This month I spent a lot of time reading speculative fiction, including the magical realism of Tracy Chevalier’s The Glassmaker, the wildly imaginative fantasy world of Kelly Link’s The Book of Love, the grown up fairy tale of Meg Shaffer’s The Lost Story, and Tessa Pacelli’s soon-to-be-published techno-thriller The Garbage Man. Rounding things out were literary novels like Elaine Castillo’s tech workplace satire Moderation and my favorite of the bunch: Allegra Goodman’s gripping historical survival story Isola.

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The Book of Love, Kelly Link

In The Book of Love, three dead teens find themselves brought back to life by their magical high school music teacher and tasked with finding out how they died and learning how to perform magic. If they succeed, they can return to the land of the living. This first novel by acclaimed short story writer Kelly Link is a wildly imaginative fantasy tome filled with gods, magic, and mysterious shape-shifting creatures from the afterlife. It’s almost impossible to describe – and oddly compelling. I had a long debate with myself 300 pages in about whether I could keep going for another 300 pages. I’m glad I stuck with it, but at times it felt like a slog. Get your copy at Bookshop.

The Glassmaker, Tracy Chevalier

The Glassmaker is a very long book spanning a very long timeframe: nearly 500 years in the life of the same characters. Orsola Rosso and her 15th century Murano glassmaking family are special: they age much much more slowly than everyone else. So in the book, time jumps across decades like a stone skipping across the lagoon while the main characters only age a few years with each skip. This has the benefit of seeing the changes to Venice over time through the eyes of the same original residents. It’s a unique approach and I loved how Venice itself is almost a character in the novel, but I would have found it more interesting to read about how generations of a glassmaking family evolved with the times. Get your copy from Bookshop

The Lost Story, Meg Shaffer

Two boys disappear into a forest and return 6 months later with no explanation. One can’t remember what happened while they were gone. The other won’t tell. Fast forward 15 years later when the two boys, now grown men, revisit the forest and their memories to find a missing girl. While the premise sounds dark, the tone is light. I really liked this book at the start – it felt like it would be a fun, witty, grown up Chronicles of Narnia. But it started to fall apart for me once they got back to the forest. It felt like I was reading (or being told) a fairy tale rather than being immersed in their story. Therefore the magical world, the characters within it, and their relationships all felt a bit flat and distant to me. I would still like to read the author’s other novels though. Get your copy from Bookshop

Moderation, Elaine Castillo

Moderation follows Goldie Delmundo, content moderator extraordinaire for a fictional social media platform, as she becomes an active moderator in the company’s new VR application Playground. Goldie has been a successful content moderator because she has a tough exterior that enables her to put up with all the awful content she must review every day. But when she enters the VR world of Playground and warms up to her handsome new boss, her walls come down. Moderation is both a slow-burn romance and a commentary on tech greed and overreach. But because it straddles both romance and social commentary without committing to either, it doesn’t fully deliver on either front. Read my full review. Get your copy from Bookshop

The Garbage Man, Tessa Pacelli

Fresh out of Harvard Business School, Kayla Mousavi finds herself working for a high tech garbage company that uses bacteria to consume waste. The job is intense, all consuming, and morally shady. When Kayla discovers that her employer is illegally feeding on people’s digital waste to create a personalized, highly addictive, and sanity-destroying virtual reality platform, it puts a target on her back and kicks off the thrills. The Garbage Man is a thought provoking addition to the new crop of techno-thrillers exploring the potential downsides of AI and extreme technical innovation on humanity. Come back in September when I publish my full review. Thanks to NetGalley and Tessa Pacelli for the ARC.

Isola, Allegra Goodman

Isola is the terrifying survival story of a privileged 16th century French orphan whose cruel and vengeful guardian leaves her, her lover, and her childhood nursemaid to fend for themselves on a rocky and deserted island in the New World. Based on the true story of Marguerite de la Rocque, this gorgeously written Reese’s Book Club pick is a vivid and powerful tale of grit, hardship, resilience, and love. Get your copy from Bookshop