I'm still working on finishing off all the ARCs I've requested. Someday I'll be done and I'll be able to write about something other than upcoming books. I'm so sorry.
I received free advance copies from NetGalley and the publishers in exchange for fair reviews.
Title: He's the Devil
Author: Tobi Coventry
Rating: 1/5
Published by Abrams and available February 3, 2026, He's the Devil is the last human/demon book I've requested to review, following the absolute garbage fire of Demon With Benefits, the delights of The Devil She Knows and The Demon of Beausoleil and the boredom of As Many Souls as Stars. I was looking forward to this because I always love a good gay human/demon relationship. Unfortunately this book falls into the "not very interesting" category. Simon is a goody-two-shoes guy in a city (not any specific city, though I'm assuming it's in the UK because of the vocabulary) who needs a roommate. I decided to DNF before I got to the demonic roommate because Simon's narration is boring. It says nothing while somehow simultaneously being overly descriptive (but still couldn't bother to tell you where it's set). I just don't have time for books I'm not interested in. It'll probably appeal to readers into trendy queer urban fiction.
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Authors: Step on a LEGO (original story), TO WALK(REDICE STUDIO) [adaptation]
Illustrator: S.arang
Rating: 1.5/5
Published by Yen Press and available January 20, 2026, Revenge of the Baskerville Bloodhound is the first book I've ever read by an author whose name is a threat. Gotta love manhwa author pseudonyms. It's also a really powerful manhwa because it repeatedly crashed Thorium Reader on my computer. The story follows Virki van Baskerville, a bastard son of the elite assassin family the Baskervilles-- though Vikir wasn't good enough and was killed by his father. Now he's been returned to infancy, memories intact-- age regression rather than reincarnation/metempsychosis. There are definite Greek mythology vibes, with Vikir being attacked by snakes like Heracles, and being dipped (via swimming) in the River Styx like Achilles. This should interest fans of Percy Jackson, Hades, and other myth retellings. Like other manhwa I've read, the art is nicely detailed and wonderfully colored. And like all fantasy manhwa I've read, characters have stupid names-- like Vikir's half-brothers Hibro, Midbro, and Lobro Le Baskerville. The comic gets boring for me as we get to the battle school exam, and I started noticing how much Vikir looks like Tanjiro Komada of Demon Slayer. And God I'm tired of video game mechanics in manga/manhwa. The Greek myth parallels made me hopeful for this series, but by chapter 5 I was bored. This doesn't mean that other people won't like it, it's just not my thing. This will appeal to fans of series like Solo Leveling and other fantasy battle manhwa.
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Title: DnDoggos: Spells Like Trouble
Author/Illustrator: Scout Underhill
Rating: 5/5
Published by Macmillan Children's Publishing Group and available February 24, 2026, DnDoggos: Spells Like Trouble is the second installment in Scout Underhill's adorable series about TTRPG-loving canines. Panels alternate between the action in the game and the dogs at the table, with the in-game art being more detailed. I love the art and Liana Sposto's colors are a delight. The dog designs are all unique and look so fluffy you could pet them through the page. Players Tonka, Zoey, and Pickles level up and learn new spells for the first time, and welcome a new player, Toast the cat. If you know a kid who wants to get into TTRPGs, this will be a great introduction for them-- and it'll be enjoyed by adventurers of all ages. If you've played games like Dungeons and Dragons, you'll recognize the excitement of the dice rolls, the funny names players come up with, and the way characters will reflect their players. I love how the character bios at the beginning list the characters' pronouns-- Tonka, for example, uses he/they, and characters use both in the story. It helps kids understand respecting people's pronouns. In all, I'm so thrilled that this second book is as fun as the first, and I'm definitely recommending it to all my RPG friends. Also-- using "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet" as a spell is the greatest thing ever.
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Author/Illustrator: Nadine Takvorian
Rating: 5/5
Published by Levine Querido and available March 10, 2026, Armaveni caught my eye because of my interest in the Armenian Genocide, which is a result of a class on genocide I took while working on my degree. This graphic novel is one Armenian-American's search quest for answers about her family's experience in the Armenian Genocide-- committed by the Ottoman Empire at the end of World War I. It's about oral history and memory, identity as an American whose heritage is tragedy, and facing the people who erase history. When asking her mother about the Genocide, young Nadine says "I want to know, Mom. Why can't you just tell us? It's our history, too. It's going to be lost" underlining the need for oral history-- especially when whole governments try to silence it. The graphic novel focuses on high schooler Nadine and her church trip to Armenia, and then her trip to Turkey to visit family, with interspersed flashbacks to her ancestors' history-- as well as her own experiences in America as her history teacher denies the Genocide-- and September 11th puts Middle Easterners at risk. The grayscale art is detailed and haunting. This is one of the most gut-wrenching and powerful books I've read in a while, and stands with other graphic novel memoirs of genocide like Maus and Fax From Sarajevo. I'm definitely going to request our library gets it.
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Author: William J. Mann
Rating: 5/5
Published by Simon & Schuster and available January 27, I cannot stop gushing about Black Dahlia. This book's goal is to be the first definitive history of the last days, murder, and subsequent investigation into the death of Elizabeth Short, known to American pop culture as the Black Dahlia. Mann traces Elizabeth's last year and her life as a drifter and focuses on how misogyny has warped our understanding of her from the very beginning. If she were a man, Elizabeth (or Beth, as she liked to be called) would be a vagabond adventurer, like a Tom Sawyer, but as a woman, she was a tramp and manipulator of men-- maybe even a dangerous, predatory lesbian. This pushback is especially welcome in a time where misogyny and homophobia are makin a comeback. Mann breaks down the myths and misconceptions surrounding the case-- everything from Dr. DeRiver's phony psychoanalysis to misunderstandings based on the autopsy. As a historian obsessed with cultural context I love how the book takes its time laying out the situation in postwar America. Society was strained in multiple ways, many of which were why Beth found herself couch surfing on the West Coast. This is a fantastic book about the case and will appeal to people interested in crime as well as 20th century American history. Rest in peace, Beth. We share a birthday.
