In “an excitement-packed novel” with a “fascinating premise,” a loose group of family and friends plots an escape from a Canada that has been occupied by the American military. The group faces peril, bad weather, and a fate that’s not revealed until the final pages. —Valerie Green reviews Fleeing the 51st State: A Voyage of Resistance and Hope, by Peter Freeman (Vancouver: Tablet Publications, 2025) $35.00 / 9781069460813
The sleuthing elements of this YA novel have their appeal, but the real stand outs include the interplay between teammates and the “multi-generational openness and connections.” —Alison Acheson reviews Rhapsody Smith, Ice Angel, by Lorna Schultz Nicholson (Winnipeg: Yellow Dog/Great Plains Press, 2025) $18.95 / 9781773371306
Timely thriller about AI technology, corporate intrigue, and marriage also manages to engage meaningfully in the cultural debate about MAID and end-of-life. —Sophia Wasylinko reviews The Deepest Fake, by Daniel Kalla (Toronto: Simon & Schuster Canada, 2025) $25.99 / 9781668032534
Veteran YA author’s captivating novel features ghosts and villains and a network of caves (not to mention “a good dash of mystery and a wee bit of romance—just the right amount”). —Alison Acheson reviews Cave-In, by Pam Withers (Winnipeg: Great Plains Press, 2024) $18.95 / 9781773371245
Uniquely written debut novel “is a book that plumbs the depths of a young man’s search for meaning that will appeal to those who are looking for an intellectual, character-driven examination of religious belief.” —Trish Bowering reviews Broken Water, by Nick Perry (Durham: Chicken House Press, 2025) $19.99 / 9781990336836
An appealing trio of picture books for young readers take journeys to forests and seas. Among the vivid colours and striking images: invaluable lessons about cooperation, language, and ecosystems. —Ginny Ratsoy reviews What Fish Are Saying: Strange Sounds in the Ocean, by Kirsten Pendreigh (illustrated by Katie Melrose) (Naperville: Sourcebooks, 2025) $28.99 / 9781464218965; Mother Aspen: A Story of How Forests Cooperate and Communicate, by Annette LeBox (illustrated by Crystal Smith) (Toronto: Groundwood Books, 2024) $22.99 / 9781773069357; and The Land Knows Me: A Nature Walk Exploring Indigenous Wisdom, by Leigh Joseph (illustrated by Natalie Schnitter) (Dover: Quarto Publishing, 2025) $25.99 / 9780760392911
Couplets driven by narrative (or prose with poetic DNA), an extravagantly told book relates a 24-hour period in a city with inhabitants under the yoke of capitalism. —Joe Enns reviews Kingdom of the Clock, by Daniel Cowper (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s UP, 2025) $24.95 / 9780228023715
“A security officer, Damian has good reason to dislike his graveyard shift job. As the Victoria-based author makes all too clear, so do the protagonists of nearly all the other jobs he writes about. Poor pay, ungodly hours, and rough conditions: the jobs Taylor documents, readers will need little convincing, are grindingly ‘shitty.’” —Theo Dombrowski reviews Security and Other Shitty Jobs: Parables of the Morally Suspect, by Jason A. N. Taylor (Victoria: Jason A. N. Taylor, 2025) $13.99 / 9798281668194
“Death on the Caldera is brimming with interesting plot lines, compelling characters, and beautiful world-building. When these elements are given room to breathe, they are truly wonderful to experience.” —Zoe McKenna reviews Death on the Caldera, by Emily Paxman (New York: Titan Books, 2025) $24.99 / 9781835411582
In a warm, captivating tale, campaigning politicians, lovestruck Cranbrookers, and the Sells-Floto Circus turn 1920s small town BC into the proverbial three-ringer. —Ron Verzuh reviews Frank and the Elephants: A Romance of the Rockies, by R.D. Rowberry (Nelson: Nelson History Theatre Society, 2024) $18.95 / 9781738218004
“She stays at the desk in the dim bedroom almost all of the time”: so begins “Dreams, Love, and Trauma,” a short story by G.H. McConkey and an effective illustration of how a writer’s worst critic might just be herself.
Composed of one poem and thirteen short stories, an anthology loosely tied together by a geographic theme pays close attention to human relations (the good, the bad, and the ugly) in various Canadian locales. To winning effect. —Brett Josef Grubisic reviews Not the Same Road Out: Trans Canada Stories, by K.J. Denny (editor) (New Westminster: Tidewater Press, 2025) $24.95 / 9781990160509
The middle volume of The Lost Wells Trilogy overcomes middlevolumeitis with sharpened relations between characters and intriguing world-building. —Myshara McMyn reviews Mantle of the World Ruler, by Kate Gateley (Altona: Friesen Press, 2023) $31.99 / 9781039155251
From a character nicknamed “Crisis of Faith” to a story set 500 billion years in the past, an enigmatic debut fiction collection challenges a reader to relinquish their expectations of classic realism and sample strange worlds from new perspectives. —Laura Moss reviews The Longest Way to Eat a Melon: Fictions, by Jacquelyn Zong-Li Ross (Louisville: Sarabande Books, 2025) $29.50 / 9781956046410
An attractive trio of limited-edition chapbooks meditate on grief, selfhood, memory, and catastrophe. —Steven Ross Smith reviews Summoning, by Jacqueline Bell (Salt Spring Island: Raven Chapbooks, 2025) 22.95 / 9781778160387, Modern Words for Beauty, by Mary Ann Moore (Nanaimo: House of Appleton, 2025) $25.00 / 9780978347499, and Day Song, by Sharon Thesen (Vernon: Broke Press, 2024) $12.00 / 981738725380
A “most enjoyable read,” this novel set in rural western Australia in the 1960s recounts the tumultuous coming-of-age of Cheryl, the daughter of a hard-working woman who sells bait worms. —Valerie Green reviews The Worm Lady’s Daughter, by Peter Freeman (Salt Spring Island: Ensilwood Publishing, 2025) $19.95 / 9781990415166
“Cumulatively, the effect is like a nocturnal landscape that is suddenly lit up by flashes of lightning. This is not a book to devour at one sitting but to savour briefly and return to often.” —Christopher Levenson reviews Dog and Moon, by Kelly Shepherd (Regina: U Regina Press, 2025) $19.95 / 9781779400383
Historical fiction—set in northern Alberta circa 1806—features winter storms, intrigue, romance, and a cougar attack. Given “that few white females were part of the fur trade in the far north of Canada in the early 1800s,” our reviewer has some reserve about the novel’s focus on Abigail Williams. —Ron Verzuh reviews The Fort, by Christy K. Lee (Toronto: Rising Action Publishing, 2025) $24.99 / 9781998076413
A quest to make it—in 1997, as a screenwriter, in Hollywood—animates a lively debut novel that’s mostly lighthearted as captures “the irrepressible youth, hope, and need for external validation endemic to striving twentysomethings.” —Jessica Poon reviews Charity Trickett Is Not So Glamorous, by Christine Stringer (Toronto: SparkPress, 2025) $25.99 / 9781684633166
“Though marketed as a middle-grade novel, Oasis will resonate with many adult audiences, too. Not only is the art style captivating, but the story has a level of simple sophistication that lingers like an affecting dream.” —Zoe McKenna reviews Oasis, by Guojing (New York: Godwin/Henry Holt, 2025) $19.99 / 9781250818379