When you make a purchase using links on our site, The Week may earn a commission. All reviews are written independently by our editorial team.
Who doesn’t love a good story around the campfire to usher in the spooky season? Ghost stories aside, this month’s book releases offer a variety of genres to keep you company in the dark, including Ta-Nehisi Coates’ return to political non-fiction and a debut story about witches in El Paso, Texas.
‘The Message’ by Ta-Nehisi Coates (Oct. 1)
In his latest work, bestselling author Ta-Nehisi Coates meditates in a series of essays on the power of storytelling and writing to cause change. His book, aptly titled “The Message,” is “part memoir, part travelogue and part writing primer,” said The Associated Press. His travels take him from his alma mater, Howard University, where he teaches writing, to South Carolina, where a high school teacher faced a ban for teaching his acclaimed book “Between the World and Me.” He also documents a trip to Senegal, detailing how these experiences shaped his writing about race.
The book’s latter half is about a trip to Israel-Palestine during the summer of 2023. “The Message,” his first nonfiction book in years, “charts Coates’ re-entry as a public intellectual,” said The New York Times. In it, Coates draws parallels of the current state of Palestinian life in the occupied territories to the Jim Crow era, using his “position of prominence and moral authority to draw attention to the plight of Palestinians.” Order here.
‘Heir’ by Sabaa Tahir (Oct. 1)
One of the most anticipated fantasy releases of the fall sees Sabaa Tahir return to the world of her 2022 award-winning “An Ember in the Ashes.” Her latest kicks off a new young adult trilogy, in a spinoff set two decades after the first series. “Heir” follows a prince, a tracker and an orphan out for vengeance on a life-changing journey through a brutal empire. An action-packed romp follows, in which all three must “contend with the darkness of the empire, treacherous love and moral grayness,” said Book Riot. Order here.
‘The Mighty Red’ by Louise Erdrich (Oct. 1)
Winner of both the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award, Louise Erdrich returns with a novel that brings North Dakota farming country to life. “The Mighty Red” is set against the backdrop of the 2008 recession and climate change and heavily features the indigenous communities that call the area home. Her newest book is the latest of her many novels to “deal with questions of inheritance and identity,” while “mapping the impacts of past injustices on present-day inequalities,” Fiona Mozley said at The New York Times. Her origins as a poet are in “full force” as she “folds in the sickening damage of fracking and pesticide-dependent agriculture, right alongside the sprouts of resistance,” said Kirkus Reviews. Order here.
‘The Witches of El Paso’ by Luis Jaramillo (Oct. 8)
October, with spooky season in full swing, is the perfect time for stories of ghosts and witches. Luis Jaramillo’s novel “The Witches of El Paso” is an ideal example of the latter. His “atmospheric” first novel “blends historical fiction and magical realism” as it follows protagonist Nena Montoya through three alternating timelines, said The Washington Post. In 1943, Nena is a teenager who longs for adventure while plagued by premonitions. The story follows her as she is whisked into the past, where her journey of coming into her power has lasting effects on her descendants. Pre-order here.
‘Absolution’ by Jeff VanderMeer (Oct. 22)
After a decade hiatus, Jeff VanderMeer is adding a surprise fourth book to his popular Southern Reach trilogy. His latest book, “Absolution,” is a prequel that expands on the origins of Area X, a mysterious coastal area blocked off from human contact for years. The novel chronicles early expeditions exploring the haunting atmosphere of the setting for the original trilogy. Expect the “same human bureaucracy and alien confrontations” from the trilogy in this “unsettling yet compelling prequel” to the events of “Annihilation,” said the Literary Hub. Pre-order here.