Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Me (Moth) | 2021 | Amber McBride | Buy |
| 2 | We Are All So Good at Smiling | 2023 | Amber McBride | Buy |
| 3 | Gone Wolf | 2023 | Amber McBride | Buy |
| 4 | Onyx & Beyond | 2024 | Amber McBride | Buy |
| 5 | The Leaving Room | 2025 | Amber McBride | Buy |
Amber McBride’s standalone novels work individually, each built around its own protagonist and emotional arc, but they share a consistent voice and a set of concerns about identity, loss, and the body’s relationship to history and memory. Me (Moth), published in 2021, follows a girl who has lost her family and finds unexpected connection on a road trip with a boy carrying his own grief. The novel’s verse form lets McBride move between states of mind with unusual speed and intimacy.
We Are All So Good at Smiling and Gone Wolf, both published in 2023, extended her range while staying in the same emotional territory. Onyx & Beyond and The Leaving Room show a writer pushing the form further, using the page’s white space as part of the meaning. For readers drawn to poetry but new to fiction, or to fiction readers open to something more formally adventurous, McBride’s novels offer an accessible entry point.