There are many things I’m looking forward to about 2021—mainly that the seemingly cursed year of 2020 is finally over! While I know that things won’t magically get better just because we’ve turned over a new calendar year, there’s just something refreshing about the feeling of a new start. And part of that new start means planning out a TBR list of new releases for this year! Here are some of the books I’m most excited for:
1) A Dowry of Blood by S. T. Gibson (set to be released January 31)
I’m already planning on making this one the first new book I start in 2021. Last year, I read Gibson’s short story “Brideprice” in Unspeakable: A Queer Gothic Anthology, in which the three progeny of a vampire address their sire and reminisce over their transformation. Now Gibson has expanded that story into a full-length novel! A Dowry of Blood, reimagines Dracula’s brides as queer, polyamorous, passionate vampires in a story of desire, obsession, and emancipation.
2) Lost in the Never Woods by Aiden Thomas (set to be released March 23)
Aiden Thomas’s debut Cemetery Boys was one of my most anticipated books of 2020, and it was well worth the hype. So, I’m definitely onboard for his next book, and even more so once I heard that it’s a YA reimagining of Peter Pan! The story takes place five years after Wendy and her brothers got lost in the woods surrounding their town. When children begin to go missing again, Wendy stumbles upon an unconscious boy who resembles the “Peter Pan” she used to tell about in her stories. As much as Wendy wants to leave her past behind, she’s going to need to confront whatever is waiting for her in the woods and discover what exactly is haunting her town.
3) Folklorn by Angela Mi Young Hur (set to be released April 27)
Here’s one by an author that’s totally new to me. Folklorn blends Korean myth with familiar Gothic tropes and the modern world of science. Elsa Park is a Korean-American particle physicist haunted by a family curse: the women of her line are doomed to relive the narratives of their legendary ancestors. As if such a fate wasn’t bad enough, her family is also haunted by mental illness and generational trauma. When tragedy strikes, Elsa must return to her childhood home and uncover the dark secrets of her family.
4) Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon (set to be released May 4)
I’m sensing “haunted women in the woods” is going to be a bit of a theme this year. I haven’t read any Rivers Solomon yet, but have been meaning to correct that for a while now! Sorrowland is a Gothic fantasy novel centering on Vern, a woman who flees her strict religious compound to give birth in the woods and raise her family away from the influence of the outside world. But in the woods, Vern goes through an uncanny transformation. In order to protect her family and understand what has happened to herself, Vern will have to venture back outside the woods and learn more about her history and the community she escaped.
5) A Master of Djinn by P. Djèlí Clark (set to be released May 11)
The last book that I read in 2020 was P. Djèlí Clark’s steampunk novella A Dead Djinn in Cairo, and I’ve already got The Haunting of Tram Car 015 loaded onto my kindle. In May, Clark is coming out with a third book in his Fatma el-Sha’arawi series with a debut full-length novel, A Master of Djinn. Agent Fatma of the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments, and Supernatural Entities will face her biggest challenge yet when pitted against a man claiming to be the great al-Jahiz—the very man who changed the course of history by opening up the border between the magical and mundane realms fifty years before. Is the shadowy figure spreading death and destruction in the streets of Cairo an imposter? Or could he truly be who he claims? Either way, the fate of Cairo—and possibly the world—once again rests on Fatma’s shoulders.
6) In the Ravenous Dark by A. M. Strickland (set to be released May 18)
Here’s another new-to-me author, A. M. Strickland (a pseudonym of AdriAnne Strickland). In the Ravenous Dark is a YA fantasy featuring a queer, polyamorous romance—polyamory seems to be the new frontier of romantic representation in mainstream 2021 novels. In a Greco-Roman-inspired fantasy world called Thanopolis, Rovan is a bloodmage who has been hiding her powers in order to escape the fate of being bound to a spirit. But she can only hide for so long, and soon finds herself struggling with an ill-advised attraction to the handsome spirit Ivrilos as well as to the rebellious princess Lydea, all while tip-toeing through palace intrigue and uncovering secrets that could destroy all of Thanopolis. In order to save them all, she’ll have to start a rebellion among both the living and the dead.
7) The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris (set to be released June 1)
I’ve been keeping my eye out for this one ever since it was first announced! Written by a former editorial assistant, this book is described as a Get Out-like thriller about the publishing industry in New York City. The failure of the publishing industry to address its diversity problem, despite loud promises of progressiveness and declarations of solidarity, has been a much-talked about topic in my professional circles. I’m intrigued to see some insider social commentary on this real-world issue presented in the form of a thriller. In The Other Black Girl, Nella Rogers is sick of the isolation and microaggressions she’s experienced as the only Black employee at Wagner Books. So, when Hazel shows up in the cubicle next to hers, Nella is thrilled to finally have a coworker she can relate to, but Hazel may not be quite what she seems. Soon, hostile notes begin appearing on Nella’s desk, saying things like “LEAVE WAGNER. NOW,” and the story takes a surreal turn. Nella spirals into anxiety and obsession as she tries to untangle the web she’s caught in and to decide how much of herself she’s willing to compromise in order to make it in this industry.
8) For the Wolf by Hannah F. Whitten (set to be released June 15)
We’re back to girls in the woods and children’s tale retellings with this one. For the Wolf is a romantic reimagining of Little Red Riding Hood, and the first in a new debut fantasy series. Per ancient tradition, Red is to be sacrificed to the Wolf that lives in the Wilderwood, in the hope that he will return the world’s captured gods. But the Wolf doesn’t at all resemble the beast of legend. Instead of a monster, she meets a man. Even more earth-shattering, Red comes to see her own dangerous powers as not a curse, but a calling. And she’ll need to learn how to wield them before the real monsters in the woods swallow her world whole.
9) The Dead and the Dark by Courtney Gould (set to be released August 3)
This one’s a YA paranormal fantasy debut featuring two sapphic teen ghost hunters. Logan, the daughter of two celebrity ghost hunters, can immediately tell that something unusual is going on in her new town of Snakebite, Oregon. Ashley is haunted by the spirit of her boyfriend, who was the first in a string of teens to go missing from the town. Ashley and Logan will need to team up to discover who—or what—is haunting their town and causing these disappearances and other strange happenings. Along the way, they’ll dig up some long-buried secrets about Snakebite, their families, and themselves.
10) The Scratch Daughters by Hannah Abigail Clarke (set to be released August 24)
I’ve done a pretty good job of sticking mainly to debuts, standalones, and first books in a series this time around, but I couldn’t resist including this highly anticipated sequel. Scapegracers, Clarke’s stunning debut, was one of my favorite books from 2020. Now this eclectic coven of teenage witches is back to take on witch hunters and rogue witches alike. In the last book, Sideways Pike went from being an outcast weirdo, to the leader of a coven full of the most popular girls in school, to suddenly being drained of her own magic by an enticing stranger. But her fellow witches won’t let her face this setback alone. Sideways, Daisy, Jing, and Yates—along with the mysterious book devil Mr. Scratch—pursue every lead they can find on the magic-thief, in between crafting curses to hex dudebros with, on behalf of the other girls in their school. But when Sideways comes up with a particularly risky plan, she may have to go it alone, like she’s always done before.
What are you planning on reading in 2021? Any of these books on your list? Are there others I missed that you think I should add to mine? Let me know in the comments!