2024 ALU Spring Preview

Lauren’s Pick

SHOUT KILL REVEL by Jarret Hartnell (Renegade Arts and Entertainment)

What a sumptuous, blistering, otherworldly read Jarret Hartnell’s graphic novel SHOUT KILL REVEL will be this spring. The first page opens on protagonist Helmina, vomiting a purple-black sludge against a lurid green sky…talk about attention grabbing! She’s doing her best to escape a bloodthirsty cult, but she can’t run forever. This is part horror, part western, and all-original: as a fan of the comic books Saga (the Fiona Staples calls this book “delicious,” by the way) and Pretty Deadly, this one is on the tippy-top of my TBR.

Find Shout Kill Revel here on All Lit Up.

Publishing April 17

Tan’s Pick

Sunset Lake Resort by Joanne Jackson (Stonehouse Publishing)

Ruby is losing everything—her father has just passed, without leaving her the inheritance she once expected. Her husband has left her, and she feels anchorless and adrift. What her father has left her, is a run down resort in a remote Northern town. Deciding to visit her new property, Ruby discovers that the resort has its own haunted past, and her father somehow fits into it. A novel about grief and loss, told with the tense and atmospheric elements of a good mystery, Sunset Lake Resort promises to be the kind of book you want to settle in with and read over a single weekend.

Find Sunset Lake Resort here on All Lit Up.

Publishing June 1

Mandy’s Pick

Kilworthy Tanner by Jean Marc Ah-Sen (Véhicule Press)

Jean Marc Ah-Sen’s latest novel Kilworthy Tanner tells the story of two writers—one emerging, the other a celebrated literary star—who meet at a party, become close, and begin co-authoring sensational and outrageous fictions together. Questions of authorship, literary rivalry, and whose story is told is at the heart of the book. Hailed as a “pseudobiography” that unravels the tangled narrative of his breakup with Kilworthy Tanner, his paramour and former mentor, this is undoubtedly another inventive novel by Ah-Sen. 

Find Kilworthy Tanner here on All Lit Up.

Publishing May 22

N’kysha’s Pick

West of West Indian by Linzey Corridon (Mawenzi House)

As I push myself to pick up more poetry in 2024, I have my sights set on West of West Indian by Linzey Corridon. A collection that promises to construct the queer Caribbean experience as both individual and collective, it also follows themes of love, autonomy, and queer pain. Focusing on the bodies and minds of many subjects, I’m expecting the range of both Caribbean and Canadian perspectives to be wholly illuminating and thought-provoking. Really looking forward to this one! 

Find West of West Indian here on All Lit Up.

Publishing March 19

Laura’s Pick

Sufferance by Charles Palliser (Guernica Editions)

Once upon a time in the early ’90s, I and everyone I knew was reading Charles Palliser’s The Quincunx, an intricate puzzle of a novel set in 19th Century England. That bestselling tale follows a young man in his quest to solve the mysteries of his family tree and claim his rightful inheritance despite a lawyerly plot against him. (How do you think I learned the word codicil?) Now, Palliser has a new novel set in World War II-era eastern Europe. A family contends with invasion and occupation from a neighbouring country, the brutality of life under tyranny, impending genocide, and efforts to save innocent life. It doesn’t sound like historical fiction, sadly, but I’m looking forward to the author’s storytelling.

Find Sufferance here on All Lit Up.

Publishing May 1

Barb’s Pick

Anomia by Jade Wallace (Palimpsest Press)

As someone looking forward to heading to her cottage, just outside a small (non-fictional) southern Ontario town, this book piqued my interest. It sounds irreverent and fun, with a cast of oddly named characters and a whiff of fantasy. The title, Anomia, refers to a form of aphasia where one cannot recall the names of everyday objects – thus the zany character names? Perfect dock-side reading for me, plus, I really love that cover!

Find Anomia here on All Lit Up.

Publishing June 15

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What are you looking forward to reading this spring? Let us know in the comments or on social @alllitupcanada.