Ghost Fish

Autostraddle's Most Anticipated Queer Books for August 2025 | Goodreads's 2025 Debut Novels to Discover NowA tender coming-of-age novel about a young woman haunted by her sister’s death, who starts to believe that her beloved sibling has returned to her—in the form of a ghost fish, for fans of Sweetbitter and Our Wives Under the Sea. Alison is mired in loneliness and grief. Freshly twenty-three and mourning the loss of her younger sister, who has drowned at sea, she’s moved out of her hometown and into a cramped apartment on New York’s Lower East Side. Now she’s living the cliché, barely making rent as a restaurant hostess and avoiding her roommates, while watching the bright, busy passersby from her bubble of grief. She doesn’t need originality; she just needs to be alive.

"A refreshingly playful take on magic realism, Ghost Fish turns the idea of a grief novel on its head. With wry humor and real feeling, this wise new writer shows the lengths we'll go to in order to cling to those we love. A pitch perfect portrayal of the chaos and heartbreak of sisterhood."--Marie-Helene Bertino, author of Beautyland --This text refers to an alternate