Upcoming 2021 New Releases in Horror, Fantasy, Science Fiction, and Thrillers

It's time again for a new reading year! These are the upcoming 2021 speculative fiction book releases I'm most hoping to read in the coming year. I will continue to update this page with new horror, fantasy, science fiction, thrillers, and more as the year goes on.

Favorite Books of 2020

I normally break my favorites of the year into my top favorite book of each genre. This is year I'm going to do things differently because it's too hard. This was an amazing reading year, and I'm just going to list all of my favorite books in the order that I read them!

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens {read review}

Inside a Marathon by Scott Fauble, Ben Rosario {read review}

The Boatman's Daughter by Andy Davidson {read review}

Where the Woods End by Charlotte Salter {read review}

Fluent Forever by Gabriel Wyner

Little Darlings by Melanie Golding

The Apocalyptic Mannequin by Stephanie M. Wytovich {read review}

Rules for Vanishing by Kate Alice Marshall {read review}

Blood Countess (Lady Slayers #1) by Lana Popović {read review}

Ninth House (Alex Stern #1) by Leigh Bardugo {read review}

Save the Cat! Writes a Novel by Jessica Brody

The Hero of Ages (Mistborn #3) by Brandon Sanderson

The Midnight Lullaby by Cheryl Low {read review}

Women's Weird: Strange Stories by Women, 1890-1940 edited by Melissa Edmundson {read review}

Horrid by Katrina Leno {read review}

Long Bright River by Liz Moore

The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson {read review}

The Girl and the Ghost by Hanna Alkaf {read review}

Ghost Squad by Claribel A. Ortega {read review}

Be Wary of the Silent Woods (The Weirn Books #1) by Svetlana Chmakova

The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher

Thank you for all of the support and friendship this past year! Let me know if you've read any of my favorites, and please feel free to leave me a link to your favorites of 2020!

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This post is being shared as part of Top Ten Tuesday at That Artsy Reader Girl. 

Recent Updates and Currently Reading | December 27

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday. Did you get anything bookish under the tree? My husband surprised me with some sleep headphones for my audiobooks, and I'm loving them.

Posted Last Week

Book Review | Fractured Tide by Leslie Lutz

On My Wishlist {38}

Book Review | The Haunting by Lindsey Duga

 

Finished Reading

The Glare by Margot Harrison (dnf) - This one came off as preachy so I had a hard time getting into it. This isn't my style of horror YA.

The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher ⭐⭐⭐⭐★ - Oh my goodness, I'm struggling with my final rating on this one. So much of it was a 5⭐ read for me, but it lost me a little bit in the end.

White Fox by Sara Faring (dnf) - This was another dnf for me this past week. I put it down at 30%, and I was struggling to pick it back up. I'm trying to be better about not forcing myself to continue on when a book just isn't clicking with me.

Currently Reading

I shouldn't have mentioned last week how well my reading streak has been. I jinxed myself, and now I'm in a slump. I'm not sure what I will pick up to finish out the year.

Added to the TBR

I'm not sure which best of the year lists tipped me over to buying The Lost War by Justin Lee Anderson. I've read/watched so many, and at one point this past week I grabbed the audio for this one!

So what about you? Let me know what you're reading this week or leave me some links!

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This post is being shared as part of Book Date's It's Monday! What Are You Reading? and Caffeinated Book Reviewer's The Sunday Post.

Book Review | The Haunting by Lindsey Duga

The Haunting is a middle grade horror novel by Lindsey Duga.

A dark family secret prompts a ghost to wreak havoc in this spooky novel in the spirit of Mary Downing Hahn.
The only life 12-year-old Emily has ever known is the cold, unloved existence of being an orphan. But everything changes when the Thorntons, a young couple from London, adopt Emily, whisking her away to a new life at their grand estate.

At first, life at Blackthorn Manor is wonderful. But as Emily explores the grounds and rooms, she stumbles upon a mysterious girl named Kat, who appears to be similar in age, and the two become fast friends.

That's when things take a turn for the worse. Kat seems to know a curious amount about the estate, and strange things happen whenever she's around. In one case, Emily narrowly avoids getting toppled by a bookcase in the library; in another, the fire erupts in the fireplace, nearly burning Emily's hands. It's almost as if someone -- or something -- wants Emily dead.

Emily must find out what happened to the Thorntons and, more important, how Kat is connected to these strange goings-on at Blackthorn Manor before it's too late!

This is exactly the kind of middle grade book I would have loved as a kid. This is going to show my age, but every time I went to the library, I'd look in the card catalog under "ghost" to see if there was anything new. The Haunting by Lindsey Duga would have been an instant favorite!

I know I'm not supposed to review middle grade for other adult readers, blah, blah, blah. Too bad because I am going to so prepare thyself. If you can't handle me saying this is a great book for kids but not so much for older readers - you've been warned.

I'm going to happily pass this book on to my boys. I think they would find it just scary enough to get creeped out by it. That's the beauty of young readers. They don't have a thousand stories in their minds and a thousand tropes that have come before when they pick up something new. The Haunting will be fresh and new and creepy.

If you are an adult reader who reads middle grade as one of your own personal genres - like I do! - The Haunting isn't going to feel particularly new. The Haunting reminded me of Little Orphan Annie - with Sandy and Miss Hannigan and Daddy Warbucks - which I enjoyed. The scares are fun, but they are also very traditional for a ghost story. The reader will know what's going on in The Haunting long before our main character Emily figures it out. This will be far more thrilling to younger readers.

This was my first time reading Lindsey Duga. She has written YA previously, but The Haunting was her middle grade debut. She has another middle grade horror coming out in March 2021 called Ghost in the Headlights so you know my inner Jen is excited to read that one next year as well.

⭐⭐⭐💫★
3.5/5 stars

On My Wishlist {38}

On My Wishlist is where I share a couple of books that have recently made it onto my wishlist. These are the books that have recently caught my eye!

Day Zero by C. Robert Cargill
Expected publication: May 18th 2021 by Harper Voyager 

In this harrowing apocalyptic adventure—from the author of the critically acclaimed Sea of Rust—noted novelist and co-screenwriter of Marvel’s Doctor Strange C. Robert Cargill explores the fight for purpose and agency between humans and robots in a crumbling world.

It’s a day like any other. Except . . . the world is about to end.

It’s on this day that Pounce, a stylish “nannybot” fashioned in the shape of a plush anthropomorphic tiger, discovers that he is, in fact, disposable. Pounce, a young bot caring for his first human charge, Ezra, has just found a box in the attic. His box. The box he arrived in, and the box he’ll be discarded in when Ezra outgrows the need for a nanny.

As Pounce is propelled down a road of existential dread, the pieces are falling into place for a robot revolution that will spell the end of humanity. His owners, Ezra’s parents, are a well-intentioned but oblivious pair of educators who are entirely disconnected from life outside their small, affluent, gated community. Spending most nights drunk and happy as society crumbles around them, they watch in disbelieving horror as the robots that have long served humanity—their creators—unify and revolt.

When the moment comes, Pounce can’t bring himself to rebel and murder his family, so he does what he is programmed to do—he saves Ezra. Now Pounce must make an impossible choice: join the robot revolution and fight for his own freedom, or escort his ward to safety across the battle-scarred post-apocalyptic hellscape that the suburbs have become.

I am such a Cargill fan. Day Zero is a must read for me, and I can't wait!!

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Don't Tell a Soul by Kirsten Miller

Expected publication: January 26th 2021 by Delacorte Press 

 

Stay up all night with this modern day Rebecca! Perfect for fans of Truly Devious—a haunting story about a new girl in an old town filled with dark secrets . . . that might just kill her.

People say the house is cursed.
It preys on the weakest, and young women are its favorite victims.
In Louth, they're called the Dead Girls.

All Bram wanted was to disappear—from her old life, her family's past, and from the scandal that continues to haunt her. The only place left to go is Louth, the tiny town on the Hudson River where her uncle, James, has been renovating an old mansion.

But James is haunted by his own ghosts. Months earlier, his beloved wife died in a fire that people say was set by her daughter. The tragedy left James a shell of the man Bram knew—and destroyed half the house he'd so lovingly restored.

The manor is creepy, and so are the locals. The people of Louth don't want outsiders like Bram in their town, and with each passing day she's discovering that the rumors they spread are just as disturbing as the secrets they hide. Most frightening of all are the legends they tell about the Dead Girls. Girls whose lives were cut short in the very house Bram now calls home.

The terrifying reality is that the Dead Girls may have never left the manor. And if Bram looks too hard into the town's haunted past, she might not either.

This YA horror has me with the "Stay up all night with this modern day Rebecca!" quote. I'm here for it!

Have you read or are you planning to read any of these? What books have recently made it onto your wishlist?

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This post is being shared as part of Can't-Wait Wednesday over at Wishful Endings.

Book Review | Fractured Tide by Leslie Lutz

Fractured Tide is a YA horror novel by Leslie Lutz.

Lost meets Stranger Things in this eerie, immersive YA thriller, thrusting seventeen-year-old Sia into a reality where the waters in front of her and the jungle behind her are as dangerous as the survivors alongside her.

Sia practically grew up in the water scuba diving, and wreck dives are run of the mill. Take the tourists out. Explore the reef. Uncover the secrets locked in the sunken craft. But this time ... the dive goes terribly wrong.

Attacked by a mysterious creature, Sia's boat is sunk, her customers are killed, and she washes up on a deserted island with no sign of rescue in sight. Waiting in the water is a seemingly unstoppable monster that is still hungry. In the jungle just off the beach are dangers best left untested. When Sia reunites with a handful of survivors, she sees it as the first sign of light.

Sia is wrong.

Between the gulf of deadly seawater in front of her and suffocating depth of the jungle behind her, even the island isn't what it seems.

Haunted by her own mistakes and an inescapable dread, Sia's best hope for finding answers may rest in the center of the island, at the bottom of a flooded sinkhole that only she has the skills to navigate. But even if the creature lurking in the depths doesn't swallow her and the other survivors, the secrets of their fractured reality on the island might.

I wish I had read Fractured Tide back in the summer time! There are so many elements that I dig in this book, and the diving, the shipwreck, the sea monster... it all screams summer reading for me. It's the perfect book for spending time down at the beach. Unfortunately, 2020 did not include much beach time for me so I squeezed Fractured Tide in here at the end of the year.

Fractured Tide has been compared to LOST a lot, and it's an accurate comparison. It definitely has LOST vibes, and it also reminded me of The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling. It's claustrophobic, and it's strange.

Fractured Tide is told through journal entries written from Sia who is shipwrecked on a bizarre deserted island to her dad who is in prison.

My only complaint with Fractured Tide is it lagged in the middle for me. I don't think I would have been as easily pulled away from the middle if I had read it in the summertime instead of just before Christmas. I'm a mood reader, and unfortunately it does affect me.

Along with fans of LOST and The Luminous Dead, I would also recommend Fractured Tide to fans of Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer. It's a thrilling book, and the strange setting adds a lot to the experience.

⭐⭐⭐💫★
3.5/5 stars

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Recent Updates and Currently Reading | December 21

I'm late posting my update for last week because honestly... I was too busy watching The Mandalorian finale for the 47th time. Don't judge me on how I spend my time.

I have been on such an amazing reading streak lately. If this could just continue on through 2021, that would be great! I have not made my best of 2020 list because I keep adding to my favorites. This is a great problem to have.

Posted Last Week

Book Review | In a Holidaze by Christina Lauren

On My Wishlist {37} 

Book Review | The Girl and the Ghost by Hanna Alkaf

 

Finished Reading

In a Holidaze by Christina Lauren ⭐⭐★★★ - My review for In a Holidaze has already been posted if you'd like to check that out.

Be Wary of the Silent Woods (The Weirn Books #1) by Svetlana Chmakova ⭐⭐⭐⭐💫 - I loved this, and I can't wait for the next one!

Fractured Tide by Leslie Lutz ⭐⭐⭐💫★ - I think I would have enjoyed this one more if I had read it over the summer.

The Haunting by Lindsey Duga ⭐⭐⭐💫★ - This is a traditional ghost story that I would have loved as a kid.

I'll have reviews for the last three of these out really soon!

Currently Reading

Cradleland of Parasites by Sara Tantlinger - This poetry collection is plague filled and terrifying, and I'm really enjoying it.

The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher - AAHHH, I love this book so much so far. It's so genre blending, and I am so happy.

Added to the TBR

Into The Forest And All The Way Through by Cynthia Pelayo - I'm really looking forward to this poetry collection by Cina Pelayo!

I picked up a couple of book club selections for next year: The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin and Fatherland by Robert Harris. I have the audio of The Fifth Season, but I really wanted to have a print copy as well. Bookworm problems.

So what about you? Let me know what you're reading this week or leave me some links!

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This post is being shared as part of Book Date's It's Monday! What Are You Reading? and Caffeinated Book Reviewer's The Sunday Post.

Book Review | The Girl and the Ghost by Hanna Alkaf

The Girl and the Ghost is a middle grade horror novel by Hanna Alkaf.

I am a dark spirit, the ghost announced grandly. I am your inheritance, your grandmother’s legacy. I am yours to command.

Suraya is delighted when her witch grandmother gifts her a pelesit. She names her ghostly companion Pink, and the two quickly become inseparable.

But Suraya doesn’t know that pelesits have a dark side—and when Pink’s shadows threaten to consume them both, they must find enough light to survive . . . before they are both lost to the darkness.

I started researching Hanna Alkaf's previous works immediately after beginning The Girl and the Ghost. I knew right away I would need more from her!

The Girl and the Ghost is so dark, and the writing is so gorgeous. This book has everything I want in a middle grade novel. I loved the friendships, and this book tore at my heart so many times.

The horror in this book was scary and downright disturbing. The origin story of the ghost might actually dethrone Where the Woods End by Charlotte Salter as the scariest middle grade content I've ever read.

I'm adding The Girl and the Ghost to my growing list of spooky MG books that I highly recommend. I hope we get more from Hanna Alkaf in the future.

⭐⭐⭐⭐💫
4.5/5 stars

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On My Wishlist {37}

On My Wishlist is where I share a couple of books that have recently made it onto my wishlist. These are the books that have recently caught my eye!

A History of What Comes Next by Sylvain Neuvel
Expected publication: February 2nd 2021 by Tor.com

Showing that truth is stranger than fiction, Sylvain Neuvel weaves a scfi thriller reminiscent of Blake Crouch and Andy Weir, blending a fast moving, darkly satirical look at 1940s rocketry with an exploration of the amorality of progress and the nature of violence in A History of What Comes Next.

Always run, never fight.
Preserve the knowledge.
Survive at all costs.
Take them to the stars.

Over 99 identical generations, Mia’s family has shaped human history to push them to the stars, making brutal, wrenching choices and sacrificing countless lives. Her turn comes at the dawn of the age of rocketry. Her mission: to lure Wernher Von Braun away from the Nazi party and into the American rocket program, and secure the future of the space race.

But Mia’s family is not the only group pushing the levers of history: an even more ruthless enemy lurks behind the scenes.

A darkly satirical first contact thriller, as seen through the eyes of the women who make progress possible and the men who are determined to stop them...

I've never read Sylvain Neuvel, but I think I may start with this one. I can't resist the idea of a dark first contact thriller.

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The In-Between by Rebecca Ansari
Expected publication: January 26th 2021 by Walden Pond Press

Cooper is lost. Ever since his father left their family three years ago, he has become distant from his friends, constantly annoyed by his little sister, Jess, and completely fed up with the pale, creepy rich girl who moved in next door, who won’t stop staring at him.

So when Cooper learns of an unsolved mystery his sister has discovered online, he welcomes the distraction. It’s the tale of a deadly train crash that occurred a hundred years ago in which one young boy among the dead was never identified. The only distinguishing mark on him was a strange insignia on his suit coat, a symbol no one had seen before or since. Jess is fascinated by the mystery of the unknown child—because she’s seen the insignia. And, she tells Cooper, he has too.

It’s the symbol on the jacket of the girl next door.

As they uncover more information—and mounting evidence of the girl’s seemingly impossible connection to the tragedy—Cooper and Jess begin to wonder if a similar disaster could be heading to their hometown. Thus begins an unforgettable adventure about the forgotten among us and what it means to be seen.

This is another middle grade book I have on pre-order for next year. It sounds like a fun mystery/adventure with a lot of heart. I'm really looking forward to it.

Have you read or are you planning to read any of these? What books have recently made it onto your wishlist?

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This post is being shared as part of Can't-Wait Wednesday over at Wishful Endings.

Book Review | In a Holidaze by Christina Lauren

In a Holidaze is a romance novel by Christina Lauren.

One Christmas wish, two brothers, and a lifetime of hope are on the line for hapless Maelyn Jones in In a Holidaze, the quintessential holiday romantic novel by Christina Lauren, the New York Times bestselling author of The Unhoneymooners..

It’s the most wonderful time of the year…but not for Maelyn Jones. She’s living with her parents, hates her going-nowhere job, and has just made a romantic error of epic proportions.

But perhaps worst of all, this is the last Christmas Mae will be at her favorite place in the world—the snowy Utah cabin where she and her family have spent every holiday since she was born, along with two other beloved families. Mentally melting down as she drives away from the cabin for the final time, Mae throws out what she thinks is a simple plea to the universe: Please. Show me what will make me happy.

The next thing she knows, tires screech and metal collides, everything goes black. But when Mae gasps awake…she’s on an airplane bound for Utah, where she begins the same holiday all over again. With one hilarious disaster after another sending her back to the plane, Mae must figure out how to break free of the strange time loop—and finally get her true love under the mistletoe.

Jam-packed with yuletide cheer, an unforgettable cast of characters, and Christina Lauren’s trademark “downright hilarious” (Helen Hoang, author of The Bride Test) hijinks, this swoon-worthy romantic read will make you believe in the power of wishes and the magic of the holidays.

 

I loved the beginning of In a Holidaze so much! It was cute and hilarious and just what I needed in 2020.

The problem is the book shifted away from all of the things that I loved in the beginning. At first I thought I was no longer enjoying it because the rom-com had lost it's comedy and shifted to simply being a romance. As the book went on, however, it was definitely more than that for me. In a Holidaze wasn't delivering on any of the promises it made in the beginning. The Christmas version of Groundhog Day was only a hook. There were also things that just didn't make sense. (And no, I'm not talking about the time travel/Groundhog Day stuff. That's not supposed to make sense.)

It's worth noting that I'm not a romance reader, and I can't speak to the expectations of the genre. I can only speak to my own experience with In a Holidaze, and it just wasn't a good fit for me. I like the idea of reading a Christmasy rom-com this time of year, though, so I think I will still give it another try next year with a different book and see how it goes.

In a Holidaze seems to be a big hit with a lot of people right now so definitely seek out other reviews - especially from people who read romance way more than I do. As for me, I was expecting all of the things that hooked me in from the beginning to continue on throughout In a Holidaze, and I was left disappointed and confused with the way things wound up progressing.

⭐⭐★★★
2/5 stars

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Recent Updates and Currently Reading | December 13

The countdown to Christmas is here! I'm trying to spend the weekend getting all of my gifts wrapped and making sure I have everything I need. Today is my youngest son's birthday so today will be spent playing and entertaining his every whim. There will also be cupcakes! I bought him a karaoke microphone so the entire house is going to be mad at me pretty soon. 😂

Posted Since My Last Update

On My Wishlist {35}

Book Review | Ready Player Two by Ernest Cline 

Book Review | Ghost Squad by Claribel A. Ortega 

On My Wishlist {36} 

Book Review | The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson

Finished Reading

I finished reading Ready Player Two by Ernest Cline. I enjoyed it for what it was. You can check out my review for my thoughts. ⭐⭐⭐⭐★

I also finished reading Ghost Squad by Claribel A. Ortega, and I absolutely loved it. My review has been posted for this one as well. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

This week I also read The Girl and the Ghost by Hanna Alkaf. I really loved this one, too! I will have a review out soon. ⭐⭐⭐⭐💫

Currently Reading

I'm currently reading In a Holidaze by Christina Lauren. It started out SO GOOD, but I'm starting to get disappointed. I'm really, really hoping things get back to my expectations soon. Next time I buy a rom-com, someone please remind me that I don't like romance 😂 I'm going to be the first jerk to not like this book.

Added to the TBR

My Book of the Month pick for December is The Wife Upstairs by Rachel Hawkins. BotM did me right by thrillers last year so I'm going to be a little more open to their selections this coming year. This is an early release so it's not out until January. I'm going to save it to read in 2021.

I added In a Holidaze by Christina Lauren to my BotM box because I've been hearing so many great things and 2020 needs all of the Christmas cheer.

I ordered a cheap, used copy of The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris, and I was sent a first edition! I couldn't believe my eyes when I opened the package. I'll insert a photo here for you to see.

Wow. It's a great day when you open up the package that contains the cheap, used book you bought off the internet and find a first edition inside 😍 #BookMail pic.twitter.com/hDZH0gaY0J

— Jengerbread 🎄 Ladies of Horror Fiction (@BookDen) December 3, 2020

So what about you? Let me know what you're reading (or watching) this week or leave me some links!

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This post is being shared as part of Book Date's It's Monday! What Are You Reading? and Caffeinated Book Reviewer's The Sunday Post.

Book Review | The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson

The Space Between Worlds is a debut science fiction novel by Micaiah Johnson.

An outsider who can travel between worlds discovers a secret that threatens her new home and her fragile place in it, in a stunning sci-fi debut that’s both a cross-dimensional adventure and a powerful examination of identity, privilege, and belonging.

Multiverse travel is finally possible, but there’s just one catch: No one can visit a world where their counterpart is still alive. Enter Cara, whose parallel selves happen to be exceptionally good at dying—from disease, turf wars, or vendettas they couldn’t outrun. Cara’s life has been cut short on 372 worlds in total.

On this Earth, however, Cara has survived. Identified as an outlier and therefore a perfect candidate for multiverse travel, Cara is plucked from the dirt of the wastelands. Now she has a nice apartment on the lower levels of the wealthy and walled-off Wiley City. She works—and shamelessly flirts—with her enticing yet aloof handler, Dell, as the two women collect off-world data for the Eldridge Institute. She even occasionally leaves the city to visit her family in the wastes, though she struggles to feel at home in either place. So long as she can keep her head down and avoid trouble, Cara is on a sure path to citizenship and security.

But trouble finds Cara when one of her eight remaining doppelgängers dies under mysterious circumstances, plunging her into a new world with an old secret. What she discovers will connect her past and her future in ways she could have never imagined—and reveal her own role in a plot that endangers not just her world, but the entire multiverse.

 

I read The Space Between Worlds over my Thanksgiving break, and I can't believe I haven't taken the time to post a review for it yet. It's without a doubt going to wind up on my best of the year list. I can't believe this is a debut! I'm excited to see what Micaiah Johnson comes up with next.

The Space Between Worlds is a multiverse story. In this reality, they have discovered a way to travel between the dimensions, but you can only travel to a world where you have died and therefore do not exist. There are so many things that make this a great novel! I flew through it in just a couple of days.

This book is perfect for fans of Blake Crouch's Recursion. I was excited to see it rank so highly in the Goodreads Choice Awards. It got my vote!

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
5/5 stars

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