Debut Novels by Authors You’ll Love
Writing a novel is no easy feat. But sometimes you find a debut novel that feels as if the author is a seasoned pro. With elegant prose and unique plot lines, these authors have the ability to transport you to new worlds with characters that stay with you long after you’ve finished the last page. Plus, as an added bonus, when you find an exceptional debut novelist, you feel as if you’ve discovered their immense talents, which connects you to them as they publish more and more books. Enjoy these debut novels by authors we know you’ll love and find out just how good they are at first impressions.
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Add to BookshelfA Good Person
by Kirsten King
An electric binge-of-a-debut about an antihero who seeks revenge on her ex-situationship with a hex, only for him to actually, literally die … A deliciously addictive novel that explores our darkest, most human impulses, A Good Person heralds Kirsten King as a striking new voice in fiction.
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Good People
by Patmeena Sabit
In a haunting debut novel that reads like true crime, told through a kaleidoscope of perspectives, a private tragedy thrusts one family into the court of public opinion as the media — and their own community — dissect every aspect of their lives. Like a literary game of ping-pong, Good People compels the reader to reconsider what might have happened even on the previous page. It’s a riveting, provocative story of family — sisters, brothers, mothers, fathers, and the communities that claim us as family in difficult times.
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Girl’s Girl
by Sonia Feldman
A hypnotic debut about the pivotal summer that shatters the delicate balance between three best friends. Bold, vulnerable, and sharply observant, Girl’s Girl is a sundrenched and dewy snapshot of modern girl culture set in the blaze of one suburban Midwest summer.
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My Person
by TĂ©a Mutonji
Best friends of over twenty years, Tania and Margot are preparing to host their monthly Sunday Loaf dinner party, when Tania tells Margot this isn’t working for her anymore — they’ve been entangled for too long, she wants to “unknow” her. But how do you extricate yourself from someone whose family owns the apartment you live in, who has taken you in as their own, even claims you as their “person”? A taut, piercing exploration of race and privilege, codependency, and the ways in which world-defining friendships can be both beautifully and excruciatingly life altering, My Person is an addicting, astutely observed novel from an astonishing new talent.
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Honey
by Imani Thompson
She just wants to know what justice feels like … A dark, provocative, adrenaline-rush of a novel about a graduate student who murders bad men and justifies it in the name of feminism.
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Upward Bound: A Read with Jenna Pick
by Woody Brown
A wondrous, deeply affecting portrait of the interlocking lives at an adult day care center in Southern California, depicting an often overlooked community with extraordinary wit and grace. Filled with characters you won’t soon forget, Upward Bound will inspire and touch you, teaching you as much about yourself as the tender, miraculous world behind the center’s doors.
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Should the Waters Take Us
by Stephanie Soileau
An epic debut novel that follows one family across four centuries, from France to Acadia to the bayous of Southern Louisiana — a poignant examination of belonging, place, and how individual acts of moral compromise contribute to cycles of injustice and destruction.
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The Future Perfect
by Cay Kim
Told in incandescent prose, Cay Kim’s exquisite debut novel is a portrait of a brilliant young woman growing up between cultures, and a love letter to girlhood, family, and the great dreams we hold for ourselves, no matter where we’re from.
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Somewhere Soft to Land
by kai alonté
In this crackling portrayal of friendship in peril, a young woman’s world is upended when a tragedy in her best friend’s life tests the boundaries of their sisterhood — a sharp and compelling debut novel from a Ghanaian American writer.
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When the Music Hits
by Amber Oliver
In this soulful debut novel set in the hypnotic music scene of New York City, a young Black woman lands her dream job at a major label — only to discover just how treacherous a place made to birth stars can be.
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Waiting on a Friend
by Natalie Adler
New York City, East Village, 1984. A young woman with the power to see the ghosts of her friends is haunted by the one who refuses to return — a dazzling, big-hearted debut of friendship and community during a time of devastation and defiance.
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All Them Dogs
by Djamel White
A young Irish gangster is caught in a brutal dance between desire and loyalty. By turns savage, erotic, and unexpectedly tender, All Them Dogs is a gripping story of violence, lust, and greed that explores one man’s struggles to find balance in an unsparing world.
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Liar’s Dice
by Juliet Faithfull
An astonishing debut about a teenage girl in 1970s Brazil who is torn away from her twin sister — and who must learn what it means to fight for those she loves when all the odds are stacked against her. Liar’s Dice captures the precarious intensity of coming of age in a volatile time — when repression and silence are the fabric of everyday life — and the cost of family secrets.
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How to Commit a Postcolonial Murder
by Nina McConigley
A bold, inventive, and fiercely original debut novel that begins with an uncle dead and his tween niece’s private confession to the reader — she and her sister killed him, and they blame the British.
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Underlake
by Erin L. McCoy
When a mother claims her missing daughter is alive beneath a lake in a flooded valley, a marine biologist descends into a hidden underwater settlement where those who refused to leave have built a sealed-off world — and where the consequences of that choice are beginning to surface.
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The Jellyfish Problem
by Tessa Yang
A marine biologist makes the discovery of a lifetime when called to rescue the inhabitants of a small Maine island being menaced by a giant, glowing jellyfish in this richly imagined, wholly original debut.
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Discipline
by Larissa Pham
A taut, electrifying debut about a woman forced to confront unsettling truths about herself, her past, and the life she rebuilt following a ruinous affair with her former mentor, from “a writer to keep a close eye on” (The New York Times Book Review).
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Leave and Come Back
by Lavanya Lakshmi
For the first time, Simran Gopal is living out her own swoon-worthy romance to rival the beloved Bollywood films of her childhood … until she receives her cousin’s wedding invitation. Now, Simran finds herself returning to the family home she’s been avoiding for the last seven years to take part in a two-week long Indian wedding. As old grievances and new secrets arise — with nosy aunties always watching — Simran must find a way to heal her wounds or risk losing her happy ending. Charming, tender, and hilarious, Leave and Come Back asks what it means to open up to love, what makes a family, and how to honor the past while embracing the present.
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The Jills
by Karen Parkman
In this propulsive debut, a Buffalo Bills cheerleader will stop at nothing to solve the disappearance of her best friend and teammate, navigating the dark underbelly of a hardscrabble city, the grime and glamour of professional cheerleading, and her own tangled family history.
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