Layne Fargo’s autumn reading recommendations
There's a crispness in the air now, which can only mean one thing - autumn reading is upon us, and we've got just the picks.
From the author of The Favourites comes this curated list of books perfect for readers who support women's rights - but more importantly, their wrongs too.
Bad Nature by Ariel Courage
What would killing him accomplish? Nothing, mostly.
Then again, neither would letting him live.
When Hester is diagnosed with cancer on her fortieth birthday, she knows immediately what she must do: abandon her possessions and drive to California to kill her estranged father. Ragingly singular and surprisingly moving, combining tragic intensity and pitch-black humour, Bad Nature is an incendiary debut novel. Part road trip, part revenge tale, part eco-thriller, it’s ultimately a deft examination of the futility of violence and the eternal possibility of redemption.
Beach Bodies by Sienna Sharpe
Falling in love can be murder…
No one in Lily Lennox’s life can understand why, each of the past five summers, she has shut her successful business and chosen instead to be paid minimum wage life-guarding at the exclusive Riovan Wellness Resort in a sun-soaked Caribbean island.
Fortunately for her, they also aren’t aware of the mysterious deaths that have occurred on the island every time she’s there.
Lily always tries to avoid bringing attention to herself. After all, if your mission is murder, it’s best not to draw suspicious eyes. But this year (ridiculously gorgeous) guest Daniel Black is asking a few too many inconvenient questions.
Can she manage her growing attraction towards him at the same time as getting away with murder?
Love You to Death by Christina Dotson
How well do we really know our friends?
As the only Black women at an antebellum-themed wedding, Kayla and Zorie should’ve known this heist was doomed from the start. They should never have come, but when their financial situation became dire, they agreed to hit one last wedding.
Jaded and cynical Kayla has spent the last decade trying to fix her life since an angsty teen prank led to her arrest but she hates the life she’s built. Her only bright spots are her best friend, Zorie, and their favourite weekend pastime of crashing weddings to steal the money and pawn the gifts. But what started as a lark has evolved into a greedy obsession, making each wedding haul riskier than the last.
While trying to avoid the angry bride and groom, Kayla and Zorie's getaway takes a gruesome turn and suddenly the 'Wedding Crash Killers' are national news. The best friends are forced to hit the road to dodge the authorities, but their escape plan leaves behind a bloody trail of destruction from Georgia all the way to the bayou.
Sugar, Baby by Celine Saintclare
Agnes Green is turning 21 and her life is heading nowhere. Still living at home with her devoutly religious Caribbean mother in a lifeless suburb, she works as a cleaner by day and spends her nights secretly going to clubs and dating Toby - who loves arthouse film, getting stoned, and ignoring her texts.
That is until she meets Emily, the daughter of one of her cleaning clients, who lives in London and works as a model - and a sugar baby. Emily's lifestyle is the escape Agnes has been longing for: tasting menus, private flights to Paris and Miami, rich older men who shower her with compliments and designer gifts.
Agnes' new life is beyond her wildest dreams, but it comes at a cost. As she begins to stray further from her mother's holy teachings, she must decide how far she is willing to go to be adored…
This Girl's a Killer by Emma C. Wells
Ask Cordelia Black why she did it. The answer will always be: He had it coming.
Cordelia Black loves exactly three things: Her chosen family, her hairdresser (worth every penny plus tip), and killing bad men.
By day she's an ambitious pharma rep with a flawless reputation and designer wardrobe. By night, she culls South Louisiana of unscrupulous men—monsters who think they've evaded justice, until they meet her. Sure, the evening news may have started throwing around phrases like "serial killer," but Cordelia knows that's absurd. She's not a killer, she is simply karma. And being karma requires complete and utter control.
But when Cordelia discovers a flaw in her perfectly designed system for eliminating monsters, pressure heightens. And it only intensifies when her best friend starts dating a man Cordelia isn't sure is a good person. Someone who might just unravel everything she has worked for.
Soon enough Cordelia has to come face to face with the choices she's made. The good, the bad, and the murderous. Both her family, and her freedom, depend on it.
Victorian Psycho by Virginia Feito
Now being adapted into a major film by A24.
Winifred Notty arrives at Ensor House prepared to play the perfect Victorian governess. She’ll dutifully tutor her charges, Drusilla and Andrew, tell them bedtime stories, and only joke about eating children. But the longer Winifred spends within the estate’s dreary confines and the more she learns of the perversions and pathetic preoccupations of the Pounds family, the more trouble she has sticking to her plan.
Whether creeping across the moonlit lawns in her undergarments or gently tormenting the house staff, Winifred struggles at every turn to stifle the horrid compulsions of her past until her chillingly dark imagination breaches the feeble boundary of reality on Christmas morning. Wielding her signature sardonic wit and a penchant for the gorgeously macabre, Virginia Feito returns with a vengeance in Victorian Psycho.