9 books by New England authors to read this spring

The ebb and flow from winter to spring is all about give and take. Mother Nature is giving us a little more daylight and sunshine, but could easily take back these 50-degree days to plunge us back into winter chills. New England authors are giving me spine-tingling thriller novels that make me grateful for my mundane life, and I’m taking advice from the animal kingdom and mental health experts on how to decrease climate change anxieties and prioritize play. From the “Satanic Panic” in rural New Hampshire, to contemporary college campuses, to post-apocalyptic Massachusetts, these nine books will keep you enthralled until it’s light jacket weather every day.

What would you do if your parents were charged with a heinous crime? In Maggie Thrash’s first novel for adults, 13-year-old Lacey knows there’s no truth to the “Satanic Panic”-induced accusations of her hippie parents abusing children at their New Hampshire daycare. When the murder of Lacey’s sister solidifies the court’s guilty verdict, Lacey runs away to Canada with her best friend — but she won’t be able to escape her past forever. Told in nonlinear timelines across the 1990s and 2000s, “Rainbow Black” is a queer coming-of-age story wrapped up in a courtroom drama and murder mystery. Author Thrash lives in New Hampshire.

Maggie Thrash will discuss “Rainbow Black” at Harvard Book Store on Thursday, March 21, at 7 p.m.

From meerkats to dolphins to human beings, many animals play. But what’s the evolutionary reason for it? University of Massachusetts Amherst Professor David Toomey follows research and anecdotes across the animal kingdom to answer questions about the origins and advantages of a trait that doesn’t serve an obvious purpose for survival. Gorillas play peekaboo, crows dive-bomb and turtles might hitch a ride on the back of a shark’s tail. Discover why natural selection keeps prioritizing these joyful activities.

David Toomey will discuss “Kingdom of Play” at Amherst Books on Thursday, March 28, at 6 p.m. 

In Ursula Villarreal-Moura’s debut novel, a tumultuous relationship begins and ends with a letter. Tatum Vega is often the only person of color in her Massachusetts college classes, where the assigned reading is dominated by white Europeans allegedly speaking to universal truths. But when Tatum chances upon the first book she’s ever seen written in Spanglish, Tatum thinks, “reading ‘Happiness’ was like being in my own brain.” A fan letter to M. Domínguez, the book’s author, turns to friendship, a hot and cold romance, and an unsettling power imbalance that has a New York Times reporter contacting Tatum years later. Written as a letter to Domínguez as accusations of sexual assault begin to unfold, “Like Happiness” is a young woman’s poignant reflection on the vulnerabilities of her younger years that she hasn’t quite let herself examine, with the confidence of a person who will triumph with the last word — her own. Villarreal-Moura is a graduate of Middlebury College.

Ursula Villarreal-Moura will discuss “Like Happiness” at the Cambridge Public Library on Tuesday, April 2, at 6 p.m. 

Kate Schapira is a Brown University senior lecturer who’s spent the last 10 years listening to people share their fears about climate change. “Lessons from the Climate Anxiety Counseling Booth” is the culmination of more than 1,200 conversations in her hometown of Providence, Rhode Island, providing actionable steps across personal, interpersonal and structural levels. Acknowledging and reckoning with the mental toll that climate change wracks on top of environmental devastation, this book guides readers from feeling helpless and alone to empowering you and your community.

When a K-pop idol’s attempts at a solo career accidentally stir political controversy across Korea, China and Japan, the star vanishes from the public eye, turning up in a Los Angeles H Mart. The novel’s unnamed narrator offers her home to Sang Duri as refuge from an obsessive fandom that’s redirecting its intense love to intense scrutiny. But now Duri is giving a psychologist a front-row seat as years of his repressed trauma threaten to bubble to the surface. Author Ma-Kellams, a Harvard-trained cultural psychologist, creates an unflinching condemnation of the music industry and toxic parasocial relationships in this debut incisive thriller.

No one at Sophie Chi’s liberal arts college knows she’s behind the popular Instagram relationship advice account “Dear Wendy.” As someone who is confident in her aromantic and asexual identities, she’s not looking for romance, but she’s happy to help her classmates who are. But when a joke "Sincerely Wanda" account starts to become a serious rival, Sophie doesn’t suspect that her new friend Jo might be the person who’s undermining the small community she’s carved out for herself on social media. The two bond over their shared aroace identity, but can their friendship withstand the revelation of their secret online personas? “Dear Wendy” is Gen Z’s unapologetically queer “You’ve Got Mail” with friendship given the same reverence often ascribed to romance. Ann Zhao is a recent graduate of Wellesley College.

Ann Zhao will discuss “Dear Wendy” at the Wellesley College Newhouse Center on Tuesday, April 16, at 5 p.m. and Porter Square Books in Cambridge on Wednesday, April 17, at 7 p.m.

Food writer turned romance author Rochelle Bilow delivers a delicious tale of friends to enemies to lovers. After Effie Olsen’s childhood best friend professes his love for her on the night of high school graduation, Effie thinks ever seeing Ernie Callahan or their tiny island hometown in Maine again will be too soon. For more than 16 years, Effie travels the world for her culinary career yet finds herself back home to work at a prestigious farm-to-table restaurant when her other job prospects burn up. Brown Butter is her chance to salvage her reputation as a chef and rekindle with Ernie — as long as the restaurant’s secret doesn’t get out. Bilow is a graduate of The French Culinary Institute and lives in Vermont.

A tale of two prom nights, 18 years apart. When three girls from different social circles become pregnant after prom in 2005, they each wrestle with the decision to pursue abortion but ultimately decide to carry their pregnancies to term. Their children face both similar and different expectations of their own prom night in 2024. This multigenerational novel explores the importance of consent, the construct of virginity and the ways the conversations about feminism, sexuality and reproductive healthcare have evolved over the last two decades. Author Kekla Magoon received her MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts where she’s now on faculty.

In a post-apocalyptic near future, Massachusetts is ravaged by floods and The Water Wars and Cinnamon Jones doesn’t want to carry on the responsibility of hosting the Next World Festival. It’s difficult to orchestrate a sci-fi carnival jam of music, dance and other performances when the nostalgia militia and the Darknet Lords are tightening their grip on the roads and the internet. Not to mention that Cinnamon is already working on her farm with Circus-Bots, farmers, fairies and wizards to offer shelter, first aid and education for flood refugees. How can Cinnamon honor her elders and her history when other threats are wreaking havoc outside her door? Author Andrea Hairston is a professor of theater and Afro-American studies at Smith College.