Lessons in Magic and Disaster by Charlie Jane Anders. Tor, 2025. 9781250867322. 320pp. Jamie teaches classes while continuing to research but failing to write her dissertation. She has a secret — she can do magic. She shares this with her mother, Serena, who used to be a lawyer but who retreated from life because of scandal and the death of her wife, Mae. But Jamie does not share the secret with her partner, Ro, which causes huge problems between them, as does the way Serena begins to use magic. Jamie’s magic is about expressing what she truly craves, about asking for what’s possible and not getting greedy. It seems to have few and fast rules. I loved how she uses it to research Sarah Fielding and her companion, Jane Collier. In particular, Jamie is looking into a novel written in 1749, Emily, that’s often attributed to Fielding; Jamie feels like the book is full of secrets meant just for her. (When Jamie becomes the target of harassment, she continues researching the friends’ correspondence and the novel, and discovers the truth behind that feeling.) I don’t read much fantasy with contemporary settings, but Charlie Jane Anders has written two of my favorites, this book and All the Birds in the Sky. Seriously messed-up parents, a realistic romantic relationship, magic, and literary analysis — this book would have been perfect for me when I was studying English literature, and it’s perfect for me now.

Raymond Chandler’s Trouble Is My Business by Avrind Ethan David (author) and Ilias Kyriazis (artist), with Cris Peter (colorist), Taylor Esposito (letterer). Forward by Ben H. Winters. Pantheon, 2025. 9780553387599. 128pp. This graphic novel adaptation of Chandler’s novel isn’t black and white, but its most noir scenes are so dark and smoke-filled that my brain remembers them that way. I’m a huge fan of Chandler’s novels, and it was great to see how this fit so much dialogue into so few pages; there are many with a single image and interwoven word balloons that capture the back and forth of a conversation. If you’ve never read a novel starring private eye Philip Marlowe but love crime comics, this is a great place to start. And if you love classic noir mysteries but not graphic adaptations, pick this one up. The story features Marlowe investigating a young woman who has her hooks into a rich man’s son, and maybe to buy her off. Then the twists and turns begin.  

Absolute Batman Volume 1: The Zoo by Scott Snyder (writer), Nick Dragotta and Gabriel Hernández Walta (artists). DC, 2025. 9781799505259. 176pp. Contains Issues 1 – 6. Snyder (Undiscovered Country, American Vampire, more) and Dragotta (East of West, Once Upon A Time at the End of the World) team up to launch a new Absolute Universe version of Batman as part of DC’s All In initiative. Don’t know what that is? Me, either. This version of Batman is young and poor, but still smart as hell and driven to fight crime after his father’s murder. His gadgets are cheap-ish but high-tech. His friends are folks who, in other DC universes, will become some of his most insane enemies. Alfred is an operative tasked with hunting him down. Oh and Batman is facing gangs of thugs armed and motivated by an unnamed villain (so I guess I won’t name him, either), though you’ll immediately know who he is (or at least who he’s supposed to be) if you’ve read many Batman well-known collections. Snyder’s script is tight, Dragotta’s art feels futuristic while evoking nostalgia, and I love how the two of them have reinvented the way Batman moves and fights. Check it out. Buy it for your collection. PS: The other Absolute Universe book I’ve read is the first Jason Aaron / Rafa Sandoval / Ulises Arreola Superman graphic novel, Last Dust of Krypton. It’s also pretty dark, with Superman and his parents being part of the labor caste on a Krypton ruled by science elites out only for themselves. Superman is young and is fighting for justice on Earth against the Lazarus Corporation and its Peacekeepers. Lois Lane is a mercenary out to track him down. Superman also has a new, cool cape. (I thought the Absolute Universe might be all about new capes until I started reading the Wonder Woman book, which is also worth picking up.)

Ready Or Not by Andi Porretta. Atheneum, 2024. 9781665907033. 336pp. Four friends celebrate their high school graduation in the opening pages. Three of them are heading off on educational adventures at the end of the summer, but Cassie is taking at least a year off and planning to work in her parents’ diner. Cassie is stressed out; her friends are leaving, and it feels like they’ll be leaving her behind. To get them all to hang out a bit more, she proposes they play a game from when they were kids: risky slips. Each writes a dare on a piece of paper. Draw a dare and complete it within twenty-four hours. If you don’t complete the dare, you’re out. The penalties are tough, and different for each friend (and decided much later in the book, so I won’t spoil them). Cassie is up first. This coming-of-age story has a nice combination of sweetness, friendship, awkwardness, and queerness. Each of the friends comes into focus through Cassie’s interactions with them, and love is very central to the whole tale, as is messing up. Porretta’s art is particularly fun during the dares, most of which seem designed to get everyone in trouble.

The One Hand & The Six Fingers by Ram V (writer, The One Hand), Laurence Campbell (artist, The One Hand), Dan Watters (writer, The Six Fingers), Sumit Kumar (artist, The Six Fingers), Lee Loughridge (colorist), and others. Image, 2024. 9781534359719. 280pp. Contains #1 – #5 of each series. Publisher’s Rating: Mature. This book contains two series from Image that form one graphic novel. Both take place in the same time and place: Neo Novena, 2873. In one, Detective Aris Nassar cancels his retirement to see a case through, the case of the One Hand Killer. Nassar is sure he has caught the killer twice, but there’s a new crime scene, and symbols found at previous crime scenes have been drawn on a wall along with a handprint. But this time the handprint is slightly different, which leads Nassar to believe the killer has six fingers. In the other narrative, Johannes Vale, an archaeology grad student, proposed an expedition to a mine his father explored long ago. He has an artifact his father brought him, an arrowhead made of an unknown material, and wants to go look for evidence of an undiscovered branch of civilization. But his presentation about it doesn’t go well. And then he has a bad shift at his day job, which exposes him to toxic chemicals. There’s evidence that repeated exposure has mutated him a bit already; he’s growing an extra finger on one hand. Then Johannes wanders along a path he took the night before, and arrives at the wall he drew symbols on. He asks himself why he did what he did, and as Nasar hunts for him, that question becomes Vale’s thesis. From there, it’s a gritty back-and-forth. It’s so dark it reminds me of Ellis and Templesmith’s Fell, though it’s not funny, and it has Balde Runner-esque details, too. It’s a lovely book if you’re into this sort of whodunnit/whydunnit, and it’s a great value at just under $20.

Tongues Book 1 by Anders Nilsen. Patheon, 2025. 9781524747206. 368pp. Oversized. Mythological. Philosophical. Violent. Absolutely beautiful. I’m struggling to figure out what to write about this book. If you like graphic novels, you should pick it up; but if you’re getting it from a library, plan on having to check it out several times before you finish it (at least if your experience is anything like mine). It’s one of those books I had to think about, often for several days, before reading another part. Most of the story takes place in the present. Prometheus chats with the generations of eagles that eat his liver, plus others, including the god who imprisoned him. A young man wanders on foot across a desert war zone. A girl with a destiny, a chicken, and a monkey are in the same area; the girl is being hunted for the cube she carries. (It looks like the kind of hyperobject you’d expect to see in a Grant Morrison comic.) It all has something to do with what may be the end of the world. There are things in this book that remind me of work by Jeff Vandermeer, Warren Ellis, Edith Hamilton, David O. Russell, and Mike Mignola. It’s fantastic in all senses of the word, and worth checking out.

Let’s Go, Coco! A (sorta) true story by Coco Fox. HarperCollins, 2024. 9780063256415. 236pp. Fox’s graphic “memoir” focuses on the time just after her best friend, Blair, moved away. Coco is particularly worried about making new friends, and after some tears and awkward moments, she follows some advice from her brother about how to do scary things. This leads her to talk to a few other kids, including her crush, and to join her middle school basketball team, the Owls. The team includes said crush, a nonbinary kid, and a girl who is pretty mean but may be a new friend, among others. The basketball season becomes a journey that includes friendship, forgiveness, and a broken arm. I loved Coco’s brother, her black cat, and the awkward moments in science class in particular. The basketball games were great, too.  

Across the Rainbow Bridge: Stories of Norse Gods and Humans by Kevin Crossley-Holland, illustrated by Jeffrey Alan Love. Candlewick Studio, 2021. 9781536217711. 87pp. I grew up reading tales of King Arthur and Greek/Roman heroes and gods, but I never really got the Norse Gods. I wanted to, but other than Thor and the Asgardians in Marvel’s comics, I’ve never found a book about them that I enjoyed reading. I read this book cover to cover. It wasn’t just Love’s epic illustrations, though I love them; Crossley-Holland’s excellent writing has a clarity that doesn’t call too much attention to itself. I wish I’d read this book when I was ten, but I didn’t enjoy it any less because I read it last week.     John The Skeleton by Triinu Laan. Illustrated by Marja-Liisa Plats. Translated from Estonian by Adam Cullen. Restless Books, 2024. 9781632063700. 64pp. Such a striking book — it’s drawn in black (graphite) and white and dayglow pink. It’s the story of John the skeleton who used to live in the corner of a classroom. After he broke a few bones, the teacher decided he should retire. Gramps came and got him, took him to the cottage deep in the woods where he lives with Gram. Gramps fixed John up. Grams dressed him up. And John became part of the family. Even their cat and John soon became friends. The places John’s story went were unexpected and delightful, and I loved every illustration in the book.     Nutshimit In The Woods by Melissa Mollen Dupuis and Elise Gravel. English text by Gaëlle Mollen. North Winds Press, 2023. 9781039701809. 88pp. Gravel is one of my favorite comic artists, and I was happy to be able to get myself a copy of this book published in Canada. Melissa is from the Innu Nation, and this is the story of her people, a kind of thank you note to them for what they’ve passed down that’s been turned into a book we can all enjoy. The focus is largely on nature, on trees, plants, and animals, information about which is shared along with some Innu culture and the Innu-Aimun language. The entire book is, as Gravel’s books always are, delightful. My favorite pages are about a creation story, though I also loved those about folding and biting birch bark and the others about making and using maple syrup.  

A Pillbug Story by Allison Conway. Black Panel Press, 2024. 978990521218. 196pp. Mille is a pill bug living in a bug town where she has lots of friends (that’s them on the cover): Alphie (ladybug), Holly (a spider), Ruby (an ant), and Ellie (a dragonfly). They all enjoy tea together, but each has their own particular way of life. Millies is the only vegetarian in her crowd, and everyone often forgets she doesn’t eat other bugs. Alphie is always eating aphids, which causes problems when she visits Ruby’s ant colony later in the book. They do find ways to live together, though it’s also clear that some bugs eat others without apology. The book is charming, in part because of Millie’s anxieties, and in part because Conway has put so much thought into what a bug civilization would be like. Plus Conway’s art is very friendly. My favorite pages feature Millie visiting a doctor — she finds out she has a copper deficiency because she’s not eating her own stool. There’s an entertaining sequence at a beach, too, where the lifeguards warn everyone when predators are near.

The Knives (A Criminal Book) by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips. Image, 2025. 9781534355590. 200pp. If you’ve never read one of Brubaker and Phillips’ Criminal graphic novels, this is a good place to start even though some of the characters appear in previous books. In 2012, Jacob Kurtz arrives in Hollywood to try to make it as a writer. A comic he created years ago, Frank Kafka, Private Eye, is being turned into a TV show. Of course the adaptation sucks. But he does reconnect to his Aunt Suzy, whose husband wrote B-movies. She decides to leave Jacob her huge place in the Hollywood Hills if he promises not to sell it or break it up. Angie was raised by Gnarly after her mother was killed. She helped him run his bar and hung around with the criminals who frequented the place. Only after he was diagnosed with cancer did she appreciate what he had done for her. By then it was too late. And after he died the boss who gave him both his bar and the apartment above it decided to take both back. Angie became a thief. A friend asks Jacob to give Angie a place to stay for a while, and he does. She comes and goes as she needs to after that. The two become especially close during covid. She even helps him market the comics he’s been working on. But then she comes back beat up and in some kind of trouble that Jacob doesn’t understand. And someone has kidnapped Jacob’s aunt and is demanding a ransom he doesn’t have. There’s a third character who’s appeared in other Criminal books who gets looped into the story later, but if you’re a fan you’re better off not knowing who it is. Just read the book without looking at the back or other reviews. Every thread comes together in a great way, and the story is completely satisfying. Question for reviewers, librarians, and others in the book trade: This is the first advanced review copy I’ve read after downloading an LCP file from NetGalley. I loved the book more than I hate the app I have to use to read it on my computer (but I really, really hate that app). I’m currently looking for an alternative — if you read books you download from Netgalley, please let me know if you’ve found a decent way to read LCP ebook files.