Category Archives: Young Adult/Teen 12-18

Review: Knocking on Windows: A Memoir by Jeannine Atkins

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Knocking on Windows by Jeannine Atkins

Knocking on Windows: A Memoir
Jeannine Atkins
Atheneum
Published August 5, 2025

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About Knocking on Windows: A Memoir

Acclaimed author Jeannine Atkins revisits her past in this brave and powerful memoir-in-verse about memory, healing, and finding her voice as a writer, perfect for fans of Amber Smith and Speak.

Night darkens the window to mirror.
I’m back in my old bedroom.

Six weeks after the start of her freshman year of college, Jeannine Atkins finds herself back in her childhood bedroom after an unimaginable trauma. Now home in Massachusetts, she’s struggling to reclaim her life and her voice. Seeking comfort in the words of women, she turns to the lives and stories of Sylvia Plath, Maya Angelou, and Emily Dickinson. Through raw and poignant letter-poems addressed to these literary giants, Jeannine finds that the process of writing and reflecting has become not only a means of survival but the catalyst for a burgeoning writing career.

Inspired and ready to move forward, she enrolls in her state university, where she feeds her growing passion for writing in fiction seminars. But she finds that she’s unable to escape the pervasive misogyny of her classmates and professors, who challenge her to assert her own voice against a backdrop of disbelief and minimalization. This time, though, Jeannine is not willing to go down without a fight.

A searingly honest memoir told through gorgeous verse, Knocking on Windows stands as a beacon of hope and a celebration of the enduring spirit of survivors of sexual assault—and of writers.

My Review

Since assault is one of the topics that I struggle to read about, I always approach books like this with caution. I love that it’s told in verse and that so much of the book focuses on finding and holding onto hope in the midst of hard times/trauma/processing hard feelings.

For example, Jeannine writes often about her admiration for and study of the work of Sylvia Plath. As she reads her work and learns about her life, she struggles to hold both her genius and her mistakes in her hand at the same time. That can be uncomfortable, but it’s SO real. It feels especially real to me right now.

In one poem, she talks about studying literature in college (in the 1970s) and how work by women tends to be trivialized. One of her peers talks about how he doesn’t want to read about bodies or boyfriends because it makes him uncomfortable.

At one point she shares a story about a girl and her mother and the difficulty of their relationship. One of her classmates minimized the experience, but others push back. “I see myself, [in the story]” one classmate tells the group. The professor agrees.

Which highlights, to me, the importance of writing about uncomfortable experiences and reading about them.

This is NOT to say you shouldn’t have boundaries and be safe. Please do that. There is a very real difference between discomfort and trauma. Discomfort can be okay (when you’re safe). Trauma isn’t okay.

Conclusion

Knocking on Windows is the first book by Jeannine Atkins that I’ve ever read. I checked my library to see if they had more of her work, but it looks like if I want to read more, I’ll have to buy it! I do want to read more.

Readers who enjoy verse memoirs or reading about writers or writing will find lots to love in this one. I love the way she connects the work of other writers with her experiences and thinks about those writers as living breathing people, too. This book gave me lots to think about. I will probably read it more than once, when all is said and done.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 16 up.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
Brief description of rape and reporting it to the police. References to the assault and how others respond to Jeannine’s experience. She also describes Sylvia Plath’s experience when someone attacks her.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
See above.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Review: Codebreaker by Jay Martel

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Codebreaker
Jay Martel
Wendesday Books
Published July 22, 2025

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About Codebreaker

This original, interactive thriller from debut author Jay Martel follows a brilliant teenage girl as she races across D.C. to decode the clues her father left behind, which may just be the key to saving the country from a devastating tragedy.

Mia Hayes has peaceful plans for the summer—find a part-time job at a coffee shop and work on her application for Harvard. Those plans are shattered one night when government agents arrive unannounced at her home seeking something they believe her father has taken. When the dust settles, her mother is dead and her father is gone, a fugitive on the run.

Three weeks later, and still reeling from her father’s betrayal, Mia spends her seventeenth birthday at a protest in the heart of D.C., where she meets Logan, a rebellious and charming hacker. Just as she’s enjoying her first happy moment since the night her world exploded, a voicemail from her father arrives to upend everything she believed about her family, her past, and what really happened that night three weeks ago. Even more, the voicemail hides another encoded message inside which, once Mia solves it, sets her and Logan off on a mission from her sleepy suburb straight into the heart of the federal government.

With the same agents now hot on their trail, Mia and Logan must navigate their way through American history’s most iconic sites and uncover its most well-hidden secrets to reveal the truth about her family and stop a deadly attack.

In this non-stop thrill ride, the reader has the chance to test their own codebreaking skills alongside Mia, lending an exciting interactive element to this page-turning thriller packed with action, romance, and life-changing revelations.

My Review

One of the really clever things about this book is that it allows and encourages readers to break the codes along with Mia. Once the reader has all the information necessary to break a code, a certain symbol appears on the page. At that point, you can pause and break the code or keep reading and see Mia reveal the answers. I love that concept, and I had fun figuring the codes out myself as I read.

The story also kept me engaged. It’s fast-paced with short chapters, so it felt like I was reading really fast. I liked both Mia and Logan, and appreciated that the authors balanced Mia’s focus and intelligence with her fresh grief. There was one thing that I guessed before it was revealed. I don’t think it altered my enjoyment of the story.

Codebreakers feels like a great book for readers aging out of middle grade and into young adult fiction who like intense, action-packed stories. The interactive element would be great for kids interested in codes. I hope there are more books like this in our future!

Content Notes for Codebreaker

Recommended for Ages 12 up.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
A few instances of profanity.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Situations of peril. Gun violence. Death of a parent. In two scenes, a person with a gun threatens to harm someone else unless Mia cooperates with them.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Review: Four Eids and a Funeral by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé and Adiba Jairgirdar

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Four Eids and a Funeral
Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé and Adiba Jairgirdar
Feiwel & Friends
Published June 4, 2024

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About Four Eids and a Funeral

Ex-best friends, Tiwa and Said, must work together to save their Islamic Center from demolition, in this romantic story of rekindling and rebuilding by award-winning authors Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé & Adiba Jaigirdar!

Let’s get one thing straight: this is a love story.

These days, Said Hossain spends most of his time away at boarding school. But when his favorite hometown librarian Ms. Barnes dies, he must return home to New Crosshaven for her funeral and for the summer. Too bad being home makes it a lot harder to avoid facing his ex-best friend, Tiwa Olatunji, or facing the daunting task of telling his Bangladeshi parents that he would rather be an artist than a doctor.

Tiwa doesn’t understand what made Said start ignoring her, but it’s probably that fancy boarding school of his. Though he’s unexpectedly staying through the summer, she’s determined to take a page from him and pretend he doesn’t exist. Besides, she has more than enough going on, between grieving her broken family and helping her mother throw the upcoming Eid celebration at the Islamic Center—a place that means so much to Tiwa.

But when the Islamic Center accidentally catches fire, it turns out the mayor plans to demolish the center entirely. Things are still tense between the ex-friends but Tiwa needs Said’s help if there’s any hope of changing the mayor’s mind, and Said needs a project to submit to art school (unbeknownst to anyone). Will all their efforts be enough to save the Islamic Center, save Eid, and maybe save their relationship?

My Review

This is such a sweet story. The book is broken into different parts or acts, and most begin with a memory of an Eid celebration from the past. These memories highlight the trajectory of Tiwa and Said’s friendship, including how they drifted apart.

I liked the cast of characters, including the cat Laddoo. It was easy to keep track of who everyone was and how they were connected because each one felt distinct, even down to the mayor with his plastic smile and the grumpy receptionist who loved lemon bars.

I also like that the romance element proceeds at a sensible pace. Said and Tiwa have some fences to mend, and the story allows them to do that and to sift through what went wrong between them and why. It makes the shift in their feelings organic and believable. So I thought that was really well done.

The setting is also integrated into the story really nicely. The authors do a great job showing the sense of community among the families who attend the Muslim Center and the character of the small Vermont town. It made me want to visit that part of the country, especially a town with a mural festival!

All in all, I enjoyed this book. I’ve read other solo projects by both authors. I recommend Jaigirdar’s contemporary romance novels for anyone who enjoyed this book. If you’re looking for something more intense, definitely check out Where Sleeping Girls Lie by Àbíké-Íyímídé.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Some strong profanity used infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing. Talk about dating and marriage.

Spiritual Content
Tiwa and Said’s families celebrate Eid together in scenes spanning several years. References to prayer and study of the Quran.

Violent Content
Some racist microaggressions. (Tiwa, a Black Muslim, is treated differently than others sometimes because of her race. People assume she’s not a Muslim.)

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Review: If I Have to Be Haunted by Miranda Sun

Book Review and Content, Fantasy, Paranormal, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , ,

If I Have to Be Haunted
Miranda Sun
HarperCollins
Published September 26, 2023

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About If I Have to Be Haunted

Cemetery Boys meets Legendborn in this thrillingly romantic, irresistibly fun YA contemporary fantasy debut following a teenage Chinese American ghost speaker who (reluctantly) makes a deal to raise her nemesis from the dead.

Cara Tang doesn’t want to be haunted.

Look, the dead have issues, and Cara has enough of her own. Her overbearing mother insists she be the “perfect” Chinese American daughter—which means suppressing her ghost-speaking powers—and she keeps getting into fights with Zacharias Coleson, the local golden boy whose smirk makes her want to set things on fire.

Then she stumbles across Zach’s dead body in the woods. He’s even more infuriating as a ghost, but Cara’s the only one who can see him—and save him.

Agreeing to resurrect him puts her at odds with her mother, draws her into a dangerous liminal world of monsters and magic—and worse, leaves her stuck with Zach. Yet as she and Zach grow closer, forced to depend on each other to survive, Cara finds the most terrifying thing is that she might not hate him so much after all.

Maybe this is why her mother warned her about ghosts.

Delightful and compulsively readable, this contemporary fantasy has something for every reader: a snarky voice, a magnetic enemies-to-lovers romance, and a spirited adventure through a magical, unpredictable world hidden within our own.

My Review

I can see why this book is compared to Cemetery Boys. Both have ghosts who need the main character’s help. In both stories, the main character’s family doesn’t support them engaging in their supernatural gifts, though for different reasons. Both feature an enemies-to-lovers romance as a secondary plot.

I liked a lot of things about the story. At one point, Zach and Cara meet Brittany, who helps them navigate the liminal space. I loved her. She gave Cara another person to bounce thoughts and questions off of and someone to call it out when she was not being honest with herself.

In some scenes, I wished there were more setting details. The liminal space was so strange that I had difficulty picturing what was happening at a few points. Despite that, I liked the strangeness of that landscape and how it challenged Cara and Zach’s perceptions of each other.

At the beginning of the story, I really didn’t like Zach as a character. He’s rude, entitled, and kind of a bully. Through the journey he and Cara take together, the story shows how alone Zach is and how his family doesn’t seem to care about him. But I didn’t feel like it addressed the bullying and entitlement. I liked the person that Zach became, though.

A lot of things about the story made me feel like it was meant more for a younger YA audience, such as the descriptions of Cara’s friendships with the girls in her class and her rivalry with Zach. A few things made it seem more appropriate for upper YA, like some of the scarier situations they faced and the kids drinking alcohol at a party near the end.

The writing style reminds me a little bit of Katie Zhao’s books. So readers who enjoyed Dragon Warriors, her middle grade series, and are ready for YA books will probably like this one. Unlike Zhao’s books, the lore in If I Have to Be Haunted isn’t particularly based on Chinese folklore or mythology, but the tenor of the writing reminded me of her books.

Content Notes for If I Have to Be Haunted

Recommended for Ages 13 up.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Some profanity used infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between two characters. Someone asks if they’ve had sex.

Spiritual Content
Like her grandmother and a few others, Cara can see and speak to ghosts. She journeys with allies to a liminal space, a place between worlds, where she encounters other monsters and spiritual beings.

Violent Content
Situations of peril. References to cannibalism. A snake bites someone. Characters battle ghosts and monsters.

Drug Content
Zach tells a story about how he and a friend tried to sneak into his parent’s liquor cabinet when they were younger. High school students gather at a party where some teens drink alcohol.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Review: A Treachery of Swans by A. B. Poranek

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A Treachery of Swans
A. B. Poranek
Margaret K. McElderry
Published June 24, 2025

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About A Treachery of Swans

An enthralling sapphic retelling of Swan Lake, for fans of Allison Saft and V.E Schwab.

Magic has long been outlawed in Auréal. Odile has always known she’d be the one to restore it.

Raised by a sorcerer, Odile has spent years preparing for the heist of a lifetime. It’s perfectly simple. Impersonate a princess, infiltrate the palace, steal the king’s enchanted crown and restore magic to the kingdom.

But when the King is unexpectedly murdered, she’s forced to recruit the help of Marie d’Odette, the real princess, and the two begin to unravel a web of lies and deceit that leaves Odile uncertain of who to trust.

Soon though Odile must decide – her mission or the girl she’s falling for?

The fate of the Kingdom depends on her making the right choice. . .

My Review

I loved Poranek’s debut novel, Where the Dark Stands Still. Switching from that kind of story to this one was almost like reading Gilded Wolves after reading The Star-Touched Queen by Roshani Chokshi. It’s the same author, and technically the same genre, but the flavor of the stories is very different.

As a former dancer, I’m always interested in reimaginings of or stories inspired by the Swan Lake ballet. This one keeps a lot of the original story’s beats but changes many of the relationships between the characters and centers the story around the relationship between Odile and Odette. The story is told from Odile’s perspective, and rather than being a prop that the sorcerer uses to trick the prince, Odile is an active character who drives the story forward herself.

I liked both Odile and Marie d’Odette’s characters, and watching the relationship develop between the two was fabulous. It was easy to feel the magnetism between them, but it didn’t feel insta-lovey or forced.

The narrative revisits this idea of agency and speaking up for oneself in Odile and Marie d’Odette but also in the prince. I liked that common theme and how the author used that challenge to shape the growth of the characters over the course of the story.

If you enjoyed Gilded by Marissa Meyer and her treatment of the story of Rumpelstiltzkin, grab a copy of A Treachery of Swans by A. B. Poranek.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing. Reference to making out and falling asleep together.

Spiritual Content
Three goddesses created and ruled the world until a sorcerer overthrew them. Some characters (with golden blood) have the ability to perform magic.

Violent Content
Situations of peril. References to and some descriptions of a beast tearing up and devouring people. Some instances of toxic/manipulative/abusive behavior of a parent toward a child.

Drug Content
Characters drink alcohol socially. Reference to other tonics and concoctions.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Review: We Can Never Leave by H. E. Edgmon

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We Can Never Leave
H. E. Edgmon
Wednesday Books
Published June 10, 2025

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About We Can Never Leave

Sweet Tooth meets The Raven Boys in this queer young adult contemporary fantasy about what it means to belong from H.E. Edgmon.

You can never go home…

Every day, all across the world, inhuman creatures are waking up with no memory of who they are or where they came from–and the Caravan exists to help them. The traveling community is made up of these very creatures and their families who’ve acclimated to this new existence by finding refuge in each other. That is, until the morning five teenage travelers wake to find their community has disappeared around them overnight.

Those left: a half-human who only just ran back to the Caravan with their tail between their legs, two brothers–one who can’t seem to stay out of trouble and the other who’s never been brave enough to get in it, a venomous girl with blood on her hands and a heart of gold, and the Caravan’s newest addition, a disquieting shadow in the shape of a boy. They’ll have to work together to figure out what happened the night of the disappearance, but each one of the forsaken five is white-knuckling their own secrets. And with each truth forced to light, it becomes clear this isn’t really about what happened to their people–it’s about what happened to them.

My Review

“Haunting” is a good word to describe this book. This is the story of five people who are members of a traveling cult. The timeline is broken into three different sections: before, what happens just as the story begins, and what’s happening in the present.

The cult collects people, usually children, who have magical ability and/or unique physical traits. At first, I wondered if the layers of magic and the splintered timeline would keep the experience of growing up in a cult more distant. In some ways, especially early in the story as we’re getting oriented to what’s going on, it does. In other ways, it purposely keeps us in a fog (not unlike the cult members themselves), making the moment we emerge from that fog pack a powerful punch.

The only other young adult novel I’ve read about cult experience that I can think of at the moment is The Project by Courtney Summers. They’re very different stories, but I think both emphasize that dizzying feeling that must come with constant gaslighting and deep information control. What’s true? What’s real? Why is this really happening?

In addition to the three separate timelines, the story also alternates perspective. We get chapters from the points of view of all five main characters. It’s up to us to piece together what each one knows and figure out what’s going on and who poses the greatest threat.

Conclusion

I want to say I enjoyed the book, but I’m not sure enjoyed is the right word? Like, I couldn’t stop thinking about it anytime I stopped reading. But it’s kind of meant to be disturbing. Not in a give-you-nightmares way, but in a let’s-think-about-the-harm/trauma-cults-cause kind of way.

People who enjoy dark realistic fantasy and books that give you an idea to pick apart will find lots to think about here.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Strong profanity used sometimes.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing.

Spiritual Content
The characters belong to a traveling group whose members have some magical ability (one woman can float) and/or strange physical traits, such as snakes for hair or antlers.

Violent Content
References to cannibalism. Some scenes show snapshots or very brief, fractured memories of participating in a ritual killing. In a couple instances, children are fed meat that we understand comes from a member of the group.

Drug Content
One character drinks alcohol to numb feelings stemming from trauma.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.