Our new year is still young, with plenty of time to indulge in novels of adventure and drama. The most pressing question for most is simply: what to pick up next?
Heartstopper is a graphic novel series following a group of LBGTQ+ friends and romantic partners. “…one of the ones I know a lot of students are looking forward to is the latest volume in Heartstopper, which is a graphic novel series by Alice Oseman,” says Skyline Librarian Lindsey Szurek.
Fans of romances may also enjoy Funny Story, where a librarian is dumped and forced to move in with the ex-boyfriend of her ex-boyfriends girlfriend. (Credit to the New York Times, link below.) Expect a silly story full of irony and drama by Emily Henry.
Tommy Orange releases a more mature story called Wandering Stars. According to Szurek, “we have his other book, called There There, and it’s also for adults but students check it out all the time…[Orange] is a great Indigenous author…all his stories have to do with Indigenous culture.”
Szurek is also excited in the newest edition of Brigid Kemmerer’s Defy the Night, which follows a thief attempting to save her town by stealing medicine from royals, although as supply for the medicine dwindles, tensions between the government and its people increase.
People who like their fantasies more whimsical will enjoy the 9th edition in Amulet. “You might have read it when you were a little bit younger,” says Szurek, “but students in high school like reading stuff like that too.” The Amulet series follows a girl who learns to use magic in order to protect the strange, steampunk world she stumbled into from evil. Written by Kazu Kibuishi, Amulet is a very odd story.
Skyline Book Club president Grace Letzsman (‘24) personally is looking forward to T.J. Klune’s Somewhere Beyond the Sea, the second book for House on the Cerulean Sea. “I really enjoyed the plot and wholesome romance of the first book, and look forward to reading more in the sequel.”
Check out this New York Times article for more intriguing fiction novels coming in 2024, such as The Morningside by Téa Obreht, (a girl discovers her past in a post-apocalyptic flooded city) Tehrangeles by Porochista Khakpour, (a rich family spills secrets after creating a TV show) or This Strange Eventful History by Claire Mussud (A multi-generational novel about an Algerian family in France.)
