The Best New Books of October, According to Indie Booksellers

This is the Indie Next List #1 Pick for October!

The bookseller recommendation says, “Lily King shows us that not all love stories are linear. Despite the best intentions, sometimes the universe intervenes. What we choose to do with what the world throws at us defines who we are.”
—Kate Czyzewski, Thunder Road Books, Spring Lake, NJ

This is a literary love story about two people whose lives are intrinsically connected between families and across countries. In America, Sonia (living in Vermont) and Sunny (living in Brooklyn) are incredibly lonely. Both of their families back in India have no idea how their loved ones can feel so alone. In their country, they are surrounded by family and loved ones. So, the two families plan a meeting between Sonia and Sunny, but will all the meddling derail the love Sonia and Sunny could have for one another before they even get a chance to explore it? —Emily Martin

Angela Flournoy’s 2015 debut The Turner House was highly acclaimed and widely loved, and many readers—myself included—have been eagerly awaiting her follow-up ever since. Whatever you call the opposite of a sophomore slump, this is it.

The Wilderness follows a group of Black women through decades of friendship and into the near future, as they navigate the impacts of race, class, and gender on their lives in two of America’s biggest cities. It’s a masterfully written and often surprising story that confirms Flournoy as one of the most vital novelists working today.

Already named a finalist for the 2025 Kirkus Prize for Fiction and longlisted for the National Book Award, this one is sure to spark conversation and likely to take home some hardware. —Rebecca Schinsky

Are you into pandemic novels that are as trippy as they are silly? What about characters who constantly hear the hook to ’90s Eurodance hits in their head? In Lockwood’s latest, one young woman’s mind disentangles itself so much from her past experiences that she begins to question if maybe she’s been given a new chance at life. This look at the descent—or ascension?—brought about by a deteriorating mental illness is both new and surreal. And that cover is fire. —Erica Ezeifedi

Mona Awad’s Bunny came out in 2019, and we’re all still talking about it. In this sequel to the cult classic, former MFA student Samantha Heather Mackey has published a critically acclaimed novel, based on her experiences with a cultish clique of girls called the Bunnies. Sam’s book is a huge success, but the Bunnies aren’t so pleased with their portrayal in the novel. So when Sam’s book tour stops in New England, the Bunnies capture her. —Emily Martin

Samanta Schweblin, three-time Booker finalist and author of Fever Dream, is giving us six new short stories that are just the kind of wild, unnerving, mind-bending content you would expect from this author. These chilling stories blend magical realism and psychological horror to explore guilt, grief, family trauma, shattered relationships, and more. —Emily Martin

In Marie Lu’s adult debut, criminal syndicates in Angel City control the alchemy of transformation. A form of sand sold to the rich to help them maintain more beauty and charm, the fight for control of transformation alchemy will become so dangerous that it threatens to destroy Angel City and the people in it. —Liberty Hardy

The author of the Last Binding trilogy and Swordcrossed returns with this Cinderella retelling. It’s a queer Gothic romance about the ghost of a murdered girl trapped in her father’s house, who makes a bargain to be almost-alive and free for three nights. Spoiler: three nights won’t be enough. —Liberty Hardy

Did you watch The Thing and think, “I wish this were scarier and sexier?” Then Sarah Gailey’s Spread Me is for you. At a remote research outpost in the middle of the desert, Kinsey and her crew discover a mysterious specimen buried deep in the sand. They do what any scientists would do in this situation and bring the specimen back to their research facility to examine it. But the longer it stays with them, the stranger everyone begins to feel. Strange desires come to the surface, too. —Emily Martin

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