Author: Tirzah Price

Kareena Thakkar started practicing Muay Thai as a kid, in part because she needed an outlet for the stress of her father’s terminal illness diagnosis. Now she’s in high school and at the top of her game. When she receives an invite to the Muay Thai US Open, she’s ecstatic. Winning could mean incredible things for her career as an athlete, and it could even mean a shot at the Olympic team when Muy Thai is officially incorporated as an Olympics sport. But there are a few problems: Her family can’t afford the cost of her competition, her dad’s health is worsening, their Indian community has pretty much abandoned the family, and in order to keep her grades up, she’s agreed to tutor Amit Patel, the model Indian guy she’s falling for. No pressure.

I was a huge fan of Patel’s adult romance, The Trouble With Hating You, so I was super excited to check out her YA debut, and I was not disappointed. This is such a great novel about not only the physical intensity of being an elite athlete training for a big competition, but also the mental toughness that is required. Kareena can’t help but worry about her parents and their family’s financial burden, even though she’s told not to let it distract her from her training. Add on top of that the social pressure and the alienation she feels from her Indian community because she isn’t considered ladylike or proper since she takes part in an intense contact sport, and Kareena has a lot of mental and emotional challenges in addition to the physical challenges of training constantly, eating right, and getting her head in the competition. I can’t help but think that this nuanced focus on an athlete’s mental and emotional wellbeing is more important than ever, especially given how Simone Biles made the brave choice to value her mental health over a competition.

The book is also really swoony, and I love that Patel never puts Amit in direct opposition of Kareena’s aspirations. She keeps her sport a secret from him at first because she’s worried about the judgment she might face, from him and his parents, but when she tells him about her sport and her big competition, he’s so supportive and he lets her set the pace of their relationship. That was so wonderful to see, and I loved that their relationship is very considerate and healthy, and Amit is supportive of Kareena and respectful of her wishes and boundaries when it comes to training.

At its heart, this is a book about an elite athlete who has what it takes to go all the way to the top, but her emotional journey is about learning to accept support from the people who are enthusiastic about giving it…and drawing boundaries between herself and those people who aren’t supportive or whose support is conditional. And that’s why Kareena is such a strong and admirable protagonist, and why we root for her!

Bonus: I listened to the audiobook narrated by Soneela Nankani, and it was excellent, as all of her audiobook narrations are!

When Julie goes missing, everyone is devastated–her friends, family, and her brand-new husband. Everyone except her best friend, Elise. Elise isn’t sure how she knows this, but she’s convinced that Julie will return. Their other friends Molly and Mae think that Elise is in denial and needs therapy…until Julie does come back, exactly two years to the day she went missing, her memory completely gone.

Everyone is overjoyed, of course. When the friends decide to have a reunion at a boutique hotel, they think it’ll be the perfect chance to reconnect. The second Elise sees Julie, she’s shocked at how emaciated and unhealthy she looks, and alarmed by her weird appetites and mood swings. Things get worse when, as the weekend progresses, odd things start happening and tensions begin to rise. And once the thought takes hold in Elise, she can’t shake it: What if this isn’t really Julie?

This book creeped me out in dozens of small, unsettling ways, which is my favorite brand of horror. The little incongruences, small chills, and downright weird things are easy enough to brush off at first, but when they start stacking up it creates a terrifying situation pretty quickly. That’s definitely this scenario, and you can’t even blame Elise, Molly, and Mae for ignoring the warning signs because they want so badly to be thrilled that their friend returned. Interspersed throughout Elise’s narrative are flashbacks and memories to the years when Julie was gone, which adds great insight into her emotional state and her faith that Julie would return. This adds some nice emotional heft to the story, and readers can understand why her friends are so important to Elise when every other area of her life is a mess.

I also love a good creepy setting, and Harrison did an amazing job with the boutique hotel here. This is no Overlook Hotel or Bates Motel setting, but a trendy, chic spot that is so over-the-top in its design that it leaves the friends feeling isolated and unsettled. The design elements (including that screaming hot pink of the cover) add great tension to the weekend, and I found myself both wishing I could see this hotel in person and also adamant that I wouldn’t get within fifty miles of the place. The story is a slow build, but when shit gets real, it’s very scary and this book goes in a direction I didn’t expect! If you want a creepy book that explores the nuances of female friendship and you aren’t creeped out by a bit of body horror, I highly recommend this one!

Jessa-Lynn Morton has been trying to maintain her grip on her family ever since her father died by suicide, and it’s not going well. Jessa steps up and takes over her family’s failing taxidermy business, struggling to keep it afloat and find new clients even while her mother seems to be sabotaging Jessa’s efforts by rearranging the animals in erotic scenes every time her back is turned. Meanwhile, Jessa’s brother grows more and more distant, and Jessa’s niece and nephew are largely unsupervised after the sudden disappearance of their mom, Brynn. Jessa is struggling to come to terms with Brynn’s absence as well: Jessa was in love with her, and she and Brynn carried on a sexual relationship both before and after her marriage to Jessa’s brother. As things get dire for the Morton family, Jessa will need to learn that the key to keeping them all together is to cede control.

Arnett’s writing is very sharp, funny, and unexpected. She moves back and forth between the present and Jessa’s past with Brynn to tell the story of a very dysfunctional family trying their best, and how Jessa’s preconceived notions about herself and those closest to her are sometimes her biggest adversary. It’s hard not to feel for her as she tries to do everything “right” in the wake of tragedy and tremendous guilt, and it takes a while for her to understand that her process of grieving is not the same as others, and that’s okay. She makes inadvisable choices while mired in her own grief and frustration, and she is hopelessly hung up on a woman who has never treated her well, but she also cares deeply. Her love is what made me root for her, even when she said or did things that I couldn’t get behind. This is a deeply-felt, strange book about love, grief, and family that will certainly stick with you.