Reading Radar - Fresh Of The Press
The latest novels that should be on your radar this February.
This February, dive into a fresh selection of newly released novels spanning genres from historical fiction to contemporary literature. These compelling reads explore themes of identity, resilience, and the intricacies of human relationships.
Immerse yourself in dark and twisted mysteries woven with folklore and myth, or journey into dystopian futures where tech giants rule, books are banned, and the world teeters on the edge of collapse.
This extraordinary collection transports you through untold histories and imagined futures, delving into individualism, humanity, obedience, and freedom—essential stories for navigating these authoritarian times.
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The Boyhood of Cain By Michael Amherst
The Boyhood of Cain is Michael Amherst's debut novel, released on February 25, 2025. Set in a small English village overshadowed by an ancient abbey, the story follows Daniel, a highly intelligent yet misunderstood boy.
When his father loses his position as the local school's headmaster, the family relocates to a rural area for which they are ill-prepared. Daniel finds solace in his intense friendship with a new classmate, Philip, and the mentorship of a charismatic art teacher, Mr. Miller. As these relationships evolve, Daniel embarks on a journey of self-discovery, grappling with themes of identity, desire, and the tension between obedience and freedom.
Amherst's writing vividly captures the complexities of adolescence, offering a poignant exploration of a young boy's inner turmoil and growth.
‘A searing novel of love and betrayal as a young boy comes of age in the heart of England, from an exquisite new voice.
In a small village in England, in the shadow of an ancient abbey nestled between rivers, a young boy is growing up. Daniel is highly intelligent but little understood by his family, and so a secret passion burns inside him—for love, for certainty, and for recognition. His father is a man of grand gestures but few practical skills, and his beautiful mother is attentive but compromised by her own unhappiness and fading ideals.
When Daniel’s father loses his job as the headmaster of the local school, the family is pulled beneath the undertow of his whims, stumbling into a rural life for which they are ill-prepared. The arrival of Philip, a new boy at school, whom Daniel worships with a confused intensity, is his sole solace. Before long, both boys fall under the spell of a charismatic art teacher, setting Daniel on a perilous course that could lead to the betrayal of all he loves.’
Purchase The Boyhood of Cain By Michael Amherst and add it to your #tbr list here
The Lamb by Lucy Rose
The Lamb is Lucy Rose's debut novel, released on February 4, 2025.
Set in the secluded forests of Cumbria, England, the story centers on Margot, a young girl living with her mother, Ruth, in isolation. Their existence revolves around luring "strays"—lost travelers—into their home, only to kill and consume them.
This macabre routine is disrupted when Eden, a captivating woman, arrives during a snowstorm. Eden's presence shifts the household dynamics, leading Margot to question her upbringing and desires. As Margot begins attending school and forming forbidden friendships, she becomes increasingly aware of alternative ways of living.
The novel delves into themes of motherhood, autonomy, and the complexities of female relationships, all framed within a gothic, coming-of-age narrative. Rose's writing is noted for its evocative prose and atmospheric tension, offering a chilling exploration of identity and transformation.
‘Margot and Mama have lived by the forest ever since Margot can remember. When Margot is not at school they spend quiet days together in their cottage, waiting for strangers to knock on their door—"strays," Mama calls them, people who have strayed too far from the road. Mama loves the strays. She feeds them wine, keeps them warm. Then she picks apart their bodies and toasts them off with some vegetable oil.
But Mama’s want is stronger than her hunger sometimes, and when a beautiful, white-toothed stray named Eden turns up in the heart of a snowstorm, Margot must confront the shifting dynamics of her family, untangle her own desires, and make her own bid for freedom.
With this gothic coming-of-age tale, novelist Lucy Rose explores how women swallow their anger, desire, and animal instincts—and wrings the relationship between mother and daughter until blood drips from it.’
Purchase The Lamb by Lucy Rose and add it to your #tbr list here
Elegy Southwest By Madeleine Watts
Elegy, Southwest is Madeleine Watts's second novel, released on February 18, 2025.
The story follows Eloise and her husband, Lewis, on a two-week road trip across the American Southwest. The novel intertwines themes of personal loss, environmental collapse, and the complexities of love, offering a poignant exploration of how intimate relationships mirror broader ecological crises.
‘A timely and urgent novel following a young married couple on a road trip through the American southwest as they grapple with the breakdown of their relationship in the shadow of environmental collapse.
In November 2018, Eloise and Lewis rent a car in Las Vegas and take off on a two-week road trip across the American southwest. While wildfires rage, the married couple make their way through Nevada, California, Arizona, and Utah, tracing the course of the Colorado River, the aquatic artery on which the Southwest depends for survival. Lewis, an artist working for a prominent land art foundation, is grieving the recent death of his mother, while Eloise is an academic researching the past and future of the Colorado River as it threatens to run dry.
Over the course of their trip, Eloise, beginning to suspect she might be pregnant, helplessly witnesses Lewis’s descent as he struggles to find a place for himself in the desert where he never quite felt at home.
Elegy, Southwest is a novel which entwines a tragic love story with an intelligent and profound consideration of the way we now live alongside environmental breakdown; an elegy for lost love and for the landscape that makes us.’
Purchase Elegy Southwest By Madeleine Watts and add it to your #tbr list here
Unhallowed Halls By Lili Wilkinson
Unhallowed Halls is a young adult dark academia fantasy published on February 18, 2025.
The story follows Page Whittaker, a perennial outcast seeking a fresh start after a tragic incident severs her only friendship at her previous school. When she receives a scholarship to Agathion College, an elite boarding school nestled deep within the Scottish moorlands, she eagerly accepts the opportunity.
Wilkinson's evocative prose brings the decaying decadence of Agathion to life, immersing readers in a moody, atmospheric setting. The novel delves into themes of belonging, trust, and the blurred lines between history and myth, offering a gripping narrative that builds to a world-altering climax.
At Agathion, Page is captivated by the school's gothic architecture, rich history, and intellectual rigor. For the first time, she finds herself embraced by a close-knit group of friends: Cyrus, Ren, Gideon, Lacey, and Oak. However, as their bonds deepen, Page becomes aware that her friends—and the school itself—harbor dark secrets. She uncovers ties to an ancient clandestine society rumored to practice demonic magic, leading her to question the true nature of Agathion and those she trusts
‘A teen girl travels to an exclusive boarding school located deep within the Scottish moorlands after a deadly incident at her old school, but the wood-panelled halls of Agathion are built over centuries of secrets—including an ancient society which may have ties to demonic magic.
Page Whittaker has always been an outcast. And after the deadly incident that destroyed her single friendship at her old school, she needs a fresh start. Which is why when she receives a scholarship offer from Agathion College, an elite boarding school folded deep within the moors of Scotland, she doesn’t even consider turning it down.
Agathion is everything Page has ever a safe haven full of dusty books, steaming cups of tea and rigorous intellectual debate. And for the first time in her life, Page has even managed to become part of a close group of friends. Cyrus, Ren, Gideon, Lacey and Oak help her feel at home in Agathion's halls--the only problem is, they're all keeping secrets from her.
Page doesn't know it yet, but her perfect new school has dark roots--roots that stretch back to its crooked foundation, and an ancient clandestine society with rumored ties to demonic magic. Soon, Page will be forced to learn that not everyone at Agathion is who they say they are. Least of all, her friends.
Agathion claims to teach its students history…but some histories should stay buried.’
Purchase Unhallowed Halls By Lili Wilkinson and add it to your #tbr list here
Brother Brontë By Fernando A. Flores
Flores's work is noted for its vivid portrayal of a border town's decline, blending elements of surrealism and social commentary. The novel critiques unchecked capitalism and censorship while highlighting the transformative power of art and literature. Brother Brontë has been praised for its inventive narrative and has been compared to the works of Octavia Butler, William Gibson, and John Steinbeck.
‘Two women fight to save their dystopian border town—and literature—in this gonzo near-future adventure.
The year is 2038, and the formerly bustling town of Three Rivers, Texas, is a surreal wasteland. Under the authoritarian thumb of its tech industrialist mayor, Pablo Henry Crick, the town has outlawed reading and forced most of the town’s mothers to work as indentured laborers at the Big Tex Fish Cannery, which poisons the atmosphere and lines Crick’s pockets.
Scraping by in this godforsaken landscape are best friends Prosperina and Neftalí—the latter of whom, one of the town’s last literate citizens, hides and reads the books of the mysterious renegade author Jazzmin Monelle Rivas, whose last novel, Brother Brontë, is finally in Neftalí’s possession. But after a series of increasingly violent atrocities committed by Crick’s forces, Neftalí and Prosperina, with the help of a wounded bengal tigress, three scheming triplets, and an underground network of rebel tías, rise up to reclaim their city—and in the process, unlock Rivas’s connection to Three Rivers itself.
An adventure that only the acclaimed Fernando A. Flores could dream up, Brother Brontë is a mordant, gonzo romp through a ruined world that, in its dysfunction, tyranny, and disparity, nonetheless feels uncannily like our own. With his most ambitious book yet, Flores once again bends what fiction can do, in the process crafting a moving and unforgettable story of perseverance.’
Purchase Brother Brontë By Fernando A. Flores and add it to your #tbr list here
Mornings Without Mii By Mayumi Inaba
Mornings Without Mii is a memoir by Japanese author Mayumi Inaba, first published in 2001 and translated into English by Ginny Tapley Takemori. The narrative begins in 1977 when Inaba discovers a newborn kitten, Mii, abandoned near Tokyo's Tamagawa River.
Over the next two decades, Mii becomes Inaba's confidante and muse, accompanying her through personal milestones, including a divorce and multiple relocations. The memoir delves into themes of solitude, independence, and the creative process, highlighting the profound bond between human and feline. Inaba's reflective prose offers a poignant meditation on companionship and the forces that shape a creative life.
‘A beloved Japanese modern classic that chronicles the author’s twenty-year bond with her cat, meditating on solitude, independence, and the writing life.
On a cool summer evening in 1977, Mayumi Inaba hears a forlorn cry carried by the breeze of Tokyo’s Tamagawa River. She follows the sound to find a newborn kitten, just the size of her palm, dangling from a fence, abandoned. Overcome by tender affection, she takes the cat back to the small apartment she shares with her husband and christens her Mii, and so begins an ineffable bond.
Over the next twenty years, we follow Inaba, a poet and novelist by moonlight, through a lifetime of choices and compromises made in pursuit of quiet, solitude, and a space to create. Through it all, her cat, a formidably independent creature in her own right, is her confidante and muse.
From the late Mayumi Inaba, the winner of the Kawabata Yasunari Prize and the Tanizaki Prize, Mornings Without Mii is more than a love letter to feline companionship—it is a probing, stirring meditation on the forces that enable us to connect, to create, and to build a life.’
Purchase Mornings Without Mii By Mayumi Inaba and add it to your #tbr list here.
Notes On Surviving The Fire By Christine Murphy
Christine Murphy’s Notes on Surviving the Fire is a gripping literary thriller that examines power, justice, and survival. The novel follows Sarah, a Ph.D. student in Southern California, who reports a sexual assault only to be met with institutional indifference. When her closest friend, Nathan, dies under suspicious circumstances, Sarah begins to investigate and discovers a disturbing pattern of unexplained deaths on campus.
As she navigates an academic world rife with misogyny and corruption, Sarah is forced to confront her own past and question how far she is willing to go for the truth. With echoes of a slow-burning psychological thriller, Notes on Surviving the Fire is a searing exploration of trauma, resilience, and the moral complexities of revenge.
‘When Sarah’s only friend in her graduate program is found dead of an alleged heroin overdose, she is forced back into the orbit of the man in their department who assaulted her. A hurtling ride of a novel—darkly funny and propulsive.
At a PhD program in southern California, Sarah and her best friend Nathan spend their time working on their theses, getting high, and keeping track of the poor air quality due to nearby forest fires. No one believes Sarah when she reports a fellow student for raping her at a party—“he’s such a good guy!”—and the Title IX office simply files away the information, just like the police. Nathan is the only person who cares.
When Sarah finds him dead of an overdose from a drug he’s always avoided, she knows something isn’t right. She starts investigating his death as a murder, and as the pieces fall into place, she notices a disturbing pattern in the other student deaths on campus.
As a girl, Sarah grew up in the forests of Maine, following her father on hunts, learning how to stalk prey and kill but only when necessary. Now, she must confront a different type of killing—and decide if it can be justified.
Notes on Surviving the Fire is a story about vengeance, the insidious nature of rape culture and ultimately, a woman's journey to come back to herself.’
Purchase Notes On Surviving The Fire By Christine Murphy and add it to your #tbr list here.
Voice Like A Hyacinth By Mallory Pearson
Voice Like a Hyacinth is Mallory Pearson's second novel, set to release on February 1, 2025.
The story follows five young women—Jo, Caroline, Finch, Amrita, and Saz—students at a prestigious art school. Bound by a deep, almost mystical connection, they are united in their ambition to succeed in the competitive art world. In their final year, they perform a ritual to unlock their creativity and curse a professor, leading to unforeseen and terrifying consequences. The novel explores themes of ambition, obsession, and the dark side of artistic pursuit.
Critics have praised the novel for its compelling narrative and atmospheric setting. Layne Fargo, author of The Favorites, described it as "a spine-tingling story of ambition and obsession that deserves to be an instant dark academia classic."
Voice Like a Hyacinth is recommended for fans of dark academia and psychological horror, particularly those who enjoyed works like We Ate the Dark.
‘Five young women eager for success rely on the unspeakable to make their dreams come true in a chilling novel about martyrdom, ritual, and obsession by the author of We Ate the Dark.
Art student Jo Kozak and her fellow classmates and best friends, Caroline, Finch, Amrita, and Saz, are one another’s muses—so close they have their own language and so devoted to the craft that they’ll do anything to keep their inspiration alive. Even if it means naively resorting to the occult to unlock their creativity and to curse their esteemed, if notoriously creepy, professor. They soon learn the horrible price to be paid for such a transgressive ritual.
In its violent aftermath, things are changing. Jo is feeling unnervingly haunted by something inexplicable. Their paintings, once prodigious and full of life, are growing dark and unhealthy. And their journey together—as women, students, and artists—is starting to crumble.
To right the wrong they’ve done, these five desperate friends will take their obsession a step too far. When that happens, there may be no turning back.’
Purchase Voice Like A Hyacinth By Mallory Pearson and add it to your #tbr list here.