Summer Reads 2024 from Publishers Weekly Publishers Weekly

Bury Your Gays

Chuck Tingle (Nightfire)

Tingle continues his horror hot streak with this sharp satirical peak behind the scenes of Hollywood. After gay screenwriter Misha Byrne refuses to kill off the queer characters in his TV series at the request of the network’s new AI algorithm, monsters from his past horror movies start hunting him down. Is it an elaborate prank or something more sinister? The answer makes for clever and wildly entertaining reading.

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Daughter of the Merciful Deep

Leslye Penelope (Redhook)

In 1935, the U.S. government plans to flood the all-Black Southern town of Awenasa to create a reservoir. It’s up to nonspeaking heroine Jane Edwards to save her home by embracing her latent ancestral magic. Drawing from American history and African folklore, Penelope crafts a powerful and propulsive tale of community and resistance.

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Escape Velocity

Victor Manibo (Erewhon)

Manibo’s cinematic sci-fi murder mystery opens on Henry Gallagher floating through space, having been shoved off the luxury Space Habit Altaire, presumably by one of the space station’s other guests. In teasing out who pushed Henry and why, Manibo delivers a rip-roaring, genre-bending blend of glamor and intrigue, rounded out by an eat-the-rich ethos and fascinating science. This far-future noir will have readers hooked.

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Road to Ruin

Hana Lee (Simon & Schuster)

In a gorgeously rendered, Mad Max–esque postapocalyptic fantasy world, Jin risks her life as a magebike courier ferrying love notes between the star-crossed heirs to two rival city-states—while secretly harboring feelings for them both herself. This thorny love triangle adds emotional heft to Lee’s lightning-fast plotting and inventive worldbuilding, which incorporates mana storms and psychic powers. The resulting thrill ride doubles as an impassioned examination of power and privilege.

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The Stardust Grail

Yume Kitasei (Flatiron)

One part dizzying intergalactic heist, one part thoughtful imagining of human-alien relationships, this dazzling space opera sends semi-retired art thief Maya Hoshimoto on one last job to recover an artifact that could be key to saving the extraterrestrial Frenro race from extinction. Kitasei brings a genuine sense of wonder to her sprawling universe and keeps the pages flying with well-shaded characters and plenty of action.

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