Read That Already? Read This Next! - Dispatch #5

The literary world is full of repeated recommendations, popular books you're sick of hearing about, the newest releases you've already read, old classics you don't want to revisit. In a valiant effort to reconcile these occurrences, I invite you to join me for our next glorious installment of: "Read that already? Read this next!"

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia --> Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon (Hardcover, $27)

Sorrowland tells the story of Vern, a pregnant teenager who escapes the cult Cainland. Rather than re-enter society she births and raises her babies in the woods. However, Vern soon learns that Cainland's powers are far-reaching and more life-altering than she could have imagined. Mirrors Mexican Gothic's dark sense of overarching slow-burn horror and patriarchal violence.

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman (Paperback, $16.99) --> Never the Wind by Francesco Dimitri (Paperback $15.95)

At once whimsical, heart-breaking, uncanny and deeply emotional, Never the Wind tells the story of Luca, fully blind for eight months when the story starts, and the generational secrets that haunt him and his newfound friend, the dauntless Ada. Experience the story told entirely through Luca's perspectives: taste, touch, smell, and sound.

The Artemis Fowl series by Eoin Colfer --> High Times in the Low Parliament by Kelly Robson (Paperback, $14.99)

Witty, sarcastic, a little bit romantic, and a lot queer, experience this tale of fairies, scribes, and an unlikely quest to save humanity. A brief yet enthralling read!

My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh --> The Rabbit Hutch by Tess Gunty (Hardcover, $28)

Details the unlikely intimacies we have with the people around us and the extent of the human condition in both its most violent and most uncanny forms. Haunting, shocking, and surrounding deep ideas of loneliness and community, entrapment and freedom, and a desperate search for rebirth.

Thanks for joining me, and happy reading!