Denver Bookies Staff Recommend Dark Humor and Cozy Fantasy Picks

The air in Denver is thick with the kind of heat that makes the pavement shimmer and the coffee taste like it was brewed in a sauna. It’s August, the city is baking, and people are looking for something to cool off with that isn’t just another iced drink.

To hear them tell it, the answer is a book that hits like a cold shower. The Bookies Bookstore in Denver has released its August recommendations, and the lineup is a specific cocktail of grief, magic, and middle-school survival. The staff didn’t go for the safe picks. They went for the weird ones.

Judy, a bookseller at The Bookies, points first to I See You’ve Called in Dead by John Kenney. It’s a novel about Bud Stanley, an obituary writer who is having a very bad week. He’s divorced, he’s depressed, and on one particularly drunken night, he accidentally published his own death notice.

The company can’t legally fire a dead person, so Bud is stuck at his desk, waiting for the universe to sort itself out. His solution? He starts attending the funerals of total strangers.

"The first few chapters of this book had me laughing out loud!" Judy wrote in the Colorado Sun’s literature section, SunLit. "And even as the humor and tone got darker, I was still enjoying myself. It’s funny and quirky with some good dark humor."

It’s a strange choice for peak summer, but the logic holds up. When it’s 95 degrees outside and you’re stuck in a traffic jam on I-25, the idea of sitting in a church pew watching people you’ve never met die is oddly comforting. Bud isn’t trying to be heroic; he’s just trying to figure out how to live again.

Then there is the fantasy pick, which leans into the season’s most reliable comfort food: autumn. Blue Moon Cafe & 24-Hour Occult Emporium by Lexie Sharabianlou is set in a tiny town called Pine Hollow. The protagonist, Talula Smith, runs the worst coffee shop in town, but only because it’s actually a safe house for magical beings.

The problem is Dahlia, a local with devastating dimples and an addiction to Talula’s cocoa. She keeps noticing things she shouldn’t, like the fact that Talula is a sorceress with barely any power.

Krista, the store manager at The Bookies, admitted that the first third of the book was a bit slow as Talula struggled with her confidence. But she said the growth felt earned.

"This book was a whimsical hit of fall which was extremely welcome in the middle of our summer heat wave," Krista wrote. "It wrapped me in a lovely cozy blanket of Halloween/Samhain feelings that left me craving pumpkin pie and cool nights."

That’s the pitch, at least. You’re reading a book about ghosts and magic because it feels like October while the sun is still blindingly bright. It’s a small act of resistance against the calendar.

The third recommendation is for readers who want something lighter, or perhaps just need a reminder that not every problem involves the dead or the supernatural. The staff suggested a helpful middle-school tale, though the specific title and author weren’t detailed in the initial announcement. It’s a counterweight to the heavy themes of obits and occult emporiums, a reminder that sometimes the biggest drama is just trying to get through seventh grade.

The Bookies isn’t the only shop in Colorado making these picks, but their specific blend of dark humor and cozy fantasy feels tailored to a certain kind of reader. One who is tired, perhaps, or looking for an escape that doesn’t require leaving the house.

The question is whether you need a book to tell you how to live when you’ve accidentally died, or if you just want to read about a barista who can’t throw a proper spell. That depends on who you ask, but the staff at The Bookies have their vote cast.

For Krista, the outlook is simple: she’s already looking forward to the next drop of seasonal fiction.

"I’m ready for whatever comes next," she said, "as long as it’s cozy."