Meet Torrin, one of our new booksellers. Torrin loves beautiful prose and vivid settings across all genres. Torrin especially loves dark academia and stories portraying the modern millennial struggle of every day life.
Set inside a tiny MFA writing program in a suspiciously dark and mysterious New England town, Bunny dazzles the reader with beautifully intense prose and observations. Bunny is stuck in my brain forever, and I now have an affinity for group hugs. If you're a fan of the movie Mean Girls but want an element of fantastical horror, this is the perfect book for you, Bunny. Bunny loves this book, and Bunny thinks you will too.
Set in 1997, this is a beautifully melancholy story of a young author sorting through loss, loneliness, and love, as she writes her debut novel. I love this story because it is familiar, and it is real life. We're all carrying the weight of living around with us, hoping to find ways to feel lighter. This book makes me feel lighter.
Ottessa Moshfegh is a master at creating vivid settings with mysterious main characters. In this novel, set in the middle of a harsh New England Christmas season, we meet Eileen, a woman currently working at a prison who spends her days daydreaming and taking care of her father. Eileen dreams of getting away and starting her life over in the big city, but when she meets Rebecca, Eileen’s life of minor crimes slides into something icy and darker.
This book is basically the French Winter version of Call Me By Your Name. Phillippe Besson crafts a beautiful and heartbreaking tale of a first romance that lingers for a lifetime, and Molly Ringwald renders the prose gorgeously in her first translation. This story is part coming-of-age, part romance, and part tragedy as we watch the main character change and grow and become who he’s meant to be. This startling intimate book is one I revisit each winter for its subtle touch of warmth.
This novel is genre-bending and told so beautifully. Full of Cherokee foklore and haunting scenes. This family saga will move you and educate you. I loved getting POVs from the various family members and seeing how they converge.
Taking a year off of life to hibernate your way to the best version of yourself is very tempting some days, but I can't necessarily recommend the absurd and hilarious methods in this book. I've never been more invested, intrigued, disgusted, and stressed out by a character who just finds creative new ways to sleep. The last page of this book changed my worldview.
This book comforted me in more ways than words can express. This book feels like being cold but then wrapped tightly in a cozy blanket hug. Our author shares stories from her personal life from her journeys to Stonehenge to the reindeer in Northern Norway and beyond. Grab your favorite hot beverage of choice and snuggle up with this beautiful book.
On the days when the world feels chaotic and my thoughts spiral out of control, this book serves as my security blanket. John Green uses this story as a way to speak about how it feels to live everyday with mental illness. Touching, mysterious, and beautiful.
Donna Tartt is a master of the dark academia aesthetic, and this book rightfully earns its claim as a modern classic. This book tells the story of an exclusive group of classics students at a New England university that murder one of their own and leave him buried in the snow during a harsh Vermont winter. Watch this wicked group unravel.
This book makes me want to take a walk through a misty forest in perpetual pale blue dusk, feeling every emotion humans can detect.
This book is an attempt to understand and process an unnameable and indecipherable grief. A grief that comes when your favorite author dies young and whose words will forever haunt you, leaving you begging for more that you'll never receive, thinking about "what could have been." I found myself wanting to join the "Death Girls" in their pseudoreligious candle-lit vigils and their attempt to hide in the shade of trees on the bright green lawns of their university.
This is Brandon Sanderson at his best and most accessible for any reader. If you're looking to jump into epic fantasy, but you're a bit intimidated, this book will drag you in with its incredible world building and limited/unique magic system built with consequences. You'll want to root for this ragtag group of characters as they attempt to pull off an impossible heist. Vin, our incredible heroine, will take you along for a ride among the mysterious mists and the sparkling court life, a bright spot in this dark world, as she discovers the powers she was born with. There's a combat scene I have not been able to quit thinking about since I read this book over a year ago, my jaw actually dropped. Please read this book and talk to me about it.
Charlie, a student starting freshman year of high school, is a character that is so vivid I feel the need to reach into the pages and wrap him in a tight hug as he navigates a confusing time in life. I love the way he sees the world with innocence and an oppenness to love and to learn. I am drawn to this book every year as summer transitions into fall and school starts back again.
I mean...who wouldn't want to completely uproot their life, move to the middle of nowhere Tennessee and babysit two kids that spontaneously burst into flames at the request of their ex-best friend who betrayed them in high school??? I'm not kidding..the kids do actually burst into flames. This is an unforgettable and heartwarming story of finding belonging in the most unexpected of places. A story about grief. A story of sacrifice and love that I hope to revisit every summer.
This thriller is perfect for readers who love to read about books/bookstores. In this novel, a bookseller is under suspicion when the FBI notices that a supposed serial killer has started to use this bookseller's blog post about his favorite thrillers and the "Eight Perfect Murders" that have been fictionally pulled off in the past as a "how to get away with murder guide".... now it feels a little weird to be recommending this as a bookseller myself....
A brutally beautiful depiction of a mother/son relationship. This book pairs perfectly with crisp leaves and coolness in the air. You'll live through every vivid scene and ache with these characters that feel all too real.
This fictional novel about an Old Hollywood Icon will make you wish that you could watch Evelyn Hugo in all her fictional films. She is a completely captivating woman, and she has an important story to tell on her terms, and she just might reveal some of her deepest secrets in the process. This novel gives you an inside look at all the glamour and the trauma that comes along with international celebrity.
If you're looking for a book that gives you the feeling you get when you listen to "Ribs" by Lorde, it's this one. It's also perfect for anyone (especially highschoolers) questioning what's next in life. Is there a perfect path for everyone? The friendships in this book make my heart melt.
One of the most beautifully written memoirs I have ever read. I'm forever inspired by the way that Patti Smith opens herself to the world and the paths she stumbles upon. This is a story only she could tell, and it's one of sacrifice, love, and the dreams that New York City requires of its young artists.
I did not stop smiling or giggling to myself the entire time I read this book. Talia Hibbert manages to create such lovable and relatable characters that are all dealing with everyday struggles that aren't always explored in romance novels. Talia knows how to write STEAMY scenes unlike any other. You'll fall in love with all of the Brown sisters (and their love interests too).
This book is endless summer and childhood adventures as it dives deep into its Deep South setting. I personally believe this book has Donna Tartt's best-written character throughout all of her gorgeous novels, and I think she shares a few secrets and a bit of herself through the protragonist of this story, Harriet, a precocious young girl determined to find her brother's killer.
This is a horror book that will pull you in and won't let you go until long after you finish it. This story has so much heart, empathy and compassion. Not to mention a quirky POV from a very religious cat named Olivia. If you're new to the horror genre, this is a good place to start.
Stephen Graham Jones sheds light and darkness on the Native American experience in this moving horror novel. As you read the book, you'll discover just how clever and eerie the title of this book is. This is a story of guilt, revenge, and how our pasts affect us years down the road. This book asks you to assess the damage our decisions can cause. Can forgiveness be shared?
Hanya's most impressive writing yet was the masterpiece I was terrified to read, and the masterpiece I knew it would be. Hanya startles the reader with an eerie sense of recognition and compassion.