When I Arrived at the Castle by Emily Carroll

Emily Carroll’s Through the Woods was a breakout horror comic hit, and her latest is another masterfully creepy, sexy gothic tale of fanged-femme body horror. Carroll’s unique sensibility evokes classic fairy-tale and vampire tropes only to rip them to shreds, with gorgeous black-and-white (and red!) art and a savage-yet-tender narrative sensibility that will thrill, surprise, and arouse.

Alienation - Ines Estrada

This dystopian near-future sci-fi comic mixes the punk-feminist raunch of Julie Doucet with the visceral psychedelia of Suehiro Maruo and a distinctly millennial whirlwind of pop-culture absurdism. The story follows Elizabeth, a cyberspace exotic dancer, and Carlos, just fired from the last human-staffed oil rig, as they attempt to keep their romance alive. Living in a VR-enhanced corporate monopoly in which fossil fuels have run dry and global climate and wildlife are decimated, the couple is anxious about dangerous cyber-stalkers and faulty brain implants, but mainly, they have to contend with their own boredom.

Walking: One Step at a Time - Erling Kagge

Erling Kagge is the type of renaissance man who seems to have stepped out of an earlier era: as a gentleman explorer, he is the first person to set foot on both the North and South Poles and the summit of Mount Everest. He has written six books on exploration, philosophy, and art collecting, and runs the publishing company Kagge Forlag in his native Oslo. His latest book, Walking, explores the universal appeal of pedestrian ambulation as a spur to thought and creativity.

Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl - Andrea Lawlor

Andrea Lawlor’s debut novel is a queer coming-of-age tale set in the Midwest of the early 90s and it arrives studded with lavish praise from luminaries like Eileen Myles, Maggie Nelson, Michelle Tea, and Danez Smith. Paul Polydoris studies queer theory, makes zines, and tends bar at the only gay club in his university town, but Paul has a secret: he’s also a (riot) girl. As Paul’s horizons expand, s/he crosses the country, shifting their body and gender at will in a bildungsroman that may well become a touchstone for a new generation of queer readers.

Machines Like Me - Ian McEwan

The latest novel from master storyteller Ian McEwan is set in a version of 1980s London in which it’s possible to design and purchase synthetic humans. When Charlie, a semi-employed layabout and amateur robotics buff, comes into money, he buys one of these cyborgs, a near-perfect being named Adam...which leads to certain complications with his lover, Miranda, who is hiding a secret of her own. It’s a subversive tale of love, technology, and humanity by a major contemporary writer venturing (for the first time) into sci-fi and alternate history.