Week 18 Recap: The Sea Rises
The Sea Gives Up the Dead does not give up the win
Indigo waves swirl into hand-drawn lettering, a tide of motion and myth. The Sea Gives Up the Dead won voters over with its hypnotic typography and oceanic flow.
Week 18 Winner: The Sea Gives Up the Dead by Molly Olguín
Congrats to Molly Olguín and the Red Hen Press team!
Week 19: Now in Technicolor
Leopard print rugs, neon portraits, retro kitchens, and gilded irreverence. This week’s covers explode with color. Inside, the books deliver stories just as vivid.
- The Wilderness by Angela Flournoy (Mariner Books, Sept 16, 2025): Five friends navigate love, estrangement, and ambition over two turbulent decades of American adulthood.
- Cold Toast by Kathryn Aldridge-Morris (Dahlia Books, Jun 10, 2025): Flash fiction glimpses of 70s–80s Britain, capturing the raw awakenings of girlhood and the quiet rebellions of women.
- Necessary Fiction by Eloghosa Osunde (Riverhead Books, Jul 22, 2025): A kaleidoscopic queer novel set in Lagos, where dozens of characters wrestle with family, desire, and survival in the city’s creative heart.
- Dirtbag Queen by Andy Corren (Grand Central, Jan 14, 2025): A hilarious, heartfelt memoir of Renay Corren, the “zaftig good-time gal” whose viral obituary made millions laugh and cry.
Week 19 Lineup
Vividly,
Will Pass
Book Jacket Bracket Guy