Recs if you like Sour Cherry...

An emergent subgrene by and about strange women on themes of female rage, sisterhood, hunger, attraction, beauty, motherhood, violence, and much more.

No Hans Christian Andersen on this list. Retellings based on...Twelve Dancing Princesses, Cinderella, The Goose Girl, Snow White, Snow White + Rose Red, Rapunzel, Hansel + Gretel, Rumplestiltskin, Bluebeard, Little Red Riding Hood, Sleeping Beauty, The Frog Prince, King Thrushbeard, The Pied Piper, The Six Swans, The Brave Little Tailor, Bearskin, Puss in Boots, Allerleirauh, The Wolf + the Fox, The Pink, Maid Maleen, Brother + Sister, The Golden Goose, The Six Swans, etc. As always… no Gaiman

Time to take a trip to the supermarket to pick up our groceries for the week!

This list features books that have titles of food you could buy at the store.

As always, open to suggestions! 🤠

We all love gothic classics, but what is new when it comes to the gothic genre (from the last 20 years or so)?! For fans of Dracula, Jane Eyre, Frankenstein, We Have Always Lived in the Castle, etc. Please comment with suggestions to add!

Beautiful books for when your monthly reading roundup needs a little facelift 😉

Exactly what it says on the tin: queer stories that also have ghosts.

reading diversely is not a trend. it’s the bare minimum. and if your shelves don’t reflect that, you’re missing out.

do you remember The Wiggles song “Fruit Salad”? or maybe “I Like to Eat Apples and Bananas”? what about any song from Veggietales like “The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything”?

this list is freshly harvested and full of books with (specifically) fruits and veggies in the title or on the cover 🌶️🥭🍒🍋🫑🥕🍓🍑🥝🫐🍇🥒

some are more appropriate than others 😈

as always, please feel free to suggest any books I missed!

Retellings of the Bluebeard legend

Crime, obsession, feminine rage etc 🩷

novels/novellas that feel akin to a fever dream, surreal, inchoate, strange, dream logic

Finalists for the 2026 Nebula Award for BEST NOVEL and BEST NOVELLA, presented by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA).

Not included in this list is Best Novella finalist "Descent" by Wole Talabi, published in the May 2025 issue of Clarkesworld.

Created from the list on Goodreads by Cybil and Sadie Hartmann (September 29, 2025)

Books that I think I could make a case for being influenced by one of the fears from The Magnus Archives

I want to feel something but I also want to be a little spooked

What a woman does is open doors, it is not a question of locking or unlocking.

Works published in 2025.

Best Novel Nominees: When We Were Real • 🏆 The Buffalo Hunter Hunter • Katabasis • Death of the Author • The Incandescent • Sour Cherry • Wearing the Lion

Best Novella Nominees: Disgraced Return of the Kap’s Needle • 🏆🚀 The River Has Roots • The Death of Mountains • Automatic Noodle • But Not Too Bold • Descent*

Legend: 🏆 Winner • 🚀 Hugo Award Winner

*Published in Clarkesworld Magazine #224, May 2025

Books I’ve read (or plan to) that have made me sort of ill, in a good way

The way these books are written made me feel like i was in a sort of fairytale

Small independent presses rule