May is jam-packed with excellent new book releases jostling for a place on your TBR. These six have an advantage: they all check off 2026 Read Harder Challenge tasks. So, if you’re looking for an excuse to head to the bookstore, here it is! We have a nonbinary epic, a modern gothic novel, a gay romantasy, a graphic history book, a novella set in space, and a Korean horror novel to choose from.
Task #4: Read a novel with a main character who uses they/them pronouns
Canon by Paige Lewis (May 19)
Do you love riotously original novels that make you feel like nothing will ever be the same after you read tehm? Then get ready to have your brains melted by this incredible debut. It’s about Yara, who receives a message from God, telling them they need to slay one of the Earth’s Bad Guys. Not one to question a missive from above for too long, Yara strikes a deal and sets off on their assignment. Meanwhile, a downcast prophet with a hidden power is hoping to get in good with the man upstairs and carries out her own plan. So prepare yourself: Canon is a mind-bending adventure about life, death, and fate that will ruin your life, in the best way. —Liberty Hardy
Task #6: Read a gothic novel published in the last ten years
She Waits Where Shadows Gather by Michelle Tang (May 5)
Michelle Tang’s debut gothic horror novel is set in Manila. Carlos Tam hosts a reality TV show where he exposes paranormal hoaxes. He’s made a living off of proving that ghosts aren’t real, but when he moves to his ancestral home in the Philippines, he and his wife, Avery, find chilling mysteries around every corner. Then Carlos is in a terrible car accident that leaves him silent, helpless, and completely dependent on his wife to care for him. It’s in this state that Carlos hears the house speaking to him in a voice only he can hear. —Emily Martin
All Access members, read on for four more new books out in May that complete 2026 Read Harder Challenge tasks.
Task #9: Read a romantasy book with a queer and/or BIPOC main character
Bromantasy by Máire Roche (May 26)
When all of the promotional material is like “two heroes, one brain cell” and “what if David Rose got dropped into The Princess Bride?” you know I’m firmly sat, holding out my hand in my best “you have phone? Give” gesture.
Juniper and Mo have been best friends for as long as either can remember, and now they’re roommates. They look out for each other, but Juniper is certain that wanderlustful Mo is going to leave him one day. Juniper is happy where he is and doesn’t particularly see himself as a person capable of being out in the world. So when he accidentally volunteers them both for a quest, he’s less than ready to go kill a monster, but going out beyond what he knows with Mo? Well, that sounds like the best thing he’s ever done.—Jessica Pryde
Task #13: Read a nonfiction comic
Queer and How We Got Here: A (Personal) History by Hazel Newlevant (May 12)
Part memoir and part history, Newlevant’s latest comic takes you inside their personal journey toward self-acceptance while also placing that journey into the larger context of queer history. Just in time for Pride Month, too! —Eileen Gonzalez
Task #20: Read a book set in space
Platform Decay (The Murderbot Diaries) by Martha Wells (May 5)
The award-winning series about a misanthropic sentient security bot is back! This time, Murderbot is unhappy to discover it’s going to have to spend time on a mission with humans—and even worse, human children.
If you haven’t yet seen the Apple TV series adaptation of these books that came out last year, I highly recommend it! —Liberty Hardy
Task #21: Read a genre (SFF, horror, mystery, romance) book in translation
Hunger: A Novel by Choi Jin-young, translated by Soje (May 12)
A woman sees her partner murdered in the street, brings his body back to their apartment, and begins to transform his body into her own. She is unwilling tolet go, to obey the laws of god or man. Her partner witnesses his own funeral from beyond, his perspective contributing to a meditation about a society that devours everyone whole and how one might consume it back. —Alex Luppens-Dale
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