Verve Books

The inaugural collection in the new VERVE Voices series, Queerphoria is a joyful and defiant queer-authored anthology proudly supporting Switchboard, the national LGBTQIA+ support line. Four housemates welcome the reader into their home for a birthday party. An elderly widow visits her first queer bar, beneath the flat she shared with her husband. A couple invite a shipwrecked sailor into their isolated lighthouse on the stormy night of their thirtieth anniversary. A single woman embarks on a romantic relationship with a sex robot. A married couple secretly prepare for their baby's arrival in a world where procreation is controlled by the Establishment. Through prose, poetry, essays, illustrations and more, thirty-one writers bring their visions of euphoria to life. These pages celebrate, subvert, expand and reimagine what joy can look like, even in uncertain times.

January 1965. The orphaned O'Leary siblings - Tom, Jack, Anna and Peggy - arrive in the village of Ballycrea, tight-lipped about their troubled past and desperate for a fresh start. After being met with suspicion from most of the locals, the family are thrilled when they're taken under the wing of their well-respected neighbours, Bill and Betty Nevan, who offer them work, companionship and an opportunity to fit in. But for one of the O'Learys, this new friendship sparks an intense attachment that makes the dynamic dangerous for all. It's difficult to bury secrets, but almost impossible to bury feelings... Crackling with suspense and intensity from start to finish, Heap Earth Upon It revisits the rural Ireland of Howarth's critically acclaimed debut, delving into claustrophobic relationships and tangled identities, and leaving you wondering who to trust until the very last page.

A spellbinding tale of sisterhood, betrayal and reclamation revolving around three 18th-century wax models of women, known as Anatomical Venuses or 'slashed beauties'. Legend has it, these beauties are bewitched, coming to life to murder men who have wronged them. Finally, these men will get what they deserve. We will make sure of it. Together. Seoul, present day: Antiques dealer Alys is offered a vast sum of money to transport one of three highly coveted Anatomical Venuses to London, with one key condition - she must destroy it when she reaches the city. London, 1769: After a chance meeting at the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens, young and inexperienced Eleanor is promised a life of luxury by the beautiful and charismatic Elizabeth and her protégé, Emily. All she must do is allow Elizabeth complete control of her destiny. In a darkly compelling and magical plot, prepare to discover the dangerous secret shared by these women - a secret that spans centuries, and which will unearth horrors not of this world.

In 2008, Desiree, January, Monique and Nakia are in their early twenties and at the beginning. Of their careers, of marriage, of motherhood and of big city lives in New York and Los Angeles. Together, they are finding their way through the wilderness, that period of life when the reality of contemporary adulthood - overwhelming, mysterious and full of freedom and consequences - swoops in and stays. Desiree is estranged from her sister Danielle, and the two nurse bitter family wounds in different ways. January\'s got a relationship with a 'good' man she feels ambivalent about, even after her surprise pregnancy. Monique, a librarian and aspiring blogger, finds unexpected online fame after calling out the university where she works for its plans to whitewash fraught history. And Nakia is trying to get her restaurant off the ground, without relying on the largesse of her upper middle-class family who wonder aloud if she should be doing something better with her life. As these friends transition from young adults to grown women, they must figure out what they mean to one another - amid political upheaval, economic and environmental instability and the increasing volatility of modern life. The Wilderness is Angela Flournoy's masterful and kaleidoscopic follow-up to her critically acclaimed debut The Turner House. A generational talent, she captures with disarming wit and electric language how the most profound connections over a lifetime can lie in the tangled, uncertain thicket of friendship.

Jemma would kill to end the housing crisis - one landlord at a time... Jemma has lost everything... Well, the very little she had. Her toxic boyfriend has run off with her best friend, leaving Jemma alone in their flat, and she can't afford the extortionate rent on her own. She's aimless, depressed and, above all, furious. Slowly but surely, her fury finds its focus: landlords. If only something could be done about them... When Jemma's landlord has a fatal accident while carrying out a property repair, she stumbles across her life's mission: to punish as many landlords as possible. She begins targeting landlords who have appeared on her favourite binge-watch, a home-improvement TV show where their greed is laid bare. It's a messy job, but someone's got to do it. Governed by her own rules, Jemma is convinced her actions are just - but how long before this vigilante turns villain?

After escaping a suffocating marriage to her abusive childhood sweetheart, Sylvie Broder decides she is done with love. She returns to graduate school and sets out to prove that, for a straight woman to be truly happy, she must separate love from sex and give up on all pursuits of romance. Driven by PhD research, relationship trauma and pride, Sylvie's new philosophy seems set to stick. Until Robbie comes along. And then Abie... Finding herself falling in love - not once, but twice - Sylvie must make a decision: to be brave and let this love in, or to choose her research and burn everything else to the ground. Deeply relatable and utterly compelling, The End of Romance is an anti-romance for anyone who, despite their very best efforts, has fallen in love and wondered why.

A candid portrayal of first love and self-discovery, from the author of the 'instant queer classic', Isaac. Cornwall, 2018. In the quiet fishing village of Portscatho, sixteen-year-old Daniel and seventeen-year-old Jago form an unexpected connection - something neither of them can name. What unfolds is transformative, particularly for Daniel, who for the first time feels truly seen. East London, 2023. Daniel has rewritten himself: sharper, louder, queer in a way the city understands. But a visit from Jago stirs up a reckoning with his former life, forcing them both to question how much change their bond can withstand. Reminiscent of Édouard Louis and Douglas Stuart's writing, Orange examines how we reconcile our past selves with the people we become, those we bring with us and those we leave behind.

When their mother calls with news that their MAGA-pilled, conspiracy-theorist father has gone missing, the newly unemployed queer narrator of Make Sure You Die Screaming does what anyone would do: steals their ex-boyfriend's BMW and races from Chicago to deep-red Arkansas on a mission to kidnap their estranged father and bring him home. Now, with a bottle of premixed margarita jiggling in the cupholder and the narrator's brand-new garbage goth bestie, Yivi, screaming through night terrors in the passenger seat, our hero hurtles toward a family reunion from hell. Along the way, they experiment with Yivi's mystery pills, elude a relentless stalker and outrun some cops who believe the narrator committed a tragic murder. An unflinching interrogation of class rage, economic (im)mobility, gender expression, the rot at the heart of capitalism and the political bloodbath dividing so many American families, Make Sure You Die Screaming is the loud, funny, suspenseful road trip novel of our times.

London, August 1759. Lizzie Hardwicke, society harlot and occasional investigator for the magistrate, is shaken by an encounter with her estranged brother during a riotous evening hosted by the notorious Devil''s Brotherhood. Beyond the opulence of this Mayfair party, a streetwalker is found strangled on the doorstep of a well-known moral campaigner, her cheek branded with the letter V. When more girls are discovered dead and similarly marked, Lizzie fears that someone stalks the streets with a violent hatred of women, and as the evidence begins to point to her own brother, any remaining family loyalty she has is severely tested. Her past catches up with her and her future becomes increasingly dangerous, yet Lizzie is still unaware of darker plots being hatched in the shadows by those who wish to silence her for good. This time, the consequences of her investigations will lead her to a place where even Will Davenport, the one man she trusts, won''t be able to find her.

It used to be an annual thing, the raucous New Year''s party. But for Olivia, Bennett and their crowd of couple friends, the chaos of their thirties has totally challenged the definition of annual. It''s been a few years since the close friends were last... close. But this year is going to be different. The burnout, parenting stress, credit card debt, job drama, marriage troubles, addiction - they''re going to set it all aside for the night. No, really. They swear. Oh, except for the secrets. Every last person has one. But secrets are only as good as the people you trust to keep them, and when the wrong one slips out... Well, friends or not, that just might become motive for murder. Everybody thinks they know their closest friends - until somebody winds up dead.

Over the years that Chloe Caldwell had been married and hoping to conceive a child, she''d read everything she could find on infertility. But no memoir or message board reflected her experience; for one thing, most stories ended with in vitro fertilization, a baby or both. She wanted to offer something different. Caldwell began a book. She imagined a selective journal about her experience coping with stasis and uncertainty. Is it time to quit coffee, find a new acupuncturist, get another blood test? Her questions extended to her job at a clothing boutique and to her teaching and writing practice. Why do people love equating publishing books with giving birth? What is the right amount of money to spend on pants or fertility treatments? How much trying is enough? She ignored the sense that something else in her life was wrong that was not on the page... until she extracted a confession from her husband. Broken by betrayal but freed from domesticity, Caldwell felt reawakened, to long-buried desires, to her queer identity, to pleasure and possibility. She kept writing, making sense of her new reality as it took shape. With the candour, irreverence, and heart that have made Caldwell''s work beloved, Trying intimately captures a self in a continuous process of becoming - and the mysterious ways that writing informs that process.

Hope has nothing going for her. She''s in a job she hates, she''s been forced to quit her band after losing the ability to play guitar and, to make matters worse, her ex - the love of her life, Julia - is now getting married to her best friend''s ex (messy, right?). But there''s one silver lining: Hope has been invited to play at their wedding... and she''s going to get Julia back. However, the road to true love is never easy, and Hope''s journey is blocked by tarot readers, hen parties, visions from the past and, worst of all, Ruby. With their big eyes and extremely kissable mouth, Ruby is new to London''s convoluted queer scene and a much-needed breath of fresh air for Hope. Will Hope win back the woman she loves, or does the universe have something else in store?

January 1965. The orphaned O''Leary siblings - Tom, Jack, Anna and Peggy - arrive in the village of Ballycrea, tight-lipped about their troubled past and desperate for a fresh start. After being met with suspicion from most of the locals, the family are thrilled when they''re taken under the wing of their well-respected neighbours, Bill and Betty Nevan, who offer them work, companionship and an opportunity to fit in. But for one of the O''Learys, this new friendship sparks an intense attachment that makes the dynamic dangerous for all. It''s difficult to bury secrets, but almost impossible to bury feelings...

Seoul, present day: Antiques dealer Alys is paid a vast sum of money to transport one of three highly coveted Anatomical Venuses to the UK... and then destroy it. It''s a moment she''s waited years for, and an offer she can''t refuse. London, 1769: After a chance meeting at the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens, young and inexperienced Eleanor is promised a life of luxury by the beautiful and charismatic Elizabeth and her protege, Emily. All she has to do is allow Elizabeth complete control of her destiny. In a darkly compelling and magical plot, prepare to discover the dangerous secret shared by these four women - a secret that spans centuries, and which will unearth horrors not of this world.

Claudia Lin - mystery novel superfan and, until recently, cliched underemployed English major - has scored her dream job: co-running Veracity, a dating detective agency for chronically online New Yorkers who want to know if their prospective partners are telling the truth. Unfortunately, along the way, she and her colleagues - tech savant Squirrel, and the elegant and intimidating Becks - have uncovered a far-reaching AI conspiracy. And the corporate matchmakers may be resorting to murder to protect their secrets. In the wake of a client''s sudden death, Claudia convinces his ex, an industry insider, to turn on his employer and feed the verifiers information about what the powerful dating platforms are really up to. But even as Claudia starts to get a feel for this new genre - just call her Lin, Claudia Lin - she''s distracted by the possibility of romance with both Becks and a very charming target. She also fears that her beloved older brother is unwittingly being drawn into the matchmakers'' deadly web. And as Becks reminds Claudia: spy tropes dictate that someone you trust will betray you.

No one will love you more or hurt you more than a sister. It is said that when one person in a family is unstable, the whole family is destabilized. Meet the Shreds. Olivia is the sister in the spotlight until her stunning confidence becomes erratic and unpredictable, a hurricane leaving people wrecked in her wake. Younger sister Amy, cautious and studious to the core, believes in facts, proof and the empirical world. None of that explains what''s happening to Ollie, whose physical beauty and charisma mask the mental illness that will shatter Amy''s carefully constructed life. As Amy comes of age and seeks to find her place - first in academia, then New York publishing, and through a series of troubled relationships - every step brings collisions with Ollie, who slips in and out of the Shred family without warning. Yet for all that threatens their sibling bond, Amy and Ollie cannot escape or deny the inextricable sister knot that binds them.