Things are heating up both in Chicago and in the publishing world!
Whether you’re planning summer travel or you’re staying put this month, the books below are sure to take you out of this world. Sci-fi thrillers, gripping gothic horror, and sinister retellings of classic stories abound. But it’s more than adrenaline—the books below offer incredible depth and illuminating insights on our modern condition. In fact, I see two really interesting trends across this list. A number of these books look at the humanity and inhumanity of labor, while others look forward into what we lose and retain come the end of the world. A little bit of everything for sure!
So, mark your calendars for these releases, get your copies from your favorite local bookstore, and post up at your nearest waterfront or park, because summer reading is officially here!
The Sixth Nik
By Daniel Kraus
S&S/Saga Press
Between the Pulitzer Prize win, the upcoming adaptation of his novel Whalefall, and his fantastic nonfiction book Partially Devoured, 2026 is certainly the year of Daniel Kraus (as it should be!). To add to these exciting milestones, in June we’ll see the release of Kraus’s next novel, The Sixth Nik, which features a crew on a mission to investigate a rogue planet who discover that their ship may be mutating. This thrilling novel perfectly weaves together sci-fi and body horror to spine-tingling results. It’s safe to say any new release from Kraus is a must-read, and The Sixth Nik is further proof.
At the Edge of the Woods
By Kathryn Bromwich
Two Dollar Radio
Laura lives a quiet life on the outskirts of a small, conservative town in the Italian Alps. But when someone from her past comes knocking on her cabin door, everything begins to change. Kathryn Bromwich’s patience is on full display in this assured debut; with lush description and razor insight, she creates a slow-burn thriller that will leave you both haunted and satisfied. At the Edge of the Woods is utterly hypnotic.
Where You’ll Find Us
By Jen St. Jude
Bloomsbury YA
In Jen St. Jude’s latest, a trans teen finds a home in a mysterious farmhouse in the woods in a land dubbed Amaranth—a safe haven for queer kids throughout history. Where You’ll Find Us is an absolute gift, as St. Jude writes with such tenderness and care for their characters. This beautiful ode to queerness, found family, and belonging is a joy to read from start to finish.
Voyagers
By Meg Charlton
Harper
This captivating debut from Meg Charlton follows Alex and Ana, two estranged friends who are forever bonded together when as kids they both go missing for thirty-six hours while on vacation. The experience becomes a national spectacle when they recount their experience as an alien abduction. Years later, when a mysterious signal forces life planes to ground and society to unravel, people begin to speculate if first-contact is finally upon them and Alex and Ana are forced to reunite and reckon with their childhood trauma. Voyagers is a literary sci-fi spectacle that interrogates the unreliability of memory, with plenty of humor and heart along the way.
Earth 7
By Deb Olin Unferth
Graywolf Press
Who can say no to a classic love story at the end of the world? In the final days as Earth is not much more than a piece of burnt coal, two women—one who was raised in a pod in the ocean and another who may or may not be a robot—meet on a beach of artificial sand. Deb Olin Unferth is well known for distilling grand ideas into finely-tuned and taut novels (just look at her 2020 egg farm heist novel Barn 8), and with Earth 7 she’s going even larger. Unferth’s latest is an ode to the rapidly fading diversity of life on our planet, the mourning we are left with, and the ultimate question: what does it all matter when our future is shattered? All heady ideas, but in typical Unferth fashion, it’s delivered with heart, a careful slyness, and enough style to help you digest the most difficult realities of our lifetime.
Land
By Maggie O’Farrell
Knopf
June brings us the latest from the best-selling author of Hamnet and The Marriage Portrait. In the wake of the Great Hunger, Tomás and his son Liam embark on a project to map the whole of Ireland in hopes that they will become a record of the disaster. O’Farrell is incredibly adept in building intimate character studies that also show the grand sweep of time, and Land is no different. This is a heart-wrenching story about parenthood and our relationship to the natural world, filled with lush prose and an unforgettable look at the history and landscape of Ireland.
It Came From Neverland
By Cynthia Pelayo
Crooked Lane Books
Wendy Darling works as a school teacher by day, and by night, she assists soldiers who have returned home from the Western Front of World War I. When one patient whispers the words “Peter Pan” to her, she’s thrown back into a world she’s tried hard to forget. Horror master Cynthia Pelayo brings us a sinisterly special reimagining of the classic Peter Pan story with It Came From Neverland. Pulse-pounding and wildly inventive, you won’t want to miss this book.
No Lace Fronts in Iowa City
By Meghan Malachi
Madville Publishing LLC
In her debut poetry collection, Meghan Malachi explores how community, desirability, and our belief in home influence the journeys by which girls come of age. Her poems are beautiful celebrations of Black Latinx identity and womanhood and the complications of Midwestern existence, told with an unforgettable voice and deep vulnerability. Books like No Lace Fronts in Iowa City are beautiful revelations, a calling card from an exciting debut author.
Swell
By Bo-Mi Son
Translated by Janet Hong
Two Lines Press
Swell is an ingenious literary puzzle. Each story in Bo-Mi Son’s collection explores the common epiphanies in our everyday life, but they are most often filtered through someone else’s perspective—including documentarians, novelists, storytellers, and gossips. Like little prisms of refracted light, each story builds upon and interweaves with one another, forever shifting the narrative you’ve read. Swell offers both a realistic look into contemporary Korean lives and a mind-bending optical illusion full of mysteries; it’s truly a feat of fiction.
Hunger and Thirst
By Claire Fuller
Tin House
As a teenager, Ursula finds herself squatting at a mysterious house with her friend Sue. But when Sue’s behavior becomes more extreme, Ursula agrees to something that forever haunts her. Years later, her identity is exposed by a true-crime documentarian researching an unsolved disappearance, leaving her vulnerable to both speculation and darker forces. Hunger and Thirst is a fascinating blend of gothic horror, haunted house, and coming-of-age fiction, creating an unmistakable eerie vibe that will keep you in suspense at every turn. Good luck putting this book down once you start!
Trash: A Garbageman’s Story
By Simon Pare-Poupart
Melville House
I’m always on the hunt for books that shine a light on jobs that people all too often ignore. Simon Pare-Poupart’s hilarious memoir offers a no-bullshit account of his twenty years in waste management, and in turn delivers a comprehensive portrait of labor and the violent conditions people must work under to keep our cities clean. Trash! is the type of book I’m thankful is going to exist: witty at first glance and biting at its core about the world of work that keeps our communities functioning that most people refuse to acknowledge.
All This Want (and I Can’t Get None)
By T Clark
One World
All This Want (and I Can’t Get None) explores the feverish hunger and dizzying pleasure of girlhood and queer youth in a small town. Each story follows a character who is struggling to figure out the arch of their lives amid the desire they feel. Chrissy looks to play roulette on a trip with her boyfriend but ends up in a hotel room with two strangers. A fight breaks out at a party and the video goes viral. D’asia develops a friendship with a school security guard that teeters close to inappropriate. T Clark’s captures the chaos of youth and the struggle to understand oneself while also bringing so much humor to every uncomfortable situation.
