This sapphic cli-fi thriller is a love letter to hope in the bleakest of times, combining the multiverse-bending drama of This Is How You Lose the Time War with the cat-and-mouse chase of Killing Eve. On a near-future Earth devastated by climate change, Dr. Cassandra Barlowe is right where she wants to be: working on an island of floating trash in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, as far away from Dr. Yana Gulsvig as possible. Cas’s research on plastic-dissolving fungi is undervalued and underfunded, thanks to the invention of deleria, a drug that allows glimpses into different timelines. For the average user, it’s a way to view lost loved ones or experience a different life, but it also offers a glimpse into worlds where humanity has solved its many global crises. Now, most science funding is dedicated to trawling these different timelines, searching for a reality with the solution to the climate devastation. But when Yana — the world’s leading expert on deleria and Cassandra’s ex-lover — is killed in a mysterious explosion in the hub of deleria research, taking the hope of reversing climate change with her, Cas is arrested on charges of domestic terrorism. Cas must delve through timelines to piece together what happened, while watching other versions of herself and Yana live out the life they could have had — happier, more in love. As brutal government agents close in and her addiction to deleria grows, Cas has to make a choice: live in the spiraling branches of reality, seeking closure for Yana’s death until the drug shatters her mind, or live in the now, even if that means embracing her own damaged self and fighting, however hopelessly, for her own future and that of humanity.

Brought to you by Penguin.A new title from author A.T. Emerald, coming in 2026. © A.T. Emerald 2026 (P) Penguin Audio 2026

This spellbinding short story from the award-winning author of The Reformatory reimagines the Wild West through the eyes of a young Black girl with a gift. 1871: Ten-year-old Lucy Freeman and her family flee threats in Kentucky for a new life in the post–Civil War frontier. Their refuge is Zipporah Ranch, a hidden settlement founded by Black women and children that thrives, if the folktales are true, on magic. But a mob of bounty hunters is bringing hell to paradise, and it’s Lucy’s own secret magical ability that may be the only defense. Tananarive Due’s Battle of the Round House is part of the Magic & Mystery collection, puzzle-box mysteries from top fantasy authors. They can be read or listened to in one enchanting sitting.

A world-weary detective and a mysterious young boy hunt an unspeakable terror in a haunting short story by the internationally bestselling author of Ordinary Monsters. Horror is loose in the gaslit streets of London. David Pye, an urchin who barely escaped an orphanage fire, saw something terrible crawl out of the inferno. Heeding his warning is Thomas Bromley, a disillusioned detective from Scotland Yard who knows the recent murders on his docket weren’t the work of an ordinary killer. But when your guide has a strange affinity for the dead, where will the search for a monster lead? J. M. Miro’s The Cairndale Orphan is part of the Magic & Mystery collection, puzzle-box mysteries from top fantasy authors. They can be read or listened to in one enchanting sitting.

From award-winning author Cadwell Turnbull comes a brilliant collection of short stories, including some old favorites and some brand-new adventures. All the Hidden Places contains a range of tales from the quiet to the dramatic, the overtly political to the deeply philosophical, but almost always with a touch of strange. This collection is an imaginative and wild exploration of all the unseen places within us and the secrets hiding around corners, just out of sight.

Ninth House meets Babel for fans of myth and folklore in this contemporary fantasy about a Korean-American college student at a magical university where fairy tales intersect with family heritage to unleash powers beyond imagining. “You always wanted magic to be real.” Sharon and her daughter V’s points of origin hold common both Korean American teenagers, raised by a single mother, each searching for her identity in the California suburbs. But during finals week, high schooler V experiences strange impulses during a last-day celebration with her friends and ends up crawling into the hollow trunk of an immense tree. That night, after breaking into a raging fever, V sees gleaming strands of illegible text hovering over her a script that flows between her and her mother, leading to Sharon’s long-forgotten diary. With the aid of a luminous quill, a fountainhead of Sharon’s uncontrollable memories spill onto the old diary pages. Unexpectedly, V witnesses Sharon as she maps out her time at college in the form of lost histories, diagrams, and drawings. Young Sharon once accepted a backhanded invitation to Alvsdahl, an exclusive East Coast college as storied and white as Camelot. Here legacies and heiresses claimed descent from Bluebeard or Cinderella, grappling for control over narratives that could grant them terrifying abilities or burn them to ash. An Asian girl with an unknown inheritance was no one—until Sharon’s discoveries began to crack open Alvsdahl’s secrets. Her bewitching narrative of classroom rivalries and animal professors, debauchery in the woods and sleeping princesses, threatening Godmothers and world-shattering powers, unfold as V desperately tries to help her mother—only to see how Sharon’s story is destined to transform them both. Lyrically written and highly imaginative, Angela Mi Young Hur’s The Loom Tree is a magical campus novel centering on two young women walking the thorny path toward adulthood, the fractures between parents and their children, and the global mythologies and family sagas that connect us all together. 

In this “vivid and immersive” (Liz Moore) debut, Eli Raphael conjures the windswept coast of Washington State and a boarding school steeped in privilege and deadly secrets—a remarkable story of grief, power, and the dangerous price of belonging.It is true that I wished him dead dozens of times. Hundreds, even. But I, Lenny Winter, did not kill that boy.    Lenny Winter is fifteen years old when she moves with her parents to an aging houseboat off the rugged coast of Washington. She imagines a quiet life spent charting constellations and chasing her dream of becoming an astronomer. Instead, a sudden tragedy shatters her world and catapults her to Blanchard, a renowned boarding school for the Pacific Northwest's elite, where wealth and tradition rule.   Blanchard is dazzling, insular–and haunted by its own legends. At its heart lurks the Pascalianum Club, a secret society known to shape the school's greatest and most notorious students, and whose influence stretches far beyond campus walls. Hungry to belong, Lenny is drawn into its orbit, even as she senses that the club feeds on the very vulnerabilities she is desperate to hide. As privilege collides with grief and loyalty warps into obsession, Lenny’s choices will lead to an unforgettable reckoning—and a murder investigation that will test every story she tells herself about guilt, power, hope, and who she is becoming. Sweeping, suspenseful, and deeply moving, Bright Work is both a gripping mystery and a profound coming-of-age story—asking what we risk, what we become, and who we hold dear, when the need to belong eclipses everything else.

A brilliant, towering, puzzle-box novel about perfect summers and forbidden knowledge, somewhere in the mad interstice of Donna Tartt’s The Secret History and A.S. Byatt’s Possession. Summer, 1993, and university student Alex Lane finds himself at the end of the summer term, broke and without plans. When offered the chance to join students – including beautiful, mercurial Ella – clearing out Solace House, a Victorian residence left by reclusive hoarder Edwin Flayne, he accepts. Initially the house seems ordinary, if slightly mad. But sorting through junk, they discover Flayne’s journals detailing his obsession with his missing mother, his discovery of strange place Bewise, and his belief in another parallel realm, with coded instructions for reaching it. One of the students becomes increasingly obsessed with the house’s secrets and gaining forbidden knowledge – assuming they’re willing to sacrifice everything and everyone.

Following a shocking murder, a young woman must face the secrets from her past—and a husband she thought she knew—in this twisty, sizzling novel from the bestselling authors of Happy Wife. Este Walker didn’t move to Winter Park, Florida, to make friends. Five years ago, she ghosted her life in California to reinvent herself among the lakefront estates of Florida’s elite. With a cocktail in hand, more money than she could ever spend, and secrets she intends to keep buried, she’s finally content—or, you know, close enough. Who cares if her seclusion and secrets have left her with a small social circle? Her husband Beau and her best friend Nora are the only company she needs. But Este’s secrets are catching up to her. Last year, when Nora gained national attention as a suspect in her husband's disappearance, Este’s picture was flashed onscreen. Suddenly the past she had hoped to keep buried is closing in on her—and Beau might be keeping secrets of his own. And then a mysterious death turns Winter Park upside down. Thrust into a high-stakes murder investigation, Este must unravel a web of lies and secrets to answer the What exactly happened in California, and has it come back to haunt her? More How is she going to get herself out of this mess?

“The Names is a truly gorgeous, heart-opening novel. I couldn’t put it down, and I’m grateful to have Cora and her children living inside my heart now. What a wonderful book!” —Ann Napolitano, bestselling author of Hello Beautiful The extraordinary debut that Can a name change the course of a life?In the wake of a catastrophic storm, Cora sets off with her nine-year-old daughter, Maia, to register her son's birth. Her husband, Gordon, a local doctor, respected in the community but a terrifying and controlling presence at home, intends for her to name the infant after him. But when the registrar asks what she'd like to call the child, Cora hesitates...Spanning thirty-five years, what follows are three alternate and alternating versions of Cora's and her young son's lives, shaped by her choice of name. In richly layered prose, The Names explores the painful ripple effects of domestic abuse, the messy ties of family, and the possibilities of autonomy and healing.With exceptional sensitivity and depth, Knapp draws us into the story of one family, told through a prism of what-ifs, causing us to consider the "one . . . precious life" we are given. The book’s brilliantly imaginative structure, propulsive storytelling, and emotional, gut-wrenching power are certain to make The Names a modern classic.

Get Out meets The Stepford Wives in this electric debut about the tension that unfurls when two young Black women meet against the starkly white backdrop of New York City book publishing. Twenty-six-year-old editorial assistant Nella Rogers is tired of being the only Black employee at Wagner Books. Fed up with the isolation and microaggressions, she’s thrilled when Harlem-born and bred Hazel starts working in the cubicle beside hers. They’ve only just started comparing natural hair care regimens, though, when a string of uncomfortable events elevates Hazel to Office Darling, and Nella is left in the dust. Then the notes begin to appear on Nella’s desk: LEAVE WAGNER. NOW. It’s hard to believe Hazel is behind these hostile messages. But as Nella starts to spiral and obsess over the sinister forces at play, she soon realizes that there’s a lot more at stake than just her career. A whip-smart and dynamic thriller and sly social commentary that is perfect for anyone who has ever felt manipulated, threatened, or overlooked in the workplace, The Other Black Girl will keep you on the edge of your seat until the very last twist.