I have found myself reading quite a few debut novels lately.

• Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi
  (currently reading)
  I'm kind of in love with this book right now. A Nigerian woman has multiple gods living inside her (some Ibo spirits, Jesus, etc.) and they sometimes take her over and sometimes fight each other and sometimes just comment on human affairs. It's not going to end well for the woman, that much is clear, but I'm really into this.
• Mikhail and Margarita  by Julie Lekstrom Himes
  (currently reading)
  It's a take on Mikhail Bulgakov and the censors in Soviet Russia.  I just read The Master and Margarita during October, so I've enjoyed all the little parallels that crop up.
• Pretend I'm Dead by Jen Beagin
  (finished last month)
  This felt a little unfinished, but it was good.  A "finding your way in the world" novel with just enough weirdos to make it interesting.
• The Strange Case of the Alchemists Daughter by Theodora Goss
  (finished last month)
  Dr. Jekyll's daughter teams up with Sherlock Holmes, and the daughter of Dr. Moreau, and Frankenstein's female monster, and some others to solve crimes.  This was ... a lot.  I kind of lost my patience in the climactic fight scene, so I struggled to the finish.
• The Pisces by Melissa Broder
  (finished last month)
  I've enjoyed Broder's poetry and essays, but this one wasn't quite as captivating.  A woman suffers a breakup and house-sits for her sister in California where she falls in love with a merman.  Broder is frank and sex-focused and a little bizarre. Interesting book.

There is something exciting about discovering a new author, and getting in early on their career.  I follow a few early career awards (The Whiting Award, The Locus Award for First SF/F Novel, The Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, etc.) where I found a lot of the books above.

What have you been reading? Any up and coming authors on your lists?