Most Buzzed About Debuts of 2021 (So Far)

Nightbitch: A Novel

Rachel Yoder
An outrageously original novel of ideas about art, power, and womanhood wrapped in a satirical fairy tale, Nightbitch will make you want to howl in laughter and recognition. And you should. You should howl as much as you want.

Something Wild

Hanna Halperin
Told in alternating perspectives that deftly interweave past and present, Something Wild is a magnetic, unflinching portrait of the bond between sisters, as well as a psychologically acute exploration of the legacy of divorce, the ways trauma reverberates over generations, and how it might be possible to overcome the past.

Dear Miss Metropolitan: A Novel

Carolyn Ferrell
“You think you’re ready for this novel, but you’re not ready. Carolyn Ferrell has shaped a story made of diamonds and broken glass; it’s going to cut you deep. Dear Miss Metropolitan is a triumph of storytelling in all its forms, a collage of styles and sympathies. A stunner.” —Victor LaValle, author of The Changeling

Nobody, Somebody, Anybody: A Novel

Kelly McClorey
Tender and laugh-out-loud funny, Nobody, Somebody, Anybody explores the shadowy corners of a young woman’s inner world of grief, delusion, and self-loathing, revealing the creeping loneliness of modern life and our endless search for connection. Kelly McClorey captures the hilarity and heartbreak of American ambition. Perfect for fans of Where’d You Go, Bernadette?; Convenience Store Woman; and Mostly Dead Things.

Damnation Spring

Ash Davidson
An epic, immersive debut, Damnation Spring is the deeply human story of a Pacific Northwest logging town wrenched in two by a mystery that threatens to derail its way of life. Told from various perspectives, in prose as clear as a spring-fed creek, this intimate, compassionate portrait of a community clinging to a vanishing way of life amid the perils of environmental degradation makes Damnation Spring an essential novel for our time.

Fault Lines: A Novel

Emily Itami
Funny, provocative, and startlingly honest, Fault Lines is for anyone who has ever looked in the mirror and asked, who am I and how did I get here? A bittersweet love story and a piercing portrait of female identity, it introduces Emily Itami, a debut novelist with astonishing resonance and wit.

Sistersong

Lucy Holland
With a lush and engaging voice, this novel tells a powerful story about sisterhood and magic with feminist themes and a gender nonconforming protagonist that feel right in line with a crossover speculative fiction. The magic in the story draws on Celtic paganism and is immediately recognizable and accessible. A must read for fans of historical fiction and myth retellings with magical elements, such as Circe, The Bear and the Nightingale, and The Witch’s Heart.

The Family

Naomi Kruptisky
Two daughters. Two families. One inescapable fate. A captivating debut novel about the tangled fates of two best friends and daughters of the Italian mafia, and a coming-of-age story of twentieth-century Brooklyn itself. Naomi Kruptisky’s writing has a velvety lyrical quality that is an absolute delight to read. This one is for readers of Elena Ferrante and Mario Puzo.

A Marvellous Light

Freya Marske
“The prose is sublime, the world-building top-notch, and the magic system is fascinating and unique. But what made me the happiest is how delightfully queer this story is. Robin and Edward have my whole heart, and I adored watching their relationship blossom.”—TJ Klune, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of The House in the Cerulean Sea

Bar Maid: A Novel

Daniel Roberts
Charlie Green is an eighteen-year-old romantic and aspiring alcoholic whose great wish is to fall in love with a light-eyed girl on his first day of college and never look back. A sparkingly witty, poignant debut novel that is a Bright Lights Big City for a post-Reagan, pre-Y2K Philadelphia—for readers of Normal People, Sweetbitter, Modern Lovers, and Less.

The Ballerinas: A Novel

Rachel Kapelke-Dale
Moving between three friends’ adolescent years and the present day, The Ballerinas explores the complexities of female friendship, the dark drive towards physical perfection in the name of artistic expression, the double-edged sword of ambition and passion, and the sublimated rage that so many women hold inside––all culminating in a twist you won’t see coming, with magnetic characters you won’t soon forget.

On Girlhood: 15 Stories from the Well-Read Black Girl Library

Glory Edim, Editor
With On Girlhood, Edim has beautifully curated a canonical work centering around the voices of young Black characters as they contend with innocence, belonging, love, and self-discovery. Highlighting both iconic and lesser-known authors—Edwidge Danticat, Amina Gautier, Dorothy West, Paule Marshall, Shay Youngblood, and more—this is an indispensable compendium that will instill readers with “the nerve to walk [their] own way” (Zora Neale Hurston).

Other People’s Children: A Novel 
R.J. Hoffmann 
Other People’s Children is a riveting debut around the often-heartbreaking journey of three women on the path to motherhood. As these women struggle with pregnancy, miscarriages, and the complications of adoption, this captivating novel asks us to consider what makes a family? This emotional rollercoaster of a novel will keep you on the edge of your seat until the very end.

We Are Watching Eliza Bright 
A.E. Osworth
Sometimes it takes a work of fiction to dissect the ills of society. A.E. Osworth’s tech world and writing background make this one of the most important cyber-thrillers of the 21st century. “Osworth offers a sharp take on the deeply disturbing misogyny that lurks online as well as a hopeful look at combatting it.”— PW

Things We Lost to the Water 
Eric Nyugen 
In Eric Nyugen’s beautifully written debut novel, Things We Lost to the Water, we meet Huong and her two young boys as they settle and begin to rebuild their lives in New Orleans. Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Sympathizer, Viet Thanh Nguyen, calls this story about survival, love and loss a “powerful novel [that] ripples and gleams with the unpredictable flow and surge of love, which, like water, can drown us or sustain us.”

Ariadne: A Novel 
Jennifer Saint 
Ariadne is another exciting new addition to the genre of mythological retellings. Based on the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur and told from the perspective of two sisters, Ariadne and Phaedra, this is a masterful debut about love, betrayal, and sisterhood. “Saint breathes new life into the forgotten women of Greek mythology with a novel that’s both incredibly absorbing, and full of heart.” —Katie Lowe, author of The Furies 

Mary Jane: A Novel 
Jessica Anya Blau 
In 1970s Baltimore, fourteen-year-old Mary Jane gets a summer job nannying for the daughter of a local psychiatrist, Dr. Cones. Away from her traditional, “proper” household, Mary Jane enters the Cones’ laxer world of sex, drugs, and rock & roll and begins to imagine a new life for herself outside of her strict family. “If you have ever sung along to a hit on the radio, in any decade, then you will devour Mary Jane at 45 rpm” —Nick Hornby, author of High Fidelity

First Day of Spring: A Novel 
Nancy Tucker 
Hidden identities and changes to one’s past aren’t easy. Imagine the mental and emotional toll of such alterations, shoving it all down so no one can see. Nancy Tucker’s debut novel is an exquisite AND troubled unraveling. You won’t be able to stop looking — or reading, for that matter. This one is “tense, addictive and powered by an unforgettable narrative voice.” —Paula Hawkins, author of The Girl on the Train

Madam: A Novel 
Phoebe Wynne 
“Imagine if Donna Tartt and Margaret Atwood got together to write a creepy, suspenseful novel about a school for young women in the Scottish Highlands,” says Chandler Baker, bestselling author of Whisper Network. Perfect for fans of The Secret History, this dark gothic novel is a thrilling story about what goes on behind closed doors at an elite, secretive boarding school called Caldonbrae Hall.

Revival Season: A Novel 
Monica West 
Every summer, Miriam and her family load up the minivan and drive through small southern towns for revival season, where her father holds healing ceremonies for the faithful who come looking for cures for their various illnesses. This summer, Miriam learns a secret about her father that forces her to reckon with her faith, her father’s cruelty, and her own abilities as a healer. Novelist Ann Patchett describes this novel about disillusionment, faith, and a young woman’s burgeoning sense of self, as “tender and wise”.

The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu 
Tom Lin
Tom Lin centers our vision to a time and place long forgotten but forever burned into our collective memory: The American West. The landscape is brutal, the whiskey might as well be for medicinal purposes only, guns are drawn, and the desert holds magic and horror. There is action, adventure and some very curious scenes throughout. We love this novel. It is as poetic as it is profane.

I Don’t Forgive You 
Aggie Blum Thompson 
Another 21st-century cautionary tale: stolen identities; a past that no longer truly goes away. The online doom scrolling keeps us anxious and yet we’ve STILL got to keep up with the Joneses. To top it off, there’s also a murder. Aggie Blum Thompson puts together a perfect fist-clenching novel of suspense. “Masterfully written and utterly gripping, Thompson hooks you from the very first page.” —Liv Constantine, author of The Last Mrs. Parrish

Shutter 
Melissa Larsen 
The world of movie-making magic continues to fascinate us. So, imagine the pull it has on an actor. How does one behave in the face of tragedy? Are judgments what they should be? Does it make us throw off our fears? Drop warning signs? Who can resist when the director yells “action”? What do you do when he says “cut”? “Taut and barbed as razor wire, Melissa Larsen’s prose catches hold of you and won’t let go until the last reel.” —Carol Goodman, author of The Sea of Lost Girls

Of Women and Salt 
Gabriela Garcia
Beautiful and tragic, Of Women and Salt follows five generations of women in Cuba, Mexico and Miami. A story about immigration, mothers and daughters and the choices women make for their families.  “Gabriela Garcia captures the lives of Cuban women in a world to which they refuse to surrender, and she does so with precision and generosity and beauty.” —Roxane Gay, author of Bad Feminist 

Body of Stars 
Laura Maylene Walter
Perfect for fans of Vox and The Power, this is a powerful novel about womanhood and toxic masculinity. It is a story about women when they are stripped of choices — and what happens when they begin to fight back. “A thought-provoking exploration of fate and forced binaries, this is a book that lingers.”—Erika Swyler, author of The Book of Speculation

Brood 
Jackie Polzin
This charming little novel follows our narrator as she attempts to keep her four chickens alive over the course of a year. Full of insight about love and marriage, grief and loss, and joy and wisdom. “The most vibrant and compelling slice of life … it’s generous, original, and witty, an absolute treasure of a novel.” —Claire Lombardo, author of The Most Fun We Ever Had 

The Lost Apothecary 
Sarah Penner
Taking us from 18th century London to the present day, this is the story of an apothecary who creates poisons for women to use on men who have wronged them. It is dark and atmospheric and a great blend of mystery, adventure, suspense and ultimately a woman’s search for self-discovery. I sat down to read this one Saturday afternoon and did not look up until I had turned the last page.

The Bad Muslim Discount 
Syed M. Masood
The Bad Muslim Discount is an irreverent, timely and comic coming-of-age novel about two very different families, arranged marriages, Muslim identity and being true to yourself. “One of the bravest and most eye-opening novels of the year. Masood is a whiz at characters and knows the way the world works inside out. A future classic.” —Gary Shteyngart, author of Lake Success

The Witch’s Heart 
Genevieve Gornichec
Mythological retellings are all the rage and The Witch’s Heart is the latest new addition. In this reimagined Norse myth, banished witch Angrboda survived a burning and now lives in the woods. Her journey is a heartbreaking, epic and beautiful tribute to the power of love and hope.

How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House 
Cherie Jones
Told from multiple points of view, this captivating novel highlights the disparities and complex relationships between the rich tourists in Barbados and poor locals who struggle with crime, violence, and grief in a tropical paradise. “This book unfolds around the reader like ripples in water, it offers an unflinching vision of what it means to have a body and to fight to protect that body, it demands attention.”—Daisy Johnson, author of Sisters

The Wife Upstairs 
Rachel Hawkins
A modern Jane Eyre retelling set in Alabama? Yes, please! New to Birmingham, Jane’s luck seems to change when she meets the recently widowed Eddie Rochester. Will Jane ever live up to the legacy of his late wife Bea? Will she finally get her happy ending? Megan Miranda, author of The Last House Guest calls this electric debut a “sharp, fresh twist on a classic … a darkly funny, suspenseful story of murder, ambition, and love. Creepy and fast-paced.”

The Liar’s Dictionary 
Eley Williams
Mountweazel n. the phenomenon of false entries within dictionaries and works of reference. Often used as a safeguard against copyright infringement.
The Liar’s Dictionary is the story of an eccentric Victorian lexicographer who inserts false entries into a dictionary as a way of asserting his artistic freedom and a young, overworked intern tasked with digitizing the dictionary. This clever, laugh-out-loud funny debut novel is the perfect one-sitting read for a cold January afternoon.

The Prophets 
Robert Jones, Jr. 
Son of Baldwin creator Robert Jones, Jr.’s debut novel The Prophets is a stunning, lyrical novel about the love between two enslaved young men on a plantation in Mississippi. This queer love story set against the horrific backdrop of slavery is masterful, at times painful to read, and ultimately, moving.