Can't-Wait Wednesday: Nothing Tastes as Good by Luke Dumas, Voidverse by Damien Ober, The Complex by Karan Mahajan, & No Friend to This House by Natalie Haynes

   

 Can't-Wait is a weekly meme hosted by Wishful Endings that spotlights exciting upcoming releases that we can't wait to be released

Nothing Tastes as Good by Luke Dumas
Publication: March 31st, 2026
Atria Books
Hardcover. 352 pages.
Pre-order: Bookshop.org | Amazon

From Goodreads:
"The acclaimed author of the “disorienting, creepy, paranoia-inducing” (Paul Tremblay, author of The Cabin at the End of the World) A History of Fear returns with a spine-tingling new thriller about a weight loss treatment with potentially murderous side effects.

Retail worker Emmett Truesdale has never fit the Southern California mold of six-pack, suntanned masculinity. Over three hundred pounds, he carries the weight of his childhood trauma and millennial ennui around his waist and in his soul. After trying every diet under the sun, he remains stuck—in his dead-end job, in love, and in his body.

Desperate for help, he enrolls in a clinical trial for a new weight loss product called Obexity. The treatment is as horrifying as the results are miraculous and as Emmett sheds pounds at superhuman speed, every part of his life improves overnight.

Unfortunately, Obexity comes with some killer side effects, including lost stretches of time and overwhelming cravings. Worse, people who were cruel to him have started disappearing and when the police warn of a cannibalistic killer on the loose, he fears that Obexity is turning him into a monster. But how can he give it up now that people are finally starting to treat him like he’s human?

Nerve-racking, sinister, and at times surreal, Nothing Tastes as Good is an unputdownable thriller that combines The Substance with the best of Stephen King and keeps you guessing until the final page."

Voidverse by Damien Ober

Publication: March 10th, 2026

S&S/Saga Press

Hardcover. 336 pages.

Pre-order: Bookshop.org | Amazon

From Goodreads:

"Dune meets Wool in this high-octane quest through the void, where two eternal forces are about to collide in an epic showdown.

A HALF-FORMED UNIVERSE.
A POWERFUL ANOMALY.
A POEM THAT IS PROPHECY.

When the Sinker was a child, all she knew was violence. To survive, she fled into the Void—a seemingly infinite nothingness where people live on “rocks,” individual lands spread out in all directions, floating in the vast empty space. Some rocks are giant magnets, others burn with eternal flame, and some are influenced by seemingly magical anomalies with such great powers that evil forces would stop at nothing to possess them. And while most are afraid of traveling through the Void, the Sinker is not. With a sword on her back, she speeds through the darkness, running from a past that is quickly gaining on her.

Emery only knows the comfort of Fairviel, but when her son falls ill and the Sinker arrives on her doorstep, she ventures into the Void in search of a cure. When she returns, Fairviel is destroyed. With no home, Emery begins to sink, chasing a recurring dream that feels bigger than a dream, that feels like the key to everything.

But they are not alone in the Void. Mercenaries rise and fall around them, princes and kings guard their kingdoms, and a great machine fuels its ascent by consuming all in its path. With the Void destabilizing, Emery and the Sinker find themselves at a turning point in history, a moment when everything could collapse or realign, and the only thing that may save them exists at the bottom of it all. Or so legend says…"

The Complex by Karan Mahajan
Publication: March 10th, 2026
Viking
Hardcover. 448 pages.
Pre-order: Bookshop.org | Amazon

From Goodreads:
"A brilliant, sweeping tour de force moving between the US and modern India, following the illicit liaisons, real estate dramas, political ambitions, and mortal betrayals of one prominent Delhi family — from the author of the National Book Award finalist The Association of Small Bombs

In a sprawling complex in Delhi, the sons and daughters of SP Chopra, one of India's political architects, live together vying for influence in a family shaped by the great man's legacy. By the late 1970s, his descendants are scrambling to define their own futures in a still-young nation on the brink of transformation.

Sachin Chopra leaves for America, with his bride Gita following not long after, as the newlyweds are eager to forge their own lives beyond the pressures of the family compound. Yet Delhi remains an inescapable force, one that keeps pulling them back, even as Gita is menaced by Sachin’s predatory uncle, Laxman. A man of restless ambition, Laxman ascends through the ranks of a rising Hindu nationalist movement, caught between his political aspirations and his personal transgressions. Meanwhile, Vibha, his sister, tries to keep the peace and the reputation of the family intact even as she wrestles with her own exile.

As India erupts in violence and long-buried secrets come to light, the embattled Chopras must reckon with the cost of power, the weight of tradition, and the shifting nature of love and allegiance. Equal parts brilliant family saga and piercing political drama, The Complex is a virtuosic novel of revenge and redemption, ambition and undoing, loyalty and love, by one of the most lauded voices in contemporary fiction."

No Friend to This House by Natalie Haynes

Publication: March 10th, 2026

Harper

Hardcover. 384 pages.

Pre-order: Bookshop.org | Amazon

From Goodreads:

"No Friend to This House is an extraordinary reimagining of the myth of Medea from the New York Times bestselling author of Stone Blind, Natalie Haynes.

This is what no one tells you, in the songs sung about Jason and the Argo. This part of his quest has been forgotten, by everyone but me . . .

Jason and his Argonauts set sail to find the Golden Fleece. The journey is filled with danger, for him and everyone he meets. But if he ever reaches the distant land he seeks, he faces almost certain death.

Medea—priestess, witch, and daughter of a brutal king—has the power to save the life of a stranger. Will she betray her family and her home, and what will she demand in return?

Medea and Jason seize their one chance of a life together, as the gods intend. But their love is steeped in vengeance from the beginning, and no one—not even those closest to them—will be safe. Based on the classic tragedy by Euripides, this is Medea as you've never seen her before . . ."

Double Mini-Reviews: The Paleontologist by Luke Dumas, Mary and the Birth of Frankenstein by Anne Eekhout

I have a little bit of catching up to do on reviews, so today I have two mini reviews to share with you all, and there will probably be more coming in the future. Let me know if you've read any of these books and what your thoughts are!

The Paleontologist by Luke Dumas

Atria Books
Publication: October 31st, 2023

Paperback. 356 pages.

About The Paleontologist:

"Curator of paleontology Dr. Simon Nealy never expected to return to his Pennsylvania hometown, let alone the Hawthorne Museum of Natural History. He was just a boy when his six-year-old sister, Morgan, was abducted from the museum under his watch, and the guilt has haunted Simon ever since. After a recent break-up and the death of the aunt who raised him, Simon feels drawn back to the place where Morgan vanished, in search of the bones they never found.

But from the moment he arrives, things aren’t what he expected. The Hawthorne is a crumbling ruin, still closed amid the ongoing pandemic, and plummeting toward financial catastrophe. Worse, Simon begins seeing and hearing things he can’t explain. Strange animal sounds. Bloody footprints that no living creature could have left. A prehistoric killer looming in the shadows of the museum. Terrified he’s losing his grasp on reality, Simon turns to the handwritten research diaries of his predecessor and uncovers a blood-soaked mystery 150 million years in the making that could be the answer to everything.

Are these the ravings of a madman? Or is there something supernatural at play? And what does this have to do with Morgan’s disappearance?"

The Paleontologist centers around a haunted museum and a man on the hunt to find out just why and how his sister disappeared when they were just kids. There are some supernatural and ghostly elements, some mystery, and plenty of unpredictability to keep readers riveted. 

What I liked: I love dinosaurs, ghost stories, and museums, so this was sort of the perfect mix of all of those. Much like in Dumas' A History of Fear, the atmosphere in The Paleontologist was absolutely on target and captured the vibe of a creepy mildly abandoned (currently empty due to COVID) museum full of dinosaur bones and dark basements. I definitely felt this book's setting and was immediately transported to it. I also think Dumas managed to craft a mystery around Simon's sister's disappearance that really quite gripping and complex, and provided a variety of twists that kept me hooked. I also appreciated that the author definitely seemed to do his dinosaur research for this book and I enjoyed all the different times when we got some history lessons about various dinosaur related things.

What I didn't like: The haunting and ghost elements felt a bit underdeveloped and under-executed. I feel like there was a lot of build up about the museum being haunted and we got some pretty intense glimpses into things that happens with some, uh, bones of the dinosaurs... and then it feels like that all just was ignored? There was some mention of it at the end with a general "let's wrap this up" vibe, but it felt very underwhelming in general to me. This book didn't really end up being quite what I expected it to be based on the premise provided and the push towards making this sound like scary haunted museum/dinosaur ghost story, but it was a bit more of a mystery/thriller about a man trying to find out what happened to his sister and all the different emotions and struggles that come from that. This wasn't bad, and Dumas wrote this really well, but it just wasn't quite what I expected. 

Overall, I've given The Paleontologist 3.75 stars.

Amazon | Bookshop.org

Mary and the Birth of Frankenstein by Anne Eekhout
HarperVia
Publication Date: October 3rd, 2023

Hardcover. 320 pages.

About Mary and the Birth of Frankenstein:

"Switzerland, 1816. A volcanic eruption in Indonesia envelopes the whole of Europe in ash and cloud. Amid this “year without a summer,” eighteen-year-old Mary Shelley and her lover Percy Bysshe Shelley arrive at Lake Geneva to visit Lord Byron and his companion John Polidori. Anguished by the recent loss of her child, Mary spends her days in strife. But come nightfall, the friends while away rainy wine-soaked evenings gathered around the fireplace, exchanging stories. One famous evening, Byron issues a challenge to write the best ghost story. Contemplating what to write, Mary recalls another summer, when she was fourteen…

Scotland, 1812. A guest of the Baxter family, Mary arrives in Dundee, befriending young Isabella Baxter. The girls soon spend hours together wandering through fields and forests, concocting tales about mythical Scottish creatures, ghosts and monsters roaming the lowlands. As their bond deepens, Mary and Isabella’s feelings for each other intensify. But someone has been watching them—the charismatic and vaguely sinister Mr. Booth, Isabella's older brother-in-law, who may not be as benevolent as he purports to be…"

Mary and the Birth of Frankenstein reimagines the life of Mary Shelley up until her creation of the well-loved Gothic classic, Frankenstein. This is a character-driven and slower paced story that is full of complex relationships and beautiful writing. 

What I liked: I liked getting to meet this reimagined version of Mary Shelley and experience some of what her life may have been like. I also enjoyed meeting a variety of the different figures (literary and otherwise) in Mary's life and seeing their different interactions, as there was a lot of complexity to many of the relationships in this book and I think the author conveyed that aspect extraordinarily well. Additionally, this is a translated work so I can't speak to the original prose itself, but the translation is really beautiful. It appears to me as though the translator managed to capture the style and mood of the author extremely well, and I thought it was written really beautifully. This was one of those novels that, even if the plot wasn't always really strong, the writing was lovely enough that I found myself captivated anyway. 

What I didn't like: Not all that much really seems to happen in this book, and I did find some of it the slightest bit hard to follow at times. Much of the story does seem to drag on, so I found that you really had to be either invested in the characters or enjoy the prose itself to really feel compelled to keep reading. I also didn't find many of the characters overly engaging, but fortunately their interactions with one another were a bit more compelling than the characters themselves, if that makes sense.

Overall, I've given Mary and the Birth of Frankenstein 3.5 stars. 

Amazon | Bookshop.org

Can't-Wait Wednesday: Red River Seven by A.J. Ryan, Nestlings by Nat Cassidy, & The Paleontologist by Luke Dumas

   

Can't-Wait is a weekly meme hosted by Wishful Endings that spotlights exciting upcoming releases that we can't wait to be released! This meme is based off of Jill @ Breaking the Spine's Waiting on Wednesday meme.

This week's upcoming book spotlights are:

Red River Seven by A.J. Ryan
Publication: October 10th, 2023
Orbit
Paperback. 304 pages.
Pre-order: Amazon | Bookshop.org

From Goodreads:
"Seven strangers. One mission. Infinite horror.

A man awakes on a boat at sea with no memory of who or where he is. He's not alone - there are six others, each with a unique set of skills. None of them can remember their names. All of them possess a gun.

When a message appears on the onboard computer - Proceeding to Point A - the group agrees to work together to survive whatever is coming.

But as the boat moves through the mist-shrouded waters, divisions begin to form. Who is directing them and to what purpose? Why can't they remember anything?

And what are the screams they can hear beyond the mist?

Internationally bestselling fantasy author Anthony Ryan - writing as A. J. Ryan - delivers a nerve-shredding thriller in which seven strangers must undertake a terrifying journey into the unknown."

It's exciting to see Anthony Ryan writing some in a new genre, and this premise is one of the most compelling ones I've heard in a while. 

Nestlings by Nat Cassidy
Publication: October 31st, 2023
Tor Nightfire
Paperback. 304 pages.
Pre-order: Amazon | Bookshop.org

From Goodreads:
"Ana and Reid needed a lucky break. The horrifically complicated birth of their first child has left Ana paralyzed, bitter, and with mobility, with her relationship with Reid, with resentment for her baby. That's about to change with the words any New Yorker would love to hear―affordable housing lottery.

They've won an apartment in the Deptford, one of Manhattan's most revered buildings with beautiful vistas of Central Park and stunning architecture.

Reid dismisses disturbing events and Ana’s deep unease and paranoia as the price of living in New York―people are odd―but he can't explain the needle-like bite marks on the baby."

I unfortunately still haven't gotten around to Nat Cassidy's Mary: An Awakening of Terror, but I'm still really curious about his horror and am so eager to dive into Nestlings. 

The Paleontologist by Luke Dumas
Publication: October 31st, 2023
Atria Books
Paperback. 368 pages.
Pre-order: Amazon | Bookshop.org

From Goodreads:
"Curator of paleontology Dr. Simon Nealy never expected to return to his Pennsylvania hometown, let alone the Hawthorne Museum of Natural History. He was just a boy when his six-year-old sister, Morgan, was abducted from the museum under his watch, and the guilt has haunted Simon ever since. After a recent break-up and the death of the aunt who raised him, Simon feels drawn back to the place where Morgan vanished, in search of the bones they never found.

But from the moment he arrives, things aren’t what he expected. The Hawthorne is a crumbling ruin, still closed amid the ongoing pandemic, and plummeting toward financial catastrophe. Worse, Simon begins seeing and hearing things he can’t explain. Strange animal sounds. Bloody footprints that no living creature could have left. A prehistoric killer looming in the shadows of the museum. Terrified he’s losing his grasp on reality, Simon turns to the handwritten research diaries of his predecessor and uncovers a blood-soaked mystery 150 million years in the making that could be the answer to everything.

Are these the ravings of a madman? Or is there something supernatural at play? And what does this have to do with Morgan’s disappearance?"

I found Luke Dumas' previous release, A History of Fear, really interesting and written in a very detail and thoughtful way, so I'm looking forward to reading something new from him–especially with a premise as interesting as this! I love history, I love museums, and I love a madman. Can't wait to check this one out!

Can't-Wait Wednesday: A History of Fear by Luke Dumas & The Tatami Galaxy by Tomihiko Morimi

 Can't-Wait is a weekly meme hosted by Wishful Endings that spotlights exciting upcoming releases that we can't wait to be released! This meme is based off of Jill @ Breaking the Spine's Waiting on Wednesday meme.

 

This week's upcoming book spotlights are:

A History of Fear by Luke Dumas
Publication: December 6th, 2022
Atria Books
Hardcover. 368 pages.
Pre-order: Amazon | Bookshop.org

From Goodreads:

"Grayson Hale, the most infamous murderer in Scotland, is better known by a different name: the Devil’s Advocate. The twenty-five-year-old American grad student rose to instant notoriety when he confessed to the slaughter of his classmate Liam Stewart, claiming the Devil made him do it. 

When Hale is found hanged in his prison cell, officers uncover a handwritten manuscript that promises to answer the question that’s haunted the nation for years: was Hale a lunatic, or had he been telling the truth all along? 

Unnervingly, Hale doesn’t fit the bill of a killer. The first-person narrative that centers this novel reveals an acerbic young atheist, newly enrolled at the University of Edinburgh to carry on the legacy of his recently deceased father. In need of cash, he takes a job ghostwriting a mysterious book for a dark stranger, but has misgivings when the project begins to reawaken his satanophobia, a rare condition that causes him to live in terror that the Devil is after him. As he struggles to disentangle fact from fear, Grayson’s world is turned upside-down after events force him to confront his growing suspicion that he’s working for the one he has feared all this time—and that the book is only the beginning of their partnership.​​ 

A History of Fear is a propulsive foray into the darkness of the human psyche, marrying dread-inducing atmosphere and heart-palpitating storytelling."

I feel like I've been seeing this book for as an anticipated release for months and months by now, and it's only made me want to read it more each time I see it! 

and...

The Tatami Galaxy by Tomihiko Morimi, trans Emily Balistrieri
Publication: December 6th, 2022
Harpervia
Hardcover. 352 pages.
Pre-order: Amazon | Bookshop.org

From Goodreads:

"An unfulfilled college student hurtles through four parallel realities to explore the what-might've-been and the what-should-never-be in this Groundhog Day meets The Midnight Library-esque novel from one of Japan's most popular authors. 

Our protagonist, an unnamed junior at a prestigious university in Kyoto, is on the verge of dropping out. After rebelling against the dictatorial jock president of the film club, he and his worst and only friend, the diabolical creep Ozu, are personas non grata on campus. For two years, our protagonist has made all the wrong decisions, and now he's about to make another mistake. He and Ozu are preparing for revenge--a fireworks attack at the film club's welcoming party for new members. Then, a chance encounter with a self-proclaimed god sets the confused and distraught young man on a new course. Destiny will bring him together with Akashi, the blunt but charming sophomore he has a crush on--if he's brave enough to make a move. Yet our protagonist cannot get beyond his profound disillusionment and the moment is lost. But what if there's a universe where he did join the club of his dreams, ditched Ozu for good, and was confident enough to get the girl? A realm of possibility opens up for our protagonist as time rewinds, and from the four-and-a-half-mat tatami floor of his dorm room, he is plunged into a series of adventures that will take him to four parallel universes. In each universe, he is given the opportunity to start over as a freshman, in search of a rose-colored campus life."

How fun does this premise sound? I think this would make for a perfect lighter speculative fiction read!

What do you think about these upcoming releases? What are your anticipated upcoming releases?