deal with the Ankou, who by night is a legendary young mercenary and by day nothing more than bones. He'll help train her in exchange for her help breaking his curse, finding the death that has been prophesied for him even as she slowly grows to understand (and possibly love) him. —Rachel Strolle
Get it from Bookshop or from your local indie at Indiebound here.
Little Thieves by Margaret Owen
Up until a year ago, Vanja was the dutiful servant of Princess Gisele. Using an enchanted string of pearls, Vanja stole Gisele's life for herself, taking her place and leaving the princess a penniless nobody while Vanja lives a double life as a princess and a jewel thief. But after crossing the wrong god, she's turning into jewels, stone by stone, with only two weeks to determine how to break the curse. —Rachel Strolle
Get it from Bookshop or from your local indie at Indiebound here.
Within These Wicked Walls by Lauren Blackwood
This mesmerizing Ethiopian-inspired gothic reimagines Jane Eyre in a fantasy setting. Andromeda was trained as a debtera — an exorcist who cleanses houses of evil spirits — though her mentor refuses to license her officially. She's barely making a living when the wealthy Magnus Rochester hires her to rid his castle of its evil spirits. When she arrives, she's shocked by what she finds. Deadly manifestations fill the castle beginning at 10 p.m. and continue throughout the night. She's never seen such a multitude of evil spirits all in one place and never this deadly. She's unsure if she'll be successful at ridding the castle of its hauntings, but, desperate for money and finding herself somewhat attracted to the handsome Mr. Rochester, she agrees to take the job. —Margaret Kingsbury
Get it from Bookshop or from your local indie at Indiebound here.
Hunting by Stars by Cherie Dimaline
The sequel to Cherie Dimaline's The Marrow Thieves does not hold back. In this dystopian future, plagues and natural disasters have decimated the population, and many of those remaining have stopped dreaming, except for Indigenous North Americans. Haunted and going mad, the dreamless set up or reopen residential schools to suck the marrow from Indigenous peoples and thus steal their dreams. Seventeen-year-old French belongs to a group of Indigenous folk who have recently rescued one of their members from a residential school. However, on the night of their celebrations, French is captured and imprisoned in a residential school. While he struggles to stay alive and sane, his found family tries to find him and plan for his rescue. Deeply disturbing and moving, Hunting the Stars is a must for those who enjoyed the first book or for those searching for more Indigenous voices in SFF, though do make sure to read The Marrow Thieves first. —Margaret Kingsbury
Get it from Bookshop or from your local indie at Indiebound here.
 Credit: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers Our Way Back to Always by Nina Moreno
Lou and Sam grew up across the street from each other, but despite their previous inseparability, they haven't spoken in 4 years. But when Lou finds the bucket list they wrote together as kids, she sets out to finish the list, and Sam decides to tag along. This story of love, loss, and second chances is gorgeous. —Rachel Strolle
Get it from Bookshop or your local indie through Indiebound here.
 Credit: Thomas & Mercer, Gallery Books Litani by Jess Lourey
It's the summer of 1984, and teen Frankie Jubilee is shipped off to her estranged mother's house in Litani, Minnesota. As soon as she arrives, Frankie has a bad feeling about the small town; people whisper about something called "The Game," and her mother warns her against going into the woods or talking to adult strangers. When Frankie is invited to play The Game by the local bullies, she accepts, on a mission to discover Litani's dark secrets. But as the hysteria of the town grows, so does Frankie's paranoia that she may be living amongst monsters. True crime lovers are sure to love this dark and disturbing thriller that's based on real events. —Kirby Beaton
Get it from Bookshop or through your local indie through Indiebound here.
The Ballad of Laurel Springs by Janet Beard
When 10-year-old Grace is looking for a topic for a school project, she stumbles upon the story of how her four-times-great-grandfather stabbed a lover to death, an event captured in the folk song "Pretty Polly." In flashbacks to the past, we learn how Grace's ancestors dealt with this legendary song and its dark warning to women, starting with Pearl Whaley, who is still mourning the death of her sister Polly. We move through the decades, learning more about the family's losses, all tinged with the horror of this catapulting event, until we spring back to the present with a poignant revelation about Grace's family. Haunting and lyrical, this story immerses you in Appalachian folklore in a visceral way. —Kirby Beaton
Get it from Bookshop or through your local indie through Indiebound here.
 Credit: Nightfire, Tordotcom, Nothing but Blackened Teeth by Cassandra Khaw
A bride has always wanted to marry in a haunted house, so when she finally gets engaged, a rich friend decides to make her wedding dreams come true and rents a crumbling Heian-era Japanese mansion for a night and flies the bride and a few friends out to witness the wedding. The mansion is rumored to be haunted by the ghost of a woman whose fiance died before the two could be married. According to the stories, she buried herself alive and forced a girl to be buried with her every year to keep her company. The narrator, Cat — a bisexual Chinese woman struggling with mental illness and suicidal ideation — is the first to realize that the rumors of a ghostly bride may be true. Both lyrical and creepy, this novella will probably give you nightmares (it did me). —Margaret Kingsbury
Get it from Bookshop or from your local indie at Indiebound here.
Flowers for the Sea by Zin E. Rocklyn
This surreal and enthralling novella takes place in a horrific future wrecked by climate change and flooding. Iraxi escapes the deadly results of her refusal to marry a prominent white man by fleeing on a ship, but monstrous creatures call the ocean home, and the people on the ship are always at risk of falling prey to their tentacles. Most of the women struggle with their pregnancies, and after several years there have been no successful births. However, when Iraxi becomes pregnant, her pregnancy thrives, but she fears the child she's carrying and wishes she weren't pregnant at all. —Margaret Kingsbury
Get it from Bookshop or through your local indie through Indiebound here.
 Credit: Greenwillow Books Keeping it Real by Paula Chase
Marigold Johnson is attending a special program her family's business. But despite the fact that she has a love of fashion in common with the three other trainees, she feels out of place, especially when it comes to Kara, who seems to hate her for no reason. The discovery of a shocking family secret, along with Mari's exploration of her own privilege, shape not only the rest of the program, but the way Mari sees herself. —Rachel Strolle
Get it from Bookshop or through your local indie through Indiebound here.
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