In the future, the Hawaiian Islands contain the last bastion of humanity after some undefined global catastrophe. Under the direction of elitist technocrat “Designers” (who are venerated by some to the point of religious worship), the archipelago has been transformed into individual, multitiered city-states reliant on high technology, recycling, and imported resources to function. An uneasy detente exists between the island cities (political strife caused the destruction of the city of Honolulu). Designed Psychological Manifestation entities—implanted, sentient AI assistants reflecting the user’s original personality—are largely outlawed, but investigator Kilohana “Kilo” Ressler still has one, a pseudo-twin named EO. (“He resided between worlds, able to interact with me and the environment around him while remaining invisible and imperceptible to everyone else.”) Kilo (and, unavoidably, EO) has no choice but to embark on a mission dictated by the Designers. Expeditions to the poison-tainted “Continent” to mine vital island necessities are yielding higher death rates than the sanctioned quotas allow—someone is up to something. To solve the mystery, Kilo must reluctantly descend into “the Below”—roiling, semi-lawless underground realms of the poor, the criminal, and the exploited—and confront his own origin. The logline of Miller’s SF debut suggests Blade Runner colliding with Hawaii Five-0; the author has acknowledged Philip K. Dick as an influence on this futuristic detective thriller, which is hardboiled to the point of near-nihilism and flavored with the odors of machine oil and lab-grown meat. In the tradition of Dick’s work, the novel is rife with fiendish conspiracies, deceits, disloyalties, injustices, and impostures that never quite get sorted out. The backdrop of Pacific and Polynesian cultures never feels like a gimmick (there’s no gratuitous surfing). Parsing the dense text is not always easy—readers may go through several chapters before realizing that EO is not corporeal.

In this dynamic essay collection and winner of the Yale Nonfiction Book Prize, Gleason straddles the boundaries between being a clinical worker as well as a patient as he examines the interactions between modern health care and the biological vulnerabilities of the human body. For children, as evidenced in the opening piece “Inheritance,” illness and, more gravely, death carries speculation and a demand for explanations as in the case of the author’s family, where several of his young cousins died of a genetic brain disorder. Conveyed through a series of letters, “Blood in the Water” finds the author sympathizing with Gaëtan Dugas, the French Canadian flight attendant mislabeled as “Patient Zero” at the onset of the AIDS epidemic as Gleason grapples with his own paranoia after an inconclusive HIV test. While each of these essays view the seriousness of human illness through the author’s perspective, some pieces are more personal than others. The title piece, for example, describes Gleason’s first week working as a free-clinic medical interpreter until the terrifying discovery of a blood clot in his left shoulder and the “blunt mechanics” involved in the chest surgery he needs. His anxious experiences, chronic physical pain, and frustration dealing with medical apathy as an ER and hospital in-patient will connect and resonate with every reader. Elsewhere, Gleason chronicles heart disease; the dramatic pharmacological evolution of early AIDS drug AZT; gun violence; and prison life. A decade in the making, Gleason’s collection unites everyone with the commonalities of medical necessity, pain, prescription medication, and how suffering from chronic illness at some point in our lives tends to leave us profoundly changed by it.

Twelve-year-old Mei Mei is barred from attending public school with white children in San Francisco; instead, she attends a Chinese school. Her parents are indebted to brokers who paid for their passage to America, and now they’re threatening to take Mei Mei. For her safety, Ma Ma and Ba Ba reluctantly send her hundreds of miles north to Eureka, where schools are integrated. But when Mei Mei arrives, she’s made to labor in the kitchen of the rich (and mean) Bobbitt family. The kindness of their cook, Mrs. Yu, provides her with comfort, and Sara, the Bobbitts’ daughter, befriends Mei Mei and secretly teaches her to speak and read English. Learning fills Mei Mei with joy, but her literacy is a fraught subject during this racially divided time. When a tragic death leads to the expulsion of Chinese people from Eureka, Mei Mei returns home to an emotional family reunion. This verse novel told from Mei Mei’s first-person point of view is divided into 10 date-stamped sections from September 1884 to March 1885. The lyrical free verse transports readers into the vividly realized historical setting. Feet form a running metaphor highlighting freedom; award-winning poet Chang contrasts Ma Ma’s debilitating, bound lotus feet with Mei Mei’s energetic stride.

When she was a baby, Naomi Ward was kidnapped from a grocery store. Over a decade later, the woman who took and raised her was arrested and imprisoned. Now, 16-year-old Naomi has been reunited with her family, who know her as Camryn Stoakes. Her parents try to make the homecoming as smooth as possible, but Naomi grieves the loss of her old identity. Determined to unify the family, which includes siblings Maya and Blake, Dawn and Andre Stoakes rent a cabin in Virginia for a few weeks. But soon after their arrival, Naomi feels deeply unsettled: A rotten stench that only she detects permeates the air, she’s visited by the ghost of a Black girl, and she learns that Sparksburg, Virginia, was a sundown town. When Naomi hears about two recent missing persons cases, she becomes convinced they’re related to the town’s evil history. But will anyone believe her? This well-paced YA debut’s immersive narrative and descriptive language support its strong characterization. Stratton effectively crafts complex family dynamics, and Naomi’s struggle to reconcile the love she feels for her kidnapper with the heinous crime is compelling. The nail-biting final act, which leads to a shocking reveal, will make readers feel as though they’re right beside Naomi, fighting for survival.

Delaney Huger is running late—a last-minute phone call from her boss delayed her departure. She has already missed the sunset wedding ceremony on the beach; she slips into the reception tent and meets up with her younger sister, Haven, who leads her to the singles table. Delaney grew up on the island and knows most of the attendees, but across the table is an attractive new man, Luke Sullivan, who, she learns, is Gull Island’s most eligible single dad. Luke arrived at the island a year ago and runs a burgeoning charter business, Sullivan’s Lark. But Delaney now lives in Virginia, is visiting for only 48 hours, and has an on-again off-again attorney boyfriend back home, so she dismisses any idea of getting into a relationship with the admittedly handsome newcomer (although “She had to admit this hunky, self-assured guy’s entrepreneurial spirit piqued her interest”). Delaney and Haven are co-owners of a wine shop on the island called Wine Haven. When Delaney learns that their business is in serious need of her marketing expertise, her plans to leave change, jeopardizing her position as marketing director at an award-winning winery in Virginia—and so the fun begins. Haven entices Luke to include the charcuterie boards, as well as tackle boxes filled with finger food, as an up-charged extra to his charters, adding the intrigue and creativity of a new business venture to the drama of a potential Luke/Delaney romantic relationship. This is Vido’s third entry in her Gull Island series, and her simple, conversational prose deftly captures the evocative atmospherics of life on the small, Lowcountry island off the coast of South Carolina—the salty sea breezes, the old lighthouse, Southern comfort food, the few sun-basking alligators. Although there are few surprises in narrative’s trajectory, there are enough miscommunications, jealousy, and self-doubts to keep Luke and Delaney off balance and readers engaged.