The Goodby People by Gavin Lambert is a delicious and romp-y case study on 60’s Los Angeles. Blurbed as being “the best novel about post-Manson, pre-Disney LA”, I found it to be elegant and striking and surprisingly modern in tone. Really fun character studies, with just the right touch of introspection from our cool narrator. McNally Editions is publishing really interesting stuff, definitely a project to keep your eye on. For fans of: Joan Didion, Eve Babitz, and strip malls.

The Seas by Samantha Hunt is set within a sleepy and seemingly permanently dreary coastal town, and follows a young unnamed narrator. She’s navigating lust, loss, addiction, and her unwavering belief that she is in fact, a mermaid. I thought this was such a beautiful and fraught exploration about coming of age that dabbled with magical realism elements in a way that felt wholly considered. For fans of: Claire Vaye Watkins, Daisy Johnson, and water signs.

I still have 75 pages or so to finish of A Minor Chorus by Billy-Ray Belcourt as I’ve been savoring it, but this book is sneaking up into top ten of the year territory. There always has to be a late December contender! This piece of autofiction follows a grad student who has set out to write a novel about his Indigenous community in northern Canada. It wrestles with absurdity of higher education, queerness, and what the act of writing even means. It’s sort of breaking my heart. For fans of: Ocean Vuong, Brandon Taylor, and magic.