10 new books to read in April

Look for Emily Henry's steamy new romance, Katie Kitamura's most boundary-pushing novel yet, and Andrea Long Chu's collection of award-winning criticism.

By Jen Lennon  |  March 26, 2025 | 1:00pm
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10 new books to read in April

It’s a good month for criticism in the literary world, with new books in April exploring everything from early-’00s feminism to modern TV and video games. On the fiction side, there’s a new romance novel from Emily Henry, a couple of beautifully rendered coming-of-age novels, and an exciting horror debut from Kylie Lee Baker. And then there’s the nigh-indescribable “mutant text” from Paul B. Preciado, who might just be able to save us from ourselves.

A/S/L by Jeanne Thornton (April 1)
A/S/L by Jeanne Thornton (April 1)
Soho Press

In 1998, three teenagers meet on the internet and pour their hearts and souls into creating an epic video game that’s going to change the world. In 2016, they’ve lost touch, their game never went anywhere, and they’re all at least a little listless in life. Thornton’s queer coming-of-age novel vividly takes readers back to a time when they were all just starting to realize what an important lifeline the internet could be for folks who felt out of place IRL and posits that perhaps the sense of optimism and wonder it imparted back then isn’t lost forever. Jeanne Thornton’s previous novel, 2021’s Summer Fun, won the Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Fiction.

Faithbreaker by Hannah Kaner (April 1)
Faithbreaker by Hannah Kaner (April 1)
Harper Voyager

Faithbreaker is the final book in Hannah Kaner’s Fallen Gods trilogy. The fantasy series takes place in Middren, where the people war with gods who are frighteningly and dangerously real. As the fire god Hseth sets out to destroy all of Middren, its citizens must determine what they’re willing to sacrifice for peace. Godkiller, the first book in the series, was a minor sensation upon its publication in 2023, with particular praise aimed at Kaner’s skillful worldbuilding and representation of queer and disabled characters.

Small Ceremonies by Kyle Edwards (April 1)
Small Ceremonies by Kyle Edwards (April 1)
Pantheon

Book blurbs may not be long for this world, but it’s still pretty impressive for a first-time novelist to get an endorsement from 2024 National Book Award and Kirkus Prize winner Percival Everett. In Small Ceremonies, award-winning journalist Kyle Edwards introduces readers to a group of Indigenous high school hockey players in Winnipeg. This is the last season for the school’s hockey program before it gets permanently shut down, and the impending loss is bringing some big feelings to the surface for Tomahawk “Tommy” Shields, one of the team’s star players. Told from several different characters’ perspectives, Small Ceremonies weaves these individual narratives into a larger tapestry of identity and community.

Audition by Katie Kitamura (April 8)
Audition by Katie Kitamura (April 8)
Riverhead Books

Critics often praise Katie Kitamura for her spare, exacting prose, and her talents are on full display in Audition, a novel about performance and the many roles we play in our own lives. In Kitamura’s latest, an actress has lunch with a much younger man. As their individual narratives snake out from the center, our understanding of the situation morphs into something much more complex and harder to define.

Authority by Andrea Long Chu (April 8)
Authority by Andrea Long Chu (April 8)
Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Andrea Long Chu won the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism in 2023 thanks to her singular book reviews for New York magazine. Authority collects some of her most thought-provoking work on a variety of topics, including books, television, video games, and theater, and pairs these previously published essays with two new ones about the history of criticism and the current state of the art form.

Dysphoria Mundi: A Diary Of Planetary Transition by Paul B. Preciado (April 15)
Dysphoria Mundi: A Diary Of Planetary Transition by Paul B. Preciado (April 15)
Graywolf Press

Transgender writer and philosopher Paul B. Preciado puts forth a new thesis about dysphoria in Dysphoria Mundi: A Diary Of Planetary Transition, a “mutant text” cobbled together from pieces of autofiction, essays, poetry, and philosophical works. His argument that dysphoria “should not be seen as a mental illness but rather as the condition that defines our times” (per the book description) draws from lessons learned during Covid-induced isolation and the strange world we’ve found ourselves inhabiting in the aftermath. It’s another radical, perception-shifting work from Preciado, author of the inimitable Testo Junkie: Sex, Drugs, And Biopolitics In The Pharmacopornographic Era.

1999: The Year Low Culture Conquered America And Kickstarted Our Bizarre Times by Ross Benes (April 22)
1999: The Year Low Culture Conquered America And Kickstarted Our Bizarre Times by Ross Benes (April 22)
University Press of Kansas

In his latest book, journalist and entertainment industry analyst Ross Benes examines how our strange modern circumstances came to be, tracing the roots of the current moment back to the low-culture heyday of 1999. Benes examines everything from Jerry Springer to pro wrestling and Limp Bizkit, using his impressive research and storytelling skills to answer the age-old question: How did we get here?

Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry (April 22)
Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry (April 22)
Berkley

Emily Henry is back with Great Big Beautiful Life, which centers on two writers trying to secure the rights to a legendary heiress’ life story. As they compete with each other over the contract, an undeniable spark starts to grow between them. Thanks in part to BookTok, Henry has garnered a devoted following over the past few years, and Great Big Beautiful Life is already shaping up to be one of the most talked-about romances of the season.

Bat Eater And Other Names For Cora Zeng by Kylie Lee Baker (April 29)
Bat Eater And Other Names For Cora Zeng by Kylie Lee Baker (April 29)
MIRA

Kylie Lee Baker, who has made a name for herself in the young adult fantasy genre, pivots to horror for her adult debut. After the traumatic experience of witnessing her sister’s murder by an assailant who called her a “bat eater,” the line between reality and fiction has become a little blurred for Cora Zeng. Cora is a crime scene cleaner who’s usually unfazed by the gore she sees at work every day, but a string of violent crimes committed against East Asian women, coupled with the bat carcasses she keeps finding at crime scenes, has shaken her. And though she tries her best to suppress her ever-present feelings of dread, as the coincidences start to pile up, she finds them harder and harder to ignore.

Girl On Girl: How Pop Culture Turned A Generation Of Women Against Themselves by Sophie Gilbert (April 29)
Girl On Girl: How Pop Culture Turned A Generation Of Women Against Themselves by Sophie Gilbert (April 29)
Penguin Press

Atlantic critic Sophie Gilbert examines the evolution of feminism from the riot grrrl ’90s to the modern day in Girl On Girl. Specifically, she homes in on a specific moment in the early 2000s when feminist progress seemed to regress as hyper-sexualized depictions of women became more and more prominent. Gilbert analyzes this inflection point by drawing on examples from contemporaneous pop culture and explains how it continues to impact us today, its repercussions seen most urgently and distressingly in the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022.

 
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