Review: Once Was Willem by M.R. Carey

Once Was Willem by M.R. Carey

Publisher: Orbit

Publication Date: March 5th, 2025

Paperback. 320 pages.

About Once Was Willem (from the publisher):

"Presenting an enthrallingly dark medieval fantasy – a fable of twisted folklore, macabre magic and the strangest of found families –  from M. R. Carey, author of the million-copy bestseller, The Girl With All the Gifts.

Eleven hundred and some years after the death of Christ, in the kingdom that had but recently begun to call itself England, I, Once Was Willem, rose from the dead to defeat a great evil facing the humble village of Cosham. The words enclosed herein are true.

I speak of monsters and magic, battle and bloodletting, and the crimes of desperate men. I speak also of secret things, of that which lies beneath us and that which impends above. By the time you come to the end of this account you will know the truth of your own life and death, the path laid out for your immortal soul, your origin and your inevitable end. You will not thank me."

Once Was Willem is a medieval, dark fairytale-esque story that blends an atmospheric setting with a self-aware style of storytelling to create a unique fantasy horror set in twelfth-century England. Carey once again demonstrates his ability to craft not just a vivid fantasy world, but an entirely unique and vibrant reading experience.

This story follows Once-Was-Willem, previously known as Willem Turling, a young boy who died at a young age and whose parents grieved him so much that they visited a sorcerer to beg him to raise him from the dead and bring him back to them. The sorcerer did as asked (with his own payment in return, of course), but what showed up on Willem Turling's parents' doorstep was nothing like they bargained for, and they turned the monster that was once their son out. From there, our story begins.

Much like in the Rampart Trilogy, the writing style of Once Was Willem is tailored to match the setting and adopts a more formal, medieval tone while maintaining a highly accessible style. As a result, Once Was Willem was an entirely immersive experience for me and fully drew me into Willem's tragic and compelling journey. 

Once-Was-Willem's voice is entirely captivating. He comes across as both innocent in some ways and deeply wise in others. Much of his experience is shaped by the cruelty of how he has been treated by the world around him--from being shunned and feared by everyone, including his parents--and through this his patience, empathy, and tolerance really shine through. Once-Was-Willem is of course very much the heart of this story, and following him through all of his struggles made for an exceptionally compelling experience. There's also a found family aspect of this book that I think worked really well to show how connections can be formed, and it was nice to see Once-Was-Willem's ability to forge new connections with others who have not turned their back on him.

I also really loved the fairytale/folktale-like quality of this book, which I found only enhanced the entire reading experience and made it feel like something classic in the making. This is a relatively dark journey for a majority of the book, though there are some more positive moments sprinkled throughout that I felt offered a nice balance. We also get to explore some really fascinating themes in Once Was Willem, such as an exploration of power, fate, worth, connections, and much more.

The only thing that didn't work as well for me with this story was simply that I occasionally found my interest flagging depending on what was happening in each chapter. For instance, in some we spend time with Once-Was-Willem in his own journey, whereas others feature Willem relaying happenings of things happening elsewhere to other characters. Although most chapters featured compelling plot points or told us more about different characters, there were times when I just didn't find certain areas as interesting and I found it a little harder to get through them. That being said, I never truly disliked any aspect of this book, and the overall experience was well worth the read. 

Overall, Once Was Willem is memorable tale that features an even more unforgettable protagonist is sure to leave an impression on any reader. If you enjoy dark fairytales, well-crafted characters, and thoughtful and thought-provoking narrative, then be sure to check to out Once Was Willem. 

*I received a copy of Once Was Willem in exchange for an honest review. This has no affect on my opinions.*

Buy the book: Amazon | Bookshop.org

Can't-Wait Wednesday: The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson, The Hollow Half by Sarah Aziza, & Big Chief by Jon Hickey

 Can't-Wait is a weekly meme hosted by Wishful Endings that spotlights exciting upcoming releases that we can't wait to be released!

The Raven Scholar (Eternal Path Trilogy #1) by Antonia Hodgson
Publication: April 15th, 2025
Orbit
Paperback. 672 pages.
Pre-order: Amazon | Bookshop.org

From Goodreads:
"From an electrifying new voice in epic fantasy comes The Raven Scholar, a masterfully woven and playfully inventive tale of imperial intrigue, cutthroat competition, and one scholar’s quest to uncover the truth.

Let us fly now to the empire of Orrun, where after twenty-four years of peace, Bersun the Brusque must end his reign. In the dizzying heat of mid-summer, seven contenders compete to replace him. They are exceptional warriors, thinkers, strategists—the best of the best.

Then one of them is murdered.

It falls to Neema Kraa, the emperor’s brilliant, idiosyncratic High Scholar, to find the killer before the trials end. To do so, she must untangle a web of deadly secrets that stretches back generations, all while competing against six warriors with their own dark histories and fierce ambitions. Neema believes she is alone. But we are here to help; all she has to do is let us in.

If she succeeds, she will win the throne. If she fails, death awaits her. But we won’t let that happen.

We are the Raven, and we are magnificent."

My thoughts: I read this one early and absolutely devoured it. This is such a great new fantasy and I can't recommend it enough. I can't wait for it to be released!

The Hollow Half: A Memoir of Bodies and Borders by Sarah Aziza
Publication: April 22nd, 2025
Catapult
Hardcover. 400 pages.
Amazon | Bookshop.org

From Goodreads:
"With the lucidity of a poet and the precision of a journalist, Sarah Aziza embarks on a quest to understand her family legacy, tracing three generations of diasporic Palestinians—from Gaza to the Midwest to New York City, and beyond

In October 2019, Sarah Aziza, daughter and granddaughter of Gazan refugees, is hospitalized for an eating disorder. This brush with death becomes a rupture which brings both her personal and ancestral past into vivid presence. The hauntings begin in the hospital cafeteria, when a cup of apricot yogurt stirs the taste of Sarah's childhood, summoning the familiar voice of her deceased Palestinian grandmother. In the months following, as she responds to a series of ghostly dreams, Sarah unearths family secrets that force her to confront the ways her own trauma and anorexia echo generations of Palestinian displacement and erasure—and how her fight to recover builds on a century of defiant survival, and love.

As silences break, heartbreak opens onto possibility. Sarah begins to grasp the ways her legacies echo and inform one another—through tragedy, and through love. She begins to resist the forces of assimilation, denial, and patriarchy, learning to assert herself in new ways that honor both her ancestors and herself.

Weaving timelines, languages, and genres, The Hollow Half probes the contradictions and contingencies that create “history.” This stunning debut memoir ends in a cri de coeur for a world in which every body has a right to contain multitudes."

My thoughts: It sounds like this memoir is going to cover a lot of different incredibly important topics and experiences, and I'm really hoping for a chance to read it soon!

Big Chief by Jon Hickey
Publication: April 8th, 2025
Simon & Schuster
Hardcover. 320 pages.
Amazon | Bookshop.org

From Goodreads:
"There There meets The Night Watchman in this gripping literary debut about power and corruption, family, and facing the ghosts of the past.

Mitch Caddo, a young law school graduate and aspiring political fixer, is an outsider in the homeland of his Anishinaabe ancestors. But alongside his childhood friend, Tribal President Mack Beck, he runs the government of the Passage Rouge Nation, and with it, the tribe’s Golden Eagle Casino and Hotel. On the eve of Mack’s reelection, their tenuous grip on power is threatened by a nationally known activist and politician, Gloria Hawkins, and her young aide, Layla Beck, none other than Mack’s estranged sister and Mitch’s former love. In their struggle for control over Passage Rouge, the campaigns resort to bare-knuckle political gamesmanship, testing the limits of how far they will go—and what they will sacrifice—to win it all.

But when an accident claims the life of Mitch’s mentor, a power broker in the reservation’s political scene, the election slides into chaos and pits Mitch against the only family he has. As relationships strain to their breaking points and a peaceful protest threatens to become an all-consuming riot, Mitch and Layla must work together to stop the reservation’s descent into violence.

Thrilling and timely, Big Chief is an unforgettable story about the search for belonging—to an ancestral and spiritual home, to a family, and to a sovereign people at a moment of great historical importance."

My thoughts: I've heard some good things about this one and it sounds like it'll touch on some interesting topics. 

Review: When the Moon Hits Your Eye by John Scalzi

When the Moon Hits Your Eye by John Scalzi

Publisher: Tor Books

Publication Date: March 25th, 2025

Hardcover. 336 pages.

About When the Moon Hits Your Eye (from the publisher):

"The moon has turned into cheese.

Now humanity has to deal with it.

For some it’s an opportunity. For others it’s a moment to question their faith: In God, in science, in everything. Still others try to keep the world running in the face of absurdity and uncertainty. And then there are the billions looking to the sky and wondering how a thing that was always just there is now... something absolutely impossible.

Astronauts and billionaires, comedians and bank executives, professors and presidents, teenagers and terminal patients at the end of their lives -- over the length of an entire lunar cycle, each get their moment in the moonlight. To panic, to plan, to wonder and to pray, to laugh and to grieve. All in a kaleidoscopic novel that goes all the places you’d expect, and then to so many places you wouldn’t.

It’s a wild moonage daydream. Ride this rocket."

When the Moon Hits Your Eye explores the age-old question we've always wondered and joked about: what if the moon was made of cheese? Okay, maybe you haven't always wondered that, but I'm sure we've all at least heard a joke about that once or twice in our lives, and honestly, I welcomed the opportunity to explore it.

In When the Moon Hits Your Eye, the moon, inexplicably and unpredictably, turns to cheese one day. No one knows why, no one knows how, and no one has any idea what to do about it or what it means for humanity–or even what type of cheese it is. All anybody knows is that it's a big globe of cheese up there and the universe no longer acts in any form of a predictable manner, which throws everything else into question about the universe.

I'm generally not someone who is drawn to books that lean in an overtly more humorous nature (for instance, as much as I want to love Pratchett and do love every quote I hear from his books, I have a hard time actually sitting through and reading them through), but I found the premise for this one so enticing that I just had to see what Scalzi would do with this topic. I found the result to be one that has a fantastic blend of humor, commentary, a bit of drama here and there, and a lot more in between that really focused more on what the world would do if something as ridiculous as the moon turning to cheese actually happened.

This book is basically a slew of connected chapters that each visits a different person. Oftentimes we are already familiar with the subject of a chapter because they've been mentioned in a previous chapter, or they are in some way connected to something that's come before, and altogether it felt very much like a series of vignettes. I think my favorite part was that this book travels across people of all different jobs and locations, from astronauts who can no longer fly to the moon because the moon is, well, cheese, to a retired philosopher professor in the middle of the country to the President's reaction and so much more.

It was genuinely fun and quite fascinating to see all the different types of reactions that. may occur as a result of such an event. Fromageries are suddenly swamped with business as tourists are suddenly all about cheese. Books about the moon make their authors new stars. TV and movie execs are receiving a relentless amount of pitches for shows and movies all about cheese has something to do with cheese (with titles most often in the form of some sort of pun, of course). And then some people don't see how it affects them whatsoever and pretty much carry on with their lives. I was most interested to see how and why people would or would not believe it actually happened, especially given how reactions towards science and evidence has been a bit hit or miss among various populations in recent years, and I appreciated seeing this addressed in the boo.

When the Moon Hits Your Eye is a bit irreverent in parts, and I appreciated the break from more serious works sometimes. However, as I mentioned, it's also quite timely and really does dive deep into some interesting political and social commentary as a result of people's reactions to moon's new cheesy makeup. Altogether this made for a sincerely compelling read that left me fully entertained. There were a few chapters as we neared the end of the book that started to feel a bit overdone or repetitive, but all in all there's not too much to complain about with this one as long as you go into it with an open mind and can appreciate that the entire thing is just the slightest bit silly. But we as readers are here for the journey and the experience, not so much the scientific accuracy of it. 

*I received a copy of When the Moon Hits Your Eye in exchange for an honest review. This has no affect on my opinions.*

Buy the book: Amazon | Bookshop.org

Can't-Wait Wednesday: Eat the Ones You Love by Sarah Maria Griffin, The Pretender by Jo Harkin, and The Golden Road by William Dalrymple

  

Can't-Wait is a weekly meme hosted by Wishful Endings that spotlights exciting upcoming releases that we can't wait to be released. 

Eat the Ones You Love by Sarah Maria Griffin
Publication: April 22nd, 2025
Tor Books
Hardcover. 288 pages.
Pre-order: Amazon | Bookshop.org

From Goodreads:
"A twisted, tangled story about workplace love-affairs, and plants with a taste for human flesh

During a grocery run to her local shopping center, Shell Pine sees a ‘HELP NEEDED’ sign in a flower shop window. She’s just left her fiancé, lost her job, and moved home to her parents’ house. She has to make a change and bring some good into her life, so she goes inside and takes a chance. Shell realizes right away that flowers are just the good thing she's been looking for, as is Neve, the beautiful florist who wrote the sign asking for help. The thing is, Neve needs help more than Shell could possibly imagine.

An orchid growing out of sight in the heart of the mall is watching them closely. His name is Baby, and the beautiful florist belongs to him. He’s young, he’s hungry, and he’ll do just about anything to make sure he can keep growing big and strong. Nothing he eats – nobody he eats – can satisfy him, except the thing he most desires. Neve. He adores her and wants to consume her, and will stop at nothing to eat the one he loves.

This is a story about possession, and monstrosity, and working retail. It is about hunger and desire, and other terrible things that grow."

This sounds delightfully weird and I'm totally here for it.

The Pretender by Jo Harkin

Publication: April 22nd, 2025

Knopf

Hardcover. 496 pages.

Pre-order: Amazon | Bookshop.org

From Goodreads:

"A sweeping historical novel in the vein of Hilary Mantel and Maggie O’Farrell set during the time of the Tudors’ ascent. The Pretender tells the story of Lambert Simnel, who was raised in obscurity as a peasant boy to protect his safety, believed to be the heir to the throne occupied by Richard III, and briefly crowned, at the age of ten, as King Edward the Sixth, one of the last of the Plantagenets.

In 1480 John Collan’s greatest anxiety is how to circumvent the village’s devil goat on the way to collect water. But the arrival of a well-dressed stranger from London upends his life forever: John is not John Collan, not the son of Will Collan, but the son of the long-deceased Duke of Clarence, hidden in the countryside after a brotherly rift over the crown, and because Richard III has a habit of disappearing his nephews. Removed from his humble origins, sent to Oxford to be educated in a manner befitting the throne’s rightful heir, John is put into play by his masters, learning the rules of etiquette in Burgundy and the machinations of the court in Ireland, where he encounters the intractable Joan, the delightfully strong-willed and manipulative daughter of his Irish patrons, a girl imbued with both extraordinary political savvy and occasional murderous tendencies. Joan has two paths available her—marry, or become a nun. Lambert’s choices are similarly stark: he will either become King, or die in battle. Together they form an alliance that will change the fate of the English monarchy.

Inspired by a footnote to history—the true story of the little known Simnel, who was a figurehead of the 1487 Yorkist rebellion and ended up working as a spy in the court of King Henry VII— The Pretender is historical fiction at its finest, a gripping, exuberant, rollicking portrait of British monarchy and life within the court, with a cast of unforgettable heroes and villains drawn from 15th century England. A masterful new work from a major new author."

I have been craving a "sweeping historical novel" so this sounds absolutely perfect. There's something special about sinking into a compelling historical fiction story, so hopefully this one is as good as it sounds. 

The Golden Road: How Ancient India Transformed the World by William Darymple

Publication: April 29th, 2025

Bloomsbury

Hardcover. 432 pages.

Pre-order: Amazon | Bookshop.org

From Goodreads:

"The internationally bestselling author of The Anarchy returns with a sparkling, soaring history of ideas, tracing South Asia's under-recognized role in producing the world as we know it.

For a millennium and a half, India was a confident exporter of its diverse civilization, creating around it a vast empire of ideas. Indian art, religions, technology, astronomy, music, dance, literature, mathematics and mythology blazed a trail across the world, along a Golden Road that stretched from the Red Sea to the Pacific.

In The Golden Road, William Dalrymple draws from a lifetime of scholarship to highlight India's oft-forgotten position as the heart of ancient Eurasia. For the first time, he gives a name to this spread of Indian ideas that transformed the world. From the largest Hindu temple in the world at Angkor Wat to the Buddhism of China, from the trade that helped fund the Roman Empire to the creation of the numerals we use today (including zero), India transformed the culture and technology of its ancient world – and our world today as we know it."

I am always up for some more history, and this sounds like it will be fascinating!

Review: The Third Rule of Time Travel by Philip Fracassi

The Third Rule of Time Travel by Philip Fracassi

Publisher: Orbit

Publication Date: March 18th, 2025

Paperback. 336 pages.

About The Third Rule of Time Travel:

"Rule One: Travel can only occur to a point within your lifetime.
Rule Two: You can only travel for ninety seconds.
Rule Three: You can only observe. The rules cannot be broken.

In this riveting science fiction novel from acclaimed author Philip Fracassi, a scientist has unlocked the mysteries of time travel. This is not the story you think you know. And the rules are only the beginning.

Scientist Beth Darlow has discovered the unimaginable. She's built a machine that allows human consciousness to travel through time—to any point in the traveler's lifetime—and relive moments of their life. An impossible breakthrough, but it's not perfect: the traveler has no way to interact with the past. They can only observe.

After Beth's husband, Colson, the co-creator of the machine, dies in a tragic car accident, Beth is left to raise Isabella—their only daughter—and continue the work they started. Mired in grief and threatened by her ruthless CEO, Beth pushes herself to the limit to prove the value of her technology.

Then the impossible happens. Simply viewing personal history should not alter the present, but with each new observation she makes, her own timeline begins to warp.

As her reality constantly shifts, Beth must solve the puzzles of her past, even if it means forsaking her future."

I'm not usually a big time travel person, but I’m happy to report that I had a great time with The Third Rule of Time Travel. It's a thought-provoking read that centers around an interesting concept and will keep readers engaged the entire time.

Beth Darlow and her husband, Colson, have together managed to achieve the seemingly impossible and unachievable: time travel. Their discovery allows travelers to visit the past and observe events, but they cannot interact with them or travel into the future. They also cannot choose which moment in their past they visit—this is seemingly selected at random by the machine—or maybe by their own minds. Since the technology is still in its infancy, they have been trying to understand how and why certain moments are chosen and whether there's a way to do more than just observe. There are three rules involved in their time travel: 1) travelers can only visit their own memories; 2) they may travel for a maximum of 90 seconds; and 3) no interacting with the past.

After Beth’s husband dies in a car crash, she’s left to continue their research alone. As tensions rise at work, she begins pushing herself harder and harder, which results in her taking more and more frequent trips in the time travel machine. As a result, the more Beth travels, the more her own sense of reality seems to be getting twisted, and things quickly spiral into something far more complicated.

This was a quick read for me—not because it’s simple or basic, but because Fracassi writes it in a way that almost feels like a thriller. It kept pulling me into the story with each new development, and I had a somewhat compulsive need to just keep flipping those pages in order to continue on this warped journey with Beth.

I found Beth's drive very realistic to her role and therefore her character was extremely believable. She is a determined scientist and, especially after her husband's death, she's desperate to see their invetion succeed. Because of this, she will stop at seemingly nothing to make that happen, and the way she is portrayed made me fully believe that. As the only living test subject now that her husband cannot also travel, she bears the full brunt of what those trips do to a person, and it starts to take an extreme toll on her both mentally and physically--which only adds to the increased pressures from her boss. What I most enjoyed about Beth's character was that she's not a perfect, polite protagonist, but rather someone who is blunt, bold, flawed, and who isn't willing to take anyone's sh*t--and most importantly, she's a very real, flawed human being, which I really appreciated.

Fracassi does a fantastic job of gradually revealing new layers of learning more about this time machine and leading the reader through all of the twists that will you questioning everything you’d been reading. There are a few moments in particular that made me question my own perceptions and understanding of what was happening and what would come next, and I loved that aspect. I also loved the way this book explored memory, reality, and timelines. There’s a lot of mind-bending moments in this that were so incredibly thought-provoking.

I have said many times over the years that I’m not really a big fan of time travel in general. It’s a difficult concept to get right, and there are often too many loopholes and complications that end up leaving the story feeling fractured and difficult to connect with. Some books take a very fantastical and magic-based approach to it, whereas others take a scientific approach. The Third Rule of Time Travel takes a scientific approach, and I have to say that it tackles it via this route extremely well. The general discussions around time travel—its abilities, limitations, purposes, dangers—felt grounded and realistic, like something you’d actually expect normal people to discuss, which made it feel that much more compelling to me.

Overall, The Third Rule of Time Travel is a strong, compelling new time travel-focused book that I think both time travel and non-time travel fans could appreciate. If this sounds like something you might be interested in, I'd definitely add it to your TBR!

*I received a copy of The Third Rule of Time Travel in exchange for an honest review. This has no affect on my opinions.*

Buy the book: Amazon | Bookshop.org

Review: Murder by Memory by Olivia Waite

Murder by Memory by Olivia Waite

Publisher: Tordotcom

Publication Date: March 18th, 2025

Hardcover. 112 pages.

About Murder by Memory (from the publisher):

"Welcome to the HMS Fairweather, Her Majesty’s most luxurious interstellar passenger liner! Room and board are included, new bodies are graciously provided upon request, and should you desire a rest between lifetimes, your mind shall be most carefully preserved in glass in the Library, shielded from every danger.

Near the topmost deck of an interstellar generation ship, Dorothy Gentleman wakes up in a body that isn’t hers—just as someone else is found murdered. As one of the ship’s detectives, Dorothy usually delights in unraveling the schemes on board the Fairweather, but when she finds that someone is not only killing bodies but purposefully deleting minds from the Library, she realizes something even more sinister is afoot.

Dorothy suspects her misfortune is partly the fault of her feckless nephew Ruthie who, despite his brilliance as a programmer, leaves chaos in his cheerful wake. Or perhaps the sultry yarn store proprietor—and ex-girlfriend of the body Dorothy is currently inhabiting—knows more than she’s letting on. Whatever it is, Dorothy intends to solve this case. Because someone has done the impossible and found a way to make murder on the Fairweather a very permanent state indeed. A mastermind may be at work—and if so, they’ve had three hundred years to perfect their schemes…"

Murder by Memory is a delightful sci-fi mystery that takes place on the HMS Fairweather, a space ship that it's currently en route to a new planet. Of course, space travel takes a very, very long time, and it will be centuries before it finally lands. As a result, the Fairweather includes a Library in which guests can choose bodies to host their consciousnesses, or, if they would like a rest, they can simply let their consciousness rest in their own personal memory book within the library. When a person's body dies, they can either rest for a while, or they may choose a new body to upload all of the information found within this book, which includes all aspects of their personality. This concept of storing one's consciousness separate from a body is such a fascinating one, and I think also one that has been present in many sci-fi/futuristic discussions, so I was excited to dive in and explore Waite's execution of this concept. 

Our story begins when Dorothy Gentleman is abruptly awoken from her own rest and put into a body that she does not recognize. Soon after she is awake, she learns that another passenger has been murdered, and that is appears some other "books" containing other people's minds are also being deleted from the Library itself. I thought it was a great idea to start this story off with readers being thrust into a new world at the same time Dorothy was waking up into an unfamiliar body when she certainly wasn't expecting to. There is a lot of world-building for us readers to learn, and we are thrown into learning about this from the start. 

I really wanted to like this more than I did, but I struggled to find myself fully engaging with the story and I honestly struggled at times to maintain my focus. Although the characters are all interesting, there was something about our protagonist's narrative voice that really lacked much personality to really keep me hooked. What kept me reading was the fascinating premise and a general interest in finding out what was going on in the ship, as well as the hope that I would become more connected to the protagonist as the story continued. I also found Waite's writing easy to fall into and I think she does seem to have a knack for creating some really clever settings and writing choices throughout, which is something I found myself really enjoying.

I'm not sure this is the best book to really fully dive into this concept of memory and the library of minds and what because since it is a novella, it's a bit brief and lacks the ability to dig into these ideas more, and instead the focus is understandably more on the murder mystery/conspiracy aspect than it is on exploring the concept. I feel like this would have worked really well as a full length novel, but since this is the start of a series I'm actually very curious to see what future books will look like and whether they will all take place on this ship. 

Overall, I thought this was a fun mystery with some really intriguing concepts explored throughout regarding consciousness and memory, but I didn't love it quite as much as I'd hoped to. I think it will be a big hit for many people, but I found it didn't captivate me as much as I expected, and I found it lacked some of the depth I was looking for.

If you're mystery or sci-fi fan who appreciates a quick, "cozy" murder mystery with some interesting personalities, then Murder by Memory should definitely be showing up on your TBR!

*I received a copy of Murder by Memory in exchange for an honest review. This has no affect on my opinions.*

Buy the book: Amazon | Bookshop.org

Can't-Wait Wendesday: Vanishing World by Sayaka Murata, The Staircase in the Woods by Chuck Wendig, & Medicine River by Mary Annette Pember

 

Can't-Wait is a weekly meme hosted by Wishful Endings that spotlights exciting upcoming releases that we can't wait to be released! 

Vanishing World by Sayaka Murata
Publication: April 15th, 2025
Grove Press
Hardcover. 240 pages.
Pre-order: Amazon | Bookshop.org

From Goodreads:
"From the author of the bestselling literary sensations Convenience Store Woman and Earthlings comes a surprising and highly imaginative story set in a version of Japan where sex between married couples has vanished and all children are born by artificial insemination.

Sayaka Murata has proven herself to be one of the most exciting chroniclers of the strangeness of society, x-raying our contemporary world to bizarre and troubling effect. Her depictions of a happily unmarried retail worker in Convenience Store Woman and a young woman convinced she is an alien in Earthlings have endeared her to millions of readers worldwide. Vanishing World takes Murata’s universe to a bold new level, imagining an alternative Japan where attitudes to sex and procreation are wildly different to our own.

As a girl, Amane realizes with horror that her parents “copulated” in order to bring her into the world, rather than using artificial insemination, which became the norm in the mid-twentieth century. Amane strives to get away from what she considers an indoctrination in this strange “system” by her mother, but her infatuations with both anime characters and real people have a sexual force that is undeniable.

As an adult in an appropriately sexless marriage—sex between married couples is now considered as taboo as incest—Amane and her husband Saku decide to go and live in a mysterious new town called Experiment City or Paradise-Eden, where all children are raised communally, and every person is considered a Mother to all children. Men are beginning to become pregnant using artificial wombs that sit outside of their bodies like balloons, and children are nameless, called only “Kodomo-chan.” Is this the new world that will purify Amane of her strangeness once and for all?"

I love books that play with and explore weird ideas like this, so I'm really keen to see what Sayaka Murata does with this premise.

The Staircase in the Woods by Chuck Wendig
Publication: April 29th, 2025
Del Rey
Hardcover. 400 pages.
Pre-order: Amazon | Bookshop.org

From Goodreads:
"A group of friends investigates the mystery of a strange staircase in the woods in this mesmerizing horror novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Accidents.

Five high school friends are bonded by an oath to protect one another no matter what.

Then, on a camping trip in the middle of the forest, they find something a mysterious staircase to nowhere.

One friend walks up—and never comes back down. Then the staircase disappears.

Twenty years later, the staircase has reappeared. Now the group returns to find the lost boy—and what lies beyond the staircase in the woods. . ."

I'm always up for some new horror from Chuck Wendig! Nobody tells horror tales quite like Wendig, and I'm loving this idea of a random staircase in the woods and what may lay beyond it... I have an ARC of this one that I can't wait to get into.

Medicine River: A Story of Survival and the Legacy of Indian Boarding Schools by Mary Annette Pember
Publication: April 22nd, 2025
Pantheon
Hardcover. 304 pages.
Pre-order: Amazon | Bookshop.org

From Goodreads:
"A sweeping and trenchant exploration of the history of Native American boarding schools in the U.S., and the legacy of abuse wrought by systemic attempts to use education as a tool through which to destroy Native culture.

From the mid-19th century to the late 1930s, tens of thousands of Native children were pulled from their families to attend boarding schools that claimed to help create opportunity for these children to pursue professions outside their communities and otherwise "assimilate" into American life. In reality, these boarding schools—sponsored by the US Government but often run by various religious orders with little to no regulation—were an insidious attempt to destroy tribes, break up families, and stamp out the traditions of generations of Native people.  Children were beaten for speaking their native languages, forced to complete menial tasks in terrible conditions, and utterly deprived of love and affection.

Ojibwe journalist Mary Pember's mother was forced to attend one of these institutions—a seminary in Wisconsin, and the impacts of her experience have cast a pall over Mary's own childhood, and her relationship with her mother. Highlighting both her mother's experience and the experiences of countless other students at such schools, their families, and their children, Medicine River paints a stark portrait of communities still reckoning with the legacy of acculturation that has affected generations of Native communities. Through searing interviews and assiduous historical reporting, Pember traces the evolution and continued rebirth of a culture whose country has been seemingly intent upon destroying it."

This is a topic that always needs more attention brought to it, and this book sounds like it'll be a very thorough--if difficult--read to learn more about the horrific history Native American boarding schools in the U.S.