The Lighthouse Witches
By: CJ Cooke
Release Date | October 1
Genre | Fantasy
The offer to paint within a 100-year-old lighthouse located on a remote island in Scotland sounds like the perfect way for her and her three daughters - Luna, Sapphire, and Clove, to start again. But when Sapphire and Clove disappear, Liv is panicked and then distraught after learning that underneath the lighthouse is an old prison for those accused of witchcraft. The locals warn her that her missing children could return but that they would return as wildings, creatures created by the witches as a form of revenge. The wildings may look like her children but they are dangerous and vile creatures that must be killed.
Twenty-two years later and Luna has never stopped searching for her missing family. When she receives a call about Clover having been found alive, Luna is overjoyed and then confused. Clover is exactly as she remembers, she's even still seven years-old.
Haunted by the wilding stories of her past and terrified of the ageless face before her, Luna needs answers and returning to the island is the only option unaware that uncovering the truth will change her in ways she cannot imagine.
(PS. My guess is that Clover and Sapphire were captured and that the Clover that has been returned to Luna is actually the spitting image of Clover and the same age as she is Clover's daughter! That is my guess if magic is ruled out.)
Find the full review | HERE | for The Lighthouse Witches
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LaserWriter II
By: Tamara Shopsin
Release Date | October 12
Genre | Fiction
Seasons in Hippoland
By: Wanjiku wa Ngũgĩ
Release Date | October 15
Genre | Fantasy
Mumbi is a rebellious child. She lives in Victoriana where the Emperor for Life's illness is not acknowledged, where reality does not have meaning, and where children are taught to conform. But Mumbi is not a conformer and when her and her brother are sent away to Hippoland as a punishment for their rebelliousness, the dismissal is transformed into a blessing. Hippoland is full of their aunt's eccentric stories and magic coursing through the earth.
Returning to her community of Westville in Victoriana as an adult, Mumbi brings with her part of Hippoland in the form of her aunt's stories, stories that captivate the people around her, particularly one tale about a porcelain bowl with healing powers. When word of the bowl reaches the Emperor, Mumbi is commanded to find the relic or be the cause of great suffering within Victoriana.
Femlandia
By: Christina Dalcher
Release Date | October 19
Genre | Science Fiction
From the author of Master Class, a dystopian novel I adore, comes another dystopia world fuelled by an economic collapse and abandonment.
Miranda and her sixteen-year-old daughter have been abandoned by her husband in a destroyed world. She is left terrified that starvation or murder will be their end, they need safety and Femlandia is their only hope. Miranda thought she would rather die than join the women-only colony but in a world of collapse, safety is more important than pride. Together, they set off to find the decades old colony established by none other than her very own mother, Win.
Win has passed the organisation and spotlight on to Jen Jones years ago and Jen has transformed Femlandia into a thriving community, one Miranda is grateful for upon their arrival. It is a safe haven - that is holding secrets. Throughout the colony, babies are abundant, but in a women-only society, how is this possible? Their presence leads Miranda to question her mother and the lengths she went to transform her idea into one of progress but also horror.
Flowers for the Sea
By: Zin E. Rocklyn
Release Date | October 19
Genre | Horror
Out of the Fire
By: Andrea Contos
Release Date | October 19
Genre | Young Adult
* Release Date Changed | December 7th *
It is the letters from after that make Cass live in fear. The kidnapping didn't ruin her but the promise from her captor he would return, that her freedom was only temporary, did. The police claim they can't help making Cass believe that the rest of her life would be one filled with fear, that is until she connects with three old friends.
Three girls like her who have been waiting to exact retribution on who hurt them. But as Cass digs deeper, the truth is more unbelievable than she can fathom and the worst thing of all is that the one person who could save her life is the one who destroyed it.
The Death of Jane Lawrence
By: Caitlin Starling
Release Date | October 19
Genre | Horror
Jane Shoringfield has done the calculations and determined the most secure path forward is one of marriage; a marriage of convenience that will provide her with independence and occupation. Her choice of spouse, Augustine Lawrence. Augustine is a reclusive doctor who surprisingly agrees to her proposal under one condition - Jane is never allowed to visit his family manor.
Jane agrees until an accident on their wedding night strands her outside the Hall with Augustine inside, and different. Gone is the bold surgeon she married replaced with a paranoid man who cannot tell nightmare from reality and terrified Jane is one of those demons.
By morning Augustine has returned to normal but Jane isn't convinced everything is alright, something is wrong with the Hall and the man she secured herself too.
Small Things Like These
By: Claire Keegan
Release Date | October 21
Genre | Fiction
Comfort Me With Apples
By: Catherynne M. Valente
Release Date | October 26
Genre | Thriller
Comfort Me With Apples reads like the ideal thriller. The premise sounds like a model for a book to movie novel and after recently finishing Gone for Good, whose plot also would be ideal for that, I have come to appreciate novels that read like movies. I am ready for this novel.
Every is perfect. Her husband is perfect. Their house is perfect. Together, they are perfect.
Except, Sophia misses him dearly. His work keeps him away too much and she misses him. And he her too, or at least he says. And if her husband claims to miss her, then it must be true because he is the perfect husband.
But late at night, curled underneath the covers and safe in her thoughts, Sophia sometimes questions things. How her husband looks after a long business trip. The type of questions he avoids. The locked basement she cannot enter. And the neighbours, well they refuse to meet her gaze... but Sophia knows it's all okay because everything is perfect, right?
Far from the Light of Heaven
By: Tade Thompson
Release Date | October 29
Genre | Science Fiction
After light-years of travel, Ragtime and the thousand sleepers aboard have finally docked and are ready for their new life in space but, not all of them wake.
First-mate Michelle Campion sounds the distress call and investigator Rasheed Fin is called to the scene. It is up to him to determine whose at fault for the permanent sleepers, who killed them? This mystery soon unfolds with each new revelation bringing repercussions for the entire system of Lagos, other colony planets, and even earth itself.
