Absolution.
By Jeff VanderMeer.
Oct. 2024. 464p. Farrar/MCD, $29 (9780374616595); e-book (9780374616601).
With this prequel to the best-selling Southern Reach trilogy (Annihilation, 2014), VanderMeer lures readers back into the hallucinatory clutches of Area X, an anomalous coastal region in the United States. Three linked stories explore the years leading up to the Area X Event, weaving deftly in and out of the time line established by the trilogy, obliquely referring to key characters and moments that will reward careful readers. “Dead Town” takes place 20 years before Area X, as Old Jim, a Central agent turned analyst, reconstructs events from Central’s piecemeal files concerning a team of biologists surveying the Forgotten Coast as they fall prey to an uncanny figure called the Rogue. The next section, “The False Daughter,” takes place 18 months before Area X, as a reactivated Old Jim investigates the Rogue while mourning his daughter’s disappearance. The final section, “The First and the Last,” follows the inaugural expedition into Area X from the profanity-laden point of view of anthropologist Lowry. No character escapes with their sanity intact, though their madness may reveal greater truths that have far-reaching implications for the series. Still, VanderMeer understands that the mystery is the point, and, as told in beautiful prose infused with bizarre and disturbing images, Area X remains as fascinating and unknowable as ever. —Krista Hutley
Alien Clay.
By Adrian Tchaikovsky.
Sept. 2024. Orbit, paper, $19.99 (9780316578974); e-book (9780316578981).
Contracted scientists and guards arrive on research labor camp Imno 27g—30 years away from Earth—in a starship. Political prisoners, on the other hand, arrive in a craft that self-destructs after breaking through the atmosphere and hope their parachutes open. To rebel against the Mandate is a one-way ticket to toil under this alien sky, where ruins must be uncovered by Excursion crews, revealing what appear to be signs of intelligence. Dig Support then retrieves what they can to study under the strictures of the dome where everyone lives. The planet’s surface is teeming with life, which is a strange lab of organic components that intermix to form useful symbiotic relationships. They haven’t quite worked out how humans fit in, but they’re working on it. The men and women on the planet they call Kiln will soon learn how aptly they named their new home. Written in a gritty, first-person style, Tchaikovsky’s latest (after Service Model, 2024) reveals that the clash is more than just between human and alien but between ideologies that can blind one from harsh realities. —Don Vicha
All the Hearts You Eat.
By Hailey Piper.
Oct. 2024. 448p. Titan, paper, $17.99 (9781803367644).
Soon after Ivory, a trans woman in a small, seaside town in Massachusetts, comes upon the body of a trans girl, Cabrina, washed up on shore, she is visited by a ghost cat (is it Cabrina?), who takes her to a hidden world just off the coast. Xi and Rex, trans girl and boy and Cabrina’s best friends, also still feel her presence. The search for answers about Cabrina begins intimately, but as the five operatic acts layer on top of one another, the world and its characters are fleshed out, and the pacing, action, blood, and destruction build, engulfing all in intense and visceral emotions until Piper breaks everything open, releasing the existential terror (both real and supernatural) into the world—but not without anchoring it all with love and hope. A great choice for fans of original takes on the vampire trope like Devils Kill Devils, by Johnny Compton (2024), the queer, teen found family of Cuckoo, by Gretchen Felker-Martin (2024), or the grief and cosmic horror of This Thing between Us, by Gus Moreno (2021). —Becky Spratford
YA: Teens who do not mind existential dread and visceral but not gratuitous descriptions will devour this book. BS.
Antenora.
By Dori Lumpkin.
Oct. 2024. 134p. Creature, paper, $16 (9781951971182); e-book (9781951971205).
is steeped in themes of growing up queer in the south, specifically Alabama. Some important aspects of the text include snake handling in the Appalachian Pentecostal tradition, how specific Christian denominations try to compartmentalize otherness while simultaneously condemning it, and how to navigate an oppressive environment. The protagonist, Abigail, grew up in the town of Bethel with a strict mother. Many people believed that because snakes liked Abigail’s friend Nora, that made her is immersed in the Appalachian south with a distinctive streak of darkness—of people not bothering to disguise their contempt for those who don’t belong. There’s also a lot of violence in the story, with a visceral scene early in the book. Readers will be both fascinated and repulsed by Bethel and its denizens, turning the pages to see what fate will befall the protagonist. Highly recommended for readers who enjoy southern gothic horror. Fans of Kristi DeMeester, Gwendolyn Kiste, and Lee Mandelo will love Lumpkin’s debut novella. —