The It Books of November

Welcome to The Best of Book Riot, our daily round-up of what’s on offer across our site, newsletters, podcasts, and social channels. Not everything is for everyone, but there is something for everyone.

Travel the World With New Historical Fiction

These historical fiction new releases coming out in November 2024 provide their own mini trip about the historical world, with novels set in France, Italy, Vietnam, Taiwan, the USA, Troy, and Germany. That’s quite the bucket list of travel destinations! If you happen to fall in love with any of those locales, don’t worry—Book Riot has you covered. It’s like I said; Book Riot has book recommendations for almost any destination. That includes France, Italy, and Taiwan! But in the meantime, enjoy a trip around the world with these brand new historical fiction releases.

8 Twisted Fairy Tales

By necessity, we are constantly remaking these fairy tales, applying them to our modern times. Sure, the archetypes may remain the same. They’re recognizable, and universal as heck. But the narratives of those old stories don’t always age so well. And the monsters in our closets are different from the ones we faced in the past.

This is why I’m a fan of twisted or fractured fairy tales in particular. While they contain the same perfect mix of realism and fabulism, they also shake up the classic fairy tales in some way, creating a new story with a different meaning or message, oftentimes even critiquing the original narrative.

New YA Books Out This Week

Here’s a look at the new YA hardcovers and paperback releases hitting shelves this week. It’s going to be quieter in new release land from here on out through the end of the year, which means that these lists will be less robust than they have been in recent memory. That’s not a bad thing. It’s a reminder to dive into the ones you’ve missed and/or catch up with that ever-growing TBR.

10 Immersive Queer Historical Romances

When considering why I love historical queer romance, I had to think for a while about why it resonated with me so much. Contemporary queer novels are important because we live in a time of increasing censorship and marginalization of queer voices, especially targeted to writers who are not white and cisgender. Modern novels with queer joy are a paean against these knowingly destructive forces, and I love them for it. My attachment to queer historical romance is more nebulous, as some of the people in these stories are ones I’ll never meet and whose experiences are vastly different from mine. However, immersive queer historical romances offer a vital argument that queer people have always existed.

The It Books of November

Every month, Jeff O’Neal and I play a knockout round to identify the new releases that have that certain ~something. Things got a little squirrelly this time around.