LJ Editors’ Spring Picks 2016

The lovely editors at Library Journal can’t wait to get their hands on these four Spring 2016 books from Macmillan:

“A witch-haunted small town, a teenager possessed by the devil, and a religious pilgrimage with a whiff of brimstone. No, these are not Halloween releases but several upcoming titles that captured my darker fancies. Tourists are welcome in the pretty Hudson Valley town of Black Spring, NY, the setting of Thomas Olde Heuvelt’s HEX (Tor Books, on sale April 26), but they are not encouraged to stay, for the inhabitants of Black Spring live under a witch’s curse. Hanged in the 17th century, Katherine van Wyler now walks the streets and enters houses at will, startling residents with her disturbing appearance (her eyes and mouth are sewn shut). To prevent the curse from spreading, the town elders use high-tech surveillance to quarantine its citizens. But when some teenage boys decide to go viral on social media, the consequences are dire. The English-language debut of this best-selling Dutch novel by a Hugo Award–winning writer will creep you out.” — Wilda Williams

“Elizabeth Hand’s HARD LIGHT: A Cass Neary Crime Novel (Minotaur Books, on sale April 19), the third series entry, stars one of my favorite hard-living antiheroines, punk photographer Cass Neary. She’s in London this time out (after hair-raising experiences in Iceland and Maine), and she’s waiting for her man. Long-lost lover boy Quinn is MIA; maybe something to do with all the baddies looking for him and all the money he owes around London town? No matter: Cass hooks up with an Amy Winehouse type and attracts all the wrong sorts of people. Cass’s legion of fans will snap up this one for sure.” — Liz French

“Jaya Saxena takes readers to what were once some of the most popular restaurants in America in THE BOOK OF LOST RECIPES: The Best Signature Dishes from Historic Restaurants Rediscovered (Page Street, on sale June 14). She includes the chopped liver from New York’s Moskowitz & Lupowitz, the fried fish cakes and baked beans from Horn & Hardart Automat in Philadelphia, and the blintzes at Ashkenaz Deli in Chicago.” — Stephanie Klose

“Two of my favorite authors, Nina LaCour and David Levithan, are collaborating on YOU KNOW ME WELL (Griffin, on sale June 7), a YA novel about friendship and first love, with likely crossover appeal. It’s set in San Francisco and told from the alternating perspectives of Kate, who has a crush on her friend’s cousin Violet, whom she’s never met, and Mark, who loves his best friend Ryan. I’d be excited for a new book by either author, but one by both? I’m ecstatic.” — Amanda Mastrull

See the full list of Spring 2016 Editors’ Picks here.