Mental Health – Page 2 – Marked for Plot

The School for Invisible Boys

This book has been sitting in my classroom library for a little over a year, and it hasn’t gotten a ton of movement. This is fine: most books don’t. However, as I’m revamping my curriculum, I began to realize that my favorite 6th grade unit, Fantasy book clubs, has no queer options. Fixing that got added to my summer to-do list. I don’t think The School for Invisible Boys is the right pick for my curriculum, but I had a great time with it, even if I can see the areas where I’d like it to shift. Certainly it took me back to my own childhood, even though I wasn’t a Catholic school kid.

Also, shout out to Julian Callos for some ridiculously fun cover art!

The Premise:
Hector is a 6th grader at a Catholic middle school. Life is pretty hard for him right now. His new stepdad and stepbrothers are far more rough and tumble than him, and he feels consistently judged and bullied by them. He feels like his mother has left him by the wayside, and his decision to ask his best friend Blake to be his boyfriend had disastrous results. Now he’s on the run to avoid getting beaten up, only to find himself turning invisible. Turns out he’s not the only lost boy that St. Lawrence’s Catholic School for Boys has running around its hidden halls. Oh, and there’s also a giant tentacle monster too.

Read If You Like: the power of friendship, paranormal investigations, too many tentacles, Fantasy as allegory for the real world

Avoid If You Dislike: middle grade stories, tidy endings, muddled portrayal of healthy family dynamics, censoring slurs in kids books

Comparable Media: The Misfits, Lunar Boys, Spy School

The God Eaters – Soul Crushingly Good

Sometimes, a book hits you like a ton of bricks. They help you redefine your taste, shift the types of stories you pick moving forward, and relentlessly find their way into your recommendations to other readers. Over time, I’ve noticed that my version of these books tend to have rigorous character development, a strong narrative voice, and something to say that goes beyond ‘kill the villain’. The God Eaters is one of those books. Like most of the stories that rip my heart out of my chest, I don’t think it will be for everyone: This novel has too much romance for the typical Fantasy fan, and it trades the tropey goodness Romance enthusiasts crave for a more serious examination of trauma, colonialism, and survival, and most Western fans don’t want to read about two dudes kissing. For me, those elements add up to lightning in a bottle.

Will it be my book of the year? I hope not, only because I would love to read other books that hypnotize me like this one does. It’s definitely a frontrunner though

The Premise:
In a religious theocracy, a pair of remarkable men end up as cellmates in a prison for the magically talented. Kieran is a bandit fighting back against the country who killed his people, forced him into sexual slavery, and addicted him to opium. Ash and his Aunt published rebellious propaganda. The bandit can kill those he hates with a thought, and the writer has a minor empathic gift he uses to avoid trouble. Their journey involves ancient gods, prison breaks, treks across vast deserts, and a lot of agonizingly slow negotiation of their feelings towards each other. They mostly just want to live their lives free from the shadow of religious tyranny. However, the White Watch is relentless and the god who rules them even more so.

Read If You Like: Fantasy Westerns, introspection, anti-colonialist Fantasy from decades ago, awe-inspiring storms, thematically rigorous Romance

Avoid If You Dislike: yearning and pining, underexplained magic, tonal shifts in the third act, ‘he could never like me’

Comparable Media: Heart of Stone, Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, The Fall of Kings

Nine-Tenths – Exploring the Complexity of Draconic Love

This book was a pressure cooker, and I’m so happy I read it. I’m slowly realizing that the romances that I love are the ones that take things seriously, instead of going on autopilot. Whimsical and campy romance is great, but I don’t typically have very much interesting to say about them, whereas this might be my longest review of 2026. There was so much that delighted me here, that pushed me to rethink what romance books could accomplish. It also fell into some really basic pitfalls that annoy me, and the ending was sloppy. I think its absolutely worth a look for anyone interested in a serious take on interspecies romance, but if solving systemic issues with a single conversation annoys you, be on guard.

The Premise:
Colin is a barista who is listlessly wandering through life and depression. One of the only perks is the hot and slightly creepy guy who has watched him while drinking coffee for the last two years – Colin has reciprocated those looks. When it turns out that Dav is actually a dragon, the coffee roaster gets melted with dragonife, and Dav volunteers to help out after paying for a new roaster to be shipped in, their romance kicks into high gear. However, relationships to dragons mean something very different than to humans, and that means the duo has a lot to work through.

Read If Looking For: protagonists to have tough conversations and return to them, a peek into draconic psychology, defeating the brain weasels, badass Lesbian aunts

Avoid If you Dislike: miscommunication, unscientific evolutionary biology, easy endings, coffeeshop romances, stuffy British formalities

Comparable Media: Dawn, Looking for Group, Heart of Stone

The Daily Grind – When Corporate America becomes the Dungeon

After Works of Vermin, I wanted something light and simple. The Daily Grind has been on my Progression Fantasy radar for a while, and it felt like a great book to read while mildly burnt out and stressed about dry rot on windows. It absolutely scratched that itch, and I’m definitely going to keep reading more of this series as a palette cleanser between heavier reads. Is this book going to satisfy anyone’s desire for carefully wrought stories brimming with meaning and subtext? Absolutely not. But for a casual fun trip into an eldritch dimension watching normal people fight animated post it notes, this is a great pick. It has big beach read vibes despite most of the book happening in an unending void of cubicles.

The Premise:
James hates his job. To be fair, who would enjoy vague IT support where you get yelled at because the customer lost their remote and can’t change the channel anymore. On his way out one night, he discovers a staircase turns into an alternate dimension for a few minutes – though time works differently on the inside. The endless rows of cubicles seem to be randomly generated by some eldritch mind, and the maze is filled with stapler crabs, computers with jaws in strange places, and bills that come in far more denominations than you can find in the real world. When he learns that killing monsters drop skill orbs (typically for stuff like Excel Spreadsheets or French History) he quickly grows addicted to delving in this bizarre dungeon.

Read If Looking For: something simple, repetitive, and chill, casual bisexual representation, uncanny valley office supplies

Avoid If Looking For: dramatic power-ups, careful prose, epic fight scenes

Comparable Media: Several People are Typing, Mana Mirror, Triangle Agency

Psycop – A Guilty Pleasure Binge Read

As a teenager, I was mildly obsessed with the Stephanie Plum series, which featured a chaotic detective (private eye?) who solved crimes and was torn between a hot Italian cop and a hotter brooding guy named Ranger. At one point I even went to the library’s book club when the newest book came out, which was me and a bunch of middle aged women. I got invited to their Jazzercise class. It was awesome. Anyways, Psycop feels a bit like that, but spooky and gay. I was really into thrillers growing up – David Baldacci had me in a chokehold before college – and it’s been nice to reconnect with that part of my reading history. Psycop isn’t building my brain up or pushing me to consider anything serious, but it’s a hell of a lot of fun. This review covers my thoughts on the first three books in this series, all novella length.

The Premise:
Victor Bayne is part of a supernatural investigations unit. He can speak to the dead, which is mostly a pain in his ass except when it helps him do his job. That’s why he’s addicted to psychic suppressants. His partner just retired right in time for a murder scene to pop up that is mysteriously free from voices. Also on this case is Jacob Marks, a hunky mundane cop who recently jacked Victor off in the bathroom while they were at the retirement party for Victor’s old partner. Each book follows a new crime or mystery to be solved, often with a brand new cast member to spice up the dynamic for the book

Read If Looking For: a lead with a bunch of baggage, quick pacing, paranormal thrillers with a side of romance

Avoid If Looking For: books free from ‘pointless’ sex scenes, thematic depth, criticisms of the US police state

Comparable Media: Steaphanie Plum, Magic for Liars, Bones

Witchmark – Bikes and Murders with a side of Medicine

I’m not sure why Witchmark languished on my shelf for years. I already know that I love Polk’s writing, and Witchmark was on the forefront of queer content from Tor and Orbit releases right as it was starting to become more commercially acceptable for traditional publishers to put out queer books. It was one of 12 books I committed to read in 2026, and I’m glad I did! It sits in a setting I’ve not read much of (World War I adjacent, time period wise, though not set on Earth), but I think I need more bicycles in my fantasy. I don’t think I loved it quite as much as most others, but I had a great time and will be chasing down the sequels for sure.

The Premise:
Miles has a gift for healing. Unfortunately, his magic doesn’t involve controlling the weather, which means he had to run away from his aristocratic family and fake his own death to prevent his father from turning him into a glorified magical battery for the Storm Singers. He’s now a Doctor who focuses on mental health in a veteran’s hospital. He gets yanked back into his old life when a dying man is brought to him, a man who knows that Miles has magic. And the gentleman who brought that dying man also seems intent on the secrets that Miles has so desperately kept. He needs to solve the man’s murder, lay low, and prevent his sister from binding his freedom to her whims.

Read If Looking For: a story set after the war has ended, an oppressive oligarchy that hits a bit too close to home, grounded and messy sibling dynamics

Avoid If Looking For: a mystery where you put the clues together, deep explorations of PTSD, developed romance arcs

Comparable Media: Howl’s Moving Castle, A Marvellous Light, Full Metal Alchemist

The Wolf and His King – Dripping with Intentionality

This book was a match made in heaven for me. Queer yearning? Check. Unconventional and bespoke prose? Check. Thematic depth without being preachy? Check. The Wolf and His King I’ve read in a long time. I didn’t love how they tackled writing the ending, but The Wolf and His King is a book I will be happily shoving into the hands of my friends.

As a note, those looking for a traditional Romantasy story will be disappointed. There are absolutely romantic elements to the tale, but you won’t find the story focusing on Bisclavret and the King’s developing relationship. The book is more interested in each of their personal journeys, despite their mutual affection for each other. Like other books that are sort-of-technically Romances that don’t read like most books in the genre, The Wolf and His King is best viewed as a book that happens to include some romance elements, which I think will help temper some misplaced expectations based on how the book has been pitched.

The Premise
Bisclavret lives in a self-imposed exile. He turns into a wolf against his will, and fears that venturing to court will put himself and others in danger. When the King dies and the new King returns from his own exile though, Bisclavret has no choice to but venture forth and swear fealty to the King. The King, meanwhile, is awash with self-doubt and a search for meaning about what type of King he’d like to be. He is taken immediately with Bisclavret, and the two form a close bond while each struggles to find a good path forward with their life. And the Wolf? The Wolf is always present, waiting to come out.

Read If Looking For: dreamlike prose, characters exploring their own self-doubt, a marriage of theme and structure

Avoid If Looking For: critical examinations of monarchies, fleshed out female characters, leads who are proactive

Comparable Media: Song of Achilles, This is How You Lose the Time War, Spear (by Nicola Griffith)

The Iron Garden Sutra – Spaceship Gothic

I’ve been feeling like 2026 is going to be a very good year for books featuring queer men. The Iron Garden Sutra is my first of the lot, and I enjoyed it a lot! The book has a bit of a weak opening 100 pages, but once it hit its stride I loved it. Unconventional Gothic settings have been growing more and more on me, and this book did a great job of blending a tense atmosphere with the portrait of a man facing an existential crisis. Kind of feels like a darker, more serious Becky Chambers book. It’s not going to be for everyone, but it sure was for me.

The Premise:
Iris is a monk of the Starlit Order. He is a Vessel. As he travels the universe, he performs funeral rites, comforts those about to die, and helps their loved ones mourn. His newest assignment is to perform last rites for a Generation Ship that has turned up after it’s long voyage and, like all other Generation Ships, don’t have any living humans aboard. He is greeted by carpets of moss, curtains of vines, and a cohort of academics intent on studying and exploring the ship. Yan, an engineer who specializes in AI negotiations, has a special hatred for Vessels; Iris is of course forced to spend some uncomfortably close time with him. It becomes clear that someone – or something – doesn’t want them to leave alive.

Read If Looking For: haunted spaceships, characters coming to terms with death and mortality, explorations of autonomy and personhood, the crumbling of religious conviction

Avoid If Looking For: flawless prose, logical worldbuilding, characters who can put the pieces of the puzzle together

Comparable Media: A Psalm for the Wild Built, Mexican Gothic, A Botanical Daughter

Lunar Boy – Isolation and Identity in Middle Grade Comics

Talking about books with kids is one of the best parts of my job. Unlike most adults, they’ll gush about their favorites unabashedly and rip books they disliked to pieces. This means that I get a pretty good pulse on what books are worth a look – though my tastes don’t always line up with the kids. Lunar Boy is one of those books that kept coming up as phenomenal. Since nobody was reading it, I took my classroom copy home to read as a way to kick off my Spring Break. The kids were right; it’s good.

Elevator Pitch:
Indu grew up on The Moon before being rescued and adopted by an astronaut. When his new mother takes him home to Earth to join a new family, Indu deals with not knowing the language, siblings who don’t want him there, and feeling like he doesn’t know how to belong somewhere anymore.

Read If Looking For: immigrant narratives, a focus on inner conflict, familial struggles & triumphs, adorable pen pals

Avoid If Looking For: hard sci fi, adult fiction (this is very middle grade, with all the tropes and idiosyncrasies that come with that label), books that ask difficult questions

Comparable Media: Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, A Song for You & I, Root Magic

Beyond Redemption – Addictive and Epic Grimdark

Historically, Grimdark hasn’t really been my speed. Plenty of books I’ve enjoyed, but the hopelessness and gore kept me from picking up the sequels. Beyond Redemption has convinced me that, as with my Horror journey – I might not dislike Grimdark as much as I thought. Certainly it’s reminded me that I need to read more by Fletcher, because I adored The Storm Beneath the World. Beyond Redemption is quick moving, intense, and dark without going too far. The mix won’t be right for everyone, but it worked for me.

The Premise:
Belief defines reality, which makes the delusional very dangerous indeed. This book follows two main groups within this world: a theocratic ruler with manipulation powers trying to build himself a god, and a trio of criminals who (eventually) get it into their head to kidnap the little boy being groomed to become god. You’ve got gruff veteran soldiers with more scarred skin than smooth, a man turning himself into the greatest swordsman in the world, scientists who try to bring about delusionists with torture, doppelganger trying to take the place of their creator, and a pyromaniac who can light a city ablaze with a thought.

Read If You: like an innovative premise executed to its fullest potential, don’t mind a little backstabbing or cannibalism, enjoy dry humor that doesn’t overdo itself

Avoid If You: want heroics, characters who have their shit together, positive representation of … pretty much anything.

Comparable Media: The Storm Beneath the World, First Law, Angels Before Man