New Book Releases: August 25, 2020

Each week, I’ll catalog the biggest and most exciting adult and YA fiction — and the occasional nonfiction — coming out that Tuesday.

SUMMER, Ali Smith. The concluding entry in Smith’s quartet of seasonal novels. “Summer somehow exceeded every one of my expectations,” writes The Irish Times. Aggregated critical reviews, Bookshop.

KIND OF A BIG DEAL, Shannon Hale. A high school has-been who dropped out only to strike out on her Broadway dreams begins to read voraciously, only to discover she’s suddenly, literally, inside the novels she’s reading. Bookshop.

THE SEDUCTION, Joanna Briscoe. Unsettled by memories of a troubled past and the feeling that her daughter is keeping secrets from her, a woman goes to a new therapist, with disturbing consequences. The Guardian calls it “addictive, macabre fairground ride of a novel.” Bookshop.

THE WOODS, Vanessa Savage. A woman returns home to say goodbye to her ailing stepmother and finally unpack what happened to her sister, who died ten years before. Bookshop.

WINTER COUNTS, David Heska Wanbli Weiden. A vigilante enforcer on a Native American reservation finds his work suddenly gets personal when heroin emerges in the community and ensnares his nephew, and the vigilante is tasked with tracking down who introduced the drug to the reservation. In a starred review, Publisher’s Weekly calls it a “gorgeous debut… This is crime fiction at its best.” Bookshop.

TRAITOR, Amanda McCrina. A YA historical novel about a half-Ukrainian, half-Polish Red Army recruit who makes a mistake and is rescued by Ukrainian freedom fighters, whom he doesn’t trust. Bookshop.

SISTERS, Daisy Johnson. When two close sisters move to a rural area after a bullying incident, their relationship begins to strain, and a series of upsetting encounters reveals that all may not be as it seems for their family. From the author of Everything Under, which was short-listed for the Man…