New Book Releases: 3/25/2025

March 25, 2025March 23, 2025 locusmag 0 Comments

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New science fiction, fantasy, and horror books for the week of March 18, 2025.

Anderson, E.M.: The Keeper of Lonely Spirits (Harlequin/Mira 978-0778368526, $28.99, 400pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audiobook, 03/25/2025)

Fantasy novel. A ghost hunter cursed to live forever searches for a vengeful spirit, avoiding personal attachments and hoping to finall die. But in a small Ohio town, he starts to care about the people and fall for someone.

Binge, Nicholas: Dissolution (Penguin Random House/Riverhead 978-0593852163, $30, 384pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audiobook, 03/25/2025)

SF thriller. Maggie cares for her elderly husband, Stanley, who shows signs of dementia. but a stranger reveals that his memories aren’t being lost — they’re being stolen.

Bob the Drag Queen: Harriet Tubman: Live in Concert (Simon & Schuster/Gallery 978-1668061978, $27.99, 240pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audiobook, 03/25/2025)

Fantasy novel. A bunch of famous historical figures magically return, and Harriet Tubman enlists an outed hip-hop producer to create a magnum opus about her life.

Carpenter, Emily: Gothictown (Kensington 978-1496750549, $28, 368pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audiobook, 03/25/2025)

Southern gothic novel. Disillusioned urbanite Billie moves to “gentle” Juliana, an idyllic Southern town. But her sleep worsens, her marriage frays, and the town elders seem menacing.

Castro, V.: The Pink Agave Motel and Other Stories (Clash Books 978-1960988300, $18.95, 244pp, formats: paperback, ebook, 03/27/2025)

Collection of stories set at the titular motel, a place where supernatural and sexy forces come and go. Aliens, carnivorous murders, and mysteries all transpire.

Chan, Eliza: Tideborn (Orbit US 978-0316564946, $19.99, 384pp, formats: paperback, ebook, audiobook, 03/25/2025)

Fantasy novel inspired by East Asian lore, the second in the Drowned World duology. In the partially submerged city of Tiankawi, revolution is stirring between humans and the water-dwelling fathomfolk.

Dawes, Sue: The Mune (Goldsmiths Press UK/Gold SF 978-1915983244, $19.95, 248pp, formats: paperback, ebook, 03/25/2025)

SF novel. Thirty “surplus” mothers from asylums and workhouses in Victorian England end up shipwrecked an an island in an alternate universe, amongst hostile and surreal dangers.

Gonzalez, Alex: rekt (Kensington/Erewhon 978-1645661597, $27, 368pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audiobook, 03/25/2025)

Near-future horror novel. Sammy Dominguez, spiraling after his girlfriend’s death, finds a dark web site that feeds him snuff footage of her death and others. The site seems to be reading his mind.

Gunn, Allison: Nowhere (Simon & Schuster/Atria 978-1668046654, $27.99, 304pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audiobook, 03/25/2025)

Small town Appalachian horror novel. A grieving family loses their son in an accident. Mother Rachel throws herself into her police work, but a growing force in the woods sets the religious town on edge and turns them against her family.

Jensen, Ernest: Nameless Things (Rising Action 978-1998076963, $17.99, 304pp, formats: paperback, ebook, audiobook, 03/25/2025)

Horror novel. In a Colorodo state park, friends Mike and Wade are trapped by a rockfall in an ancient caldera. Bad enough, but the ground is infested with lethal, flesh-eating worms and more.

Kuhl, Jackson: The Island of Small Misfortunes (Regal House 978-1646035380, $18.95, 184pp, formats: paperback, ebook, 03/25/2025)

Gothic novel. A man in 1898 gets stuck by a storm on his family’s private island in Connecticut. But as he stays, he finds that none of his family members can agree about the origin of the house, and a ghost is rumored to haunt it.

Lau, Roanne: The Serpent Called Mercy (Astra House/DAW 978-0756419448, $29, 432pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, 03/25/2025)

Fantasy novel inspired by Malaysian-Chinese lore. Friends Lythlet and Desil become arena monster fighters in hopes of escaping poverty. But politics, jealousy, and a manipulative gamesmaster tear them apart.

Linwood, Jade: Beast (Rebellion/Solaris UK 978-1837864478, $16.99, 368pp, formats: paperback, ebook, 03/25/2025)

Romantic fantasy novel, a gender-flipped Beauty and the Beast meets The Bachelor. A “charming” con artist ends up in a haunted mansion with a bestial noblewoman, who rewards him and his fellow guests with roses.

Lobb, M.K.: To Steal from Thieves (Little, Brown 978-0316575485, $19.99, 400pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audiobook, 03/25/2025)

Young-adult historical fantasy novel. At London’s Crystal Palace during the Great Exhibition of 1851, teen thief Kane and alchemologist Zaria try to steal a priceless magical artifact.

Maguire, Gregory: Elphie (HarperCollins/Morrow 978-0063377011, $30, 288pp, formats: hardcover, paperback, ebook, audiobook, 03/25/2025)

Fantasy novel, a prequel to Maguire’s Wicked. The green-skinned Elphaba grows up as the daughter of a promiscuous mother and pious father, and encounters a Monkey.

Mahurin, Shelby: The Shadow Bride (HarperCollins 978-0063258808, $21.99, 624pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audiobook, 03/25/2025)

Young-adult fantasy novel, the second in a duology begun in Serpent & Dove. Célie returns, undead and revived by the vampire king Michal, and a dark force comes to claim her as his bride.

May, AdriAnne: Exquisite Ruin (Simon & Schuster/Gallery 978-1668077290, $18.99, 384pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audiobook, 03/25/2025)

Romantic fantasy romance novel. Sadaré wakes in the Labyrinth with no memory, with only a demonic being Daesra for company. They must work together to get to the center and defeat the monster. Pen name for A.M. Strickland.

McMinn, Jesse: Mero and the City of Ghosts (IFWG Publishing International 978-1923382091, $16.99, 356pp, formats: paperback, ebook, 03/31/2025)

Dark fantasy novel. Mero weilds Sheathless, a sword that extends his life by draining the lives of others. After receiving a vision, he sets out to the ghost city of Uron to free himself of the curse.

Nislow, Saskia: Root Rot (Creature Publishing 978-1951971250, $18, 140pp, formats: paperback, ebook, 03/25/2025)

Horror novella. Nine children and their families travel to their Grandfather’s lake house, where strange things happen and mushrooms ooze blood.

Pichette, Marisca: Every Dark Cloud (Ghost Orchid Press 978-1739091897, $12.99, 82pp, formats: paperback, 03/25/2025)

Post-apocalyptic SF novella. Mallory’s world, once devastated by climate disaster, is now protected by a layer of artificial cloud and lit by bioluminescence. But then Malloy finds a victim of a kind of radioactive light.

Purdie, Kathryn: The Deathly Grimm (St. Martin’s/Wednesday Books 978-1-250-87302-6, $24, 400pp, formats: hardcover, paperback, ebook, audiobook, 03/25/2025)

Young-adult fantasy novel, sequel to The Forest Grimm. Clara and Axel return to their village, but townspeople are being lured back out by the trees themselves. The forest is full of murderous woodsmen and spectres; can they break the curse?

Rodriguez, AG: Space Brooms! (Angry Robot UK 978-1915998507, $18.99, 352pp, formats: paperback, ebook, audiobook, 03/25/2025)

Cozy SF novel. Unlucky Johnny Gomez is a custodian, or “space broom,” on Kilgore Station. While cleaning alien poop, he finds a tiny artifact that finally gives him a chance at adventure and riches.

Scalzi, John: When the Moon Hits Your Eye (Tor 978-0765389091, $29.99, 336pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audiobook, 03/25/2025)

SF novel. The entire moon suddenly turns to cheese, even down to the mineral samples on Earth. The novel follows a different character each day, following teens, profesors, astronauts, and politicians as they reel and adapt.

Sequeira, Christopher & Paulsen, Steven, eds.: Into the Cthulhu-Universe: Lovecraftian Horrors in Other Literary Realities (IFWG Publishing International 978-1923382008, $17.99, 322pp, formats: paperback, ebook, 03/31/2025)

Anthology of stories blending Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythos with other classic works and characters, like Alice, John Carter, and Tom Sawyer. Authors include Eugen Bacon, Ramsey Campbell, and Jonathan Maberry.

Utomi, Moses Ose: Children of Useyi (Simon & Schuster/Atheneum 978-1-6659-4991-0, $19.99, 352pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, 03/25/2025)

Young-adult fantasy novel, sequel to Daughters of Oduma. Dirt is a competitive fighter in the Mud Fam, on an island where there are no adults. But a man washes up onshore, claiming to be from the land of the gods.

Van Veen, Johanna: Blood on Her Tongue (Sourcebooks/Poisoned Pen Press 978-1728281575, $17.99, 368pp, formats: paperback, ebook, 03/25/2025)

Gothic horror novel set in 1887. Lucy’s twin Sarah is declared insane after she stops eating and becomes obsessed with an ancient corpse recently disenterred. As Sarah starts acting more and more extreme, Lucy must find out what’s going on to save her from the asylum.

Willett, Edward, ed.: Shapers of Worlds Volume V (Shadowpaw Press 978-1998273331, $C$24.99, 462pp, formats: paperback, 03/25/2025)

Original anthology of genre stories by authors featured on The Worldshapers podcast. Angel hunters, prisoners punished with amnesia, dream dwellers, and the god of love feature as characters.

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