Seattle Staff Faves 2023: Fiction
Every year we ask our staff across the system for their favorite books published in a given year. Enjoy this variety of fiction staff favorites, with annotations by staff members or as noted. (Created November 2023)
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Endpapers
"In 2003 New York, a genderqueer book conservator who feels trapped by her gender presentation, ill-fitting relationship, and artistic block discovers a decades-old hidden queer love letter and becomes obsessed with tracking down its author." (Publisher's description)
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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The Salt Grows Heavy
"You may think you know how the fairytale goes: a mermaid comes to shore and weds the prince. But what the fables forget is that mermaids have teeth. And now, her daughters have devoured the kingdom and burned it to ashes. On the run, the mermaid is joined by a mysterious plague doctor with a darkness of their own. Deep in the eerie, snow-crusted forest, the pair stumble upon a village of ageless children who thirst for blood, and the three "saints" who control them. The mermaid and her doctor must embrace the cruelest parts of their true nature if they hope to survive." (NoveList Plus)
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Bright Young Women
"As the only witness to the January 1978 break-in at their Florida State University sorority house, chapter president Pamela Schumacher is confident in her ability to identify the man responsible for the brutal murders of two sorority sisters and the severe beating of two others. However, in the chaos of that night, she briefly mistook the intruder for her sorority sister's on-again, off-again boyfriend, Roger, before realizing that she had never seen the man before." (Library Journal)
Format: Book
Availability: All copies in use
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Yellowface
"After the death of her literary rival in a freak accident, author June Hayward steals her just-finished masterpiece, sending it to her agent as her own work, but as emerging evidence threatens her success, she discovers just how far she’ll go to keep what she thinks she deserves." (NoveList Plus)
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Stolen
"A traditional culture deals with threats from inside and outside its tightknit community. Kick-started by the disturbing poaching and slaughter of a reindeer that was part of a Sámi family's herd in remote northern Sweden, Laestadius’ saga details the inequities faced by the contemporary Indigenous Sámi population." (Kirkus)
Format: Book
Availability: All copies in use
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Lone Women
"A homestead far from prying eyes offers Adelaide a fresh start in 1915 Montana. She makes a few female friends–after all, lone women need to stick together. But a secret that won’t be contained or silenced soon threatens her new life." (LibraryReads)
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Translation State
"The mystery of a missing translator sets three lives on a collision course that will have a ripple effect across the stars." (NoveList Plus)
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Small Mercies
"In the hot summer of 1974, anti-busing violence and racism erupt in Boston. The same night a young Black man named Auggie Williamson dies in the subway, Mary Pat Fennessey's 17-year-old daughter, Jules, disappears. When she can't get information from the young people with Jules that night, Mary Pat turns to the men who offer protection in the neighborhood, Marty Butler's Irish crew." (Library Journal)
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Blackward
"Four friends refuse to give up on creating a space of joy and celebration for Black, queer weirdness in Lindell’s latest graphic novel." (Kirkus)
Format: Graphic Novel
Availability: Available
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White Cat, Black Dog
"I love Link's weird, fairy tale-esque short stories that have such humanity at their heart." --Andrea G.
Format: Book
Availability: All copies in use
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