New Latine Fiction: Fall 2026

If you like horror that explores the violent legacy of colonization, or ever wondered whether the word “piñata” could send chills up your spine, allow me to introduce you to Leopoldo Goût! His latest is a “bloody reckoning” about an art lawyer who returns to Mexico City to celebrate the repatriation of several stolen artifacts, including a statue of an Aztec god called The Flayed One. I don’t have to tell you anything else, do I? We all know things are gonna get weird.

Christina Rivera Garza is a pro at the genre-bending game, as evidenced by her Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Liliana’s Invincible Summer. She’s back with this collection of stories about young women’s travels on the fringes of Mexico and the United States. Described as a combination of “journalism, novelistic writing, and themes of female freedom, gore capitalism, and class struggle,” this has the potential to scratch the same places in my brain that Liliana did, and that is an exciting prospect.

I was in at “Latine horror anthology,” and then I read the list of contributors. Santa madre, the talent! Y’all ain’t ready, pero prepárense anyway: Agustina Bazterrica, Isabel Cañas, Gerardo Sámano Córdova, Zoraida Córdova, Ann Dávila Cardinal, Mariana Enriquez, Carolina Flórez-Cerchiaro, Xochitl Gonzalez, Leopoldo Goût, Ananda Lima, Juan Martinez, Mónica Ojeda, Daniel José Older, Cynthia Pelayo, Lilliam Rivera, Diana Rodriguez Wallach, and Alex Segura. Three of those folks have books in this very roundup (Cañas, Goût, and Dávila Cardinal). What a treat!

Isabel Cañas has been on an impressive gothic run: first came The Hacienda,thenThe Vampires of El Norte, thenThe Possession of Alba Diaz. This is her YA debut about a young woman who flees her abusive father and poverty for a cushy gig as a maid to a wealthy widow. When political violence breaks out, she and the widow retreat to La Casa de Las Gardenias, a gothic mansion high above the capital city. And since this is a gothic story, unpleasant surprises surely await.

If you like a bit of body horror and monstrous portrayals of motherhood, gird your loins for this one. A woman whose youth has been marked by poverty, alcoholism, and sexual abuse now works as an indentured servant, but she has a come-up plan: with the help of a local bruja, she’ll cast a spell to get the son of her employer to impregnate her, then make her the lady of the house. But that fertility spell goes very, very wrong. Did I say a bit of body horror? I meant a LOT of body horror.

Ann Dávila Cardinal is one of the authors I’m on the unofficial street team for, and seeing this book out in the world makes me so happy for that self-described Gringa-Rican tattooed punk baddie, especially when the protagonist of this genre-bending thriller also appears to be a punk baddie. A retired photographer begins to hear something strange and unsettling beneath her regular tinnitus: the murders of women she knew in her punk youth in 1980s New York. She sets out to solve the mystery of an unspeakable crime done to these women, forcing her to reckon with her own painful past. This isn’t the first book with a middle-aged woman protagonist Cardinal has given us; if this one is even half as good as the last, we’re in for a good time.

This modern-day historical romantasy is based on the true history of Atahualpa, the last emperor of the Inca people. A young L.A. archaeologist is sent on an adventure through the Andes when his grandfather sends him a map to the lost tomb of the emperor, a journey that will put him in the path of ruthless tomb raiders and an alluring Peruvian woman who might be his only chance at finding the tomb—or be the key to his downfall. I do love a “my relative gave me an artifact that sent me on a globe-trotting adventure” story, so this one is high on my list.

In a world hostile to witchcraft, a coven of four young women who’ve been friends since they were children have each spent their whole lives hiding their gifts from the world. They finally meet in person for the first time as freshmen at a prestigious university (they met on an astral plane, as one does), and one of the girls’ admittedly strange roommates goes missing. The coven unites to solve the mystery and uncovers a whole web of sinister secrets. Budding bruja besties taking on an anti-magic regime? Automatic yes.

National Book Award Finalist Josh Galarza is the author of a book with one of my favorite titles: The Great Cool Ranch Dorito in the Sky. He’s back with False Farce, a YA story about two high school boys that explores identity, self-discovery, and forgiveness. Rusty is in perpetual awe at Todd’s unique ability to be both very out and very proud and still remain one of the cool kids at school. What Rusty doesn’t know is that Todd is a secret agent, rescuing vulnerable queer kids in danger by night. I was not expecting the secret agent bit and am delighted by his adoptive moms being his handlers!

Last year, I was happy to spread the word about Zakiya Jamal’s two 2025 releases: her adult romance, Sparks Fly, and her YA romance, If We Were a Movie. Her latest adult release is a fake-dating sapphic sports romance about a rising influencer and a WNBA star who link up after a chance courtside encounter. What starts as a strategic partnership and image rehabilitation job soon takes a turn for the steamy.