Under-the-Radar Spring 2021 Books You May Have Missed

When 16-year-old Yin is abducted, her classmates are shocked and terrified. Balmoral Ladies’ College is on edge, and police don’t seem to be close to solving the case. Chloe and Natalia could not be more different, but they find themselves both affected by Yin’s disappearance, and form a strange new friendship to help cope with their fear and grief.

It’s 1984 in New York, and Phoebe is grieving the death of her father and still reeling at the betrayal she feels from Ivan, an ex. She’s ready to escape it all in New York City, slipping into the ‘80s club scene with ease, into a world of underground artists, It Girls, beatnik poets, and everyone in between. When Phoebe’s best friend, Carmen, disappears, she spirals out of control and knows she must confront her own shadows.

This debut novel from journalist Johnson follows Bale, a young man on his semester abroad in London, flourishing in his liberal arts studies of literature and poetry. But upon graduation, his father, a businessman and corporate executive, pushes him to pursue a career in finance, and Bale reluctantly takes a job at an elite investment bank. Faced head-on with the realities of Wall Street and corporate culture life, Bale is forced to confront himself and his own decisions.

Ten-year-old Junie receives a letter from her parents in 1986 promising that they will return for her. They left for America years earlier, and now have promised to come back to China to collect Junie by the time she is 12. But even though she misses her parents, Junie actually loves living in China and has grown close with her grandparents. Meanwhile, Junie’s parents are struggling in America, dealing with terrible secrets from their past and tension in their present, fearing that the only way to bring them all together as a family is to finally bring Junie to them.

This dual timeline mystery asks how far we’re willing to go to belong and ensure our own success. In the present day, Eva isn’t exactly happy about being forced to attend her new boarding school, but she is determined to make the best of it. When she’s tapped by the school’s ultra-secret society, The Fives, she feels like she finally may fit in somewhere, and she’ll do anything she needs to in order to stay in the group. In 1962, the boarding school is following in the country’s footsteps to prepare for nuclear disaster and builds a fallout shelter on school grounds. Connie is terrified of the threat of war, but her best friend convinces her to sign up for the school’s test group, which will send six students into the shelter to test it for several days. But only five come out.

It’s 1865, and Marion is asked to come collect the body of her sister, Alice, from the local asylum. She had fallen four stories from the roof, and the asylum has ruled her death an accident. Secretly, they tell Marion they believe Alice died by suicide, but Marion thinks differently. She thinks someone pushed her. As more clues begin to surface and Marion learns more about her sister’s final days, her quest becomes more dangerous as she tries to pinpoint what happened to Alice.

It’s well-known today that many people never complete their quest to climb Mount Everest, and many perish along the treacherous path, whether it’s from avalanche, hypothermia, or losing their way. Synnott was drawn to one case in particular: In June of 1924, two climbers headed out on their expedition, determined to climb to the very top, years before the first recording of Sir Edmund Hillary completing that mission. The two were last seen just shy of the summit and were carrying a camera. They, along with the camera, were never found. Synnott details why Everest is such a perilous journey and the toll it takes on the human body to complete the climb, as well as trying to determine what happened to the first climbers who attempted to make it to the top.

The newest tech craze is the Pilot, and everyone is scrambling to get one to keep up. It’s a brain implant to help with school, work, and lots of other things, its creators say. As they quickly make their way across the country, Val and Julie must decide what their family will do, as their teenage son David has begun asking for one. But Sophie, their daughter, isn’t so sure. Soon, everyone either has one or hates them, and lines are drawn everywhere as the system takes over and threatens the current way of life.

Asha and Cyrus are newlyweds and work at a highly exclusive tech startup called Utopia. The platform replaces religious rituals for some, creating a sensation and ritual for millions of users each day. The platform becomes an overnight sensation, and Asha and Cyrus are skyrocketed into fame with it, putting their marriage to the test. This is a satirical and critical look at startup culture, cults, and modern relationships.

Joey Rossi is an 18-year-old aspiring comedian, but when he finds out his boyfriend has been cheating on him, he unravels. At the same time, his mother, Gia, also has a relationship going up in flames, and together, the two decide to take matters into their own hands. But instead of good old fashioned ex revenge, they inadvertently end up on a crime spree and have to flee the state to evade authorities, landing at the house of another ex of Gia’s to hide out. This is a comedy of errors and mishaps and road trips gone wrong all in one.

Penfield Henderson is pretty bored with his life; he walks dogs and responds to booty calls, but that’s it, and he’s ready for something different. He’s recently become infatuated with fellow trans man Aiden Chase, an influencer who posts holograms of his transition online. When Pen has a chance encounter with Aiden that goes horribly wrong, he enlists the help of his roommates to put a hex on Aiden, but it ends up missing and affecting another person instead. It’s up to Pen to save him in this weird, futuristic, sci-fi humor book.

This is a gut-wrenching and brutal memoir from Yusef Salaam, one of the Exonerated Five (formerly known as the Central Park Five and wrongfully incarcerated). Salaam writes of his youth, growing up Black in central Harlem, and his years of incarceration and fights in court. His story is unforgettable, and the publisher’s copy says it best: “This memoir is an inspiring story that grew out of one of the gravest miscarriages of justice, one that not only speaks to a moment in time or the rage-filled present, but reflects a 400-year history of a nation’s inability to be held accountable for its sins.”