Starred Reviews for Ava Reid, Rachel Eliza Griffiths, Falon Ballard, Nicolas Niarchos, and More!

“Reid (Fable for the End of the World, 2025) does not shy away from horror. The castle corridors echo with decay and dread. The grotesque underbelly of aristocratic luxury reveals human cruelty and supernatural terror. This is dark fantasy in its most uncompromising form. Readers who yearn for haunting atmospheres, morally tangled characters, and stories where love becomes doom will find Innamorata a fearless and unforgettable beginning.” —Booklist, starred review

“Mongeau’s debut novel, the first in a planned dark fantasy series, is stunning from beginning to end. Recommended for fans of Sarah J. Maas’s Throne of Glass books and Laura Thalassa’s Bargainer series.” —Library Journal, starred review

“Whitaker has written a sprawling, extravagantly intelligent novel about people quietly breaking free from constraints—marital, gender, class. . .  Superb. Like a blue-collar Franzen novel.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review

“Whitaker (The Animators) writes a deeply compelling novel that follows the Taylors over two generations. Hand to readers who have an interest in family stories, strong women, and lesbian and gay fiction.” —Library Journal, starred review

“With sharp prose, dark yet hopeful humor, and imaginative daring, Samek takes a unique look at existential crises, poignantly capturing the dissonance between who we believe or want ourselves to be and the realities that erode those beliefs.” —Booklist, starred review

“Samek debuts with a striking collection of fantastical and speculative stories about conformity, technology, and the limits of bodily autonomy. … Throughout, Samek elicits genuine pathos and offers astute social commentary. This dazzles.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review

The novel will appeal to fans of Richard Osman’s The Thursday Murder Club (2020), Hisashi Kashiwai’s The Kamogawa Food Detectives (2024), and Susan Fletcher’s The Night in Question (2024). Readers may also find themselves eager to experience the many classic novels Kaede and her friends discuss, most of which are mysteries.” —Booklist, starred review

“Readers will enjoy this at once sexy and sensitive story full of the vibrant dance life that thrives in New York City. Ballard (Change of Heart) offers a modern tale of complicated love that readers won’t want to put down.” —Library Journal, starred review

“Stunning . . . With grace and soft humor, Griffiths charts a path through devastation: poetic, heartbreaking, and life-affirming, this grief-streaked self-portrait makes a major impression.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review

“Griffiths brilliantly conveys the relentless power of grief and of enduring love. . .  An extraordinary testimonial to an extraordinary friendship.” —Booklist, starred review

“Lovers of memoir and of achingly beautiful prose should not miss The Flower Bearers. As Griffiths moves fluidly through time and memory, her book doubles as love letters: to Kamilah Aisha Moon, to Rushdie and, ultimately, to Griffiths herself.” —BookPage, starred review

“[A]n an engrossing behind-the-scenes look . . . While the memoir primarily serves as a humble, meticulous record of Lawson’s leadership in the 1960s and ’70s, the final act offers a fascinating glimpse of his more recent work with Los Angeles’s labor and immigrant rights movements. It adds up to a soul-stirring testament to the transformative power of ‘leading with love’.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review

“This wonderful book is a powerful reminder that moral clarity can improve the world. . . [Nonviolent] belongs in every library in the U.S. An expansive, inspiring autobiography by a crucial figure in the Civil Rights movement.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review

“Fast-paced and deeply researched, this account centers on Congo’s inhabitants, caught in waves of politics, war, famine, and global demand. The author not only traveled widely in dangerous places but also provides a cast of key players and extensive notes. His book will have readers rethink the ethics of extraction—you’ll never look at your phone or your EV in quite the same way again. An eye-opening and sobering investigation that challenges us to consider the suffering embedded in our everyday devices.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review

“Harris conducts consummate investigative journalism in this gangbuster exposé of the Johnson & Johnson corporation…he takes readers on a dark and devastating ride through a corporate pattern of greed and malfeasance that becomes more disturbing with each revelatory chapter…Comparisons to Patrick Radden Keefe’s Empire of Pain (2021) are obvious, although Harris’ work is all the more stunning as Johnson & Johnson has held an enviable and unmatched degree of trust in America for decades. It is very nearly impossible to believe that this company could be capable of so many layers of deceit and dishonesty, yet that is exactly what Harris lays bare in this masterfully researched title with a narrative akin to a thriller in its intensity. An absolutely unforgettable must-read.” —Booklist, starred review

“A masterpiece of muckraking…This hard-hitting exposé from journalist Harris documents scandals and malfeasance by the pharmaceutical conglomerate Johnson and Johnson…Harris supports his takedown with a mountain of evidence and conveys his findings in scorching prose.”
—Publishers Weekly, starred review