Can't-Wait Wednesday: The Graceview Patient by Caitlin Starling & All That We See or Seem by Ken Liu

   

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

The Graceview Patient by Caitlin Starling
Publication: October 14th, 2025
St. Martin's Press
Hardcover. 304 pages.
Pre-order: Bookshop.org | Amazon

From Goodreads:
"Misery meets Invasion of the Body Snatchers in this genre-bending, claustrophobic hospital gothic from the bestselling author of The Death of Jane Lawrence.

Margaret lives with a rare autoimmune condition that has destroyed her life, leaving her isolated. It has no cure, but she’s making do as best she can—until she’s offered a fully paid-for spot in an experimental medical trial at Graceview Memorial.

The conditions are simple, if grueling; she will live at the hospital as a full-time patient, subjecting herself to the near-total destruction of her immune system and its subsequent regeneration. The trial will essentially kill most of, but not all of her. But as the treatment progresses and her body begins to fail, she stumbles upon something sinister living and spreading within the hospital.

Unsure of what's real and what is just medication-induced delusion, Margaret struggles to find a way out as her body and mind succumb further to the darkness lurking throughout Graceview's halls."

Caitlin Starling is a little hit or miss for me these days, but I'm so intrigued by this premise and have high hopes for this one.

All That We See or Seem by Ken Liu
Publication: October 14th, 2025
Saga Press
Hardcover. 304 pages.
Pre-order: Bookshop.org | Amazon

From Goodreads:
"Award­ winning author Ken Liu returns with his first sci-fi thriller in a brand-new series following former “orphan hacker” Julia Z as she is thrust into a high-stakes adventure where she must use her cybersecurity and hacking skills to unravel a virtual reality mystery, rescue a kidnapped dream artist, and confront the blurred lines between technology, identity, and the power of shared dreams.

Julia Z, a young woman who gained notoriety at fourteen as the “orphan hacker,” is trying to live a life of digital obscurity in a Boston suburb.

But when a lawyer named Piers—whose famous artist wife, Elli, has been kidnapped by dangerous criminals—barges into her life, Julia decides to put the solitary life she has painstakingly created at risk as she can’t walk away from helping Piers and Elli, nor step away from the challenge of this digital puzzle. Elli is an onierofex, a dream artist, who can weave the dreams of an audience together through a shared virtual landscape, live, in a concert-like experience by tapping into each attendee’s waking dream and providing an emotionally resonant and narrative experience. While attendees’ dreams are anonymous, Julia discovers that Elli was also providing a one-on-one dream experience for the head of an international criminal enterprise, and he’s demanding his dreams in return for Elli.

Unraveling the real and unreal leads Julia on an adventure that takes her across the country and deep into the shadows of her psyche."

Admittedly, I have not been much of a fan of previous books I've tried by Ken Liu, but I'm curious about this one and I've been hearing quite a bit about it, so I'm eager to check it out for myself!