Staff Fiction Favorites

If “Don’t Let the Bastards Grind You Down” is your battle cry, read this book. A Handmaid’s Tale for 2018, Red Clocks follows five women as they navigate private burdens and desires regarding pregnancy, fertility, and motherhood. Set in a world that’s like ours but with even more misogynistic laws, Red Clocks is a book for anyone who worries for the future of this country. - Jessica

This is a timely, beautifully written novel that reads like a fragmented memoir. Kimia Sadr fled Iran for France at age 10. She now sits in a fertility clinic recounting her family's history starting with her great grandfather, a feudal lord, and leading on to her dissident parents who protested the Shah's monarchy and then found themselves hated by the Islamists who deposed him. - Trey

This gripping fantasy novel focuses on Nahri, a young conwoman in 18th-century Cairo who accidentally summons a djinn warrior, and is then swept into an epic adventure to discover the truth of her heritage in Daevabad, the djinn capital city. The book features gorgeous prose, fantastic characters, and a riveting plot, with superb worldbuilding inspired by Islamic mythology. - Stuart

When journalist Camille Preaker returns to her tiny hometown to report on a local murder, deep-rooted family issues and an overwhelming sense of claustrophobia quickly take hold. I love a good mystery, and Flynn’s character-driven, deeply atmospheric writing immediately drew me in. Suspenseful, original, and subtlety sinister, this kept me guessing until the very end. - Jade

This book is pure, joyous fun. England’s new Sorcerer Royal is cursed and the fate of English magic is held in the hands of the capricious fairy court. Add in the strong-willed sorceress Prunella Gentleman, a coup afoot in the Thaumaturgical society, and some powerful Malaysian witches and you get this charming, romantic fantasy. - Clara

Šejić is one of my favorite comic book author/artists. I'm so very fond of this sex positive, LGBTQ friendly comic with its brilliant art and hilarious dialogue. Watching Allie and Lisa figure out their BDSM relationship and their relationship outside those boundaries is both sweet and heartrendingly realistic. - Karena

More experimental than his other popular novels, Ondaatje's fictionalised account of the life of the legendary founding father of jazz, Buddy Bolden, is a thing of kaleidoscopic beauty. By turns poetic, disorienting, visceral, and erotic, Coming Through Slaughter depicts turn of the century New Orleans, and Bolden's developing schizophrenia, with haunting results. - Ilana

Stegner’s masterpiece features two plots, one modern-day and the other from the 1800s, as it tells the story of a historian trying to write the biography of his long-dead grandmother. Featuring gorgeous prose and characters as real and tangible as granite, the book is an iconic novel of the west and a deeply moving narrative of one family and our national collective past. - Rico

I kind of have an obsession with books where a woman is raised in extreme religious families. This fictional tale of a girl raised on TV with her preacher father, machinating mother, and five siblings fit the bill perfectly. I love the way Essie figures out how to escape by  using the rules and restrictions her parents set up against her. It is fantastically written. - Karena

Every ten years, the Dragan––a mysterious and powerful wizard––takes a teenaged girl from a local village as payment for his protection. Agnieszka is certain he won’t choose her, until he does, but she gives the Dragan more than he bargained for. Novik’s narrative drew me right in with its strong female characters, richly detailed world, and trope-defying plot. - Jade