Latest news with #Katabasis
Daily Mirror
01-08-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
What to read in August — from new book for Fourth Wing fans to one of 2025's most-anticipated reads
From the latest releases by bestselling authors to striking debuts, August has something for every reader July was a fantastic month for bibliophiles, with fresh offerings from popular authors like Scarlett St. Clair, Elise Kova and Sangu Mandanna, as well as bestselling author Holly Jackson's thrilling adult debut, Not Quite Dead Yet. August is shaping up to be equally exciting, with many eagerly awaited releases by beloved authors such as Carissa Broadbent, R. F. Kuang and T. Kingfisher, as well as some hidden gems that might have slipped under your radar. Here are 10 must-read books releasing in August 2025, with selections across the romance, fantasy, literary fiction and romantasy genres. For more book recommendations, reviews and news, you can also subscribe to our free weekly newsletter, The Bookish Drop, on Substack. 1. Katabasis by R. F. Kuang Katabasis is arguably one of the most-anticipated new releases for August, with a whopping 238,000 people already shelving the book as 'want to read' on Goodreads, reports the Express. The latest novel from the author of Babel, Yellowface and The Poppy War trilogy follows two graduate students who must journey to Hell to save their professor's soul. But when Hell proves to be quite different from what they expected, Alice and Peter will need to set aside their fierce rivalry if they're to get out of the underworld alive. You can pre-order Katabasis, out August 26, here. 2. The Fallen & the Kiss of Dusk by Carissa Broadbent Another major August release comes courtesy of Carissa Broadbent, with the fourth instalment in the Crowns of Nyaxia series. In this novel, we journey with Mische and Asar as they're presented a final chance at redemption - and a path back to each other. However, they must first undertake an extraordinary mission through both the mortal and immortal realms, accompanied by old allies and relentless foes. The Fallen & the Kiss of Dusk is the second instalment of the Shadowborn Duet, so whilst it's not necessary to have read the initial two Crowns of Nyaxia books, you'll need to ensure you've read The Songbird & the Heart of Stone prior to starting this one. 3. Break Room by Miye Lee, trans. Sandy Joosun Lee Break Room is the fresh novella from the author who brought us the bestselling DallerGut Dream Department Store series. This riveting psychological drama involves eight unsuspecting individuals invited to participate in a mysterious new reality programme. The twist? They've all been nominated by their colleagues as the people they'd least like to share a break room with, otherwise known as the office 'villains'. Despite its brevity, Break Room delivers a powerful impact. It's the ideal summer read for anyone working in an office, or simply those who enjoy watching reality TV. You'll certainly view your colleagues differently after reading this.... You can buy Break Room, out August 28, here. 4. Hemlock & Silver by T. Kingfisher Bestselling author T. Kingfisher returns with another fairytale reinterpretation, this time giving Snow White a modern twist. In Hemlock & Silver, unconventional healer Anja is called upon by the King to aid his ailing daughter, Snow. However, as Anja attempts to uncover the cause of Snow's mysterious ailment, it soon becomes apparent that conventional methods are futile. But when she discovers a hidden world within a magical mirror, will this dark realm hold the cure to Snow's illness or will it be their downfall? Featuring a self-absorbed talking cat, unexpected plot twists, and a humorous and relatable protagonist, this is a spellbinding read with references to a well-loved fairytale. 5. Aphrodite by Phoenicia Rogerson From the author of Herc comes another captivating mythical reinterpretation, this time centred on Aphrodite. However, Phoenicia Rogerson's Aphrodite isn't the goddess of love we believe we know; instead, she rises from nothing, spinning a web of deceit to convince everyone she's a deity. But once she ascends to the pinnacle, she realises it's not quite what she envisioned, and one day Aphrodite simply decides she's had enough. This is a brilliantly witty story, offering a fresh perspective on a familiar figure in Greek mythology. You can buy Aphrodite, out August 14, here. 6. Catalina by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio In a remarkable debut novel from the author of The Undocumented Americans, Catalina narrates the tale of an undocumented immigrant from Ecuador who works her way up to Harvard. After narrowly escaping death in Latin America, Catalina is brought up by her undocumented grandparents before being accepted to study at one of the world's most prestigious universities. There, she immerses herself in clandestine societies, lavish parties and coveted internships, whilst also finding herself increasingly attracted to a fellow student. Set over her final year at university, we follow her as undocumented immigrants become the focus of political unrest and Catalina's New York life starts to unravel. 7. The Blonde Who Came in from the Cold by Ally Carter Two competing spies are forced to collaborate in order to survive in the latest romantic comedy from bestselling author Ally Carter. Waking up handcuffed together in the dark, a year after their last encounter, with no clue where they are or how they ended up there, they find themselves thrust into their most challenging mission yet. This is an exciting second-chance love story filled with twists and turns, featuring flashbacks from their thrilling 10-year shared history. This book is the sequel to 2023's The Blonde Identity, but can also be read in isolation. 8. On Wings of Blood by Briar Boleyn If you enjoyed Fourth Wing or Zodiac Academy, this one's for you. On Wings of Blood is the first instalment in a captivating dark academia romantasy saga featuring all the good stuff. Think vampires, dragons, fae, magic, Arthurian legend and a slow-burn enemies-to-lovers dynamic. We follow Medra Pendragon, a half-fae princess from Camelot who finds herself thrust into a perilous world where mortals and vampires coexist, all while being engaged to Blake Drakharrow, an arrogant yet captivating vampire. Originally self-published, the book already boasts legions of fans, with many on Goodreads attributing it to curing their post-Onyx Storm reading slump. 9. Discontent by Beatriz Serrano, trans. Mara Faye Letham On the outside, Marisa seems to have everything. She resides in a plush flat, lives above her neighbour/lover and has rapidly ascended the ladder at a thriving advertising agency. The only snag? She utterly despises her job and everything it represents. Nonetheless, she manages until her meticulously constructed office persona threatens to shatter when she's obliged to attend her company's annual retreat. Although Discontent may be a relatively brief read, it's a rollercoaster of a ride, and even if you adore your job, you're bound to see a bit of yourself in this book. 10. The Society of Unknowable Objects by Gareth Brown From the author of The Book of Doors comes The Society of Unknowable Objects, which follows a trio of seemingly ordinary individuals who are in fact members of a clandestine society charged with locating and safeguarding concealed magical objects. When the latest member, Magda, encounters a problem while searching for an item in Hong Kong, it triggers a dangerous global quest to uncover both the elusive object and the truth.
Mint
27-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Mint
In Katabasis, R.F. Kuang serves dark academia as literal hell
Dark academia is a sub-genre in fantasy fiction, often involving schools of magic, secret societies and evil experiments in the backdrop of a scholarly environment. But the darkest of dark academia novels is not fantasy at all—in Donna Tartt's The Secret History, the darkness comes not from magic but from human frailty. R.F. Kuang's much-awaited novel Katabasis (HarperCollins India) has much in common with Tartt's—ambitious, jealous, secretive academics; classical allusions; a growing grimness. But it's a hardcore fantasy novel that does something daring: it takes dark academia to its logical conclusion, literal hell. 'I am getting close to the end of a draft of 'Katabasis,' which comes out in 2025. It's another fantasy novel…," Kuang had told The Harvard Crimson back in 2023. 'It started as this cute, silly adventure novel about like, 'Haha, academia is hell.' And then I was writing it and I was like, 'Oh, no, academia is hell.'" Even without this useful cue card, I could tell that's where this novel—part satire, part adventure tale—was going with within a few pages. Set in an alternate universe where magic is an acknowledged though increasingly suspect force, Katabasis (which, in Greek mythology, refers to a hero's descent into the underworld) begins in Cambridge University, which has a department of 'analytic magick" ruled over by the talented and somewhat unscrupulous Professor Jacob Grimes. When Professor Grimes dies a gruesome death during a magical experiment, his PhD students Alice Law and Peter Murdoch decide to perform some forbidden and extremely risky magic of their own to descend into hell and fetch their adviser—so that he can sign their recommendation letters. This is not as far-fetched as it sounds—finishing a PhD, a culmination of years of tedium and insanely hard work, can seem like a matter of life and death to those brave enough to aim for it—and students of analytic magick have the added pressure of needing to find their footing in a world that scorns their discipline (like, say, students of literature in the real world today). Kuang does not shy away from drawing attention to the absurdity inherent in the situation. The most esoteric and philosophical descriptions of magic are bookended by ruminations on what the actual practice of it in academia entails—publishing papers, squabbling with peers for conference seats, vying for fellowships, gossip, backbiting and bitchiness. 'Success in this field demanded a forceful, single-minded capacity for self-delusion. Alice could tip over her world and construct planks of belief from nothing. She believed that finite quantities would never run out, that time could loop back on itself, and that any damage could be repaired," writes Kuang. In the same breath, she adds: 'She believed that academia was a meritocracy, that hard work was its own reward… that department pettiness could not touch you, so long as you kept your head down and did not complain." Talk about being delulu. It is an immutable law of fantasy novels that no matter how absurd the premise sounds, notwithstanding what the fantastic elements are an allegory of, the narrative has to be convincing enough for the reader to be enthralled by the hero's journey. We know that the predicaments Swift's Gulliver finds himself in are stand-ins for the evils in British society and politics, but we still care what happens to Gulliver. Susanna Clarke's astounding Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell is a send-up of Victorian-era social structures, but it has edge-of-the-seat tension. Katabasis pulls this off, but only to a certain extent. It reminded me a few times of Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder, a treatise on the history of philosophy thinly veiled as a novel, in which the stakes never quite feel high enough—though Sophie, like Alice in Katabasis (and her namesake from Lewis Carroll's work, signposted by the author early), have many thrilling adventures and near-escapes. Still, Kuang has dreamt up a fresh version of hell that feels both unfamiliar and not. Spoiler alert: it manifests itself to Alice and Peter as a university, with its eight courts or circles representing one aspect of academia: a sinister library that initially seems enchanting but is ultimately an exercise in tedium, a student residence with continuous, mind-numbing sex, and so on. Our protagonists chart hell using the accounts of Dante, Orpheus and, in an admirable intellectual stretch, T.S. Eliot—Kuang posits that The Wasteland is basically a description of hell—taking them as literal descriptions rather than allegory. The book is endlessly inventive, much like Kuang's most celebrated novel, Babel, again an epic fantasy about a group of magicians in an alternate Oxford that is ultimately a critique of colonialism. Kuang is a very skilled writer who can layer these multiple, complex themes and narratives into coherent plots (though sometimes at the cost of character ) that are immensely readable and fun in spite of their length and denseness. Still, her best work, according to me, is the relatively slighter Yellowface, a contemporary novel about publishing that satirises the industry's penchant for trending ideas and themes. It is her most self-aware work, in a way that doesn't draw attention to its cleverness like Babel and Katabasis often do. Read this genre-defying, intellectually stimulating and often weird novel for its story, then, especially the glimpses of life before hell for its protagonists when they grapple with more mundane challenges than crossing a river of eternal oblivion. Hell is other people, said Sartre. No, hell is a college, says Kuang. The novel is forthcoming in August.
Buzz Feed
06-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Buzz Feed
These New Books Should Be On Your Summer Reading List
There's something about the warm and lackadaisical months of summer that begs to be accompanied by a good book (or several). It's a good thing that there's no shortage of new releases to choose from. Your next great summer read may very well be hiding among the upcoming list that we specially curated for your perusal. Each of these books promises to be satisfying and easy to settle into, with beckoning plots that vow to keep you there, plus one helpful cookbook that's surprisingly timely . You may even recognize new titles from some of your favorite bestselling authors. Polybius by Collin Armstrong Inspired by Greek urban legend, Polybius is a fun and wild ride, packed with cinemotographic-like prose and small-town '80s nostalgia à la Stranger Things and Stephen King's It. It's 1982, and Andi Winston has just moved to the Northern California seaside town of Tasker Bay with her mother. When she's not attending Tasker Bay High and avoiding any form of human interaction, Andi is working at the town's Home Video World, servicing gaming cabinets, taking apart their contents, and dissecting the intricate codes that make them run. But when a new and unfamiliar arcade game called 'Polybius' gets delivered onto the shop floor, the town is turned upside down. Players are immediately drawn to the game's hyper-futuristic graphics and immersive renderings that set anyone who watches it into a deep trance. It's not long after the arrival of 'Polybius' that many Tasker Bay residents begin to complain of hallucinatory thoughts and unsettling paranoia, exacerbating the already growing tensions between longtime locals and the encroaching influx of Silicon Valley transplants aiming to push them out with their new money. After a string of uncharacteristic violent crimes rock the community and a dead body turns up, Andi can't help but connect the dots back to 'Polybius.' It's now up to Andi and her new potential love interest and friend, Ro Kemp, to do some digging and uncover the true purpose of the mysterious and sinister arcade $18.99+ (also available in hardcover) Katabasis by R.F. Kuang Renowned for the massive success of her books Yellowface and Babel, R.F. Kuang has been churning out some of this century's most notable works of fiction. Her latest, Katabasis, is set to release in August and is a dark academia fantasy that takes readers on a humorous descent into the realm of the dead. Two rival academics head to the depths of hell in order to get the final recommendations needed to graduate from a freshly deceased professor. One of them is Alice Law, a student pursuing a grueling and, at times, dangerous education of Magik at Cambridge. The personification of a type-A student, Alice is determined to become the best student that the sadistic Professor Jacob Grimes could ever wish for. But when Professor Grimes is found with his corporeal body splattered across his office's interior, Alice knows she'll need to head down to hell and bring him back, or risk her prime academic standing with Grimes. Except Peter Murdoch, her only true rival at the university, walks right into Law's plan. And with Peter's big nose, careless good looks and effortless charm, she's forced to drag him down to hell with her. This anticipated tale is a hilarious and succinct take on all-consuming academia, sexism, power struggles, love, seduction, hubris and so much $24.50 for pre-order King of Ashes by S.A. Crosby In S.A. Crosby's latest Southern crime fiction, King of Ashes, Roman Carruthers is duty-bound to return home to his family, and the family's central Virginia business — Carruthers Crematorium. Roman's father has fallen into a coma after a car accident, and his sister Neveah is struggling to run affairs on her own. There's also the issue of Roman's brother, Dante, who has fallen into an impossible amount of debt with a dangerous group of people. Soon, it's revealed that their father's accident was no accident after all, and it was Dante's recklessness and distressing financial standing that got them where they are. Roman is now forced to barter for Dante's debts using his own financial ingenuity. Already the recipient of high praise from an endless list of acclaimed voices, this Godfather-inspired thriller reads like a bloody and modernized Shakespearean tragedy about family dynamics and loyalties. Price: $28.99 So Far Gone by Jess Walter With early praise from the likes of Ann Patchett and Tom Perrotta, So Far Gone is the latest from New York Times bestselling author Jess Walter. In this brilliant and riotous jaunt through modern America, Rhys Kinnick has had enough. After assaulting his conspiracy theorist son-in-law over the Thanksgiving turkey, he's fled for the woods, leaving all modern constraints behind him. Rhys makes his way — without a cell phone or any device to tether him back to his family or career — out to a remote cabin to begin a self-imposed hermitage. But Rhys' isolation, save for a few wild raccoons for company, isn't forever. He's pulled back to the real world when he's told that his daughter has gone missing and his grandchildren, whom he just recently reconnected with, may be in danger from a dangerous new militia. Rhys is forced to reconnect with his bipolar ex, Lucy, who happens to be a former detective, and a few other old acquaintances to save his family. But can Rhys come back into the blinding light of a world he was all too keen to leave behind and turn into the hero his daughter and grandchildren need? A bit of satire on modern life and political turmoil, Walter's So Far Gone is a standout read this $24 (originally $30) With A Vengeance by Riley Sager New York Times bestselling author Riler Sager (The Only One Left and Middle of the Night) is a virtuoso in edge-of-your-seat thrillers and a skillful curator of twists and turns. His latest book takes place on a luxury overnight train to Chicago in 1954, and our protagonist has just 13 hours to exact her plan of revenge. Twelve years earlier, Anna Matheson's family was destroyed by a group of six individuals who also happen to be on this Chicago-bound train. Though her intention is only to get the perpetrators to confess and into the hands of authorities, the mission is quickly 'derailed' when one of them is murdered. Anna soon learns that the killer won't just stop at the six who are the target of her ire, but rather the whole train is at risk. Now, her sights are set on saving the very people who have wronged her. Sager's With a Vengeance is a novel of cinema-like quality that will appease those in need of a new Murder on the Orient Express and satisfy self-proclaimed Hitchcock fans who believe Strangers on a Train was his greatest work. Price: $20.98 Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid Taylor Jenkins Reid, author of cult-favorite fiction novels like The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and Daisy Jones & The Six, is back with another novel that's just as affecting as her last. Atmosphere: A Love Story follows Joan Goodwin, an astronomy professor who joins NASA's 1980s Space Shuttle program only to discover more than intellectual fulfillment when she meets the mystifying Vanessa Ford and the four other complex cast of characters who make up the team of astronauts preparing to make their first flights into space. It's a complex situation for Joan to navigate, as she wants more than anything to preserve her career during a time and place when same-sex relationships are not as widely accepted and women are tasked with needing to prove themselves in a field predominantly occupied by men. Then, during NASA's STS-LR9 shuttle mission in 1984, things take a catastrophic turn. Surprisingly full of technical and historical accuracy, Atmosphere delivers the kind of emotional depth and drama that Jenkins Reid is well-known $21 The Compound by Aisling Rawle This binge-able debut from Irish author Aisling Rawle, The Compound, is perfectly fitting for our modern obsession with reality TV. Lily is a typical 20-something who is among the 19 other contestants on a hit reality TV show taking place on a remote desert compound. Throughout their isolated time filming, Lily and her fellow competitors must complete a variety of challenges to win communal essentials like food and furniture, as well as more opulent prizes like designer cosmetics and champagne, and whoever manages to stay in the Compound the longest wins the game. But as anyone familiar with the producer-driven dramas that are at the heart of every successful competition reality show knows, intense dynamics and desperation quickly develop among the contestants, and cameras are capturing every juicy bit of it. Tensions reach a dangerous pinnacle when producers advance the stakes to a threatening degree, and Lily is forced to ask whether she's actually playing the game or simply surviving it. Price: $20.30 The Cook's Garden by Kevin West Victory gardens — which were planted during WWI and WWII for supplemental produce — might be making a comeback if grocery prices remain high and the Trump administration continues to cut vital services surrounding food and safety. In the spirit of becoming more self-sufficient, 'The Cook's Garden' might not just be a delightful new addition to your kitchen, it could become a necessary one. Kevin West, who previously wrote the popular cookbook Saving the Season, writes his latest as a guide that even those of us with no gardening expertise or limited grow space will be able to follow, love and utilize. West wants us to use homegrown produce in our daily dishes with confidence and believes that the act of planting and growing will encourage more people to garden. Within these pages, West will lead readers on a learning tour of pickling, soil conditions, and growing zones, plus he offers 125 vegetable-laden recipes that are perfect for your new haul of freshly grown produce. Price: $45 for pre-order
Yahoo
07-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
American readers are worried books will get pricier thanks to tariffs
President Donald Trump's tariffs have some of the internet's most voracious readers worried: the price of books and access to them could be changed significantly. Members of BookTok, TikTok's passionate community of readers, have expressed dismay at the possibility of book prices increasing, as well as the news that some international booksellers were re-evaluating their policies on selling to the United States. 'This has gotten so far beyond out of hand, and the book industry is a small industry in the greater world,' said TikTok creator Lia Reads, whose video on how tariffs will affect the book industry has been viewed more than 600,000 times. Over the past few days, dozens of others within the BookTok community have posted similar videos sounding the alarm over tariffs, with several people referencing a different creator's November 2024 video in which she had suggested that Trump's re-election would mean the return of $10 paperbacks. Print books and children's picture books currently feature on a list of exempted products released by the White House on April 2 alongside Trump's executive order, meaning that items such as Bibles printed on thin paper and baby board books, the majority of which are printed abroad, may not be affected. But new tariffs could increase the cost of manufacturing books, in turn narrowing publishers' profit margins and, ultimately, raising the price at the cash register, according to Brian O'Leary, executive director of the Book Industry Study Group, a U.S. trade organization that includes some of the largest book publishers. Most books sold in the United States are printed domestically, but the necessary raw materials are still imported, as well as machine parts needed to maintain the printing equipment itself. In 2023, the United States imported more than $409 million worth of paper, much of which is used for printing books. As much as 73% of that came from Canada. 'Taken as a whole, these additional duties may increase costs in the short term, as the price of consumables rise,' O'Leary said in an email. 'In the longer term, tariffs may also affect the cost of domestic manufacturing, if presses become more expensive to purchase and maintain.' There is also some confusion around how tariffs would affect Americans' ability to buy books sold abroad. Some U.S. readers prefer to buy their favorite titles from foreign retailers due to the pull of earlier release dates, exclusive content and collectible different editions. 'Waterstones, if you see this, can you please make sure I get my signed copy of Katabasis in September please?' one BookTok member said, referring to the United Kingdom-based bookstore and the upcoming novel by bestselling author R.F. Kuang. 'I'll pay the extra money, I don't care.' In an Instagram post Saturday promoting a different new release, Waterstones clarified that 'Customers in the USA are able to order from us whilst we work on the implications of new tariffs. Any future charges will be indicated at checkout.' Responding to a comment below the post asking, 'If I already pre ordered (about 2 months ago) do I have anything to worry about?' Waterstones replied, 'I mean there's plenty to worry about, in the world, but your order will be fine.' The retailer did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday. The BookTok community's concern over tariffs comes as its members continue to debate whether books should be separate from politics. In the months leading up to the election, some creators pushed for a 'politics-free' BookTok. Others, including best-selling author Jodi Picoult, have argued that books are inherently political, citing the recent book bans. Many readers who lamented the potential impact of tariffs simultaneously expressed concerns that authors may be less likely to travel for book tours as some U.S. residents and visitors report being detained at U.S. borders and some countries warn against travel. Romance novelist Ali Hazelwood, who is originally from Italy and resides in the United States, said she's canceling her U.K. tour and opting for virtual events instead, writing in a post on Instagram: 'This is because of several complicated reasons that mostly boil down to the fact that, things being what they are, it's not possible for me to safely travel outside and then back inside the US.' A representative from Penguin Random House, Hazelwood's U.S. publisher, declined to comment, saying via email that Hazelwood did not want to speak to the media about the issue. 'Do you all remember back during the election, when there was this huge hubbub all over Bookstagram, all over BookTok, about how we shouldn't talk about politics? That books aren't supposed to be political?' BookTok creator Cait, known as Beneath the Covers NYC on the platform, said in a video mentioning tariffs. 'Well, you might want to rethink that.' This article was originally published on
NBC News
07-04-2025
- Business
- NBC News
American readers are worried books will get pricier thanks to tariffs
President Donald Trump's tariffs have some of the internet's most voracious readers worried: the price of books and access to them could be changed significantly. Members of BookTok, TikTok's passionate community of readers, have expressed dismay at the possibility of book prices increasing, as well as the news that some international booksellers were re-evaluating their policies on selling to the United States. 'This has gotten so far beyond out of hand, and the book industry is a small industry in the greater world,' said TikTok creator Lia Reads, whose video on how tariffs will affect the book industry has been viewed more than 600,000 times. Over the past few days, dozens of others within the BookTok community have posted similar videos sounding the alarm over tariffs, with several people referencing a different creator's November 2024 video in which she had suggested that Trump's re-election would mean the return of $10 paperbacks. Print books and children's picture books currently feature on a list of exempted products released by the White House on April 2 alongside Trump's executive order, meaning that items such as Bibles printed on thin paper and baby board books, the majority of which are printed abroad, may not be affected. But new tariffs could increase the cost of manufacturing books, in turn narrowing publishers' profit margins and, ultimately, raising the price at the cash register, according to Brian O'Leary, executive director of the Book Industry Study Group, a U.S. trade organization that includes some of the largest book publishers. Most books sold in the U.S. are printed domestically, but the necessary raw materials are still imported, as well as machine parts needed to maintain the printing equipment itself. In 2023, the United States imported more than $409 million worth of paper, much of which is used for printing books. As much as 73% of that came from Canada. 'Taken as a whole, these additional duties may increase costs in the short term, as the price of consumables rise,' O'Leary told NBC News in an email. 'In the longer term, tariffs may also affect the cost of domestic manufacturing, if presses become more expensive to purchase and maintain.' There is also some confusion around how tariffs would affect Americans' ability to buy books sold abroad. Some U.S. readers prefer to buy their favorite titles from foreign retailers due to the pull of earlier release dates, exclusive content and collectible different editions. 'Waterstones, if you see this, can you please make sure I get my signed copy of Katabasis in September please?' one BookTok member said, referring to the United Kingdom-based bookstore and the upcoming novel by bestselling author R.F. Kuang. 'I'll pay the extra money, I don't care.' In an Instagram post Saturday promoting a different new release, Waterstones clarified that 'Customers in the USA are able to order from us whilst we work on the implications of new tariffs. Any future charges will be indicated at checkout.' Responding to a comment below the post asking, 'If I already pre ordered (about 2 months ago) do I have anything to worry about?' Waterstones replied, 'I mean there's plenty to worry about, in the world, but your order will be fine.' The retailer did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday. The BookTok community's concern over tariffs comes as its members continue to debate whether books should be separate from politics. In the months leading up to the election, some creators pushed for a 'politics-free' BookTok. Others, including best-selling author Jodi Picoult, have argued that books are inherently political, citing the recent book bans. Many readers who lamented the potential impact of tariffs simultaneously expressed concerns that authors may be less likely to travel for book tours as some U.S. residents and visitors report being detained at U.S. borders and some countries warn against travel. Romance novelist Ali Hazelwood, who is originally from Italy and resides in the U.S., said she's canceling her U.K. tour and opting for virtual events instead, writing in a post on Instagram: 'This is because of several complicated reasons that mostly boil down to the fact that, things being what they are, it's not possible for me to safely travel outside and then back inside the US.' A representative from Penguin Random House, Hazelwood's U.S. publisher, declined to comment, telling NBC News via email that Hazelwood did not want to speak to the press on the issue. 'Do you all remember back during the election, when there was this huge hubbub all over Bookstagram, all over BookTok, about how we shouldn't talk about politics? That books aren't supposed to be political?' BookTok creator Cait, known as Beneath the Covers NYC on the platform, said in a video mentioning tariffs. 'Well, you might want to rethink that.'
