If you like queer, kitschy things (which, obviously, you do), Book Riot Editor Danika Ellis has a fab list just in time to get your Pride Month on. Elsewhere, in Pride-worthy things, Rachel Brittain has granted us this queer romantasy list for those seeking fantastical romance.
Also, make sure to get into Barnes and Noble’s list of the best books out so far this year. B&N is still in their cheeky phase with their book categories — one of which is “The Cutting Edge: Eight Spredges We’re Obsessed With.” I’m not mad at the creativity, but I am a little mad at “spredges,” not going to lie.
Questionable portmanteaus aside, today’s new releases include senior citizens cuttin’ up (How to Age Disgracefully by Clare Pooley), forbidden, science-y affairs (Not in Love by Ali Hazelwood), and a nonfiction account of the consequences of climate destruction on an Indigenous family (Out of the Sierra: A Story of Rarámuri Resistance by Victoria Blanco).
The new books below include a first-time adult book by mega-bestselling YA author Nicola Yoon, a queer astrology romance based in New Orleans, and a horror centered around a ’90s-era arthouse horror flick. The theme of the day, though? Pro wrestling! A couple of the books below look at 1) a Mexican family that has been sustained by wrestling, and 2) a broke girl who uses pro-wrestling tools to start and run a successful OnlyFans account.
One of Our Kind by Nicola Yoon
One of Our Kind is Yoon’s (Everything, Everything, Sun Is Also a Star) first adult novel, and it is bringing some heat. It’s been described as a mix of The Stepford Wives and Get Out. In it, Jasmyn and King Williams are a Black couple who move to Liberty, California, a town they believe to be a Black utopia. It certainly seems nice — at first — and though King fits right in immediately, Jasmyn doesn’t. Where she was hoping for likeminded people interested in social justice and activism, she instead finds a community of people obsessed with getting spa treatments at the bougie wellness center at the top of the hill. What’s more, she finds out a secret that reveals this perfect place is anything but.
Looking for a Sign by Susie Dumond
Book Riot senior writer Susie Dumond has granted the astrology girlies something sweet. Gray is about to be 29 and has just moved to New Orleans for a new job. This new beginning is nice, sure, but she’s also newly single and needs help navigating the dating scene — which she hasn’t participated in in 10 years. When her friend Cherry recommends the astrologer Madame Nouvelle Lune, Gray is skeptical. But once she warms to the idea — which is low-key (high-key) out of desperation — Madame Lune tells her to work astrology into her dating schemes. So, she’ll go on a date with someone from each sign before her birthday, when Saturn will make its return to the sign it was in when she was born. This journey to find a partner before her Saturn Return has her journeying through her own needs, and questioning things she once took as gospel.
Horror Movie by Paul Tremblay
Back in 1993, an indie arthouse horror movie — aptly titled “Horror Movie” — was made. And, though only three of its scenes were ever seen by the general public, it nonetheless grew a dedicated fanbase. Now, Hollywood wants to give it a reboot with a big budget, but only one of the original cast members has survived. He’s willing to do it, but then memories of what happened during the first cursed filming begin to resurface, and they overlap with his current reality.
The Stardust Grail by Yume Kitasei
After last year’s The Deep Sky, Kitasei is serving up what sounds like more glorious sci-fi, this time featuring ” a thrilling anti-colonial space heist to save an alien civilization.” After 10 years of being the best art thief in the galaxy — who returned stolen artifacts to their rightful civilizations — Maya Hoshimoto has been forced into hiding. Now, she’s just a student of anthropology who dreads the future. Then, an old friend pops up with the job of a lifetime — if she can find a powerful item, an alien species could be saved from extinction. Thing is, no one alive has ever seen it, and others are after it, too. To get it, she’ll go from strange worlds to ancient ruins, and realize that saving one species could spell ruin for all of humanity.
Margo’s Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe
With Margo’s Got Money Troubles, PEN/Faulkner finalist Thorpe is giving laughs and a few feels, all at the intersection of OnlyFans and pro wrestling (yes). The eponymous Margo foresaw not being able to rely on her parents for much as an adult, but she didn’t foresee becoming pregnant by her community college English professor. She also probably didn’t see being broke as a joke at 20 with an infant. When Jinx, her estranged father and ex-pro wrestler, shows up wanting to move in with her, she agrees only on the condition that he help with her kid. When she signs up for an OnlyFans account to make something happen in the money department, it’s Jinx’s wrestling-world advice that helps her make it a success. But is it worth it is the question.
Bonus side note: the audiobook is narrated by Elle Fanning!
The Sons of El Rey by Alex Espinoza
Here’s our other wrestling-centric book, this time featuring Luchadores — or masked Mexican wrestlers, for the unfamiliar. We meet Ernesto Vega in Mexico City in the 1960s when he’s still working on a construction site but is soon discovered by a luche libre trainer. Ernesto is transformed into the rockstar Luchadore El Rey Coyote and becomes known all across Mexico. Decades pass, and in L.A., his son Freddy is fighting to keep his gym open, while his grandson, Julian, is fighting to live authentically as a gay man. As Ernesto’s life fades away in hospice care, everyone from his descendants to his wife’s ghost and manifestations of the past visits him.
Hip-Hop Is History by Questlove
With the 50th anniversary of Hip-Hop having just passed last year, legendary drummer of The Roots, Questlove, looks at history-making songs within the genre, gracefully picking them apart and showing what they meant to music and Black American history alike.
Other Book Riot New Releases Resources:
- All the Books, our weekly new book releases podcast, where Liberty and a cast of co-hosts talk about eight books out that week that we’ve read and loved.
- The New Books Newsletter, where we send you an email of the books out this week that are getting buzz.
- Finally, if you want the real inside scoop on new releases, you have to check out Book Riot’s New Release Index! That’s where I find 90% of new releases, and you can filter by trending books, Rioters’ picks, and even LGBTQ new releases!
