GORGEOUS SCIENCE FICTION set in a future where robots are humans’ closest companions. Lush prose, fascinating ideas. Translated from Catalan! A MINUS

THE VESTIGIAL HEART: A NOVEL OF THE ROBOT AGE
MIT Press
2018

SUPERNATURAL SPY YARN set in an alternate 1938 where the living and the dead run complementary intelligence agencies. Clever and spooky. B PLUS

SUMMERLAND (HARDCOVER)
Tor Books
2018

HORRIFYING SUPERNATURAL TALE set in 1918 France; intriguing ideas but prose could use some pruning. SOLID B

DOVE KEEPER
Emily Deibler
2018

CREEPY TRUE CRIME tale of a tennis coach’s predations on wealthy Manhattan teens also paints a grim portrait of a privileged, hollow life. SOLID B

YOU ALL GROW UP & LEAVE ME A MEMOIR OF TEENAGE OBSESSION
WILLIAM MORROW & COMPANY INC
2018

STYLISH PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER in the grand tradition of Patricia Highsmith, with a vivid 1950s Morocco setting. A MINUS

TANGERINE (HARDCOVER)
Ecco
2018

AFTER HER PARTNER’S death, a young writer wanders a dreamlike San Francisco. Lovely, elegiac novel in stories. B PLUS

THE FIFTH WOMAN (MARY MCCARTHY PRIZE IN SHORT FICTION) (PAPERBACK)
Sarabande Books
2018

ANARCHIST DEMON HUNTERS on the run find more dire magic than they had bargained for. Suspenseful and smart. B PLUS

THE BARROW WILL SEND WHAT IT MAY (DANIELLE CAIN #2) (PAPERBACK)
Tor.com
2018

THE PSEUDOSCIENCE OF FOOD FADS, wittily dissected by the Angry Chef blogger. Informative, sometimes infuriating. B PLUS

THE ANGRY CHEF’S GUIDE TO SPOTTING BULLSH*T IN THE WORLD OF FOOD (PAPERBACK)
The Experiment
2018

A DYSTOPIAN 2090 AMERICA reveals its secrets to two young scientists on the run from the total surveillance state. Suspenseful and chilling! B PLUS

THE SECLUSION
Inkshares
2018

A 1954 TREK ACROSS AUSTRALIA is a comic picaresque adventure, but more as well: love, death, identity, Jung, history, colonialism all blend together on the road. A MINUS

A LONG WAY FROM HOME
PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE
2018