Seattle Staff Faves 2025: Fiction, Part 2Like this list

56 items

• Home of the American Circus

  Larkin, Allie

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  After an emergency leaves her short on rent, thirty-year-old Freya Arnalds bails on her lackluster life as bartender in Maine and returns to her suburban hometown of Somers, New York, to live in the house she inherited from her estranged parents.…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Hong Kong Widow

  Loesch, Kristen

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  In 1950s Hong Kong, refugee Mei enters a deadly seance competition in a haunted mansion to seek revenge against the man who ruined her life, but decades later, the horrors of that final night return, demanding she confront what truly happened.…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• A Rare Find

  Lowell, Joanna

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  When an aspiring archaeologist teams up with her childhood enemy for a treasure hunt, they find it impossible to bury their growing feelings, in this charming queer historical romance. (NoveList Plus)

• For Whom the Belle Tolls

  Lynn, Jaysea

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  "It's a funny, heartfelt novel (and a spicy romance) about self-acceptance and found family that centers on a recently deceased woman who chooses to open a customer service desk in hell in her afterlife. Fun facts: the author is PNW local, lives on…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Convenience Store by the Sea

  Machida, Sonoko, 1980-

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  Machida concocts a heartfelt and pleasantly quirky tale of a convenience store chain that serves just what its customers need. (Publishers Weekly)

• These Summer Storms

  a Novel

  MacLean, Sarah

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  After her tycoon father’s death, a woman reunites with her estranged family for a dramatic week on their private island. (Kirkus Reviews)

• The Persians

  a Novel

  Mahloudji, Sanam, 1977-

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  "One of my fave book covers of the year!"--McCall O.

• Amplitudes

  Stories of Queer and Trans Futurity

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  A powerful collection of queer and trans speculative fiction that asks the question, “But what if things were different?” (Kirkus Reviews)

• Cosmic Love at the Multiverse Hair Salon

  Mare, Annie

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  Mare’s fun solo debut skillfully blends a fascinating science fictional concept—individual decisions creating shifts between parallel universes—with cozy, down-to-earth queer romance. (Publishers Weekly)

• Cinder House

  Marske, Freya

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  In this ghostly fairy-tale retelling, a spectral Cinderella struggles to stay corporeal enough to make it to the ball. (Kirkus Reviews)

• Unsex Me Here

  Mattia, Aurora

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  "Mattia is one of the most lush and descriptive writers I've ever read. You have to go slowly to really take in all the gorgeous language—I learned so many new words! She is truly writing a new queer mythology."--Eliza S.

• Wild Dark Shore

  McConaghy, Charlotte

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  The reality of climate change serves as the pervasive context for this terrific thriller set on a remote island between Australia and Antarctica. (Kirkus Reviews)

• Sympathy for Wild Girls

  Stories

  McGhee, Demree

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  A debut collection of surreal, skin-piercing stories about the boundless longing of queer Black women. (NoveList Plus)

• The Bewitching

  Moreno-Garcia, Silvia

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  A graduate student studying an obscure horror author is visited by a haunting of her own. (Kirkus Reviews)

• This Is Not a Game

  a Novel

  Mullen, Kelly,

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  On stormy Mackinac Island, widower Mimi and her heartbroken granddaughter Addie attend a socialite’s charity auction, only to uncover blackmail, murder and a dangerous game that tests their wits as they race to outsmart a killer trapped with them.…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Automatic Noodle

  Newitz, Annalee, 1969-

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  In this semicozy tale set in a dystopian near future, robots open their own restaurant, build an unusual found family, and achieve personal growth. (Kirkus Reviews)

• Nesting

  O'Donnell, Roisín,

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  Ciara Fay is confronted by new challenges when she tries to leave her marriage and start over. (NoveList Plus)

• Death of the Author

  a Novel

  Okorafor, Nnedi

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  After being fired and facing yet another novel rejection, aspiring author Zelu writes a futuristic epic about AI and robots, unknowingly setting herself on a path to literary stardom that could change the future of humanity. (NoveList Plus)

• The Potency of Ungovernable Impulses

  Older, Malka, 1977-

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  A poison-pen campaign turns deadly in Older’s third volume transplanting the classic British mystery to the atmosphere of Jupiter. (Kirkus Reviews)

• Luminous

  a Novel

  Park, Silvia,

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  A sweeping debut set in a unified Korea tells the story of three estranged siblings—two human, one robot—as they collide against the backdrop of a murder investigation to settle old scores and make sense of their shattered childhood. (NoveList Plus)