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 1st, but I had my Offbeat Offline installment scheduled for that day, 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 more than half 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

8th. Mike Chen: Of Sorcery and Science (YA)

Months after entering a portal, becoming a powerful mage, and saving a distant realm, disgruntled Asian American high schooler Andy Lao returns home to find that absolutely no one believes what happened to him. In fact, things are worse than ever before as his subpar science and math grades make him a target of his parents' disappointment. But how do you think about tests and college applications when you’re the Chosen One of a magical land?

One day, at the portal's location, Andy sees a glowing bit of mana on the ground. And with that, magic is possible again. But when a mysterious, surly teen girl comes through the portal, she claims to be the Chosen One...and that Andy’s the one who doomed the realm. Together, they’ll save magic—because the answer lies in modern science.

Note: I got an ARC of this one and I did enjoy it (read my review here), but it's the kind of YA book that doesn't have a lot of crossover appeal for adult readers. I must choose more wisely in the future, because I hate giving a lukewarm rating to books mostly because they weren't written with people my age in mind...it's not fair.

 ***

8th. Sarah Maria Griffin: Strange Is the Light (YA/NA/Adult)

Strange Is the Light follows a passionately entangled group of childhood friends, fractured by the betrayals and secrets kept as they grew into adulthood.

Now, after twenty years, Daphne, Ronan, Leonie and Finn will finally have to face the consequences of cutting their last adventure short--having accidentally opened a rift into a dangerous alternate dimension while playing a mysterious RPG version of their childhood game.

Daphne never took her final turn...And there is a debt that must be paid.

Note: Technically an adult book, but the reviewers say it covers a couple of decades starting when the characters where kids. My EW request was denied, and I could only "Wish for it!" on NG (I always try, though I know for a fact that no European reader will ever get their wish...). But I can never get enough of this kind of premise, so I'll definitely get to it!

***

22nd. Jonathan Maberry et. al.: The Big Bad Book of Kaiju (Adult)

An explosive collection of monster terror, featuring 25 original tales of creatures the size of skyscrapers. See cities shattered and worlds ended, as great beasts rise from the deep.

Featuring work from: Steve Alten, Linda D. Addison, Kevin J. Anderson, Maurice Broaddus, Tananarive Due, Luke Dumas, Kane Gilmour, Maxwell Gold, Christopher Golden, Henry Herz, Jamal Hodge, Ai Jiang, Alma Katsu, Tim Lebbon, Jonathan Maberry, Seanan McGuire, Lee Murray, Tobi Ogundiran, Cynthia Pelayo, Jeremy Robinson, Michelle Sagara, Scott Sigler, Ben Spada, Anne Walsh.

Note: I got an ARC of this one. Not my usual cup of tea, but I can't pass up a book with a McGuire story in it! I'm starting it in a couple of days.

***

OCTOBER

6th. Quinn Connor: Your Beloved Remains (Adult)

Archivist Celia Kiel has spent her life on the remote campus of Basin College in the Southern Ozarks. Once a jewel of women’s higher education in the South, the school now molders on its mountaintop, its endowment thinly supported by the bequeathed estate of 19th century writer, Beatrice Donahue. Celia guards the legacy of this venerated, yet scandalous author, who has been the object of her illicit desire since childhood.

When the administration announces the college's imminent closure, Celia discovers a manuscript pickled in formaldehyde, and with it, a chance to save the only home she's ever known. She will forge Beatrice's infamous lost work, a spellbinding horror written toward her life's tumultuous end. To do it, she is forced to recruit her professional rival, literature postdoc Joan Harriot, who has both an astounding talent for mimicry and a dark secret of her own. As their world closes in and the ghosts of the Victorian past encroach, their creative collaboration spirals into an obsession more twisted than even their beloved Beatrice could have penned.

Note: EW request denied, and I could only "Wish for it!" on NG, so you know how it goes. Now, I'm not sure if this one would have ended up on my radar normally, but I've loved both of the previous Quinn Connor books, so I'm giving it a chance...

***

6th. Tatiana Schlote-Bonne: What Feeds Below (YA)

The darkness isn’t empty. It’s hungry.

At the edge of the City of the Void, a massive chasm extends miles into the earth, its treacherous terrain overrun with vicious monsters and carnivorous plants. For orphaned best friends Petra and Jade, guiding treasure-seeking tourists down into the Void is the only way to earn enough to pull themselves up out of the slums for good.

Petra prefers to play it safe and take jobs only in the Void’s upper levels, where the dangers are better understood, while Jade wants to risk a descent to the deepest and most mysterious Sixth Layer. Because the deeper they go, the better the payout, and the sooner their dreams can become reality. Their friendship is Petra’s whole world, and Jade’s approval means everything—so Petra agrees to do it Jade’s way.

When their job goes wrong and Jade is lost in the Void, Petra must plunge deeper than she’s ever dared to save her friend. But she doesn’t know the truth of the Void...or what really waits for her in its depths.

Note: I got an ARC of this one. Great horror, interesting worldbuilding, a bit lacking in other departments. Mini review to come on the 20th.

***

6th. Kelley Armstrong: Dive Bar at the End of the Road (Adult)

A forested road at night, slick from the pounding rain and eerily illuminated by flashes of lightning. Just before midnight, a car swerves to avoid something—or someone—mysteriously standing in the road, only to slam into a fallen tree instead. In the pitch black, four more cars follow in a pileup no one can seem avoid.

Stumbling out of the wreckage, soaked from the rain and nursing various injuries, five strangers find themselves in a backwoods dive bar, waiting for daybreak and hoping for cell service. But as tensions rise and the storm rages on outside, the occupants of the dive bar start to notice that not everything is as it seems. Time is moving differently, and they quickly learn that going outside—whether to assist another accident victim or to hike for help—is a very bad idea.

There’s something in the woods, something that isn't natural. Could the figure in the road have been a warning? Or something more sinister? None of this is normal, and they'll need to work together to figure out what’s happening if they have any hope of surviving through the night.

Note: No ARC from EW, wish on NG, again. But this is another trope I can't seem to tire of, plus you put "time is moving differently" in a synopsis and I'm like 🤩. So...I'll get to this one, it goes without saying.

***

6th. Nicolina Torres: Night of the Mallrats (Adult)

Colleen’s life feels as hollow as the abandoned Beechnut Mall—the 90s hangout where neon lights and endless laughter defined her teens thirty years before. When her old high school clique reassembles for one last night of rebellion inside the now condemned building, she joins them, never expecting the mall to give something back. The reunited friends do not know that inside its darkened halls, the past is waiting, and it’s not all Glamour Shots, Beanie Babies, and Lisa Frank. Faced with their lost youth, they are drawn back into the mystery of Beth Packard—a schoolmate who vanished in 1994—and without warning, they find themselves transported to the mall in its heyday on the very night Beth disappeared. Thrust back three decades, the former mallrats must unravel the secrets hidden beneath memories, lies, and betrayals before time snaps shut around them. But each step closer to the truth of Beth’s disappearance brings them within reach of exposing ugly, fatal truths about each other. Haunting, wistful, pulse-pounding fun, Night of the Mallrats is a time-travel thriller that asks a question with an unforgettable answers: What really happened to Beth Packard?

Note: EW request in limbo, wish on NG. Time-travel thriller, you said? set in a mall? GIMME!!! (which means, I'll get to this one nevertheless).

***

6th. Neil Kleid: Return to the Motherfreaking Fun Factory (NA)

Ten years ago, five children were lured into the dark machinations of a twisted, whimsical toymaker, forced to compete for a grand prize -- all the toys they could ever dream of -- and, as happened, their lives.

Today, four of those kids -- now morally ambiguous young adults -- seek revenge on the insane man who terrorized them, and once again find themselves trapped inside his factory of horrors, all while attempting to save the fifth member of their group, who "won" the contest...but was left behind.

Note: I got an ARC of this one. I loved the horror bits, but this is, for all purposes, a novella, and the story would have needed more space to breathe. Still a fun read though. Mini review to come on the 20th.

***

13th. Courtney Gould: Until the Last Light Goes Out (YA)

Twenty-five years ago, the Ripley Memorial High School senior class entered the luxurious Kaleidoscope Key resort deep in the remote Florida Keys. Despite international intrigue and years of investigation, no one truly knows how the 183 students died. And they never will, since the five survivors of the massacre have never spoken a word about what happened to them that night.

Paige Keller, daughter of one of the Kaleidoscope Key Massacre’s infamous survivors, has grown up determined to steer her life away from the resort and the unsolved mysteries her ex-best friend, KJ, can’t leave alone. Paige has moved to a fancy new college and it seems that, finally, she’s banished the shadows of Kaleidoscope Key completely. But when she’s called home on the 25th anniversary of the massacre, she finds that KJ has gone missing.

Paige knows there’s only one place KJ could be: her obsession, the now-abandoned resort. When Paige and the remaining Survivors’ Kids go in after her, they’re forced to confront their―and their parents'―pasts once and for all.

Kaleidoscope Key is waiting, and it's starving. Once they find their way inside, there may not be a way out. And one way or another, the truth of the massacre will come to light.

Captivating and chilling, Courtney Gould’s Until The Last Light Goes Out is a horror story, a love story, and an ode to the pain passed between generations that you won’t soon forget.

Note: I was approved for this one by the UK publisher! You can never go wrong with Gould...and this one is my fave among her books. If you enjoy liminal-space/impossible-maze narratives with a heart (and eldritch horror, broken time, generational trauma, brave girls...), it doesn't get any better than this.

***

13th. Rebekah Faubion: What a Nightmare (Adult)

Haven Powers has spent years trying to disappear. Once a loud, troublemaking girl who defied every expectation in her small town of Friendship, Texas, now she’s learned to hide her fire behind a quiet receptionist’s smile. It’s safer that way—for her, and for everyone else.

When an unsettling encounter with her predatory boss cracks open the tightly locked box inside her, Haven dreams a terrifying dream about him, only to wake up and discover it’s come true; he’s dead. Desperate to gain control of this deadly power once and for all, Haven returns home.

Welcomed suspiciously with open arms, Haven is immediately met with the ghosts of her past. Under the suffocating pressure of the town and her family who believe obedience is next to godliness, Haven soon finds herself on a path to revenge. She’ll show them what happens when the girl they called too much, too loud, too everything, finally lets her demons loose.

Note: EW request in limbo, wish on NG. This one sounds like a great blend of female rage and supernatural horror!

***

13th. Will Maclean: Solace House (Adult)

In the summer of 1993, broke student Alex Lane joins a team clearing out Solace House, a Victorian mansion bequeathed to the university by a reclusive hoarder called Flayne. The other students are a mixed bunch, but Alex quickly falls into a close friendship with the lively, redheaded Ella.

When the crew begins sorting through piles of junk, they stumble upon Flayne's journals, in which he details his obsession with his missing mother, his discovery of a place called Bewise, and - most mysteriously - his belief in another realm lying parallel to ours, along with coded instructions as to how it might be reached.

As the students delve deeper into the house's secrets, one of them becomes obsessed with deciphering Flayne's strange opus and its promise of another world... and they may be willing to sacrifice everything, and everyone, to get there.

Note: Yet another ARC I got...this one broke my brain. Not to miss if you like creepy, multilayered stories set in a creepy, multilayered reality - with a side of time warp/time loop. Woohoo! Review coming on the 10th.

***

NOVEMBER

10th. Melissa Caruso: The Last Star in the Void (Adult)

Kembral Thorne is back on the job. Everything is going great—she hasn’t been in mortal peril for months, her daughter is learning to crawl, and she’s thinking about getting serious with her girlfriend, cat burglar Rika Nonesuch. But then a simple mission goes wrong, and a mysterious Echo hires her for her most dangerous case yet.

This time, the murder Kembral must solve is her own.

Her first warning: Watch out above you. It won’t be her last. The cryptic messages give Kem an edge against her would-be murderer—but there’s more at stake than her own survival.

Rips in the very fabric of reality are spreading through the Echoes, and Kem’s blood is the only thing that can close them. A traitor among her allies is willing to kill to stop her. To save all the worlds, Kem must figure out who she can trust—and Rika must decide how much of her humanity she’ll sacrifice for the power to protect the woman she loves.

Note: I was approved for this one by the UK publisher - as I hoped I would, since I'd already had my request granted for both the previous installments. It's the final book in The Echo Archives trilogy, which I've enjoyed a lot so far (and this last one sounds like the series is ending with a bang!).

***

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 8th: Do you ever go to class reunions? (a question I submitted)
• September 15th: What’s one thing that’s always in your fridge? (a question I submitted)
• September 22nd: Tell us about your current (or past) job (a question I submitted)
• September 29th: Sweet or salty snacks - which do you prefer?

I'll only be back for the meme on September 29th, 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?