Books shelved under “Young Adult”

Sara Barnard is one of my auto-buy authors, so when I saw she had a new YA novel out, I had to get it. This Song Is About Us is such an interesting blend of zeitgeist and timelessness, and while I thought its plot was somewhat straightforward and predictable, I really enjoyed the ending.

Ruby has one more year of school before it’s time to head off to university. Her boyfriend, Drew, is the frontman…

After reading Renegades and Archenemies back to back last year, I slept on borrowing the final book in Marissa Meyer’s superhero trilogy. But no more! Supernova is an explosive conclusion to this story, and while it is far from surprising, it is definitely satisfying.

Spoilers for the first two books but not this one.

The Renegades are recovering from an attack on their headquarters. Max Everhart, the young adopted son of Captain Chromium and the…

What’s that, did Kara wait four years to read a sequel again? Yes, yes she did. My bad. I enjoyed Victories Greater Than Death enough to buy Dreams Bigger Than Heartbreak because the library didn’t have it. Clearly, though, I have dragged my feet on reading it, and I am regret. Charlie Jane Anders’s young adult science-fiction series about queer teenagers leaving Earth to discover an interstellar society at war is … wow.

This book…

The perfect trans YA novel does not exi—

OK, it might be a stretch to call One of the Boys perfect. For one thing, there can be no One True Trans YA Novel because there is no One True Trans Experience, of course. What we need is a plethora of diverse experiences. But I have to say, considering I never played any sports in high school and know nothing about football and transitioned at…

If you have been reading my reviews for a while, you’ll know I keep calling for more books with trans characters where the main focus is not on them coming out—or even on them being trans. So of course, I was very much interested in Meet Cute Diary, by Emery Lee. With multiple trans and queer characters, this book plays with some common romance tropes—like fake dating—while acknowledging the challenges these tropes, and romance…

As is tradition, let us begin by admiring the incredible angled-title cover art on this book! Then, as is tradition, let me remark upon how I’ve somehow let an egregious span of time elapse (six years?? Really, Kara??) before finally finishing this trilogy. Guardian is a more-than-sufficient conclusion to the series A.J. Hartley started in Steeplejack. This is a beautiful young-adult fantasy series that offers a primer on resisting fascism and bigotry along with…

Gods and monsters and nightmares, oh my! The Lost Portal, a sequel to The Last Huntress, promises to be an epic quest. Lenore Borja returns us to the quartet of fierce huntresses: Alice, Soxie, Olivia, and Hadley. Amid affirmations of female friendship and explorations of family ties, these four women are all that stands between the Greek pantheon’s attempt to return to the world—or remake it in the process. The stakes are high—however,…

Hot on the heels of my ecstatic review of Renegades, I bring you the sequel! Which I didn’t realize was the second in a trilogy (I thought it was a duology for some reason), but it shows. Archenemies is peak middle book syndrome. Aside from that, however, it’s basically what it says on the tin, and I’m not mad about it. Marissa Meyer continues to unspool this story of superpowered prodigies, divided loyalties,…

Marissa Meyer is one of those authors always adjacent to my radar, never quite on it. I want to say I tried Cinder once and bounced off it, but I can’t actually say for sure. In any event, I noticed the sequel to Renegades on a shelf at my library and promptly checked out both books. I am a sucker for superhero remixes, and this one looked good. However, I have been burned by them…

What would you do if you could make the world a better place and save the soul of someone you’re attracted to, but you would have to die in his place? A hero would jump at this chance, of course. The Last Huntress is a story about willingness to sacrifice and standing against powers far beyond our comprehension. Lenore Borja’s world is creative and intriguing, though I can’t say the same for the story she…

Look, I knew The Rules would be a long shot from the moment I laid eyes on it, but I was bored and plucked it from the obscurity of the YA stacks at my library because why not. I feel like I have fallen off the YA wagon lately; I have only read three in the past year, so I was rather starving. Stacey Kade is not a name I recognized, but the plot…

Darcie Little Badger is one to watch. That’s what I say to myself anyway, as I pound back endless cups of tea and anyone else reads these words on the internet. But if you are reading these words, then you ought to know Sheine Lende is a fantastic experience all around, just like my experiences with Elatsoe and A Snake Falls to Earth before it. At every turn, Little Badger crafts a narrative so compelling…

Here we are! The story that began in In Every Generation and continued in One Girl in All the World concludes here with Against the Darkness. Full disclosure: I received a copy of this book from Kendare Blake, who will also return as a guest on my Buffy rewatch podcast, Prophecy Girls a couple of weeks after this review is published. I’d like to think I’m still providing a fair review of these books,…

A few years ago, I had the opportunity to read Erinsmore, a secondary-world fantasy novel coincidentally written by my former landlady from when I lived in England. Erinsmore works quite well as a standalone novel. However, in Mage Quest, Julia Blake provides us with an excellent sequel story, one that revisits beloved characters from the first book, introduces new ones, and builds further on the lore of this world.

On Earth, six years…

First, I need to spend a moment obsessing over this cover design. My edition is two-toned: pink down one half, red down the other. The “so” in the title is superimposed over a pair of lips, with the lipstick smeared on the right. The lips themselves are actually a cutout, and when you open the front cover, the page beneath is all blue and reads, “You should be so angry”—a stark contrast to the book’s…

Just a cheeky little apparently standalone novel to close out my summer of witches (though, glancing at my to-read shelf, summer might become an autumn of witches too)—and how fitting that it should be a book where the seasons are connected to one’s witchcraft. The Nature of Witches is a delightfully straightforward tale of magic, love, fear, and growth from Rachel Griffin. As long as you don’t expect too much from it, you will be…

Give me more books like this. Directly. Into. My eyeballs. Please. A Snake Falls to Earth satisfied so many cravings I didn’t know I was having! It’s the perfect blend of humour, compassion, tension, and more. Darcie Little Badger impressed me with Elatsoe, but this novel has truly blown me away. It’s going to be one of my favourites for this year—and this has been a good year of reading for me in general.

…

That’s fine. It’s OK, Sara Barnard. I didn’t need those tears on the inside of my body. Oh wow. Cool. Your novels always sneak up on me, both in the sense that I often don’t hear about them until they’re just being published, and also in the sense that the first half or so of the story often undersells itself until it builds to a final, incredible crescendo. Where the Light Goes continues this trend…

Prophecies are tricksy, especially when the prophecies are being manipulated by the humans who run a church for their own temporal ends. The Third Daughter explores what happens when various parties try to shift prophecy in their favour. From a slighted onetime heir to the throne to a power-hungry church official to just a girl from Harborside, everyone wants to have a say in how (or even if) the New Maiden will rule over Velle.…

When it comes to queer fiction, especially queer YA, it is becoming trendy for reviewers—myself included—to say that we need to move beyond coming-out stories. We need stories about young queer people who are already openly, joyously queer. This is true. However, with Friday I’m in Love Camryn Garrett demonstrates why a coming-out story is still viable and valuable.

Mahalia Harris didn’t get a Sweet Sixteen—her mother couldn’t afford it. A year later, she…