Monique Roffey: ‘William Golding’s The Inheritors gave me ideas for how I could write a mermaid’

The Costa winner on the James Baldwin novel she most cherishes, devouring Willard Price adventures as a child, and the sex scene she wishes she had written

The Coward by Jarred McGinnis review – the road to redemption

A tender, brutally funny autobiographical novel deals with the aftermath of an accident that leaves the narrator in a wheelchair

Why is ‘Cat Person’ going viral again?

The literary sensation from 2017 is trending again. But this time it’s because of a real-life story

Dark as Last Night by Tony Birch review – 16 new vignettes from a master of the short story

The perspective of children is central to Birch’s stories, which meld humour and sorrow with an eye for cheeky detail

This month’s best paperbacks: Mary Trump on ‘Uncle Donald’, a new Elena Ferrante and more

Here are some excellent new paperbacks for July, including Too Much and Never Enough, outstanding translated novels and some fizzing fantasy

Three Rooms by Jo Hamya review – on belonging and inequality

A fraught, polemical debut novel about precarious work and housing, and the effects on women’s ambitions

Sex, squalor and Soho: how the word ‘sleaze’ gained its meaning

Matt Hancock’s scandal may have made the news, but there has never been a shortage of sleaze in Westminster. Where does the word come from?

From A Room Made of Leaves to The God of Small Things: books Guardian readers couldn’t put down

We told you about our favourite page-turners and now it’s time to hear yours. These are the tomes that had you riveted

Fear Street Part 2: 1978 review – summer camp slasher is another winner

Netflix’s flashy RL Stine trilogy continues with a darker Friday the 13th-aping horror that brings more shocking gore and excellent performances

Can you hear the Hum? The mystery noise that says a lot about modern life

The insistent low-frequency sound has been heard from Bristol to Swansea and ascribed to everything from horny fish to 5G – but the enigma itself is telling

Top 10 platonic friendships in fiction

From Doris Lessing to Dickens and John Irving, these tales show how passionate, intense and vital ‘just’ friendships can be

Filthy Animals by Brandon Taylor review – sexuality and suffering

The Real Life author’s stories smudge the margins between queer and straight, interior lives and the exterior world

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood by Quentin Tarantino review – from auteur to author

You’ve seen the film, now read the director’s own novelisation. And it turns out that his way with words is infectious and fun

Wild Pets by Amber Medland review – an enjoyably arch post-campus tale

This funny and engaging debut novel about a couple’s long-distance relationship captures the complexities of young love

In brief: How to Kill Your Family; Guarded by Dragons; Dancing With the Octopus – reviews

An antiheroine on a mission to bump off her father, confessions of a bookseller and the compelling true-life story of rape, ransom and family cruelty