Mental Health – Page 2 – Marked for Plot

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

Asunder – An Episodic Eldritch Fantasy

I think I’ve taken Asunder off my TBR about three times as I try to keep it at manageable levels. Invariably, I see a review that piques my interest enough for it to go back onto the pile. If I’m honest, the cover art put me off. It’s unfair, I know (don’t judge a book by its cover and all that), but Asunder’s cover is as beautiful as it is misleading. When I opened the pages, I assumed I’d be walking into a well-written romance with a teenage year old lead. Instead I walked through the dreams of dead gods as a 29 year old woman scrabbles to retain her personhood in the face of uncaring worlds. It will make you feel small and wonder and disgust and hopeless. If you’re willing to give it the space to breathe, it will take your breath away.

Elevator Pitch:
Karys is a Deathspeaker. In exchange for the ability to peer through the Veneer to see magic and talk to the recently deceased, she has sold her soul to an eldritch abomination with three faces and a body made of wings. During a job that’s gone horribly wrong, she stumbles across Ferain, an ambassador from her country’s former occupiers, who was attacked while returning home. To save his life and make a massive amount of money, she anchors his soul to her shadow. Getting him out proves to be much more difficult than getting him in, however, and the Saints of the eldritch gods she serves have taken an interest in this man. Her journey forces her into contact with a variety of haunted landscapes, uncaring gods, and ruthless criminals.

Read if: you like eldritch beings who bend reality to their will, episodic horror/fantasy hybrids, you want to feel the weight of selling your soul

Avoid if: you want a quick moving plot or dynamic action scenes, agreeable protagonists, straightforward romantasy

Comparable Media: The City of Stairs, Spirited Away, Wizard of the Pigeons

Kalyna the Soothsayer – Political Fantasy with a Sense of Humor

One of my favorite things to do is read books nobody is talking about other than a few people who relentlessly hype it. Kalyna the Soothsayer was brought to my attention by u/RheingoldRiver over on the Fantasy subreddit. I’m a bit sad that it took me so long to finally pick this book up, but I really enjoyed it! It’s got a good amount of political intrigue, a delightfully unreliable narrator, and a setting that feels just weird enough to be noticed without distracting from the corruptive nature of power or xenophobic social orders. It’s not a comedy, but it’s got a relentlessly dry sense of humor. It isn’t epic fantasy, but the stakes are high. It’s not a crime novel, but our protagonist’s string of cons and lies were entertaining and filled with tension. It doesn’t quite hit my ‘all time favorites’ list, but it’s good enough that I’ve already put in an order for the sequel.

Elevator Pitch
Kalyna is from everywhere, but belongs nowhere. She is powerless in a family of soothsayers. Her ‘prophecies’ rely on guesswork and rigging the odds. She’s catches the attention of the Prince of Rotfelsen, an underground nation. She and her family find themselves kidnapped and forcibly placed in the Prince’s service right when assassination plots against the King are on the rise. She must figure out how to escape without killing herself, her loving father, or her viper of a grandmother. Until then, she’s got to fake some fortunes for a paranoid prince and hope things don’t go too sideways in the meantime.

Read if Looking for: long cons, a bucket of assassination attempts, characters using nontypical weapons, Jewish-coded protagonists, chaotic bisexuals

Avoid if Looking For: kind and sympathetic nobility, fight scenes with consequences, supportive grandparents, long chapters

Comparable Reads: The Justice of Kings, A Mask of Mirrors, The Blacktongue Thief

Striker V: Elements of Change

This was meant to be a book I read when I was on the treadmill, taking a break from curriculum writing, or when I couldn’t fall asleep. The type of story it didn’t matter much if I drifted in and out of. I was reading it on my cell phone, not even a damned e-reader. Striker V gripped me in the early chapters and didn’t let me go for a good long while. This novel examines Superheroes from a more person-first perspective than the standard, caring just as much about how humans would react to the constant violence of superhero activity as the fights themselves. It didn’t quite stick the landing, and I have some issues with the resolution of the story. However, it did things I haven’t seen much in superhero stories, and those bits felt just as interesting as The Watchmen.

Elevator Pitch:
Striker is the fifth superhero with his name. He’s got seven years until retirement and two years until he reaches his heroic lineage’s average age of death (none have survived to retire). He’s got big muscles, a massive healing factor, and some touch-based mind syncing. He’s been worn down by the constant pain of his existence, the fear that no matter what he does his bones will be ground to dust over and over while the public excitedly waits for him to fall from a skyscraper one more time so that Subway will give away free promotional sandwiches. The shifts have been longer recently with increased villain activity, and the book opens with him in a desperate battle against his best friend in the world, who has just now gone rogue.

Read if Looking For: mental health struggles, governmental bureaucracy (and sometimes humor), dystopian superheroes, happy endings

Avoid if Looking For: nuanced climaxes to nuanced conflicts, creative superhero powers, villains that make sense, tonal consistency