Melissa Albert: "The Bad Ones"

Title: The Bad Ones [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: None
Author: Melissa Albert [Instagram | Goodreads]
Genres: Supernatural, Thriller/Mystery, Contemporary
Year: 2024
Age: 14+
Stars: 4.5/5
Pros: Engrossing, twisty mystery. Unexpected resolution. Fleshed-out leads whose relationship is equally well-developed.
Cons: A certain player's involvement becomes clear a bit too early. The supporting characters are little more than tools to advance the plot. The romance feels unnecessary.  
WARNING! Sexual assault/abuse (off-page), self-injury, car accident, parental death (off-page), murder by suffocation, near-drowning. Homophobia, bigotry, bullying.
Will appeal to: Those who like urban legends/supernatural mysteries/witchcraft gone wrong. Those who enjoy fierce, yet messy/toxic friendships.

Blurb: In the course of a single winter’s night, four people vanish without a trace across a small town. Nora’s estranged best friend, Becca, is one of the lost. As Nora tries to untangle the truth of Becca’s disappearance, she discovers a darkness in her town’s past, as well as a string of coded messages Becca left for her to unravel. These clues lead Nora to a piece of local lore: a legendary goddess of forgotten origins who played a role in Nora and Becca’s own childhood games... (Amazon)

Review: I'm late to the Melissa Albert party, but after loving her adult debut, I've made it my mission to read everything she writes. I have some small quibbles about The Bad Ones, but regardless, I found it to be trippy, entertaining and emotional, and I loved its curveball ending.
Just a heads-up before I start...the cover doesn't match the content. There's a weeping angel statue at some point in the story, but don't expect it to mean anything...and if the cover is supposed to represent the goddess (which of course it is), BIG FAIL.

DAZED AND AMAZED

The Bad Ones blends all-consuming (you might very well say toxic) friendship with a supernatural mystery that leaves you enough breadcrumbs to figure out its direction, yet throws you for a loop multiple times before you decipher it, and hits you with a last couple of twists you couldn't have seen coming. Told in three different voices and timelines (Nora's 1st person POV in the present, Becca's 3rd person POV in the past, another character's 3rd person POV recounting even older events), it's an addictive puzzle with minimal gore or violence, but a dark core - though it ultimately ends up in a much healthier place than one might expect. The beginning is atmospheric, intriguing, creepy - unexpected, too. Albert doesn't waste time setting up the mystery, but she doesn't start, as one would anticipate, by introducing her main characters - yet the hook is impossible to resist: three people, apparently unrelated, are accosted by a mysterious female being and vanish into thin air. From there, the wheels in the reader's head keep turning and the theories about what happened to those three (and to Becca herself, later reported missing as well) multiply. I buddy-read this one with my friend Carrie, and we traded a few wild hypotheses along the way, but most of them turned out to be wrong...though at least one of the answers had stared us in the face the whole time 😅. And, considering we're both seasoned supernatural-thriller readers, that's saying something. The final twist had me in awe, especially since it took one of my core assumptions about the plot and flipped it on its head, giving the story a far more original - and tragic - angle (Carrie was a bit less enthused by that turn of events, but I'll let her review speak for itself). [...]

Hanna Alkaf: "The Hysterical Girls of St. Bernadette's"

Title: The Hysterical Girls Of St. Bernadette's [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: None
Author: Hanna Alkaf [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Supernatural, Contemporary
Year: 2024
Age: 14+
Stars: 4/5
Pros: Fleshed-out, believable (and diverse) protagonists (Muslim, Malaysian). Strong social commentary. Atmospheric writing. 
Cons: The ending feels rushed and doesn't provide enough closure, especially for some characters.
WARNING! Sexual assault/molestation (not graphic, mentioned), trauma, psychosis, victim dismissal, toxic parent, corporal punishment (mentioned).
Will appeal to: Those who enjoy stories about female empowerment and solidarity - better if in a supernatural context.

Blurb: For over a hundred years, girls have fought to attend St. Bernadette’s, with its reputation for shaping only the best and brightest young women. Unfortunately, there is also the screaming. When a student begins to scream in the middle of class, a chain reaction starts that impacts the entire school. By the end of the day, seventeen girls are affected - along with St. Bernadette’s stellar reputation. Khadijah’s got her own scars to tend to, and watching her friends succumb to hysteria only rips apart wounds she’d rather keep closed. But when her sister falls to the screams, Khad knows she’s the only one who can save her. Rachel has always been far too occupied trying to reconcile her overbearing mother’s expectations with her own secret ambitions to pay attention to school antics. But just as Rachel finds her voice, it turns into screams. Together, the two girls find themselves digging deeper into the school’s dark history, hunting for the truth. Little do they know that a specter lurks in the darkness, watching, waiting, and hungry for its next victim... (Amazon)

Review: Why don't more people talk about this book? It's one of those hidden gems that keep getting overlooked in favour of more hyped novels, and I'm going to do my part to rectify this wrong...

SISTERS IN ARMS

In the vein of Flawless Girls, but with more flesh to its plot and characters, THGOSB is an unapologetically Malaysian, yet in a way universal tale with many facets: an enthralling supernatural mystery woven with a strong contemporary/coming-of-age thread; the story of a haunting, yet not a conventional ghost story; but more than anything, a call to togetherness in the face of women's vilification and dismissal. Despite the publisher's notes, however, it definitely doesn't fall under the dark-academia umbrella, unless you think that a single character being strong-armed by her mother into excellence qualifies - I'm telling you this just so you don't build up expectations that won't be met (I mean...everything's labeled "dark academia" these days, but a "school with secrets" setting isn't enough for a book to earn it). Mainly told in a dual narrative, but with the interpolation of a third point of view, THGOSB explores themes of trauma, agency (or lack thereof) and the silencing of female voices, along with sisterhood (real or forged) and the most abhorrent crime: women themselves perpetuating the cycle of abuse because they think it's inescapable, and that the only way girls can protect themselves is by becoming higher-priced commodities. [...]

Jihyun Yun: "And the River Drags Her Down" (ARC Review)

Title: And the River Drags Her Down [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: None
Author: Jihyun Yun [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Supernatural, Afterlife, Contemporary
Year: 2025
Age: 14+
Stars: 4/5
Pros: Honest, raw (yet at times poetical) representation of grief. Fleshed out characters who elicit sympathy even when they make bad choices. Atmospheric writing.
Cons: Gloomy and emotionally though. Delivers a predictable (though powerfully executed) resolution.
WARNING! Parent death, sibling death, animal death/sacrifice, body horror/decay, car crash, drowning/near drowning, strangulation, burns, underage drinking. Parentification, grief, racism.
Will appeal to: Those who enjoy revenant narratives, lyrical horror, Korean folklore and coming-of-age themes. Those who like damaged characters, complicated sibling relationships, and estranged friends' reconnections leading to tentative romance.

Blurb: When her older sister is found mysteriously drowned in the river that cuts through their small coastal town, Soojin Han disregards every rule and uses her ancestral magic to bring Mirae back from the dead. At first, the sisters are overjoyed, reveling in late-night escapades and the miracle of being together again, but Mirae grows tired of hiding from the world. Driven by an insatiable desire to unravel the truth that crushed her family so many years ago, she is out for revenge. When their town is engulfed by increasingly destructive rain and a series of harrowing, unusual deaths, Soojin is forced to reckon with the fact that perhaps the sister she brought back isn’t the one she knew. (Amazon excerpt)

Review: First off...DISCLAIMER: I requested this title on NetGalley. Thanks to Oneworld Publications/Rock the Boat for providing a temporary ecopy. This didn't influence my review in any way.

A STUDY IN SORROW

Yun takes a pretty common trope in YA literature - a teen with powers bringing back a dead loved one, namely a sister - and uses it to its best advantage in order to tell a much larger story, incorporating themes like parentification, selfishness, loneliness, guilt, by way of ancestral magic and Korean myths/culture. Mainly told from the perspective of 17 y.o. Soojin, but including other POVs, mostly resurrected sister Mirae's (one of the touches that make the book stand out in a sea of "came back wrong" narratives), And the River Drags Her Down pulls no punches in exploring the grief that engulfs a broken family (six years prior to Mirae's drowning, when the girls were 10 and 11, their mother died in a car crash) and its consequences - maybe a tad, you know, enhanced by magic, but not less relatable for this reason...if anything, even more. While the power that the women in her family possess was originally born out of very primal needs during a prolonged food shortage (and only meant to resurrect small animals), Soojin has twisted it into a tool to avoid facing loss, even before she employs it to resurrect her sister. Mired in grief and loneliness, she ultimately turns to her gift in order to get her only emotional anchor back, but there will be hell to pay - for her and Mirae both, not to mention, a bunch of other people - and ultimately, a though decision to make. [...]

B.C. Johnson: "Deadgirl: Daybreak" (ARC Review)

Title: Deadgirl: Daybreak [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: Deadgirl (4th of 5 books, but there's also a novella about a side character that is chronologically book 2.5 in the series - though best read after book 3 if you want to avoid a spoiler about its ending)
Author: B.C. Johnson [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Afterlife, Supernatural, Urban Fantasy, Contemporary
Year: 2024
Age: 14+
Stars: 5/5
Pros: Imaginative plot. Unique, mind-blowing afterlife concept/visuals. Flawed yet lovable characters who manage to feel realistic in the middle of mayhem.
Cons: Very dark in places (though tempered with funny dialogue/inner monologue). More of a slow-burn than the previous installments. Features some questionable characters' choices.
WARNING! Horror, gore and heartbreak (both for the characters and the readers). Underage drinking. A couple of nudity/underage sex scenes (though not graphic/detailed, mostly happening offscreen). An instance of infidelity. An animal sacrifice. Lots of language.
Will appeal to: Those who love afterlife scenarios. Those who enjoy a mix of laughter and tears, action and strong feelings. Those who like brave, resourceful teens who don't pose as heroes.

Blurb: The final year of high school approaches, and Lucy is ready to break. Too many of her friends have died. Too many monsters have taken their bite. And now Lucy must face her greatest challenge of all: the end of everything she knows. With high school disappearing and the world before her, Lucy must make her choice on what's to come. But with the rise of an old enemy who's been stalking her for three years - and a rapidly dwindling supply of allies - can Lucy even make it to graduation? And more importantly, does she want to? (Amazon excerpt)

Review: First off...DISCLAIMER: I received this novel from the author in exchange for an honest review. And the author being B.C. Johnson, you all know I've been campaigning for his first Deadgirl book with all my might since 2013, when I read the original version. Also, B.C. Johnson and me have stayed in touch, if sporadically, for the whole time. I'm not what you would call a friend of his though, only a fan of his work. And an unbiased one. As usual, this review is the love child of my penchant for quirky, uniquely worded books and B.C. Johnson's ability to deliver them.

THE LONG GAME

Seven years have passed since the last Deadgirl installment (or six, if you count the Daphne novella in 2018...not like one year makes a huge difference), but B.C. Johnson hasn't lost his touch. It's funny, because Daybreak is a bit of a slow burn compared to the other books in the series, especially since the first 100 pages include lots of domestic scenes (if a funeral can be considered "domestic", but you know what I mean) and the main plot seems to revolve around the protagonists' alliance with a certain faction, which isn't my favourite thing to read about. But all this turns out to be a necessary premise to the most exciting (and heartbreaking...and heartwarming - usually, with Johnson, the two go hand in hand) part of the story. Which is why, upon turning the last page, I went back and reread the whole thing, and enjoyed the hell out of it. It doesn't hurt that the afterlife where Lucy has been spending lots of her time since becoming a (still very human) phantom is everything I - the afterlife junk - crave for in a story and more. The Grey is imaginative, visually stunning, almost videogame-like at times, teeming with danger yet interspersed with pockets of love (literally) and beauty. Plus, hands down home to the best scenes in the book - and the most poignant. [...]

Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovic: "You're Breaking My Heart" (ARC Review)

Title: You're Breaking My Heart [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: None
Author: Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovic [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Contemporary with a Twist, Urban Fantasy/Portal Fantasy, Multiverse
Year: 2024
Age: 12+
Stars: 4/5
Pros: Wild, imaginative, at times poetical journey into a teen's grief and sense of guilt. Ode to family and friendship.
Cons: A little confusing at times. Might pose some problems to readers who need all the answers.
WARNING! Death by gun/school shooting (off-page). Near-drowning.
Will appeal to: Those who like a snarky, yet vulnerable lead. Those who enjoy coming-of-age stories with grief as a catalyst set on a fantastic backdrop.

Blurb: Harriet Adu knows that her brother's death is her fault. I mean, it's not actually her fault, but it still kinda is, isn't it? She would do anything to live in a world where she could take back what she said that morning. Then a strange girl shows up at Harriet's high school – a girl who loves the same weird books Harriet does, who doesn't vibe with anyone at school the same way Harriet does – and that different world suddenly seems possible. The girl speaks of a place underneath the subways of New York, where people like them can go and find a home. A place away from the world of high school, grief, cool people, and depression. A place where one may be able to bend the lines of reality and get a second chance at being a better person. Will Harriet open the door? (Amazon)

Review: First off...DISCLAIMER: I requested this title on Edelweiss. Thanks to Levine Querido (Chronicle Books) for providing a temporary ecopy. This didn't influence my review in any way.

MAKING WEAVES

First off - I was pleasantly surprised by this novel. Not only it successfully merges different genres (coming of age, magical realism, portal fantasy, multiverse) by way of regular narrative and experimental devices (see the late chapter that reads like a sitcom, not to mention the switch from 3rd person to 1st person in Ch.11), but it manages to tell a heartfelt, insightful story about grief and regret and facing your demons.

Harriet is a self-deprecating, acerbic Black teen living in New York, who's gradually distanced herself from her older brother Tunde, their cousin Nikka and their friend Luke, until Tunde dies in a school shooting on the very day she ended one of their arguments with "I wish you were dead". Nine months after, now enrolled in the same school Nikka attends and suffering from serious Tragic New Girl syndrome, almost-15 Harriet still blames herself for her brother's death, and would do anything to take those words back. Rhuday-Perkovic looks compassionately (yet humorously) at family and school conflicts, as well as internal ones, only to move the latter on the backdrop of a fever-dream scenario (think Alice in Wonderland, but with a deeper, more cohesive and more straightforward meaning) that promises confort if you're willing to pay a price, and that ultimately forces Harriet to make a choice. [...]

Seanan McGuire: "Mislaid in Parts Half-Known" (ARC Review)

Title: Mislaid in Parts Half-Known [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: Wayward Children (9th of ?? books)
Author: Seanan McGuire [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Supernatural (technically it would be Portal Fantasy, but since I don't have a Fantasy Room in my blog, I decided to shelf this one as Supernatural - that's the closest I could get)
Year: 2024
Age: 14+
Stars: 5/5
Pros: An imaginative look-in-reverse at one of the most common fantasy tropes. Both funny and emotional. Gives us better insight into the portal universes and the doors' workings. Provides closure for a few characters.
Cons: More fragmented than most of its predecessors.
WARNING! Bullying/manipulation. Characters confronting past trauma.
Will appeal to: Readers who like a mix of adventure, humour and heart (with a side of heartbreak) and the found-family trope. Everyone who's ever felt out of place, but doesn't necessary dream of a happier world than the one they live in...

Blurb: Antsy is the latest student to pass through the doors at Eleanor West's School for Wayward Children. When the school’s (literally irresistible) mean girl realizes that Antsy's talent for finding absolutely anything may extend to doors, Antsy is forced to flee in the company of a small group of friends, looking for a way back to the Shop Where the Lost Things Go to be sure that Vineta and Hudson are keeping their promise. Along the way, they will travel from a world which hides painful memories that cut as sharply as its beauty, to a land that time wasn’t yet old enough to forget - and more than one student's life will change forever. (Amazon excerpt)

Review: First off...DISCLAIMER: I requested this title on NetGalley. Thanks to Tor/Forge for providing a temporary ecopy. This didn't influence my review in any way.

A while ago, I decided I wouldn't write full reviews anymore for certain types of books, including novellas. But since I've been reviewing this series in full from the start, I'm making an exception here, and I intend to go on doing so for all its future installments. So, I'll keep writing a mini review after my first read, and a full one after my second.

WE ARE FAMILY

If I have a bias when it comes to the Wayward Children universe, it's towards stories with an ensemble cast, especially if going on a quest (OK, so maybe I didn't love-love Book 1, but that one was peculiar, and the series still had to find its footing somehow). They merge two of my favourite tropes - found family and alternate worlds - and they usually feature at least a couple of characters that I love fiercely, so I tend to write more enthusiastic reviews when all these things are involved. This is precisely what happens with MIPHK, where old fan favourites Cora, Sumi, Kade and Christopher and later additions to the group Antsy and Emily are forced to flee the school and reckon with the past of some of them, all while touching base with a familiar face and righting some wrongs in the process. For a book so short (160 pages), the 9th installment in the Wayward Children saga delivers with a vengeance, and despite the rather large cast, you never feel like one of the kids doesn't get enough attention, though the main focus is on Antsy and her peculiar relationship with the doors (established in the previous installment, but explored in more detail here). The found-family dynamic is spot-on, and so what if "family" is a broad term here, that may or may not include talking birds and ancient predators 😉. [...]    

Krystal Sutherland: "House of Hollow"

Title: House of Hollow [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: None
Author: Krystal Sutherland [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Supernatural, Afterlife, Thriller/Mystery
Year: 2021
Age: 14+ (please note: this is dark YA - you may want to take a look at the WARNING! section)
Stars: 5/5
Pros: Unique twist on a well-known fantasy trope (I'm not mentioning it in order to avoid spoilers). Fascinating settings. (Mostly) satisfying characters. Evocative writing.
Cons: Potentially disturbing imagery. An instance of rape apology from the intended victim. An inappropriate kiss between a minor and her sister's boyfriend.
WARNING! Body horror/bug horror. Blood and gore. Death. Attempted rape. Murder. Drowning. Fire. Suicide (off page). Alcohol/drug abuse. Vomiting.
Will appeal to: Those who like dark, yet luscious stories with a supernatural mystery at their core.

Blurb: Seventeen-year-old Iris Hollow has always been strange. Something happened to her and her two older sisters when they were children, something they can’t quite remember but that left each of them with an identical half-moon scar at the base of their throats. Iris has spent most of her teenage years trying to avoid the weirdness that sticks to her like tar. But when her eldest sister, Grey, goes missing under suspicious circumstances, Iris learns just how weird her life can get: horned men start shadowing her, a corpse falls out of her sister’s ceiling, and ugly, impossible memories start to twist their way to the forefront of her mind. As Iris retraces Grey’s last known footsteps and follows the increasingly bizarre trail of breadcrumbs she left behind, it becomes apparent that the only way to save her sister is to decipher the mystery of what happened to them as children. The closer Iris gets to the truth, the closer she comes to understanding that the answer is dark and dangerous – and that Grey has been keeping a terrible secret from her for years. (Goodreads)

Review: This book has at least three different blurbs LOL. I picked the one I like most (and, I seem to remember, the original one), but mind you - it doesn't mention the third sister Vivi, who's an integral part of the story.

TERRIBLE BEAUTY

Even if, like me, you don't put much stock on covers, House of Hollow has a striking one, doesn't it? one that, back when the book came out in 2021, compelled me to look at the blurb and see what the story was about. And even after the aforementioned blurb piqued my interest, I have to admit that the cover had me a little nervous, especially since I can't tolerate bug horror on a visual level (though I fare better with it when it's used as a literary device). Yet, at the same time, I thought the art was beautiful. Well, that's House of Hollow for you: "sheer horror and sheer beauty joined at the hip", as I stated in the mini review I wrote after reading it for the first time. It's a novel of contrasts, except they end up merging, or complementing each other at the very least. It starts as magical realism with a sizeable amount of mystery (what happened to the Hollow sisters when they were kids? what is the strange power they seem to exert on people? and what happened to Grey, the one who embraced such power shamelessly and used it to her best advantage?), then takes a turn toward the supernatural and becomes darker and darker, and more and more disturbing...yet the lyrical, evocative writing makes a thing of beauty out of it. [...]

Seanan McGuire: "Where the Drowned Girls Go"

Title: Where the Drowned Girls Go [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: Wayward Children (7th of ?? books)
Author: Seanan McGuire [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Supernatural (technically it would be Portal Fantasy, but since I don't have a Fantasy Room in my blog, I decided to shelf this one as Supernatural - that's the closest I could get)
Year: 2022
Age: 14+
Stars: 5/5
Pros: An imaginative look-in-reverse at one of the most common fantasy tropes. Packs a huge punch for so short a book. Has a few surprises in store. Lets all its characters shine.
Cons: Leaves you thirsty for all the worlds that are barely mentioned/touched upon...
WARNING! Bullying by way of fat-shaming. Mention of a suicide attempt by drowning.
Will appeal to: People who love flawed, complex teen heroes and coming of age stories of a peculiar kind. Everyone who's ever felt out of place, but doesn't necessary dream of a happier world than the one they live in...

Blurb: There is another school for children who fall through doors and fall back out again. It isn't as friendly as Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children. And it isn't as safe.

When Eleanor West decided to open her school, her sanctuary, her "Home for Wayward Children", she knew from the beginning that there would be children she couldn’t save; when Cora decides she needs a different direction, a different fate, a different prophecy, Miss West reluctantly agrees to transfer her to the other school, where things are run very differently by Whitethorn, the Headmaster.

She will soon discover that not all doors are welcoming... (Amazon excerpt)

Review: A few months ago, I decided I wouldn't write full reviews anymore for certain types of books, including novellas. But since I've been reviewing this series in full from the start, I'm making an exception here, and I intend to go on doing so for all its future installments. So, I'll keep writing a mini review after my first read, and a full one after my second. Also...this is my first 5-star rating for a Wayward Children book!

MY MERMAID FRIEND

Something about Cora stole my heart since her first apparition in Beneath the Sugar Sky, and it's funny how we don't have anything in common (apart from being/having been bullies' targets in different ways), but I love her more than any other Wayward Child I've met so far. Or maybe it isn't funny, because what's not to love about a fat girl with a mermaid's heart, who gets bullied for her size and tries to disappear but finds her door instead, ultimately takes matters into her own hands, and becomes a hero? a flawed one, but one who recognises her flaws and does her best to overcome them? not to mention, one with blue-green hair and iridescent skin? Everything about Cora and her arc feels so true and real, that you could swear resourceful, brave, fat mermaids are a thing and you will meet one (or more) one day, and how come you haven't yet? [...]

Seanan McGuire: "Dying with Her Cheer Pants On"

Title: Dying with Her Cheer Pants On  [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: None...so far
Author: Seanan McGuire [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Supernatural, Urban Fantasy
Year: 2020
Age: 14+
Stars: 4.5/5
Pros: Inventive twist on the cheerleader + teens-save-the-world tropes. Nice blend of humorous and poignant. Some excellent characterisation. 
Cons: Not all the leads are equally developed. Due to the stories being written in the span of a few years, there are some continuity errors/inconsistencies. The change in tone from story to story might not work for everyone.
WARNING! Blood and gore.
Will appeal to: Those who enjoy a humorous approach to horror. Those who like the Chosen One(s) trope. In short, those who dig a Buffy the Vampire Slayer kind of vibe.

Blurb: Cheerleaders are seriously injured and even killed at a higher rate than other high school sports. The Fighting Pumpkins take that injury rate as a challenge. Students of Johnson’s Crossing High School, they answer to a higher calling than the pyramid and the basket toss, pursuing the pep rally that is rising up against mysteries and monsters, kicking gods with the pointed toes of professional athletes chasing a collegiate career. Meet Jude, half-vampire squad leader; Laurie, who can compel anyone to do as she asks; Heather, occasionally recreationally dead; Marti, strong enough to provide a foundation for any stunt; Colleen, who knows the rule book so well she may as well have written it; and Steph, who may or may not be the goddess of the harvest. The rest of the squad is ready to support them, and braced for the chaos of the big game, which may have a big body count. (Amazon excerpt)

Review: This collection started off as as seven individual short stories published in different anthologies over the span of ten years, to which the author ultimately added three brand new ones when they became their own book in 2020. Please note: the physical release is out of stock (you can only buy ridiculously priced second-hand copies on Amazon), but of course the ebook version is still available. Please also note - I did my research and peppered my review with cheerleading-related puns 😉. Finally, lo and behold...after 8 year and 10 months, I finally got to feature a book that matches my blog aestethic! 💃 😂

SINGLE-BASED DOUBLE CUPIE [1]

It's no secret that I pretty much love (or, at worst, like) everything Seanan McGuire writes. This collection is a litte different from her usual production, in that the stories it incorporates are more humorous/over the top than average - though, as the author herself states in prefacing one of them,

The more time I spend with the Fighting Pumpkins, who are in some ways the comedy relief of my ongoing universes, the more I come to understand how tragic they really are, and how many terrible things are lurking in the corners of their lives.

In short, the Fighting Pumpkins are a cheerleader squad - or, it turns out, a whole legacy of them - tasked with battling monsters and restoring the world's balance both via some superpower-fueled kick-assing and the actual, fine art of cheerleading. It's true that - regardless of the consequences and the body count - these stories (except for Turn the Year Around, easily my favourite) have a somehow lighter, more absurdist feel than I usually dig in my books, but the fact is, McGuire can get away with anything. Her characters are solid and sympathetic (which doesn't necessarily mean likeable, but you never fail to understand what makes them tick and to feel for them nevertheless), her imaginations knows no bound but is disciplined enough to build worlds you can buy into, and her writing is masterful (because yeah, the patches of telling-not-showing in her Wayward Children series are intentional, and they fit that kind of stories). So it comes as no surprise that, even when tackling the cheerleader trope and placing it in a universe where they can have a pep rally context with their alien counterpart, McGuire would pull it off (though the moments when she gets more serious/deep/philosophical are still my favourite, and oh, there are a few, and they will break your heart a little). So, yeah - DWHCPO is, ultimately, a book with two souls from an author who's strong enough to support (and juggle) both of them. [...]

Colleen Nelson: "The Life and Deaths of Frankie D." (ARC Review)

Title: The Life and Deaths of Frankie D. [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: None
Author: Colleen Nelson [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Contemporary with a Twist, Supernatural, Thriller/Mystery
Year: 2021
Age: 14+
Stars: 2.5/5
Pros: Goes in a different direction than one would expect. Balances the magical adventure at its core with themes of self-acceptation, (found) family and friendship.
Cons: Tries to do too many things at once and doesn't dwell on any of them enough. A few incidents are too convenient to ring true.
WARNING! Sexual assault (off page). Almost-death by fire.
Will appeal to: Fans of circus narratives/sideshow acts and goth girls.

Blurb: Seventeen-year-old Frankie doesn’t trust easily. Not others and not even herself. Found in an alley when she was a child, she has no memory of who she is or why she was left there. Recurring dreams about a hundred-year-old carnival side show, a performer known as Alligator Girl, and a man named Monsieur Duval have an eerie familiarity to them. Frankie gets drawn deeper into Alligator Girl’s world and the secrets that keep the performers bound together. But a startling encounter with Monsieur Duval when she’s awake makes Frankie wonder what’s real and what’s in her head. As Frankie’s and Alligator Girl’s stories unfold, Frankie’s life takes a sharp turn. Are the dreams her way of working through her trauma or is there a more sinister plan at work? And if there is, does she have the strength to fight it? (Amazon)

Review:  First off...DISCLAIMER: I requested this title on NetGalley. Thanks to Dundurn Press for providing a temporary ecopy. This didn't influence my review in any way.

THROWING A CURVE

TLADOFD is a story told in double point of view - the one of the eponymous main character, and another one that I won't spoil for you, but that has everything to do with an old sideshow whose performers used to be regarded as "freaks". While I've never read a book (partially) set in a circus - or, well, a carnival venue - before, I'm aware of the tropes attached to this kind of narrative, and none of them were employed when it comes to the final denouement, because the truth about Frankie and her connection to the sideshow turned out to be different from anything I would have expected. On the other hand, the general atmosphere of the circus setting and its characters (with their magical turnabout) weren't particularly imaginative/fleshed out, and though the story was not about them, it would have been nice to spend a little more time with the troupe members and get the chance to see past their uncomplicated façades. There was virtually a lot to unpack, but alas, not enough time to do it. I have to admit I was taken by surprise by a certain character and their agenda, though I should probably have seen it coming; then again, since I wasn't able to foresee the connection between Frankie and the carnival in the first place, it makes sense that I didn't - so kudos to the author for being able to cover her tracks. [...]

Karen Foxlee: "The Midnight Dress"

Title: The Midnight Dress [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: None
Author: Karen Foxlee [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Thriller/Mystery, Contemporary
Year: 2013
Age: 14+
Stars: 5/5
Pros: Atmospheric read, with characters who get under your skin. Evocative writing.
Cons: Quiet (if gloomy) story, where not much happens - at least on the surface.
WARNING! Description of a dead body (not graphic). Suicide by hanging. Alcohol addiction. An inappropriate relationship. The prelude to a would-be sex scene. A couple of male anatomy references.
Will appeal to: Those who can appreciate a subtly woven, darkly magical tale.

Blurb: Quiet misfit Rose doesn't expect to fall in love with the sleepy beach town of Leonora. Nor does she expect to become fast friends with beautiful, vivacious Pearl Kelly. It's better not to get too attached when Rose and her father live on the road, driving their caravan from one place to the next whenever her dad gets itchy feet. But Rose can't resist the mysterious charms of the town or the popular girl, try as she might. Pearl convinces Rose to visit Edie Baker, once a renowned dressmaker, now a rumored witch. Together Rose and Edie hand-stitch an unforgettable dress of midnight blue for Rose to wear at the Harvest Festival - a dress that will have long-lasting consequences on life in Leonora, a dress that will seal the fate of one of the girls. (Amazon excerpt)

Review: This is not only a reread book (which is usually the case when I write a full review), but a re-reread one. And I ended up giving it the full 5-star treatment (I originally rated it 4.5 in my 2018 mini-review), because even if not much happens, the story, the characters and the overall magic never get old for me. Also, just so you get your bearings: the story is set in 1986, in a small Australian beach town.

THE HEART OF THE MATTER

This is one of those quiet books where - despite a murder (and a murder mystery at that) being at its center, and a suicide occurring later in the story - it feels like nothing happens...except there's a lot boiling down the surface. I wouldn't even go as far as to say that it's character-driven, though some of the characters do stand out. The best way I can describe it is, it's magic-driven...and no, I don't mean magical realism. It's just that the atmosphere, the protagonist, the dressmaker's family tale, the (spellbinding) writing, all together create a thing of beauty, sad and melancholic, and yet warm and cozy like an old blanket. The mystery itself isn't hard to figure out, even if until the end there's an ambiguity about the perpetrator...but not about the victim, not anymore - if there ever was, because to me, it was clear early on which of the girls was killed...and then again I don't think that her identity was the point: it was more about how she ended up there. What I mean is, for a murder-mystery-centered book, TMD reads awfully (or, well, beautifully) like a mesmerising story about family and friendship, memories and choices, and about how love won't necessarily save you but can damn you instead. [...]

Amelinda Bérubé: "The Dark Beneath the Ice"

Title: The Dark Beneath the Ice [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: None
Author: Amelinda Bérubé [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Supernatural, Thriller/Mystery
Year: 2018
Age: 14+
Stars: 3.5
Pros: Frantic, creepy ride, with a twist you won't see coming. Sensitive handling of the coming-into-one's-sexuality theme. Provides an all-too-real social commentary about girls/women. 
Cons: Most of the supernatural incidents give off a déjà-vu vibe. The family drama is a bit over the top. A character gets accidentally outed.
WARNING! Mental illness; drowning.
Will appeal to: Fans of classic spooks with an unexpected edge. Unlikely-friends/allies-to-lovers enthusiasts.

Blurb: Something is wrong with Marianne. It's not just that her parents have finally split up. Or that life hasn't been the same since she quit dancing. Or even that her mother has checked herself into the hospital. She's losing time. Doing things she would never do. And objects around her seem to break whenever she comes close. Something is after her. And the only one who seems to believe her is the daughter of a local psychic. But their first attempt at an exorcism calls down the full force of the thing's rage. It demands Marianne give back what she stole. Whatever is haunting her, it wants everything she has - everything it's convinced she stole. Marianne must uncover the truth that lies beneath it all before the nightmare can take what it thinks it's owed, leaving Marianne trapped in the darkness of the other side. (Amazon)

Review: I actually enjoyed this book a tad more when reading it for the second time, hence the added half star. I found that knowing what it was doing actually enhanced my reading experience. That's one of the reasons why I try to read my books at least twice until I write a full review...first impressions are important, but since I'm a strong advocate for rereading, I do my best in order to give a book a second chance at getting the best rating/review I can give it 🙂. 

UNCONVENTIONAL BEAUTY

The best thing about TDBTI is that, classic spooks notwithstanding, it ultimately goes in a completely unexpected direction when it comes to both the entity and the reason behind them, and it has something to say about what society (and even family) expects girls to be/act like - not to mention, the harm such expectations can cause. Marianne is trapped into a vicious circle, with an unhappy, mentally strained mother who - despite being unable to cope anymore with the role she's expected to play in her family - doesn't know how to let her daughter choose her own happiness. Add to that a workaholic father (who just left home for good) and a well-meaning but clueless aunt who both still see Marianne as a little girl, not a young woman, and her lack of a social life. So, one wonders, why should the nameless entity who's after her be convinced that Marianne stole something from it and has to give it back? A few answers are on the table, but one by one they get discarded, until the (articulated) reveal that ties in the paranormal and the mundane and doubles as a cautionary tale/social commentary. [...]

Andrea Contos: "Throwaway Girls" (ARC Review)

Title: Throwaway Girls [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: None
Author: Andrea Contos [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Thriller/Mystery, Contemporary
Year: 2020
Age: 14+
Stars: 3.5/5
Pros: Tense and intense. Doesn't employ the classic "mean girls" trope all too often included in the YA thriller package.
Cons: Requires some suspension of disbelief, especially when it comes to the lack of consequences for the final showdown (that doesn't seem to impact the characters much, by the way).
WARNING! Killings/dead characters. Underage drinking, smoking and drug use.
Will appeal to: Those who are looking for a fresh approach to teen thrillers.

Blurb: Caroline Lawson is three months away from graduation day. That's when she'll finally escape her rigid prep school and the parents who thought they could convert her to being straight. Until then, Caroline is keeping her head down, pretending to be the perfect student even though she is heartbroken over the girlfriend who left for California. But when her best friend Madison disappears, Caroline feels compelled to get involved in the investigation. Caroline has some uncomfortable secrets about the hours before Madison disappeared, but they're nothing compared to the secrets Madison has been hiding. And why does Mr. McCormack, their teacher, seem to know so much about them? It's only when Caroline discovers other missing girls that she begins to close in on the truth. Unlike Madison, the other girls are from the wrong side of the tracks. Unlike Madison's, their disappearances haven't received much attention. Caroline is determined to find out what happened to them and why no one seems to notice. But as every new discovery leads Caroline closer to the connection between these girls and Madison, she faces an unsettling truth. (Amazon excerpt)

Review: First off...DISCLAIMER: this title was up for grabs on NetGalley (in the Read Now section). Thanks to Kids Can Press for providing a temporary ecopy. This didn't influence my review in any way.

TOGETHER WE STAND

I'm always on the lookout for a good YA thriller that doesn't employ the usual "all against all" or "you can't trust literally anybody" plot device, and even more than that, the old "mean girls" trope. For some reason, it seems that, in this genre, catty classmates and petty fights are a must - and of course, there's nothing wrong with them if you like that kind of narrative, but I don't enjoy it at all. Throwaway Girls sounded like the happy exception to the above rules, and I'm happy to report it delivered - though some late mistrust between friends ensued, and painful secrets were uncovered along the way...but without any of them, there would likely be no mystery at all 🤷‍♀️. It was refreshing how certain secondary and even minor characters were able to take on a real supporting role, though I'm not saying that none of them had ulterior motives. It was especially refreshing that girls were sticking for each other - at least some of them - and that, despite its focus being the disappearance of a privileged white girl, the story also brought to the forefront the "invisible ones" most people give up on (though, to be honest, at first they were mostly instrumental in finding Caroline's friend - but she ended up genuinely caring for them). [...]

'Nathan Burgoine: "Exit Plans for Teenage Freaks"

Title: Exit Plans for Teenage Freaks [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: None (or, none planned, though on Goodreads the author mentioned having "rough scratch notes" for one)
Author: 'Nathan Burgoine [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Paranormal, Contemporary
Year: 2018
Age: 14+
Stars: 3.5/5
Pros: Inclusive/intersectional, funny, with refreshingly wholesome family/friend dynamics.
Cons: The paranormal aspect is a bit underdeveloped. Not all the lead's friends get the same screen time.
Will appeal to: Those who are in for a queer romance/paranormal/action combo.

Blurb: Being the kid abducted by old Ms. Easton when he was four permanently set Cole’s status to freak. At seventeen, his exit plan is simple: make it through the last few weeks of high school with his grades up and his head down. When he pushes through the front door of the school and finds himself eighty kilometers away holding the door of a museum he was just thinking about, Cole faces facts: he’s either more deluded than old Ms. Easton, or he just teleported. Now every door is an accident waiting to happen -especially when Cole thinks about Malik, who, it turns out, has a glass door on his shower. When he starts seeing the same creepy people over his shoulder, no matter how far he’s gone, crushes become the least of his worries. They want him to stop, and they'll go to any length to make it happen. (Amazon excerpt)

Review: Karen @ For What It's Worth warned me this was more of a contemporary than a sci-fi (or, I'd rather say, paranormal) book, but I was intrigued, so I gave it a chance. It turns out I feel like she feels about this novel, but I don't regret reading it in the slightest - so please take my rating with a grain of salt, because there are so many things EPFTF does right, even if they aren't the ones I was looking for.

THE COLOURS OF LOVE

EPFTF is a funny and fresh adventure in teleporting, but to me, its strength lies in the sexual diversity and in the familial/friendly relationships. Cole (our lead) is gay, his love interest is bi (as one of his female friends is), and the whole Rainbow Club he's part of is brimming with representation, from ace members (or ex-members, but still friends with Cole...best friends actually...) to both pan and non-binary ones. Also, Cole's love interest is not only bi, but also Black, and Cole's father is deaf. Exit Plans isn't a diversity textbook though: all the kids manage to feel like real teenagers, not necessarily perfect, coming in different degrees of woke, thinking of...well...the things teens are wont to think about 😂 - but having much more than those on their minds, and always sticking up for each other. Also, the parent rep in this book is AWESOME. Though Cole keeps his newfound teleporting ability from his mum and dad (which is understandable...to a point), he's got a healthy relationship with them, and he's even thinking of following in his father's footsteps as an ASL interpreter. Plus, his parents are in love with each other, and always there for their son - an almost unheard-of thing in YA. [...]

Nova Ren Suma: "17 & Gone"

Title: 17 & Gone  [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: None
Author: Nova Ren Suma [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Contemporary with a Twist
Year: 2013
Age: 14+
Stars: 4/5
Pros: Atmospheric writing. Makes an impassioned plea for all the lost, or "simply" troubled, teen girls that the world leaves behind.
Cons: Blends two different narratives that kind of clash with each other.
WARNING! Self-inflicted harm, mental health issues.
Will appeal to: Those who love poetical novels who deal with some harsh truths, but offer a glimpse of hope.

Blurb: Seventeen-year-old Lauren is having visions of girls who have gone missing. And all these girls have just one thing in common - they are 17 and gone without a trace. As Lauren struggles to shake these visions, impossible questions demand urgent answers: Why are the girls speaking to Lauren? How can she help them? And...is she next? Through Lauren’s search for clues, things begin to unravel, and when a brush with death lands her in the hospital, a shocking truth changes everything. (Amazon excerpt)

Review: I'm in love with Suma's novels. She's become an auto-buy author for me, and I only have a handful of those. Also, I'll do my best to avoid spoilers, but this will be a hard review to write, for that very reason...

BLAME IT ON THE GIRLS

Suma's novels are a love letter to girls: good or bad, hurting or causing other people to hurt, found or - most of the times - lost. She firmly believes that every one of them matters, and none deserves adults to give up on her. It should go without saying, except it's not as simple as it sounds, because sometimes they do their utmost to disappear, or they literally bite the hand that feeds (or at least caresses) them. Never was it the case more than in this particular book, where girls of all ethnicities and all ways of life get lost - some willingly, some not, but those who did run away all had their reasons, and a history of adults not being able to understand they pain or their sense of displacement. Or of authority figures shrugging - because, well, girls are bound to run away sometimes - and not even looking into the possibility that there's been some foul play involved. Suma looks at them, every one of them, through the eyes of one of their peers - a 17 y.o. girl named Lauren, who apparently can see them and visit a place in her dreams where they all live (so to speak) and wait for her to do something, because it's not too late for them...or for one of them at least. Bit by bit, we find out that Lauren is much more than a witness (or is she?), and there may be more girls to save than we thought. [...]

A.S. King: "Still Life with Tornado"

Title: Still Life with Tornado  [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: None
Author: A.S. King [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Contemporary with a Twist
Year: 2016
Age: 14+
Stars: 4/5
Pros: Original, bold premise. Honest, profound exploration of pain and trauma (albeit initially blocked/disregarded by the characters). Validation of teens' feelings and issues.
Cons: The main character's dry, sometimes self-deprecating quips may not sit well with everyone.
WARNING! Domestic abuse. An inappropriate relationship (barely on page).
Will appeal to: Those who want to look at all-too-real teen problems through a surreal, but exactly because of this, sharper-than-average lens.

Blurb: Sixteen-year-old Sarah can't draw. This is a problem, because as long as she can remember, she has "done the art." She thinks she's having an existential crisis. And she might be right; she does keep running into past and future versions of herself as she wanders the urban ruins of Philadelphia. Or maybe she's finally waking up to the tornado that is her family, the tornado that six years ago sent her once-beloved older brother flying across the country for a reason she can't quite recall. After decades of staying together "for the kids" and building a family on a foundation of lies and domestic violence, Sarah's parents have reached the end. Now Sarah must come to grips with years spent sleepwalking in the ruins of their toxic marriage. As Sarah herself often observes, nothing about her pain is remotely original - and yet it still hurts. (Amazon)

Review: If you're familiar with A.S. King's books, you know what you're getting into 😉. If not, but the blurb didn't scare you all the same, you're probably well-equipped to enjoy this one, especially since it's definitely more accessible than I Crawl Through It - if you can suspend disbelief.

ALL THE DIFFERENCE

Honest confession: I usually don't fare well with straight-up contemporaries, even when they don't involve romance. I need a unique premise, or better, a unique angle, when I read a story that deals with everyday's problems, or coming-of-age, or family, or all the things you can find in a contemporary book beside romance. That's why I love A.S. King's YA novels - she's able to keep me engrossed in what, without her peculiar brand of magical realism/surrealism, would be "average" stories about "average" issues (of course they're not average, but common enough that you feel like you don't need one more specimen sometimes). She's able to add a fourth dimension to teen (and sometimes adult) pain, and to filter it through a lens that, instead of making it look blurry, actually sharpens every little detail and ensures that it matters. How many books about self-questioning teens with a toxic family and an equally toxic school environment are there? And yet, Sarah - despite coming in a few different versions from different times, or because of that - is unique. Maybe even more than in her other books (though I have only read three of them so far, but still), King makes sure that she is...and that she matters. That, even when Sarah reflects on her problem at school that started it all, and tries to see it in perspective on the backdrop of her family's implosion, the same problem matters. The author makes an excellent point about teens (and especially teen girls) being dismissed as "whiny" when something eats at them that adults deem as not important enough - or at all. That's why we need a King in our life - and all her Sarahs. [...]