Looking for new dystopian novels to add to your TBR pile? Books that lean more toward satire than romance? Then I’ve got some new releases for you! And this week’s list is extra special, because it includes a book from yours truly!
First up…
No One Dies
by Robert Pagano
The person who created a way to upload your memories so that you can download them again into a new body is killed and revived only to find out that the government stole his tech and he’s missing a month of memories.
What you’ll find inside: Good intentions and bad deeds, psychological depth, a downward spiral.
All the billionaires in the world are killed by perfectly functioning machines they owned, and their wealth is distributed evenly to everyone who remains… now what?
What you’ll find inside: Multiple POVs, “eat the rich” perspective, first book in a series.
In a country that’s trading freedom for the efficiency of a biometric police state, ten citizens must choose between the tenuous safety of their known but deteriorating world and the uncertain potential of a new but unknown reality.
What you’ll find inside: Multiple POVs, fiction that pulls no punches, first book in a trilogy.
That rounds out our list of new releases to read if you love dystopian satire. But if you burn through all of these this weekend and find yourself wanting a palette cleanser, I have a cozy fantasy series that will probably make you laugh. You can check out Corbin Kohl here.
In the first half of 2026, I was spending a lot of time thinking about the massive transition we all seem to be navigating.
If you feel like the world you loved is vanishing and turning into something you do not want—that no one wants—leaving you to navigate a landscape that no longer makes sense—you are not alone. You are not crazy. You are simply in the middle of a transition.
We all are.
But…
Why is this happening?
How do we get through it?
How will it end?
I felt compelled to explore these questions
It seemed to me that people felt powerless in part because they couldn’t imagine change—both what it might look like when it was done or how to get there. So I put some characters into our world and propelled them toward a cliff to find out what would happen if we don’t change—and what’s possible if we do.
The characters aren’t just trying to survive a financial and societal collapse. That’s the first step, sure, but not the only one. The next steps are even harder:
How do they reclaim their sovereignty in a world that has convinced them they don’t have any?
How do they maintain their sovereignty and their humanity when it’s time to rebuild and the old “poisoned bricks” of control are the only tools they’ve ever known?
Finding a Path Forward
At some point it occurred to me that, in a very real sense, we are all living in the second-ish of three stages in a massive, collective Rite of Passage.
So when I started to write the trilogy, I broke the characters’ journey down into three stages—the stages of a rite of passage—to help me map their journey toward freedom:
Stage 1: Separation — The terrifying moment of realizing the system isn’t “broken”—it’s functioning exactly as it was designed, and to survive it you have to detach.
Stage 2: Liminality — The space between worlds, where you are free from the old system consciously but your body still has to live with in it and your subconscious is still reacting to its fearmongering and its “official” truths.
Stage 3: Incorporation — The act of co-creating a new order based on love, freedom, and individual sovereignty, rather than by fear, violence, and control.
It is Possible…
There are 3 mindset shifts that help—and might just be necessary—to get through each stage of a rite-of-passage transition: from the terrifying Separation of the old world, through the anxious uncertainty of the Liminal space, to the scary and satisfying moments of Reincorporation. A mere three shifts can help us get through the first two stages so that by the time we’re in the Reincorporation stage, we’re not just surviving but helping to create the new beginning.
Because it’s never just about surviving. It’s about thriving. It’s about freedom and personal sovereignty. I wanted to prove to myself that sovereignty can emerge in impactful ways when things look the most bleak and survival and conformity are no longer enough.
I wanted to capture that precise moment when someone finally stops looking for permission, stops playing by the “official” rules, and realizes that they have been free all along—and that they can act on that freedom even now.
The Result is The Epoch Rite of Passage
The Epoch Rite of Passage trilogy is for readers who wish 1984 could have ended another way. It was inspired by ICE in Minnesota and by a comment I read that was made to Disney after Jimmy Kimmel was suspended. It said, “Didn’t you watch Andor? It’s your own show!” It occurred to me that maybe, for some people, when a story’s world is too far removed from the real world, the themes don’t always hit home as strongly as they could. So the trilogy is set in the real world—today’s real world—as much as possible.
Also important to me was ending the trilogy in a better place than it started without having to resort to violence. Too many dystopian stories end violently, which I’ve always found disheartening. It took me three books to move the “High States,” a fictional country that looks a lot like the early 2026 United States, from a growing fascist state into something more free, but I did eventually get the characters there.
I love it when there’s a mysterious tome, a mystical book, or a magical library in a novel. I went looking for some new ones to add to my TBR pile, and I found a few that look interesting.
First up…
The Library of Botanical Witchcraft
by Jasmine Wigham
A warm and whimsical cozy fantasy where a non-magical assistant joins a conservatoire of botanical witchcraft teeming with troublesome witches, including one she can’t stop acting flustered around. From the book description: “A plant-loving librarian and a standoffish witch team up to cure a botanical curse in this whimsical and charming fantasy.”
What you’ll find inside: a comfort read with magical books, plants, academia, and romance.
A lonely, newly hired librarian who can see ghosts finds love, friends, and quirky ghosts whose paranormal havoc is endanging the future of the library in this cozy fantasy set in a magical library.
What you’ll find inside: a cute cozy ghost story with heart, humor, and a magical library that lives on the page.
That rounds out our list of new releases to read if you love magical libraries. But if you burn through all of those this weekend and find yourself wanting to explore a different kind of magical library, I have a cozy fantasy book set in Hell—or someplace like it—that takes place a magical library. It’s called Corbin Kohl Baited in Hell, and you can find it right here.
This week’s list of three new releases includes one with metaphysical notes, one with puzzles and upending the unknown, and a cozy fantasy that piqued my interest with its funny title.
First up…
The Chosen One Con
by True Skies
I’ll be honest, I put this one on the list because the jacket copy opened with the word Archons. Then it went on to use words like aether and freedom. My kind of words. In a world where Archons control magic, two friends disagree about whether magic can be used for freedom or is just a tool of oppression that should be destroyed.
What you’ll find inside: gaslamp fantasy, industrial magic, chosen one subversion.
This rings The Da Vinci Code bells, which always gets me adding a book to my TBR pile. The death of a woman’s father is at the center of a secret society’s struggle to guard a knowledge with the power to reshape human history.
What you’ll find inside: puzzles, science, secret societies, and I’m hoping a super exciting knowledge reveal.
What can I say, I’m a sucker for a funny title. Add in funny book jacket copy, and you’re on my TBR pile. Two retired outlaws are back in the game—with their magic knitting needles—when their old friend needs help saving a convent of dragons and nuns.
What you’ll find inside: cozy fantasy, adventure, second chances, dragon-cats.
That rounds out our list of new releases to read if you love stories that are a little different. But if you burn through all of these this weekend and find yourself wanting another great adventure that hits different, check out The Metanaut.
I’ve been in a mood for dystopian stories after finishing The Epoch Rite of Passage. I went looking for some new ones to add to my TBR pile, and I found a few that look interesting. These dystopian novels lean more toward satire rather than romance–just as I like it. One thing they have in common? They all feel a little too close to home. Here’s hoping they also offer glimpses of more positive paths forward.
First up…
NØT NØW
by Neil AnthØny
A speculative thriller about engineered consciousness, surveillance, and resistance. From the jacket copy: “In 2063, the State does not simply watch its citizens. It scores them, allocates them, corrects them, and improves them. Behaviour is currency. Compliance is survival. The body is no longer private property.”
What you’ll find inside: thought-provoking and fast-paced storytelling, great world-building.
A multi-perspective novel set in a near-future Paris reshaped by climate urgency. An environmental engineer’s good intentions have less than desirable consequences as she sets out to rescue the world with a green urban project–that a future niece must now live in.
What you’ll find inside: thought-provoking and lyrical storytelling, immersive world-building.
A novel that explores the current trajectory of women’s loss of agency. From the jacket copy: “In 2086, corporations are monitoring fertility. Abortion is illegal. And the last woman alive who can perform the procedure is in hiding.”
What you’ll find inside: thought-provoking and gripping storytelling, fiction that pulls no punches.
That rounds out our list of new releases to read if you love dystopian satire. But if you burn through all of those this weekend and find yourself wanting just a little bit more dystopia, I have a trilogy that explores a very similar dynamic. It’s called The Epoch Rite of Passage, and you can find the first book right here.
I just finished another Corbin Kohl book, and I started wondering… are there other books out there set in Hell? Of course there are! I went looking for some new ones to add to my TBR pile, and I found a few that really piqued my interest. They’re not just set in Hell, but they look fun and funny, too, and as I dug into them, I realized they had something else in common as well: they’re all workplace comedies.
First up…
I Hope This Email Finds You in Hell
by Mackenzie Reed
This one’s set in Hell by way of an insurance company and Times Square in New York. It follows a twenty-seven-year-old receptionist and her secretly-a-demon-hunter boss as they descend into Hell to rescue a coworker.
What you’ll find inside: cozy horror, twists and turns, snarky dialogue, slow-burn paranormal workplace romance.
This one is set in Hell by way of a consulting firm run by a demon. It follows a dead young professional and her two ghostly colleagues–a 1930s housewife and a coconut octopus (love it!)–who set out to turn a startup company that helps ghosts complete their unfinished business into the next big thing.
What you’ll find inside: humor, satire, quirky characters, business parody.
This one is set in Hell by way of Portland, Oregon. It follows a “salesfiend” intent on ascending to Hell’s C-Suite when she accidentally breaks one of Hell’s commandments and must accept a humiliating bargain in order to save her promotion.
What you’ll find inside: quirky characters, including a fire-breathing dachshund, and more depth than you might initially expect.
If you’re looking for something to read while you wait for these, check out the Corbin Kohl in Hell series. It’s the series that inspired me to do this post and, strangely enough, it is also a workplace comedy.
I’ve been thinking about whether or not to include a trigger warning for The Epoch Rite of Passage. My kneejerk reaction to trigger warnings is that I don’t like them. I don’t like spoilers for a book I’m about to read.
For the first book I did that I thought probably needed a trigger warning, I put a link in the front of the book for anyone serious about needing to read it. It seemed to work fine. No one complained.
But if you keep the content warning really high-level with absolutely no details, are you really spoiling anything? Or are you actually just giving a little extra hook, maybe even convincing someone on the fence to read the story?
I’m liking this idea, this idea of using the trigger warning as a hook into the story. In fiction, the general rule is that you’re never supposed to “tell” (because you’re supposed to “show”). But in a trigger warning—you get to tell. You get to say, look at all this interesting stuff that happens in the book!
Last night I felt the urge to draft something of a hookish trigger warning to include in the first book of The Epoch Rite of Passage trilogy.
Here’s what I came up with:
The Epoch Rite of Passage trilogy is a subversive dystopian political satire set in the increasingly techno-fascist world of the High States and includes scenes of authorized and state-sanctioned violence, fearmongering, gaslighting, spying, graphic language, theft, kidnapping, child endangerment, breaking and entering, blackmail, sexual assault, murder… you know, the usual stuff you see on the nightly news, up to and including a bloviating talking-head attempting to normalize it all. Mind your mental health and, if you need to, save this trilogy for another time. Otherwise, welcome to the High States—some say the greatest country in the world! But don’t get too comfortable. It won’t exist like this for long…
What do you think?
[some time later…]
I just saw it in my email, after posting it, and I had some thoughts:
The Epoch Rite of Passage trilogy is a subversive dystopian political satire set in the increasingly techno-fascist High States, a world with authorized and state-sanctioned violence, fearmongering, gaslighting, spying, graphic language, theft, kidnapping, child endangerment, breaking and entering, blackmail, sexual assault, murder… you know, the usual stuff you see on the nightly news, up to and including a bloviating talking-head attempting to normalize it all. Mind your mental health and, if you need to, save this outing for another time. Still here? Then welcome to the High States—some say it’s the greatest country in the world. Watch your Ps and Qs and don’t get too comfortable. It won’t exist as-is for long…
