Category: What’s Up in YA

Delta of Dead River needs to save herself and her family from the hellscape of the Wastes where they live as a vicious dictator takes over. She’s got a secret though, and that secret is one that could get them all killed: on her back is a branding with a map to Verdant, aka paradise. Given the miserable conditions where they live, getting to Verdant would be life changing.

But the General, sent by raiders, is after her and her family, and she’s unsure whether or not she can even trust her long-long, former best friend. As much as she’s scared to trust anyone, things get even more unsettling once Delta and her family arrive in what they believe to be Verdant.

This one is a standalone western fantasy, described as a little bit Mad Max and a little bit Gunslinger Girl.

Sharlot’s mother has caught her in a “compromising position” and decides the best solution is for them to head to her mother’s native Indonesia.

Meanwhile, George Clooney Tanuwijaya’s father – yes, he’s obsessed with American celebrities – is also trying to rein in his son. They are some of the wealthiest people in Indonesia and no way can anything mar the family’s reputation.

So when Sharlot’s mother and George’s father strike up conversation online, each pretending to be one another’s children, they think it’ll be so their children find the “right” kind of partner. But when the real Sharlot and George find out about what their parents are doing, they are horrified…and then maybe begin to actually fall for one another.

This one’s got fake dating, ridiculous parents, a romantic island adventure, and loads of humor.

I’ve been around YA long enough to know how rare adoption stories were — and still are — and then to remember discussion of how few transracial adoption stories exist — and how few still exist. But we have gotten better, and we’re seeing more representation on this front from those who experienced transracial adoption.

Myer’s work is a graphic memoir about growing up as a Korean adoptee to white parents. It’s a story of feeling like never fitting in and always being stared at, but through a passion for fandom and art, found a community and understanding of herself.

This looks fantastic!

Saoirse Sorkova is a liar, and it’s how she survives. To her kingdom, where she’s a soldier-in-training, she claims to be a siren; this helps her avoid being executed. To the group of assassins she works for at night, she lies about identity. To her family, she claims her siren powers are perfectly under control and she never feels the urge to kill.

She’s a great trainee, but her lies mean she can’t let herself get into the spotlight. But when her sister is in trouble, Saoirse needs to become a personal bodyguard to the prince and will now be fully at the center of her kingdom’s attention.

Saoirse should hate Prince Hayes. But she actually can’t resist him, as he’s nothing like his segregationist father. She begins to fall for him, in fact, even as they team up to strike down the deadliest threat in their kingdom together.

What he doesn’t know is she is the one they’re after.

This is the first in a series and while it’s certainly darker than The Little Mermaid, readers itching for those under-the-sea tales led by characters of color will want to grab this one ASAP.

Vesper Vale’s city lives in the center of a violent storm, and Vesper’s life has been anything but easy. She’s the child of failed revolutionaries. Her mother was taken by the queen’s soldiers and chose to die by the storm when given the option. Now, after 12 years on the run, the queen’s soldiers have caught up with Vesper’s father. She refuses to let her father have the same fate as her mother and will do anything to stop it.

She’ll use illegal magic. She’ll try to capture the attention of the prince.

Vesper will have to decide if, after learning more about the truth of her mother’s death, she wants to even save her city at all.

This is the first in a duology, with the second book hitting shelves soon.

This one is being comped to Fear Street, so if that’s your flavor of horror delight, you’ll want to TBR this one.

Audre and her family have moved to rural Pennsylvania, and from the moment she steps foot into town, she knows she’s not going to fit in. Everyone in town believes there is a Satanic cult in the woods around town, and Audre is much less into really believing those things than she is enjoying them via horror films.

She does begin to make a friend — maybe more than a friend — in Elle. So when Elle, daughter of a preacher, goes missing Halloween weekend, everyone in town is convinced not only that she’s been taken by the cult but that Audre is to blame.

Phoenix is 16 and lives with parents who believe she needs to get out of Hong Kong. They’ve saved up money so she can go to a U.S. Ivy League and begin her American dream. Phoenix isn’t interested in this though, but she doesn’t know what she wants. At least she doesn’t until Hong Kong protests begin and she worries about the future of her community.

Kai, also 17, doesn’t see himself the way his parents do. He’s creative and wants to make art. When his mom dies, though, he’s forced to leave Shanghai to be with his father. Dad is a ranked and respected police officer in Hong Kong and Kai’s been enrolled without permission in the police academy. it’s not what he wants to do, at all, but he does want to acquire dad’s approval. So when he accidentally intercepts Phoenix’s phone and discovers plans for a major protest, Phoenix sees his opportunity to uncover an operation that would earn him many, many levels of respect. He will infiltrate the protest and tell the police what’s happening.

Too bad Phoenix and Kai start to catch some feelings and their feelings are built on a lot of lies and inaccuracies.

The owls are not what they seem* in this camp slasher horror.

Charity is spending the summer playing the role of the final girl at Camp Mirror Lake, a facility that is set up to be a game of terror. Guests come in and see if they can survive the night.

Things take a turn during the last weekend though, as several of the actors have stopped showing up. So when one of them does show up dead, Charity no longer thinks her role as Final Girl is just pretend.

This is a fast-paced horror that hits all of the beats of classic bloody summer camp story. It is a cast of characters of color, and it features a secret society, a sapphic romance, and a lot of creepy owls.

*Please, please tell me you get this one.

If you want a Filipino inspired fantasy read, look no further. In Seri’s world, the Beasts hunt the People. It is the Valiant who ensure safety for the People by patrolling the world and killing the Beasts. Seri is an assistant to one of the best valor in the world and knows that it is not an easy job to keep the Beasts away and the People safe.

When Seri meets Tsana, things in her world no longer make sense like she has always believed. Tsana, a total stranger to this world, can communicate with the Beasts. As Seri and Tsana become closer to one another, the world around Seri and everything she thought she knew about it start to shatter. It’s a story about saving one’s home and also, maybe, about the risks it involves when love is also on the line.

Find: a unique magic world and some Sapphic feelings.

This graphic novel is being pitched as part Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind meets Severance with additional comparisons to Nimona and This One Summer. In other words, it’s a marriage of speculative fiction with realistic fiction.

The story follows what happens in a world where scientists discover all of the “bad” feelings — anxiety, sadness, anger — disappear when you remove your heart. Everyone decided to do it except for June, a high schooler. Now June is finding it extremely hard to have a heart. She feels lonely and isolated.

When June comes across an abandoned heart in a jar, it is both confusing and, well, heartening. Maybe there is someone else out there who feels.

When that heart brings her to classmate Max, June learns he may have a major secret of his own. That secret has the potential to completely destroy June and her heart.

Consider Madhuri Iyer doomed. The stars are saying it, her mother is believing what the stars are saying, and a family curse says she’ll be stuck with her first boyfriend for forever.

So she does what anyone would do in this situation: she decides she’s going to make the best of it and devise a relationship with her childhood friend Arjun Meht. She’ll never actually fall for him, so no doom and gloom to come.

You can guess what happens here. Madhuri begins to fall for Arjun and now has to decide whether to break his heart in order to avoid doom or whether to lean into it, knowing that love by the stars might not be the worst fate.

Nine teen girls are living in a cult. Then there are eight. What happened to the one who went missing? Did she wander or did something — someone? — take her down.

The remaining girls want answers.

Or do they?

This is a suspenseful thriller, with comparisons to We Were Liars. I know that’s a popular comp to catch the BookTok crowd, but I think the setting and insularity of the story might make it pretty apt.

This work of nonfiction is an awesome read. I did it on audio, but I know the print edition will be just as immersive and fun — and it includes illustrations.

Ever wondered about queerness in other animal species? Schrefer’s work is a look at animal behavior outside the heterosexual “norms” that have too often been placed upon them. Why do humans get to determine what is or isn’t normal sexual behavior, anyway? This book dives into all of these questions and more in a highly-readable, highly-quotable way.

Poetry, prose, and vignettes tell Angel’s story in Browne’s sophomore novel. Angel’s prior relationship with Darius felt like it was solid, but then the incident happened. No longer was Angel in California but in a new home in Brooklyn. She believes every one in her school knows what happens, but she finds tremendous solace — and healing — in the poetry and novels of powerful Black writers in her literature class.

Within the tunnels beneath the Library — the one place where peace reigns among three different kingdoms — there is a secret waiting to take down society. Freida has the power to to uncover it, though, as the daughter of a Library god and her knowledge of the vast network of tunnels…and gods.

Things get more complicated when Frieda meets two individuals desperate to save themselves and their communities from persecution and destruction. She wants to help them, but to do puts her into danger and into parts of the underground tunnels she’s never explored before.

When she comes face-to-face with an ancient war god, Frieda knows she needs to destroy him before he takes down everyone else.

The cover for this one is everything, isn’t it? It reminds me of Your Driver Is Waiting, another outstanding cover.

Loli Crawford and Ryan Pope have been trouble-making besties since kindergarten and that reputation has not changed throughout high school.

While they both love danger and chaos, it’s Loli who is the instigator. So when the pair decide to throw the wildest party their school’s ever seen and Loli meets a stranger boy who goes by the name X, she’s challenged to a game. Of course she’s up for it, even if it might test even her limits of thrills and danger.

As Loli and X continue to challenge one another, everything is at stake. Their lives, of course, and also Loli’s best friendship with Ryan.

Two stellar authors have teamed up to edit a powerhouse collection of short stories of South Asian folklore, epics, and magic. These stories are rooted in tradition but given a modern spin and include contributions from a truly rockstar lineup: Sabaa Tahir, Sangu Mandanna, Tracey Baptiste, Naz Kutub, and others pen tales of warrior rebels, peris, star crossed lovers, and more.

Sasha is going to graduate high school as valedictorian. The honor would encapsulate her skills, her hard work, and would come with scholarship money she desperately needs after losing her father and watching her mother break her back cleaning houses to help keep them afloat.

It’s not a question. The title is hers.

Or is it?

When the principal calls her and her ex-best friend Ezra down to the office, it’s not because they’re in trouble. It’s because they’re tied for the title. Neither can let this stand, though. Now they’re going to go head-to-head and figure out who truly deserves the honor and money attached.

But as they agree on a three-part competition, they’re forced to confront why their friendship fell apart. And, of course, there might be some sweeter feelings involved, too. Do they go for the throat or are they looking into one another’s eyes a little more closely?

Yaminah’s mom and dad divorced, and she’s left her hometown and her mother behind to live with Dad in Brooklyn. She’s thrilled to finally be gone and onto better things. But when she receives a Facebook message which references the mother from whom she’s estranged, it turns out Yaminah’s history is not quite buried.

This is a story about what happens when you move into the future without reckoning with — or healing from — the past. It’s a short one, too, clocking in at under 230 pages.

A nerdy opposites attract romcom featuring a girl of color interested in STEM? Sign me up.

Bel is trying not to think about the future and what she’ll do after high school. She accidentally shows a talent for engineering, though, that has Teo — captain of the robotics team — to beg her to join. Bel doesn’t want to be surrounded by all of those boys in such a nerdy club but…she gets involved.

Teo may not have just Bel’s engineering prowess on his mind, though. He thinks she is also cute. He feels seen by her.

But when the two continue to butt heads, will they ever have a chance to fall in love? Is that even the end goal?