It was like October in May this month, as I stumbled my way into three fantastic dark and twisty novels, all drawing on historical, literary, and newsworthy inspirations to tell their stories: Grievers by Adrienne Maree Brown, a pandemic-era dystopian fiction novel set in Detroit; James by Percival Everett, a retelling of Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn and my favorite book I’ve read so far this year; and King Nyx by Kirsten Bakis, a reimagining of the life of Anna Filing Fort, wife of 20th century “anomalist” Charles Hoy Fort. Check out these, and the others on the list!