(some of the) 2022 books I'm personally hype for
Welcome to the 2022 Q1 Hype Train
Me, six weeks ago: I'm going to write a newsletter of 2022 books that I'm greedily awaiting. Me, on Tuesday: Oh shit, the first of those books is already released. Oh shit, that's a lot of books. Maybe I'll split the list in half. Maybe I'll split it in quarters.
So: here are the books I'm excited for in the first four months of 2022.
Devil House by John Darnielle || January || Horror. "An epic, gripping novel about murder, truth, and the dangers of storytelling."
I've been a fan of the Mountain Goats since a friend gave me a mix CD with no tracklist back in 2005. John Darnielle is an evocative, atmospheric storyteller, and this book seems to wade into a bunch of topics I'm nerdy for: the "truth" in true crime, the Satanic Panic, violence and how it's discussed
How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu || January || Science fiction, novel-in-stories. “An Arctic plague will reshape life on Earth for generations to come, quickly traversing the globe, forcing humanity to devise a myriad of moving and inventive ways to embrace possibility in the face of tragedy.”
I saw Sequoia Nagamatsu read at AWP in...2017, maybe? I remember everyone in the audience being absolutely riveted, and then a mad rush to the Black Lawrence Press table to snag a copy of his short story collection. They'd sold out by the time I got there, but I've tried to follow his work since then. He's an absolute master at short stories, so a post-apocalyptic novel-in-stories from him? YES PLEASE.
The Thousand Eyes by AK Larkwood || February || Epic fantasy, sapphic. “The Thousand Eyes continues The Serpent Gates series—perfect for fans of Jenn Lyons, Joe Abercrombie, and Ursula K. Le Guin.”
I'm not a big epic fantasy reader, but this one's about a butch sapphic orc necromantic sacrifice-turned-fighter, so I'm extremely down. The Thousand Eyes follows The Unspoken Name, which I think was recently released in paperback. Perfect time to pick up this series.
Dead Collections by Isaac Fellman || February || Dark fantasy/dark academia. “A whirlwind romance between an eccentric archivist and a grieving widow explores what it means to be at home in your own body in this clever, humorous, and heartfelt novel.”
Why doesn't that tagline mention that there are trans vampires in this story? I feel like this is a major selling point. (I also cannot recommend Isaac's newsletter strongly enough. It's deep, chewy and often just fun criticism, and even when I've got no interest in the source material, I still love to read it.)
The Temps by Andrew DeYoung || March || Absurdist office dystopian || “They're underemployed. Underpaid. And trying to survive the end of the world while trapped inside an office complex. Who knew temp work could be this dangerous?”
Look, I know I'm a caricature of myself, but this book sounds like it was written specifically for me. Here's hoping it's exactly as absurd and pulpy as I'm craving.
Convulsive by Joe Koch || April || Short story collection, horror. “These stories explore religion, abuse, desire, and gender, all through [Koch’s] pristinely rendered prose.”
Surely I'm not the only one who is constantly looking for more trans horror?
The Memory Librarian And Other Stories of Dirty Computer by Janelle Monáe || April || Science Fiction, Afrofuturism. “Janelle Monáe brings to the written page the Afrofuturistic world of one of her critically acclaimed albums, exploring how different threads of liberation—queerness, race, gender plurality, and love—become tangled with future possibilities of memory and time in such a totalitarian landscape.”
A Dirty Computer tie-in would be enough to get my pre-order in, but this book is a collaboration with Danny Lore, Yohanca Delgado, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Eve Ewing, and Sheree Renee Thomas, which is one hell of a line-up.
And one 2021 release that I'm late to
Several People Are Typing by Calvin Kalkurse || Dark, fabulist office comedy. "Told entirely through clever and captivating Slack messages, this irresistible, relatable satire of both virtual work and contemporary life is The Office for a new world."
This book was already on my radar because I love a gimmick (a story told in Slack messages!) that has interesting things to say about labor and capitalism (Slack somehow steals someone's consciousness?). After listening to Kalkurse on the Gender Reveal podcast (which is itself amazing), I'm invested as fuck.
News
Two exciting announcements for the start of 2022.
1) The wonderful people at Crononauta will be publishing Spanish translations of FINNA and DEFEKT in a single volume, titled AVENTURAS EN EL LITENVERSO. It should be out in November or thereabouts, joining their amazing catalogue of Spanish and translated works of speculative fiction.
2) DEFEKT got nominated for a Phillip K. Dick award!
What I'm reading/watching/playing
I just finished reading Margaret Killjoy's upcoming short story collection, We Won't Be Here Tomorrow and Other Stories. My blurb: I always feel such relief and recognition reading one of Margaret Killjoy’s stories. Here there are punks and monsters and orcs and the always-approaching apocalypse, and none of the alienating niceties of middle-class aspirations. She’s not writing nice stories about nice people. It’s all hope and hunger and dirt under your fingernails instead. Thank fuck.
I've also been playing the FF7 remake, which was one of the first epic RPGs of my youth. I still have fond memories of smoking way too much weed and watching my cousin play it the entire way through. It's goofier than I was expecting, in ways that were sort of tiresome until I got to Wall Market and then got to see Cloud "Resting Bitch Everything" Strife compete in a spectacular dance-off. Now I just want all brooding male protagonists to be forced onstage to confront their own gender ambivalence.