Happy 5th day of Halloween y’all! (JK! Eh, not really. 🎃) This year’s spooky season is unfortunately going to look a lot different than usualābut if you want to make the most out of your socially distant Halloween plans, be sure to add these books to your TBR bookshelf for the perfect blend of spooky and cozy fall reads!
The Invisible Life of Addie la Rue by V.E. Schwab
![Book Cover for The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab](https://www.themarysue.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/The-Invisible-Life-of-Addie-LaRue-V.E.-Schwab.jpg?resize=346%2C524)
(Image: Tor Books)
France, 1714: in a moment of desperation, a young woman makes a Faustian bargain to live forever and is cursed to be forgotten by everyone she meets.
Thus begins the extraordinary life of Addie LaRue, and a dazzling adventure that will play out across centuries and continents, across history and art, as a young woman learns how far she will go to leave her mark on the world.
But everything changes when, after nearly 300 years, Addie stumbles across a young man in a hidden bookstore and he remembers her name.
Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse
![Book Cover for Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse](https://www.themarysue.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Black-Sun-Rebecca-Roanhorse.jpg?resize=332%2C500)
(Image: Saga Press )
A god will return
When the earth and sky converge
Under the black sunIn the holy city of Tova, the winter solstice is usually a time for celebration and renewal, but this year it coincides with a solar eclipse, a rare celestial event proscribed by the Sun Priest as an unbalancing of the world.
Meanwhile, a ship launches from a distant city bound for Tova and set to arrive on the solstice. The captain of the ship, Xiala, is a disgraced Teek whose song can calm the waters around her as easily as it can warp a manās mind. Her ship carries one passenger. Described as harmless, the passenger, Serapio, is a young man, blind, scarred, and cloaked in destiny. As Xiala well knows, when a man is described as harmless, he usually ends up being a villain.
Crafted with unforgettable characters, Rebecca Roanhorse has created an epic adventure exploring the decadence of power amidst the weight of history and the struggle of individuals swimming against the confines of society and their broken pasts in the most original series debut of the decade.
The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher
![Book Cover for The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher](https://www.themarysue.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/The-Hollow-Places-by-T.-Kingfisher.jpg?resize=322%2C486)
(Image: Saga Press)
Pray they are hungry.
Kara finds these words in the mysterious bunker that sheās discovered behind a hole in the wall of her uncleās house. Freshly divorced and living back at home, Kara now becomes obsessed with these cryptic words and starts exploring the peculiar bunkerāonly to discover that it holds portals to countless alternate realities. But these places are haunted by creatures that seem to hear thoughtsā¦and the more you fear them, the stronger they become.
With her distinctive ādelightfully fresh and subversiveā (SF Bluestocking) prose and the strange, sinister wonder found in Guillermo del Toroās Panās Labyrinth, The Hollow Places is another compelling and white-knuckled horror novel that you wonāt be able to put down.
The Times I knew I was Gay by Eleanor Crewes
![Book Cover for The Times I Knew I Was Gay by Eleanor Crewes](https://www.themarysue.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/The-Times-I-Knew-I-Was-Gay-Eleanor-Crewes.jpg?resize=324%2C500)
(Image: Scribner)
Ellie always had questions about who she was and how she fit in. As a girl, she wore black, obsessed over Willow in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and found dating boys much more confusing than many of her friends did. As she grew older, so did her fears and a deep sense of unbelonging. From her first communion to her first girlfriend via a swathe of self-denial, awkward encounters, and everyday courage, Ellie tells her story through gorgeous illustrationsāa fresh and funny self-portrait of a young woman becoming herself.
The Times I Knew I Was Gay reminds us that people sometimes come out not just once but again and again; that identity is not necessarily about falling in love with others, but about coming to terms with oneself. Full of vitality and humor, it will ring true for anyone who has taken the time to discover who they truly are.
The Midnight Bargain by C.L. Polk
![Book Cover for The Midnight Bargain by C.L. Polk](https://www.themarysue.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/The-Midnight-Bargain-by-C.L.-Polk.jpg?resize=365%2C568)
(Image: Erewhon)
Beatrice Clayborn is a sorceress who practices magic in secret, terrified of the day she will be locked into a marital collar that will cut off her powers to protect her unborn children. She dreams of becoming a full-fledged Magus and pursuing magic as her calling as men do, but her family has staked everything to equip her for Bargaining Season, when young men and women of means descend upon the city to negotiate the best marriages. The Clayborns are in severe debt, and only she can save them, by securing an advantageous match before their creditors come calling.
In a stroke of luck, Beatrice finds a grimoire that contains the key to becoming a Magus, but before she can purchase it, a rival sorceress swindles the book right out of her hands. Beatrice summons a spirit to help her get it back, but her new ally exacts a price: Beatriceās first kiss . . . with her adversaryās brother, the handsome, compassionate, and fabulously wealthy Ianthe Lavan.
The more Beatrice is entangled with the Lavan siblings, the harder her decision becomes: If she casts the spell to become a Magus, she will devastate her family and lose the only man to ever see her for who she is; but if she marriesāeven for loveāshe will sacrifice her magic, her identity, and her dreams. But how can she choose just one, knowing she will forever regret the path not taken?
The Devil and the Dark Water by Stuart Turton
![Book Cover for The Devil And The Dark Water by Stuart Turton](https://www.themarysue.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/The-Devil-And-The-Dark-Water-Stuart-Turton.jpg?resize=350%2C538)
(Sourcebooks Landmark)
A murder on the high seas. A detective duo. A demon who may or may not exist.
It’s 1634 and Samuel Pipps, the world’s greatest detective, is being transported to Amsterdam to be executed for a crime he may, or may not, have committed. Travelling with him is his loyal bodyguard, Arent Hayes, who is determined to prove his friend innocent.
But no sooner are they out to sea than devilry begins to blight the voyage. A twice-dead leper stalks the decks. Strange symbols appear on the sails. Livestock is slaughtered.
And then three passengers are marked for death, including Samuel.
Could a demon be responsible for their misfortunes?
With Pipps imprisoned, only Arent can solve a mystery that connects every passenger onboard. A mystery that stretches back into their past and now threatens to sink the ship, killing everybody on board.
The breathtaking new novel from Stuart Turton, author of the The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, winner of the Costa Best First Novel Award.Ā
The Lives of Saints by Leigh Bardugo
![Book Cover for The Lives Of Saints by Leigh Bardugo](https://www.themarysue.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/The-Lives-of-Saints-Leigh-Bardugo.jpg?resize=332%2C500)
(Image: Imprint)
Dive into the epic world of international bestselling author Leigh Bardugo with this beautifully illustrated replica of The Lives of Saints, the Istorii Sanktāya, featuring tales of saints drawn from the beloved novels and beyond. Out of the pages of the Shadow and Bone trilogy, from the hands of Alina Starkov to yours, the Istorii Sanktāya is a magical keepsake from the Grishaverse.
These tales include miracles and martyrdoms from familiar saints like Sankta Lizabeta of the Roses and Sankt Ilya in Chains, to the strange and obscure stories of Sankta Ursula, Sankta Maradi, and the Starless Saint.
This beautiful collection includes stunning full-color illustrations of each story.
Come on In by Adi Alsaid
![Book Cover for Come On In by Adi Alsaid](https://www.themarysue.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Come-On-In-by-Adi-Alsaid.jpg?resize=349%2C537)
(Image: Inkyard Press)
This exceptional and powerful anthology explores the joys, heartbreaks and triumphs of immigration, with stories by bestselling and beloved YA authors who are themselves immigrants and the children of immigrants.
WELCOME
From some of the most exciting bestselling and up-and-coming YA authors writing today…journey from Ecuador to New York City and Argentina to Utah, from Australia to Harlem and India to New Jersey, from Fiji, America, Mexico and more… Come On In.
With characters who face random traffic stops, TSA detention, customs anxiety, and the daunting and inspiring journey to new lands, who camp with their extended families, dance at weddings, keep diaries, teach ESL, give up their rooms for displaced family, decide their own answer to the question “where are you from?” and so much more, Come On In illuminates fifteen of the myriad facets of the immigrant experience.
A Golden Fury by Samantha Cohoe
![Book Cover for A Golden Fury by Samantha Cohoe](https://www.themarysue.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/A-Golden-Fury-Samantha-Cohoe.jpg?resize=334%2C512)
(Image: Wednesday Books)
Thea Hope longs to be an alchemist out of the shadow of her famous mother. The two of them are close to creating the legendary Philosopherās Stoneāwhose properties include immortality and can turn any metal into goldābut just when the promise of the Stoneās riches is in their grasp, Theaās mother destroys the Stone in a sudden fit of violent madness.
While combing through her motherās notes, Thea learns that thereās a curse on the Stone that causes anyone who tries to make it to lose their sanity. With the threat of the French Revolution looming, Thea is sent to Oxford for her safety, to live with the father who doesnāt know she exists.
But in Oxford, there are alchemists after the Stone who donāt believe Theaās warning about the curseāinstead, theyāll stop at nothing to steal Theaās knowledge of how to create the Stone. But Thea can only run for so long, and soon she will have to choose: create the Stone and sacrifice her sanity, or let the people she loves die.
Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M. Danforth
![Book Cover for Plain Bad Heroines by Emily Danforth](https://www.themarysue.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Plain-Bad-Heroines-Emily-M.-Danforth.jpg?resize=329%2C500)
(Image: William Morrow)
Our story begins in 1902, at The Brookhants School for Girls. Flo and Clara, two impressionable students, are obsessed with each other and with a daring young writer named Mary MacLane, the author of a scandalous bestselling memoir. To show their devotion to Mary, the girls establish their own private club and call it The Plain Bad Heroine Society. They meet in secret in a nearby apple orchard, the setting of their wildest happiness and, ultimately, of their macabre deaths. This is where their bodies are later discovered with a copy of Maryās book splayed beside them, the victims of a swarm of stinging, angry yellow jackets. Less than five years later, The Brookhants School for Girls closes its doors foreverābut not before three more people mysteriously die on the property, each in a most troubling way.
Over a century later, the now abandoned and crumbling Brookhants is back in the news when wunderkind writer, Merritt Emmons, publishes a breakout book celebrating the queer, feminist history surrounding the āhaunted and cursedā Gilded-Age institution. Her bestselling book inspires a controversial horror film adaptation starring celebrity actor and lesbian it girl Harper Harper playing the ill-fated heroine Flo, opposite B-list actress and former child star Audrey Wells as Clara. But as Brookhants opens its gates once again, and our three modern heroines arrive on set to begin filming, past and present become grimly entangledāor perhaps just grimly exploitedāand soon itās impossible to tell where the curse leaves off and Hollywood begins.
A story within a story within a story and featuring black-and-white period illustrations, Plain Bad Heroines is a devilishly haunting, modern masterwork of metafiction that manages to combine the ghostly sensibility of Sarah Waters with the dark imagination of Marisha Pessl and the sharp humor and incisive social commentary of Curtis Sittenfeld into one laugh-out-loud funny, spellbinding, and wonderfully luxuriant read.
Spoiler Alert by Olivia Dade
![Book Cover for Spoiler Alert by Oliva Dade](https://www.themarysue.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Spoiler-Alert-Olivia-Dade.jpg?resize=332%2C500)
(Image: Avon Books)
Marcus Caster-Rupp has a secret. While the world knows him as Aeneas, the star of the biggest show on TV, Gods of the Gates, he’s known to fanfiction readers as Book!AeneasWouldNever, an anonymous and popular poster. Marcus is able to get out his own frustrations with his character through his stories, especially the ones that feature the internetās favorite couple to ship, Aeneas and Lavinia. But if anyone ever found out about his online persona, heād be fired. Immediately.
April Whittier has secrets of her own. A hardcore Lavinia fan, sheās hidden her fanfiction and cosplay hobby from her āreal lifeā for yearsābut not anymore. When she decides to post her latest Lavinia creation on Twitter, her photo goes viral. Trolls and supporters alike are commenting on her plus-size take, but when Marcus, one half of her OTP, sees her pic and asks her out on a date to spite her critics, she realizes life is really stranger than fanfiction.
Even though their first date is a disaster, Marcus quickly realizes that he wants much more from April than a one-time publicity stunt. And when he discovers sheās actually Unapologetic Lavinia Stan, his closest fandom friend, he has one more huge secret to hide from her.
With love and Marcusās career on the line, can the two of them stop hiding once and for all, or will a match made in fandom end up prematurely cancelled?
(featured image: Saga Press/Avon Books/William Morrow)
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Published: Oct 5, 2020 04:33 pm