Hi YA readers!
Erica here. Swooping in real quick to holler at you about some YA books while Kelly is taking some time off.
Speaking of Kelly Kells, she is a powerhouse when it comes to covering censorship and book bans — something my colleague Danika and I realized in real time as we were covering her literary activism article while she’s out.
If you’d like to read more of her work on censorship outside of our main site’s censorship page, the ebook How to Fight Book Bans and Censorship is going on sale for $2 during Banned Books Week (October 1st-7th).
As for today’s new releases and book recs, I have a couple of poetic coming-of-age tales and two books to get your spooky season on and poppin’.
Before we get to them, just wanted to say that since Autumn is here, many of us will be gravitating towards the Cozy. And, whatever cozy means for you, be it romance, creepy reads, modern classics, or whatever, TBR can help you find the perfect books for your fall reading, with options curated to your specific reading tastes.
Bookish Goods
Booooooks Cute Ghost Bookmark by MagicAndMeaning
Get into the spirit with this adorable ghost bookmark. Bonus points for the retro lettering style. $5+
New Releases
Kween by Vichet Chum
When a video queer teen Soma posted of her performing her spoken-word poetry goes viral, she’s a little surprised. Thing is, she hadn’t super-thought the video through — she just expressed her most urgent feelings. Feelings surrounding her father’s deportation back to Cambodia, her mother’s leaving to help him, and her older sister’s newly acquired authoritarian demeanor. An annual poetry contest might provide Soma with an opportunity to channel and express all the mixed-up emotions that have come from her family life — if she can summon the courage to perform.
Salt the Water by Candice Iloh
The latest by the author of Everybody Looking is a novel-in-verse about Black nonbinary high school senior Cerulean Gene. They were raised in a free-spirited household, which is partially why their school environment feels especially oppressive. Society at large feels oppressive, to be honest, and Cerulean plans to live off the grid with some friends after graduating from high school. Except they get into it with a problematic teacher and impulsively decide to drop out. A family emergency means they’ll have to use the money they saved up to live with their friends, and we see how easily dreams can be deferred and what it means when they do.
For a more comprehensive list of new releases, check out our New Books newsletter.
Riot Recommendations
The Forest Demands Its Due by Kosoko Jackson
When 17-year-old Douglas is sent to the prestigious Regent Academy, he’s not interested in becoming one of its world-renown leaders. He’s really just trying to make it. But then a student is murdered and no one remembers him ever having existed the next day. Except for Douglas and Everett, the groundkeeper’s son. Now Douglas is set on finding out what really happened, and awakens a hidden horror that had been in the forest surrounding the school. He’ll have to harness the fledgling power he’s always felt if he’s to stop a vengeful creature from swallowing the entire town in darkness.
This is giving dark academia + The Taking of Jake Livingston (which I very much enjoyed) teas.
And Don’t Look Back by Rebecca Barrow
For as long as Harlow can remember, she’s been subject to her mother’s fear of an unseen presence. A fear that’s meant moving Harlow from town to town, barring her from developing her own sense of self. When Harlow and her mother attempt another hasty exit at 3 a.m., it’s to her mother’s detriment. Just as her mother lays dying from a car accident, she tells Harlow of a key to a safe deposit box and to never stop running. In the box, Harlow finds $30,000 and fake IDs for her and her mother. She also finds pictures of her mother as a teenager, newspaper clippings, and the deed to a house. With all of these new clues to her mother’s past, she may finally have the chance to stop running and face whatever has been haunting her mother.
Thanks for hanging out!
Danika and I will be back next week, but if you’d like to say “hi” before then, you can find me on the Hey YA podcast, the In Reading Color newsletter, and the In the Club newsletter.
Until next time!
— Erica