Jackal by Erin E. Adams – A Black woman returning to her Rust Belt hometown for a wedding uncovers a sinister pattern of black girls going missing from the area when her friends’ daughter disappears from the reception, leaving behind only a bloody piece of fabric.
The Decagon House Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji, translated by Hong-Li Wong – When the members of a university book club visit an island to investigate a multiple murder from the year before, they, when a fresh murder occurs, soon realize that they are being picked off one-by-one and must put their skills to good use to catch a killer.
Delilah Green Doesn’t Care by Ashley Herring Blake – Pressured into photographing her estranged step-sister’s wedding, Delilah Green reluctantly returns home to Bright Falls where she finds herself falling for one of the stuck-up bridesmaids after the pair are forced together during party preparations.
A Proposal They Can’t Refuse by Natalie Caña – Kamilah, a Puerto Rican chef and Liam, an Irish American whiskey distiller are blackmailed by their grandfathers, best friends since boyhood, into getting married or risk losing the building that houses both their businesses.
The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan – After one moment of poor judgment involving her daughter Harriet, Frida Liu falls victim to a host of government officials who will determine if she is a candidate for a Big Brother-like institution that measures the success or failure of a mother’s devotion.
Mimi Lee Gets a Clue By Jennifer J. Chow – Owner of a pet grooming business, Mimi Lee, after the local breeder she exposed for mistreating Chihuahuas is murdered, must clear her name with the help of her talking cat, Marshmallow, who is the only one who can get her out of this mess.
The Art of Prophecy by Wesley Chu – When the prophecy anoints the wrong hero, Jian decides to save the kingdom from a cruel immortal god-king anyway with the help of a ragtag group of allies, including a grandmaster of magical marital arts, a straight-laced warrior and a chaotic assassin.
All the Feels by Olivia Dade – After his involvement in a bar fight, a TV star with ADHD whose hit show is ending winds up under the care of a former ER therapist. They gradually become friends and then start to fall for each other.
The Vibrant Years by Sonali Dev – Three generations of the Desai women—65-year-old Bindu, her daughter-in-law Aly and her granddaughter Cullie—navigate bad dates, reemerging exes and secrets that refuse to remain hidden as they embark on a daring shared journey of self-discovery to live their most authentic lives.
Disability Visibility edited by Alice Wong – An anthology of contemporary essays by people with disabilities.
The Daughters of Izdihar by Hadeer Elsbai – In a fictional world inspired by modern Egyptian history, two young women —Nehal, a spoiled aristocrat used to getting what she wants, and Giorgina, a poor bookshop worker used to having nothing— find they have far more in common, particularly in their struggle for the rights of women and their ability to fight for it with forbidden elemental magic.
Shutter by Ramona Emerson – A Navajo forensic photographer working for the Albuquerque police force, Rita Todacheene, who sees the ghosts of crime victims who point her toward the clues the other investigators overlook, is caught in the crosshairs of one of Albuquerque’s most dangerous cartels when a furious ghost sets her on a path of vengeance.
Woman of Light by Kali Fajardo-Anstine – In 1930s Denver, Luz “Little Light” Lopez, a tea leaf reader and laundress, begins having visions that transport her to her Indigenous homeland in the nearby Lost Territory where she must save her family stories from disappearing into oblivion.
The Many Daughters of Afong Moy by Jamie Ford – A powerful exploration of the love that binds one family across seven generations and how shared familial trauma has affected their lives.
Peach Blossom Spring by Melissa Fu – Settling in America years after his turbulent childhood in China, Renshu, now Henry Dao, refuses to talk to his daughter about her heritage, determined to keep her safe in this new land despite being weighed down by his history.
River Woman, River Demon by Jennifer Givhan – When Eva’s husband is arrested for the murder of a friend, the Chicana artist, practicing bruja and curandera must confront her murky past and embrace her magick to find out what really happened that night on the river.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon – After stumbling upon his neighbor’s dog, Wellington, impaled on a garden fork and being blamed for the killing, fifteen-year-old Christopher John Francis Boone, an autistic savant obsessed with Sherlock Holmes, decides to track down the real killer and turns to his detective hero to help him with the investigation, which brings him face to face with a family crisis.
A Lady for a Duke by Alexis Hall – When Viola Carroll was presumed dead at Waterloo she took the opportunity to live, at last, as herself. But freedom does not come without a price, and Viola paid for hers with the loss of her wealth, her title, and her closest companion, Justin de Vere, the Duke of Gracewood. Only when their families reconnect, years after the war, does Viola learn how deep that loss truly was for him, and that perhaps they can find a way foward together.
Calling for a Blanket Dance by Oscar Hokeah – Follows the life of Ever Geimausaddle, a young Native American, through the multigenerational perspectives of his family as they face policy corruption, threats of job loss, constant resettlement and the pent up rage of centuries of injustice and finding strength in his familial identity.
The Fortunes of Jaded Women by Carolyn Huynh – This debut novel celebrates a family of estranged Vietnamese women who experiences mishaps and unexpected joy after a psychic makes a startling prediction about their lives.
The Devil Takes You Home by Gabino Iglesias – Agreeing to one final job—hijacking a cartel’s cash shipment before it reaches Mexico, hitman Mario, to salvage what’s left of his family, travels across the border and back with two other men whose hidden motivations are laid bare alongside nightmarish encounters that defy explanation.
The Fervor by Alma Katsu – In 1944, Meiko Briggs and her daughter, Aiko, held in an internment camp in the Midwest, discover a mysterious disease spreading among the interned is linked to a demon from the stories of Meiko’s childhood, hellbent on infiltrating their already strange world.
The Spare Man by Mary Robinette Kowal – Tesla Crane, a brilliant inventor and heiress, finds her honeymoon interrupted by murder, and with her husband accused of the crime, she, armed with witty banter, martinis and her small service dog, must solve this mystery and stop the real killer from striking again.
Show Me a Sign by Ann Clare LeZotte – The Deaf librarian and author of T4 draws on the true history of a thriving 19th-century Deaf community on Martha’s Vineyard in the story of a girl whose proud lineage is threatened by land disputes with the Wampanoag and a ruthlessly ambitious scientist.
The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu by Tom Lin – Fighting his way across the West to rescue his wife and exact revenge on the men who destroyed him, while settling old scores along the way, Ming Tsu is aided by a blind clairvoyant and a troupe of magic-show performers, some with supernatural powers.
Bliss Montage: Stories by Ling Ma – A collection of eight short stories from the author of Severance includes the tales of a woman who lives with all of her ex-boyfriends and of a toxic relationship built around a drug that makes you invisible.
The Book of Everlasting Things by Aanchal Malhotra – When their beloved city is ravaged by Partition, Hindu perfumer Samir Vij and Muslim calligrapher Firdaus Khan, now on opposite sides, their love forbidden, make a series of fateful decisions that will change the course of their lives forever.
Seasons of Purgatory by Shahriar Mandanipour – The first English-language story collection from “one of Iran’s most important living fiction writers” (Guardian)
The Bird Tattoo by Dunya Mikhail – A young Yazidi woman living in the mountain village of Sinjar in northern Iraq finds her life forever changed when her husband goes missing after ISIS infiltrates the area and she is kidnapped and enslaved before escaping her captors and being reunited with some of her family.
The Daughter of Doctor Moreau by Silvia Moreno-Garcia – When the arrival of Eduardo Lizalde at her father’s Yucatán estate sets in motion a dangerous chain of events, Carlota Moreau finds her carefully constructed world falling down around her as passion is ignited in the sweltering heat of the jungle where a motley group of monstrosities await.
Anywhere You Run by Wanda M. Morris – Two sisters on the run from Jim Crow justice in 1964 Jackson, Mississippi, flee to separate parts of the country, unaware that they are both being pursued by someone with dark secrets and a disturbing motive for finding them that is unknown to anyone but himself.
Miss del Rio: A Novel of Dolores del Rio, the First Major Latina Star in Hollywood by Bárbara Mujica – Spirited away to Hollywood from Mexico City, Dolores del Río becomes an instant star, swept up into Tinseltown’s glitzy inner circle, until, amidst her tumultuous personal life, she becomes box office poison amid growing prejudice before World War II, forcing her to decide what price she’s willing to pay to achieve her dreams.
If an Egyptian Cannot Speak English by Noor Naga – An Egyptian American woman visiting her parents’ homeland begins a dark romance with an unemployed photographer who is addicted to cocaine and living in a rooftop shack in Cairo in a novel about identity politics.
How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu – Spanning hundreds of years, a cast of intricately linked characters struggle with the Arctic Plague, an ancient illness accidentally unleashed by researchers investigating the melting permafrost in 2030, which forces humanity to continually reinvent itself to survive.
Someday, Maybe by Onyi Nwabineli – After her husband, the greatest love of her life, commits suicide, a young woman finds the strength to move on with the help of her tight-knit Nigerian family and happy memories of the man she’ll never forget.
There, There by Tommy Orange – A novel—which grapples with the complex history of Native Americans; with an inheritance of profound spirituality; and with a plague of addiction, abuse and suicide—follows 12 characters, each of whom has private reasons for traveling to the Big Oakland Powwow.
In the Time of Our History by Susanne Pari – Reluctantly returning home to observe “The One Year” after her sister’s death, Mitra, banished by her controlling father due to her rebellious nature, confronts hard truths from her and her sister’s past that forges an unexpected path forward with her mother, who has always been caught in the middle of their Iranian American family.
Walking in Tall Weeds by Robin W. Pearson – A Southern family drama about one family who discovers their history is only skin-deep and that God’s love is the only family tie that binds.
The Verifiers by Jane Pek – Stealth-recruited by Veracity, a referral-only online-dating detective agency, Claudia Lin, when a client disappears, breaks protocol to investigate and uncovers a maelstrom of personal and corporate deceit.
The Maid by Nita Prose – When she discovers the dead body of the infamous and wealthy Charles Black in his suite, hotel maid Molly Gray finds her orderly life upended as she becomes the prime suspect in the case and is caught in a web of deception that she has no idea how to unravel.
Mango, Mambo, and Murder by Raquel V. Reyes – Moving from New York to Miami, food anthropologist Miriam gets a short-term job as a Caribbean cooking expert on a Spanish-language morning TV show, which sets the stage for murder—one that could be the recipe for her own death.
Lavender House by Lev. A.C. Rosen – San Francisco, 1952: While investigating the mysterious death of matriarch Irene Lamontaine, head of a famous soap empire, Andy Mills is seduced by the safety and freedom found in Lavender House, where a queer family lives honestly and openly, until he becomes a pawn in their deadly game.
Valley of Shadows by Rudy Ruiz – A Mexican cowboy who can see the dead -including the spirit of his beloved late wife- is asked to investigate grusome killings in a town along the Texas-Mexico border in the 1880s.
The Bandit Queens by Parini Shroff – Considered a “self-made” widow after the disappearance of her husband, Geeta, when other women in the village ask her for help in getting rid of their own no-good husbands, must decide how far she is willing to go to protect her fearsome reputation and the life she’s built.
The Furrows by Namwali Serpell – Haunted by the accidental death of her little brother Wayne years ago, Cassandra Williams begins seeing her brother everywhere and meets a man both mysterious and familiar who is also searching for someone and for his own place in the world—his name is Wayne.
In Search of a Prince by Toni Shiloh – Brielle Adebayo’s simple life unravels when she discovers she is a princess in the African kingdom of Oloro Ilé and must immediately assume her royal position. Brielle comes to love the island’s culture and studies the language with her handsome tutor. But when her political rivals force her to make a difficult choice, a wrong decision could change her life.
Young Mungo by Douglas Stuart – In Glasgow, Mungo and James, who should be enemies due to their religious beliefs, fall in love, dreaming of finding somewhere they belong, while Mungo works hard to hide his true self from all those around him to protect them both from the danger their relationship brings.
A Time to Dance by Padma Venkatraman – Veda, a classical dance prodigy in India, lives and breathes dance—so when an accident leaves her a below-knee amputee, her dreams are shattered. For a girl who’s grown used to receiving applause for her dance prowess and flexibility, adjusting to a prosthetic leg is painful and humbling. But Veda refuses to let her disability rob her of her dreams, and she starts all over again, taking beginner classes with the youngest dancers. Then Veda meets Govinda, a young man who approaches dance as a spiritual pursuit. As their relationship deepens, Veda reconnects with the world around her, and begins to discover who she is and what dance truly means to her.
White Horse by Erika T. Wurth – When an old family bracelet inadvertently calls up both her mother’s ghost and a monstrous entity, an urban indigenous woman searches for what happened to her mother all those years ago, forcing her to confront a long-denied truth and the one thing she’s always wanted but could never have.
Four Treasures of the Sky by Jenny Tinghui Zhang – A Chinese girl struggles to find her place in the 1880s American West after being kidnapped and smuggled, working at a calligraphy school and a San Francisco brothel as anti-Chinese sentiment sweeps across the country.
The #WeNeedDiverseBooks (or #wndb) hashtag originated April 24, 2014, on Twitter, as part of organized efforts by several authors, bloggers and publishing industry folks including Aisha Saeed to increase diversity in youth literature. Their efforst led to the We Need Diverse Books™ organzation, is a 501(c)(3) non-profit and a grassroots organization of children’s book lovers that advocates essential changes in the publishing industry to produce and promote literature that reflects and honors the lives of all young people. For more information, visit https://diversebooks.org/about-wndb/