Here are the debut books that caught Debutiful’s eye this month. We think readers will find plenty to love among them.
To see our curated list of standout titles, check out our “12 Noteworthy Debut Books You Should Read This August.”
From the publisher: For fans of My Dark Vanessa and Taylor Jenkins Reid, this striking debut novel explores the dizzying fallout of being seen and not heard in a high-stakes industry that leaves no silhouette unscathed.
Dead Girl Cameo by m. mick powell
From the publisher: A dazzling docupoetic debut collection interweaving personal loss with the life stories of Aaliyah Haughton, Whitney Houston, Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes, Phyllis Hyman, Selena Quintanilla-Pérez, and others to explore sexuality, survival, queer mourning, and the afterlives of stardom
From the publisher: A dazzling, surrealist fairy tale of a young woman’s quest for house and home—from New York to the Texas hinterlands and, maybe, back again.
Extinction Capital of the World by Mariah Rigg
From the publisher: Magnetic, haunting, and tender, Extinction Capital of the World is a stunning portrait of Hawai’i—and a powerful meditation on family, queer love, and community amid imperialism and environmental collapse.
Atomic Hearts by Megan Cummins
From the publisher: Written with the feel and power of a ticking time bomb, Atomic Hearts is an unforgettable story of the ways we can be saved by friendship, love, and imagination.
From the publisher: The Crucible meets The Virgin Suicides in this haunting debut about five sisters in a small village in eighteenth-century England whose neighbors are convinced they’re turning into dogs.
Saint Consequence by Michael M. Weinstein
From the publisher: Michael M. Weinstein’s debut poetry collection, Saint Consequence, meditates on the body as a site of continuous change–both painful and beautiful, elected and imposed–to explore the often tangled journeys of physical and spiritual transformation.
From the publisher: For fans of North Woods and The Vaster Wilds, Dusk is a propulsive, moody, and atmospheric take on the Western.
Ghost Fish by Stuart Pennebaker
From the publisher: A tender coming-of-age novel about a young woman haunted by her sister’s death, who starts to believe that her beloved sibling has returned to her–in the form of a ghost fish, for fans of Sweetbitter and Our Wives Under the Sea.
From the publisher: From an Emmy Award–winning writer comes a funny, wise, heartbreaking story about a woman journeying into the unknown in the wake of sudden loss
From the publisher: A singular, devastating debut novel, Dogs traces the fallout of one catastrophic night in the lives of five high school wrestlers, asking what can survive in the blast radius of latent trauma and violence.
From the publisher: With the sultry atmosphere and ratcheting tension of The White Lotus, The Mosquito Coast, and Nine Perfect Strangers, Lime Juice Money is an intoxicating, sensuous debut that follows a woman trapped in an increasingly volatile relationship 5,000 miles from home in a Central American jungle.
From the publisher: A darkly funny, heart-wrenching satire that tears through the guts of the war news industry. Catch-22 on speed and set in the Middle East, Vulture is a fast-paced satire of the war news industry and a tragi-comic coming-of-age novel.
From the publisher: The fierce debut memoir of a female firefighter, Hotshot navigates the personal and environmental dangers of wildland firefighting
The Sunflower Boys by Sam Wachman
From the publisher: A poignant coming-of-age story with the sensitivity and haunting power of What Belongs to You and Swimming in the Dark, about a young boy wrestling with his sexuality as war breaks out in modern Ukraine.
These Memories Do Not Belong to Us by Yiming Ma
From the publisher: For fans of Cloud Atlas and The Power, a hauntingly beautiful and prescient debut set in a future where a renamed China is the sole global superpower.
From the publisher: A brilliantly crafted Black Southern family drama told with the captivating force, humor, and tenderness carried in the hearts of these women, Addie E. Citchens’s Dominion wrestles with the many brutal, sinister ways in which we are shaped by fear and patriarchy, and studies how we might yet choose to break free.
From the publisher: For readers of Percival Everett and viewers of Industry, a hotshot hedge fund employee must risk everything to save his job—and his life—in this timely and darkly funny thriller about race, power, and the corrupting influence of the almighty dollar.
Black Cherokee by Antonio Michael Downing
From the publisher: Betty meets Queenie in this courageous coming-of-age story about a Black girl fighting for recognition in a South Carolina Cherokee community that refuses to accept her ancestry as legitimate.
From the publisher: A memoir-in-essays from former pinup model and lead singer of Nylon Pink Kaila Yu, reckoning with being an object of Asian fetish and how media, pop culture, and colonialism contributed to the oversexualization of Asian women.
The Once and Future Me by Melissa Pace
From the publisher: Dark Matter meets Girl, Interrupted in this gripping psychological thriller about a young woman teetering on the edge of reality.
Hothouse Bloom by Austyn Wohlers
From the publisher: In the vein of Rachel Cusk, Han Kang, and Clarice Lispector, Hothouse Bloom follows a young woman who renounces her painting career and all her human relationships to become one with her late grandfather’s apple orchard.
Holding by Karleigh Frisbie Brogan
From the publisher: A stunning debut memoir about addiction, self-discovery, and the relationships between mothers and daughters, from an exciting new literary talent