Because we’re all looking for a bit of that

Edan Lepucki

Hardcover (1 to 2 lbs)

Tennessee

A Novel

What if you could go back in time and investigate your family’s secrets? Would it make things better? Would it make you better? Or worse? A page-turning family story of an all-female commune deep in the Santa Cruz woods—and the secret powers some of the women there hold—by New York Times bestselling author Edan Lepucki, the queen of California dystopian magic “Edan Lepucki’s new novel is an astonishing achievement. Written in crystalline prose that is as wise as it is witty, Time’s Mouth left me breathless with admiration.” —DAN CHAON, author of Sleepwalk Ursa possesses a very special gift. She can travel through memory and revisit her past. After she flees her hometown for the counterculture glory of 1950s California, the intoxicating potential of her unique ability eventually draws a group of women into her orbit and into a mansion in the woods outside Santa Cruz. Yet Ursa’s powers come with a cost. Soon this cultish community of sisterhood takes an ominous turn, prompting her son, Ray, and his pregnant lover, Cherry, to flee to Los Angeles and reinvent themselves far from Ursa’s insidious influence. But escaping their past won’t be so easy when a series of mysterious events forces Cherry to abandon their baby, leaving Ray to raise Opal alone. Now a teenager and still heartbroken over the abandonment of the mother she never knew, Opal must journey into her own past to reveal the generations of secrets that gave rise to the shimmering source of her family’s painful legacy. From the forests of Santa Cruz to the 1980s glam of Melrose Avenue to a solitary estate among the oil derricks off La Cienega Boulevard, Time’s Mouth is an enthralling saga about family secrets that grow more powerful with time, set against the magical, dangerous landscape of California.

Time's Mouth

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Light Paperback (1 lb or less)

California

Old Man's War

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Kathryn Harlan

Light Hardcover (1 lb or less)

Oregon

Stories

In stories that beckon and haunt, Fruiting Bodies ranges confidently from the fantastical to the gothic to the uncanny as it follows characters--mostly queer, mostly women--on the precipice of change. Echoes of timeless myth and folklore reverberate through urgent narratives of discovery, appetite, and coming-of-age in a time of crisis.

In "The Changeling," two young cousins wait in dread for a new family member to arrive, convinced that he may be a dangerous supernatural creature. In "Endangered Animals," Jane prepares to say goodbye to her almost-love while they road-trip across a country irrevocably altered by climate change. In "Take Only What Belongs to You," a queer woman struggles with the personal history of an author she idolized, while in "Fiddler, Fool, Pair," an anthropologist is drawn into a magical--and dangerous--gamble. In the title story, partners Agnes and Geb feast peacefully on the mushrooms that sprout from Agnes's body--until an unwanted male guest disturbs their cloistered home.

Audacious, striking, and wholly original, Fruiting Bodies offers stories about knowledge in a world on the verge of collapse, knowledge that alternately empowers or devastates. Pulling beautifully, brazenly, from a variety of literary traditions, Kathryn Harlan firmly establishes herself as a thrilling new voice in fiction.

Fruiting Bodies

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Books about humanity and love and stuff

Laura Purcell

New Jersey

The Most Spellbinding Gothic Novel of the Year, Packed with Passion and Suspense

'Spooky, atmospheric, brilliant' Bridget Collins'Glitteringly dark and mesmerising' Jennifer SaintBe careful what you wish for... it may just come true.At The Mercury Theatre in London's West End, rumours are circulating of a curse. It is said that the lead actress Lilith has made a pact with Melpomene, the tragic muse of Greek mythology, to become the greatest actress to ever grace the stage. Suspicious of Lilith, the jealous wife of the theatre owner sends dresser Jenny to spy on her, and desperate for the money to help her family, Jenny agrees. What Jenny finds is a woman as astonishing in her performance as she is provocative in nature. On stage, it's as though Lilith is possessed by the characters she plays, yet off stage she is as tragic as the Muse who inspires her, and Jenny, sorry for her, befriends the troubled actress. But when strange events begin to take place around the theatre, Jenny wonders if the rumours are true, and fears that when the Muse comes calling for payment, the cost will be too high.'Gloriously gothic' Erin Kelly'Immersive' Beth Underdown 'Fantastic' Rebecca Netley 'Darkly seductive and artfully realised' Susan Stokes-Chapman

The Whispering Muse *UK EDITION*

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Sarah Gailey

Wisconsin

Upright Women Wanted

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Julia Armfield

Slight shelf wear and dent to the cover, but excellent condition otherwise. 

Colorado

Fathomlessly inventive and original, Julia Armfield’s Our Wives Under the Sea is a portrait of marriage as we’ve never seen it before. “Shocking...Achingly poetic...Sharp and beautiful as coral polyps...Armfield exercises an exquisite—even sadistic—sense of suspense." —Ron Charles, The Washington Post “A wonderful novel, deeply romantic and fabulously strange. I loved this book.” —Sarah Waters “Without a doubt, one of the best books I've ever read.” —Kristen Arnett Leah is changed. A marine biologist, she left for a routine expedition months earlier, only this time her submarine sank to the sea floor. When she finally surfaces and returns home, her wife Miri knows that something is wrong. Barely eating and lost in her thoughts, Leah rotates between rooms in their apartment, running the taps morning and night. Whatever happened in that vessel, whatever it was they were supposed to be studying before they were stranded, Leah has carried part of it with her, onto dry land and into their home. As Miri searches for answers, desperate to understand what happened below the water, she must face the possibility that the woman she loves is slipping from her grasp. By turns elegiac and furious, wry and heartbreaking, Our Wives Under the Sea is an exploration of the unknowable depths within each of us, and the love that compels us nevertheless toward one another.

Our Wives under the Sea

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Chaotic Women

Alaska, 1920: a brutal place to homestead, and especially tough for recent arrivals Jack and Mabel. Childless, they are drifting apart--he breaking under the weight of the work of the farm; she crumbling from loneliness and despair. In a moment of levity during the season's first snowfall, they build a child out of snow. The next morning the snow child is gone--but they glimpse a young, blonde-haired girl running through the trees. This little girl, who calls herself Faina, seems to be a child of the woods. She hunts with a red fox at her side, skims lightly across the snow, and somehow survives alone in the Alaskan wilderness. As Jack and Mabel struggle to understand this child who could have stepped from the pages of a fairy tale, they come to love her as their own daughter. But in this beautiful, violent place things are rarely as they appear, and what they eventually learn about Faina will transform all of them.

The Snow Child

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Farrah Rochon

Heavy Hardcover (2 to 4 lbs)

A Twisted Tale

The 13th installment in the New York Times best-selling series asks: What if Tiana made a deal that changed everything?

Sometimes life in the Big Easy is tough. No one knows that better than Tiana, though she also believes that hard work can go a long way. But when the notorious Dr. Facilier backs her into a corner, she has no choice but to accept an offer that will alter the course of her life in an instant.

Soon Tiana finds herself in a new reality where all her deepest desires are realized: she finally gets her restaurant, her friends are safe and sound, and most miraculous of all, her beloved father is still alive. She's got everything she's ever wanted. . . .

But after a while, her hometown grows increasingly eerie, with new threats cropping up in unlikely places. Navigating through this strange new New Orleans, Tiana must work alongside Naveen and Charlotte to set things right--or risk losing everything she holds dear.

Almost There (a Twisted Tale)

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Tomi Adeyemi

New York

Zelie Adebola remembers when the soil of Or sha hummed with magic. Burners ignited flames, Tiders beckoned waves, and Zelie s Reaper mother summoned forth souls. But everything changed the night magic disappeared. Under the orders of a ruthless king, maji were killed, leaving Zelie without a mother and her people without hope.

Children of Blood and Bone

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Fairy Tale Retellings

Carlo Collodi

Brand new, never read illustrated edition of Pinnochio. Binding tight. Pages clean and bright with no marks, bends or tears.

Georgia

Sterling Illustrated Classics

When the old woodcarver Geppetto carves a puppet out of a talking piece of wood, his creation can dance, sing, and do somersaults--but is also very naughty and disobedient. Carlo Collodi's classic story of a puppet who dreams of becoming a boy--and his incredible adventures--gets an enchanting treatment from award-winning artist Robert Ingpen. This beautiful entry in the popular Sterling Illustrated Classics series captures all the magic of the original.

Pinocchio

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Sara Gruen

Pennsylvania

Over 10,000,000 copies in print worldwide #1 New York Times Bestseller A Los Angeles Times Bestseller A Wall Street Journal Bestseller A Newsday Favorite Book of 2006 A USA Today Bestseller A Major Motion Picture starring Reese Witherspoon, Robert Pattinson, and Christoph Waltz Jacob Janowski’s luck had run out―orphaned and penniless, he had no direction until he landed on a rickety train that was home to the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth. A veterinary student just shy of a degree, he was put in charge of caring for the circus menagerie. It was the Great Depression and for Jacob the circus was both his salvation and a living hell. There he met Marlena, the beautiful equestrian star married to August, the charismatic but brutal animal trainer. And he met Rosie, an untrainable elephant who was the great hope for this third-rate traveling show. The bond that grew among this group of misfits was one of love and trust, and ultimately, it was their only hope for survival.

Water for Elephants

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Neil Gaiman

Fair paperback copy of Stardust by Neil Gaiman

Oklahoma

What happens when you make a promise to bring back a fallen star? Teenager Tristran Thorn is about to find out, as he ventures beyond the wall of his English countryside town. After falling in love with the hauntingly beautiful Victoria Forester, he sets out on a quest to fulfill his promise to his beloved--and stumbles into the magical realm that lies beyond.

Stardust

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Features a Circus

Silvia Moreno-Garcia

North Carolina

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * "It's Lovecraft meets the Brontës in Latin America, and after a slow-burn start Mexican Gothic gets seriously weird."--The Guardian IN DEVELOPMENT AS A HULU ORIGINAL LIMITED SERIES PRODUCED BY KELLY RIPA AND MARK CONSUELOS * NOMINATED FOR THE BRAM STOKER AWARD * NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New Yorker * Vanity Fair * NPR * The Washington Post * Tordotcom * Marie Claire * Vox * Mashable * Men's Health * Library Journal * Book Riot * LibraryReads An isolated mansion. A chillingly charismatic aristocrat. And a brave socialite drawn to expose their treacherous secrets. . . . From the author of Gods of Jade and Shadow comes "a terrifying twist on classic gothic horror" (Kirkus Reviews) set in glamorous 1950s Mexico. After receiving a frantic letter from her newly-wed cousin begging for someone to save her from a mysterious doom, Noemí Taboada heads to High Place, a distant house in the Mexican countryside. She's not sure what she will find--her cousin's husband, a handsome Englishman, is a stranger, and Noemí knows little about the region. Noemí is also an unlikely rescuer: She's a glamorous debutante, and her chic gowns and perfect red lipstick are more suited for cocktail parties than amateur sleuthing. But she's also tough and smart, with an indomitable will, and she is not afraid: Not of her cousin's new husband, who is both menacing and alluring; not of his father, the ancient patriarch who seems to be fascinated by Noemí; and not even of the house itself, which begins to invade Noemi's dreams with visions of blood and doom. Her only ally in this inhospitable abode is the family's youngest son. Shy and gentle, he seems to want to help Noemí, but might also be hiding dark knowledge of his family's past. For there are many secrets behind the walls of High Place. The family's once colossal wealth and faded mining empire kept them from prying eyes, but as Noemí digs deeper she unearths stories of violence and madness. And Noemí, mesmerized by the terrifying yet seductive world of High Place, may soon find it impossible to ever leave this enigmatic house behind. "It's as if a supernatural power compels us to turn the pages of the gripping Mexican Gothic."--The Washington Post "Mexican Gothic is the perfect summer horror read, and marks Moreno-Garcia with her hypnotic and engaging prose as one of the genre's most exciting talents."--Nerdist "A period thriller as rich in suspense as it is in lush '50s atmosphere."--Entertainment Weekly

Mexican Gothic

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#paperback #fiction #janeausten #Northernabbey #classics #catherineMorland

South Carolina

The story of a young girl, Catherine Morland who leaves her sheltered, rural home to enter the busy, sophisticated world of Bath in the late 1790s.

Northanger Abbey

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Megan Shepherd

Paperback (1 to 2 lbs)

Ohio


From New York Times bestselling author Megan Shepherd comes a complex tale of dark magic, family secrets, and monsters that don't stay on the page.

"A propulsively charming nightmare, pooling like spilled ink across your imagination." -- Kiersten White, New York Times bestselling author of Hide

"Haunting and beautifully written . . . an exploration of the mysterious power of stories." --Megan Miranda, New York Times bestselling author of All the Missing Girls and The Last to Vanish

"One step away from our world lies another: a land of violent fantasies, of sharp-toothed delights. . . ."

Of all the things aspiring artist Haven Marbury expected to find while clearing out her late father's remote seaside house, Bedtime Stories for Monsters was not on the list. This secret handwritten manuscript is disturbingly different from his Pulitzer-winning works: its interweaving short stories crawl with horrific monsters and enigmatic humans that exist somewhere between this world and the next. The stories unsettle but also entice Haven, practically compelling her to illustrate them while she stays in the house that her father warned her was haunted. Clearly just dementia whispering in his ear . . . right?


Reeling from a failed marriage, Haven hopes an illustrated Bedtime Stories can be the lucrative posthumous father-daughter collaboration she desperately needs to jump-start her art career. However, everyone in the nearby vacation town wants a piece of the manuscript: her father's obsessive literary salon members, the Ink Drinkers; her mysterious yet charming neighbor, who has a tendency toward three a.m. bonfires; a young barista with a literary forgery business; and of course, whoever keeps trying to break into her house. But when a monstrous creature appears under Haven's bed right as grisly deaths are reported in the nearby woods, she must race to uncover dark, otherworldly family secrets--completely rewriting everything she ever knew about herself in the process.


Malice House

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gothic fiction

Tara Sim

Only read once, very gently. This is the start to a new, adult fantasy series and it’s fantastic!

Set in a gorgeous world of bone and shadow magic, of vengeful gods and defiant chosen ones, The City of Dusk follows the four heirs of four noble houses--each gifted with a divine power--as they form a tenuous alliance to keep their kingdom from descending into a realm-shattering war.



The Four Realms--Life, Death, Light, and Darkness--all converge on the City of Dusk. For each realm there is a god, and for each god there is an heir.



But the gods have withdrawn their favor from the once vibrant and thriving metropolis. And without it, all the realms are dying.



Unwilling to stand by and watch the destruction, the four heirs--Angelica, an elementalist with her eyes set on the throne; Risha, a necromancer fighting to keep the peace; Nikolas, a soldier who struggles to see the light; and Taesia, a shadow-wielding rogue with a reckless heart--will become reluctant allies in the quest to save their city.



But their rebellion will cost them dearly. 

The City of Dusk

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Alison Bechdel

A Family Tragicomic

A memoir done in the form of a graphic novel by a cult favorite comic artist offers a darkly funny family portrait that details her relationship with her father--a funeral home director, high school English teacher, and closeted homosexual.

Fun Home

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Alexandria Bellefleur

In her debut with nods to Bridget Jones and Pride and Prejudice, Alexandria Bellefleur delivers a charming #ownvoices queer rom-com about a free-spirited social media astrologer who agrees to fake a relationship with an uptight actuary until New Year's Eve--with results not even the stars could predict! After a disastrous blind date, Darcy Lowell is desperate to stop her well-meaning brother from playing matchmaker ever again. Love--and the inevitable heartbreak--is the last thing she wants. So she fibs and says her latest set up was a success. Darcy doesn't expect her lie to bite her in the ass. Elle Jones, one of the astrologers behind the popular Twitter account, Oh My Stars, dreams of finding her soul mate. But she knows it is most assuredly not Darcy... a no-nonsense stick-in-the-mud, who is way too analytical, punctual, and skeptical for someone as free-spirited as Elle. When Darcy's brother--and Elle's new business partner--expresses how happy he is that they hit it off, Elle is baffled. Was Darcy on the same date? Because... awkward. When Darcy begs Elle to play along, she agrees to pretend they're dating to save face. But with a few conditions: Darcy must help Elle navigate her own overbearing family over the holidays and their arrangement expires on New Year's Eve. The last thing they expect is to develop real feelings during a fake relationship. But maybe opposites can attract when true love is written in the stars?

Shelves by Megan Cooper

Megan Cooper

Books about humanity and love and s...

Chaotic Women

Fairy Tale Retellings

Features a Circus

gothic fiction

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Shelves by Megan Cooper

Megan Cooper

Books about humanity and love and s...

Chaotic Women

Fairy Tale Retellings

Features a Circus

gothic fiction

LGBT slays