The books Southern indie booksellers are recommending to readers everywhere!

Fiction

The Knives: A Criminal Book by Ed Brubaker

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The Knives: A Criminal Book by Ed Brubaker
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Brubaker and Phillips, the best crime/noir team in comics, return with another stellar graphic novel in their acclaimed Criminal series. Do you need to read the previous 11 (all great) books in this series first? No! Interweaving tales of crime, regret, and failure collide, pulp fiction-style, in gritty, personal, and shocking tales unfold, the most interesting of which parallels a bit of the Hollywood runaround Brubaker himself experienced as a creator pushing against the system. As always, The Best!

The Knives: A Criminal Book by Ed Brubaker, (List Price: $29.99, Image Comics, 9781534355590, September 2025)

Reviewed by Seth Tucker, Carmichael’s Bookstore in Louisville, Kentucky

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Venetian Vespers by John Banville

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Venetian Vespers by John Banville
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Venetian Vespers reads like a suspenseful old Gothic novel by Daphne du Maurier. Highly atmospheric with a slow, taut build, deep character studies, and moody descriptions of 1899 Venice. Chilling at times, I just had to keep reading and could not put it down until I was finished!

Venetian Vespers by John Banville, (List Price: $32, Random House Large Print, 9798217170166, October 2025)

Reviewed by Josh Niesse, The Underground Bookshop LLC in Carrollton, Georgia

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Sad Tiger by Neige Sinno

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Sad Tiger by Neige Sinno
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I like the game of encoding into the mind of someone who is deliberately immoral, who knows he is destroying another person, yet who nonetheless keeps doing it…One giant trigger warning of a book, full of contradictions and contrasts, starting with the juxtaposition, of the beauty of the cover to the brutal content that follows, from the very first sentence. The devastating opening paragraphs, (we are plunged straight in with the first section heading, ‘Portrait Of My Rapist,’), hit hard, and Sinno then slides into literary criticism. But this is an analysis of Nabakov’s Lolita, with all the problems that invokes in a memoir about child abuse. How can a sufferer write so acutely, so incisively about such a book? Sinno’s analogies, metaphors and references are varied, erudite, relentless. The human soul is the dark side of the moon; abuse takes place “in another dimension…physically, the same as the one in which the rest of life happens, superimposed onto it like a duplicate of unbearable clarity.” William Blake, the Rwandan genocide, fairy tales: her voice ranges far and wide, but always returns to earth with the most basic, raw, fundamental questions – why did it happen? How do I live now? How do they? Unreliable narrators run through the text, from Humbert Humbert to her step-father rapist, and even, she admits forty pages in, when we are already caught in her emotional web, Sinno herself.I would never have thought a book on incestuous rape could be so readable, but Sinno’s art is to take a topic and view it from every possible viewpoint; literature, cinema, through the eyes of her mother, the reader, even the perpetrator himself, in a hypnotic kaleidoscope that belies her own words: “I want {this book} to exist, but I hope it doesn’t have too many readers.”Too late for that, both sadly and fortunately.

Sad Tiger by Neige Sinno, (List Price: $22.95, Seven Stories Press, 9781644214671, April 2025)

Reviewed by Doron Klemer, Octavia Books in New Orleans, Louisiana

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Clown Town by Mick Herron

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Clown Town by Mick Herron
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I loved this book! Clown Town is classic Mick Herron with his evolving cast of Slough House joes. The book collection of a deceased former First Desk is sent to the MI5 library, but there is a book missing, or is it, and is it even a book? And when MI5’s First Desk and a disgraced politician start asking for help, the question becomes who’s playing whom, because “all spies lie.” This fast-paced novel is engaging, surprising, and very well written. Crafted with dry wit and wry comments, this thriller is an absolute pleasure to read. Also, for those needing novel ways to insult their co-workers, look no further than Jackson Lamb – and in this book the invectives are masterful!

Clown Town by Mick Herron, (List Price: $29.95, Soho Crime, 9781641297264, 2025-09-09)

Reviewed by Lia Lent, WordsWorth Books in Little Rock, Arkansas

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The Four Spent the Day Together by Chris Kraus

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The Four Spent the Day Together by Chris Kraus
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I had no idea what I was reading for the longest time – memoir? True crime? But I was sucked into this (I eventually discovered) novel from the first page. And it was incredibly inventive. I am somewhat obsessed with three-part narratives, and this hit harder than Hernán Díaz’s Trust.

The Four Spent the Day Together by Chris Kraus, (List Price: $29, Scribner, 9781668098684, October 2025)

Reviewed by Alissa Redmond, South Main Book Company in Salisbury, North Carolina

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Book Buzz: Alchemised by SenLinYu

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SenLinYu, photo credit Katy Weaver PhotographyQueer fandom was “one of the first fault lines, I suppose you could say, of me beginning to question all the things that I had been taught,” says Sen, who came to realize that they were nonbinary through the material, which felt as eye-opening as it did illicit. “I was not supposed to be there,” Sen remembers with a laugh, “and every time my dad found out, he would block the website and I would have to go and find another one.”

― SenLinYu, Interview, Bustle

Alchemised by SenLinYu

What booksellers are saying about Alchemised

  • Forget what you think you know about this book. Set aside your assumptions. Alchemized is an unflinching look at the sins of war. It is 1000 pages of fighting a losing battle at the cost of your soul. It is about the corruption of power, about how war never has a “heroic” side. There are no good guys, no bad guys. There are people in power, and there are the ones they abuse, on all sides. It is about the invisible hurt of the ones we never think of as heroes. Not the soldiers on the frontlines, but the medics, the ones who watch death come every hour. It is about who writes history and what lies they lace it with. It is about the cost of hoping to be remembered or choosing to be forgotten, and it is a necessary book in the wartimes we live in. Alchemised is one of the greatest books of our era.
      ― Rachel Randolph, Parnassus Books in Nashville, Tennessee | BUY

  • I was a skeptic, but this book won me over. The political worldbuilding, mythology, and magical systems were complex and layered, creating a compelling narrative that kept me turning the pages. This is more than just a dystopian love story, it is an exploration of the horrors and trauma that war inflicts on its people. A surprisingly nuanced story with much to discuss, even for the skeptical like me.
      ― Fisher Nash, Carmichael’s Bookstore in Louisville, Kentucky | BUY

  • Wow…Just wow. I feel like I could write a full essay as my review, and it still wouldn’t cover all of the fantastic details of this book. I read Manacled a few years back, and while I enjoyed it I didn’t feel the emotional turmoil as much as other readers. I figured I just read too much dark romance. But this, THIS is a novel that had me (literally) crying over and over again for Helena. Alchemised focuses so much more on the hardships of war and highlights the loneliness and despair that Helena faces. The exploitation and manipulation she receives from those who are supposed to support her is maddening. And she deserved so much more. What I really loved about this, compared to the fanfic, is that this book had so much more depth and plot to fill up the 1000 pages. It took me a while to understand the world-building, but there is so much creativity in this new magic system that I applaud SenLinYu for what she created
    ― Elizabeth Dowdy, Baldwin & Co. in New Orleans, Louisiana | BUY

  • A haunting and masterfully composed fantasy wartime opus. It’s hard to find the words to describe this story, but it will surely haunt me for many years to come. Someone mentioned to me that this isn’t a book you simply read, it’s an epic tale you must survive. That is the most apt description of this book I’ve seen so far. It’s horrific, heartbreaking and hopeful, but that doesn’t even begin to describe what you experience while reading it. This book is an experience, but not for the faint of heart or someone with a weak stomach. Prepare yourselves for an exploration in the realities of war and true human depravity while following along with our main characters and what they must do to survive while attempting to maintain some level of morality. This is a story about what black and white vs grey thinking truly means. I loved it, I hated it, I wanted to throw up and I wanted to cry. This book engrossed me from the very first page and still hasn’t let go even upon finishing it.
    ― Brianne Wik, Main Street Books in Davidson, North Carolina | BUY

About SenLinYu

SenLinYu grew up in the Pacific Northwest and studied classical liberal arts and culture. They started writing in the Notes app of their phone during their baby’s nap time. Their collected online works have garnered over twenty million individual downloads and have been translated into twenty-three languages. They live in Portland with their family. Alchemised is their first novel.

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The Sisters by Jonas Hassen Khemiri

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The Sisters by Jonas Hassen Khemiri
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Fracture the Ultimate Protagonist into a trio of sisters broken? [no], incomplete? [definitely not] um… imperfect in their own uniquely saw-toothed, imperfectious ways [sure], so that the collective “We” can see Ourself reflected back in all three [well, at least here and there in their constellated phases and crenelated stages throughout the three decades of documentation on display]. In walks an unreliable author that does his best to wedge himself into their story, creating a highly entertaining 600-page back-and-forth bout of I-Said/I-Said [scattered throughout, there’s plenty of a He Said where there shoulda been a She Said and vice versa]. Is this a therapeutic breakthrough for the author, or just a fun headtrip he’s created for the reader to make their own self discoveries? Let’s say it’s both [this ticket’s a two-way, but it’s your call if/when the return voyage even happens].

The Sisters by Jonas Hassen Khemiri, (List Price: $30, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 9780374618896, June 2025)

Reviewed by Ian McCord, Avid Bookshop in Athens, Georgia

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A Guardian and a Thief by Megha Majumdar

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A Guardian and a Thief by Megha Majumdar
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An extremely well-written novel set in near-future India, as climate change has decimated the country at all levels. A family is attempting to follow the Dad, who has already been accepted with a work Visa in the United States. Megha Majumdar provides us with a story about how far a mother will go to provide for her child in dire circumstances and how we might judge others while avoiding our own mirror. It is a timely novel that weaves in how policies and politics abroad can also derail your best-laid plans.

A Guardian and a Thief by Megha Majumdar, (List Price: $29, Knopf, 9780593804872, October 2025)

Reviewed by Jim Clemmons, Sundog Books in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida

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Among the Burning Flowers by Samantha Shannon

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Among the Burning Flowers by Samantha Shannon
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There is indeed a queen of epic fantasy, and her name is Samantha Shannon. If this was in question before, Among the Burning Flowers is the final bolster in an already solid throne. Acting as a history of the events that occur immediately before the climax of Priory of the Orange Tree, the novel is told from the perspective of those cast to the edges of the original work. With intricate worldbuilding that pays shrewd attention to everything from the looming mountains to the style of a singular carved button, the chainmail of Virtudom is tightly woven. But despite the glittering and gritty descriptions, what stands out most is the choices of deeply flawed characters. Every point of view is given its chance to both shine and be utterly messy, the two in combination crafting characters that feel real to the point that you could converse with them. Even if you are unfamiliar with the world of Priory, Among the Burning Flowers is well worth the read.

Among the Burning Flowers by Samantha Shannon, (List Price: $29.99, Bloomsbury Publishing, 9781639736010, September 2025)

Reviewed by Sydney Mason, Epilogue: Books Chocolate Brews in Chapel Hill, North Carolina

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The Phoebe Variations by Jane Hamilton

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The Phoebe Variations by Jane Hamilton
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The Phoebe Variations gives us a girl on the cusp of independence but still longing for a place with family. Her own (adoptive) mother introduces Phoebe to her biological family without providing all the necessary information first. The upsetting visit turns Phoebe’s life upside down, and sets in motion a series of changes that will forever affect her life. We meet all kinds of families (especially mothers and children) who Hamilton so beautifully describes in all their quirky, unique ways. Phoebe sees what love can look like (or not) in so many forms and learns a great deal about herself and life along the way. I really loved the kooky story with funny scenes and absolutely wonderful writing.

The Phoebe Variations by Jane Hamilton, (List Price: $27.99, Zibby Publishing, 9798991140287, September 2025)

Reviewed by Christina Tabereaux, The Snail On the Wall in Huntsville, Alabama

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Pick a Color by Souvankham Thammavongsa

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Pick a Color by Souvankham Thammavongsa
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What sorts of communities can you build when the world refuses to see you? Pick a Color reminds me of Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway: a short novel meandering through the happenings of one single day. However, PPick a Color focuses on the microcosm of a quaint nail salon run by quick-witted, wisecracking Lao women, who build profound relationships in a world of privilege and racially-charged power dynamics. In the mind of Ning, the salon’s owner and a retired boxer, the prose reads like a boxing match, all swift jabs and feints. Through Thammavongsa’s incredible storytelling skills, the reader learns the ways in which Ning and her employees makes themselves known, how they tries to find stability in a fast-paced capitalist world.

Pick a Color by Souvankham Thammavongsa, (List Price: $28, Little, Brown and Company, 9780316422147, September 2025)

Reviewed by Catherine Pabalate, Epilogue: Books Chocolate Brews in Chapel Hill, North Carolina

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The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V. E. Schwab

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The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V. E. Schwab
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How far would you go for freedom? Addie’s story is told across continents, over centuries, as she grapples with the consequences of choice. I love a morally gray heroine and seeing her desperation and the lengths she’d go to leave a mark on the world (influencing art and music). Achingly tender as she’s caught between the only man who ever remembered her – and the devil who won’t let her go.

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V. E. Schwab, (List Price: $26.99, Tor Books, 9780765387561, October 2020)

Reviewed by Ellie Hirsch, Copperfish Books in Punta Gorda, Florida

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The Correspondent by Virginia Evans

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The Correspondent by Virginia Evans
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What a gem! If you like beautiful writing and memorable characters, this one is a must read! In this epistolary novel, we get a look into the life of Sybil Van Antwerp, a mother, grandmother, divorcée, sister, mentor, and distinguished attorney. Sybil is comfortable and maybe feels she is on the back end of life, only to find new connections, forgiveness, and that change is always possible. Sybil is a force to be reckoned with! I loved Sybil. I wish she was a real person I could meet. Her connections with the people she wrote, and how she came to terms with various parts of her life during the novel, drew me in. I adored her relationship with her friend’s child. I always appreciate a book that talks about other books. There are just so many things to love about this one.

The Correspondent by Virginia Evans, (List Price: $28, Crown, 9780593798430, April 2025)

Reviewed by Karmen Somers, Court Street Books in Florence, Alabama

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Visions and Temptations by Harald Voetmann

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Visions and Temptations by Harald Voetmann
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It’s hard to describe what Harald Voetmann has captured in Visions and Temptations. It is a meditation on death, faith, sin, and human struggle. It is a hallucinatory travelogue of heavenly reward and divine punishment. It contains a striking monologue about onion-based farts. Fundamentally, though, Visions and Temptations depicts two fundamental and immutable elements of the human experience: mundanity and empathy. A compact, fascinating, and affecting read, unlike anything I’ve read before.

Visions and Temptations by Harald Voetmann, (List Price: $15.95, New Directions, 9780811229807, July 2025)

Reviewed by Charlie Marks, Fountain Bookstore in Richmond, Virginia

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The Maiden and Her Monster by Maddie Martinez

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The Maiden and Her Monster by Maddie Martinez
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The Maiden and Her Monster leads you through dark and dangerous forests in a richly woven tale of faith and family. Perfect for readers who crave lush, atmospheric fantasies, Martinez brings a new life to the Jewish legend of “The Golem of Prague” with her tender, unforgettable sapphic romance.

The Maiden and Her Monster by Maddie Martinez, (List Price: $28.99, Martinez, Maddie, 9781250367754, September 2025)

Reviewed by Courtney Ulrich Smith, Underbrush Books in Rogers, Arkansas

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