Week 15 Recap: Blob Absorbs the Win
Blob wins with surreal, sticky tenderness
Blob by Maggie Su claimed the crown in a week celebrating standout debuts. With gooey charm and emotional depth, this strange little boyfriend stole the hearts of voters.
Week 15 Winner: Blob by Maggie Su
Congrats to Maggie Su and the Harper team!
Week 16: Bugged Out
This week’s contenders crawl with transformation. From cicadas to horseflies, cancer memoirs to poetic unravelings, these covers echo the insect logic inside.
- Shedding Season by Jane Morton (Black Lawrence Press, Aug 19, 2025): A poetic reckoning with ecological collapse and generational trauma, where insect legs form a chorus and houses become traps.
- Rehearsals for Dying by Ariel Gore (Amethyst Editions, Mar 11, 2025): A memoir of love, illness, and caregiving that dismantles the pinkwashed narratives around breast cancer with rawness and clarity.
- Disintegration Made Plain and Easy by Kiik Araki-Kawaguchi (Piżama Press, May 27, 2025): A surreal collection of poems filled with humor, dreamspeak, and pop culture. Equal parts insight and absurdity.
- Horsefly by Mireille Gagné, trans. Pablo Strauss (Coach House Books, May 20, 2025): Loosely based on real bioweapons research, this speculative novel unleashes insect-driven rage in a warming world.
Week 16 Lineup
Voting is open now through Sunday at 10pm ET. Send a link to your favorite entomologist.
Tap Here to VoteYours in buggy brilliance,
Will Pass
Book Jacket Bracket Guy