Book Reviews

Ryan LaSala's new novel imagines a world where people get swept up in dangerous, all-encompassing dreams — and only a damaged, anmesiac kid and his friends have the power to fight them.

Jeff Vandermeer's new novel, set on a far-future, post-apocalyptic earth, follows a trio of only vaguely human astronauts through a shifting, allegorical story that jumps back and forth across time.

Via popular music, Andrew Grant Jackson paints a vivid portrait of a year that was the last gasp of an age of possibility, when idealism gave way to economic recession and cynical disillusionment.

Gou Tanabe's graphic novel adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's novella makes its monsters both terrifying and weirdly human. Even if space spheres aren't your thing, Tanabe's art still prompts wonder.

Author Buddy Levy's superbly written, meticulously researched chronicle tells the adventure story of a group of explorers aiming to achieve "Farthest North" and claim the win for the U.S. in 1881.

This year's list is a mix of literary fiction, true crime, memoirs and essays, from acclaimed authors as well as some brand new voices — and you won't be able to put any of them down.

Filmmaker and author Darcy van Poelgeest's sweeping dystopian epic sometimes falls short on plot and character, but it's redeemed by virtuoso work from its illustrator, colorist and letterer.

The ugly duckling who transforms into a swan is a common trope in literature and pop culture — Eva Leigh turns it upside down in My Fake Rake, which features a shy, quiet hero who gets made over.

Our kids' books columnist Juanita Giles has a secret: Her kids don't care about Harry Potter. But they do like Mike Johnston's relatably hapless boy wizard Wick, star of Confessions of a Dork Lord.

Turkish author Burhan Sönmez's quiet, subtle fourth novel, about a man who wakes up in the hospital with complete amnesia, is deeply concerned with the linkages between memory and the body.