I was charmed by John Kenney's darkly funny, thoughtful novel about an obituary writer hitting rock bottom and reflecting on mortality, leaning on his friends, and finding unorthodox ways to embrace the messiness and wonder of life again. Awkard, endearing Bud Stanley is an obituary writer who's going through some things. He's gone downhill since his wife divorced him for her prior boyfriend, and now he's all but given up on love; his last blind date involved a woman who brou

Cline crafts a poignant, darkly funny, and uncomfortably, beautifully spot-on-feeling novel about a man with dementia as the clock runs out. He increasingly loses his grasp on the facts but urgently reconnects with pivotal figures from his past and considers his rapidly unraveling, impenetrable reality while revealing to the reader powerful, universal truths. Leave the party right when you think, I'm having such a nice time at this party. David is on a private plane headed fo

Cash crafts a delightfully campy, oddball novel around a family of characters who for various reasons abandon social acceptability as they aim to find fulfillment, solve a mystery, discover compatibility, seek purpose, and coexist together. This is a darkly humorous, sometimes quirky tale that's edgy and provocative. In Madeline Cash's darkly funny, oddball novel, the reader can tell what Catherine and Bud Flynn cannot: their open marriage is either directly or indirectly fur

Sedaris's first collection of essays in four years offers his delightfully jarring observations and rejection of social niceties, including a hilarious emotional reliance on Duolingo, various entertaining and nerve-racking encounters, and powerfully poignant reflections on his decades-long friendship with his best friend. In David Sedaris's latest book of essays, The Land and Its People, his first in four years, he brings his offbeat humor, acerbic observations, and surprisin

The premise, structure, and dark humor of this buzzy spring novel were so intriguing that although I was left a little unsatisfied by the ending and resolution, I was so hooked on the story to that point, it didn't ultimately matter. Yesteryear is Caro Claire Burke's debut novel. The story features main protagonist Natalie, a fundamentalist Christian who subscribes to male-dominated power structures and “traditional” values. When she is quite young and naïve, she marries the

Set in 2022 Ukraine as war begins to break out, this oddball, zigzagging story explores broad themes of interconnectedness as well as revenge fantasies made real and renegade ecology preservation. With dark humor and sobering truths, Reva presents it all through the lens of the scruffy Ukrainian marriage industry. It's 2022, and roving, passionate scientist Yeva is only dating in the Ukrainian marriage industry to earn money to rescue and preserve her precious snails. After a

Bunny begins with an outcast main protagonist in a MFA program who's infuriated by her twee fellow seminar students. It builds into an increasingly unhinged, intriguing phantasmagoria, equal parts dark nightmare and outrageously silly absurdity. I was intrigued by the sound of We Love You, Bunny , the sequel to Mona Awad's novel Bunny , so I went back to first read this book. Samantha is a scholarship MFA student at the progressive Warren University in New England. An outside

She's a Lamb! offers a delusional, self-congratulatory, single-minded, relentless would-be performer and builds tension and outrageously...

Sarah Rees Brennan offers a funny, dark, clever story within a story in which the heroes and villains are redefined, redemption is always...

Flawed main characters Jack and Elizabeth try to find their way back to an emotional connection in this literary fiction work. Wellness...

Crosley's memoir traces a treasured friendship and the gutting loss of that dear friend. She's vulnerable enough to allow the reader in...

This darkly funny story made me cringe while staying riveted by the main protagonist's deeply faulted reasoning, criminal actions, and...

Rowley brings humor to this heartwarming--but never cloying--exploration of friendship, connection, messy relationships, heartbreak, and...

The more somber tone of book three and the focus on logistics feel appropriate as the recent graduates of the Scholomance desperately...

Newman offers a heartbreaking and heartwarming tribute to friendship that centers around witty dialogue, unconventional arrangements,...

Jen Beagin's literary fiction novel is consistently bizarre, at times base, and often darkly funny as her characters alternately dive...

This fun, darkly funny, feminist story about a retiring female team of elite assassins was the right book at the right time for me:...

Harrow the Ninth, the sequel to Tamsyn Muir's Gideon the Ninth, is a complex, fascinating, gruesome story full of action and shifts in...

El is a grumpy, powerful, smart, straightforward character I was obsessed with, and I wanted to spend as much time with her as possible....