What I'm Reading: The July 2026 Issue of Booklist-- Second Set of Three Reviews

I have 6 reviews debuting in Booklist this month. Three are starred, tand hree more are glowing reviews in the magazine itself.

I am breaking up the reviews into 2 posts. Yesterday, I featured the three starred reviews. Today I have the 3 remaining reviews in alphabetical order by author. As usual, I will include my draft review with bonus appeal and readalike content.

Blacktail

Scott Hawkins

Sept. 2026. 272p. Crown, $29  (9798217089963). 

First published July 2026 (Booklist).

Ten years after the publication of The Library of Mount Char, Hawkins is back with another original and riveting, horror-fantasy hybrid, but this time, featuring animal narrators. After Blacktail, a young wolf, watches humans destroy everything he holds dear, word of his strength, anger, and blood-thirsty actions reach Old Kitty Mother, a feline witch whose power and influence extend around the world. She channels Blacktail's unique gifts, sending him on a quest to reconnect the animal world with their Forest God, who has forsaken them. This is eco-horror at its most primal and visceral. The various animal narrators make it very clear not only how horrible humans are, but also show how far they are all willing to go to get their revenge. Hawkins pulls no punches, and at times, Blacktail's violent choices are intensely discomfiting. However, this is also a mythical journey following a flawed but sympathetic loner hero who meets new creatures along his way, hears their stories, before moving on toward his destiny. Fans of Adam’s Watership Down who can handle the blood thirsty vengeance in Malerman’s Pearl will devour this one.

Three Words That Describe This Book: animal point of view, dark fantasy quest/journey, nature is not happy with us

Further Appeal: First things first, this is not The Library at Mount Char, it is very different but it is also very good. It is lyrical and fairytale/mystical. But it is also practical in many ways.

Blacktail a wolf who is out for revenge against all humans is the main narrator. He is not the only narrator, but he is the main one. No humans get the pov, only animals.

This book makes us humans look VERY bad. All of us. And Hawkins meters out judgement and punishment on all humans through Blacktail and there is no mercy. None. I cannot stress this enough. Even humans who we readers think don't deserve to die, will be brutally hunted by Blacktail. Animals are hunted too, but it all makes sense through Blacktail's world view-- which is very clear to readers.

To see him react to seeing "car" kill animals and leave them on the pavement -- killing just for fun and not a reasons. To see the way he looks at houses, people's impact on the land. His reaction to pets who he calls slaves. How the animal work interacts and communicates and the sprits and witches that bind them all. It is riveting and original.

I also loved that Hawkins uses Blacktail's journey to break the story into vignettes. Each of his stops/passing theough a new territory, gives readers the chance to meet new animal characters. The rhythm of this keeps the story moving a a good pace.

There is one "good human" here and kudos to Hawkins for sticking with the POV and Blacktail's sense of right and wrong because wow is it uncomfortable for the human reader. 

Seething with rage and seeking vengeance -- appetite for revenge not satiated, only growing. This is a violent, in your face revenge novel. 

The storytelling has a mystical/dark fairy tale feel.

Further Readalikes: The two above capture this story well, but I also thought about Lord of the Rings as well. Frodo's quest seems impossible but it is dire and many will help or hurt him along the way. 

And I do think that Daniel Mason’s North Woods is a good comp. The vignette nature of the story and its riveting storytelling that is compelling even though you wouldn’t call it fast. This was a similar reading experience, but WAY MORE BLOOD here though. 

Next up is...

Incarnate 

By Alma Katsu

Sept. 2026. 288p. Putnam, $29  (9798217177707). 

First published July 2026 (Booklist).

Katsu (Fiend) returns with a modern retelling of The Picture of Dorian Gray that hits very close to home. Dorothy lands her dream job with an AI meets motion capture effects company, but her destructive need to be popular rears its head when she illegally accesses their servers to create the gorgeous influencer, Isabella, passing her off as a real person. Her work gets a few likes before attracting the attention of someone offering to make all of her dreams come true, for an unnamed price. Dorothy agrees and her life changes overnight, as her world quickly goes to unimaginable heights before spiraling out of control leading to horrors that pile upon horrors. Uncomfortable at every turn (including gnarly body horror), the real terror here comes when readers inevitably interrogate their own social media choices. Think the film The Substance, but with more substance. For readers who enjoy Faustian bargains like All's Well by Awad or We Sold Our Souls by Hendrix as well as the AI implications explored by Tingle in Bury Your Gays.

Three Words That Describe This Book: retelling, squirm inducing, deal with the devil

Further Appeal:  The marketing on this one is correct. This is a retelling of the Picture of Dorian Gray by Wilde but for this exact moment. This was VERY well done. I can imagine how this book will make you feel (really uncomfortable because you see yourself in it and also terrified) is how Wilde's book made people feel at its time.

This book is so uncomfortable to read for so many reasons. Dorothy (our MC and narrator) is clearly making the wrong choices. We know from the prologue that she has some evil tendencies, but OH MY GOD does she make bad choices. And then we watch her continue to make bad choices, they are spiraling, and yet, as readers, we cannot look away. We fell her joy as she gets more and more followers. We know that there is a supernatural force behind it all though. This is revealed at the beginning of her journey to create the perfect influencer-- Isabella. She has to agree to some force that clearly has access to everything she is doing, even her thoughts-- she has to agree that she will pay a further price to have all the glory.

As Dorothy goes deeper and deeper into her deep fake of Isabella, things get bad. Yes she makes bad choices and chooses to lie cheat and steal to get the technology she needs. Yes she throws away an amazing opportunity to be not he ground floor of a VR company. Yes she compromises all of her relationships-- work, friends, family. Yes she makes a faustian deal with an unknown but powerful demon. All of these choices make the reader squirm with discomfort. But then, about halfway through-- after you are invested in Dorothy (you know she is not someone you should trust and like, but also you can't stop watching her, which is discomfiting on its own) Katsu take everything up an other notch. I will not give it away because WOW it is gross and fascinating, but it is also what takes the story from a scary cautionary retelling to a wholly original and stand alone horror novel for our times. And written by someone who was a national security analyst looking at the horror and harm social media could cause back in the days before anyone else was looking at it.

This book move quickly and yet it does not feel rushed. I kept turning the pages and was hooked. Then I looked up and I was like, wait...75 pages just went by when I blinked. 

There is body horror here -- VERY EFFECTIVELY USED body horror. Think the movie The Substance. But full disclosure, unlike the movie, this book has a satisfying ending that closes the loop of the story here and leave the horror itself open ended. And in fact, the last lines of this book are chilling and a little too real. So well done there. 

Further Readalikes: As I said above this is for readers who like faustian bargains. People who enjoyed Bury Your Gays by Tingle will also like this one-- the way it seriously tackles the horror of AI while still being a satisfying horror novel. And for influencer horror try youthjuice by Sathue.

Pictures of You
By Josh Malerman
Sept. 2026. 288p. Del Rey, $28  (9780593723159). 
First published July 2026 (Booklist).
The immense power the artist holds, creating pieces that make people experience very real feelings (good, bad, or ugly) is explored in horrific fashion by bestselling author Malerman. Emily and Jack are celebrating their six month anniversary with a trip to a small vacation town on Lake Michigan. After a night out, they wake up disoriented. But it is clearly more than a hangover because Emily has been trapped in a painting while Jack is alone in their hotel room, with no trace of Emily. Malerman frames this short novel, with tight writing and intense narrative control, drawing out maximum tension by shifting point of view in alternating chapters. Just as readers get important information from one character, they switch to another, squirming with discomfort, helplessly held hostage, watching as it all spirals out of control, but loving every minute of it. For readers who enjoy evil, twisted psychological suspense like Sharp Objects by Flynn and art horror that probes the potential, visceral, and destructive power of art like in Black Flame by Felker-Martin.

Three Words That Describe This book: art horror, oppressive tension, psychological suspense

Further Appeal: The set up is all you need to know, the story reveals itself from the framing (word choice is important) and the way Malerman delivers it. That is why you will want to read it.

The set up-- a couple is on vacation on Lake Michigan, after a night of drinking they both wake up "hung over" and disoriented, but maybe it is more than a hang over because Emily went from being out to waking up trapped in a painting and being held hostage by an unhinged artist and Jack woke up alone in the hotel room, with both phones and no trace of Emily.

A great set up-- you want to read it. Awesome work there. Again, the way Malerman tells it, also increases your enjoyment. 

We have multiple points of view here. Emily and Jack yes, but others are added as we go. Chapters alternate. Readers get information from one character and then we switch to another and we overlap in the time frame and get a little more. Back and forth. 

The writing is tight. The pacing perfectly controlled to draw out maximum tension. You will squirm with that tension, but in a good way. Watching this spiral out of control, knowing just a little bit more than the characters, but not nearly as much as you want. Held hostage waiting for it all to resolve, but loving every minute of the feeling.

And when the tension is released and the story is closed, Malerman leaves you with just enough unease because readers will be thinking about the power of ART to make people not just feel real feelings but act in real ways. Ways that can be positive or negative. And that is the lingering horror that will not go away.

This one will make you literally beg for the tension to end-- and yet that is a lie because you are reading it for just that reason.

Fans of Malerman will love the easter eggs to his other work here. He is very good about connecting all of his books without making it look like he is trying to. Also, people new to Malerman don't feel like they missed something either.

Further Appeal: Really any intense psychological suspense/horror, I also would suggest Sarah Pinborough in general and We Live Here Now specifically. And any art horror. Click here to access a few reddit discussions about these books.

Back tomorrow with 2 reviews from June that were almost lost in the ether of Becky's review queue.