Liz Vaughan

I love books, which is why I’m pursuing a career in writing and publishing. I’m passionate about a variety of genres, authors, and topics, but I especially love speculative, weird, and fantastical fiction. Here, you can find lists of what I’ve been reading the past few years, with my reviews linked where applicable. If we share any titles, feel free to let me know what you thought about them, too!

2026 Reads (So Far)

  • The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri
  • Our Lady of the Ruins by Traci Brimhall
  • It’s Not A Cult by Joey Batey
  • The Works of Vermin by Hiron Ennes
  • Sing Me A Circle by Samina Najmi
  • Ecotone: The Labor Issue (Fall/Winter 2023)
  • The Descent of Alette by Alice Notley
  • Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
  • feeld by Jos Charles
  • Hemlock by Melissa Faliveno
  • Electric Arches by Eve L. Ewing
  • The Octopus Museum by Brenda Shaughnessy
  • Chicago Quarterly Review Volume 42 (Fall 2025)
  • Katabasis by R.F. Kuang
  • Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars by Kai Cheng Thom
  • A Lady for a Duke by Alexis Hall
  • The Road by Cormac McCarthy
  • Among The Burning Flowers by Samantha Shannon
  • Beholder by Ryan La Sala
  • The Hybrid Prince by Tui T. Sutherland
  • Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger
  • Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

2025 Reads

  • Painted Devils by Margaret Owen
  • Wicked by Gregory Maguire
  • Motheater by Linda H. Codega
  • The Ivory Key by Akshaya Raman
  • Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
  • The Incandescent by Emily Tesh
  • Hell of A Book by Jason Mott
  • She Who Became The Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan
  • House of Hunger by Alexis Henderson
  • Jumping Through Hoops by Betsy Golden Kellem
  • Yellowface by R.F. Kuang
  • Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg
  • The Sapling Cage by Margaret Killjoy
  • Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
  • Leech by Hiron Ennes
  • Gathering Moss by Robin Wall Kimmerer
  • In The Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado
  • The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins
  • Nothing Burns As Bright As You by Ashley Woodfolk
  • The Best American SF/F of 2019, edited by Carmen Maria Machado and John Joseph Adams
  • Fate’s Bane by C.L. Clark
  • The Warded Man by Peter V. Brett
  • When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill
  • Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins

2024 Reads

  • What Is Gender Nihilism?: A Reader, Contagion Press
  • One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston
  • Just Like Home by Sarah Gailey
  • The World We Make by N.K. Jemisin
  • Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
  • Babel by R.F. Kuang
  • The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin
  • What Feasts at Night by T. Kingfisher
  • Incarceron by Catherine Fisher
  • The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu, translated by Ken Liu
  • Deep As The Sky, Red As The Sea by Rita Chang-Eppig
  • Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo
  • How to Find A Missing Girl by Victoria Wlosok
  • Winter’s Bone by Daniel Woodrell
  • Swordheart by T. Kingfisher
  • A Botanical Daughter by Noah Medlock
  • How Long ‘Til Black Future Month? by N.K. Jemisin