Can you believe we’re already more than halfway through 2022? Me neither. It doesn’t seem like it should be possible, but here we are.
Luckily for us, this means we’re due for another wave of new book releases in the fall. Whatever else the world may be throwing at us lately, the books are good. So without further ado, here are my top 12 most anticipated new releases for fall 2022.
Required Reading: Fall 2022 Book Releases
With fall comes the beginning for many people embarking on degrees, certificates, and other education programs. But whether you are studying next month or not, we want share the required reading for pleasure, not academic credit. This year’s fall 2022 book releases are sure to help you relax, escape, and find some much needed balance.
1. Babel by R.F. Kuang (Aug 23)
First on the list is R.F. Kuang’s newest book, Babel, or The Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translator’s Revolution. Yeah, it’s a mouthful of a title, but that just makes me more inclined to read it. I haven’t read Kuang’s The Poppy War trilogy, but I’ve heard good things, and this recent mash-up of academia, linguistics, and revolution sounds tailored precisely to my interests. On Goodreads it’s being called “a thematic response to The Secret History and a tonal response to Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell,” which…yes. I’m so glad the wait is over for this one.
2. The Sunbearer Trials by Aiden Thomas (Sept 6)
If you’ve been around here for a little while, you’ll know that Aiden Thomas has become an auto-buy author for us. Cemetery Boys was a joy to read and his latest, the first in a planned trilogy, promises more magic and mayhem. It’s been described as Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief meets The Hunger Games, with a Mexican mythological twist. All I have to say is, we volunteer!
3. Moonflower by Kacen Callender (Sept 6)
After falling in love with Felix Ever After, I decided I wanted to read everything Kacen Callender has written. Then I read King and the Dragonflies and that solidified Callender as an auto-buy author. Moonflower is another middle grade endeavour for Callender, this time grappling with depression and mental illness. It has an other-worldly twist, in which our main character, Moon, travels to the spirit world every night. I can’t wait to see how this story unfolds.
4. Fairy Tale by Stephen King (Sept 6)
Did someone say Stephen King portal fantasy? Sign. Me. Up. I’m on a mission to read as many portal fantasies as I can — for those who don’t know, it’s a fantasy in which the characters travel to another world by way of some kind of portal or doorway, Narnia style. In King’s latest, seventeen-year-old Charlie Reade inherits the keys to a parallel world, where he encounters a battle between good and evil. Given that it’s Stephen King, I’m sure there will be a hefty creep factor, but honestly that just makes me more excited.
5. I’m the Girl by Courtney Summers (Sept 13)
Courtney Summers is back with another thriller that places an angry young girl at its centre — and no one does angry young girls like Summers. I’m the Girl follows sixteen-year-old Georgia Avis as she seeks to bring a killer to justice. It’s being called a “spiritual successor to Sadie,” which we talked about in Episode 25, so I have high hopes that this will be just as gripping and propulsive.
6. Foul Lady Fortune by Chloe Gong (Sept 27)
We’ve made our love of These Violent Delights very clear, so it should be no surprise that we’re eager to dive back into Chloe Gong’s world of glamour, gangs, and monsters. Foul Lady Fortune is not quite a sequel to These Violent Delights, though it takes place in the same fictionalized Shanghai and centres on a character we’ve already met — Juliette’s cousin Rosalind. This time, Gong is drawing her inspiration from Shakespeare’s As You Like It, and we’ll see Rosalind acting as a spy to uncover the culprits behind a string of murders. To do so, she poses as the wife of playboy Orion Hong, which I can only assume will mean hijinks and double crossings abound.
7. Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng (Oct 4)
Finally, we’re being blessed with more Celeste Ng! Little Fires Everywhere is easily one of my favourite books of the last decade, so I immediately put Our Missing Hearts on my fall TBR. Ng is venturing into new territory with this one. The story follows Bird, a young boy living in an America being governed by strict laws that ban books for being unpatriotic and allow children of dissidents — especially those of Asian descent — to be relocated. He is pulled into a quest to find the mother who left their family years before and the journey takes him into a world of underground libraries, missing children, and a resistance building in New York City.
8. It Came From the Closet: Queer Reflections on Horror edited by Joe Vallese (Oct 11)
First of all, an incredible title. I didn’t have to read a single other thing about this book to know that I wanted to read it. Knowing that Carmen Maria Machado has an essay in it really just seals the deal. This essay collection focuses specifically on films, making it the perfect blend of everything we love. I keep saying that I’m going to do a proper deep dive into the horror genre, and this might be the push that I need. After all, I’d have to watch the films that inspire each essay. Gonna build my own little horror course with this one. Just in time for spooky season.
9. Greywaren by Maggie Stiefvater (Oct 18)
Greywaren is the final installment in Maggie Stiegvater’s Dreamer Trilogy, making it the final story we’re going to get about Ronan Lynch. I am not ready. Recently, Maggie assured her readers that she will NOT be piling on more grief with this final installment, all but guaranteeing a happy ending. Look, I’m beside myself, okay? I’m already sobbing. I can’t be expected to be coherent about this. I might have to do a re-read that takes me all the way back to The Raven Boys in preparation.
10. The World We Make by N.K. Jemisin (Nov 1)
I am so ready to dive back into N.K. Jemsin’s world of eldritch horrors and cities being made manifest in a human avatar. This is the second installment in Jemisin’s Great Cities duology. We left off in The City We Became with our characters banding together to protect New York City. All except one. Because New York is New York, each borough gets its own avatar, and Staten Island has teamed up with the eldritch terror trying to take them all down. I simply love the idea that a city has a soul and a unique personality, and who better to execute such an idea than Jemisin? I have no doubt she’s going to blow us away with the conclusion.
So Many Books, So Little Time
This is only a small sample of the books that are coming out this fall. When I first put this list together it was twice as long. I had to reign myself in. My bookshelf is already threatening to buckle under the weight of all my unread books. But it’s difficult with so many incredible titles coming out each year! Might be time to figure out how I can take up residence in a library and just read books all day.
What books are you most excited for this fall?
