Tag: book-review

Interviews, my reading life

My Reading Life: Oddbody author Rose Keating will always read vampire stories

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My Reading Life: Oddbody author Rose Keating will always read vampire stories

Rose Keating is an Irish writer who studied creative writing at the University of East Anglia, where she was a recipient of the Malcolm Bradbury Scholarship and the Curtis Brown Prize. She also won the Marian Keyes Young Writer Award, the Hot Press Write Here, Write Now Prize, and the Ted and Mary O’Regan Arts Bursary. In 2022, she received an Agility Award from the Irish Arts Council.

Her debut short story collection, Oddbody, features ten stories that feature women who defy societal norms in bizarrely satisfying and mind-bending ways.

We asked Keating to answer our recurring My Reading Life Q&A so readers could get to know the books that influenced her life and inspired her debut book.

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News

See the cover for Discipline by Larissa Pham

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See the cover for Discipline by Larissa Pham

Larissa Pham follows up her essay collection Pop Song, which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle John Leonard Prize, with her debut novel, Discipline. The book will be released by Random House on January 20, 2026, and is now available for pre-order.

In the novel, the main character, Christine, is on a book tour for her book, which is a thinly veiled revenge fantasy based on a relationship she had with a former professor. Her world is turned upside down when he reaches out after years of silence and invites her to visit him on a remote island off the coast of Maine.

Debutiful is honored to reveal the cover of Discipline, designed by Rachel Ake, alongside a Q&A with Pham about crafting her enchanting debut and the elegant mystery the cover alludes to.

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Interviews, my reading life

My Reading Life: The Sunflower Boys author Sam Wachman wants to shoutout Cindy, his neighborhood librarian

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My Reading Life: The Sunflower Boys author Sam Wachman wants to shoutout Cindy, his neighborhood librarian

In Sam Wachman‘s debut novel, The Sunflower Boys, brothers Artem and Yuri embark on a journey after war kills their family in rural Ukraine. As the journey unfolds, so does a beautifully constructed character study of Artem’s identity, loss of innocence, and blossoming love for his best friend.

Before writing his debut novel, Wachman taught English to primary schoolers in central Ukraine and worked with refugee families in Europe and the United States.  His work has also appeared in Sonora Review, Berkeley Fiction Review, and New England Review.

We asked him to answer our recurring My Reading Life Q&A so readers could get to know her and the books that shaped his story.

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Interviews, my reading life

My Reading Life: The Compound author Aisling Rawle’s first book love was The Wind in the Willows

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My Reading Life: The Compound author Aisling Rawle’s first book love was The Wind in the Willows

Aisling Rawle’s debut novel, The Compound, is a chillingly prescient exploration of reality TV, desire, and survival in a world teetering on collapse. Set on a remote desert compound where twenty contestants compete to outlast each other for luxury rewards and existential purpose, the story follows Lily, a bored and beautiful twenty-something, as she navigates the blurred lines between performance and reality, safety and spectacle, love and manipulation.

We asked the writer to answer our recurring My Reading Life Q&A so readers could get to know her and the books that shaped her life.

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News, Recommendations

The Best Debut Books of 2025 (So Far)

by Adam37 Comments on The Best Debut Books of 2025 (So Far)
The Best Debut Books of 2025 (So Far)

To see the final Best Debut Books of 2025 list, please visit this link.

We’re halfway through the year, and it’s time to check in on the books that left the most significant impact on me. Every year, I keep a running list that leads to the Best Of lists. Some are titles that I recommend the most, others are the ones that challenged me. I look for worlds I would never experience on my own, tantalizing writing, and a dash of sad, weird, or horny. Kudos if they could hit all three.

The debut books below (20 fiction, 5 poetry, and 5 nonfiction) are the books I consider to be the best of the year so far. Of course, I think any of the books Debutiful previously recommended could find their spot on here, but a list has to end somewhere.

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Interviews, my reading life

My Reading Life: The Ones We Loved author Tarisai Ngangura wants children to cultivate a genuine love of reading

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My Reading Life: The Ones We Loved author Tarisai Ngangura wants children to cultivate a genuine love of reading

Tarisai Ngangura is a journalist originally from Zimbabwe, whose writing has appeared in Rookie Mag, T: The New York Times Style Magazine, Lapham’s Quarterly, and the Globe and Mail. Now, her debut novel The Ones We Loved has hit bookstores. The debut is about two young strangers fleeing personal tragedy who find solace in each other while traversing a haunted landscape of grief, memory, and myth. Rooted in Zimbabwean storytelling traditions, the novel explores love, exile, and the enduring human search for belonging.

We asked the writer to answer our recurring My Reading Life questionnaire so readers could get to know her and the books that shaped her life better.

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Interviews, my reading life

My Reading Life: Portalmania author Debbie Urbanski was obsessed with Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland as a child

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My Reading Life: Portalmania author Debbie Urbanski was obsessed with Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland as a child

After releasing her debut novel After World in 2023, Debbie Urbanski is back with her debut short story collection Portalmania. The collection explores any and every genre from sci-fi and fantasy to horror and realism. It’s the perfect book for anyone looking for supernatural escapism that is dripping with the grounded and unique characters.

We asked Urbanski to answer our recurring My Reading Life so readers could get to know the books that shaped her life.

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Interviews, my reading life

My Reading Life: This Is Your Mother author Erika J. Simpson wants teens to sink into worlds they love

by AdamLeave a Comment on My Reading Life: This Is Your Mother author Erika J. Simpson wants teens to sink into worlds they love
My Reading Life: This Is Your Mother author Erika J. Simpson wants teens to sink into worlds they love

Erika J. Simpson, author of the memoir This Is Your Mother, is a recent transplant to Denver after spending her life in the South. She received her MFA from the University of Kentucky and received the 2021 MFA Award in Nonfiction. Her essay “If You Ever Find Yourself” was published in Roxane Gay’s The Audacity and featured in Best American Essays 2022.

Her memoir is a powerful reckoning with legacy, loss, and the shifting terrain between mother and daughter. Through scripture-steeped memories and raw reflections, Erika Simpson traces her mother’s mythic resilience and the moment it gave way to mortality. In peeling back the layers of her mother’s story, she uncovers her own.

We asked her to answer our recurring My Reading Life questionnaire so readers could get to know her, and the books that shaped her life, better.

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