Ivy Pochoda Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Never Tell Collection Books

Ivy Pochoda
Ivy Pochoda was born January 22, 1977, and raised in Brooklyn, New York with a house filled with books.

During high school, she fell in love with poetry, classical languages, and playwriting.

Ivy attended Harvard University where she studied classical Greek, and received her BA in Classical Greek and English and American Literature. She got her MFA in 2011 from Bennington College in Fiction.

“Wonder Valley” won the Strand Critics Award for Best Novel. “Visitation Street” won the Prix Page America in France. Her work has been translated into five languages.

Ivy’s work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and The Los Angeles Review of Books.

Ivy’s debut novel, called “The Art of Disappearing”, was released in the year 2009. Her work is from the literary fiction and mystery genres.

“The Art of Disappearing” is the first stand alone novel and was released in the year 2009. Mel Snow meets Toby Warring, a magician, in some lonely Nevada saloon, she instantly gets drawn to the brilliant performer whose powers aren’t some kind of illusion. After they have a whirlwind romance and a wedding in Vegas, Mel and Toby settle into a routine of vaudeville magic shows, which slowly but surely attracts attention for their unmistakable realness.

While his renown grows, Mel begins to realize that Toby’s powers aren’t stable. She also finds out that he made his assistant vanish entirely and couldn’t bring her back. Then the truly unthinkable happens: some trick goes horribly wrong during his debut in Vegas. Toby gets exiled from the stage and is shunned.

Toby and Mel journey to Amsterdam, where a group of old-time and real magicians, like Toby, attempt to rescue him and pull him out of his despair. He is haunted by this failed trick and obsessed with testing the limitations of his own powers. Mel insists that she doesn’t need any magic in order to love him, however she is left wondering just how to determine whether or not the love she believes in is an illusion or actually real.

“Visitation Street” is the second stand alone novel and was released in the year 2013. Summer in the blue collar neighborhood, called Red Hook, Brooklyn, where hipster gourmet supermarkets push up against tired housing projects, and the East River opens into the bay. Listless and bored, June and Val, age fifteen, are looking to have some fun. Forget all the bottles, the boys, the coded whistles. Val wants to do something a little crazy and wild: take a raft out onto the bay.

Out on the water, though, while the bright light of the day gives way to darkness, the girls vanish. Only Val is going to survive, washed ashore semi-conscious in the weeds. June’s stunning disappearance is going to reverberate in the lives of the diverse group of Red Hook residents.

Cree, who is just starting to pull it all together after his dad was killed, unwittingly making himself the prime suspect, however an elusive guardian appears to have other plans. There’s Fadi, the Lebanese bodega owner, who trolls about info on the crime. While Val comes out of the shadow of her missing buddy, her teacher Jonathan, a barfly and Juilliard drop-out, is going to be forced to face a past filled with tragic sins of omission.

“Wonder Valley” is the third stand alone novel and was released in the year 2017. A teen flees from his dad mysterious commune, he puts in motion a domino effect that is going to link six characters desperate for love and hope.

During one usually crowded morning commute, one naked runner dodges between each of the stalled cars. The odd sight makes the local news and captures the imaginations of these lost souls and misfits.

There is Britt, that shows up at the commune harboring one dark secret. There is Ren, who is in Los Angeles trying to find his mom after getting out of juvie. Owen and James are teen twins that live in a desert commune, where their dad, who is a self-proclaimed healer, holds powerful sway over all his disciples. Tony, is an unhappy and bored attorney that is inspired by the runner. Blake is a drifter that is hiding in the desert, who does his best to battle his most violent instincts.

All of their lives are going to intertwine and come crashing together in a stunning way. One that could happen only in this dangerous and enchanting city.

“These Women” is the fourth stand alone novel and was released in the year 2020. In West Adams, which is a rapidly changing part of South Los Angeles, they are called “these women”. These women in the club. These women out on the corner. These women that got what they deserved. These women that won’t stop asking questions.

Five very different women whose lives are steeped in anguish and danger. They are each linked to one guy and his lethal obsession, however, not all of them know this. Julianna, who is a young dancer that lives fast and hard and resists anybody that attempts slowing her down. There is Dorian, who is still adrift after her daughter’s murder has yet to be solved still. Essie, who is a brilliant vice cop that sees a pattern of crime where nobody else has. Marella who is a daring performance artist whose work long pushed boundaries, however, it now puts her in serious danger. Finally, there is Anneke, who is a quiet woman that turned a willfully blind eye to those around her for much to long now.

The careful existence they have each built for themselves begins crumbling when two murders rock their neighborhood.

The novel features some female characters that you will be unable to forget. Ivy is at the top of her game in this novel, as she slips inside the psyche of women at the margins. She also, with the flair of a conjurer, capture the voices of multiple characters with perfect grace, and to create a surprising and bendy page turner of a story. The novel is beautifully written and plotted brilliantly.