Most Anticipated Books: Summer/Fall 2023
We’re already halfway through 2023, but there are still SO MANY amazing books ahead! We’ve rounded up our most highly anticipated titles for the back half of the year. Read on for our shortlist, and check out the entire longlist on our website.
Immortal Longings by Chloe Gong (July 18)
Imagine The Hunger Games by way of Antony and Cleopatra, set in an urban fantasy world where people can jump their qi from one body to another, and you’ll just start to scratch the surface on what makes Immortal Longings so amazing! This new fantasy is dark and gripping and nonstop excitement from start to finish. Plus there is a steamy enemy-to-lovers romance! A walled city! A plot to bring down the monarchy! So much more!!
—Julia
Mister Magic by Kiersten White (August 8)
Do you ever read the summary of a horror novel and think “that’s so twisted…I’m in?” Kiersten White’s Mister Magic follows the cast of a popular TV show thirty years after a tragic accident shut down production for good. Tragedies have haunted the cast members since the show’s end, and when they’re brought together again, questions about who (or what) the show’s host Mister Magic was emerge.
—Aatia
Pride and Prejudice and Pittsburgh by Rachael Lippincott (August 29)
You’d think, as a great lover of Pride and Prejudice, I’d jump up and down every time I see a new retelling. But I have a hot take: there are too many retellings of Pride and Prejudice! And yet, when I saw the announcement for this book, I changed my mind. A reverse Kate and Leopold with gay girls? Who wouldn’t want that? It sounds inventive and original, with just enough familiarity. And after reading, She Gets the Girl, Lippincott’s rom-com (written with her wife), I know the romance will be spectacular.
—Camryn
Never a Hero by Vanessa Len (August 29)
Never A Hero is the sequel to Only A Monster, one of the best YA fantasy books I've read in years! As soon as I picked it up and read the blurb, I was hooked. I read the first book in under a day. It was thrilling and romantic, with the most unique fantasy world. Having to wait for the sequel has been extremely difficult and I'm so excited to dive back into Joan's world of heroes and monsters, time travel, and a LOVE TRIANGLE (???). Definitely my most anticipated book of 2023.
—Ali
Wednesday’s Child by Yiyun Li (September 5)
This is Yiyun Li’s first collection of short stories in over ten years! Everything Li writes has such a delicate, strange, magical quality to it, and I have not stopped thinking about what weird treasures and melancholic characters this collection holds since I read the titular story in The New Yorker earlier this year. This will, without a doubt, be a true masterclass on the art of storytelling.
—Amali
Phoebe’s Diary by Phoebe Wahl (September 5)
Our bookseller team is full of ultra Phoebe Wahl fans! You’ll find that Phoebe’s backlist is often on our Staff Favorites Lists, Subscription Picks, as well as faithfully hand-selling. We love Phoebe for her folksy cottage-core illustration style and lush prose. Phoebe’s Diary is her first YA book. Drawn from her real life, I am so curious and enthusiastic about what she has to say.
—Jacque
Thank You For Sharing by Rachel Runya Katz (September 12)
Thank You For Sharing is the Jewish summer camp alumni romance I have been waiting for! This rom-traum-com is a deliciously slow burn love story, with an incredible cast of characters I wish I could go out to drinks with in real life. Rachel Runya Katz perfectly balances witty banter and tender emotional moments, and the result is electric! One of the most impressive romance debuts I’ve read.
—Julia
What Kind of Mother by Clay McLeod Chapman (September 12)
For sure a Creepy Kid Hall of Famer, beautiful and visceral What Kind of Mother will cause horrified gasps and full sobs in equal measure. Relationships, parenthood, and body horror clash in this humid and crunchy book, absolutely filling your sense with its environment. Definitely a must-read for horror fans.
—Teo
Serwa Boateng's Guide to Witchcraft and Mayhem by Roseanne A. Brown (September 12)
I LOVED the first book in this series, and couldn’t wait to get my hands on a copy of the sequel. Serwa and her friends do it again (with help from the incredible author, Roseanna A. Brown). The first book left us off on such a cliffhanger, I loved how this book so naturally picked up the storyline. Packed with adventure, fun, and a good helping of commentary of what it's like to be a young person of color in the world right now. For fans of Rick Riordan and other middle-grade fantasy books, 10/10 recommend!
—Ali
Candelaria by Melissa Lozada-Oliva (September 19)
Oh. My. Lord. Melissa has DONE IT AGAIN!!!! This book has everything: cults, spanglish, cycling classes, generational trauma, and a little bit of cannibalism! I’ve been lurking in the shadows waiting for her second book and it’s finally here!! About a quarter of the way through I already knew I wanted to reread it. She’s incredible!!
—Jules
The Book of (More) Delights by Ross Gay (September 19)
I will follow Ross Gay to the end of the earth. The Book of (More) Delights once again captures everything it means to be human—the delights, the sorrows, the joy that comes alongside hardship. This book is an exercise in noticing the world around us, and it is a beautiful, dare I say delightful, read!
—Julia
Lies and Sorcery by Elsa Morante, translated by Jenny McPhee (September 19)
Elsa Morante, an Italian national treasure, is finally getting her due with Jenny McPhee's new translation about a family and their delusions. There is no Ferrante, no Starnone without the fearsome, seminal writings of this Italian legend.
—Bex
Wellness by Nathan Hill (September 19)
I’m 50 of 700 pages in right now and I’m loving this sweeping, propelling, epic novel about love, marriage, and life. This one is surely going to be on many reading lists this fall and should be!
—Mike
Dory Fantasmagory: Can't Live Without You by Abby Hanlon (September 26)
The most anticipated children’s book in Brooklyn! Since 2020, fans have been religiously asking when the next book of this ever hilarious series is being published! The time has come, rejoice! If you haven’t hopped on the Dory-train yet, hop on now & join in on the fun camaraderie! In this sixth adventure Dory turns separation anxiety into a goofy escapade!
—Jacque
People Collide by Isle McElroy (September 26)
This was such a beautiful read. The way this felt to read was like being in a meadow and noticing everything around you with a gentle awareness. Finding yourself in a body that's unfamiliar and slowly cultivating an exceptional love for it is no easy feat, but McElroy captured this queer bloom so fantastically.
—Pax
The Dead Take the A Train by Cassandra Khaw and Richard Kadrey (October 3)
Cosmic horror in NYC!? YES PLEASE.
—Kevin
When Ghosts Call Us Home by Katya de Becerra (October 3)
This YA-Horror is billed as Emily M. Danforth’s Plain Bad Heroines meets The Haunting of Hill House. I have to have it.
—Aatia
Apple in the Dark by Clarice Lispector, translated by Benjamin Moser (October 3)
Always exciting when another Lispector work is translated and published by New Directions! The Brazilian master brings us a longer work in Apple in the Dark, her famously intense 1961 novel about which Lispector says, “It’s the best one.”
—Nick
Normal Women by Ainslie Hogarth (October 10)
When I say no one does dark humor like Ainslie Hogarth, I mean it! Her 2022 release Motherthing has not left my brain since I read it, and I can’t wait for Normal Women to take its place in my obsession over novels following unsettling women who do not-so-great things with only the best intentions. Also, best covers ever!!!
—Amali
Charming Young Man by Eliot Schrefer (October 10)
I don’t read a lot of historical fiction, especially when I know that I may be disappointed at the lack of a “happily ever after,” most common in queer books and those involving social justice issues we are still dealing with today. This book surprised me at every turn. When I finished the last page, I had to go back and reread the epilogue and the author’s note, because I felt like there was so much more to Léon’s story we didn’t get to learn! (In a good way). Maybe a sequel? Great for art and music history lovers!
—Ali
My Death by Lisa Tuttle (October 10)
A wonderful novela about art and writing with an eerie psychological twinge. NYRB always puts out wonderful books and My Death is no exception.
—Nick
Death Valley by Melissa Broder (October 24)
In classic Broder fashion, this book is weird and wonderful and just when I didn't think a cactus could make me cry, it 1000% did. This is a book about grief, the desert, and hydrogenated salvation. My new favorite from the California treasure that is Melissa Broder.
—Bex
Nestlings by Nat Cassidy (October 31)
It’s hard to put into words how much I love this horrible, spooky, gross book. Eerie and sinister and extremely New York, Nestlings grabs you by your bleeding heart and doesn't let go. Hints of Rosemary's Baby, notes of Salem's Lot, and a splash of The Sentinel, it is everything I love about horror and more.
—Teo
The Glutton by A.K. Blakemore (October 31)
This novel is an imagined life for The Great Tarare, or “The Glutton of Lyon” who lived in 18th-century France during the Revolution. While on his death bed, The Glutton tells a young nun the story of his life. It’s got cannibalism, class criticism, and so much more. I’m sold. I can’t wait to read it!
—Jules
Dolls of Our Lives: Why We Can’t Quit American Girl by Mary Mahoney and Allison Horrocks (November 7)
Move over Barbie movie, this is the doll-related media we’ve been waiting for! As an American Girl Doll-er myself back in the day—I had Kit, who as far as I’m concerned is canonically genderqueer—I am the target audience for this book. It promises to be equal parts entertaining and fascinating, and I for one cannot wait!
—Julia
Gwen & Art Are Not in Love by Lex Croucher (November 28)
Love is messy enough without being a bunch of teenage knights and royals running amuck with swords and big gay feelings. Add that in? Things are sure to get interesting… Lex Croucher is one of my favorite authors. They always know how to write amazing queer historical fiction that’s funny and charming with a contemporary feel and the *perfect* amount of drama—this Arthurian romcom is no exception.
—Madz
Shop the full list of books here!
