Books as Escape Rooms

Book Recs: What I'm Reading When the World is on Fire

Hello and if you’re new here, welcome! I am Penny Zang, an author (Doll Parts: August 26, 2025), daydreamer, mom, cat lover, book nerd, and English professor. Start here to learn more about Mourning Pages, where I write about books, writing, and grief (with plenty of fun and weirdness mixed in). Please subscribe for occasional author updates and bookish musings.

Last time: The Vibes I Bring to the Function

This time: 5 book recs if, like me, you are reading to escape the real world lately.

Sometimes this is how I shelve my books, no order, just love

First, a few exciting updates:

• I had a great conversation with Emily Van Duyne, of the Substack Loving Sylvia Plath, and whose book also called Loving Sylvia Plath, you should absolutely read. Please check out our recorded interview about Courtney Love, Sylvia, grief, and friendship. It was a delight!

• Over on The Debutante Ball Substack, I wrote about some of the inspiration behind Doll Parts, as told through Pinterest collages—one of my favorite topics. Don’t miss the cameo of my favorite snail baby head.

• ARCs (Advanced Reading Copies) are in for Doll Parts. It’s available for request on Edelweiss, too, if you’re into that kind of thing.

  • P.S. Do we follow each other on Instagram? Find me there and I’ll find you back.

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Reading to Escape

I’m thinking lately about reading for escape, which is very much the season I am in, as they say.

I’ve written about books as permission slips and being a mood reader. Books as an escape room is just another way of me saying I think a lot about the reading life and how it is or isn’t working for me right now.

If you are someone who does not even occasionally read to escape, or if right now, in particular, you are energized by reading the news and staying up-to-date on the real world, I get it, we all read for different reasons.

Actually, I don’t get it. Is anyone excited to read the news right now? I mean, actually reading the news rather than reading other people’s hot takes via scrolling apps owned by people who want to activate our nervous systems, is a different experience.

As an aside, I am struggling big time with this part of life right now. I need to know what’s going on (“need” feeling like a self-imposed obligation) while also knowing it isn’t healthy for me to scroll 24/7. Add to all of that the fact that I am promoting my debut novel this year and watching the dream I’ve had since I was seven years old finally come true, which makes it hard to focus. So, yeah, my reading life is about escape right now.

For me, a book that serves as an escape room for me has either a strong sense of place, characters I want to keep following around, and/or some kind of question at the heart of it that keeps me intrigued. It makes me forget where I am and sometimes who I am. It doesn’t have to feel as tense as an actual escape room, though there should be tension on the page.

I DNF many books lately, not because they aren’t “good” but because they aren’t meeting my needs at the moment. It is easier to DNF a book if I tell myself that I’ll revisit it later, when I’m in a different head space. And sometimes I do.

Here are five books that have given me that escape-from-reality feeling so far this year, with the caveat that I am generally drawn to thriller/suspense for both reading and writing. Please share your other escape books in the comments to make up for where my list is lacking.

Note: This post contains affiliate links for Bookshop.org. Support independent bookstores!

Book 1: Kaya of the Ocean by Gloria L. Huang

The pitch: Anxious thirteen-year-old Kaya has always been afraid of everything—but when she learns she is the descendant of a Chinese water goddess, she’ll have to master herself to master her powers!

For you and all the middle grade readers in your life, Kaya of the Ocean is a revelation. Not only is it scooping up all sorts of accolades (A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection, An ABA Indies Introduce Selection, starred reviews), it is exactly the book I want to escape into during the coldest months.

From the publisher: “Kaya of the Ocean is an exciting, fresh, and beautiful middle-grade fantasy about embracing who you really are. This heartfelt adventure of sun, surf, and sand touches on mental health, the immigrant experience, and the complexities of growing up.”

*Purchase Kaya of the Ocean by Gloria L. Huang on Bookshop.org *

Book 2: Listen for the Lie by Amy Tintera

The pitch: What if you thought you murdered your best friend? And if everyone else thought so too? And what if the truth doesn't matter?

Listen for the Lie was on every book list in 2024 and I have only recently figured out why. It’s pretty stellar, brilliant on audio, and kept me enthralled the whole way through. I escaped right into this mystery and couldn’t get enough.

Take it from Stephen King who describes the novel as, "A world-class whodunit."

*Purchase Listen for the Lie by Amy Tintera on Bookshop.org*

Book 3: Colored Television by Danzy Senna

The pitch: A brilliant take on love and ambition, failure and reinvention, and the racial-identity-industrial complex from the bestselling author of Caucasia.

Talk about characters that make you forget your own life. I laughed and cringed along with the protagonist, Jane, so many times. Colored Television is another book that deserved all of the recognition in 2024. It’s such a fun and insightful read.

From the publisher: “Funny, piercing, and page turning, Colored Television is Senna’s most on-the-pulse, ambitious, and rewarding novel yet.”

*Purchase Colored Television by Danzy Senna from Bookshop.org*

Book 4: The Last Flight by Julie Clark

The pitch: Two women. Two flights. One last chance to disappear.

I am currently devouring The Last Flight and it is so tense, in the best way possible. Julie Clark’s novels have brought me that feeling of being transported time and again. Fast-paced and surprising, I know I’ll be shoving this book into people’s hands for a long while.

From the publisher: “For fans of Lisa Jewell and Liv Constantine, The Last Flight is the story of two women--both alone, both scared--and one agonizing decision that will change the trajectory of both of their lives.”

*Purchase The Last Flight by Julie Clark from Bookshop.org*

Book 5: The Centre by Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi

The pitch: In this "dazzling" speculative debut, a London-based Pakistani translator furthers her stalled career by attending a mysterious language school that boasts near-instant fluency--but at a secret, sinister cost (Gillian Flynn).

If I’m being honest, this book was first on my radar because of the cover. But The Centre really delivers in a way that makes me forget where I am and what else I should be doing—my favorite reading experience ever. It’s pretty great on audio, too.

From the publisher: “The Centre journeys through Karachi, London, and New Delhi, interrogating the sticky politics of language, translation, and appropriation along the way. Through Anisa's addictive tale of striving and self-actualization, Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi ultimately asks the reader: What is the real price we pay in our scramble to the center?”

*Purchase The Centre by Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi from Bookshop.org*

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What books have helped you escape into a new world lately? I want to hear all about it.

Thank you, as always, for being here.

—Penny

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Doll Parts, forthcoming from Sourcebooks on August 26, 2025, is a dual timeline suspense following one woman as she begins to uncover the truth of the death of her estranged best friend and the Sylvia Plath adoring sad girls they attended college with decades ago, all while holding a secret that will slowly unravel her new, suburban dream life.

• Listen to The Doll Parts interview on Loving Sylvia Plath

• Add Doll Parts on Goodreads

• Pre-order Doll Parts at Bookshop (or other online retailers)