6 of the Best New Book Releases Out August 18, 2026

Bestselling author Olivie Blake’s latest features an L.A. that is currently experiencing a “summer of exsanguination.” Or at least, that’s what the news is calling it. Someone is murdering girls, and an odd energy is blowing in from Santa Ana. Even with all that going on, Anya Morris is just trying to focus on an acting career that seems to grow more and more unlikely. But then she catches a break: she gets invited to work for the de Witts, a Hollywood film dynasty. It’s in their Hollywood Hills villa that she meets Jude, who keeps to himself, even though he is next in line to be the head of the family. Anya is naturally drawn to him, despite there clearly being something really wrong with him…there’s also the matter of the family’s occult curse and bloodstained villa. Question is: will she make it out alive, or make a deal with the devil? —Erica Ezeifedi

I never get tired of the hilarious titles of Kimberly Lemming’s books. Blair has been kidnapped in a spaceship and brought to an alien planet (where dinosaurs still exist). As if that isn’t enough, she then learns she’s expected to mate with the king of the planet as part of an alien research program. Let the punching commence! —Liberty Hardy

Danny Roamadan’s life as a queer man born in Damascus has always been full of danger. Long before he found a safe place to call home, Ramadan’s life was spent living across West Asia and North Africa in a constant search for safety. Ramadan’s story pushes back against the one-note, simplified refugee narrative. His story is multi-faceted, complex in its portrayal of a life just as vibrant—with both its joys and its sorrows—as anyone else’s. —Kendra Winchester

Mexican American and Indigenous novelist and poet Jennifer Givhan has been killing it in the horror game (Salt Bones, River Women, River Demon), and I’m thrilled to see her latest comped to greats like Stephen Graham Jones, Gabino Iglesias, and Carmen Maria Machado. Inspired by true events, it’s the story of Fortuna, a mother who moves her family to a better neighborhood across the Rio Grande in hopes of outrunning a violent family curse, and Jeanette, a detective who’s spent decades chasing the ghosts of her murdered cousins. Fortuna and Jeanette’s paths collide when a body is found in this Chicanified remix of the legend of the headless woman. —Vanessa Diaz

In this Gen Z coming-of-age novel, we follow Rishi, a “burnt-out youth climate activist, she used to want to save the world, but now she just wants to have gay sex.” When the COVID pandemic hits, she ignores online college in favor of forming a farm collective with her friends. As you might expect from a bunch of queer college students in a small space, the relationships between them get very complicated very quickly. I love mess. —Danika Ellis

As someone who grew up as a library kid, I’ve always believed libraries are special places that should be protected. Librarians were the superheroes of my childhood, just like Dorothy Lazard was at the Oakland Public Library. In her new memoir, Lazard gives us a behind-the-scenes look at her day-to-day life at the library. She shows us, firsthand, how much work goes into maintaining a public library and emphasizes why libraries are so important. —Kendra Winchester