What I'm Reading: Booklist January 2024 Reviews and MORE!

Two small press reviews, but first, the January 1 &15 issue is also Spotlight on Readers' Advisory. So before I get to the reviews, here are a few readalikes lists that I want to point you to. They are great for suggestions, displays, and online content. And all of the titles have been vetted by Booklisters so you can be confident that they will work well with a library audience:

• Read-alikes: Intergenerational and Multiple-Perspective Tales of Immigration and Other Upheavals
• Read-alikes: Jane Austen Redux
• High-Demand Read-alikes: Women in War

Plus, this is the issue where the 6 Andrew Carnegie Medal Finalists get to tell you what books they suggest you read. These lists are themed and would make a great small display or a linked list in your digital spaces. You can see the details about the ACM longlist and finalists here. And below are the nominated authors with their reading suggestions:

Nonfiction Authors:

• What Roxanna Asgarian Wants You to Read: Six Books on Family and Trauma
• What Jake Bittle Wants You to Read: Modern Society's Relationship to Land
• What Darrin Bell Wants You to Read: SF that Explores the Nature of Humanity

Fiction Authors:

• What Daniel Innes and Christina Wong Want You to Read: Short Stories that Challenge, Comfort, Entertain, Stimulate, and Unsettle the Soul
• What Amanda Peters Wants You to Read: Indigenous Women and the Written Word–History, Healing, and the Power of Stories
• What Jesmyn Ward Wants You to Read: Communing with the South

And remember the winners will be announced at LibLearnX on Saturday, January 20th at 9:45 a.m. Eastern time. More here about all of the Adult Award winners, Monday 1/22.

Now on to those reviews. Both books are from smaller presses but these titles will have wide appeal. And the second one is from an author who has already been given an ALA Media Award. 

As usual, I will be reprinting my draft review with bonus appeal info and readalikes.

In Excess of Dark
by Red Lagoe
Mar. 2024. 150p. DarkLit, paper, $16 (9781998851393); e-book (9781998851386). 
First published January 1, 2024 (Booklist).

Karina has experienced gruesome and intrusive visions her entire life, but even more so since her father’s death. In an attempt to pull herself out of her deep grief, Karina, her husband, and teenage son drive up into the Blue Ridge mountains to camp where she had some of her happiest times with her father. When tragedy strikes, Karina realizes that her horrific daydreams may be jumping from her imagination, into the real world, their shadows dragging her even deeper into despair and desperation. Told through Karina’s clearly compromised perspective this compelling novella will grab readers immediately and hold them in its disquieting thrall for the duration. An honest, raw, and intensely personal look at depression, this is a story that unfolds like a visceral nightmare while also standing as an example of how Horror helps people confront the fear and pain in their own lives. For fans of Crossroads by Laurel Hightower, The Ghost Eaters by Clay McLeod Chapman, and anything by Eric LaRocca.

Further Appeal: This is novella length and can be read in 1 to 2 sittings. Because it is all in Karina's POV, readers will get sucked into her nightmarish reality. Everything around you will disappear as you read this. Lagoe has complete narrative control here and it is impressive. 

Obviously, Karina is not entirely reliable, but it doesn't matter. Lagoe gets you into her head and pov and does not allow you to look away, even when you want to. Well done. I would read more by this author.

FYI, there is serious visceral imagery here and horrible things happen. 

Three Words That Describe This Book: grief, intense, disquieting

Readalikes: The three above give you a general sense of what to expect. If you like any of the above, this is a book worth a try. I would 100% add it to all library collections. This is a solid small press, has a great cover, and will have wide appeal.

The Rain Artist
Claire Rudy Foster
Feb. 2024. 268p. Moonstruck, paper, $19  (9798988815402); e-book (9798988815419). 
First published January 1, 2024 (Booklist).

Set in a not-so-distant future where the environment and late stage capitalism collided to create a barely habitable world, where fresh water is something only the ultra-rich can experience during “Rain Parties.” When an aging Celine, the world’s last umbrella maker, is hired to provide umbrellas for the retirement party of one of richest men on earth, she gets implicated in a murder sending her, her stoic colleague Paul, and a young and desperate woman, Yochanna, in on race for their lives, trying to outpace the police and outthink the quadrillionaires who have framed them. Told through 4 points of view, in 4 distinct sections and featuring strong world building, realistically flawed but sympathetic characters, an unnerving tone, and suspenseful pacing, readers will be swept away in the story’s current. A great option for readers looking for Cli-Fi like The Last Storm by Lebbon and The Water Knife by Bacigalupi but also for fans of near future dystopian thrillers with a strong Weird Fiction vibe such as The City and The City by Mieville.

Further Appeal: Before I get to the appeal of the book itself, I need to point out something very important about the author because I am pretty sure have heard of them before. From their website:

Claire Rudy Foster is a queer, nonbinary trans writer who lives in Portland, Oregon. Foster is the co-writer of the bestselling nonfiction book Unsettled (St. Martin’s Press, 2021) with recovery advocate Ryan Hampton. Unsettled is a shocking inside account of reckless capitalism and injustice in the Purdue Pharma bankruptcy case. Read the glowing review by Patrick Radden Keefe in The New Yorker. 

Also Foster’s collection, Shine of the Ever was on the 2021 ALA's Over the Rainbow Fiction Longlist. And the story the novel is based on was in Oprah’s magazine as well. 

I add all of this because while the book itself is very good, you might still be hesitant to buy from such a small press, but all of this info would tip me over the edge to but it. There is a built in audience already there for this book. 

This is a well paced Cli-Fi Thriller, in an environmental and late capitalism dystopia and excellent, compelling world building.

The 4 narrators was a good choice. It allows the world to be built not only more quickly but with depth. We see 3 different "heroes" and 1 villain very well. I also like that the main protagonist is a mature women. You don't see that a lot.

As trilogy openers go, it is well constructed. The ending is resolved (which is satisfying) but we know there is more to come, and as a reader, I am eager to read that next book. That is solid writing. 

Three Words That Describe This Book: unnerving, strong world building, cli-fi-thriller

Readalikes: The cli-fi horror readalikes are clear  here. The two above hint at the major themes and issues to expect. To this list I would also suggest Sealed by Naomi Booth, although that one is a little more interior and psychological.

And I could not get over how much of the vibe here was similar to The City and The City by Mieville. Not the plot, but how the story moves, the unsettling way the dystopia is handled, the twists, and it gets you thinking.