10 books you should read in July, including new Chuck Tingle and a Gravity Falls book for adults

Release date: July 2, 2024Publisher: Hyperion AvenueThe new Marvel Crime series officially launches with an original Jessica Jones thriller by Lisa Jewell, the bestselling author of None Of This Is True and Then She Was Gone. The idea of this gritty, adult-focused series of novels is to pair fiction writers with Marvel characters and see what comes of it. Jewell’s portrayal of Jessica Jones seems to take as much from the Netflix series as it does from the comics. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. The story finds Jessica on a case of changed personalities when a mother comes to her for help, insisting that her twin daughters are not acting like themselves after a trip to visit their father in the U.K. Intrigued, Jessica heads off to investigate the source of the trouble, a small village in the British countryside where dark secrets await.

Release date: July 2, 2024Publisher: Riverhead BooksThe author of Long Bright River returns with another thriller packed with dramatic tension. This one is set at an Adirondack summer camp in 1975. When the 13-year-old daughter of the camp’s wealthy owners goes missing, a search begins that could uncover much more than the fate of one girl. Further complicating matters, her brother also disappeared 14 years ago from the same camp under similar circumstances, never to be found. The novel jumps back and forth between the cases, allowing the reader to trace the connections in the parallel timelines as they unfold. Moore has a devoted following among readers thanks to Long Bright River being chosen for Good Morning America’s book club and Barack Obama listing it as one of his favorite books of the year in 2020. If summer suspense is your thing, keep this one in mind.

Release date: July 9, 2024Publisher: Tor NightfirePride Month may be over, but Chuck Tingle is here to remind us that the cause continues all year long. When it comes to the anonymous author of dozens of self-published “Tinglers” with titles like Space Raptor Butt Invasion (which was a finalist for a Hugo), Pounded In The Butt by My Hugo Award Loss, and Angry Man Pounded By The Fear Of His Latent Gayness Over A Dinosaur Transitioning Into A Unicorn, Tingle’s quirks can sometimes overshadow his work. But behind the pink mask lies a fairly brilliant writer, as he proved with his first mainstream novel, Camp Damascus. In Bury Your Gays, his second book for Tor’s horror imprint, Tingle explores the titular trope both literally and figuratively through the character of Misha, a jaded screenwriter. When the producers of Misha’s streaming series pressure him to kill off his gay characters in the upcoming season finale, he faces a hard choice that brings some of his own demons out from hiding. As you might expect from Tingle, it’s all very deliciously meta.

Release date: July 9, 2024Publisher: Random HouseIf you enjoyed the Hulu miniseries Fleishman Is In Trouble (or the book it was based on), you already know what to expect from Brodesser-Akner’s candid and clever prose. A sharp observer of human behavior, a skill she honed while working as an entertainment journalist, she offers readers another fascinating cast of characters within a wealthy Jewish family from Long Island. Since his kidnapping in 1980, Carl Fletcher and his family’s lives have been defined by that single, nearly tragic event. Although the hefty ransom was paid and Carl returned home safely, the family was never the same afterward. The book tackles big themes, like the power of money to corrupt or redeem and the complicated history of Jewish people in America, but also portrays family dysfunction from an intimate perspective.

Release date: July 16, 2024Publisher: VikingThe author of The Magicians takes a stab at the legend of the Knights of the Round Table in his latest novel, The Bright Sword. Grossman has said it took him nearly a decade to write the book, which takes place after the death of the king and finds the land in the midst of upheaval. When a young aspiring knight discovers that his hopes of joining the Round Table died with Arthur, he teams up with a motley crew of surviving knights and adventurers to put the pieces of the broken realm back together. Grossman includes famous characters from legend like Lancelot, Guinevere, and Morgan le Fay, but focuses mostly on lesser-known figures, giving some a modern twist. One knight is transgender, another bipolar, and yet another faces constant racism. They’re all just trying to get by in a post-Arthurian Camelot that no longer makes sense.

Release date: July 16, 2024Publisher: Simon & SchusterFans of classic horror slasher movies should get a kick out of the premise of this book. As the title suggests, it’s a confessional told from the perspective of 17-year-old Tolly Driver, a good and ordinary kid living in a small Texas town in 1989. Except for the fact that he’s been cursed with a bloodlust for revenge that sometimes causes him to kill his classmates. Tolly leads the reader through his summer of slaying while sharing his most personal thoughts and feelings. Author Stephen Graham Jones (The Only Good Indians) not only has an affinity for the slasher genre, but he brings his own experiences growing up in Texas to Tolly’s story, creating a strong sense of place and character. Even if Tolly’s actions are violent and reprehensible, Jones makes him likable and relatable to anyone who’s ever felt like an outsider.

Release date: July 16, 2024Publisher: PantheonThis month’s prime nonfiction pick isn’t just for those who can’t wait for Shark Week to come around each year, although there are plenty of shark-related anecdotes in it. Sharks Don’t Sink chronicles the difficulties marine biologist and shark expert Jasmin Graham faced in a field dominated by white men. She writes about feeling disillusioned and burned out, almost to the point of leaving her work behind entirely. But like a shark, she kept afloat by moving forward and eventually teamed up with three other women to create Minorities in Shark Sciences, a non-profit organization dedicated to creating space in the industry for underrepresented researchers. It’s a book that stands at the crossroads between science and social justice.

Release date: July 23, 2024Publisher: Hyperion AvenueIf you’re one of the many adult fans who has been missing Gravity Falls since it wrapped up eight years ago, this book is for you. Written for mature audiences by series creator Alex Hirsch (channeling interdimensional demon Bill Cipher), this “deeply, deeply cursed” tome includes some backstory on the demented Dorito guy and all sorts of other treats for fans, including the kinds of esoteric riddles, puzzles, and hidden codes that made the series so much more than just a silly kid’s cartoon. Not that it isn’t silly. In fact, there’s an entire chapter on Silly Straws. In his celebrity blurb for the book, “Weird Al” Yankovic does a pretty good job of summing it up: “I thought I liked things that were weird, but I was wrong. This book was too weird for me. I feel nauseous just thinking about the horrifying psychosis contained within. I’m legally changing my name to ‘Normal Al’ now and pushing all my Hawaiian shirts out to sea on a barge. Avoid this book at all costs!!”

Release date: July 23, 2024Publisher: One WorldAuthor Karla Cornejo Villavicencio was shortlisted for the National Book Award for Nonfiction in 2020 for her debut The Undocumented Americans. For her second book, she’s switched to fiction, but it’s a fiction based on the truth of her own experience. Like the author, the novel’s protagonist, Catalina, is an undocumented immigrant from Ecuador who grew up in Queens and is eventually accepted into Harvard. In her memoir-style narration, Catalina is candid about her insecurities, the way her undocumented status colors every interaction, and her fears about what will happen to her once she graduates. Fans of Elif Batuman’s The Idiot may find similar themes here, but Cornejo Villavicencio’s style is purely her own.