DARLING by K. Ancrum
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Wendy’s parents may as well have her under house arrest. It was their idea to move to Chicago so that she could go to a prestigious prep school (and so they could adopt more kids to keep under house arrest). But now they won’t let her hang out with her friends–all because when her mom was younger she saw some kid get murdered at a party in a graveyard.
Of course, Wendy’s parents aren’t home when a charismatic guy named Peter breaks into her house, and when he invites her to join him and his friend Tinkerbelle at a party, she can’t bring herself to say no. But instead of a party, Peter brings her home to meet the boys he’s taken under his wing–boys who give Wendy cryptic warnings that lead her to believe that Peter isn’t what he seems. With the police on their trail and something dramatic slated to happen later that night, Wendy will need to figure out who to trust if she’s going to make it home alive.
This dark Peter Pan twist is impossible to put down! I loved how Ancrum turned it into a thriller instead of a fantasy, drawing out the darkness that already exists in the original Peter Pan and infusing it with a new take on the concept of “eternal youth.” I was riveted. Highly recommend to fans of YA thrillers and dark contemporary.
VOYAGE OF THE SPARROWHAWK by Natasha Farrant
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Lotti has no intention of leaving her beautiful home for another terrible boarding school. After all, it is her home. Her parents left it to her when they died. Her aunt and uncle are only living in it to help take care of her, and because no one has heard from her French grandmother since before the Great War. But when her uncle resolves to send her back to boarding school–and worse, to have her dog put down!–Lotti knows she has to run away. And she knows just the person to help her.
Ben lost his adoptive father during the war. His brother is lost, too, presumed dead, although Ben is certain he’ll come home someday. Unfortunately, someday won’t be soon enough now that the local constable is investigating him. He absolutely refuses to go back to the orphanage. For one thing, they’d take away his dog. For another, he loves living on the houseboat, The Sparrowhawk. His father would be rolling in his grave if he knew how close they were to losing it. So when Lotti shows up insisting that they travel to France, how can Ben say no? After all, maybe he’ll find his brother there. With the constable and an irate uncle chasing in their wake, Lotti and Ben embark on The Sparrowhawk‘s first major voyage, hoping that the friendly accomplices they meet along the way will be able to help reunite them with the family they’ve lost.
This novel about courage and found-families follows in the grand tradition of middle grade stories about plucky young orphans embarking on zany adventures. The quirkiness of the narrative voice, along with the historical setting, lend the book a classic feel while the cast of compassionate characters keep the tone hopeful through even its suspenseful moments. A fun choice for upper-elementary readers!
Featured Book List: YA Chills and Thrills for 2021
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It’s October–time for ghosts, zombies, and serial killers (in our books, of course)! This month’s featured book list includes this year’s most heart-pounding releases for teen readers.
I will continue to curate this list throughout the month, but titles include:
WHITE SMOKE by Tiffany D. Jackson, a chilling horror about a house full of ghosts and the even scarier reality of racial injustice.
HOUSE OF HOLLOW by Krystal Sutherland, a dark fantasy that sends three sisters back into the land of the dead, searching for the truth about their past and an escape from the man who is hunting them.
EAT YOUR HEART OUT by Kelly Devos, an action-packed zombie satire set at a sinister fat camp.
BAD WITCH BURNING by Jessica Lewis, the story of a teen witch who discovers her ability to raise the restless dead while searching for an escape from abuse.
Check out the full list on Bookshop.org. (Don’t worry if you’re not looking to buy; just see what titles look good to you, then find them at your local or school library!)
FRANKIE AND BUG by Gayle Forman
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I received an Advance Reader Copy of this book from the publisher in order to write this review.
Bug’s older brother is growing up and he’s leaving her behind. For years, they’ve spent the summers together on Venice Beach while their mom works her busy job as the mayor’s press secretary. But this summer, Danny needs “space.” He doesn’t even want to be called Danny anymore. Daniel is too busy hanging out with his skateboarding, weight lifting, soon-to-be high schooler friends to hang out with a fourth-grade baby. And now Bug is stuck with her neighbor’s weird nephew, Frankie.
But it turns out that Frankie is more interesting than Bug first thought. For one thing, he’s determined to track down LA’s most notorious serial killer and he’s willing to let Bug help him. As their friendship deepens, Frankie shares his transgender identity with Bug, and Bug shares her fears about the skinheads that target her family–especially her brother who is just as Salvadoran as she is, but has darker skin. When their investigations into the murders get overshadowed by a hate crime much closer to home, Frankie and Bug abandon their search for the serial killer and try instead to bring a little bit of justice to the lives of those closest to them.
Set in the 1980s against the backdrop of the AIDS epidemic (and related spike in homophobia) and a serial killer reminiscent of LA’s Night Stalker murders, this middle grade novel had the potential to be heavy and disturbing. But it is the innocent voices of Bug and Frankie and the hopeful worldview of Bug’s mom that keep the story buoyant enough for a middle grade audience. Through their encounters with diverse people over the course of the summer, both Bug and Frankie learn things about themselves and about tolerance and compassion for others. I’d recommend this one to upper elementary readers who enjoy contemporary and historical fiction.
THE VIOLENT SEASON by Sara Walters
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Every November in Wyatt’s hometown, someone becomes a murderer. One year it was a teacher who drowned her two children in a bathtub. One year, it was a classmate who drove her own car off a cliff. No one knows who last year’s murderer was. But the victim was Wyatt’s mother.
This November, Wyatt is noticing bloodlust around her, especially in Cash (the boy she’s been hooking up with) and herself. Maybe it’s not so much a desire for blood as a memory of her mother’s blood pooling on the stairs when Wyatt returned home and found her. The police claim they have another suspect–an out-of-towner–but Wyatt knows they have the wrong man. After all, the November curse only affects the people of her town, and her mother’s murder must be part of the curse. When a class project pairs Wyatt up with the object of Cash’s hatred, Porter Dawes, Wyatt finally finds a willing ally in her own investigation into the November curse and her mother’s death. As Wyatt’s association with Porter sparks Cash’s anger and her investigations uncover secrets she wishes had stayed buried, Wyatt begins to realize that whether or not the November curse is real, the violence in her life is far from over.
YA readers who like horrifying thrillers (or thrilling horror?) won’t be able to stop turning these pages. Themes of abuse run underneath the suspenseful thriller plot adding depth to this high-concept story. Though the premise might sound like a mystery, it is really more on the thriller/horror border and will most satisfy readers of those genres.
HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DAD by Gary Paulsen
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Carl’s dad is a rescue-dog-loving, environment-saving, just-generally-really nice guy. And Carl can’t take it anymore.
When his dad inadvertently ruins Carl’s chances to impress the girl he likes, Carl decides to take a leaf out of a puppy training book and try using positive reinforcement to nudge his dad toward behavior that is more, well, normal. Things don’t go well at first (the pink overalls and garage sale incident, for instance) but the family pit bull, Carol, seems to get exactly what Carl wants to do and starts to guide him in the right direction. But as positive training results blend with the hilarious, spectacular fails, will Carl’s new and improved dad be all he’s cracked up to be? Or is it possible that teaching an old dad new tricks will lead to the loss of the old dad altogether?
This spirited narrator had me laughing from page one. In addition to hilarious descriptions and zany situations, strong themes of family and identity give the novel the kind of depth you expect from Gary Paulsen. As a dog lover, I especially appreciated how much of a pivotal character rescue-pup Carol ended up being. Any fan of middle grade contemporary fiction will love this new title, especially those looking for an unrelenting comedy. This is also a great candidate for classroom use since the humor will appeal to even the most reluctant readers while the thematic content will allow for meaningful discussion.
JUST ASH by Sol Santana
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Ash is a boy. He has always known he was a boy, and his parents have always agreed. It even says “male” on his birth certificate. But his parents have always insisted that he never tell anyone that he is also intersex. It’s so rare and confusing, they taught him, that it’s better if it stays a secret.
Unfortunately, when Ash unexpectedly starts menstruating for the first time during soccer practice, his intersex identity suddenly becomes very public. He gets kicked off the team, his friends abandon him, and his parents insist that he is now a girl, enrolling him him in a new school where he is forced to wear a dress and use the girl’s bathroom. Ash struggles to please his parents, giving “being a girl” a try, but when they announce that they want to have his male genitalia surgically removed, he realizes that home is no longer safe. On the run, Ash soon learns that being intersex isn’t nearly as rare his parents led him to believe and that the fight to live as his true identity must begin with accepting and loving his own body.
JUST ASH is a message to intersex teens: you are not “wrong,” and you are not alone. The heartbreaking abuse Ash endures from his parents is balanced by the love and unmitigated acceptance from his older sister, his girlfriend, his intersex support group, and a supportive teacher. But the most heart-wrenching part of the book is how much a reality experiences like these are for many LGBTQIA+ teens. In addition to the positive (and grossly underrepresented) intersex perspective, the story and characters are compelling. I would recommend this novel to fans of YA contemporary fiction, to intersex readers who want to see their experiences represented, and to any teen reader who does not know what it means to be intersex.
VIOLET GHOSTS by Leah Thomas
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The house where Dani lives is just one in a long line of crappy living spaces. That’s what happens when you and your mom have to flee an abusive father/husband. You move frequently, stay wherever you can. But the houses don’t usually come with a ghost. Dani immediately connects with Sarah, the adolescent ghost, in part because they both know what it’s like to be hurt by a man. But Dani can’t tell Sarah that despite the name “Daniela,” Dani feels like a boy. He’s sure that if Sarah knew the truth about his identity, she’d never speak to him again.
When Dani and Sarah stumble on another ghost in the woods, Dani learns that abuse isn’t unique to the world of the living. When abusers die, they go right on abusing–sometimes the same people they abused in life. Dani is determined to find a way to protect the ghosts who are quickly becoming his closest friends. But will finding peace for others stop him from finding peace for himself?
Although there is a thrilling dose of speculative fiction in this ghost story, at its core, VIOLET GHOSTS is a story of surviving and healing after abuse and fighting to be true to one’s identity. It is set in the recent past, and until late in the book, Dani doesn’t know that there are other transgender people in the world (or even the term “transgender”). His struggle to figure out how to identify and even describe himself parallels the struggle of the ghosts to find a new way to fit into the world where they’ve existed merely as invisible victims, lying in the places where they died for years or even decades. The story is beautifully, emotionally told (I keep wanting to use the word haunting, but it will sound like a bad pun … but it is haunting…), and ultimately full of hope. I highly recommend it to fans of YA speculative fiction AND fans of YA contemporary.
THE THING I’M MOST AFRAID OF by Kristin Levine
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It’s not that Becca doesn’t want to visit her father in his new home in Austria. It’s just that she’s terrified. Of flying. Of metal detectors. Of soft-boiled eggs. Really, anything that normal people consider safe is fair game for Becca’s Doomsday Journal: a list of her fears and the worst case scenarios that could result from them.
Still, somehow Becca makes it all the way to Austria, and when faced with the au pair she doesn’t want and a new “friend” she doesn’t need, she’s determined to survive the eight weeks until she can go back to her mom’s house in Virginia. But when Becca starts learning about her au pair’s experiences as a Bosnian refugee, still separated from her mother and brother, Becca’s fears start to feel small by comparison. Although she knows she can’t just make her anxiety goes away, she decides to start using her Journal as her therapist intended: as a way to work through some of her fears on paper so that she can do more things without panic attacks. And once she starts working out her own fears, Becca starts to wonder if she might be able to help the refugees somehow, too.
I loved this middle grade historical fiction novel. Becca is a funny but authentic narrator and the setting in Austria is so real that I felt like I was on vacation (a rare treat in a pandemic…). Yet the Bosnian War in the background brought more serious thematic threads that added both suspense and layers of nuance. I highly recommend this novel to fans of middle grade historical fiction, fans of middle grade contemporary novels set in escapist locales (like ALL YOU KNEAD IS LOVE, for example), and book clubs for 4-7th graders.
YOU’D BE HOME NOW by Kathleen Glasgow
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When Emory’s brother comes home from rehab, she hopes life will change for the better. Or as good as it can get after Joey nearly dying from a heroin overdose and Emmy nearly dying in the car accident that killed a classmate. At the very least, Emmy hopes to become less invisible. Maybe her parents will finally start paying some attention to her, instead of just to Joey and all his problems. And maybe the boy next door that she’s been hooking up with for ages will finally acknowledge her in public.
But even though neither of them was driving, the school community blames Emmy and Joey for their classmate’s death. And it turns out that Joey’s return from rehab is just the beginning of a long, arduous journey in his recovery from addiction. As Joey’s life crumbles again–and Emmy’s sex life becomes public in the worst possible way–a new community begins to form, and the hope Emmy had abandoned gradually flickers back to life.
Gorgeous prose and an infusion of classic literature elevate this story of a community’s coming-of-age into something truly exquisite. The suspenseful plot pushes readers along while authentic and complex emotions pull us deeper into the characters’ world. Though the novel takes on two mammoth social problems (the opioid crisis crisis and slut-shaming culture), Glasgow anchors them both in her protagonist’s struggle to be both noticed and respected by her family and community and also in the subplots of the parents and school community struggling to see outcasts as human beings. This novel is a must-read for any fan of YA contemporary fiction!
Susan the Librarian 