In what is in many ways a bookend to 1Q84, Murakami blends science fiction, gothic novel, noir mystery, horror (think Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s film Pulse), and coming-of-age story. His protagonist and narrator, as the novel opens, is a 17-year-old boy aswoon in love with a 16-year-old girl. “At that time neither you nor I had names,” […]
Lady Georgiana Rannoch is cousin to David (King Edward VIII to you), sister to a duke, and wife of Darcy O’Mara, a spy for Great Britain. Happy to leave her exciting past behind and devote herself to doting on her adorable infant son, she lives with her family on the estate she’ll inherit from her […]
American yacht designer Cassandra Brenner has spent five years in Singapore working for the family business, Ocean House, on her most extravagant project ever, building the superyacht Red Dragon. Cass is also involved in unspecified spying activities for something dubbed Operation UNDERTOW. Heading to the Marina Bay Sands Hotel one evening to meet her contact, […]
Twelve-year-old Ashley Dalton, who prefers to be called Ash, has one refuge in the world: a walnut tree in the yard of her foster mother’s rental house, where she lives along with her foster mother’s volatile son, his girlfriend, and their baby, who shares a room with Ash. Middle school, where Ash gets bullied for […]
Whenever Priya’s extended family comes over, her older siblings and cousins run off to play, telling her that she’s too young to join them. Priya doesn’t mind, though, because she gets to hang out with Mauntie (“My Auntie”)—the nickname she’s given her mother’s sister. Both the youngest in their generations, the two experiment with extravagant […]
On August 12, 1984, the oil pressure in the tiny four-seater that the author was ferrying to New Zealand started to fall slowly and inexplicably; when it hit zero, the engine failed. Luckily, when she was 17, Porch had learned to fly in engineless gliders. Now, more than a decade later, this saved her life, […]
In this heart-stopping sequel to Thieves’ Gambit (2023), Ross, an 18-year-old professional thief, once again finds herself at the whims of the organization, competing in something that’s “less like a gambit, more like a gauntlet” to help their leader retain control after a takeover attempt puts the Quest family at risk. From New Orleans and […]
Best friends Felix and Harry always look forward to activities at Camp Horizon, which include swimming and diving in Lake Omigosh. One night, the camp’s counselor gathers the boys and girls around the fire to tell them that the lake’s name refers to sightings of a giant, turtle-like creature there. (The narration reassures young readers, […]
Aaron Merry is a SoCal native whose mom’s sudden abandonment of the family left him cynical about love. When his Christmas-obsessed older brother, Casey, suffers a brutal breakup with his longtime girlfriend, Aaron agrees to accompany him on a last-minute, 12-day trip to Winter Wonderland, an island off Alaska with a year-round Christmas theme. Meanwhile, […]
Joan Baez Smith, nicknamed “Baezy” (“rhymes with daisy”), is very excited about her upcoming birthday present. Her physicist mother has used her connections to allow her to pass through a Time Insertion Protocol portal to go back to Bethel, New York, in 1969 to see the famed Woodstock Music and Art Fair. Not only will […]