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After moving to Dulan, in Taitung County, Lung Ying-Tai began recording her observations of a life immersed in nature with intimate and incisive prose, capturing the fragility of the vast forests and subtle interactions that bind living things together. In Lessons from Dulan, the author takes a back seat to her subject matter – a reduction of the self that is coupled with an enhanced capacity for feeling. Through her writing, readers glimpse a world not centered on the human self, where every minute detail is a site of wonder.

In Taiwan, Chinese traditions are compounded with a patriarchal social structure, forcing eldest daughters into a special role within the family. Unlike eldest sons, who are afforded additional power by their rank in the birth order, eldest daughters must bear more responsibilities than anyone of their siblings. Drawing from numerous interviews as well as the author’s personal experience, Eldest Daughter Syndrome exposes a commonplace form of oppression in contemporary society, while also exploring how the personality type of the “responsible child” manifests on other levels of society. An overdeveloped sense of responsibility can introduce unfairness into relationships and takes a toll on the body and mind. However, if one is to have any chance of resolving this issue, one must dig deep, investigating the core of the personality type, as well as its genesis.

The protagonist of this novel can see “threads” extending from the backs of everyone around him, connecting them to one another. The only exception is himself, a discovery that makes him suspect he has no genuine connections or feelings to the outside world. Developing from this intriguing premise, the protagonist of the novel eventually discovers his only “thread”, which links him to a police officer. After some interactions with generous doses of BL appeal, the novel shifts into mystery-genre gear as the pair heads into the police station to work on cases together. Blending mystery, BL, and an element of fantasy (in concretized form), Tied to You is the ultimate genre-bender, and highly entertaining read to boot.

We’re all familiar with the trope of the oil and water duo that ends up falling in love. It works, after all. The tension mounts, the sparks fly, but in the end, the conflict only proves how powerful, and therefore worthwhile, love is. Meeting and Missing You embraces this familiar terrain, but spices up the good-girl/bad-boy romance with a love quadrilateral in which the two female characters become fast friends after a chance meeting. The conflicting demands of friendship and romance accentuate the tug on the heartstrings, highlighting not only of love’s sweetness, but also its woes.

After years of writing musically-themed stories for his Wales’ Record Store Facebook page, author Wales Xie has published this collection of short stories linked by a coffee truck that cruises the streets in the wee hours of the night. The proprietor of the truck slings music as well as coffee, with tastes that run from pop to classical. He’ll accept anything in exchange for his coffee – even a story – it’s entirely up to the customer. Thus, music, coffee, and his customers’ tales of woe become the staples at this late-night mobile café, brewing up an atmosphere of nostalgic regret sweetened with kindness and acceptance. Whether they are enchanted by the warmth of Wales’ prose or the healing power of his classic playlist, readers will find much to relish in this collection.

After the suicide of her twin brother, an adolescent girl runs away from home and the hyper-controlling tendencies of her cult-obsessed mother, only to embark on a dispirited life of self-destructive independence. Suicides, runaways, domestic emotional abuse, bizarre cults – this might sound like standard fare for Japanese thrillers, but in As She Blossoms in Twilight, these elements take on entirely new meanings. After a car accident in adulthood, the protagonist finds herself seventeen again. Everywhere she goes she is haunted by the voice of her deceased brother. Is this a sign that her opportunity at redemption has finally come? Or, is it a symptom of a mental breakdown? When humanity is distorted by superstition and misguided faith, even affection and warmth become sources of terror.

A master detective who has long since departed from the police force teams up with a child prodigy to investigate three cases of spontaneous human combustion. As the duo probes the meaning behind the esoteric words branded on the chests of the victims, readers will savor the mystery of why the detective quit police work so many years ago. Having met over a game of go, the protagonists apply the principles of the classic strategy game to their investigation, lending a new angle to classic mystery tropes. As the duo work through their clashing personalities and contrasting generational wounds, the result is an entertaining psychological thriller that delivers equally on both fronts.

In the moments before her death at a drug-fueled sex party, a celebrity gossip columnist texts a cry for help to a colleague. Overwhelmed with guilt because she slept through the text alert due to overwork, the colleague decides she must uncover the truth behind this tragic death. Drawing on real-world headlines and interviews, a fictional panorama of glitterati excess spills from the page. Confronted with rampant misogyny, unwritten rules, aggressive spin, and incessant labeling, these reporters are trapped within a news industry that has reduced itself to being a wing of the entertainment industry, where fact is obscured by fantasy, yielding to the demands of marketing. With a harsh realist light, these dark corners of Taiwanese society are revealed in all of their cruelty.

Under pressure to quickly resolve the case, a female detective from the Serious Crimes Unit is sent to investigate the kidnapping of the scion of a restaurant chain empire. The fraught relations within the victim’s household, involving everyone from servants to rivals for the family fortune, reveal hints of a long-suppressed family secret. Delving deeper, the detective finds that her own thoughts are beginning to reflect the twisted case she is tasked with solving. Author Chen Xue, who has probed the subtle workings of the human psyche in numerous thrillers, stays true to form. Initially presenting as a classic mystery story, the detective of Dear Accomplice must do more than clarify the murky circumstances surrounding the kidnapping. If she is to understand the culprit’s motive, she will have to face down her own demons in a dark thriller that questions our definitions of family.