When we recorded our Summer Solstice hangout episode and wrote our Summer Update blog post, I realized I’d read a lot of the books I had on my Top 10 New Book Releases of 2021. Having a Kobo eReader has helped. I’ve been able to borrow ebooks from the library, so I can read all these new releases without breaking the bank.
Because of how publishing works, my initial list of 2021 new book releases only went as far as early August. September is one of the biggest months for new book releases, but they don’t get announced until a few months into the year. A bunch of fall releases have since been announced, so I put together a list of the fall 2021 book releases I’m most looking forward to.
Gen’s Top 9 List of Fall 2021 Book Releases
It’s probably overly ambitious of me to continue adding to my TBR pile. I’m barely managing to keep up with the books I already have, but I couldn’t resist. There are so many good books coming out in the second half of 2021. Here are nine new book releases that I’m giving top priority over the next five months.
Late Summer Releases
1. The Sisters of Reckoning by Charlotte Nicole Davis (August 10)
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The Sisters of Reckoning is the sequel to Charlotte Nicole Davis’s debut novel, The Good Luck Girls. The series takes place in the fictional Arketta, where girls are sold into the indentured service of brothels, and vicious, vengeful ghosts haunt the nighttime landscape waiting to rip wanderers to shreds.
In The Good Luck Girls, five of these girls make a daring escape that leads them through an Old West-style desert and towns, in search of a woman who can remove their branded tattoos, which carry a curse and mark them as belonging to their brothel. The Sisters of Reckoning picks up where the first book left off, with the girls deciding on their next steps now that they’ve escaped across the border of Arketta into freedom.
The Good Luck Girls was a fun blend of Old Western heist, ghost story, and girls fighting for freedom and independence in a society that wants to keep them subservient. The sequel has been on my TBR list since I finished the first one.
2. Velvet Was the Night by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (August 17)
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We read Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s Mexican Gothic as one of our book club books and absolutely loved it. Moreno-Garcia is a master of crafting atmosphere and building the kind of eerie suspense that creeps steadily larger as the story unfolds. As soon as I finished Mexican Gothic I wanted to read everything she’s ever written.
So far I haven’t picked up any of her backlist books, but her latest book, Velvet Was the Night, is at the top of my list. It takes place in 1970s Mexico City, where a secretary, Maite, becomes embroiled in the search for a missing woman—her beautiful next-door neighbour Leonora. But the shadowy criminal, Elvis, is also on the hunt for the missing Leonora.
Set against a backdrop of political activism and investigations that involve hitmen, government agents, and Russian spies, Velvet Was the Night is being billed as “an edgy historical novel for lovers of smoky noirs and anti-heroes.” They had me at smoky noir. Plus, who can argue with that cover?
September Releases
3. Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney (September 7)
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At this point, I don’t think Sally Rooney needs an introduction. If you pay any attention to the book world, you’ve at least heard of Normal People, especially after the limited series TV adaptation. It almost goes without saying that her latest, Beautiful World, Where Are You, is on my list of top fall releases.
I have to admit, I’m not as obsessed with Sally Rooney as so many others are. But I enjoyed Normal People well enough to have her latest on my radar. It sounds like it’s going to involve the same kind of exploration of relationships and millennial life as her previous works. And I have to say, I love the way she delves into character studies and the complexity of sex, love, friendship, and all the grey areas in between.
If you haven’t read any Sally Rooney yet, this might be a good place to start.
4. Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead (September 14)
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I’ve kept track of Colson Whitehead’s work since reading The Underground Railroad a few years ago. I devoured The Nickel Boys when it came out. Whitehead has a talent for writing historical novels that feel present and immediate, with characters that seem like they could be real people. I have no doubt that Harlem Shuffle will deliver more of the same.
Harlem Shuffle follows Ray Carney, respected salesman and family man—on the surface. Eventually he falls into the life of a crook as he starts fencing stolen goods for his cousin Freddie.
I can’t think of an author better than Whitehead to deliver this story. It’s part crime novel, part family saga, set within a portrait of 1960s Harlem. I can’t wait to dive into the world of heists and crooked dealings that Ray tries to balance with his life as an upstanding citizen.
5. Under the Whispering Door by T.J. Klune (September 21)
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I read T.J. Klune’s The House in the Cerulean Sea early this year and fell in love with its cast of misfit characters who find a home in one another. It’s the found family trope with the volume turned up to max and some magical children thrown in for a dose of whimsy.
Under the Whispering Door maintains the magical note, but with a slightly darker edge. Wallace Price is collected by a reaper and taken to Hugo, tea shop owner and ferryman to souls crossing to the other side. But Wallace isn’t ready to abandon the life he didn’t fully live, so with Hugo’s help he intends to live a full lifetime before he has to cross over.
I have no doubt that Klune is going to infuse the same warmth and tenderness into this story as he did with Cerulean Sea. I’m hoping that Under the Whispering Door delivers the same warm-hug feeling of a story.
6. Summer Sons by Lee Mandelo (September 28)
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Dark academia meets southern gothic with fast cars and a haunting in Summer Sons by Lee Mandelo. I think I first saw this described as Fast and Furious meets The Secret History meets Faulkner’s southern gothic, and I can’t think of anything that is more specifically tailored to my interests.
When Andrew’s best friend Eddie dies of apparent suicide just six months into his graduate program at Vanderbilt, he begins a search for the truth. What he finds are secrets and lies, nights ruled by drag-racing and hard drugs, and a ghost seeking revenge.
Even though it’s called Summer Sons, I think it’s going to be the perfect kick-off to my October reading.
7. Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr (September 28)
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Cloud Cuckoo Land is the latest from Anthony Doerr, Pulitzer Prize winning author of All the Light We Cannot See. This time, Doerr takes readers to three different settings: fifteenth century Constantinople, modern day Idaho, and an interstellar spaceship in the future. The lives of the characters intertwine across centuries, connected by a single story.
All the Light We Cannot See is an exquisitely written, sweeping story of human resilience and ingenuity, so I was thrilled to hear that Doerr had another book coming out. I would ordinarily be a little skeptical of this kind of intertwining story, but I trust that Doerr will pull it off.
I’m intrigued by the different settings and am looking forward to seeing how he’ll tie these characters together.
Late Fall Releases
8. Comfort Me With Apples by Catherynne M. Valente (October 26)
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Catherynne M. Valente is one of my auto-buy authors. I didn’t even need to read the premise of Comfort Me With Apples before adding it to my TBR list. I’m in love with her writing style and am convinced she could write absolutely anything beautifully.
Comfort Me With Apples is recommended for those who loved Gone Girl and Spinning Silver, which sounds like an odd combination, but Valente has written a thriller that riffs on Bluebeard, a fairytale by Charles Perrault about a man who murders all of his wives. In it, our main character Sophia believes her life is perfect—perfect husband, perfect house, perfect life—except for how he travels so much, and for the locked basement in her home, and for the way her neighbours won’t meet her eyes when she starts asking questions about him.
There’s no one I trust more with a fairytale retelling than Valente. Deathless, her take on Russian folklore, is one of my all time favourite books, and I’m excited to finish off my October reading list with something weird and wonderful from her.
9. Our Violent Ends by Chloe Gong (November 16)
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We read Chloe Gong’s debut novel These Violent Delights as part of our Bookstagram Made Me Do It series and we loved it. It’s an incredible blend of 1920s glamour in old Shanghai and supernatural happenings in the form of a monstrous plague, all wrapped in a retelling of Romeo and Juliet. But it ends on quite the cliffhanger.
Our Violent Ends is the sequel and it’s going to be one of my pre-orders because I can’t get it soon enough. Gong does a fantastic job taking the classic Romeo and Juliet story and turning it into something fresh, while keeping what we love about the original. It was so much fun to find all the moments we recognized from the play, but she also keeps you guessing about how it’s going to end.
Suffice it to say, this was on my TBR list the second I closed the cover on the first one.
New Book Releases vs. The Backlist
I used to almost exclusively read backlist books. With few exceptions, I never followed the hype of new books or kept track of what was coming out soon. Joining Bookstagram and making the podcast has changed all that. It’s pretty much impossible to ignore new releases now, but more importantly, I don’t want to.
I’ve enjoyed keeping up with the latest books and joining in the conversation about a new release while other people are also reading it. I like the excitement that comes with waiting for a book release that you’re really looking forward to. It’s also fun to follow the authors and see them get hyped for their books to venture out into the world. Going forward, I’m definitely going to make a point to work new releases into my reading.
What are you most excited for in the line-up of new book releases for fall 2021?