It’s that time of year again: Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month! This is the time to celebrate all great AAPI books and authors and their impact on the literary community. Today, we want to shine a spotlight on genre fiction by AAPI authors, with a focus on sci-fi, fantasy, and horror books. On top of being compelling reads, these eleven books bring a unique AAPI perspective.
The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang
No one expected Rin, an orphan from the Rooster Province, to pass the Kaju, an Empire-wide test to find the best young minds to study at the Academies without cheating. Even more surprising? Rin gets into Sinegard, an elite military school. But she is a peasant girl from the south, a status her classmates use to target her. As Rin discovers she possesses a lethal ability she must learn to harness, an enemy of the Nikara Empire lies in wait, ready to strike. The Poppy War is the first in a fantasy trilogy you won’t want to miss!
She Is a Haunting by Trang Thanh Tran
When Jade Nguyen visits her estranged father in Vietnam for five weeks, her only goal is to survive by pretending to be a happy family. That’s easy enough. She’s always lied to fit in. But the French Colonial house they are staying in has other plans. Jade starts to hear things in the walls and wakes up paralyzed. A ghost bride is leaving cryptic warnings, but Ba and her sister don’t believe anything is wrong. Jade must root out the rot to save her family, but that also means confronting the truth about herself and what she may become. This is the perfect gothic story for fans of Mexican Gothic!
The Sword of Kaigen by M.L. Wang
Fourteen-year-old Mamoru is coming of age as part of the Matsuda family in the Kaigenese Empire. He has one goal: to master his family’s fighting technique and defend the homeland. When an outsider arrives, though, he realizes he might not have as much time as he thought. Meanwhile, Mamoru’s mother, Misaki, thought she had retired her sword and her past when she married into the Matsuda family, determined to be a good housewife. But with the threat of invasion looming over the land and her son asking questions, she may need to wield a sword once again. Wang’s novel is a great fantasy standalone, perfect for those who love character-based stories.
The Eyes Are the Best Part by Monika Kim
In this psychological thriller from a Korean American perspective, we meet Ji-won, who’s starting her first year of college. She’s living with her younger sister and her Umma after her Appa left the family for another woman, and she’s barely holding them together. When Umma starts to bring her new boyfriend, George, around, Ji-Won fixates on his blue eyes, enough that she wants to devour them. Kim’s debut is a haunting narrative about isolation, misogyny, and navigating one’s culture.
Jade City by Fonda Lee
On the island of Kekon, the Kaul is one of two crime syndicates that are responsible for the commerce and construction of their districts with the help of magical jade. People with the right heritage and right training can gain extraordinary abilities with this magical jade. As the simmering tension between Kauls and their greatest rivals reaches a boiling point, violence erupts in the streets, and this clan war may just decide the fate of Kekon itself.
Natural Beauty by Ling Ling Huang
Part horror and literary fiction, Natural Beauty is a thought-provoking debut exploring self-worth, consumerism, and identity. We follow a talented musician who moves to New York City after an accident leaves her parents debilitated. Leaving her future behind, she starts a job at Holistik, a high-end beauty and wellness company renowned for its exceptional products and procedures. At work, she befriends the owner’s niece, Helen, who quickly becomes something more. And behind all the tinctures and creams lies a sinister secret.
The Ones We’re Meant to Find by Joan He
The Ones We’re Meant to Find follows two sisters trying, against all odds, to make their way back to each other. Cee has been trapped on an island for three years with no knowledge of how she arrived or her prior life. All she knows is she has a sister, Kay, somewhere beyond the horizon. Kasey, a 16-year-old STEM prodigy, lives in an eco-city that protects them from climate change-induced disasters. In return, residents must spend a third of their time in stasis pods to reduce their carbon footprint. Kasey’s sister, Celia, hates the lifestyle, but no one expects her to disappear on a boat out at sea. Kasey decides she must search for her, not knowing if she is dead or alive, by retracing her steps.
Chlorine by Jade Song
Ren Yu lives for swimming. She’s a competitive swimmer whose days start and end in the water. If she swims well, she will have a good life. As pressure mounts over her athletics and her attempts to appease white men, Ren fantasizes about the water, about wanting to be a mermaid. She longs to be free and will do anything to shed her skin and become what she was truly meant to be. A truly horror-filled coming-of-age tale with a dose of sapphic yearning.
Empress of All Seasons by Emiko Jean
Empress of All Seasons is a multi-POV Japanese-inspired fantasy which follows Mari, who’s been training her whole life to compete in a competition to find the next empress of Honoku. The competition happens once a generation, and all are eligible to participate, except for yokai, supernatural spirits and monsters, whom the human emperor is bent on enslaving and destroying. Mari herself is a yokai, and if she’s going to survive and win the competition, she must keep her identity a secret. Her fate collides with Taro, the crown prince, and Akira, a half-yokai outcast, who must decide between duty, love, and vengeance.
Motheater Linda H. Codega
Set in the Appalachian Mountains in Virginia, Motheater follows Bennie Mattox after her best friend becomes the latest victim of a mysterious string of deaths of miners on Kire Mountain. When uncovering who is behind the deaths, she finds a half-drowned white woman in the mountains who can’t remember her name or why she ended up in the mountains. She knows herself as Motheater, a witch of Appalachia, with a quest to keep industry off the mountain. The story feels like folklore with its rural magic and dual timelines, and of course queer romance!
The Deep Sky by Yume Kitasei
On the eve of Earth’s environmental collapse, a ship known as The Phoenix carries the last of humanity. The eighty aboard The Phoenix are graduates from a competitive program, but halfway to their destination, a bomb kills three members, and Asuka is the prime suspect. She already feels like an outsider and an impostor because she was the last chosen for the mission, and she is half-Japanese, raised in the US, being chosen to represent Japan. Asuka must race to uncover who is behind the bombings before they strike again and lose faith in the mission.
These stories explore the depth and diversity of AAPI literary narratives in addition to being great books. While these are just a select few, there are many more AAPI stories and authors to check out who are writing great sci-fi, fantasy, and horror!
Discover more AAPI fantasy authors by clicking here!
Check out our Nail-Biting YA Thrillers, Mysteries, and Horrors Reads shelf of Bookshop for more horror and thriller recommendations.
