Of course there are.’ Madame de Cardonnoy raised her eyes to Lavoie and gave him another of those secret smiles. ‘That is, if you don’t mind listening to a children’s story, Monsieur Lavoie.’ Celia Bell’s debut novel, The Disenchantment(Pantheon 2023), is a stunning example of queer historical fiction at its finest. The Disenchantment by Celia Bell is a radiant and thrilling debut that follows a passionate love affair between two noblewomen who wish to free themselves from their repressive society, whatever the cost. RELATED:

I couldn't finish this one... Honestly it was so bad it completely derailed my reading streak and I've turned to other hobbies!! Publishing as a lead debut in February 2023, the novel is a "gorgeous" historical novel that follows two women in 17th-century Paris who are drawn into a sinister situation following a bid to keep their love affair a secret.A "bold and unsettling" debut novel from an acclaimed Dutch poet about race, belonging and the legacies of violence, it sees Atabong arrive at a juvenile detention centre to start a six-month sentence for an act of vengeance after years of racist bullying. Instead of the simplistic contrition she is expected to feel by the counsellors, the protagonist arrives at her own complex understanding of remorse, rehabilitation and dignity. In summer 2024, Serpent’s Tail will publish Tongueless by Lau Yee-Wa, translated by Jennifer Feeley, for which Cohen obtained world English-language rights from Li Kangqin at the New River Agency. Described as a "haunting exploration of betrayal and manipulation", the novel follows two rival teachers at a secondary school in Hong Kong, who are instructed to switch from teaching in Cantonese to Mandarin—or lose their jobs. Wai crumples under the pressure and dies by suicide, leaving her colleague Ling to face seismic political and cultural change alone and uncertain of her role in the other’s demise. I finished this one on audio yesterday and it’s a great slice of queer, feminist historical fiction!

A beautiful slow burn, this novel is a dark investigation of humanity and what one would do in the name of love. A very impressive debut historical fiction, set in the time of the 17th century Poison Affair in France. It is centred around a sapphic romance, but I wouldn’t classify it as a romance specifically. The author provides very interesting commentary on womens’ liberty and their relationships with marriage, gender expression, motherhood and class. It is also a mystery, with the protagonist trying to outwit the police throughout the story, while the police are desperately trying to get on top of the poison affair, and directing much of their suspicion and anger towards women. A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.The villagers were afraid,’ she said, ‘for none of them had ever seen such magic, but for the first time they felt some hope in the face of their fate, and so they dressed the stone woman in a gown of red silk – the best that any of them had, the best their daughters had left behind – and they combed and plaited her white stone hair, and put slippers on her feet, and then the oldest of the men took her by the hand and led her to the forest’s edge, where he thanked her and left her in the shadow of the trees.’ They’re just children’s stories,’ Madame de Cardonnoy said. ‘Mother Goose tales. There’s nothing to take credit for.’ The daily norms of those living in 17th century Paris with the frivolity, the decadence, but also the oppression and the poverty is beautifully, yet brutally captured.