Tell Me Something Tuesday (on a Saturday): Which Books Are You Looking Forward to Reading This Fall? (September-November)

Tell Me Something Tuesday is a weekly meme created by Heidi at Rainy Day Ramblings in order to discuss a wide range of topics from books to blogging (and some slightly more personal matters throw in for good measure). After Heidi stopped blogging (apparently for good), five of us took over as hosts while providing new questions. The current team is composed of Berls at Because Reading Is Better Than Real Life, Jen at That's What I'm Talking About, Karen at For What It's Worth, Linda at Book Girl of Mur-y-Castell and Roberta at Offbeat YA. This week's question is...

WHICH BOOKS ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO READING THIS FALL? (SEPTEMBER-NOVEMBER)

(First off - the date for this post should have been September 2nd, but I had my first Offbeat Offline installment in three months scheduled for the day before, so I decided to move this one forward...).

I don't know if I'll ever get around to buying all these books or when, since 1) early reviews and excerpts might cause me to change my mind in the future, and 2) given my current situation (see: unemployment status), book money is scarce...(I got most of these in eARC form though! See below). Anyhow, I wanted to give a bit of exposure to all the fall books that caught my eye, so here's my list (complete with pub dates)...

SEPTEMBER

16th. Ryan La Sala: The Dead of Summer (YA)

Two days before...

Ollie Veltman is finally coming home to the quaint island of Anchor's Mercy after a year away while his mom battled cancer. It should be a celebration -- his mom is cancer free, and she's determined to have the best summer ever -- but Ollie's (now ex) best friends think he abandoned them, and he's returning with a lot questions. Because for a place that's perfect on the outside, a secret rots inside. A secret that could explain his mom's illness, and the illness of so many other locals.

Ollie's desperate search for the truth turns life or death when a storm descends upon the island. In its wake, a long-sunken horror rises . . .

Three weeks after...

Ollie is being held in isolation aboard a military hospital ship in the harbor. They say he's a survivor, but they only know half the story. The truth is more dangerous than Ollie ever believed, and he suspects his saviors aren't here to save anyone. Only Ollie can stop what comes next, but that means getting back to Anchor's Mercy before it vanishes below the waves, taking with it everyone he has ever loved.

Note: Book 1 in The Dead of Summer series...maybe duology? and that cover is GORGEOUS! I haven't had any luck with La Sala's ARCs since his debut novel, but I'm a fan, so I'll get to this one regardless...

 ***

22th. Olivia Neal: Blue Ridge Calling (YA)

The Appalachian mountains are some of the oldest in the world. They say ancient magic runs through these rivers and valleys. Two years ago, a car accident on a perilous mountain road sent a family into freefall, and none of them have been the same since. Sage used to have everything under control: perfect grades, record times on the swim team, and carefully medicated ADHD. But ever since her mom died, she' s just been going through the motions, and no one in her family seems to notice. Kora has known Sage' s family her whole life, so losing Sage' s mom was like losing her own. At the end of the summer, she' s supposed to abandon her beloved Blue Ridge mountains for a prestigious art school in New York, but leaving now feels wrong. And an unexpected romance with a new girl in town might complicate things. Then there' s Sam, Sage' s older brother. He' s spent the last two years traipsing through the mountains, trying to find evidence of local ghost stories. He said he would be back by now, but no one has heard from him. To find him, Kora and Sage will have to dig deeper into the myths and legends of the mountains they call home — before it' s too late.

Note: I got an ARC of this one, and my review is coming on the 11th. A slow burn, but I enjoyed it!

***

23rd. Ryan Leslie: The Garden of Before (Adult)

"That's what happens here, Paul. Every power has its price. It always gets worse."

For Paul Prentice things have gotten much worse. His house was destroyed in the battle with the Koŝmaro. He's on thin ice at his job, where instead of working he loses himself in the Between's computer game, trying in vain to find explanations. His best friend Jay has transformed into a shadowy killer. Corinne and Supriya have vanished. And it appears his wife, Julie, has finally had enough and left him.

Alone and near ruin, Paul receives a familiar visitor with a dire message: they are all back in the Between. Hunted, captured, doomed. For Paul, still wearing the serĉilo's artifact on his wrist, escape was never an option. The game must be played until the end.

In the harrowing conclusion to The Between, Leslie once again invites readers into a mind-twisting world where the most terrifying monsters are the ones let loose inside of us.

Note: The second installment in The Between duology. I got an ARC from the author, and what I can tell you is, the series ends with a LOUD bang! Review coming on the 16th.

***

30th. Ren Hutchings: The Legend Liminal (Adult)

Stacey Kells never expected to fall out of reality when she packed her bags, got into a camper van with her two brothers and their best friend, and started travelling west. Sure, they might have said something like that—that’s kind of the point of going off the grid, isn’t it? But no one thought it would happen quite so literally. Then the world got real empty, and it stayed empty.

Now it’s just the four of them, and a map that doesn’t make sense, and miles upon miles of desert and sky and endless empty highway. They embarked on this road trip to figure out what to do with their lives—but their lives don’t seem to exist anymore, and there may not be a way back home.

The Legend Liminal is a story about grief and hope, and the way we find lifelines in each other when we can’t break free of the spiral of the past.

Note: This is one of my favourite premises, so I'm salivating now. Apparently, ARCs of this novella don't exist (at least for the general public), but that won't stop me of course 😁.

***

OCTOBER

7th. Thea Weiss: The Second Chance Cinema (Adult)

At the end of a fog-covered alley, glitters a glamorous cinema. It’s nearly impossible to find. When Ellie and her fiancé, Drake, stumble upon it during a late-night walk, they’re shocked to discover what’s playing inside the red-velvet auditorium: their formative memories.

Drake fears what the cinema might reveal, but eventually gives in when Ellie insists they return for more viewings. She’s haunted by a night from her past that she doesn’t fully remember. This is her opportunity to piece the story back together. But as the memories displayed on screen inch closer to the present, they realize they’re both keeping secrets from each other.

With their wedding on the horizon, Ellie and Drake must decide if seeing their pasts changes their plans for a future together. Filled with warmth, hope, and a dash of magic, The Second Chance Cinema is both an enchanting escape and a thought-provoking examination of how our memories shape who we are.

Note: Request still in limbo...OK, this one has a romance core, but its speculative aspect lured me in!

***

7th. Kat Ellis: The Devouring Light (YA)

When Haden Romero and her rival, Deacon Rex – alongside their bands, including Haden’s ex, Cairo – are stranded on their way to a rock festival, she thinks missing the gig is the worst thing that could happen.

She’s wrong.

Marooned in treacherous swamplands with no way out, the group stumbles upon an eerie, decaying house. It seems like a safe haven, a place to wait out the storm.

The house, however, isn’t just abandoned – it’s been waiting for them.

Bodies begin to pile up. The walls start to close in. Twisted secrets come to light. And unless Haden and the others can survive long enough to escape, the house will claim them – forever.

Note: I was approved for this one by the UK publisher! Brace yourself for bug/body horror aplenty LOL - gross, but the author made clever use of it. (Personally, I can stomach bug/body horror in books, though I MOST DEFINITELY can't stomach it on screen - but mileage may vary, so you've been warned). Please note: I used the US release date above, but it will come out earlier in the UK (Sep. 11th). Mini review to come.

***

7th. Jihyun Yun: And the River Drags Her Down (YA)

When her older sister is found mysteriously drowned in the river that cuts through their small coastal town, Soojin Han disregards every rule and uses her ancestral magic to bring Mirae back from the dead. At first, the sisters are overjoyed, reveling in late-night escapades and the miracle of being together again, but Mirae grows tired of hiding from the world. She becomes restless and hungry...

Driven by an insatiable desire to finish what she started in life, to unravel the truth that crushed her family so many years ago, Mirae is out for revenge.

When their town is engulfed by increasingly destructive rain and a series of harrowing, unusual deaths, Soojin is forced to reckon with the fact that perhaps the sister she brought back isn’t the one she knew.

Note: I got an ARC of this one, and I enjoyed it a lot! Review coming on the 26th.

***

14th. Ian Chorão: When We Talk to the Dead (NA)

A remote deserted island off the coast of Maine holds dark memories and disturbing secrets for the family who once lived on its rocky shores. Though nineteen-year-old Sally de Gama remembers nothing about the accident that took place on Captain’s Island and destroyed her family when she was a little girl, she suffers from intense anxiety, pervasive bouts of dissociation, and gruesome nightmares. 

All Sally knows is that her mother hasn’t spoken since the accident that took the life of Sally’s twin sister. Following the tragedy, her family fled and never looked back. 

When her mother suddenly dies, Sally and three college friends travel to the island–for her friends it’s an adventure to a strange, abandoned place. For Sally, it’s a desperate bid to recover some of her memories and understand what really happened to her family. But when memories begin to return, Sally is overcome by grief and rage that threaten to plunge her into madness–a madness that is fed by a malevolent presence stalking them on the island.

Note: Yet another ARC I got, and yet another I enjoyed! Review to come in October.

***

NOVEMBER

4th. Joelle Wellington: Girls Who Play Dead (YA)

When Mikky Graves left his small, stifling hometown of Prophets Lake to live with his estranged mother, he thought nothing could ever make him return for good.

Until his sister Kyla’s best friend, Erin, is murdered.

Mikky never worried about leaving Kyla behind at their family-owned funeral home so long as she had Erin. But when Mikky heads home, determined to help Kyla grieve, the sister he encounters barely resembles the one he remembers. Mikky decides, then and there, to do the one thing that seems even more impossible than returning: stay.

As Kyla spirals further into her rage and secrets, Mikky realizes the only thing that can help his sister is finding the truth about who killed Erin. But the more he investigates, the further he’s pulled into other ugly mysteries of Prophets Lake and the beauty brand that is its lifeblood. The town’s rot runs deep, and everyone has something to hide. Perhaps no one more than Kyla herself.

Note: I got an ARC of this one thanks to the UK publisher. Another winner!

***

11th. Elisabeth Anne Martins: Opposite World (Adult)

Piper “Pip” Screed remembers nothing about her mother’s mysterious death or the strange episode that left her in a deep, unexplained sleep. All she knows is that her father uprooted them to a secluded mountain cabin, severed all ties to the outside world, and refuses to answer her questions.

Fifteen years later, Pip escapes isolation and discovers The Reverie Cloud—a revolutionary sleep-therapy program that merges the subconscious with virtual reality. Here, users can experience their desires, confront fears, and rewrite their pasts in a dreamscape indistinguishable from reality. But when The Reverie Cloud falls into the hands of those who see her subconscious as a prize, Pip becomes ensnared within its unstable architecture. Now locked inside the program, she must navigate its mercurial layers, face the horrors buried within her subconscious, and unravel the truth about her past before time runs out. Worse, she’s not the only one at risk—her father’s life hangs in the balance, too.

But the deeper Pip ventures, the more dangerous the game becomes. If she pushes too far, she may never escape. Yet only by confronting the truth can she hope to uncover what really happened to her mother—before the program consumes her entirely.

Blending science fiction with psychological horror, surreal fantasy, and an aching tremor of human longing, Opposite World is an exploration of memory, identity, and the thin divide between perception and reality.

Note: This sounded like my brand of sci-fi mindfuck, so I requested an ARC and got it! I'm starting it next.

***

18th. Beatrice Winifred Iker: I'll Make a Spectacle of You (Adult)

Zora Robinson is an ambitious grad student in her dream program, Appalachian Studies, at Bricksbury University. When her thesis advisor hands her a strange diary and suggests she research the local folklore about a beast roaming the woods surrounding campus, Zora finds a community uneager to talk to an outsider.

As she delves into the history of the beast, she uncovers a rumored secret society called the Keepers that has tenuous ties to the beast…and Bricksbury itself. Zora soon finds herself plagued by visions of the past, and her grip on reality starts to slip as she struggles to uncover what is real and what is folklore. But when a student goes missing, Zora starts to wonder if the Keepers ever really disbanded.

There’s something in the woods and it has its eyes on Zora.

Note: Intriguing! My EW request is still in limbo (I also wished for it on NG, just for laughs...😬).

***

Well, that's it for now. Did you enjoy this post? Would you like to participate in the meme on a regular or semi-regular basis, and get emailed the prompt list? Just head over here and fill in Jen's form! (Of course, you can jump in anytime you like - you are under no obligation to actually do all the posts, or even most of them, just because you signed up, and you can remove yourself from the list at any time). And if you're interested in participating in a more casual manner, or only in commenting, here is the TMST prompt list for the rest of September:

• September 9th: What’s your favourite room in your house?
• September 16th: What would you do if you won the lottery? (a question I submitted)
• September 23rd: Which fictional character do you wish were a real person? (a question I submitted)
• September 30th: If you could live in a different country for a year, which country would you choose?

I'll only be back for the meme on September 30th, with a round-up post covering the rest of the month  - a good compromise between writing a sporadic post and disappearing for months on one hand, and being consistent at the cost of blogging burnout on the other...

Now tell me something...which fall books are on your TBR list?