Author: Kelly Jensen

Anne is the following things: an ABBA lover, a performer and creator of disco-operas, queer, Japanese American, and now, plopped into small town Greenville where she is starting at a new school. She’s hoping that, despite the small town, people will see her for who she is and appreciate every element of her character.

That…does not happen. In fact, she’s booed by the soccer team for one of her performances. It’s not fun, but it does introduce her to her new best friend and a new crush, too.

It becomes complicated, though, as Anne ignores her new friend in pursuit of romance, only to realize she might have feelings for *both* of them.

This is a fun, queer take on Anne of Green Gables.

This paperback original is being compared to both Supernatural and Lovecraft Country and sounds so good.

Latavia is living in small town Sanctum, Alabama, for the summer. Her aunt with whom she is living has a LOT of rules for her, including that she cannot go out after dark and cannot, under any circumstances, go into Red Wood. Latavia is not thrilled with the rules, but she’s found herself crushing on the cute girl at the local ice cream shop, so she’s got a way to keep herself occupied.

But the longer Latavia is in Sanctum, the more she begins to suspect there is something going on with the town. That there are secrets in the Red Wood that everyone is keeping from her. That those secrets might mean she’ll never, ever leave again.

Eleanor’s acceptance into The Meadows is her ticket out of a community ravaged by climate change. Those who attend elite institutions like it are primed for great lives when they’re done.

But The Meadows is not what it seems. It is instead a reform institution, meant to erase the passions and urges of its students and groom them into a singular mindset and way of living. Eleanor is ready to believe the lessons of The Meadows, until she meets Rose.

As Eleanor and her friends embark on their post-Meadows life, though, everything she thought she knew about herself and her life unravels. Now she puts her life – and Rose’s – at stake.

This one is being called a modern take on The Handmaid’s Tale and Never Let Me Go.

Tre Brun is a great basketball player with dreams of making it to the NBA. He’s happy now playing for his Red Lake Reservation team, even as he struggles with the feelings he has surrounding the death of his brother Jaxon.

When Tre is invited to the varsity team and Jaxon’s friends offer to be guides in his transition, the pressure is on. He’s got to be on his game and work hard to bring his team to the state. But can he focus enough to do so? Can he live up to what his brother would want for him?

If you want Native sports story, look no further than this engaging story of an Ojibwe teen and community.

At the top of the newsletter, I mentioned my current reading spree and this is one of the first books in a long time I sat down and read cover to cover in a day.

Set over the course of a short time frame – one week – and mostly in the Pink Mountain Pizza shop, the story follows three teens who work there and their array of concerns, especially as the shop’s owner announces the place has been sold. There’s Berlin, an overachieving Native teen; Cameron, whose cousin Kiki went missing and is among the numerous Native women and girls whose stories go untold; and there’s Jessie, a rich girl who doesn’t need the job but wants to prove she is more than what her family tells her that she is. The story begins with Berlin seeing who she believes to be Kiki and involves an array of big, meaty topics, including anti-Blackness, the challenges of progress vs. that of embracing change, the realities of missing Native girls, women, and Two-Spirit people, and so much more.

All three characters are rich and engaging, and honestly…read this one with a pizza.

I’m not going to offer a big description for this one because it’s an easy, hooky premise: this is a retelling of The Secret Garden but with an Indigenous cast of characters.

Este Logano enrolls in Radcliffe Prep, knowing it is the third most haunted school in the country. Knowing that it is a place students disappear. Knowing it’s a place where she may encounter ghosts.

This is actually the draw for her.

Este’s father was a student, and she hopes that by attending, she can get to know him a little better now that he’s dead.

Then Este meets Mateo, a ghost who haunts the library. When he frames her for the theft of a rare book, Este’s plan to learn about her father may come more quickly and unexpectedly than she could have ever known. She’s got to clear her name, and doing so will involve time in the haunted library.

Mixing fact and fiction, this illustrated, diary-style book about being a teenage girl is the kind of book I would 100000% eat up as a teen myself. I’m eager to dive into my copy — it looks fun and fresh.

In 1883 London, 16-year-old trans autistic Silas Bell does not want to become a Speaker Wife. When he attempts to escape an arranged marriage, he’s caught and diagnosed with something called Veil Sickness, which those in charge claim will turn him mad.

Silas is shipped to Braxton’s Finishing School and Sanitorium and begins to hear from the ghosts of missing students. Silas is determined to expose the school and the truth behind it, but he’ll have to ensure he’s kept safe enough to do so.

 Izzy Morales, her best friend Kassidy, and five more of their friends are going to celebrate the end of high school by attending a 1920s-themed party at a fancy manor called Ashwood. All seems well until Kassidy’s boyfriend is found dead, and now the police are saying that he was murdered at the event.

Every one of the attendees is now a suspect. None can leave the Manor until the killer is found.

Will any of them get out alive?

Black horror continues to be amazing in the world of YA, and this addition is one packed with humor and appeal for horror buffs.

Noelle, 17, loves horror. It is her personality. Her brand. She’s going to throw the biggest Halloween bash this year, and she invites all of the popular classmates she can. It’ll help bolster her popularity, super useful for brand opportunities as an influencer.

But as the party begins, her low-budget It impersonator begins his rampage and suddenly, Noelle may find herself in the role of the Final Girl.

Prince Jones is 17, and he dreams of becoming a DJ and falling in love. He’s scored a segment on Detroit’s popular hip-hop show “Love Radio,” where he shares love advice. In addition to pursuing those dreams and rocking his show, Prince is caretaker of his mother who has multiple sclerosis. Romance for him is a bit on the back burner…until he meets Dani Ford. Dani is passionate about getting good grades and making her way to New York City to pursue a career as an author. She gives Prince just three chances to convince her they’re meant to be. He won’t be wasting it.

Check out the new paperback cover, too!

This looks exactly like the kind of thriller I would have eaten up as a teen, and I suspect it’ll be a hit with them.

Lennox moved to California and is loving her new life here. It’s a fresh start and no one knows about what happened with her mom. But one night while out partying, Lennox is driving on Hicks Road and hits something. Or someone.

Everyone tells her it was nothing, but Lennox keeps envisioning hitting a girl. She wants to tell the police, but she has no real proof. Plus, if the police knew she’d been driving, she’d be in trouble.

So when a note saying “Find Me” comes through her window, Lennox is drawn into the mystery of what–who?–she hit out on Hicks Road. It might require her to come clean about what happened to her mom, too.

In this standalone fantasy, which the description notes “[weaves] together elements of The Selection and Ember in the Ashes with classic tales like Beauty and the Beast, Helen of Troy, and Asian folklore,” we meet twin sisters Channi and Vanna. Channi was offered to the Demon Witch by her father and cursed with the face of a serpent. Vanna doesn’t see her that way, even though Vanna is herself a sought-after beauty.

Now, Vanna is to be married off in a contest that will help make the rich village suitors even richer. Channi knows she has to save her sister from the cruelest fate — and she’ll have to go to battle to do it.

This anthology is at the top of my horror reading list for the season, as it is a collection of nothing but scary stories. And these aren’t just scary stories: they’re all written by and feature queer people. The stories are all led by a BIPOC teen and their experiences on Halloween night. The contributor list is rad, too, including Alex Brown and Shelly Page, Kalynn Bayron, Ryan Douglass, Sara Farizan, Maya Gittelman, Kosoko Jackson, Em Liu, Vanessa Montalban, Ayida Shonibar, Tara Sim, Trang Thanh Tran, and Rebecca Kim Wells.

It’s 3070, and Marie is an influencer with millions of followers. She’s moving to Versailles to marry the prince, secure an alliance, and, of course, continue her reign on social media. But Versailles is a palace of pointless rules, and Louis is more into horses and computer hacking than creating an heir.

So when the two of them become King and Queen before they’re ready and want to help their people — both inside and outside the palace — they’re challenged by Mega Corporations. But with her social media prowess and his hacking skills, can they save their kingdom before the end of an era?

This is the Marie Antoinette retelling you did not know you needed.

Quique wants to get over his crush by trying to court another person to be his partner. The problem? He’s not actually out to anyone except his best friend. The solution? A roster of great candidates and a desire to get over Saleem.

Too bad you can’t just get over a crush by pursuing other interests.

This one’s been compared to What If It’s Us and Never Have I Ever on Netflix.

Isabel is in her junior year of high school and at a crossroads. She’s lost faith in humanity and in her sense of purpose in the world. In her quest to find this meaning, she’s drawn into an online forum that touts people called supers — these are people who do good things around the world for the purpose of spreading good. They’re mini-heroes, in a sense.

The day she turns 18, Isabel decides she’s going to travel the world and find someone, anyone, who fits this profile. She needs to in order to restore her humanity.

This is a novel about travel, about finding faith in other people, and about the power of looking inward to be who you need for yourself.

If you’re looking for a book with a little magic that is grounded in realism, look no further. A tragic death changed Moonlight Bay from a place of colorful waters and magic to a place that’s done more than dulled around the edges. It’s become grayer, sure, but it’s become colder, too. People have stopped visiting and townspeople are struggling.

Yasmine was born in Moonlight Bay and her parents can’t make ends meet anymore. Rafay is an immigrant, and while Moonlight Bay used to be friendly toward people like him, it no longer is.

Yasmine and Rafay have been friends since he moved in 10 years ago and the two of them continue to have grown closer. But because the forest elders have said people from Willow Bay can’t be with those from the outside, the two have never acted on their feelings. What happens if they do, especially as the community grows more and more hostile?

Shay Johnson is a junior at her Magical Magnet School and is extremely successful in witchcraft. So much so that she’s in the running to win a scholarship to the university of her dreams. In her way though is Ana Álvarez, against whom she’ll be trying to impress Mr. B, who is the head of the scholarship committee.

Being asked by Mr. B to be the lead in the school’s musical should be a good thing for Shay, but it’s not. She’s got to share the stage with Ana. And, well, Mr. B has a history of getting a little too close to his students, including Shay.

But slowly, Shay and Ana begin to talk. They become friends…and maybe even more than friends. It turns out they have a lot in common and both are ready to take down Mr. B for his behavior.

Jess Morgan discovers something pretty life-changing in her late aunt’s diaries: her aunt may have been a Romanov princess. More specifically, she may have been Anastasia and pulled off one of the greatest historical hoaxes.

Together with a local college boy named Evan, Jess is determined to track down the truth about her Aunt Anna.

But much as it is interesting to dive into the truth of her aunt’s identity, the real story might be who it is Jess discovers herself to be.

This one is pitched as one part Maureen Johnson, one part Brittany Cavallero, making it perfect for mystery and historical lovers alike.

This is the first in a horror series and it is a haunted Holly Hobbie story. Evie’s parents have divorced and moving to Ravenglass, Massachusetts, is what she hopes will help realign her life. Unfortunately, that hope doesn’t last long, as Evie discovers people call her new home the Horror House, as it is where Holly Hobbie disappeared.

But has Holly really vanished? That’s hard to say, as Evie experiences several weird happenings, odd shadows, and eerie situations that lead her to believe that the girl is still there. She’s just taken on a different form.

YA books about the juvenile justice system are still too far and few between and they remain some of the ones I find stick with me. I’m so looking forward to Baker’s debut which sounds like a knockout.

Violetta made a mistake driving drunk and causing a crash that killed her sister. It’s not just grief she’s dealing with; she’s incarcerated and now, her future lies in the hands of her family. If they forgive her, she can get out of the system.

But they won’t forgive her.

Now she has two options: she can remain in the juvenile justice system for some untold amount of time or she can participate in the Trials, which would help her get out again. The Trials are a challenge, but she knows that enduring them will allow her to see her family again and seek their forgiveness.

In the end, though, Violetta has to decide whether their grief and forgiveness are more important than honoring and coping with her own grief…and forgiving herself.

Kekla Magoon has been writing about the Black Panthers in her YA fiction for years, but this is her incredible history of the revolutionary group.

This nonfiction work is a deep dive into the Black Panther’s story, foundations, and the ways that this radical group of Black people advocated and defended their communities. I should note that this cover of the nonfiction work doesn’t do it justice — it’s got even more shiny medals than that.

If you want a feminist romance about a school debate team, look no further. Millicent is obsessed with debate — she wants nothing more than to win, and she does not care if that means she has no friends and people make fun of her for it.

Taggart, on the other hand, might be on the debate team but he doesn’t care at all if he wins. He might even kind of enjoy losing, so long as the argument being made is one he agrees with.

One scary tournament later and the two of them are forced to work together. It seems like the opposite of a good dynamic, but Millie and Taggart might pull something out of one another that helps them both become the best versions of themselves possible.