YA Fiction
LAST CHANCE LIVE by Helena Haywoode Henry
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The publisher’s summary
Squid Game meets Dear Justyce in an explosive young adult novel about a teenage girl on death row who competes on a reality show in hopes of winning her freedom.
Last Chance Live! is the most popular reality show in America—and eighteen-year-old death row inmate Eternity Price’s last chance to live. Getting cast on the show could win her clemency preventing her execution… if she can convince the viewing audience she deserves a second chance. The catch? If America doesn’t vote for her, she loses the chance to appeal her sentence, and she’ll be executed within a week of being eliminated from the show. And since Eternity’s been unpopular her whole life, she’s terrified America won’t pick her. But any chance of getting out of prison and back to her little brother Sincere, no matter how slim, is better than rotting away in her cell.
Eternity never expected to find her first real friends in a reality TV house full of people battling for survival after being convicted of capital crimes, but that’s exactly what happens. So when she gets the opportunity to sabotage them and secure her own victory, she has a choice to make: protect the friendships and acceptance she’s always longed for at the cost of her own life, or sacrifice her newfound community. Eternity must ultimately decide what forgiveness, family, and freedom mean to her, and how far she’ll go to win a game where the stakes are literally life or death.
My recommendation
This book was so good and so, so hard to confront as an adult: seeing laid out so baldly how our society fails our children, especially children of color. There is a constant overtone—recognized by Eternity herself—that rooting for Eternity to win means rooting for other teens to die. Henry also pulls no punches on the teens’ crimes, forcing readers to sit uncomfortably with the reality that Eternity and her peers have made catastrophic, fatal, and horrifying choices, and yet—at their cores—they remain normal kids that we can easily relate to. I believe this book is an important and powerful read, and I recommend it to anyone who is ready to confront the systemic horrors of our criminal justice system.
Note: Henry describes her book as speculative since the game show described doesn’t exist, but it doesn’t feel far from reality at all. Which is in itself part of the horror.
AN EMBROIDERY OF SOULS by Ruby Martinez
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I received an Advance Reader Copy of this book from the publisher in order to write this review.
The publisher’s summary
Jade can manipulate souls with the tug of a thread—it’s up to her, and a boy with a soul as bright as the universe to stop a creature on the loose before it claims its next victim in this lush, Mexican & German inspired romantasy.
Jade Aguilar can stitch beauty and brilliance into existence—unravel life itself. Like her mother, she’s a thread speaker in the queendom of Mérecal, where their rare gift can be used only in service of the Crown. When her mother, the master thread speaker, goes missing amid a spree of unusual deaths, the queen orders Jade to find her or be conscripted into a life of servitude.
Lukas Keller, a boy with a heart as bright as the universe, is desperate to save his family from the clutches of poverty. He gets caught up with a vicious gang and is forced to do the one thing he swore he would never do: seek the help of a thread speaker.
Jade and Lukas form a mistrustful alliance. As Mérecal descends into chaos, it’s clear there is something monstrous on the hunt. Jade and Lukas cling to each other for survival—and perhaps . . . something more.
In her spellbinding debut, Ruby Martinez weaves a wildly romantic, heart-pounding mystery set against the backdrop of Mexican and German lore.
My recommendation
This excellent secondary world fantasy features a meticulously grounded magic system and big thriller energy, making it impossible to put down! Authentic and substantive mental health representation weaves character inextricably into the plot, creating a resonant story arc that lingers long after the book closes. I highly recommend this book for any YA collection!
GRAVE FLOWERS by Autumn Krause
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I received an Advance Reader Copy of this book from the publisher in order to write this review.
The publisher’s summary
A twisty, dark royalcore fantasy that takes the courtly intrigue of Hamlet and infuses it with the vicious ambition of the Boleyn family. For readers who love Holly Black and Sarah J. Maas.
Marry the prince, then kill him.
Princess Madalina and her twin sister, Inessa, were born attached at the hand and separated right after. That’s the only time the sisters ever held hands. The girls’ personalities have been shaped in the Sinet family’s drive to make their kingdom more than what it is: unrespectable and loathsome, a damp place where deceit fills the palace walls like mold.
Madalina is different from her family. She’s considered the weak one and only finds peace in the garden, tending her magical flowers, which are pejoratively called grave flowers because they are ideal for torture and torment. Secretly, she dreams of escape and a new life.
Then Inessa, who was betrothed to the heir of a wealthy kingdom—Prince Aeric—gets trapped in Bide, a terrifying purgatory, and begs Madalina to set her free. Now, not only must Madalina take her sister’s place as Aeric’s bride-to-be, but she also must finish Inessa’s secret mission: Inessa wasn’t just sent to marry Prince Aeric, but to kill him, too, and solidify a profitable pact with his traitorous uncle.
On behalf of her family, Madalina will need to resist the infuriatingly clever prince—as well as her own heart—if she’s to free her sister and finish the job.
My recommendation
Decadent prose and sumptuous setting detail cultivate this dark fantasy’s tone from its unsettling start to its jaw-dropping conclusion. The only way to read this book is to devour it, as an irresistible conflict and its dizzying moral stakes pull you deeper into its pages. Teen fantasy fans won’t be able to stop talking about this gem!
LEGENDARY FRYBREAD DRIVE-IN: INTERTRIBAL STORIES edited by Cynthia Leitich Smith
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The publisher’s summary
Featuring the voices of both new and acclaimed Indigenous writers and edited by bestselling Muscogee author Cynthia Leitich Smith, this collection of interconnected stories serves up laughter, love, Native pride, and the world’s best frybread.
The road to Sandy June’s Legendary Frybread Drive-In slips through every rez and alongside every urban Native hangout. The menu offers a rotating feast, including traditional eats and tasty snacks. But Sandy June’s serves up more than food: it hosts live music, movie nights, unexpected family reunions, love long lost, and love found again.
That big green-and-gold neon sign beckons to teens of every tribal Nation, often when they need it most.
Featuring stories and poems by: Kaua Māhoe Adams, Marcella Bell, Angeline Boulley, K. A. Cobell, A. J. Eversole, Jen Ferguson, Eric Gansworth, Byron Graves, Kate Hart, Christine Hartman Derr, Karina Iceberg, Cheryl Isaacs, Darcie Little Badger, David A. Robertson, Andrea L. Rogers, Cynthia Leitich Smith, and Brian Young.
In partnership with We Need Diverse Books.
My recommendation
Tight, emotionally resonant writing spans a diversity of styles and formats in this collection by equally diverse group of Indigenous creators. Each story is a gem that would stand on its own, but with the thread of the fantastical frybread drive-in uniting the stories and their characters, the book becomes a tapestry of modern Indigenous community. Teens and adults alike will love these incredible stories.
ALL THE TOMORROWS AFTER by Joanne Yi
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I received an Advance Reader Copy of this book from the publisher in order to write this review.
The publisher’s summary
A captivating, heartrending novel about a Korean American teen navigating grief and first love who agrees to accept money from her estranged father in exchange for letting him get to know her—for fans of Nina LaCour, Kathleen Glasgow, and All My Rage.
Each night, Winter Moon counts her earnings dreaming of escape. Once she’s saved enough, she and her grandmother can finally take flight and disappear. But when her spiteful mother steals her money and blows through it all in one day, Winter is forced to turn to her estranged father, who recently reappeared in her life after being absent for more than a decade. They agree upon a simple contract: she spends time with him in exchange for payment.
It’s not easy reconciling the past and the present, though, and when she’s struck with a sudden loss, Winter flounders in grief and rage. The only person offering a hand is Joon, the new boy at school who sees Winter when no one else does.
When Winter discovers a secret her father has been keeping from her, things get even more complicated. As she navigates grief, first love, and forgiveness, Winter begins to forge connections, new and old, that make her question everything: her future, her conviction to disappear, and what it really means to be family. Winter knows that broken things can never be fixed, but can they come back together in a different way?
My recommendation
This novel is exquisite. The short chapters make it read like a verse novel while the prose perfectly balances lyricism with a sharp edge. At the start of the novel, the protagonist’s trauma has left her so prickly as to be unlikable, and her transformation unfolds so gradually and authentically that by the end she is almost unrecognizable to who she was at the start. I do not have the words to heap enough praise onto this stunning debut novel. It is a shimmering work of art that you must read yourself to appreciate. Congratulations to Joanne Yi on her debut!
MY PERFECT FAMILY by Khadijah VanBrakle
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I received an Advance Reader Copy of this book from the publisher in order to write this review.
The publisher’s summary
Sixteen-year-old Leena has always wished for a big family… but when she discovers she has a Muslim grandfather and aunt she never knew, she learns that family comes with tangled histories she may not be able to heal.
“Lonely Leena” is close with her young single mother. Still, she’s always secretly dreamed of more (and, when she was a kid, asked Santa for it). A huge family to cheer her on at graduation. A gaggle of smiling faces at the holidays. But one call from the hospital, and her mother’s hidden past comes to light: Her grandfather is in the ER, and her aunt is with him in recovery. Sorry—her WHO?
But with family comes family secrets—Leena’s mom’s, and as Leena grows close with her new family behind her mother’s back, her own. Leena’s mom warns that Leena’s grandfather Tariq’s financial generosity doesn’t come without strings attached… like Leena converting to Islam, fighting for a spot at a top university, and adhering to the restrictive rules that she ran from all those years ago. Leena isn’t sure who to trust, yet she’s certain that she adores Tariq and her mom—and that she’s the only one who could heal old hurts. After so many years, is it even possible? And if she can’t, will she have to choose between them?
A big family was the dream, but all this drama isn’t.
Warm, witty, and sometimes serious, My Perfect Family is a poignant intergenerational narrative that gives voice to Black Muslim women. A thoughtful examination of the intersection between gender and religion, Khadijah VanBrakle’s sophomore novel is a heartfelt tale of forging one’s own path… while loving those who stay by your side.
My recommendation
VanBrakle embraces the beautiful imperfections of family relationships, faith exploration, and teenage aspirations in a moving contemporary drama with no easy answers. Standout moments include the protagonist’s realization that all of the adults in her life are acting badly–that neither side is completely right (or completely wrong). The protagonist’s determination to carve her own path in the truest, most loving way is the glue that holds each element of this complex narrative in precarious balance. I highly recommend this title for YA Contemporary collections. (Note: This novel features Black American Muslim representation, drawn from the author’s lived experience.)
DIFFICULT GIRLS by Veronica Bane
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I received an Advance Reader Copy of this book from the publisher in order to write this review.
The publisher’s summary
A teen girl’s attempt at social reinvention takes a deadly turn when a co-worker disappears—and she learns she may have been the last person to see the missing girl—in this razor-sharp, murderously funny thriller debut.
After the incident last year, Greta Riley Green is looking for reinvention—a fresh start—and a job at Hyper Kid Magic Land, the local amusement park, seems like the perfect way to forge a new path . . . no matter what it takes.
So when fate pulls Greta into Mercy Goodwin’s orbit, it feels like things are looking up. Beautiful and confident, Mercy dazzles audiences daily. And at the first party of the summer, she picks Greta to confide in. Mercy has a secret to share, if Greta will just meet her the next day. It’s a sign that Greta’s truly fitting in.
Only, when the time comes, Mercy is a no-show—as she is everyday after that—and Greta knows something’s wrong. She can’t help thinking back to the night of the party. Did Mercy seem upset? Terrified, even? Could she be in trouble? It wouldn’t be the first time a talented young performer came to a sinister end at Hyper Kid. . . .
Of course, Greta has her own issues with the past, and the more she uncovers Hyper Kid’s secrets, the more her own threaten to surface. This job was meant to be a reboot, a summer without trouble. But trouble, it seems, finds Greta, and her past—and the bloody past of Hyper Kid—is about to catch up with her.
My recommendation
This amateur teen detective mystery is elevated by classic thriller tropes (why hello, creepy amusement park with unsolved murders!) and feminist themes. A bevy of cagy characters quickly turn into suspects while the protagonist’s desire for social self-preservation buckles beneath her sense of justice when she realizes that another girl may need saving from abuse. The plot will satisfy thriller readers while thematic content provides fodder for book clubs.
ARCANA: THE LOST HEIRS by Sam Prentice-Jones
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I received an Advance Reader Copy of this book from the publisher in order to write this review.
The publisher’s summary
Debut author/illustrator Sam Prentice-Jones explores fighting against your destiny and reconciling the actions of your ancestors in Arcana: The Lost Heirs, a tarot-inspired fantasy graphic novel for young adults.
James, Daphne, Koko, and Sonny have all grown up surrounded by magic in the Arcana, an organization of witches that protects the magical world, run by the mysterious and secretive Majors. Eli Jones, however, hadn’t even known other witches existed . . . until he stumbled into James. As James introduces him to the world of the Arcana, Eli finds the family he never had and a blossoming romance with James.
The five new friends soon realize that sinister things are afoot, and everything may not be what it seems at the Arcana. When the group delves deeper into the mystery surrounding the deaths of their parents and the Majors’ rise to power, they discover that they’re at the center of a curse—one they’ve just unwittingly set into motion. As the friends search for answers, they’ll have to confront the cursed legacy that links them in hopes of freeing their futures.
My recommendation
Sam Prentice-Jones perfectly captures everyday queer life with warmth and hope that genuinely reminded me of Heartstopper–except in Arcana, that queer community is wrapped in an eerie fantasy bureaucracy. As the romance and found-family relationships unfold gently, so too does the suspenseful plot until a series of dramatic twists rocket the characters toward their cliff-hanger ending. A second book will follow to conclude the duology. A unique and exciting addition to any YA graphic novel collection.
BAD CREEK by Peyton June
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I received an Advance Reader Copy of this book from the publisher in order to write this review.
The publisher’s summary
Three lifelong friends confront restless ghosts and malevolent family secrets in this fierce, propulsive debut young adult horror novel.
Iris, Gum, and Aidan are vacationing in Bad Creek, just like every summer. Except Iris’s older sister, Glory, drowned in the lake last year, and Iris can’t seem to move on; Gum is hiding his sexuality from his family while being viciously haunted by Glory’s rotting ghost; and Aidan is distraught over a drunken argument with Glory that he fears may have led to her death. When Iris sleepwalks to the dilapidated house that Glory obsessively sketched in her final days, she and the boys begin to uncover a sinister history in the very bones of the town. The trio must reckon with the events of last summer and uncover what lurks within Bad Creek before it takes Iris’s life next.
Gripping and vengeful, Bad Creek confronts the intersection of religion, sexuality, and feminism, and forces listeners to reckon with monsters in all their forms—human included.
My recommendation
This is the book to pick up this summer if you want to be viscerally creeped out. Through June’s unsettlingly distant third person prose and unsettlingly intimate sensory detail, a vivid setting emerges that puts run-of-the-mill haunted summer camps to shame. These ghosts will stick with you, as will the timely commentary on Christian Nationalism and the kids who suffer its collateral damage.
NOW SHE’S DEAD by Roselyn Clarke
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I received an Advance Reader Copy of this book from the publisher in order to write this review.
The publisher’s summary
Last summer, Sara Ellis was found dead by the lake, and only Mandy knows what really happened.
This summer, she’s desperate to keep it a secret.
For a few weeks every summer, Sara was Mandy’s best friend. At Highmark, the lake resort where their families vacationed, the two were in a world of their own. Or at least Mandy got to be part of Sara’s world.
But now Sara’s dead. The police ruled her death an accident; a tragic mistake after a night of impaired judgment. For the past year, Mandy’s coped by escaping: leaving home and barely keeping it together at school. The last thing she wants to do is return to Highmark this summer—even if she does need “closure.” As soon as she’s back, though, she hears the whispers: someone killed Sara Ellis.
And if she’s not careful, they’ll figure out it’s all her fault.
As evidence resurfaces and anonymous accusations are scrawled in angry red spray paint, Mandy must confront the truths she’s been avoiding about last summer. Because someone wants to make her pay for what happened to Sara that night.
My recommendation
This psychological thriller has strong We Were Liars vibes, a fast-paced plot, and the quintessential creepy summer camp setting. The sister relationship was particularly interesting–as well as the twists toward the end. This would be a great vacation read for anyone who likes getting chills around the campfire.
Susan the Librarian 