IDLEWILD de James Frankie Thomas

A darkly funny and much gayer imagining of the classic prep school novel, IDLEWILD will appeal to readers of Curtis Sittenfeld’s Prep and Donna Tartt’s The Secret History.

IDLEWILD
by James Frankie Thomas
Overlook/Abrams, Fall 2023
(via Frances Goldin Literary)

Idlewild is a tiny, artsy Quaker high school in lower Manhattan. Students call their teachers by their first names, there are no grades or awards, and every day begins with 20 minutes of contemplative silence. It is during one of those moments of worship that two airplanes hit the World Trade Center.
For two Idlewild outcasts, 9/11 serves as the first day of an intense, 18-month friendship. Fay is a prickly, aloof rich kid who is obsessed with gay men; Nell is a shy, sensitive scholarship student who is obsessed with Fay. The two of them bond fiercely over being the only two openly queer kids at Idlewild. But, as they rehearse for the school’s production of Othello, they notice two sexually ambiguous boys, Theo and Christopher, who are potential candidates for their exclusive Invert Society (née Gay-Straight Alliance). The pairs become mirrors of one another’s desires, anxieties, and loneliness. Their devotion to one another becomes an obsession, driving them to do things that they’ll regret for the rest of their lives.
Looking back on these events as adults, Fay and Nell, who haven’t spoken to each other in fifteen years, are haunted by shame over their Idlewild days. From alternating perspectives, they wonder if they could have done anything to save their friendship, or if it was meant to remain an artifact that couldn’t have existed outside of Idlewild’s walls.

James Frankie Thomas holds an MFA in fiction from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Their fiction has been published in the Paris Review online, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, and The Toast, among other publications. One of these essays is included in the anthology We Are the Baby-Sitters Club, and another was adapted into a PBS NewsHour segment.

ADULT BRACES de Lindy West

ADULT BRACES will provide exercises, thought experiments, and prescriptions that will help her reader map the fears that prevent her from becoming the attentive, active navigator of her own life.

ADULT BRACES:
A Self-Help Book from a Self-in-Progress, or, How You Can Go from Being a Mess to Being a Way Happier Mess
by Lindy West
Hachette US, 2024
(via David Black Literary)

Through SHRILL, the book and then the Hulu series, Lindy West became an inspiration. To this day she is stopped on the street and told she is a beacon of empowerment by women who felt they couldn’t conform to the categories deemed acceptable—thin, straight, compliant—and felt bad about it. To them she modeled someone who had achieved self-actualization.
But what if casting off society’s pre-conceived notions was only the first part of the journey? What if it all the progress that culminated in SHRILL—the actualized self—turned out not to be a destination but an overnight stay on the way to somewhere else even more fulfilling?
Modeled on the sturdy breed of self-esteem-builders like the Sinceros, Mansons, Hollises, and even The Artist’s Way (which Lindy loves), ADULT BRACES uses Lindy’s own, post-SHRILL emotional implosion to chart her way back to an evolving, non-static happiness, and to the realization that the roads to self-actualization are infinite, unpredictable, and endlessly gratifying—and long as you don’t pull over.
ADULT BRACES takes Lindy back to SHRILL yet leaps ahead to something entirely new. She is providing a guide out of indolence and fear. For her, as has been made quite public, it led to a complete reinvention of her marriage. It doesn’t have to be precisely that for every reader, but that is the bold standard she sets. Whatever the particulars, she wants to help readers find what she has, a map to more love, more sex, more trust, more openness. And the courage to keep driving.

Lindy West is a contributing opinion writer for The New York Times and a contributor to This American Life. She is the bestselling author of the essay collection The Witches Are Coming as well as Shrill, a memoir, which she adapted into a comedy for Hulu starring Aidy Bryant. She lives in Seattle. 

Série A HUNDRED NAMES FOR MAGIC de Rin Chupeco

An unforgettable alternative history fairy-tale trilogy from the author of The Bone Witch, about found family, modern-day magic, and finding the place you belong.

‘A HUNDRED NAMES FOR MAGIC’ SERIES
by Rin Chupeco
Sourcebooks Fire, 2020 – 2023

Book 1: WICKED AS YOU WISH (March 2020)
What if every story you’d ever heard was true? Jack killed the giants. Red slayed the wolf. Rapunzel fled the tower. But the greatest one of all, had yet to be told. Once upon a time, the magical Kingdom of Avalon was left to wither and die after the Snow Queen encased it in ice. Its former citizens are now refugees. Which is why crown prince Alex and his protectors are stuck in… Arizona.
Tala Makiling has lived her life as an outsider. Her family curse, the one that’s doomed her to be a spellbreaker, someone who destroys magic, hasn’t won her too many friends. Except Alex, who trusts her and her family to keep his royal identity a secret.
And then one night, a famous creature of legend, the Firebird, appears in their tiny town, reigniting hope for their abandoned homeland. Alex and Tala team up with a ragtag group of new friends to journey back to Avalon. Their path is filled with danger—from deadly prophecies, to terrifying ice wolves, a traitor among them, and the Snow Queen herself. But if they succeed… their story would be legendary.

Book 2: AN UNRELIABLE MAGIC (May 2022)
It’s been six months since the lost city of Avalon was thawed and retaken. And Alex is doing his best to be a good leader, even though he’s not entirely sure what he’s doing. He needs all the help he can get, which is why his best friend, Tala, is by his side. Unfortunately, when the Nameless Sword in the stone appears suddenly in the castle courtyard, it brings a new set of problems. Avalon custom dictates that anyone is free to try to pull it out, attracting people from all walks of life and leaving the kingdom vulnerable to attack.
Attempts to infiltrate Avalon begin in the form of mysterious portals that start appearing without warning bringing nightwalkers, ice maidens, and even a surly dragon.
When the Snow Queen comes out of the woodwork with an unlikely ally and attempts to open a portal to the legendary Buyan, a long-lost country whose life-giving waters could make her even more powerful, Alex, Tala, and their friends will have to work together to stop her, even after their biggest betrayal leaves them broken.

Book 3: THE WORLD’S END (November 2023)
It’s been three months since the Snow Queen and OzCorp infiltrated Maidenkeep and nearly seized the Nine Maidens. Ryker is still unconscious after the Snow Queen attacked him and is being monitored at the hospital. Abigail Fey’s curse has far-reaching consequences, and many in the Royal States have been using it to stir unrest and hostilities against Avalon.
When the Adarna, a firebird-like creature, appears in Avalon, the gang discovers it is one of seven magical artifacts that the Snow Queen has been searching for, in her bid to open a portal to Buyan. Determined to find the artifacts first, the Bandersnatchers find information about the other five artifacts: the Lotus Lantern in China, the tamatabeko in Japan, the Pied Piper’s Flute and the Singing Bone in Germany, and the raskovnik at World’s End, the site where Peter Pan and Captain Hook had fought and had destroyed. The final relic is a portal somewhere inside Wonderland. But the Snow Queen will stop at nothing to get to the relics first. And when one of their own is killed in the fight, it takes everything they have to continue the fight to save Avalon once and for all.

Despite uncanny resemblances to Japanese revenants, Rin Chupeco has always maintained their sense of humor. Raised in Manila, Philippines, they keep four pets: a dog, two birds, and a husband. They’ve been a technical writer and a travel blogger but now make things up for a living. They are the author of The Girl from the Well, The Suffering, The Bone Witch trilogy, and the A Hundred Names for Magic trilogy.

WHAT HAPPENS AFTER MIDNIGHT de K. L. Walther

From the author of The Summer of Broken Rules comes a new coming-of-age novel. When Lily Hopper decides to shed her Goody Two-shoes persona and participate in an epic senior prank before boarding school graduation, she expects fun, rule-breaking, and a story to remember. What she doesn’t expect is to fall back in love with her ex.

WHAT HAPPENS AFTER MIDNIGHT
by K. L. Walther
Sourcebooks Fire, July 2023

Lily Hopper has two more weeks until she’s officially finished with boarding school. With graduation quickly approaching Lily is worried that she’s somehow missed out on the fun of being in high school. So, when she receives a mysterious note inviting her to join the anonymous senior class Jester in executing the end-of-year prank, Lily sees her chance to put her goody-two-shoes reputation behind her.
When Lily realizes the Jester is none other than Taggart Swell, her ex- boyfriend, she’s already in too deep to back out. Lily might’ve dumped Tag, but she still has major feelings. Plus, his brilliant plan to steal the school’s yearbooks, targets none other than Lilly’s prom date: the Senior Class President, Daniel.
As the group of pranksters hide cryptic clues across campus for Daniel to find, Lily and Tag find themselves in close quarters. As the exes dodge Campus Safety guards, night owl teachers, a troop of freshmen, and even Daniel himself, new sparks fly. But old hurts and painful secrets refuse to be ignored. And with graduation on the horizon, Lily can only hope that breaking the rules will help mend her heart.

K.L. Walther was born and raised in the rolling hills of Bucks County, Pennsylvania surrounded by family, dogs, and books. Her childhood was spent traveling the northeastern seaboard to play ice hockey. She attended a boarding school in New Jersey and went on to earn a B.A. in English from the University of Virginia. She is happiest on the beach with a book, cheering for the New York Rangers, or enjoying a rom-com while digging into a big bowl of popcorn and M&Ms. She is the author of If We Were Us and The Summer of Broken Rules.

THIS DELICIOUS DEATH de Kayla Cottingham

From the New York Times bestselling author of My Dearest Darkest comes another incredible sapphic horror. When four best friends with a hunger for human flesh attend a music festival in the desert they discover a murderous plot to expose and vilify the girls and everyone like them. This summer is going to get gory.

THIS DELICIOUS DEATH
by Kayla Cottingham
Sourcebooks Fire, April 2023

Three years ago, the melting of arctic permafrost released a pathogen of unknown origin into the atmosphere, causing a small percentage of people to undergo a transformation that became known as the Hollowing. Those impacted slowly became intolerant to normal food and were only able to gain sustenance by consuming the flesh of other human beings. Those who went without flesh quickly became feral, turning on their friends and family. However, scientists were able to create a synthetic version of human meat that would satisfy the hunger of those impacted by the Hollowing. As a result, humanity slowly began to return to normal, albeit with lasting fear and distrust for the people they’d pejoratively dubbed ghouls.
Zoey, Celeste, Valeria, and Jasmine are all ghouls living in Southern California. As a last hurrah before their graduation they decided to attend a musical festival in the desert. They have a cooler filled with hard seltzers and SynFlesh and are ready to party.
But on the first night of the festival Val goes feral, and ends up killing and eating a boy. As other festival guests start disappearing around them the girls soon discover someone is drugging ghouls and making them feral. And if they can’t figure out how to stop it, and soon, no one at the festival is safe..

Kayla Cottingham is a YA author and librarian. Her first book, My Dearest Darkest, was a New York Times and Publisher’s Weekly bestseller. Originally from Salt Lake City, Utah, Kayla lives in Boston where she loves to go hiking in the woods, play RPGs, and snuggle on the couch with her ridiculously large black cat, Squid.