Chloe Benjamin is the New York Times bestselling author of The Immortalists as well as her award-winning novel The Anatomy of Dreams. With her new book Under Story releasing she recently graced us with some novels she absolutely loves on her Instagram, so we thought we’d pass these recommendations onto you.
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
With infinite rooms, endless corridors, and walls adorned with thousands of statues, Piranesi’s house is the epitome of extraordinary. Inside the entanglement of halls lies a detained ocean that causes thundering waves and flooded rooms. But none of this bothers Piranesi as he understands the tides and patterns well. In fact, he relishes in exploring the house. However, twice a week a man called The Other visits Piranesi seeking help in exploring A Great and Secret Knowledge. As Piranesi investigates, he begins to discover hints of another person while a dreadful truth arises, and a new world is revealed.
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The Animal Room by Lauren Acampora
When a hanging deer carcass in a neighbor’s garage begins haunting a city transplant, tensions start bubbling in the small Connecticut town of Old Cranbury. For some reason, a little girl’s grandfather, a dishonored oil executive, invites her kindergarten class to tour his home menagerie. Somewhere else in town, a psychiatric patient is under the impression that she is morphing into a bird. Through the interconnected lives of relatives, neighbors, coworkers, lovers, enemies, and the animals surrounding them, these stories from award-winning author Lauren Acampora illuminate ideas of human nature via the natural world.
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The Wilderness by Angela Flournoy
They’re at the beginning of everything – careers, marriage, motherhood, and their lives in New York and Los Angeles. Desiree, January, Monique, and Nakia are navigating the wilderness, the complex reality of present-day adulthood and the anxieties and freedoms that come along with it. In this national bestseller, follow Desiree as she nurses family wounds, January as she manages a relationship and a surprise pregnancy, Monique as she unexpectedly finds online fame after calling out her workplace, and Nakia as she tries to grow her restaurant. From the late 2000s into the late 2020s, these young adults develop into grown women while also exploring their relationships with one another.
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American Fantasy by Emma Straub
This instant New York Times bestseller follows the four-day voyage of the American Fantasy cruise ship that houses none other than all five members of a famous 90s-era boyband. Not to mention it also boards 3,000 shrieking women who have loved them since they were children. But then there’s Annie, a woman who is only aboard to appease her sister. However, when the lights shine and the band begins to sing, something awakens in her. It could be memory, nostalgia, hormones, sexual desires, or maybe even alcohol, but somehow Annie finally reunites with a long lost part of herself. Then when she meets a band member that needs a friend, Annie realizes she has acquired a whole new realm of possibilities.
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The Children by Melissa Albert
In this enchanting national bestseller, two childhoods have been lived by Guinevere Sharpe. In one childhood, she and her brother Ennis live in their family’s isolated, shadowy Vermont farmhouse. In the other childhood, the pages of the world-famous Ninth City books written by their mother have made them well-known names. But in reality, Guinevere’s childhood isn’t wonderful at all: she and Ennis are untamed, unclean, and underfed while they escape everyday to their playland, the wild woods. When Edith Sharpe’s books suddenly take off in wild popularity, the potential of leaving rural childhood and having fame are close. But then the flames appear — Edith’s stories are left unfinished and her children are left orphaned. Now as an adult, Guinevere is in mid-promotion for a ghostwritten memoir. But when her alienated brother, now an artist, announces an upcoming installation titled Mother, rumors begin to simmer because of a death tied to his previous show. Guinevere’s public face then begins to disappear, forcing her to finally answer the twenty-year-old questions she’s been avoiding.
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The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami
Before she can even arrive home after landing in LAX, the Risk Assessment Administration informs Sara that she will commit a crime very soon. The RAA’s algorithm has determined via Sara’s dreams that she could potentially harm her husband, the person she loves most dearly. In order to protect him, she must undergo twenty-one days of observation in a retention center entirely full of women. But as the days pass and the facility rules are starting to change and becoming stricter, there seems to be no escape for months. However, when a new resident arrives one day, the facility becomes disorderly, and Sara finds herself rising up against the people who stripped her freedom from her. This national bestseller is sure to open eyes into the alluring, intricate nature of technology
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Everything to the Sea by Alicia Upano
For her last summer at home, Jane is dedicated to working and saving money for her senior year of college. After this, she’ll be leaving her island town forever. But then a previously forgotten Hilo boy named Kenji comes along with his square jaw, cheek dimple, and the nickname Janie. Since Jane wishes to move to the continent to fulfill her dream of becoming an architect, she convinces herself that her and Kenji are only a fling. But then a tsunami hits. It pulls their loved ones into the sea causing their fling to shatter with grief. Kenji must rebuild their hometown in Hawaii, but Jane, broken from the loss, moves to California with her best friend. The ocean stays between them for seven years until the two one day meet again on a different coast.
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Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
Most of the world’s population was annihilated fifteen years ago by a flu pandemic. Now, Traveling Symphony, a small ensemble that performs Shakespeare and music for communities of survivors, has arrived at the St. Deborah by the Water outpost. While here, they encounter a dangerous prophet who shovels graves for anyone who threatens to leave. With bridging decades, time hops, and a before and after of the disaster, this thrilling, sorrowful story explores the depth of sustaining relationships.
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Under Story by Chloe Benjamin
And make sure you don’t miss out on Chloe’s latest release. In this sweeping love story, Laurel Salter has retreated from her life and is working as a dishwasher on an isolated base in Antarctica. Leaving behind the pain of her broken family and the truth of her rising career as a scientist, she hoped the desolate space could be a place to escape. However, when a mysterious light appears, drawing in physicists from all over the world—including her estranged husband—the boundaries of time and love will be pushed as they explore the arrival of the Arc.
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Get even more of Chloe’s book recs over on her Instagram:
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