Friday Reads: Stars Edition

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TGIF! We’ve got a couple novels with starred reviews to add to your TBR pile this weekend!

THE BLONDES by Emily Schultz
An epidemic of a rabies-like disease is carried only by blonde women, who all must go to great lengths to conceal their blondness.

“A nail-biter that is equal parts suspense, science fiction, and a funny, dark sendup of the stranglehold of gender.”   Kirkus Reviews, starred review

Ferociously clever, exceedingly well written…. The pandemic and its ripple effects make for a gripping, darkly bemusing read. But there’s more. This canny, suspenseful, acidly observant satire cradles an intimate, poignant, and hilarious story of one lonely, stoic, young mother-to-be caught up in surreal and terrifying situations. Schultz gives readers a lot to think about in this rampaging yet sensitive tale about the true depths of womanhood.”   Booklist, starred review

Funny, horrific, and frighteningly realistic, Schultz’s second novel is a must read.  Library Journal, starred review

DEATH AND MR. PICKWICK by Stephen Jarvis
“In this astounding first novel, Jarvis re-creates, in loving and exhaustive detail, the writing and publication of Charles Dickens’s first novel, The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, in 1836. The book is very long…but it is a staggering accomplishment, a panoramic perspective of 19th-century London and its creative class.”   Publishers Weekly, starred & boxed review

“Here is a huge and hugely impressive first novel for both fans of immersive reads and of Dickens’ London. Packed with interesting characters and tall tales, and ranging in setting from sporting clubs (read drinking clubs) to the theater to a factory floor to a debtors’ prison, this is fiction writ large. …this is choice reading for fans of Michel Faber’s The Crimson Petal and the White and Dan Simmons’ Drood.”
Booklist, starred review

“Beguiling, entertaining…. Dickens himself would be proud of Jarvis’ capture of so huge a slice of life.”   Kirkus Reviews, starred review

Share your #FridayReads with us @MacmillanLib. Happy weekend!

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