There is a research facility called the Institute. It houses cursed objects, a ghost cat, sheep that were experimented on and can now see the future, and a never-ending tunnel that some employees find and never quite escape. Of course there is an Institute. Of course someone has to work the night shift.

What I kept thinking about was how hard it is to make real friends as an adult. That longing Eriko carries is not dramatic or theatrical. It is painfully ordinary. And underneath that is something Yuzuki handles with real honesty, the way women can sometimes be their own worst enemies, and each other's too.

The premise is genuinely inventive and Djuna builds a world that feels layered and alive. Neuro-implants called Worms, fake identities stacked inside fake identities, a corporation behaving exactly the way you would expect one to behave if no one was watching. The pacing is relentless. This book moves.

A bleak, heartbreaking collection of Korean historical fiction about poverty, survival, and the brutal divide between those with money and those without. These stories don’t soften anything, especially the final one, “The Underground Village,” which is hard to forget.

A quiet, thoughtful YA novel about a soul given a second chance inside the body of a boy who has died by suicide. Gentle, but not shallow, and surprisingly good at reminding you how much you don’t see in other people, or in yourself.