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Editorial Content for All I Want

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Reviewer (text)

Kate Ayers

From the author of A SIMPLE FAVOR comes a haunted house story. But is the house truly haunted, or does its history play tricks on new owners Ben and Emma? Read More

Teaser

When Emma’s husband, Ben, falls in love with a large Victorian mansion for sale in upstate New York, he swears to her the fixer-upper will be worth the risk. With a baby on the way, Emma would like to live in a charming, safe community --- and in a space larger than a one-bedroom New York City apartment. On impulse, she agrees to Ben’s plan and they put in an offer on the house. Sure, the mansion has a somewhat creepy backstory and is a bit dilapidated, but Emma and Ben are in this together. Aren't they? When strange things start happening, Emma begins to experience a little buyer’s remorse. What’s the real history of this house? Is its dark history repeating itself? Why does her husband suddenly seem so distant? Is she in danger? Is her baby?

Promo

When Emma’s husband, Ben, falls in love with a large Victorian mansion for sale in upstate New York, he swears to her the fixer-upper will be worth the risk. With a baby on the way, Emma would like to live in a charming, safe community --- and in a space larger than a one-bedroom New York City apartment. On impulse, she agrees to Ben’s plan and they put in an offer on the house. Sure, the mansion has a somewhat creepy backstory and is a bit dilapidated, but Emma and Ben are in this together. Aren't they? When strange things start happening, Emma begins to experience a little buyer’s remorse. What’s the real history of this house? Is its dark history repeating itself? Why does her husband suddenly seem so distant? Is she in danger? Is her baby?

About the Book

The New York Times bestselling author of A SIMPLE FAVOR brings her “sly, satirical, subversive” (L.S. Hilton, author of ULTIMA) prose to a pitch-perfect psychological suspense novel about a young couple whose disintegrating marriage and remote new home in rural, upstate New York make for a terrifying descent into the darker side of human nature.

When Emma’s husband, Ben, falls in love with a large Victorian mansion for sale in upstate New York, he swears to her the fixer-upper will be worth the risk. With a baby on the way, Emma would like to live in a charming, safe community, after all --- and in a space larger than a one-bedroom New York City apartment. On impulse, she agrees to Ben’s plan and they put in an offer on the house.

Sure, the mansion has a somewhat creepy backstory and is a bit dilapidated, but Emma and Ben are in this together. Aren’t they? When strange things start happening, Emma begins to experience a little buyer’s remorse. What’s the real history of this house? Is its dark history repeating itself? Why does her husband suddenly seem so distant? Is she in danger? Is her baby?

Combining the domestic anxiety of Liane Moriarty and the haunting twists and turns of Shirley Jackson, ALL I WANT is an intensely absorbing novel that will change the way you look at your neighbors.

Audiobook available; read by Emily Tremaine, Kevin R. Free and Madeleine Maby

Editorial Content for Yonder

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Reviewer (text)

Norah Piehl

One of the epigraphs with which Jabari Asim opens his new novel, YONDER, is a line from a Black folk song: “Got one mind for the boss to see, Got another mind for what I know is me.” Then comes an opening paragraph that both echoes this lyric and sets the book’s overriding theme: “All of us have two tongues. The first is for them… The second is for us… This tongue is rich, savory, and, if we’re not mindful, can bring us to ruin. This tongue reminds us that, despite everything, we love.” Read More

Teaser

Cato and William meet at Placid Hall, a plantation in an unspecified part of the American South. Subject to the whims of their tyrannical and eccentric captor, Cannonball Greene, they never know what harm may befall them: inhumane physical toil in the plantation’s quarry by day, a beating by night, or the sale of a loved one at any moment. The latter hurts the reserved and stubborn William, who finds himself falling for Margaret, a small but mighty woman with self-possession beyond her years. And it hurts Cato, whose first love, Iris, was sold off with no forewarning. He now finds solace in his hearty band of friends. But their relationships begin to fray when a visiting minister with a mysterious past starts to fill their heads with ideas about independence.

Promo

Cato and William meet at Placid Hall, a plantation in an unspecified part of the American South. Subject to the whims of their tyrannical and eccentric captor, Cannonball Greene, they never know what harm may befall them: inhumane physical toil in the plantation’s quarry by day, a beating by night, or the sale of a loved one at any moment. The latter hurts the reserved and stubborn William, who finds himself falling for Margaret, a small but mighty woman with self-possession beyond her years. And it hurts Cato, whose first love, Iris, was sold off with no forewarning. He now finds solace in his hearty band of friends. But their relationships begin to fray when a visiting minister with a mysterious past starts to fill their heads with ideas about independence.

About the Book

THE WATER DANCER meets THE PROPHETS in this spare, gripping and beautifully rendered novel exploring love and friendship among a group of enslaved Black strivers in the mid-19th century.

They call themselves the Stolen. Their owners call them captives. They are taught their captors’ tongues and their beliefs but they have a language and rituals all their own.

In a world that would be allegorical if it weren’t saturated in harsh truths, Cato and William meet at Placid Hall, a plantation in an unspecified part of the American South. Subject to the whims of their tyrannical and eccentric captor, Cannonball Greene, they never know what harm may befall them: inhumane physical toil in the plantation’s quarry by day, a beating by night, or the sale of a loved one at any moment. It’s that cruel practice --- the wanton destruction of love, the belief that Black people aren’t even capable of loving --- that hurts the most.

It hurts the reserved and stubborn William, who finds himself falling for Margaret, a small but mighty woman with self-possession beyond her years. And it hurts Cato, whose first love, Iris, was sold off with no forewarning. He now finds solace in his hearty band of friends, including William, who is like a brother; Margaret; Little Zander; and Milton, a gifted artist. There is also Pandora, with thick braids and long limbs, whose beauty calls to him.

Their relationships begin to fray when a visiting minister with a mysterious past starts to fill their heads with ideas about independence. He tells them that with freedom comes the right to choose the small things --- when to dine, when to begin and end work --- as well as the big things, such as whom and how to love. Do they follow the preacher and pursue the unknown? Confined in a landscape marked by deceit and uncertainty, who can they trust?

In an elegant work of monumental imagination that will reorient how we think of the legacy of America’s shameful past, Jabari Asim presents a beautiful, powerful and elegiac novel that examines intimacy and longing in the quarters while asking a vital question: What would happen if an enslaved person risked everything for love?

Audiobook available; read by Joniece Abbott-Pratt, Lamarr Gulley, JD Jackson, Adam Lazarre-White, Imani Jade Powers and Kylah Williams

Editorial Content for Antoinette's Sister

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Carly Silver

Diana Giovinazzo’s ANTOINETTE’S SISTER has a tough task ahead of it. The novel’s very title casts its heroine, Maria Carolina, in the shadow of her infamous sister, Marie Antoinette. The context of the book places “Charlotte,” as she was known, as the heiress apparent to her dominating mother, Empress Maria Theresa. Giovinazzo creates a compelling character in Charlotte; she thrives when portraying the intimate relationships of her friends and family, but flags when she gets to the actual history of the period. Read More

Teaser

Austria, 1767: Maria Carolina Charlotte --- the 10th daughter and one of 16 children of Empress Maria Theresa of Austria --- knows her position as a Habsburg archduchess will inevitably force her to leave her home, family and cherished sister, Antoinette, whose companionship she values over all else. But not yet. The Habsburg family is celebrating a great triumph: Charlotte’s older sister, Josepha, has been promised to King Ferdinand IV of Naples and will soon take her place as queen. Before she can journey to her new home, however, tragedy strikes. After visiting the family crypt, Josepha contracts smallpox and dies. Shocked, Charlotte is forced to face an unthinkable new reality: she now must marry Ferdinand in her sister’s stead.

Promo

Austria, 1767: Maria Carolina Charlotte --- the 10th daughter and one of 16 children of Empress Maria Theresa of Austria --- knows her position as a Habsburg archduchess will inevitably force her to leave her home, family and cherished sister, Antoinette, whose companionship she values over all else. But not yet. The Habsburg family is celebrating a great triumph: Charlotte’s older sister, Josepha, has been promised to King Ferdinand IV of Naples and will soon take her place as queen. Before she can journey to her new home, however, tragedy strikes. After visiting the family crypt, Josepha contracts smallpox and dies. Shocked, Charlotte is forced to face an unthinkable new reality: she now must marry Ferdinand in her sister’s stead.

About the Book

As Marie Antoinette took her last breath as Queen of France in Paris, another formidable monarch --- Antoinette’s dearly beloved sister, Charlotte --- was hundreds of miles away, in Naples, fighting desperately to secure her release from the revolutionaries who would take her life. Little did Charlotte know, however, that her sister’s execution would change the course of history --- and bring about the end of her own empire.

“You are the queen. You are the queen that Antoinette wanted to be.”

Austria, 1767: Maria Carolina Charlotte --- the 10th daughter and one of 16 children of Empress Maria Theresa of Austria --- knows her position as a Habsburg archduchess will inevitably force her to leave her home, family and cherished sister, Antoinette, whose companionship she values over all else. But not yet. The Habsburg family is celebrating a great triumph: Charlotte’s older sister, Josepha, has been promised to King Ferdinand IV of Naples and will soon take her place as queen. Before she can journey to her new home, however, tragedy strikes. After visiting the family crypt, Josepha contracts smallpox and dies. Shocked, Charlotte is forced to face an unthinkable new reality: she now must marry Ferdinand in her sister’s stead.

Bereft and alone, Charlotte finds that her life in Naples is more complicated than she ever could have imagined. Ferdinand is weak and feckless, and a disastrous wedding night plunges her into despair. Her husband’s regent, Tanucci, a controlling and power-hungry man, has pushed the country to the brink of ruin. Overwhelmed, she asks her brother Leopold, now the Holy Roman Emperor, to send help --- which he does in the form of John Acton, a handsome military man 20 years Charlotte’s senior who is tasked with overseeing the Navy. Now, Charlotte must gather the strength to do what her mother did before her: take control of a country.

In a time of political uprisings and royal executions and with the increasingly desperate crisis her favorite sister, Queen Marie Antoinette, is facing in France, how is a young monarch to keep hold of everything --- and everyone --- she loves? Find out in this sweeping, luxurious tale of family, court intrigue and power.

Audiobook available, read by Marisa Calin

Editorial Content for My Annihilation

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Ray Palen

Over the last few years, I have added a number of Japanese authors to my reading lists. I typically go out of my way to expand my bookish horizons, and I love the Japanese culture. Happily, MY ANNIHILATION is not the first book I have read by Fuminori Nakamura, who is considered to be a master of literary noir in his home country of Japan. Read More

Teaser

With MY ANNIHILATION, Fuminori Nakamura, master of literary noir, has constructed a puzzle box of a narrative in the form of a confessional diary that implicates its reader in a heinous crime. Delving relentlessly into the darkest corners of human consciousness, the novel interrogates the unspeakable thoughts all humans share that can be monstrous when brought to life, revealing with disturbing honesty the psychological motives of a killer.

Promo

With MY ANNIHILATION, Fuminori Nakamura, master of literary noir, has constructed a puzzle box of a narrative in the form of a confessional diary that implicates its reader in a heinous crime. Delving relentlessly into the darkest corners of human consciousness, the novel interrogates the unspeakable thoughts all humans share that can be monstrous when brought to life, revealing with disturbing honesty the psychological motives of a killer.

About the Book

What transforms a person into a killer? Can it be something as small as a suggestion?

Turn this page, and you may forfeit your entire life.

With MY ANNIHILATION, Fuminori Nakamura, master of literary noir, has constructed a puzzle box of a narrative in the form of a confessional diary that implicates its reader in a heinous crime. 

Delving relentlessly into the darkest corners of human consciousness, MY ANNIHILATION interrogates the unspeakable thoughts all humans share that can be monstrous when brought to life, revealing with disturbing honesty the psychological motives of a killer.

Audiobook available, read by Brian Nishii

Stacy Willingham, author of A Flicker in the Dark

When Chloe Davis was 12, six teenage girls went missing in her small Louisiana town. By the end of the summer, her own father had confessed to the crimes and was put away for life, leaving Chloe and the rest of her family to grapple with the truth and try to move forward while dealing with the aftermath. Now, 20 years later, Chloe is a psychologist in Baton Rouge and getting ready for her wedding. While she finally has a fragile grasp on the happiness she’s worked so hard to achieve, she sometimes feels as out of control of her own life as the troubled teens who are her patients. So when a local teenage girl goes missing, and then another, that terrifying summer comes crashing back.

David Guterson, author of The Final Case

A girl dies one late, rainy night a few feet from the back door of her home. The girl, Abeba, was born in Ethiopia. Her adoptive parents, Delvin and Betsy Harvey --- conservative, white fundamentalist Christians --- are charged with her murder. Royal, a Seattle criminal attorney in the last days of his long career, takes Betsy Harvey’s case. An octogenarian without a driver’s license, he leans on his son --- the novel’s narrator --- as he prepares for trial.

Hanya Yanagihara, author of To Paradise

In an alternate version of 1893 America, New York is part of the Free States, where people may live and love whomever they please (or so it seems). The fragile young scion of a distinguished family resists betrothal to a worthy suitor, drawn to a charming music teacher of no means. In a 1993 Manhattan besieged by the AIDS epidemic, a young Hawaiian man lives with his much older, wealthier partner, hiding his troubled childhood and the fate of his father. And in 2093, in a world riven by plagues and governed by totalitarian rule, a powerful scientist’s damaged granddaughter tries to navigate life without him --- and solve the mystery of her husband’s disappearances.

Laura Lippman, author of Seasonal Work: Stories

In the never-before-published “Just One More,” a married couple --- longing for that old romantic spark --- creates a playful diversion that comes with unexpected consequences. Laura Lippman's beloved Baltimore PI Tess Monaghan keeps a watchful eye on a criminally resourceful single father in “Seasonal Work,” while her mother, Judith, realizes that the life of “The Everyday Housewife” is an excellent cover for all kinds of secrets. In “Slow Burner,” a husband’s secret cell phone proves to be a dicey temptation for a suspicious wife. A father’s hidden past piques the curiosity of a young snoop in “The Last of Sheila-Locke Holmes.” SEASONAL WORK includes seven other brilliantly crafted stories of deception, murder, dangerous games and love gone wrong.

Alafair Burke, author of Find Me

She calls herself Hope Miller, but she has no idea who she actually is. Fifteen years ago, she was found in a small New Jersey town thrown from an overturned vehicle. She eventually started a new life with a new name in a new town that welcomed her, yet she always wondered what she may have left behind. Now, she’s leaving New Jersey to start over once again. Her friend, Manhattan defense lawyer Lindsay Kelly, discovers that she has vanished without a trace --- the only lead a drop of blood found where she was last seen. Even more ominously, the blood matches a DNA sample with a connection to a notorious Kansas murderer. Lindsay calls NYPD homicide detective Ellie Hatcher, who fears that Hope’s recent disappearance could be related to her father's death 20 years earlier.

Diane Chamberlain, author of The Last House on the Street

1965: Growing up in the well-to-do town of Round Hill, North Carolina, Ellie Hockley has chosen to spend her summer break as a volunteer helping to register Black voters. But as she follows her ideals fighting for the civil rights of the marginalized, her scandalized parents scorn her efforts, and her neighbors reveal their prejudices. 2010: Architect Kayla Carter and her husband designed a beautiful house for themselves in Round Hill’s new development, Shadow Ridge Estates. It was supposed to be a home where they could raise their three-year-old daughter and grow old together. Instead, it’s the place where Kayla’s husband died in an accident. And her neighbor, Ellie Hockley, is harboring long-buried secrets about the dark history of the land where her house was built.