The Book of Speculation by Erica Swyler

The novel is a book lover's dream. A bookseller sends Simon a vintage book in the mail. The book, Peabody's Menagerie, has information about Simon's relatives who used to work as circus performers.

Simon comes from a long line of "mermaids," women who are able to hold their breath for a preternaturally long length of time. Simon's grandmother and mother were both "mermaids" who tragically ended their lives.

While Simon's sister, Enola, insists that the women were simply sad, Simon believes something sinister is involved.

After being let go from his library position, Simon becomes obsessed with repairing his childhood home. The home, on the edge of cliff, is in danger of being condemned.

While the contemporary story has its interesting moments, the backstory is much more enthralling. Amos, a feral and mute boy, finds comfort and success in Peabody's traveling circus in eighteenth-century America.

Just as soon as Madame Rhzhkoza claims him as her assistant and son, he falls for Evangeline, a "mermaid," employed by Peabody.  Like Simon she is a "breath holder," who can hold her breath for an inordinate amount of time. 

Simon begins to wonder if the circus's past has effected his family's future. Did Madame Rhzhkoza's curse doom the female members of him family and possibly himself?


If you like this book you may also enjoy Menagerie by Rachel Vincent.

The Black-Eyed Susans by Julia Heaberlin

Years after a horrific crime, Tessie, the only survivor in the "Black-eyed Susan" murders steps forward. She is beginning to doubt that the right person has been convicted for the heinous crime.

Tessie was nearly killed and blinded by a "monster." After the  horrific attack, Tessie suffers memory loss and psychological blindess--a conversion disorder.

Heaberlin unveils the chilling story in back and forth chapters that contrasts events near the time of the crime with its aftershock seventeen years later.

If Tessie does not change her testimony, an innocent man could face the death penalty. Tessie, however, is reluctant to delve into her past. After all, she has her own daughter to protect from the media's harsh glare.


Adding to the tension is the fact that Tessie thinks she is going insane. 

Immediately after the crime she begins to hear the voices of the other Susans in her head. The grown-up Tessie thinks her monster has been planting batches of blacked-eyed susans to traumatize her.

The twist at the end packs a wallop. Heaberlin's latest is for fans of Gillian Flynn, Paula Hawkins and Brunonia Barry. 

Worlds within Worlds in Arcadia by Iain Pears

Shifting points of view do not always work well in fiction, but they work well in this complex tale, Arcadia. 

Pears creates four separate, yet overlapping, stories.
Readers must have patience, however, to see how the four separate threads of the story connect.

The first thread involves Henry Lytten, an Oxford don, who belongs to a writing group that resembles Inklings that C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien founded. 

Rosie, who takes care of Lytten's cat, accidently finds a portal to his fantasy world, Anterwold. 

In another thread, several hundred years in the future, scientific researchers on the island of Mull are trying to find a mathematician who has disappeared with time travel technology that could change the world.

This mathematician, Angela Meerson, has disappeared into 1960s Britain. The threads of the story converge when Angela makes the acquaintance of Henry Lytten, the Oxford don responsible for creating Anterworld.

The scientists on Mull, led by Hanslip, consider Angela a criminal, a terrorist, and possibly insane. They send Alex Chang to the past to confront her, never suspecting that Angela and Alex Chang would become allies.

Another thread in the story involves Jay who has briefly seen Rosie through the portal. The people of the pastoral-like Anterwold believe this was foretold in the Story. Jay becomes a student of the well-respected scholar, Henary, largely because of his vision.

Jay and Rosie's story become briefly intertwined but then she disappears. A duplicate copy of herself returns to 1960s England while another version remains in Anterwold.

This complication disturbs Angela Meerson immensely as it could change the course of history; it could, in fact, doom the world to depopulation, nuclear war, and colonization.

Pears has created worlds that are each fascinating and dependent upon the other. His storytelling ability, however, is so great that readers never feel let down when they exit one world and enter another. 

Grace Pettis

Grace Pettis perfectly captures the loneliness and desperation of a small town in Abilene. 

http://www.guidelive.com/music/2016/01/20/one-song-grace-pettis-evokes-small-town-desperation-abilene

This is folk but is it really all that different from Country Western music?


http://www.gracepettis.com/

Journalist to publish a book about social media's effect on teenage girls

Nancy Jo Sales to publish a book (Knopf) about teenage girls and social media. AMERICAN GIRLS: Social Media and the Secret Lives of Teenagers will be released February 2016.

Many of these type of books have been published recently.  Sales has spent the last 30 months interviewing 200 teenagers.  

Get in Trouble by Kelly Link

Some of the stories like "The Summer People" involve supernatural beings. In others, such as,"Secret Identity," the characters themselves are off-kilter. 

In "The Summer People" a tough-talking Appalachian girl is indebted to strange, fairy-like creatures called summer people. These are people who may not be immortal but live for generations. Mostly they are unseen but they make demands of their caretakers. The protagonist hears their demands in her head which prevents her from traveling or fulfilling her heart's desires.

"Secret Identity" follows the adventures of a girl named Billie who steals her older sister's identity.  She has been having an Internet affair with an older man whom she hopes to finally meet at a hotel. Coincidentally, the hotel is having a superhero convention in which nearly everyone is dressed in costume. Her correspondent could be in costume; his alias could be fake. He could be anyone. 

Link works two gothic elements into "New Boyfriend"--ghosts and sentient dolls. Immy is jealous of her friend for having one of these robotic dolls called a "ghost boyfriend." Immy, who betrays her friend, is also betrayed.

This is a fascinating collection by an innovative author.