Wronggggggg.

Now, we can have a conversation about how publishing house conglomerates and the trend-led mass-market led by an overwhelming white, straight, etc, majority creates a homogeneity of stories...sure. We can talk about that all day long.

But if we do, we also need to talk about how consumers drive that market, and how our choices -- on social media feeds, on review platforms, at the bookstore -- make an impact on those publishing trends. That, I think, is a more interesting conversation.

Because if we put in the effort to follow book reviewers from a diversity of perspectives, to support indie and underrepresented authors, to review the books we read with critical self-reflection, to support our local book vendors, libraries, etc...then we will find a huge, wide world of weird and wonderful literature just waiting for its audience. And in doing so, we can make an impact on publishing as a whole, too.

So, here are a few unique books that I think you might love, featuring cannibalistic nuns, Faustian bargains, shape-shifting mermaids, talking animals, alternate futures, parasitic aliens, swampcore haunted cabins, cryptids, and more.

Herculine by Grace Byron: an all Trans girls commune haunted by demons.

The Reformatory by Tanarive Due: a segregated reform school and the evil inside.

Wife Shaped Bodies by Laura Cranehill: the trad wives are sprouting mushrooms.

A Dark and Drowning Tide by Allison Saft: a dark academia quest for a magic spring.

Sky Full of Elephants by Cebo Campbell: a new world where all the white people have disappeared.

The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones: A Blackfeet vampire seeking vengeance.

The Starving Saints by Caitlin Starling: a medieval castle under siege and the cannibalistic fever dream that unfolds inside.

What We Feed to the Manticore by Talia Lakshmi Kolluri: a collection of compelling short stories all told from the perspectives of animals.

After Love by Tanya Byrne: a fantastical lesbian love story that literally transcends death itself.

Green Fuse Burning by Tiffany Morris: a grief-stricken Indigenous artist who arrives at a cabin in a remote, swampy forest, before strange things start to happen.

Fate's Bane by CL Clark: sword-wielding, star-crossed lovers from rival clans, inspired by Celtic folklore.

As Many Souls as Stars by Natasha Siegel: a Faustian Bargain between a witch and a demon, and their game of cat-and-mouse that spans multiple lifetimes.

A Feast for the Eyes by Alex Crespo: four teenagers hunting the local cryptic that feeds on secrets.

They Bloom at Night by Trang Thanh Tran: a red algae bloom causes strange mutations in a small Louisiana town.

The Seep by Chana Porter: a parasitic alien invasion that creates a strange utopia, and one woman's quest to stop its spread.

The Gloaming by Kirsty Logan: a hungry sea, a family beset by grief, and a strange woman who climbs up from the water.

Happy reading!

-B