Hey YA Readers!
I’m in the thick of cramming in horror reads for the upcoming discussions for the 2023 Summer Scares slate. It’s been fun to dive into all things scary as we stare down the end of another year. One is less frightening than the other, and I’ll let you choose which is which.
Let’s dive into this week’s new books and talk about a few cool book covers featuring body diversity coming in 2023.
Bookish Goods
Team Whoever The Villain Is sticker by MeaggieMoos
I love rooting for a villain sometimes, don’t you? That’s especially true in an enemies to lovers romance. $3.50.
New Releases
Let’s look at two hardcover books hitting shelves this week. You can find the rest of this week’s new releases in the fall roundup of new hardcovers.
Note that we are really at the end of publishing season, so there are few titles to highlight…meaning the diverse options are also sparse this time of year.
Lumara by Melissa Landers
Nathaniel is a Mystic, and no mortal has ever been allowed inside his secret magical community. But the wedding of his cousin is primed to be the event of the year, and he’s asked Talia, his girlfriend, to join him. It will be the first time a mortal has been allowed inside.
Talia, who does not believe in the world of the Mystic, almost didn’t date Nathaniel at all after learning about his heritage. She doesn’t want to go to the wedding, but ultimately, decides to do it. Immediately, she regrets all her ill thoughts when she sees what a wonderful world it is.
That is, until a wedding guest falls into a coma and she’s pointed to as the one responsible. How does she prove her innocence while also helping find the culprit?
The Poison Season by Mara Rutherford
Leelo has always lived in Endla, a community circled by a bloodthirsty forest and poisonous lake, both meant to deter outsiders. While Leelo has loved and appreciated her community, she’s disheartened to know if her little brother does not gain the ability of enchanted song — a key magical power — he’ll be exiled.
As Leelo walks along the lake, she finds an outsider nearly drowning. And even though she knows she is not supposed to save him, she does. Now, Leelo is questioning everything she thought she knew about Endla as she begins to fall more and more in love with this off-limits outsider.
For a more comprehensive list of new releases, check out our New Books newsletter.
Riot Recommendations
In my 15 or so years of writing about YA books, there have been so many leaps made in terms of representation. It is still deeply behind reality, but it is much better than it once was…which I know is hard for a lot of people to imagine.
One area where this is especially true is in representation of body size on YA book covers. Specifically, fat female-presenting characters have been more prominent in the last five or so years. In 2023, this is only going to continue to be true. Here are a few of the upcoming year’s fat girls on YA book covers for your own TBR needs.
There will be many who disagree with these bodies being fat. That’s fine. The reality is the “average” body type on YA is in and of itself rare, as lithe and thin ideals are the cover standard. Know that “fat” in some of these examples may simply mean average size. Interestingly, some of the average bodies presented here are for stories about self-described fat characters.
It’s also worth noting that male-presenting fat bodies on YA covers continue to be extremely rare. Where representation of female-presenting bodies on YA covers has improved, there’s still a major gap in being more body inclusive all around.
I’ve simply linked to the book descriptions via Amazon here, so you can explore. There’s something cool about seeing all of these covers with little text that hammers home the point. I’ve credited designers where possible (here’s my regular plea: publishers, put your cover designer and artist info on the pages where you put info about the books).
Daughters of Oduma by Moses Ose Utomi (February 7)
Firebird by Sunmi (June 6); Cover art by Sunmi
Her Good Side by Rebekah Weatherspoon (May 30); Design by Theresa Evangelista, Illustrations by Poppy Magda
Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute by Talia Hibbert (January 3)
Love Letters for Joy by Melissa See (June 6); Cover art by reendoodles
No Boy Summer by Amy Spalding (April 25); Cover Art by Jeff Ostbergt
Out of Character by Jenna Miller (February 7); Cover design by David DeWitt and art by Nicole Rifkin
Then Everything Happens at Once by M-E Girard (January 31); Cover illustrated by Adams Carvalho and designed by Joel Tippie
As always, thanks for hanging out. We’ll see you on Thursday for your (scant, ngl!) paperback releases and your YA book news.
Until then, happy reading!
— Kelly Jensen, reading all of the horror YA right now from years past.