Category: Read This Book

This book takes place in New Orleans in an alternate post-Civil War setting with a steampunk overlay. In this alternate history, the Union and the Confederacy called it a draw so folks were free in the Union states and slavery was legal in the Confederate states. They would put gas masks on the enslaved people and pump them full of a gas that basically made them like living zombies that followed orders. New Orleans is considered neutral ground.

Our protagonist is a teen nicknamed Creeper, because of how deftly she can climb things. The goddess Oya has taken up residence inside Creeper, occasionally giving her visions or even working through her physically. Oya is the Yoruba goddess of the wind, one of the Orisha brought over with the Africans on the first trans-Atlantic slave-trader ships (I’m oversimplifying). Oya gives Creeper a startling vision that puts her on edge, and then Creeper overhears some men talking about a Haitian scientist who is willing to trade The Black God’s Drums for a jewel.

Creeper knows just who to tell, or rather, barter with having this information. There’s an airship Captain who would go to great lengths to keep this out of the hands of the Confederacy and Creeper is looking to become crew on an airship. When Creeper finally is able to talk to the captain privately, the captain, too, has a goddess in residence, the goddess Oshun.

This novella takes so many exciting twists and turns and it’s full of amazing, eclectic characters that make me want even more stories featuring them. It’s a super entertaining read and perfect for this time of year if you’re trying to meet an end-of-year reading goal.

In 1972, Jean McConnell was a thirty-eight-year-old mother and widow with ten children. One evening, she was dragged out of her apartment in one of the larger high-rise housing buildings in Belfast by masked intruders. No one intervened, and her captors promised that she’d be able to return home to her children in a few hours. She was never seen again. Her disappearance was one of the most egregious crimes committed during the Troubles, which spanned for much of the second half of the twentieth century. Everyone knew the IRA was responsible, but it wasn’t until her body was found forty years later and highly secret accounts of the Troubles surfaced across the Atlantic in Boston that the truth would finally emerge.

I admit to not knowing much about the Troubles before reading this book beyond a shaky understanding of the fight for Irish independence and the conflicts between Catholic and Protestants. I was partly motivated to pick up this book because I love the TV show Derry Girls, and because I watched the Netflix documentary This Is a Robbery (about the Boston art heist, but it does have a connection to Northern Ireland!). Keefe’s book gave me a lot of context for the Troubles and the politics and social dynamics of Northern Ireland in the post-war era that led to decades of violence, and he did a great job of balancing big picture events and players with individuals who were affected and their lives and struggles. Jean McConnell’s death is used as a hook and as a way to ground the narrative, always bringing readers back to her family and their struggles after she disappeared. At times I wondered when Keefe seemed to stray far from McConnell’s story, but then he’d draw connections back to her in a masterful way, and the way all of the elements came together was really impressive.

This is a big, complex time full of many moving parts and many different people, and I think it’s impossible to feel as though you completely understand all that happened in Northern Ireland at this time from reading one book. But I think that Keefe made some great choices in how he told this story because it just can’t be told in a linear fashion. That means while reading you might get a little confused (I re-read certain sections a few times to clarify things in my mind) and you might not breeze through this book because it’s pretty detail-packed. But the writing is deeply compelling, and and if you’re an American like me who doesn’t have firsthand experience or knowledge of this bit of history, then this is a really informative read that has stuck with me for some months now.

Happy reading!
Tirzah

Our protagonist is Briseis, a literal magical Black girl. She lives in Brooklyn with her two adoptive Moms who own a flower shop. Since a young age, Briseis has had an affinity for plants. More than an affinity, actually. She straight up has magical plant powers. She can grow an entire rose bush from a single pistil, but she doesn’t know a lot about her powers and because she tries so much to restrain herself, it often makes her tired and dizzy any time she uses it. If she is out and doesn’t keep her powers shoved down, trees will lean toward her and plants she walks by reach for her. Only her moms, who she calls Mom and Mo, know about her power but they don’t know much either. Because Briseis keeps her powers restrained, she also has no idea of everything she is capable of. Early on in the book she starts to discover something that I’m not going to give away because it had me on the edge of my seat.

As you can imagine, having such powers is really distracting. She’s grown apart from the only couple of friends she has and her high school grades are not good. On top of that, the rent is going up on the building where their apartment and flower shop is and money is already tight. Coincidentally, an estate attorney shows up saying that Briseis has been left a huge home and everything in it and the many acres it is on. She has been left all this by her birth mother’s sister, Circe, who has died.

Briseis and her moms decide to go check out this mysterious home in this tiny town hours outside the city. They figure it might be the answer to their financial problems and also, out in the middle of nowhere, maybe Briseis can give her powers a stretch. Big creepy home in a small town they’ve never been to? Recipe for weirdness for sure. She makes somes unexpected friends. She finds a secret garden which only has more secrets. The house, too, is full of secrets to be discovered.

I could not put down this book and fair warning, it ends in a cliffhanger and the sequel, This Wicked Fate, is supposed to be out in June of 2022.

Candice isn’t thrilled about spending her summer in Lambert, SC in the wake of her parents’ separation, but her mom says they need space and a change of scenery, and staying in her late grandma’s empty house is the perfect getaway. But Lambert is a town with some dark secrets, and people haven’t forgotten that Candice’s grandma left years earlier in shame. Then, Candice discovers a letter addressed to her grandma in the attic. It describes a secret about a family run out of town sixty years earlier, and a millionaire who wants to right a very old wrong…but he’s going to make the town work for it. If someone can unravel the clues he’s left behind, there will be a big reward. Candice is intrigued, and together with the bookish kid next door, Brandon, they begin to uncover the clues…and the past.

This is such a brilliantly written novel that truly evokes the excitement and mystery of The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin, but in a fresh and exciting way. I am in awe of how Johnson constructed a whole town, a history, and such great riddles and puzzles that kept Candice and Brandon (and readers!) guessing. At the same time, he manages to balance the excitement of the mystery with a much more sobering history of a small Southern town in the 1950’s, and how resistance to discrimination inspired a hateful response. There’s injustice in this book, and at times it’s very ugly, but Johnson always writes it so that it’s age-appropriate for his kid readers, who get to process it alongside Candice and Brandon, and some of the scenes moved me to tears. The dual timeline of Candice and Brandon’s story and what really happened in the past really works, and the unraveling of the decades-long mystery is very satisfying. I love reading books where kids and teens discover their personal connection to history, and this book exemplifies this beautifully. I highly recommend it to all the kids in your life, but also to adult readers as well!

Happy reading!
Tirzah

Our protagonist Pamela lives in a town with a large green space, a park with a small forest, that she is trying to save from being deforested and turned into a shopping mall. She dabbles in a little bio-terrorism and releases some chemicals into the forest that create a toxic gas that is harmful to anyone who goes near. We learn right away that she got the chemicals from her father’s lab.

Her father is a doctor and a very, very controlling and secretive man. They live in a big, dark, dramatic manor, just the two of them, that has really creepy noises. Pamela’s mother is a botanist who is out of town on a research trip. Her father keeps insisting that Pamela help him in his lab with his “research,” which seems really unsettling because it’s not clear what this research is.

Pamela is in high school and seems to have one friend, Alice, though what gets most of Pamela’s attention is the large greenhouse at the high school that was donated by her mother. One of their classmates is Brett, who was Pamela’s homecoming date and a giant piece of garbage. He keeps trying to get Pamela to hook up with him and when she consistently turns him down, he starts rumors. Alice sticks up for Pamela frequently.

Alice and her family had to evacuate their home near the park because of the toxic gas that I mentioned earlier. Alice goes to stay with Pamela and her father in their mansion with all their creepy noises and dark secrets. As you can imagine, it’s hard to keep family secrets with someone else in the home.

I really enjoyed the artwork in this graphic novel and I love the contrast between all the dark, muted colors and then the burst of red that is Pamela’s hair, or the incredibly bright green that shows up from time to time.

Content warnings for an abusive parent and sexual harassment.

Tiffany D. Jackson is best known for her incredible mysteries and thrillers, but White Smoke is her first foray into the horror scene! It follows Mari, a California girl who relocates with her newly blended family (which includes a new white step-dad and very annoying little step-sister Piper) to a Midwestern town that is hoping for some rejuvenation. Her writer mom has won a residency with a free newly renovated house as part of the gig. But things are weird from the get-go: the house is the only one on the block that’s not abandoned or condemned. There is a horrible stench in the house that comes and goes. Weird noises come through the vents, and the strangest things go missing. But perhaps worst of all? Piper has an imaginary friend and she tells Mari that her friend wants Mari to get out of her house.

This book is as chilling as it sounds, and one of the reasons why I enjoyed it so much was because it did a great job at building tension on multiple levels. Mari has an anxiety disorder which is connected to her past, and something that happened that she’s still very ashamed of. Not only is Mari still struggling to come to terms with her past, but it has caused her parents to lose trust in her. This puts her in a vulnerable position to be starting a new school in a new town, then add on top of that a new step-sister who is out to get her. Between the town’s new vibes and her house’s weird happenings, it’s a lot for Mari to process. When her suspicions and anxiety get the best of her, it seems the less people want to believe her when she uncovers evidence that Piper is purposefully setting her up, and there is a deeper conspiracy in her new town. Jackson understands that not being believed when you think you’re in danger is about as scary as the prospect of a haunted house, and she leverages all of these fears and anxieties to tell a really compelling story about a town with a tragic fall from prosperity and a dark past. And where there are poor, marginalized people trying to make a living, there’s always the predatory rich ready to seize control.

This is a YA novel, but one that I think will definitely appeal to adult and YA readers alike because of its sophisticated take on horror and the dark mysteries in this fictional community. It’s hard to come up with readalikes in the YA field, but I think the closest I can think of is if you want a horror YA version of Alyssa Cole’s When No One is Watching or a (less gory) horror read in the vein of the new Candyman, this book is for you!

Mooncakes is a lovely graphic novel that gives us Asian rep, queer rep, nonbinary rep, and disability rep. Our main characters are Nova and Tam. Nova is a young witch in her late teens. She lives with her grandmas (technically grandma and grandma’s partner). Nova is hard-of-hearing and uses hearing aids which is so rare to see in a graphic novel and wonderful to see on the page.

Nova’s grandmas own a shop called Black Cat Bookseller and Cafe and Nova works there with them. We learn right away that this isn’t just a normal bookstore. A customer comes in and is looking for a particular book so Nova’s grandma asks Nova to show the customer to the back room where they keep the “rare” books. Of course, as soon as they open the door you can tell ah, yes, “rare books” is code for “magical books” because there are definitely books flying around the room and another with teeth and so forth.

Our other main character is Tam. Tam is a werewolf and we learn that they used to live in the same town as Nova and they were friends. But then Tam’s mom and stepdad moved them away. Tam comes back to town for a “mysterious werewolf-centric reason” and Tam and Nova not only rekindle their friendship but a romance as well. Since Nova is a witch and knows a fair bit about magic, she joins Tam in trying to solve the problem that they came back to town for.

In this universe, after a witch graduates high school it’s common for them to move away from their family and deepen their magical education. Nova decided to not move away and to stay with her grandmothers, a decision that weighs heavily on her, especially when her other family visits.

Mooncakes is a story about relationships and not only believing in yourself, but believing in the ones you love and trusting and supporting each other. The artwork is dreamy and warm. This graphic novel is so cute and charming and I really enjoyed it.

Becca is new to Piedmont, and being the new girl is never easy. But when she has a chance encounter with a popular girl named Marley in the bathroom, it leads to friendship with the Squad—Marley, Arianna, and Amanda, three popular and beautiful girls who inspire equal amounts of terror and awe in their school. Becca likes the attention of the Squad but doesn’t truly feel like she’s one of them…until one night at a party it’s revealed that the Squad is actually a pack of werewolves, and once a month they must kill in order to sate their hunger. They turn Becca and things are going fine for a few months, only preying on guys who don’t understand the concept of consent, until they take things just a bit too far.

First off, I love the premise of this book a lot, and the art is very striking. It’s a perfect balance of dark and sometimes a bit pulpy, with vibrant and contemporary colors. Becca is a very relatable protagonist, wanting to be a part of a group and worrying about whether or not she’s normal, and it’s really easy to see how she can be sucked into the Squad. I also really enjoyed how on the surface, the Squad is a group we might want to cheer on. They’re using their powers to take out moral reprehensible guys who literally prey on girls…but when vigilante justice is involved there are some morally gray areas and lots of big questions about what is actually right. The girls don’t question this too much, until suddenly they’re forced to confront it head on. I loved what this graphic novel had to say about power, rape culture, and group dynamics. It’s definitely an upper YA graphic novel because of the blood and gore and nudity (although it’s strategically drawn so no worries about too much exposure), but this is one that balances a lot of complex topics really well.

Bonus: Squad has already been optioned to become a film, so grab a copy sooner rather than later!

Sometimes I pick up a book and start reading without looking at the synopsis. Well, apparently I didn’t even look super closely at the cover of this one because then I would have realized that it heavily involves giant spiders. So there’s my content warning if you, like me, are scared of spiders.

Forest of Souls is the first in a trilogy. It begins with a glossary because this is Fantasy with a capital F. There is some really rich worldbuilding that gets a bit complicated and I definitely had to refer to the glossary a few times. There is the continent of Thiy which has three kingdoms: one of humans, one of shadowblessed, and one of shamans. They all hate each other. Running down the center of the continent is The Dead Wood, a super freaky wood possessed by vengeful souls controlled by a powerful shaman named Ronin.

Sirscha Ashwyn is a teen soldier in training and secretly in training and competition to be the Queen’s Shadow, her master spy and assassin. The Queen considers all shamans to be outlaws and does not allow them in her kingdom unless they are in prison. Shamans each have a particular craft, like a talent, and a familiar. They can work with either fire, earth, wind, water, or light in different ways. You can tell what kind of shaman they are by the intense, bright color of their eyes.

Sirscha and her best friend Saengo are doing a routine assignment with some of the younger recruits when they intercept a message from a fellow trainee named Jonyah, who she hates. Sirscha learns that he is her secret competitor to become the Queen’s Shadow and the message is in their teacher’s handwriting with directions to meet someone at a tea house. Sirscha and Saengo sneak away to try to beat him to the tea house and learn it was an ambush. There were shamans at the tea house and they attacked. Saengo gets stabbed, and Sirscha passes out.

She wakes up at a stream and Saengo is strangely alive even though Sirscha is sure that she saw her die. When Sirscha goes to wash her face in the stream, she finds her eyes have changed color into that of a shaman. While they are out deliberating, they get caught by the Prince, who is captain of the Queen’s Guard. They eventually hear from Ronin, who summons them to go through the Dead Wood and see him. His familiar is a giant spider and that is not even the beginning of the creepiness.

This was such an amazing book to lose myself in and a definitely page-turner.

Each year, Cara’s family experiences what they call the accident season—during the month of October, they’re plagued with accidents. They start out small, and usually consist of stubbing a toe, ripping a favorite shirt, or knocking over a glass. But as the month persists, the accidents get bigger and bigger. Lost items, broken bones, car accidents…and sometimes, the accidents are fatal. This year, Cara, her best friend Bea, and her ex-stepbrother Sam are seventeen, and they can already tell by the accidents that it will be a bad year. But it’s also the year that Cara will uncover the secret behind what causes the accident year, and find unexpected love.

What sold me on this book was the concept, which I don’t think I will ever get over. It’s so subtle, so brilliant, and just appropriately eerie—to me, it screams to be made into a Netflix limited series. The characters, of course, are what pull it off and I found myself really fascinated by the family dynamics. Cara’s family is (justifiably) emotionally and physically scarred by this experience, and the way they deal with it was really indicative of their characters and how they cope with trauma, and how they bury the secrets they don’t want to face.

The setting is also really great. I love a good creepy October and fall-set read, but this book also takes place in Ireland. The writing was so evocative that I felt as though I could just feel the physical setting through the pages. Both the romance and the mystery didn’t go in the direction that I anticipated, and I so appreciated that about this book. It’s like an unexpected dark puzzle that will make you want to brew a pot of strong tea so you can sit under a blanket while the wind blows cold outside and just immerse yourself in the telling of the story.

Bonus: I love Fowley-Doyle’s other two books, Spellbook of Lost and Found and All the Bad Apples, which are similarly eerie but have the bonus of also being queer!