At times of political and cultural upset, literature has often been a way for society to process, understand, and push back against unethical policies or administrations. Many of the most well known books are direct political statements, like Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, Octavia Butler’s Kindred, and Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird. These works easily break down some of the biggest political challenges Americans faced at the time of their publication. Books have power — and sharp authors aren’t afraid to wield that. But what’s just as important and often ignored is a book’s ability to remove the reader from the real world entirely.
Let’s be honest — the nation feels like it’s in absolute shambles. Ever since President Donald Trump’s inauguration, opening any news app or website has felt like a nonstop barrage of blunt force trauma to the head. Being informed is important, but an oversaturation of constant bad news can make engaging with meaningful, political books difficult to stomach. Luckily, there’s genre fiction, which not only holds endless opportunities for entertainment but a perfect distraction during times of disarray. What better way to forget about the political situations you can’t change than with books practically steeped in magic, fantasy, love, horror, and mystery? So instead of picking up your phone for yet another doom scroll, here are five options that will get you onto the page and, hopefully, out of reality for a bit.
Immortal Dark by Tigest Girma
Vampires! Dark Academia! Secret Society! Kissing! A young Black author’s debut! Immortal Dark is like a beacon of distraction practically calling from a bookstore near you. Kidan Adane already has enough problems. She’s an orphan, living a life completely estranged from the rich vampire/human society she should rightfully be a part of. But when her sister goes missing, Kade is convinced she knows the exact blood sucker who took her: Susenyos Sagad.
Finding her sister doesn’t just mean setting off on an adventure. It means returning to the world she thought she’d left behind forever. Her mission requires her to infiltrate the secretive and exclusive Uxlay University, in the hopes that time at the vampire school will not only help her find her sister, but give her the perfect opportunity to kill Susenyos.
For new readers, diving into these kinds of fantasy-driven romances (“romantasy,” if you will) can be a fully engaging process. Knowing what city you’re in might require a quick flip to the index. Other times, dense prose or consonant heavy character names require undivided attention to maintain reading momentum. You’re not only meeting the new personalities that fiction can bring, but you also have to learn new vocabulary, rules, and a lot of interesting spelling. That’ll keep you off your phone for at least two hours.
A Gentleman’s Gentleman by TJ Alexander
Need something a little lighter? In A Gentleman’s Gentleman, TJ Alexander’s frothy queer regency romance, Lord Christopher Eden was pretty confident he’d live his entire life free from the gossip, attention, and downright nosiness of British high society. But when he finds out that his inheritance hinges on him marrying, he’s forced to head to London for the season. Sure, he’s gay and isn’t attracted to women. He’ll have to do his hardest to fake it. But when he strikes up a deep friendship with his new valet James Harding, Christopher has to contend with his actual desires and the duty that will keep him from ending up on the street. What’s better than countless scenes of two people putting on extremely fussy clothing and maybe falling in love? There’s just so many buttons!
Diavola by Jennifer Marie Thorne
Maybe scary times call for an ever scarier read. In Diavola, author Jennifer Marie Thorne takes the quintessential setting of a spooky haunted house and crashes it into the humorous tensions and anxieties of a family vacation. The Pace family are trying to relax in the Tuscan town of Monteperso. Siblings Anna, Benny, and Nicole have separate lives, and even more disparate personalities, which makes it hard for them to connect. Their time at a villa with their parents is supposed to be the answer, but the town is remote. The villagers are cryptic. And the house they’re staying in can’t protect them from strange sounds at night.
Horror might seem counterintuitive to forgetting about the actual scary events going on outside your front door. But there are some instances when leaning into the dread of someone’s else’s bad week can offer a much needed distraction. There’s also the personal draw: Not everyone has experienced a haunting, but complicated family dynamics are depicted so often in media that the setting feels both funny and heart racing. Diavola makes you linger in dread, but its international bent is more than enough to keep bad thoughts at bay.
The Three Lives of Cate Kay by Kate Fagan
Kate Fagan’s newest work could technically be considered two books in one, since The Three Lives of Cate Kay is centered around a novel within the novel. The book in question is The Very Last, a pop culture success in the fictional world that has spawned on-screen adaptations and turned author Cate Kay into a household name. But Cate Kay doesn’t exist. It’s a pseudonym, one that has let the author live anonymously while experiencing massive fame and success. But when she finally decides — under slight duress from her agent — that she’s ready to reveal herself in the form of a celebrity memoir, Cate has to revisit the story of her life that no one else knows. The Three Lives of Cate Kay gives readers a 360 view of the world Fagan has created, complete with the actress playing the lead role in The Very Last’s films, the fans, and the friendship that brought Cate to the book in the first place.
It’s a whiplash of settings, from a crowded Hollywood season to a calm cross-country road trip, which makes it hard for readers to do anything but follow the threads of the story. This is a contemporary read and takes much of its inspiration from today’s celebrity obsessed society, but places readers in such a compelling mystery that any nods to real life will be swiftly forgiven.
The Stardust Grail by Yume Kitasei
Deep Sky author Yume Kitasei’s latest book The Stardust Grail takes the academic treasure hunting and style of Indiana Jones to new, space-inspired heights. Readers are introduced to Maya Hoshimoto, a former art and antiquities thief determined to leave her space travel days behind and finish her graduate degree in anthropology at an Earth university. But when her close friend Uncle — part of a nearly extinct alien species Frenro — tips her off that there might finally be a way to snag her most elusive and world saving artifact, she leaves her coursework behind for one last ditch effort to solve a galaxy-sized mystery. One of the best ways to fully escape from a convoluted world is to dive headfirst into a new and strange one, leaving the planet behind entirely. And doesn’t that sound nice right now?