Category: What’s Up in YA

Alicia is 16, and she’s subject to nonstop judgment from her classmates. It comes because she has sex, so she’s, of course, seen as easy. A slut. Every other name you can imagine for a girl like her.

Except: Alicia was sexually abused by a teacher. She’s a survivor. And, of course, it’s a popular teacher who did that to her.

As Alicia begins to drop out of everything that brings her joy, she finds a series of letters from someone else at school. Someone who claims they’ve been a victim, too. Now, she wants to get to the truth of that story and her own.

This verse novel is one for readers who are itching for a compelling and powerful story of redemption, race, power, and maybe even love.

Rynn knows she is adopted, and even though her records are closed until she turns 18, she decides to seek out her birth mother. Her birth mother may no longer be alive, but when Rynn discovers she has a biological sister in foster care, she wants to reconnect. But that reconnection may cost her her adoptive family.

Ariel’s mind is scary. Aside from everything she contends with on the outside—demanding parents, being queer, being a “big girl,” no longer having her older sister at home to spend time with—she cannot stop imagining violent situations.

She’s hopeful that a new summer job at a carnival will help, even if it means some of her rituals and routines are not what they used to be. She’s making friends and enjoying herself.

But how long until she cracks and what’s going on inside splits her in half?

This is a book exploring obsessive-compulsive disorder.

This book showed up as a digital galley many months ago, and even though I did not get to it yet, it’s been one I have been itching to read as soon as possible.

Written in verse, the book begins with NASA assuring everyone that even though a massive planet named Malachite is in their orbit, everything will be okay. Crosby doesn’t believe that, though. She’s convinced that if people do not ascend to the fourth dimension, they will be instantly killed when Malachite slides by.

Crosby’s been taken in by fortune tellers and Malachite truther sites online. Worse, no matter how much she tries to convince everyone in her life that in order to survive, they need to immediately prepare for the apocalypse, they don’t listen.

So what happens when Crosby needs to be brought back to Earth?

Blending found poetry and prose with black and white illustration, this novel is a love story between Ray and Orion—two people with difficult pasts who meet at a Memphis roller rink. At the heart of the challenge is a family secret that could end the relationship before it even gets the chance to begin.

Looking for an anthology of stories about what it is to be a student today on college campuses? What about if it were focused exclusively on stories written by people in the college or just-recently-graduated college stage? This anthology is a diverse array of voices, just as it is a diverse array of stories spanning college orientation to graduation.

Something bad happened in the run-down house that Cas arrives at in West Texas. She’s come at the request of her best friend Drea, who has been living there for a few weeks with other classmates.

But things are off. Drea isn’t there, and her roommates aren’t talking. It’ll be up to Cas to find out what happened to her best friend and the role this terrifying house may have played in Drea’s disappearance.

When I put together my master database of YA releases, this one was slated for March 5. It looks like it got moved to February 27, so technically, this one’s been on shelves for a week.

I’m including it anyway.

Kindling—young elite warriors who wielded magic had power so strong that it killed them when it was used—used to fight wars. But with war over, Kindling have been outcast.

There’s still violence around. There is also a history of trauma. So when a village is under threat, seven Kindling see their opportunity to once again bring their powers to the fore.

Except the war they’re engaged in won’t just be on the ground. It’ll be with themselves, their histories, and their legacies, too.

Hollis wants senior year to go by without much more to worry about. This includes not rattling the comfortable relationship she has with her boyfriend, Chris—she goes as far as to learn his favorite tabletop game to keep their bond strong, but he has a rule for game night that excludes her since she’s just one of the girlfriends.

Hollis wants to play the game, so she finds an all-girl group headed by Gloria Castañeda. It’s a great way for her to make friends and play Secrets & Sorcery. It is giving her a space to be more than the labels attached to her: fat, anxious, Chris’s girlfriend.

Then, an in-game crush begins between Hollis’s character and Aini Amin-Shaw’s character. But is it only in-game?

Venus Stoneheart is a hustler who brews magic love potions, even though it is a dangerous job—it not only has physical consequences, but if she’s ever caught, she will end up in prison.

Then Venus’s mom is killed by an enemy. Everything changes in an instant for her, the it changes even further when the Grand Witcher of her coven offers Venus the opportunity for revenge. All Venus needs to do is brew a potion that will enslave some of the most powerful politicians in D.C.

This story brings us into a world of people and witches and the battle of power between them. It’s also about making tough choices in the name of saving your life and your loved ones.

It’s the 4th of July, and an explosion levels an oil rig. It brings chaos with it, and it immediately puts 6 Muslim teens at the center of the incident—convenient suspects who had nothing to do with it but whose lives are upended in the process of proving their innocence.

Now they’re stuck in a game where they have to point their fingers at one another in order to acquire their own freedom.

Maude grew up as not just the daughter of witches, but she and her best friend Odette imagine fantastical worlds together. But once they grew up, those worlds dissipated and the two besties also found their friendship wither, too.

Magic has changed now, but Odette is craving it. So two weeks ago, she went in search of it. Now she is missing, and Maude might be the only one who knows where or how to find her.

The problem is Odette might be inside Sicklehurst, and Sicklehurst is inside a forest that isn’t just full of magic. It’s full of danger.

Jax, Yas, Spider, and Han are all working-class teens living in Seattle. Together, they’re Team Jericho, incredible scavenger hunters around town. But with a new power plant being built in town, everything in their lives—including their parents’ well-being—is about to be destroyed.

The Order is a vigilante organization shrouded in mystery. They’ve concocted a puzzle in the scavenger hunting form, and Team Jericho sees their chance. If they win, they can save their lives and home.

But if they lose—a real possibility with another team attempting to win—the consequences will be life-altering.

Rosy is a bone familiar, living in the Bone Forest. Her magic is being able to shift into different animals with exposed bones. She keeps this power hidden, though, as she does not want to be drafted into the Witch King’s army. When Princess Shaw enters the forest and Rosy saves her life, Rosy is given an offer she’s nervous about but also cannot refuse: an opportunity to attend a prestigious school. She knows it’ll help her find a solution to a problem plaguing her grandmother.

As soon as she’s at Witch Hall, though, Rosy finds herself pulled into Shaw’s world and magnetism. Rosy does not want to get involved in the coming war, but she cannot stop following in what Shaw wants and does.

How does she navigate her desire to keep her head down to help her grandmother with the feelings she cannot shake?

This book sounds so good and I am itching to get to it on my TBR!

Snowglobe is beneath a dome, and it is the only place that is warm anymore. The less fortunate don’t get to live there, and instead, they face the brutal, unrelenting cold every day to get to their jobs, which help supply to power to keep Snowglobe warm. Reprieve comes to them via the 24-hour feed constantly showing the lavish lives being lived inside the dome.

Chobahm’s life is about watching what’s happening in the globe. One of her favorite shows stars Goh Haeri. When Haeri dies and Chobahm is selected to replace her on the show, Chobahm thinks this is the key to a better life.

Except what is happening in the dome is not the dream. Not even close.

This one is pitched as part Squid Game and part Hunger Games. It’s a big title in Korea and is finally being released in English.

Imagine Bonnie and Clyde but set in space, and you’d have this thrill ride. Shane and Ava work together: he steals the aircraft, and she distracts so they can take what they need. It’s going well, even though there are a lot of feelings between them. That is, until Shane is caught and sent to a prison moon. When he escapes, he’s out for revenge.

Cyrus is a new space patrol recruit. He’s ready to do well on his first assignment, but then his partner, Lark, gets tricked by Ava.

When Shane uncovers a plot that will end his and Ava’s planet forever, he knows they need to do more than ever to save their future. Cyrus finds himself quickly caught in the middle of doing his job and battling his conscience.

Lady Sophia—aka Snow White—has been sheltered her whole life. But now, thanks to her father, Duke Maximilian’s remarriage, she is making her debut in high society.

It doesn’t take long before Prince Philip and Sophia hit it off at the ball. He’s heir to the Spanish throne, and his father is…not exactly excited about this pairing as the two grow closer. The Prince is now calling for an end to it, which puts Sophia’s life in danger.

Sophia needs to stay safe. She does so by meeting up with seven dwarves, a helpful witch, and by making sure she has protection beside her. But how does her love play into the forthcoming war? Can she stand up for her feelings, or must she accept Prince Phillip’s decree and prepare for her life to end?

Four people disappeared in a small town on one winter’s night. Among them is Becca, Nora’s best friend. Nora wants to get to the bottom of the disappearances and know what really happened to Becca. But as she explores a series of coded messages Becca left behind, Nora starts to unravel a dark secret from her town’s history. It’s about local lore and a legendary goddess who seemed like an innocent part of a childhood game…but who may be the one making the last move.

Dami wants to become human again and get away from their existence as a demon. To do that, they’ll need to end every deal they’ve ever made. The problem? Silas. Silas is a cute boy who is cursed to die young; the only reason he’s still alive is the deal made with Silas. Getting to be human again means that Silas will die, but perhaps there is a way Dami and Silas can work together to free them both.

Arthie Casimir collects secrets and is nothing short of a criminal mastermind. She’s been in charge of a fancy tea house that, at night, becomes an illegal bloodhouse and serves a misunderstood and outcast vampire clientele. When Arthie’s establishment is threatened, she’ll need to do everything she can to save it—even if it means making some alliances that aren’t the best.

Now, she’s set to infiltrate vampire society, but it might not go the way she anticipates. Will her experience and skills be enough?

The description of this book is giving me The VVitch vibes.

Leah and her little brother Owen live in the small town of Winston, Pennsylvania. There, Leah does everything she’s told to be good, pure, and avoid the attention of the Lord of the Wood. Unfortunately, when Leah finds herself struggling to help Owen stop crying one night, she wishes him away. The Lord of the Wood listens, and Owen disappears.

Now Leah needs to not only make a deal with the scary legend but she’ll unearth a chilling history of her small town that will change it forever.

This one is for the K-drama fans out there!

High school senior Chloe Chang got a 23andMe test as a gag gift from her friends. Chloe has always just lived with her mom in Oklahoma following the death of her dad in Seoul before she was even born. Even though she knows the test is a gag and doesn’t believe anything will come from it, Chloe takes it anyway.

She’s shocked to learn that she is part of a wealthy family in Seoul, thanks to her father. Chloe wants to meet them, and even though her mom is hesitant to let her teen daughter go meet the family she never knew about, Chloe goes.

But what she discovers about the Nohs will change her life in ways she could have never suspected.

This anthology got a fresh cover in paperback, and even though illustrated covers are not my favorite, this one is more eye-catching than the hardcover.

Looking for a collection of short stories by some rad YA authors that explore your favorite romance tropes? Grab this book ASAP. Some of the tropes include the fake relationship, the secret admirer, and more. Stories in the collection include work by Elise Bryant, Elizabeth Eulberg, Leah Johnson, Anna-Marie McLemore, Marissa Meyer, Sandhya Menon, Julie Murphy, Caleb Roehrig, Sarah Winifred Searle, and Abigail Hing Wen.

Renée Watson is back, and this time, she’s written a collection of poetry that is semi-autobiographical. It explores coming of age as a Black girl at the intersections of race, class, and gender. The poetry includes all kinds of formats and is not only Watson’s story but a call for Black girls today to take the time to know themselves, love themselves, and champion themselves.

Zara is a fan of all things love and hopes for her own swoony romance. Adnan has been her best friend since childhood, and while everyone has told them they are the perfect couple, Zara knows they’re meant to be friends.

That is until Adnan asks Zara to do him a huge favor: pretend to be his girlfriend so he can cover up his real secret relationship. Zara is on board, but those fake feelings might start to get a little bit too real and, worse, get confusing when a new boy enters her life. Who does she choose? Does she get to choose at all?