*DISAPPOINT ME, *NICOLA DINAN

Max, the trans protagonist of Nicola Dinan’s sophomore novel, has all the outward trappings of success – she’s a well-paid legal counsel and a published poet to boot – but deep down, she’s plagued with a gnawing ennui. She’s still reeling from a recent break-up with her insufferable ex, while her relationship with her alcoholic father isn’t getting any easier. But then she meets Vincent, a hotshot lawyer who is ostensibly a catch. Romance between the two blossoms easily – but Vincent is still haunted by an incident that happened during his gap year over a decade ago, and it’s a secret which, if brought into the light, could rend the pair apart for good. (SS)

I WANT TO GO HOME BUT I’M ALREADY THERE, RÓISÍN LANIGAN

*I Want To Go Home But I’m Already There *may be the debut novel from writer and editor Róisín Lanigan, but it reads like the work of a seasoned author. Billed as a “ghost story set in the rental crisis”, the novel follows twentysomething couple Áine and Elliot as they navigate moving into their first (rented, obviously) flat together in an affluent, Dulwich-coded neighbourhood. Elliot seems to think all is well in their new home, but Áine struggles to settle. From the pernicious spread of damp to the unsettling omnipresence of their upstairs neighbours, something isn’t quite right with their new abode – and, as Áine begins to suspect, it seems increasingly evident that something isn’t quite right with her relationship with Elliot either. (SS)

*UNIVERSALITY, *NATASHA BROWN

Longlisted for the Booker Prize, Universality is a must-read for anyone with an interest in capitalism, class, and society. The concise novel centres around a violent crime involving a man getting brutally bludgeoned with a bar of solid gold. The first section is a fictionalised longread about the attack titled, written by our freelance journalist protagonist, Hannah, while the subsequent sections explore the reaction to the viral article and unpack exactly how and why Hannah came to tell the story in the first place. We’re introduced to a coterie of unpleasant people in Hannah’s orbit: her snobby university friends; Richard Spencer, an amoral banker-slash-landlord; and, of course, Miriam Leonard, the Telegraph columnist turned Observer columnist, with her own twisted agenda. It’s an engrossing read – not only because of its taut plot and acerbic skewering of the upper-middle classes, but also because of its profound, astute observations on the power of words. (SS)

*SLANTING TOWARDS THE SEA, *LIDIJA HILJE

I’m ashamed to say Slanting Towards the Sea remained on my ‘to be read’ pile for months after I’d got my hands on it – but once I’d started reading, it was difficult to put down. The novel, set in early 2000s Croatia, follows ex-lovers Ivona and Vlaho. A decade after first falling in love as students in Zagreb, they’re divorced – but their lives in the coastal city of Zadar remain as closely intertwined as ever. Ivona is close friends with Marina, Vlaho’s new wife (technically, she introduced them), and she’s a regular fixture at family gatherings with the couple’s young children. It’s an unusual dynamic, but one that works – until Ivona gets a new boyfriend, bringing long-buried resentments to the fore. Be warned – this is a novel that will bring you to tears. (SS)

*ANTIMEMETICS: HOW SOME IDEAS RESIST SPREADING, *NADIA ASPAROUHOVA

What is an ‘antimeme’? As described by Nadia Asparouhova, it’s an idea that resists being seen despite its significant impact on our lives – the polar opposite of the much more familiar ‘meme’. It might be a taboo opinion that’s too risky to express outside a trusted group chat, an idea that doesn’t fit the mould of our current attention ecosystem, or a fact that simply seems to slip our mind no matter how many times we encounter it. Despite the slippery, inherently opaque nature of the phenomenon, Asparouhova manages to give an accessible, clear-eyed account of how it’s affected our lives in recent years, across the ‘cancel culture’ era of the mid-2010s, the widespread retreat from public life in the Covid era, and the new ‘dark’ era of group chats and hidden social networks. In yet another win for the Dark Forest Collective (the book’s publisher) Asparouhova gives a name to the unnameable, and lays the groundwork for navigating a new age of whispers and shadows. (TW)

I wrote a new book! It’s called ANTIMEMETICS: Why Some Ideas Resist Spreading, and it’s about ideas that don’t want to be shared or remembered, despite their importance.

Now available for pre-order: https://t.co/M2ytKTFpbfpic.twitter.com/s4yV1odQYU

— Nadia Asparouhova (@nayafia) March 26, 2025

HOW TO FALL IN LOVE WITH THE FUTURE, ROB HOPKINS

The subtitle for *How to Fall in Love with the Future *is: “A time traveller’s guide to changing the world.” This is not a mere metaphor. In the book, Hopkins actually casts himself as a time traveller returned from the year 2030, where we’ve done everything we can to usher in a new age of ecological sustainability, social equality, and abundance. In his dispatches, the signs of our success are tangible: green cities are filled with birdsong, the streets are filled with bicycles, and normal people are filled with hope for an even brighter future ahead. Is this vision of the next half-decade incredibly optimistic? Yes. Is Hopkins, in his tin-foil space suit, a little bit mad? Maybe! Nevertheless, his best-case scenario is a much-needed antidote to the dread and nihilism that dominates today’s discourse about what the future might look like, and maybe it’s not so far from reality as you think... In fact, many of the most inspiring images in the book are lifted directly from real life, where experiments with different ways of living (many initiated by the Transition movement, co-founded by Hopkins some 20 years ago) are already paying off. (TW)

SUNSTRUCK, WILLIAM RAYFET HUNTER

William Rayfet Hunter’s debut novel, Sunstruck, has been compared to *Saltburn. *It’s easy to see why: the unnamed narrator, a mixed-race musician from Manchester, is invited to spend the summer at a mansion in the French countryside by his rich university friend, Lily Blake. There, he becomes charmed by her brother, Felix, and obsessed with the Blake family. Like Saltburn, there are plenty of days spent by the pool and nights out at extravagant parties. But the book digs far deeper into ideas around friendship, power, desire, race and class than the 2023 movie. Once they return to London in the second half of the book, and after the narrator’s black best friend is beaten up by the police, the reality of his and Felix’s imbalanced relationship kicks in. *Sunstruck *is a thoughtful summer blur of a book that ultimately explores identity, belonging and the parts of ourselves we risk losing when we fall in love. The fact that Hunter wrote the novel while working as a doctor in an emergency room only makes it more impressive and compelling. (LP)

LOVE IN EXILE, SHON FAYE

Much like Faye’s debut book, The Transgender Issue, Love in Exile felt like a definitive intervention from the moment it was published — even earning the dubious honour of cropping up in “performative male” starter pack memes alongside timeless works by Angela Davis, Joan Didion and bell hooks. Informed by Faye’s own experiences of dating as a trans woman but much larger in scope, Love in Exile offers a far-reaching account of the political and economic forces which have led to romantic love being placed on so high a pedestal, an ever harsher punishment imposed on those who find themselves excluded. Faye is the rare writer who can combine rigorous political analysis with pathos, lyricism and wit. (JG)

STAG DANCE, TORREY PETERS

Stag Dance is a fascinating exercise in genre experimentation. Much like Peters’ debut novel, Detransition, Baby, which was originally conceived of as a soap opera, in *Stag Dance, *comprising three short stories and the titular novel, we have psychological horror, dystopian sci-fi, YA romance and a ripping tall tale about a 19th century lumberjack wrestling with what might today be described as gender dysphoria. Eschewing straightforward representation, *Stag Dance *explores the ambiguities of gender and identity, and questions whether ‘trans’ and ‘cis’ are always neatly separable categories. While often dark in subject matter, it’s a delight to read: heartbreaking and hilarious, formally inventive and narratively gripping. (JG)

HERCULINE, GRACE BYRON

In Herculine, a young trans woman, haunted by literal demons and leading a precarious life in New York, seeks refuge in an all-trans commune in the Midwestern wilderness, which turns out not to be quite so idyllic as it first appears. Bryon is a talented essayist and critic, and she brings these skills to bear in her debut novel, which is incisive and sharply satirical in its portrayal of contemporary America. Herculine succeeds as both literary fiction and horror thrill-ride, enjoyable as much for its elegant prose as its propulsive narrative. And while it gets pretty out-there, the more fantastical elements are grounded by the pathos of its achingly sympathetic protagonist. (JG)

BREAKING AWAKE, PE MOSKOWITZ

Combining memoir, reportage and cultural criticism, Breaking Awake: My Search for a New Life Through Drugs is partly about Moskowitz’s recovery from a mental breakdown with the help of drugs both proscribed and illicit, but it also asks broader questions about the origins of suffering in capitalist societies. Why do so many of us feel miserable, anxious and alone? Why do the affluent countries of Europe and North America face such high levels of addiction? And what solutions are possible absent the kind of large-scale societal transformation which, regrettably, doesn’t seem to be on the cards any time soon? Eschewing easy answers, Breaking Awake is nuanced and provocative, and a hugely compelling read. (JG)

LONELY CROWDS, STEPHANIE WAMBUGU

Pitched as Luster meets The Idiot, Stephanie Wambugu’s debut novel *Lonely Crowds *explores similar themes of art, privilege, and belonging. The story documents the tumultuous friendship of Ruth, an only child to immigrant parents, and Maria, an orphaned girl she befriends at the pair’s Catholic school. Throughout the novel, we witness the duo navigate their New England hometown, liberal arts school, and, eventually, the art scene of early 90s New York. Heartfelt and thought-provoking at once, it’s a tale that grapples with both the pitfalls of an all-consuming female friendship, and of artistic pursuit. (IB)

SOFT CORE BY BRITTANY NEWELL

No one writes a sentence like Brittany Newell. The San Francisco author (and former Dazed columnist) is a prodigal talent: her first novel Oola was published in 2017 when she was just 21. She has gained a cult following in the years since, teasing us with delicious trickles of prose for publications like Granta and *N+1. **Soft Core *is her second novel: a hazy, dreamlike trip through San Francisco’s erotic underworld, where danger looms like “asbestos”, and no one is quite what they seem. It follows the story of 27-year-old Ruth, a newbie dominatrix on the hunt for her missing ex-boyfriend Dino. His disappearance sends Ruth into a spiral of “love-shaped lunacy”, splitting the very foundation of her reality. (DS)

*IT’S TERRIBLE THE THINGS I HAVE TO DO TO BE ME: ON FEMININITY AND FAME *BY PHILIPPA SNOW

This was just such a pleasure to read. I had to keep stopping every few sentences to either underline bits in pencil, or take pictures of the text so I could savour it again later. Phillippa Snow is the best kind of critic, turning profound cultural theory into something both artful and accessible. In this book, she tells the story of the women we all think we know – from Marilyn Monroe and Pamela Anderson, to Aaliyah and Amy Winehouse – offering compelling new insights clearly grounded in rigorous research. Along the way, she asks powerful questions about fame and female subjectivity. It’s the literary equivalent of icy lemon water on a sweltering day: sharp, invigorating, and actually very good for you. Drink it down!! (DS)