Showing that truth is stranger than fiction, Sylvain Neuvel weaves a scfi thriller reminiscent of Blake Crouch and Andy Weir, blending a fast moving, darkly satirical look at 1940s rocketry with an exploration of the amorality of progress and the nature of violence in A History of What Comes Next.
Always run, never fight.
Preserve the knowledge.
Survive at all costs.
Take them to the stars.
Over 99 identical generations, Mia’s family has shaped human history to push them to the stars, making brutal, wrenching choices and sacrificing countless lives. Her turn comes at the dawn of the age of rocketry. Her mission: to lure Wernher Von Braun away from the Nazi party and into the American rocket program, and secure the future of the space race.
But Mia’s family is not the only group pushing the levers of history: an even more ruthless enemy lurks behind the scenes.
A darkly satirical first contact thriller, as seen through the eyes of the women who make progress possible and the men who are determined to stop them…
Representation Includes
- WLW main character (Mia)
Content Warnings
racism & racial slurs, antisemitism, homophobia, suicide, miscarriage, blood & gore depiction, body horror, forced institutionalisation, description of conversion therapy, grief & loss depiction, sexual harassment (allusions of rape and coercion), death of a child, death of a parent, genocide, gun violence, torture, car accident, animal deathReviews
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An impossible crime. A detective on the edge of madness. The future of time travel at stake.
January Cole’s job just got a whole lot harder.
Not that running security at the Paradox was ever really easy. Nothing’s simple at a hotel where the ultra-wealthy tourists arrive costumed for a dozen different time periods, all eagerly waiting to catch their “flights” to the past.
Or where proximity to the timeport makes the clocks run backward on occasion—and, rumor has it, allows ghosts to stroll the halls.
None of that compares to the corpse in room 526. The one that seems to be both there and not there. The one that somehow only January can see.
On top of that, some very important new guests have just checked in. Because the U.S. government is about to privatize time-travel technology—and the world’s most powerful people are on hand to stake their claims.
January is sure the timing isn’t a coincidence. Neither are those “accidents” that start stalking their bidders.
There’s a reason January can glimpse what others can’t. A reason why she’s the only one who can catch a killer who’s operating invisibly and in plain sight, all at once.
But her ability is also destroying her grip on reality—and as her past, present, and future collide, she finds herself confronting not just the hotel’s dark secrets but her own.
Representation Includes
- Mentally ill lesbian woman (January)
Content Warnings
discussions and depictions of grief, murder, chronic illness, blood, mentions of child abuse, lesbophobia, transphobia, racism, gun violence, gore, prescription drug abuse, violence, language, suicidal thoughts, suicide attempt, animal deathNotes on Contains: Romance tag
Girlfriend of main character is dead, this happens prior to the start of the book. Handling this grief is a main part of the plot and may still be considered romance since they have some interactions due to the time travelling elementsReviews
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Dexter meets Victoria Schwab in this dark and compelling fantasy about a girl who is determined to take down the black market once and for all in the conclusion to the trilogy that started with the critically acclaimed Not Even Bones.
Nita finally has Fabricio, the boy who betrayed her to the black market, within her grasp. But when proof that Kovit’s a zannie—a monster who eats pain in order to survive—is leaked to the world, Nita must reevalute her plans.
With enemies closing in on all sides, the only way out is for Nita and Kovit to take on the most dangerous man in the world: Fabricio’s father. He protects the secrets of the monsters who run the black market. Stealing those secrets could be the one thing that stands between Nita and Kovit and certain death in the thrilling conclusion to the trilogy that began with the critically acclaimed Not Even Bones.
Representation Includes
- Latina asexual and aromantic main character (Nita)
- Thai asexual and aromantic main character (Kovit)
Content Warnings
graphic violence, emotional abusive parent, torture and mutilation, gore, kidnapping, dissection, murder, cannibalism, druggingReviews
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Once a culturally rich world, the planet Aka has been utterly transformed by technology. Records of the past have been destroyed, and citizens are strictly monitored. But an official observer from Earth named Sutty has learned of a group of outcasts who live in the wilderness. They still believe in the ancient ways and still practice its lost religion – the Telling.
Intrigued by their beliefs, Sutty joins them on a sacred pilgrimage into the mountains…and into the dangerous terrain of her own heart, mind, and soul.
Representation Includes
- Lesbian protagonist of Indian descent
Content Warnings
Religious oppression; war and trauma; homophobic government; grief over the death of a girlfriend; allegories for Chinese Cultural RevolutionReviews
- Nicky’s review
- Kate’s review
- Charlie Jane Anders examines the entire Hainish Cycle, with a strong thread of The Telling’s place in it
- Reviews from South Asian reviewers needed
Where to Find
Details
- Published September 11th 2000 by Ace
- ISBN13: 9780441011230
1883. Thaniel Steepleton returns home to his tiny London apartment to find a gold pocket watch on his pillow. Six months later, the mysterious timepiece saves his life, drawing him away from a blast that destroys Scotland Yard. At last, he goes in search of its maker, Keita Mori, a kind, lonely immigrant from Japan. Although Mori seems harmless, a chain of unexplainable events soon suggests he must be hiding something. When Grace Carrow, an Oxford physicist, unwittingly interferes, Thaniel is torn between opposing loyalties.
The Watchmaker of Filigree Street is a sweeping, atmospheric narrative that takes the reader on an unexpected journey through Victorian London, Japan as its civil war crumbles long-standing traditions, and beyond. Blending historical events with dazzling flights of fancy, it opens doors to a strange and magical past.
Representation Includes
- MLM protagonist
Content Warnings
racism, misogyny, bomb threats, implied abuse.Awards
- Shortlisted for the Gaylatic Spectrum Award
Reviews
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Darkness blooms in bestselling author Kalynn Bayron’s new contemporary fantasy about a girl with a unique and deadly power.
Briseis has a gift: she can grow plants from tiny seeds to rich blooms with a single touch.
When Briseis’s aunt dies and wills her a dilapidated estate in rural New York, Bri and her parents decide to leave Brooklyn behind for the summer. Hopefully there, surrounded by plants and flowers, Bri will finally learn to control her gift. But their new home is sinister in ways they could never have imagined–it comes with a specific set of instructions, an old-school apothecary, and a walled garden filled with the deadliest botanicals in the world that can only be entered by those who share Bri’s unique family lineage.
When strangers begin to arrive on their doorstep, asking for tinctures and elixirs, Bri learns she has a surprising talent for creating them. One of the visitors is Marie, a mysterious young woman who Bri befriends, only to find that Marie is keeping dark secrets about the history of the estate and its surrounding community. There is more to Bri’s sudden inheritance than she could have imagined, and she is determined to uncover it . . . until a nefarious group comes after her in search of a rare and dangerous immortality elixir. Up against a centuries-old curse and the deadliest plant on earth, Bri must harness her gift to protect herself and her family.
From the bestselling author of Cinderella Is Dead comes another inspiring and deeply compelling story about a young woman with the power to conquer the dark forces descending around her.
Representation Includes
- Bi/pansexual Black protagonist, who is adopted
- Black WLW love interest
- The protagonist has two moms
Content Warnings
Stalking; on-screen murder of a parent; vivid descriptions of the effects of poisonous plants; immortal love interest for 17-year-old MCReviews
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In a space-faring civilization where a single woman is increasingly disenfranchised, the star pilot Silence Leigh is defrauded from her inheritance by a greedy competitor. Forced to ally with two men, Silence is dragged into a deadly political struggle, and is tantalized by the hints of the legendary Earth, as well as the dread and the glory of Magi’s power. Her dreams of having her own ship and of escape from the Hegemony’s oppressions take on new direction and focus when she joins the crew of “The Sun-Treader”
Representation Includes
- Polyamorous F/M/M triad marriage
- Reads as a demisexual narrative; see more in Bogi Takács’s review
Content Warnings
Pervasive misogyny as part of the laws and cultureReviews
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Details
- Published April 1st 1985 by Baen
- Paperback ISBN13: 9780671559526
- Out of print
One October morning, Laina gets the news that her brother was shot and killed by Boston cops. But what looks like a case of police brutality soon reveals something much stranger. Monsters are real. And they want everyone to know it.
As creatures from myth and legend come out of the shadows, seeking safety through visibility, their emergence sets off a chain of seemingly unrelated events. Members of a local werewolf pack are threatened into silence. A professor follows a missing friend’s trail of bread crumbs to a mysterious secret society. And a young boy with unique abilities seeks refuge in a pro-monster organization with secrets of its own. Meanwhile, more people start disappearing, suicides and hate crimes increase, and protests erupt globally, both for and against the monsters.
At the center is a mystery no one thinks to ask: Why now? What has frightened the monsters out of the dark?
The world will soon find out.
Representation Includes
- Ensemble cast including:
- Black bisexual protagonist
- Puerto Rican-American sapphic protagonist
- Biracial, bi-ace, trans protagonist
- Non-binary side character
- Polyamorous relationship
Content Warnings
Police brutality and shooting of a black man; implied sexual abuse of a minor; domestic abuse; drug abuse and overdose; loss of loved ones; suicide; mass shooting; goreReviews
- Theodore McCombs’s review
- Arley Sorg’s review
- Laura’s review
- Jessica Woodbury’s review
- K.J. Charles’s review
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Details
- Published September 7, 2021 by Blackstone Publishing
- ISBN: 9781982603724
After seven years working as partners, Kai and Ilsa are the best professional finders in the business. There’s nothing they can’t track down, no matter how unfamiliar the star system or hazardous the path. When a new client insists on accompanying the search for his daughter, Ilsa and Kai reluctantly agree. How can they refuse when Eleazar Dantes is desperate enough to pay double their usual fee?
But a high-stakes investigation is no time for distractions. Even more troublesome, when Kai realizes his true feelings for Ilsa, his timing couldn’t be worse. Never mind that she doesn’t seem to reciprocate: heartbreak is the least of their problems as the trail they’re following grows dangerous.
With every step forward, Kai and Ilsa are more certain they won’t find Eleazar’s missing daughter alive.
Representation Includes
- Aromantic asexual woman protagonist
Content Warnings
Non-consensual kissing; aroace character deals with unrequited romantic feelings from her partner; anti-ace and anti-aro sentiments expressed by characters; gun violence; kidnapping; on-page murder; claustrophobic atmosphereReviews
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- Originally published published March 16th 2016 by Less Than Three Press
- Re-released self-published in 2020
- ISBN13: 9781946316141
Wasp’s job is simple. Hunt ghosts. And every year she has to fight to remain Archivist. Desperate and alone, she strikes a bargain with the ghost of a supersoldier. She will go with him on his underworld hunt for the long-lost ghost of his partner and in exchange she will find out more about his pre-apocalyptic world than any Archivist before her. And there is much to know. After all, Archivists are marked from birth to do the holy work of a goddess. They’re chosen. They’re special. Or so they’ve been told for four hundred years.
Archivist Wasp fears she is not the chosen one, that she won’t survive the trip to the underworld, that the brutal life she has escaped might be better than where she is going. There is only one way to find out.
Representation Includes
- Aro-ace protagonist
Content Warnings
Scene where protagonist forces herself to vomit; contemplates suicide multiple times; child abuse; suffocation; dog death; tortureAwards
- Locus Award nominee
- Andre Norton Award finalist
Reviews
- Quartzen’s review
- The Illustrated Page’s review
- Liz Bourke’s review
- Christine Sandquist’s review
- Aentee’s review
Where to Find
Details
- Published May 5th 2015 by Big Mouth House (first published April 13th 2015)
- Paperback ISBN13: 9781618730978