Genre – Our Story Insight

11 of the Best New Books of October in Every Genre

admin — Tue, 07 Oct 2025 10:58:58 +0000

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Erica Ezeifedi, Associate Editor, is a transplant from Nashville, TN that has settled in the North East. In addition to being a writer, she has worked as a victim advocate and in public libraries, where she has focused on creating safe spaces for queer teens, mentorship, and providing test prep instruction free to students. Outside of work, much of her free time is spent looking for her next great read and planning her next snack.

Find her on Twitter at @Erica_Eze_.

View All posts by Erica Ezeifedi

The book world just got shook up with some wonderful news: the iconic Reading Rainbow is coming back! Not only that, it’s going to be hosted by literal ray of sunshine, Mychal the Librarian. When I tell you this filled my heart! The original LaVar Burton-hosted show is deeply embedded in the foundation of who I am as a person, and I can’t think of anyone better to be at the new iteration’s helm than Mychal.

Keeping the good times rolling, there are new books to discuss. This week, we’re highlighting some of the best new books out this month from different genres.

Unsurprisingly, it was hard to narrow down which books to highlight, and I found it especially hard to whittle down the sci-fi/fantasy selections. This was because, 1.) these are two of my favorite genres, and 2.) there were books like: epic fantasy Queen Demon: The Rising World, Book 2 by Martha Wells, fantasy novella A Mouthful of Dust (The Singing Hills Cycle Book 6) by Nghi Vo, and the historical Southern Gothic Psychopomp & Circumstance by Eden Royce. There are also a couple of Cinderella-inspired fantasies: Never Ever After by Sue Lynn Tan and the queer, gothic Cinder House by Freya Marske. Whew.

As for the books I featured below, there is an otherworldly sci-fi set in the heart of Oklahoma’s Cherokee Nation, a 1950s Hong Kong haunting, a steamy and satirical romance, a sapphic fantasy with a cursed knight/witch pairing, and more.

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Sci-Fi

Hole in the Sky by Daniel H. Wilson

Historical Fiction

The Hong Kong Widow by Kristen Loesch

A massacre that the police say never took place. A woman haunted by the past. In 1950s Hong Kong, a young Chinese refugee still trying to put her past behind her is recruited into a strange seance competition in a notoriously haunted house. She’s not the only one. Six mediums are invited to take part in six seances over six nights. But on the last night, police are called in to handle the aftermath of a brutal massacre—one they find absolutely no proof of. — Rachel Brittain

Nonfiction

We Survived the Night by Julian Brave NoiseCat

Julian Brave NoiseCat grew up with a Secwépemc and St’at’imc father and a non-Native mother. But when his father disappeared, NoiseCat threw himself into studying Native history. Now in We Survived the Night, NoiseCat presents the history of First Peoples across the centuries as they face ongoing colonization and press forward for a better future. — Kendra Winchester

Romance

Female Fantasy by Iman Hariri-Kia

Equal parts satirical, steamy, and swoony, Female Fantasy is a romance novel tailor-made for book lovers who can’t resist a meta twist. Joonie, a copywriter by day and fanfic writer by night, knows no real guy can measure up to her ultimate book boyfriend—a merman hero named Ryke. But when she learns Ryke is based on a real person, she sets off to track him down, dragging along her brother’s infuriating best friend as an unwilling road-trip companion. What follows is a hilariously chaotic, self-aware journey through romance tropes that doubles as a genuine story about finding love where you least expect it. This is a joyful reminder of why readers fall in love with the genre in the first place. — Nikki DeMarco

Graphic Novel/Manga

Angelica and the Bear Prince by Trung Le Nguye

When Angelica’s perfect life comes crashing down around her ears, she has Peri, the bear mascot of a local theater, to provide encouragement and support. But who is Peri behind the mask? Angelica takes a job at the theater to find out! — Eileen Gonzalez

Fantasy

The Isle in the Silver Sea by Tasha Suri

Here’s a new sapphic fantasy from the award-winning author of the Burning Kingdoms series! A witch and a knight fated to fall in love and be torn apart over and over must find a way to halt the cycle of their story. Meanwhile, a mysterious assassin is on the prowl, looking to permanently destroy anyone with a story like theirs. — Liberty Hardy

Literary Fiction

Capitalists Must Starve by Seolyeon Park, translated by Anton Hur

Capitalists Must Starve tells the fictionalized story of a real-life labor activist who led a strike for workers’ rights in 1930s Pyongyang. The novel, set in Japanese-occupied Korea, follows a woman willing to risk everything to fight for better conditions for working-class women in a world determined not to hear what they have to say. It’s a story that can find comparisons the world over through the struggle for humane working conditions within the unrelenting capitalist machine. — Rachel Brittain

Horror

The Unveiling by Quan Barry

The Unveiling is a literary survival horror novel that takes place on a luxury Antarctic cruise. Striker is a Black film scout who has joined the cruise in the hopes of capturing locations for a big-budget movie. But nothing about the cruise goes according to plan, and when an excursion goes terribly wrong, Striker and a small group of survivors find themselves stranded in the middle of the Antarctic. As things grow more dire, hostilities and people’s true nature come to the surface. — Emily Martin

Young Adult

Blood & Breath by Qurratulayn

Children’s/Middle Grade

The Beasts Beneath the Winds: Tales of Southeast Asia’s Mythical Creatures by Hanna Alkaf

This illustrated anthology is perfect for young mythology lovers! In each chapter, children encounter cryptids from Southeast Asian folklore and find both danger and adventure in their midst. — Andy Minshew

Mystery, Thriller, or True Crime

Boom Town by Nic Stone

For fans of noir, missing person cases, and Atlanta-set crime novels!

After Michah “Lyriq” Johanssen’s former partner and dancer at Boom Town disappeared, another dancer, Damaris “Charm” Wilburn, didn’t show up for her shift. Lyriq finds no help in finding the women and is plunged into the underworld of Atlanta as she narrows in on a wealthy man with an obsession. — Jamie Canaves

More New Releases Mentioned Today on All The Books! Podcast:

Other Book Riot New Releases Resources:

All the Books, our weekly new book releases podcast, where Liberty and a cast of co-hosts talk about eight books out that week that we’ve read and loved.
The New Books Newsletter, where we send you an email of the books out this week that are getting buzz.
Finally, if you want the real inside scoop on new releases, you have to check out Book Riot’s New Release Index! That’s where I find 90% of new releases, and you can filter by trending books, Rioters’ picks, and even LGBTQ new releases!

The post 11 of the Best New Books of October in Every Genre appeared first on Our Story Insight.

How Many State’s List Mystery Books as Their Most Popular Genre?

admin — Wed, 21 May 2025 13:27:44 +0000

Unusual Suspects

A Conclave fan account breaking the news on the Pope selection, the latest fire adaptation from across the pond, and more

Jamie Canaves
May 21, 2025

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Irish Author Chats About Her Meta Mystery Novel on NPR

If you like mystery novels that are an homage to the golden era, while also doing something new, check out Louise Hegarty’s NPR interview about her new novel Fair Play: The new novel ‘Fair Play’ is a self-aware take on the golden age of detective fiction

Unusual Suspects

Netflix’s Dept. Q Trailer

This is one of my most anticipated adaptations this year because I really like Jussi Adler-Olsen’s Department Q book series, and I love Matthew Goode: Dept. Q | Official Trailer | Netflix

The post How Many State’s List Mystery Books as Their Most Popular Genre? appeared first on Our Story Insight.

The Most Popular Book Genre In Each State

admin — Mon, 24 Mar 2025 14:58:28 +0000

Kelly is a former librarian and a long-time blogger at STACKED. She’s the editor/author of (DON’T) CALL ME CRAZY: 33 VOICES START THE CONVERSATION ABOUT MENTAL HEALTH and the editor/author of HERE WE ARE: FEMINISM FOR THE REAL WORLD. Her next book, BODY TALK, will publish in Fall 2020. Follow her on Instagram @heykellyjensen.

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Are there different preferences for book genres depending on what state you’re in? According to new research from Cloudwards, there are trends in book preferences based on location.

Utilizing Google Trends data over the last 12 months, Cloudwards explored the most searched genre in each of the 50 states, plus the District of Columbia. All searches were limited to Google Trends “Books and Literature” category, and the researchers used a variety of common genre terms to determine the frequency of interest in them by state. Some of the genre categories were a little unconventional for the average reader–how do you determine the difference between “fiction” and “family” as terms–but the major genres were included, including romance, fantasy, mystery, and so forth.

Romance dominated in terms of genre popularity across the US, with 22 states seeing it as their top searched genre. In terms of geographic region, romance was especially popular in the south, with states like Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Virginia ranking it as their top genre.

Fiction and poetry tied for next most popular genres, each either nine states reporting it as the most searched genre. The researchers note that these findings aren’t surprising, given that fiction is broad and encompassing. As for poetry, it is likely not surprising to see people looking for more information about poetry; the research here isn’t about poetry being the most read genre, but rather, one of the most researched genres.

The next most popular genres were fantasy (six states), family (3 states), mystery (1 state), and fantasy (1 state).

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It should come as little surprise there is so much national interest in romance. It is a genre that consistently sells well across all of its subgenres, and in 2023, print romance books sold upwards of 39 million copies. Romance-specific bookstores have seen a boom across the country, increasing ten fold in just a couple of years.

One of the most surprising findings might be that only one state ranked historical fiction as its most popular genre. That state was Massachusetts. It is a perennially popular genre among readers, and it is a genre that has been a long-running staple on best-of and awards lists.

There are some interesting regional genre interests of note. The northeastern and western United States tends to showcase the most genre diversity, while the midwest leans more toward romance. In the south, family stories pop up more than elsewhere. Cloudwards notes, too, that coastal states showcase a little more genre diversity than their interior counterparts.

The researchers note that their methodology lacks scientific scrutiny but shows a general idea of interest in different reading genres. Among some of the weaknesses of this study are the loosely-defined genres, as well as the lack of nuance when it comes to format of genre. It’s not clear whether or not the researchers looked into genres outside of those which ranked among the top in the US, as there’s no full list of utilized search terms. There is no indication in the research, for example, whether or not science fiction or westerns were researched, and while horror is a mood and not a genre, it is surprising to see zero representation for horror here, either.

Furthermore, poetry encompasses a wide variety of genres, as it is a format, rather than a genre. It’s also worth wondering where and how graphic novels in their myriad genres fit in with reader popularity.

If there’s a takeaway, it’s this: no matter how frequently romance novels can be derided or belittled in pop culture, it’s a genre that is thriving, that is growing, and that tops the list of genres readers are interested in in nearly half of the United States.

You can read more about the study here.

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