u/cryborg_96

I came across a post about this collection on the official Le Guin page on Instagram a couple of days ago, it was released September 22nd 2026. It looks very interesting, are any of you planning to read it?

Book description:

Revolution in the Heart is a collection of 15 brand new stories by a group of celebrated authors, all inspired by one of the iconic figures in all of science fiction and fantasy: the legendary and award-winning Ursula K. Le Guin.

From the appearance of her first work of short fiction in 1962 to the publication of the last in 2016, Ursula K. Le Guin was a master storyteller, winning innumerable awards, and achieving both commercial and literary success. She created the beloved stories of Earthsea alongside the urgent and essential stories of the Hain, pushing forward the form and concepts of science fiction and fantasy - reshaping them into forward-thinking genres.

This collection honours her legacy with stories from authors she inspired:

Ann Leckie
Molly Gloss
Kelly Link
Charlie Jane Anders
Sarah Pinsker
Chana Porter
Ai Jiang
Alaya Dawn Johnson
S. Qiouyi Lu
E. Lily Yu
Vandana Singh
Aliya Whiteley
Premee Mohamed
Darice Little Badger
Karen Joy Fowler

This is an upcoming release I am very excited about! I had completely forgotten about it until now. It is set to be released in October. Here is the blurb:

"A dyke hooker revenge fantasy novella, in which two sex workers fall in love and go on a ruthless murder spree.

When Leila meets Silvia during a booking with Silvia's longtime client, the infatuation is instant. Silvia is older, glamorous, charming, and has been working for a lot longer than Leila, who is still new to sex work. Later that evening the two run into each other at a hotel bar, and after a messy night of drugs and sex, begin a romantic relationship that takes a turn when they start murdering clients together.  

Traversing the spaces of queer East London and the corporate city, Choke is a propulsive and sexy revenge fantasy mash up of black comedy, psychological (un)realism and literary essay that bends tropes and explores the essence of fantasy, from BDSM and kink to wealth and class to bodies and transness. A wild, fun, smart, and pulpy novella that transforms literary traditions and elevates queer writing."

If any of you got an arc of this and read it already I would love to hear your thoughts!

I have been made aware of a lot of new and upcoming books since I made my previous post, so I decided to try to compile them again. Again, a lot of these I have discovered through this sub, so thank you!

Here is a bit of information about each book, mostly excerpts from the blurbs:

• Fallow by Sarah Anderson:

Slyly funny and disarmingly tender, Fallow is the story of a young woman who signs up to be the world’s first in-house corporate surrogate, then finds herself caught up in a social experiment of another kind.

• Furious Violet by Sarai Walker:

Gripping, provocative, and laced with pitch-black humor, Furious Violet is a psychological thrill ride and a fierce exploration of mothers (real and imagined), fame, and the question of who can lay claim to women’s bodies of work—and their bodies themselves.

• Awake Awake by Fiona Mozley:

Mary has started remembering things that she knows aren't real—but the events feel exactly like her actual memories. Who is she, if she can't be sure she knows her own past?

• Four Terrible Parents by Calla Henkel:

Valentine and Raul have been touring in their indie-sleaze band SEZME since their college days, but as they enter their early forties priorities change. It's time to move out of Berlin and start settling down. Raul is ready to marry his boyfriend, Banner, and Valentine wants to start a family with her on-and-off-again partner, Linh, but still keep the band together. (...)

Stylish, twisty and laced with dark humour, Four Terrible Parents is a story of power, love, and starting again.

• A Thousand Monstrous Forms by Saratoga Schaefer:

Bluebeard gets a gothic horror and sapphic romance twist in this fairytale retelling from the author of Serial Killer Support Group and Trad Wife. A young ceramic artist moves into her new wife’s isolated manor and gets drawn into dark discoveries that stain her marriage—and her very soul.

• Queen Mab by Emily McBride:

In this debut novel, a new mother, a scholar steeped in fairy lore, wrestles with the legacies and madness of motherhood.

There is a changeling in this story, but who is it?

• She's A Doll by Barbara Truelove:

Lucy isn’t a normal girl. Ghost. Victim. Killer. She’s a doll on a mission—to find the man who killed her and return the favor.

• Ravenous by Sara Cooper:

Breigh is a hot elder millennial who is obsessed with the brands she is ambassading for. Her policy is YES, and her livestreams are viral. But she’s pregnant now, and her body’s changing. It's not that she's hungry. She's definitely not depressed. She just sometimes eats boxes of makeup before passing out.

I came across this a while back, but hasn't really seen anyone talk about it. It looks really interesting so I would love to hear your thoughts if any of you have read it! My tbr is very overwhelming at the moment, but this looks like it could be a fun and unhinged read.

The cover is also 10/10 imo.

This is the blurb:

What happens when the dream of starting your own family turns into a nightmare?

Valentine and Raul have been touring in their indie-sleaze band SEZME since their college days, but as they enter their early forties priorities change. It's time to move out of Berlin and start settling down. Raul is ready to marry his boyfriend, Banner, and Valentine wants to start a family with her on-and-off-again partner, Linh, but still keep the band together.

Determined to piece together the perfect life of domestic bliss and artistic pursuits, Valetine begins planning. When she inherits the crumbling Southern gothic hotel she grew up miserably in from her late father, it feels like fate. Convincing Raul, Banner and Linh to join her in renovating the hotel, she begins to dream of an idyllic queer family life in the childhood home that brought her so much grief. 

But as the four of them navigate their new home and welcome a daughter, August, into the world, their relationships start to sour. On the night of the hotel's grand opening, what's meant to be an evening of celebration turns into a nightmare as August goes missing and soon the parents turn on each other. And then the world turns on them.

Stylish, twisty and laced with dark humour, Four Terrible Parents is a story of power, love, and starting again.

I came across this at a sci-fi conference and love the cover. I didn't purchase it (which I regret) so I haven't read the story, but would love to know what they are talking(?) about.

I came across this in a bookshop yesterday and was immediately drawn to it. Would love to hear your thoughts if you have read it.

This is the blurb:

"This internationally acclaimed masterpiece by one of Iran’s most important and influential writers traces the interwoven destinies of five women – including a wealthy middle-aged housewife, a sex worker and a schoolteacher – as they arrive by different paths to live together in an abundant garden on the outskirts of Tehran.

Drawing on recent Iranian history and transcendent elements of Islamic mysticism, Parsipur’s unforgettable novel sees women escaping strict confines of family and society. It is still as pertinent and discerning today as it was when travelling secretly from hand to hand upon its first publication in 1989."

I decided to read all the books on the shortlist for the Ursula K. Le Guin prize for fiction, and this is my first!

Would love to hear your thoughts if you have read it, but no spoilers please! The only thing that is putting me off so far is having a main character that is so singularly important (based on the blurb), but the premise is interesting and I am enjoying the writing style.

Edit: no need to be concerned about the colour of the drink, it’s a hojicha latte not coffee ☺️

I keep seeing posts in this sub asking for recs featuring queer women, so I decided to compile a sort of expanded post of my favourites. Most of these have been included in other posts I have made here as I mostly read queer books, but I thought that it might be helpful to have them all in one place. All of the books included are ones that I have read and enjoyed. I am sure that there are tons I have forgotten.

Would love to hear your recs! One of the reasons I am quite drawn to books that are categorised as 'weird girl' is that I think they often explore heteropessimism very well.

I got this at a conference and really like the cover. The eyes are quite silly, but I find it very endearing. The story it is based on is "Integration Module" by Daniel B. James which I haven't read yet, so I don't know how the creature(?) is described in the text.

I have decided to read the entire shortlist for the Ursula K. Le Guin prize for fiction 2026, and was very pleasantly surprised to see that Midnight Timetable by Bora Chung is on the list!

Having read Cursed Bunny by her I definitely think that these will be weird girl, so I am glad that this will perhaps be quite different from the other speculative fiction on the list. Have any of you read it?

It is described as a "novel-in-ghost-stories, set in a mysterious research center that houses cursed objects, where those who open the wrong door might find it’s disappeared behind them, or that the echoing footsteps they’re running from are their own…"

This type of book has always been a big part of my reading! Canticle is probably my favourite book of the year at this point, and I think it counts as weird girl. Like what is more OG weird girl than medieval mysticism?

I decided to not include any books written by men, but honourable mention to Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer.

Hopefully I will get to them all soon! Have you read any of these?

Pod is a recommendation I got in this sub. I had never heard of it before, but it looks so good! Love the idea of weird girl xenofiction.

I recently realised that the only horror(adjacent) books I enjoy are those that can be categorised as "femgore," which I would describe as featuring unhinged women that are able to reclaim autonomy to some extent or enact revenge through violence. In my opinion most, if not all, femgore is also weird girl lit so I wanted to share some recommendations here! I have limited it to one book per author, so would suggest checking out more of their bibliographies if any intrigue you.

I have recommended a lot of these in other contexts before, and some of these are not favourites, but I do think that are all worth checking out. Would love to hear your recommendations!

Unfortunately I have not been able to find the origin of this term, so if any of you know who coined it I would like to know.

I made another post like this a couple of weeks ago (you can find it here) and since then a lot of other new(ish) or upcoming releases has caught my attention so I decided to compile them here again. A lot of these I have discovered through this sub and were suggestions on my previous post, so thank you!

Here is a bit of information about each book, mostly excerpts from the blurbs:

• Sublimation by Isabel J. Kim:

The border cuts you in two. When you immigrate, you leave a copy of yourself behind, an instance. One person enters their new country; the other stays trapped at home.

How far would you go to live the choice you didn’t make?

• Decomposition Book by Sara Van Os:

An emotional, electrifying, and darkly hilarious debut about a woman who finds a dead body and can’t give up its ghost.

• Skin Contact by Elisa Faison:

Unmoored by her mother's sudden death, Frances has never felt so diminished, or so old. She's painfully aware that strangers no longer look at her the same way - and that she's now, at thirty-two, older than the great aunt for whom she was named, who was killed in the seventies under mysterious circumstances involving an extramarital affair. 

Nerve Damage by Annakeara Stinson:

A riotous revenge novel about a woman’s quest to escape her stalker ex-boyfriend—by stalking him herself.

• Offseason by Avigayl Sharp:

A blisteringly funny and transcendently deranged debut novel following a young woman who takes a job at an all-girls boarding school in a small coastal town to teach English literature—and to try, desperately, to escape the trap that is herself.

• Debt by L.A. Warman:

A lesbian sleeps her way through New York City, accumulating debts in each sexual transaction, until falling in love forces her to confront power, money, and reliance in this daring, poetic exploration of modern love.

(A little sidetrack, sorry. I posted about this in this sub before because I was so excited when it was announced as I love the authors previous books. It got a lot of downvotes which is not something I have experienced before in this sub and I can't really figure out why?? Do any of you have any thoughts on it?)

• Home Sick by Rhiannon Grist:

After a violent incident at work, Tamsin goes looking for a fresh start in a remote cottage far away from her old life. Here she could make real friends, find a job she loves, become a whole new person, even. But the solitary cottage is actually a semi-detached, with only a thin wall separating her from a total stranger. Her neighbour is an enigma. Dowdy one moment, vivacious the next, but always wearing an unnerving smile. Tamsin can’t shake the feeling that there’s something wrong with her, especially when she starts experiencing disturbances in her own home.

• Nymph by Sofia Montrone:

This jaw-dropping debut revels in the exuberant highs and awkward lows of girlhood and captures the universal experiences of trying to hold on to what is elusive, to deny what cannot be faced, and to say what cannot be said.

Edit: fixed spelling.

I love both Dust and Whore Foods by this author, they are both so strange and interesting. When I saw this announced a couple of days ago I was so excited. Would love to hear if there are any more niche books you all are looking forward to.

The book description:

A lesbian sleeps her way through New York City, accumulating debts in each sexual transaction, until falling in love forces her to confront power, money, and reliance in this daring, poetic exploration of modern love.

Debt is a product manufactured to create desire. Fantasy costs a lot of money. There is a girl. There is everything she wants. She gets it. She doesn’t get it. She gets it, she wants more. In the city she can be who she wants to be, in the countryside she is who she has to be. Accumulation works, then it doesn’t. Soon, she is indebted to everyone. Debt creates relation. To try to pay her debt she tries more and more drastic measures: pregnancy, death, love. But will she ever pay? And if she does will the currency be recognized?

An unnamed protagonist fucks her way through the lesbians of New York City in borrowed apartments before returning to the only home she can afford, a two hour drive out into the countryside. In the city she can be whoever she wants. Her collection of sample sale clothes and fake designer bags grants the affect of wealth and she attracts suitors beyond those she is used to. These new suitors have jobs The protagonist attempts to be desired in a way that will protect and take care of her, but instead finds herself taking on more and more debts, both literal and metaphorical. She digs and digs until all she knows is hole. Debt explores the economics of desirability and the way capitalist patriarchy infiltrates queer community. Over time, our protagonist breaks through this rigid strategic approach to really fall in love with a non-binary transmasc person. Together, they create a Dom/sub dynamic. She does everything she is told to do and unlocks a new reality where she can relax and open herself up. They teach her how to accept care through domination and control. But, will her hole ever really be filled?

I just noticed how weird girl centric this shelf is, especially the pink to yellow part! I don't really have any organizing principles apart from some colour cohesion and keeping books I have read in our living room and my tbr in the bedroom.

I am planning to try writing individual reviews of a lot of these at some point! Currently I'm in the middle of Femmephilia by Sophie Lewis, but there is no way I will have time to read it by the end of today.

Have you read ay of these?

You can find the full list here. Have you read any of these yet? Do you feel like they are in "the spirit of Le Guin?"