Review: Panic by Lauren Oliver

Panic by Lauren Oliver

Panic
Lauren Oliver
HarperCollins
Published March 4, 2014

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Panic

Panic began as so many things do in Carp, a dead-end town of 12,000 people in the middle of nowhere: because it was summer, and there was nothing else to do.

Heather never thought she would compete in Panic, a legendary game played by graduating seniors, where the stakes are high and the payoff is even higher. She’d never thought of herself as fearless, the kind of person who would fight to stand out. But when she finds something, and someone, to fight for, she will discover that she is braver than she ever thought.

Continue reading

Review: Desert Echoes by Abdi Nazemian

Desert Echoes by Abdi Nazemian

Desert Echoes
Abdi Nazemian
HarperCollins
Published September 10, 2024

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Desert Echoes

From Abdi Nazemian, the award-winning author of Like a Love Story and Only This Beautiful Moment, comes a suspenseful contemporary YA novel about loss and love.

Fifteen-year-old Kam is head over heels for Ash, the boy who swept him off his feet. But his family and best friend, Bodie, are worried. Something seems off about Ash. He also has a habit of disappearing, at times for days. When Ash asks Kam to join him on a trip to Joshua Tree, the two of them walk off into the sunset . . … Continue reading

Review: Greta by J. S. Lemon

Greta by J. S. Lemon

Greta
J. S. Lemon
Farrar, Straus, & Giroux
Published September 10, 2024

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Greta

J. S. Lemon’s middle grade debut is an utterly transformative, fiercely original, and surprisingly funny story about consent, friendship, healing, and a beauty that transcends all else. 

Greta Goodwin’s life is changing. On top of moving to a new neighborhood far away from her best friend, Lotti, she’s also starting middle school. Greta isn’t totally ready for boys, bras, and bad cafeteria food. She still feels like a little kid compared to those female classmates who have suddenly matured over the summer. Girls … Continue reading

Review: The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert

The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert

The Hazel Wood (The Hazel Wood #1)
Melissa Albert
Flatiron Books
Published January 30, 2018

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About The Hazel Wood

Seventeen-year-old Alice and her mother have spent most of Alice’s life on the road, always a step ahead of the uncanny bad luck biting at their heels. But when Alice’s grandmother, the reclusive author of a cult-classic book of pitch-dark fairy tales, dies alone on her estate, the Hazel Wood, Alice learns how bad her luck can really get: her mother is stolen away-by a figure who claims to come from the Hinterland, the cruel supernatural world where her grandmother’s … Continue reading

Review: Compound Fracture by Andrew Joseph White

Compound Fracture by Andrew Joseph White

Compound Fracture
Andrew Joseph White
Peachtree Teen
Published September 3, 2024

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Compound Fracture

Bestselling and award-winning author Andrew Joseph White returns with a queer Appalachian thriller, that pulls no punches, for teens who see the failures in our world and are pushing for radical change.

A gut-wrenching story following a trans autistic teen who survives an attempted murder, only to be drawn into the generational struggle between the rural poor and those who exploit them.

On the night Miles Abernathy—sixteen-year-old socialist and proud West Virginian—comes out as trans to his parents, he sneaks off to a party, … Continue reading

Review: Jaden Powers and the Inheritance Magic by Jamar J. Perry

Jaden Powers and the Inheritance Magic by Jamar J. Perry

Jaden Powers and the Inheritance Magic
Jamar J. Perry
Bloomsbury USA Children’s
Published August 27, 2024

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Jaden Powers and the Inheritance Magic

In this magical middle grade fantasy perfect for fans of The Marvellers and Amari and the Night Brothers, a shy boy must step up and become his own hero after his best friend disappears at a magical school. 

Jaden and Elijah have been best friends since they were born. They’re so close that Jaden doesn’t even mind that he’s constantly living in talented, high-achieving Elijah’s shadow-well, he doesn’t mind much.

But then Elijah disappears, leaving … Continue reading