Welcome to 2023! Publishing chaos continues to shake up the industry, but in the little speculative corner of the world we have a lot of cool stuff to look forward to. Better clear off some space in your bookcase now…
Genre-benders
Cool. Awkward. Black. edited by Karen Strong—Viking Books for Young Readers; January 10, 2023
Although this collection isn’t all speculative, many of the stories fall under science fiction and fantasy and most of the authors will be familiar to fans of both. This anthology pulls together eighteen fantastic Black young adult authors telling stories about aliens, magicians, werewolves, and even the challenges of learning how to drive. Authors include: Amerie, Kalynn Bayron, Terry J. Benton-Walker, Roseanne A. Brown, Elise Bryant, Tracy Deonn, Desiree S. Evans, Isaac Fitzsimons, Lamar Giles, Jordan Ifueko, Leah Johnson, Amanda Joy, Kwame Mbalia, Tochi Onyebuchi, Shari B. Pennant, K. Arsenault Rivera, Julian Winters, and Ibi Zoboi.
The Everlasting Road by Wab Kinew (Walking in Two Worlds #2)—Tundra Books; January 10, 2023
A lot has happened in the past year for Bugz and Feng, the protagonists of this fantasy series with a science fiction twist. Feng, a Uighur teen, is now living on the Rez with his aunt and dating Bugz, but the news that his parents are still alive back in China has the potential to break everything he’s worked hard to build. Meanwhile, Bugz is lost in her grief over the death of her brother, Waawaate. She channels her emotions into fighting the last of her enemies in the Floraverse (the virtual reality game where she and Feng met) and recreating her brother through a bot. Wab Kinew also shows us Waawaate’s journey on the Gaagigewekinaa, the everlasting road.
The Girl I Am, Was, and Never Will Be: A Speculative Memoir of Transracial Adoption by Shannon Gibney—Dutton Books for Young Readers; January 10, 2023
I don’t usually include nonfiction or memoirs on this list, but this one is impossible to skip. Shannon Gibney blends autobiography traditions with speculative flair in this compelling narrative. She blends truth and fiction, dreams and imagination, hopes and fears into a story about being a transracial Black adoptee.
Science Fictional
Another Dimension of Us by Mike Albo—Penguin Workshop; January 17, 2023
Mike Albo takes us to 1986 and 2044 in this story about several teens whose lives begin to blend across space and time. In the past, Tommy keeps his love for his friend Renaldo a secret in a world awash in homophobia and the AIDS crisis. In the future, Pris is isolated by her vitiligo and a dangerous virus spreading across the globe. Add in an interdimensional evil, the astral plane, and time travel, and you end up with a very intriguing premise.
Monstersona by Chloe Spencer—Tiny Ghost Press; February 14, 2023
Riley is not happy about being shipped from Portland, Oregon to nowheresville Maine. On homecoming night, her new hometown is attacked by a terrible, giant monster, and it all has to do with the mysterious Titan Technologies that is headquartered not far from Riley. She and Aspen, another survivor, set off on an epic adventure across the US while trying to avoid more Titan-spawned monsters.
Rise Up
Rebel of Fire and Flight by Aneesa Marufu (The Balloon Thief #1)—Chicken House; January 3, 2023
The last thing Khadija wants is to get married. So when a chance to escape appears in the form of a stolen hot air balloon, she takes it. Soon she meets Jacob, the descendant of foreigners who are now the oppressed minority in Khadija’s homeland. The Ghadaean ruling class is about to face two challenges: from violent revolutionaries and peaceful protestors. Both groups want change, but each have very different means for achieving it, and Khadija and Jacob are caught in the middle.
Magic with a Twist
The Buried and the Bound by Rochelle Hassan (The Buried and the Bound #1)—Roaring Brook Press; January 24, 2023
Three teens unite to protect their Massachusetts town from a monster threatening to shatter the boundary between the fae and human worlds. Aziza the hedgewitch has so far been able to help the creatures of Fairy, but a dark family secret spirals everything out of her control. Leo has spent the last year trying to undo the curse that stole his memories of his first love. When he meets Aziza, he agrees to help her in exchange for her help breaking his curse. Tristan, Leo’s forgotten love, bound himself in service as a necromancer to a wicked witch, and now all he wants is to get free.
Spice Road by Maiya Ibrahim (The Spice Road Trilogy #1)—Delacorte Press; January 24, 2023
In the isolated city of Qalia lives Imani. As the youngest ever Shield, she drinks Spice to gain temporary access to magic in order to fight the monsters that haunt the Swallowing Sands that surround her city. She’s struggling to repair her reputation after her brother was branded a traitor for stealing Spice and tossed out into the wastelands to die. But word from a djinn called Qayn is that Atheer is not only alive but fomenting a rebellion in a foreign land. Imani heads out to stop him once and for all.
The Wicked Bargain by Gabe Cole Novoa—Random House Books for Young Readers; February 28, 2023
Queer! Pirates! Mar, a transmasc nonbinary teen pirate sailing in the Caribbean, has a magical secret, but their power cannot save their father or his crew from the evil el Diablo. Mar is rescued by Bas, the son of another pirate captain, and the two set out to rescue Mar’s father and the rest of the Caribbean from a terrible fate.
In It to Win It
Daughters of Oduma by Moses Ose Utomi—Atheneum Books for Young Readers; February 7, 2023
At sixteen, Dirt no longer has to compete in the elite all-girl fighting sport Bowing, but she also only has one more year left with her Mud Fam before she becomes an adult and must leave to Antie Yaya’s home forever. With their low numbers, the Mud Fam is at risk of being disbanded, so all their hopes ride on winning the South God Bow tournament. After their strongest competitor is knocked out by their rivals, Dirt steps in. She may be out of practice and low on confidence, but she’s tougher than she realizes.
The Beauty Trials by Dhonielle Clayton (The Belles #3)—Disney-Hyperion; February 14, 2023
It’s been four years since readers last visited the land of Orléans and the lavish world of the Belles. This time Edel Beauregard is our protagonist, and we follow her as she tries to piece together a life after Camellia helped take down the cruel imposter. Charlotte, the temporary regent, invokes the Beauty Trials, a competition designed to root out the true ruler of Orléans. Edel enters on a hope and a prayer, and gets way more than she bargained for.
House on Haunted Hill
Wildblood by Lauren Blackwood—Wednesday Books; February 7, 2023
When she was only a child, Victoria was kidnapped by the Exotic Lands Touring Company and forced to work as a guide. She’s a Wildblood and therefore at the bottom of the social hierarchy, but if she can only get one more promotion she might be able to earn her freedom. She and her scheming ex are sent to work for Thorn, a handsome goldminer who needs Victoria’s magic. Is the love that blooms between them true…or just another trap?
Delicious Monsters by Liselle Sambury—Margaret K. McElderry Books; February 28, 2023
Film student Brittney heads out to rural Ontario to Miracle Mansion, a haunted house supposedly full of ghosts, to shoot an episode of her webseries Haunted. Her plan is to uncover what really happened ten years ago to a girl named Daisy. Liselle Sambury runs two parallel POVs in this novel, Brittney’s and Daisy’s. In Toronto, Daisy is surrounded by ghosts, so when her mother takes her to Miracle Mansion, she looks forward to some peace and quiet. All she finds instead is terror.
She Is a Haunting by Trang Thanh Tran—Bloomsbury YA; February 28, 2023
Jade makes a deal with her estranged father to join him in Vietnam to restore a crumbling French colonial mansion in exchange for him paying for college. The house has other plans. As Jade tries not to flirt with the cute niece of her father’s business partner, strange things begin to happen in the mansion. The ghosts that haunt her might not just be nightmares but something real and terrifying.
Alex Brown is a Hugo-nominated and Ignyte award-winning critic who writes about speculative fiction, librarianship, and Black history. Find them on twitter (@QueenOfRats), instagram (@bookjockeyalex), and their blog (bookjockeyalex.com).
