10 books you should read in September, including Stephen King’s Fairy Tale and Alex Ross’ Fantastic Four: Full Circle

Also check out All The Women In My Brain And Other Concerns, a candid collection of personal essays from Emmy Award-nominated actress Betty Gilpin

By Cat Auer | August 24, 2022 | 9:00am

Books News Fairy tale

10 books you should read in September, including Stephen King’s Fairy Tale and Alex Ross’ Fantastic Four: Full Circle

Clockwise from bottom left: How Not To Drown In A Glass Of Water (Image: Macmillan); Fantastic Four: Full Circle (Image: Abrams ComicArts); Rules Of Engagement (Image: Berkley Books); Fairy Tale (Image: Scribner), Ducks (Image: Drawn & Quarterly); The Furrows (Image: Hogarth); The Storm Is Here (Image: Penguin Press); All The Women In My Brain And Other Concerns (Image: Flatiron) Graphic: Libby McGuire

Every month, a deluge of new books comes flooding out from big publishers, indie houses, and self-publishing platforms. To help you navigate the wave of titles arriving in September, The A.V. Club has narrowed down the options to 10 books we’re most excited about, including a trope-twisting dark fantasy novel from horror master Stephen King, an interdimensional journey through the Negative Zone with Marvel’s original superhero squad, and a collection of comical musings from GLOW star Betty Gilpin.

The Furrows: An Elegy, Namwali Serpell (September 27)

Novelist Namwali Serpell follows her spectacular sci-fi/historical fiction The Old Drift with an undulating, enthralling tale of death and rebirth—the rebirth, that is, of those who survive a loved one. After 7-year-old Wayne disappears without a trace while out with his older sister Cassandra, she, her mother, and father all emerge differently wounded into their new, Wayne-less world: Cassandra knows her brother must be dead but isn’t believed; her mother insists he’s alive, forming a foundation to support families of missing children, and her father is caught in the middle. As they stumble forward, the past is a shadow that never dissipates in the sun. An unexpected perspective and plot twist near the halfway point reinvigorate the story with fresh tension and direction, with Serpell utterly unafraid to fuse and forge genres, turning up the levels of suspense, mystery, and even romance.

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