SAY A LITTLE PRAYER by Jenna Voris
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The publisher’s summary
Saved! meets Casey McQuiston in this wry, heartfelt tale of a teen who’s taking her church camp by storm—one deadly sin at a time.
Riley quietly left church a year ago when she realized there was no place for a bi girl in her congregation. But it wasn’t until the pastor shunned her older sister for getting an abortion that she really wanted to burn it all down.
It’s just her luck, then, that she’s sent to the principal’s office for slapping a girl talking smack about her sister—and in order to avoid suspension, she has to spend spring break at church camp. The only saving grace is that she’ll be there with her best friend, Julia. Even if Julia’s dad is the pastor. And he’s in charge of camp. But Riley won’t let a technicality like “repenting” get in the way of her true mission. Instead of spending the week embracing the seven heavenly virtues, she decides to commit all seven deadly sins. If she can show the other campers that sometimes being a little bad is for the greater good, she could start a righteous revolution! What could possibly go wrong? Aside from falling for the pastor’s daughter . . .
My recommendation
Voris delivers another riveting and complex queer love story full of humor, heart, and small town family feeling, proving herself unafraid of tackling the fraught and underrepresented perspective of gays who pray. By developing a broad range of Christian characters of different sexualities and faith interpretations, Voris invites the reader to consider the intersection between faith, community, and identity, allowing room for characters (and readers) to love, reject, or embrace mixed feelings about church without a sense of judgment. As a queer Christian, I know I’m biased, but seeing books like this one hit the market makes my heart sing. Love is messy; church is messy, and Voris captures the reality perfectly.
NEEDY LITTLE THINGS by Channelle Desamours
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The publisher’s summary
In this debut speculative YA mystery, a Black teen with premonition-like powers must solve her friend’s disappearance before she finds herself in the same danger, perfect for fans of Ace of Spades.
Sariyah Lee Bryant can hear what people need—tangible things, like a pencil, a hair tie, a phone charger—an ability only her family and her best friend, Malcolm, know the truth about. But when she fulfills a need for her friend Deja who vanishes shortly after, Sariyah is left wondering if her ability is more curse than gift. This isn’t the first time one of her friends has landed on the missing persons list, and she’s determined not to let her become yet another forgotten Black girl.
Not trusting the police and media to do enough on their own, Sariyah and her friends work together to figure out what led to Deja’s disappearance. When Sariyah’s mother loses her job and her little brother faces complications with his sickle cell disease, managing her time, money, and emotions seems impossible. Desperate, Sariyah decides to hustle her need-sensing ability for cash—a choice that may not only lead her to Deja, but put her in the same danger Deja found herself in.
My recommendation
There are many things to love about this debut, from the clean writing to the candid teenage voice to the meticulously crafted mystery that includes plenty of misdirection and red herrings to set you spinning (delightedly) down the wrong path. Perhaps my favorite, however, was the way Desamours handles Sariyah’s magical ability and its link to her ADHD. It always makes me nervous when an author combines disability with magic, but what I love about this novel are the ways that both magic and disability play a significant role in the main character’s identity but an insignificant role in the character’s ability to solve the mystery. Her ability to hear everyone’s needs impacts how she approaches certain problems, but never in a contrived or deus ex machina way. Nor do her magic powers compensate for or cure her disability–quite the opposite. Add a nuanced depiction of mental illness and representation of sickle cell disease, and this disabled librarian can’t help but swoon. Congratulations to Channelle on this thrilling debut! I can’t wait to read her future works.
(S)KIN by Ibi Zoboi
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The publisher’s summary
From award-winning, New York Times bestselling author Ibi Zoboi comes her groundbreaking contemporary fantasy debut—a novel in verse based on Caribbean folklore—about the power of inherited magic and the price we must pay to live the life we yearn for.
“Our new home with its
thick walls and locked doors
wants me to stay trapped in my skin—
but I am fury and flame.”
Fifteen-year-old Marisol is the daughter of a soucouyant. Every new moon, she sheds her skin like the many women before her, shifting into a fireball witch who must fly into the night and slowly sip from the lives of others to sustain her own. But Brooklyn is no place for fireball witches with all its bright lights, shut windows, and bolt-locked doors.… While Marisol hoped they would leave their old traditions behind when they emigrated from the islands, she knows this will never happen while she remains ensnared by the one person who keeps her chained to her magical past—her mother.
Seventeen-year-old Genevieve is the daughter of a college professor and a newly minted older half sister of twins. Her worsening skin condition and the babies’ constant wailing keep her up at night, when she stares at the dark sky with a deep longing to inhale it all. She hopes to quench the hunger that gnaws at her, one that seems to reach for some memory of her estranged mother. When a new nanny arrives to help with the twins, a family secret connecting her to Marisol is revealed, and Gen begins to find answers to questions she hasn’t even thought to ask.
But the girls soon discover that the very skin keeping their flames locked beneath the surface may be more explosive to the relationships around them than any ancient magic.
My recommendation
Zoboi’s poetry sizzles, clarity of storytelling and resonant emotions and themes pulsing through her evocative verse. The lore of the soucouyant is just one essential thread in a tapestry exploring race, xenophobia, colorism, colonialism, and the mundane, universal tensions of family–the pressure parents put on their children, connection and tension between siblings, and the complexity of blended family dynamics. I highly recommend this one to teen and adult readers who enjoy high stakes fantasies with a literary bent.
LOVER BIRDS by Leanne Egan
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The publisher’s summary
A fantastic, queer enemies-to-lovers story — in one corner, a girl with ADHD experiencing her first girl crush in a monumental way; in the other corner, a posh, rich girl who’s new to school and has her own reasons to be guarded. Told with humor and heart, this is a perfect novel for Alice Oseman and Becky Albertalli fans, and marks a great new YA romcom voice.
My recommendation
The Liverpool setting and fierce friend group add an immersive flavor to this queer coming-out Rom Com which uses Pride and Prejudice as a framework for the story. The exploration of ADHD has a major role in Eloise’s development and was handled honestly through a neurodiversity-positive lens, while Eloise’s exploration of her sexuality initially resists labels, feeling authentic and messy in the best way. While the Pride and Prejudice framework may offer little “Easter egg” moments to the most committed Austen fans, the retelling is so rooted in the contemporary YA space that it reads well without any prior knowledge. (I actually didn’t pick up on the Pride and Prejudice connection until 3/4 of the way through, at which point I felt a little silly since so many names lined up…) A fun addition to your YA Rom Com shelf.
SOMETHING KINDRED by Ciera Burch
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The publisher’s summary
Magical realism meets Southern Gothic in this commanding young adult debut from Ciera Burch about true love, the meaning of home, and the choices that haunt us.
Welcome to Coldwater. Come for the ghosts, stay for the drama.
Jericka Walker had planned to spend the summer before senior year soaking up the sun with her best friend on the Jersey Shore. Instead she finds herself in Coldwater, Maryland, a small town with a dark and complicated past where her estranged grandmother lives—someone she knows only two things about: her name and the fact that she left Jericka’s mother and uncle when they were children. But now Jericka’s grandmother is dying, and her mother has dragged Jericka along to say goodbye.
As Jericka attempts to form a connection with a woman she’s never known, and adjusts to life in a town where everything closes before dinner, she meets “ghost girl” Kat, a girl eager to leave Coldwater and more exciting than a person has any right to be. But Coldwater has a few unsettling secrets of its own. The more you try to leave, the stronger the town’s hold. As Jericka feels the chilling pull of her family’s past, she begins to question everything she thought she knew about her mother, her childhood, and the lines between the living and the dead.
My recommendation
The strength of Burch’s writing lies in the layers of depth she adds to her characters, plots, and themes. Jumping off of the chilling unease of ghost story, Burch confronts the discomfort of complicated family relationships, friendships, and romances, and the generational trauma of racial injustice. A great read for anyone looking for a character-driven YA contemporary with cultural resonance and a gothic twist.
WHERE THE HEART SHOULD BE by Sarah Crossan
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The publisher’s summary
In 1847, everything in Ireland was falling apart—but sixteen-year-old Nell was falling in love. Carnegie Medal winner Sarah Crossan’s first historical novel-in-verse is a suspenseful and heartbreaking story of love, family, and the forces that can destroy us or bind us forever. For fans of Joy McCullough, Elizabeth Acevedo, Malinda Lo, and Ruta Sepetys.
Ireland is starving, and a poor Irish scullery maid falls in love with the British heir to the land. Can their romance stay hidden during the devastating famine? The potatoes are black, people are dying, and in the midst of it all, Nell must do everything she can to keep her family together and everyone she loves alive.
It is hard to tell a love story
and also the story of a people
being torn apart.
My recommendation
In pithy, raw verse, Nell observes the horrific effects of starvation and the terrifying spiral toward revolution prompted by the grotesque imbalance of wealth and power. Crossan conveys the humanity of each character, including Nell’s family and the prickly Mrs. Kennedy and of course Nell’s beloved, Johnny, allowing readers to fall in love with each of them and their hearts to break along with Nell’s as the brutal conditions lead to irrevocable consequences. A must-read for YA fans of historical fiction and/or novels-in-verse.
THE CURSE OF THE DEAD MAN’S DIAMOND by Christyne Morrell
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While still grieving her beloved grandmother’s death, twelve-year-old Charlie faces another emotional upheaval when her father abruptly moves their little family from their New York City apartment to a dilapidated house in coastal Florida. Charlie is desperate to escape her swampy new life in a creepy, creaky Victorian mansion.
And that’s before she learns about the curse.
A new classmate, Sarah, tells Charlie that the couple who built the house found a diamond on the seashore, washed up from a wealthy man’s burial at sea. Now, after their tragic deaths, these ghosts are trapped inside the mansion, and Sarah wants nothing more than to free them by finding the cursed diamond and returning it to the sea. Charlie agrees to help Sarah search for the diamond because she has a secret plan of her own: to sell the diamond so she and her dad can afford to move back to New York. But as the ghosts begin to make their presence known and school bullies thwart Charlie and Sarah at every turn, Charlie starts to wonder whether her plans will ever come to fruition–and if they did, whether the devastating consequences to the ghosts and her budding friendship with Sarah would be worth the reward.
Morrell has produced another quirky, speculative middle grade novel which will delight readers as much from its character depth as its transportive adventure. As Charlie struggles to untangle the mystery of the missing diamond, her relationships with friends and family get caught under the magnifying glass, forcing her to come to terms with her own past before she can commit to a vision of the future. This book would make a great addition to any public or school library collection as well as an excellent pick for a middle grade book club!
FATIMA TATE TAKES THE CAKE by Khadijah VanBrakle
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High school senior Fatima Tate doesn’t think much of her mother’s plans for her future, which mostly revolve around finding a good steady job like nursing and settling down with a good Muslim husband, ideally as soon as possible. Fatima’s dream is to become a pastry chef, and while she might want to get married someday, for now marriage is the furthest thing from her mind.
But then she Raheem a charming, wealthy future lawyer and member of her masjid. Since Fatima and most members of her masjid don’t date, she’s surprised (but not disappointed) when he asks to kiss her. She’s even more surprised when he starts texting her the next morning. She’s shocked, however, when Raheem approaches her parents to express interest in marrying her–without mentioning it to her first. Everything seems to be moving so fast, but Raheem is actually supportive of Fatima’s dreams in a way her parents aren’t. After he promises to pay for her culinary school once they’re married, Fatima declines her college acceptance and forges her parents’ signature on an entry form for a big baking competition that could lead to a spot in the Culinary Institute of America. Unfortunately, as they grow closer, Raheem starts to surprise her in less positive ways, and Fatima must decide what she’s willing to sacrifice for her career and who she wants standing beside her in her future.
Although the premise emphasizes Fatima’s baking dreams, the competition plot line takes a back seat to the more central conflict of Fatima struggling to figure out what she wants from Raheem, love, and life in general. Her loving parents and devoted friendship with her queer BFF anchor the story, which honors the diversity of beliefs, practices, and identities within VanBrakle’s Muslim faith tradition. VanBrakle taps into the universal adolescent experiences of straining against family rules and struggling to find an individual identities while remaining grounded in Fatima’s specific and authentic experiences as a Black Muslim teen in Albuquerque, NM. This strong YA Contemporary will delight fans of the genre and allow readers of the (wildly underrepresented) Black Muslim community to see themselves reflected in one or more of the well-developed characters.
THE LUIS ORTEGA SURVIVAL CLUB by Sonora Reyes
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Ariana Ruiz doesn’t quite know what happened at the party last night. She knows she went with popular, attentive Luis Ortega. She knows that she and Luis had sex, and that she didn’t 100% want to. And she knows that now she feels dirty, empty, and panicked that someone will find out, someone like Luis’s ex-girlfriend Shawni who warned Ari to stay away from him. Of course Ari had thought she and Luis were just friends, and if he’d asked her if she wanted to have sex she’d have said no. Or at least she’d have wanted to say no. Autistic with selective mutism, Ari can’t speak in situations where she isn’t completely comfortable–and she was very uncomfortable in that bedroom with Luis.
But shouldn’t he still have asked first?
Before she’s had a chance to process, someone (probably Shawni) starts spreading the rumor that Ari and Luis had sex, and other boys start sexually harassing her in the hallways now that they know she’s “easy.” Desperate for someone to help her make sense of this mess, she responds to a cryptic note left in her locker and discovers the Luis Ortega Survival Club, a group of classmates who have been hurt by Luis’s behavior in the past, led by Shawni. When the little group decides to plot revenge, Ari is all in. She may not be sure how things got out of control at the party–and she’s certainly not ready to talk about it–but she knows that Luis deserves revenge. Because if Shawni wasn’t the one setting Ari up for harassment and assault, the culprit is obvious–and he needs to be stopped before he hurts anyone else.
A strong community and vengeful justice keep this trauma narrative hopeful and triumphant. Reyes sensitively portrays the challenges of navigate high school, social groups, and family with a disability that others don’t understand (or in some cases, believe in) and how this affects Ari’s self-actualization. Ari’s sensory sensitivities and post-traumatic stress symptoms also read as authentic, although the emphasis is not either autism or PTSD but on community building after trauma. Ari and several other characters are queer or nonbinary, and romantic threads enter in the second half. This novel will appeal to fans of high-concept YA contemporary novels, such as DANGEROUS PLAY or DOES MY BODY OFFEND YOU.
Note: While Ari’s speech increases throughout the story, signaling her growing closeness with her Survival Club friends, this experience should not be mistaken as representative for all nonspeaking autistic people. Of course, this is true for all depictions of characters from marginalized communities in all books, but the nonspeaking autistic experience is so rarely represented that I wanted to call attention to it here. (Also, the term “nonverbal” used in this book is not preferred by majority of the nonspeaking autistic community, but may be preferred by some individuals. The autistic community is extremely diverse!)
EVER SINCE by Alena Bruzas
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Content warning from the publisher: Contains descriptions of sexual assault, child sexual abuse, suicidal ideation, and drug and alcohol use/abuse.
Ever since she was 11-years-old, Virginia has been searching for a safe haven, away from her belligerent father, her emotionally unavailable mother, and of course, Him, the man who once made her believe he was her friend before revealing himself to be a monster, a beast worthy of the darkest fairytales and myths. Of her four close friends in the neighborhood, Virginia most often seeks refuge with Poppy, but when Poppy unexpectedly leaves for the summer, Virginia is desperate for another ally. After years escaping traumatic memories through drugs and alcohol and accepting that her body will be used by boys for sex, Virginia is surprised when Poppy’s boyfriend Rumi takes an interest in her as a person and expresses disgust at the way another boy is using her. Virginia struggles to reconcile the way Rumi sees her with the way she’s always seen herself–as a bad person and a slut, a view that she feels is confirmed by her growing attraction to her best friend’s boyfriend. But when Virginia recognizes that Rumi’s 11-year old sister is being groomed by a predator, she finds the drive to dig past the myths she and others have built around her and find the strength to tell her true story so that she can save another little girl from having to live it.
Gorgeous poetic prose and embedded fairytales and myths carry readers through Virginia’s intense experience of childhood sexual assault and its aftermath. At times graphic and deeply disturbing, all of the assaults by the adult “Him” occurred in Virginia’s past, allowing Bruzas to show (realistically) how children often lack the power and agency to escape their abusers but also to give Virginia power and agency at the moment of this story so that she can rediscover her voice and a supportive community of peers and adults to help her find safety and heal. In this novel, storytelling is not only a catalyst for healing but a bridge of connection between isolated survivors which will no doubt reach readers as well. Bruzas concludes with an author’s note acknowledging her lived experience with CSA. An impactful read for fans of heavy YA/NA contemporary fiction.
Susan the Librarian 