The Best Books of 2018 — So Far

Chloe Benjamin's The Immortalists tells the story of four children who seek out a fortune teller who claims to be able to tell you the day on which you'll die — and how it is that they choose to live the lives that unfurl before them in the lead up to those fateful dates. Beautifully written and intricately detailed, it's impossible to put down and sure to be one of those books you've got to reread again and again.

Leni Zumas's Red Clocks is the book you've been waiting for in the wake of The Handmaid's Tale, and it's every bit as good as one might hope. In a near future in which abortion is illegal and embryos have rights, five women in the same town attempt to navigate motherhood in the best way they know how. But when their doctor — who happens to live in the woods and may be some sort of spiritual being — is put on trial, everything is thrown into jeopardy, and all five women must band together in order to survive.

The world which Chandler Klang Smith puts forth in The Sky is Yours defies all logic and knowledge of modern cities, and yet, within its bounds are characters so richly real and honest that you can't believe that such wild things are happening. In other words, I loved it — and I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Isaac Butler and Dan Kois celebrate the 25th anniversary of Angels in America with the ultimate oral history of the award-winning play, The World Only Spins Forward: The Ascent of Angels in America — and we can more than guarantee that you won't read anything quite like this phenomenal collection all year.

Danielle Lazarin's Back Talk is the ultimate collection of stories centered on the experience of women and girls — and we can't recommend it highly enough.

Paul Goldberg's The Chateau is a timely, hilarious exploration of Floridian life in Donald Trump's America – and honestly, it's the first time we've really seen someone pull off such an enjoyable romp with our modern world as the backdrop.

Kelly Barnhill's Dreadful Young Ladies and Other Stories is a breathtaking collection of tales that traverse the intersection of reality and fantasy, all the while reminding us of the very values that make us human.

A coming-of-age memoir set on an American Indian reservation in the Pacific Northwest, Heart Berries is a haunting, exquisite portrait of the struggles of mental health and trauma, and Terese Marie Mailhot's story is not one you're likely to forget anytime soon.

Outrageously original, insanely intricate, and possessing the freshest voices you'll read all year, Karin Tidbeck's Jagannath is an absolute must-read for every science fiction or magical realism fan out there.

Uzodinma Iweala's long-awaited follow-up to Beasts of No Nation — the book behind the critically acclaimed 2015 film — does not disappoint and is by far one of the most riveting books I've read so far this year. Speak No Evil traces a young man's reckoning of the privilege he's been born into and the sexuality that he can no longer keep repressed — and the toll it takes on not just his own journey to adulthood, but that of his best female friend. It's a story that will stay with you long after you turn the last page and should be seen as essential reading in 2018.

The beloved Mallory Ortberg — cofounder of The Toast and advice columnist for Slate's Dear Prudence — returns to fiction with the follow-up to 2014's Texts From Jane Eyre: And Other Conversations With Your Favorite Literary Characters, The Merry Spinster: Tales of Everyday Horror. It's a weird, wild, and absolutely addicting collection of stories that will leave you breathless — and once you're finished, it will have more than earned a permanent spot on your bedside table.

The stories in Ramona Ausubel's Awayland are galactic in scope, massive in scale, and universal in their flawless execution. From Mars to the streets of the Midwest, Ausubel tackles modern mythology in a way that is utterly original and endless fascinating — and, at the end of the day, it just might teach you something about yourself.

Shobha Rao's entrancing debut, Girls Burn Brighter, tells the story of two women who grew impossibly close as children but have begun separate lives as adults — and how the connection they share is destined to bring them together, no matter what the circumstances they find themselves in might be.

The eagerly anticipated follow-up to Meg Wolitzer's much-loved The Interestings finally drops this month, and it does not disappoint. The Female Persuasion is an exploration of feminism and passion as it unfolds throughout multiple generations and through multiple narrators.

What would happen if one person was given the knowledge of a set of events that would take place in the future, and how would that knowledge impact the rest of the world? That's the basic premise behind Charles Soule's The Oracle Year, and, from start to finish, you'll be devouring each page and wanting to know what happens next.