2024 releases I'm excited for (part one)
recommending two books a month from january to june
In 2024, I’m hoping to diversity my reading and also delve into genres I want to read more of—namely stories with horror elements—and there are so many releases I’m really excited for in 2024! It was impossible to narrow the list down to one book per month, so here’s a list of two releases every month from January to June, along with a brief summary of the plot as abbreviated from Goodreads.
january & february
So Let Them Burn (Kamilah Cole) - Jan 16 (PUBLISHED!!)
A Jamaican-inspired YA fantasy where Faron (who can channel the power of the gods) must choose between saving her sister Elara (who forms a bond with an enemy dragon that can’t be broken except by her death) and protecting her homeland.
The Invocations (Krystal Sutherland) - Jan 30
A YA horror where Zara (who wants to bring her sister back from the dead), Jude (a billionaire’s daughter cursed after a bad deal with a devil), and Emer (a witch’s daughter who sells spells to desperate women) must team up to stop a serial killer.
Relit: 16 Latinx Remixes of Classic Stories (Editor: Sandra Proudman) - Feb 6
A YA speculative anthology featuring 16 stories by award-winning and bestselling authors that remix classic stories such as Pride and Prejudice, Frankenstein, and The Greats Gatsby with Latinx characters taking center stage.
A Tempest of Tea (Hafsah Faizal) - Feb 20
A YA fantasy about an orphan girl whose tearoom—an illegal bloodhouse catering to vampires by dark—becoming threatened leads her to strike an unlikely deal with an adversary and become tangled in a heist with a vampire society.
march & april
Women of Good Fortune (Sophie Wan) - Mar 5
An adult contemporary where Lulu, after being proposed to by Shanghai’s most eligible bachelor (who she doesn’t love), stages a heist with her two best friends to steal all the red envelope money on the wedding day.
The Poisons We Drink (Bethany Baptiste) - Mar 5
A YA urban fantasy where Venus, a witch who sells illegal love potions to support her family, accepts an offer to brew poisonous potions to enslave DC’s most influential politicians so that the head of her coven will help her punish her mother’s killer.
The Familiar (Leigh Bardugo) - Apr 9
An adult historical fantasy set during the Spanish Golden Age, where a servant girl with magical talent gains the notice of the secretary to Spain’s king and enters a world of seers and alchemists. Fearing her Jewish blood will doom her to the Inquisition’s wrath, she enlists the help of an embittered immortal familiar.
Off With Their Heads (Zoe Hana Mikuta) - Apr 23
A Korean-inspired YA Alice in Wonderland retelling where ex-lovers Caro Rabbit (now living in the glittering capital) and Alice Sickle (now a ruthless hunter) encounter a volatile magic that is even more dangerous to them than they are to each other.
may & june
A Crane Among Wolves (June Hur) - May 14
A YA historical fantasy where Iseul (desperate to rescue her older sister from a tyrant king (and Prince Daehyun (aching to dethrone his despicable half-brother) join forces to attempt to free Iseul’s sister and their people.
Goddess of the River (Vaishnavi Patel) - May 23
An adult reimagining of Ganga, goddess of the river, who is cursed to become mortal and weds King Shantanu, then must leave her infant son behind. He refuses the throne, starting a chain of events that lead to war, throughout which he and Ganga meet again and again in a tale of duty, destiny, and the bond between mother and son.
Rakesfall (Vajra Chandrasekera) - Jun 18
An adult science fiction where Annelid’s and Leveret’s souls are linked by an act of violence in a demon-haunted wood. In every lifetime, oppressors narrow the walls of possibility, shaping reality to fit their own needs. And behind the walls of history, the witches of the red web swear that every throne will fall.
We Shall Be Monsters (Tara Sim) - Jun 25
Frankenstein meets Indian mythology in a YA fantasy where Kajal’s attempts to resurrect her dead sister turns her sister’s soul into a vengeful bhuta. Kajal is locked away until rebels free her on the condition she revives the kingdom’s crown prince—except she resurrects the wrong boy, and must work with him to find the crown prince before the rebels realize, or the bhuta turns its fury on her.
Some more books I couldn’t fit into the list:
Kindling (Traci Chee) - Feb 27
A YA epic fantasy where seven kindlings—elite, magic-wielding teenage warriors—were cast aside once the war they fought in was over. When a village comes under threat of siege, it offers an opportunity to fight one last time. To reclaim who they once were, they’ll have to battle their pasts, their trauma, and their grim fates to come together again—or none of them will make it out alive.
Road to Ruin (Hana Lee) - May 14
An adult fantasy featuring a magebike courier that braves dangerous wastelands to deliver her wares, who helps the prince and princess she loves to escape the princess’s father and scheming betrothed, as well as a bounty hunter with mysterious powers.
Wish You Weren’t Here (Erin Baldwin) - June 4
A YA contemporary where Juliette is looking forward to five weeks free of her rival, the town’s hot popular girl, Priya, at Fogridge Sleepaway Camp—the one place she never feels like “too much”—only for Priya to become her cabinmate.
Being timely with new releases has always been a struggle for me, but in 2023 I started listening to audiobooks and it’s so much easier to read more. Hopefully I’ll be able to read most of these books before the end of the year!
Tiffany all the recommendations are so good! Thank you for sharing them!