Review: Monstrous: A Transracial Adoption Story by Sarah Myer

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Monstrous: A Transracial Adoption Story by Sarah Myer cover shows a girl from the shoulders up. The left side of her face looks human. The right side stretches into a monster face with a leering, sharp-toothed grin and glowing eye.

Monstrous: A Transracial Adoption Story
Sarah Myer
First Second
Published June 27, 2023

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About Monstrous

A poignant young adult graphic memoir about a Korean-American girl who uses fandom and art-making to overcome racist bullying. Perfect for fans of American Born Chinese and Almost American Girl!

Sarah has always struggled to fit in. Born in South Korea and adopted at birth by a white couple, she grows up in a rural community with few Asian neighbors. People whisper in the supermarket. Classmates bully her. She has trouble containing her anger in these moments―but through it all, she has her art. She’s always been a compulsive drawer, and when she discovers anime, her hobby becomes an obsession.

Though drawing and cosplay offer her an escape, she still struggles to connect with others. And in high school, the bullies are louder and meaner. Sarah’s bubbling rage is threatening to burst.

My Review

I loved this memoir, though parts of it were heartbreaking to read. No one should be treated the way the author was. The descriptions of early childhood and particularly the difficulty of telling the difference between anxiety and having a wild imagination made so much sense to me. I think back in the 80s and 90s in particular, we didn’t talk about fear and worry in terms of mental health. It was viewed more as personal quirkiness maybe? I definitely grew up thinking that a lot of my own struggles with anxiety were simply my overactive imagination. So reading about Sarah’s experience with that was both sad and very validating.

I think what’s truly brilliant about this book is the way that Myer uses concrete visual storytelling to tell the story of a really abstract idea. Because ultimately what the book is about is the journey Sarah takes to learn self-love and peace. I love that art is such a huge part of that story– the fact that the artist is telling their own story through art adds a whole extra layer to the message, too. Because not only has Sarah learned self-love through art, they’ve also found a way to use art to share their story and welcome others into an exploration of self-love, too.

I also love the relationships in the book and the way that each character in Sarah’s family isn’t perfect, but it’s clear that there’s love between them.

This is a great book for anyone struggling with anger, anxiety, or bullying.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Sarah and her sister are Korean American, adopted by white parents.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used infrequently. Racial and homophobic slurs used infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Infrequent use of homophobic slurs. Sarah wonders about a couple of past friendships and whether those were also crushes.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Some scenes include racist comments and stereotypes. Others bully Sarah. She sometimes reacts by name-calling or hitting them.

Drug Content
References to teens drinking beer.

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

Review: The Shadow Sister by Lily Meade

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The Shadow Sister
Lily Meade
Sourcebooks Fire
Published June 27, 2023

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About The Shadow Sister

Sutton going missing is the worst thing to happen to Casey, to their family. She’s trying to help find her sister, but Casey is furious. And she can’t tell anyone about their argument before Sutton disappeared. Everyone paints a picture of Sutton’s perfection: the popular cheerleader with an entourage of friends, a doting boyfriend, and a limitless future. But Sutton manipulated everyone around her, even stole an heirloom bracelet from Casey. People don’t look for missing Black girls–or half-Black girls–without believing there is an angel to be saved.

When Sutton reappears, Casey knows she should be relieved. Except Sutton isn’t the same. She remembers nothing about while she was gone—or anything from her old life, including how she made Casey miserable. There’s something unsettling about the way she wants to spend time with Casey, the way she hums and watches her goldfish swim for hours.

What happened to Sutton? The more Casey starts uncovering her sister’s secrets, the more questions she has. Did she really know her sister? Why is no one talking about the other girls who have gone missing in their area? And what will it take to uncover the truth?

My Review

I love sister stories. I also love being part of the readership who discover a fantastic debut novel by an author who is sure to become a new favorite. It’s even better when those two things appear in the very same book.

First, let me say that the characters in this book are rich and layered. What they believe to be true isn’t always objectively true (happens to us all). I feel like writing a character who both comes across as genuine and genuinely wrong is really challenging, and Lily Meade makes it look absolutely effortless.

The rich themes of family, history, and reclaiming personal power are expertly threaded through the narrative of this book. I loved the way the characters explored family history and relationships. I also loved the elements of magical realism– again, something that I think is not easy to write in a way that feels believable and anchored in the real world. Yet it’s brilliantly done here.

I also really appreciated the author’s note and the care she takes in explaining her connection to some parts of the story. That only deepened my appreciation of the book, and I think added even more to the conversation within the text about intergenerational trauma and reclaiming power.

I’ve been super choosy about which books I’m adding to my shelves lately (my bookshelf runneth over!), but I will definitely be adding this one. I absolutely recommend this story for readers who, like me, love sister books or stories about family and the transformative power of love.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Casey and Sutton are biracial sisters. One minor character is a lesbian.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used very sparingly.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl.

Spiritual Content
Casey and Sutton’s family attends a local church that preaches, as one of the girls puts it, a “condescending prosperity gospel”.

Violent Content
Characters discover the decaying body of a murdered girl. A person admits to murdering someone and attempts to murder someone else.

Drug Content
Police suggest a recently missing girl was using drugs, even though her tests repeatedly show no drug use. An unconscious girl may have been drugged; it’s unclear.

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

Review: Ode to My First Car by Robin Gow

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Ode to My First Car
Robin Gow
Farrar, Straus, and Giroux
Published June 20, 2023

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Ode to My First Car

By the critically praised author of A Million Quiet Revolutions , this YA contemporary sapphic romance told in verse is about a bisexual teen girl who falls in and out of love over the course of one fateful summer.

It’s a few months before senior year and Claire Kemp, a closeted bisexual, is finally starting to admit she might be falling in love with her best friend, Sophia, who she’s known since they were four.

Trying to pay off the fine from the crash that totals Lars, her beloved car, Claire takes a job at the local nursing home up the street from her house. There she meets Lena, an eighty-eight-year-old lesbian woman who tells her stories about what it was like growing up gay in the 1950s and ’60s.

As Claire spends more time with Lena and grows more confident of her identity, another girl, Pen, comes into the picture, and Claire is caught between two loves–one familiar and well-worn, the other new and untested.

My Review

Last year I read A MILLION QUIET REVOLUTIONS, which is also a novel in verse by Robin Gow. I really enjoyed the epistolary format in which the story is written. ODE TO MY FIRST CAR also has an epistolary feel to it since every poem is addressed to Claire’s first car, which she wrecks just before the story begins.

It felt really easy to understand Claire’s feelings and needs. Even though I didn’t always agree with her, I still totally understood where she was coming from and what led her to conclude certain things. I also really liked her brother and the relationship that develops between them.

Her relationship with Lena was really great, too. I feel like I have seen a lot more stories featuring mentorship lately, whether that comes in the form of a teen having a mentoring relationship with an adult, or a teen having a mentor relationship with an older teen. It’s a cool element to see in books, and those are often some of my favorite relationships. I liked that Lena isn’t a grouchy old lady (though I love the stories about those, too!). She’s a little bit closed up, and obviously has some wounds in her past, but I loved the gentleness in her approach to Claire and in the way Claire kept showing up for her, even though Lena didn’t want to intrude into her life.

All in all, I think I might like this one even better than A MILLION QUIET REVOLUTIONS, but I think they’re both really well done.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Claire is bisexual, but her family doesn’t know. Her best friend Sophie is transgender. Other characters are queer as well.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used somewhat infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between two girls. Two girls talk about wanting to have sex and challenge each other to have sex that summer. In one scene, two girls make out in the car, and Claire reports they also have sex (off-scene).

Spiritual Content
Claire is supposed to go to Mass with her family but hasn’t been going. After her car is wrecked, she has to ride with them to church, but she doesn’t enjoy it or feel connected to it in any spiritual way.

Violent Content
Brief descriptions of a car accident. References to homophobic or biphobic comments. One peripheral relationship has a lot of flags for toxic/abusive behavior. Claire doesn’t witness any of that happening, but she hears about it and is worried/unsure of what to do.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support this blog. I received a free copy of ODE TO MY FIRST CAR in exchange for my honest review.

Review: You’re Not Supposed to Die Tonight by Kalynn Bayron

Book Review and Content, Contemporary, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , ,

You’re Not Supposed to Die Tonight
Kalynn Bayron
Bloomsbury YA
Published June 20, 2023

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About You’re Not Supposed to Die Tonight

At Camp Mirror Lake, terror is the name of the game . . . but can you survive the night?

This heart-pounding slasher by New York Times bestselling author Kalynn Bayron is perfect for fans of Fear Street.

Charity Curtis has the summer job of her dreams, playing the “final girl” at Camp Mirror Lake. Guests pay to be scared in this full-contact terror game, as Charity and her summer crew recreate scenes from a classic slasher film, Curse of Camp Mirror Lake. The more realistic the fear, the better for business.

But the last weekend of the season, Charity’s co-workers begin disappearing. And when one ends up dead, Charity’s role as the final girl suddenly becomes all too real. If Charity and her girlfriend Bezi hope to survive the night, they’ll need figure out what this killer is after. Is there is more to the story of Mirror Lake and its dangerous past than Charity ever suspected?

My Review

Okay, Kaylnn Bayon is on a ROLL. Wow. So, earlier this year I read MY DEAR HENRY, which is a reimagining of “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde,” and it was amazing. (My daughter is currently reading and loving it.) Last year I read her middle grade debut, THE VANQUISHERS, and that one was excellent as well. Now, here she is again, taking on a completely new genre of writing with this book. Is there anything she can’t write?

I don’t read a lot of books in this specific genre, so I’m not going to really be able to evaluate this book against other similar titles, but I have to say that I felt super engaged reading this book. It’s only about 240 pages or so, and I read it in one sitting.

I liked the characters a lot, especially Charity and Bezi. The setting– the backwoods camp turned into a live horror show experience– felt so creepy and isolated. I thought the premise of the story was really fascinating, too. It starts off walking a balance between poking fun at slasher films and also appreciating the beats and plot points writers use to tell those stories.

The only real thing that stands out to me as feeling like it didn’t really fit together is the way one minor character is introduced. She appears on scene dropping hints about something bad, and then later reappears in the story as the slasher part of the plot ramps up. I am not sure that I understood why she made the claims she did in the first place in light of all the reveals later in the book. But I did tense up in that first scene when she appears, so I appreciate the tension of that part. I just wish it had connected with the overall story a little more cohesively.

Conclusion

On the whole, though, I definitely enjoyed this creepy, scary read. The only other book like this one that I’ve read is THE PLEDGE by Cale Dietrich, and I can definitely say I enjoyed this one more. The woods and isolated camp really hooked me in this one.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Charity is a lesbian and Black.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used somewhat infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between two girls. References to sex.

Spiritual Content
References to blood rituals. Some characters act out blood rituals.

Violent Content
Charity and the other staff act out a slasher skit (complete with fake blood and rubber/retractable weapons) with customers who participate and try to avoid the “killer.” Some scenes show people who have been seriously injured or killed. A masked killer attacks Charity and her friends.

Drug Content
References to Charity’s stepdad, who is an alcoholic.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support this blog. I received a free copy of YOU’RE NOT SUPPOSED TO DIE TONIGHT in exchange for my honest review.

Review: Going Bicoastal by Dahlia Adler

Book Review and Content, Contemporary, Romance, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , , , , ,

Going Bicoastal
Dahlia Adler
Wednesday Books
Published June 13, 2023

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Going Bicoastal

A queer SLIDING DOORS YA rom-com in which a girl must choose between summer in NYC with her dad (and the girl she’s always wanted) or LA with her estranged mom (and the guy she never saw coming).

In Dahlia Adler’s GOING BICOASTAL, there’s more than one path to happily ever after.

Natalya Fox has twenty-four hours to make the biggest choice of her life: stay home in NYC for the summer with her dad (and finally screw up the courage to talk to the girl she’s been crushing on), or spend it with her basically estranged mom in LA (knowing this is the best chance she has to fix their relationship, if she even wants to.) (Does she want to?)

How’s a girl supposed to choose?

She can’t, and so both summers play out in alternating timelines – one in which Natalya explores the city, tries to repair things with her mom, works on figuring out her future, and goes for the girl she’s always wanted. And one in which Natalya explores the city, tries to repair things with her mom, works on figuring out her future, and goes for the guy she never saw coming.

My Review

The thing I keep thinking about with this book is how smart it is to show two separate relationships at once, one with a girl and the other with a boy, to represent bisexuality. Showing both relationships side by side really makes the point that both are options and that one identity contains both possibilities at the same time. It is such a cool way to emphasize that point.

I also really liked Nat as a character. She’s artistic and sweet, a little bit of a people pleaser, and she’s in the midst of trying to figure out what she wants to do with her life. She feels like everyone else has it all figured out, which makes her feel like she’s somehow already behind. She brings her whole heart to a relationship and shows up to help her friends when they’re in need.

Though the story follows two separate timelines, there are things that appear in both stories, which I also thought was cool. It made those moments feel like they were pretty central to what would become Nat’s life story. I liked seeing the way some things played out at different times but often in a similar or the same way.

All in all, I’d definitely say this is a great summer romance to put on your reading list. It’s fun and sweet, with celebrations of music and food, so there’s a lot to love about it.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Natalya is Jewish and bisexual. She’s part of a diverse friend group.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used pretty frequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between two girls. Kissing between a boy and girl. Some scenes talk about making out without shirts on. In two scenes, it’s clear the couple have sex, but the description of the event is largely kept private, with a couple details giving us an idea of what goes on.

Spiritual Content
Natalya celebrates Shabbos every Friday night with her dad as well as other Jewish holidays. Her mom, though, is not religious, and it has been a point of conflict between her, Nat, and Nat’s dad.

Violent Content
None.

Drug Content
References to teens drinking at a party. At a show, Nat’s girlfriend uses a fake ID to get alcoholic drinks for them.

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

Review: Amari and the Night Brothers by B. B. Alston

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Amari and the Night Brothers (Supernatural Investigations #1)
B. B. Alston
Balzer + Bray
Published January 19, 2021

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Amari and the Night Brothers

Quinton Peters was the golden boy of the Rosewood low-income housing projects, receiving full scholarship offers to two different Ivy League schools. When he mysteriously goes missing, his little sister, 13-year-old Amari Peters, can’t understand why it’s not a bigger deal. Why isn’t his story all over the news? And why do the police automatically assume he was into something illegal?

Then Amari discovers a ticking briefcase in her brother’s old closet. A briefcase meant for her eyes only. There was far more to Quinton, it seems, than she ever knew. He’s left her a nomination for a summer tryout at the secretive Bureau of Supernatural Affairs. Amari is certain the answer to finding out what happened to him lies somewhere inside, if only she can get her head around the idea of mermaids, dwarves, yetis and magicians all being real things, something she has to instantly confront when she is given a weredragon as a roommate.

If that all wasn’t enough, every Bureau trainee has a talent enhanced to supernatural levels to help them do their jobs – but Amari is given an illegal ability. As if she needed something else to make her stand out.

With an evil magician threatening the whole supernatural world, and her own classmates thinking she is an enemy, Amari has never felt more alone. But if she doesn’t pass the three tryouts, she may never find out what happened to Quinton.

My Review

I remember hearing about this book before it came out, and my calendar was too full to fit in a release date review– which I have since regretted! Finally, I was able to read it, though.

From the very beginning, this book hooked me right in. I felt Amari’s pain at her brother’s disappearance. And her wonder at discovering the supernatural world. I loved the exploration of human rights and equality through the way that people saw her as a magician. As soon as people learned she was a magician, they made assumptions about her values and character. Being a magician wasn’t something she could control, but it also did not dictate her beliefs or her behavior.

There were a few moments in this book that reminded me so much of the movie MEN IN BLACK. When Amari did her training session where she had to identify which monsters/situations were a threat, that reminded me so much of Will Smith’s character’s similar experience in the movie, and I definitely grinned at that.

I really enjoyed the cast of characters, especially Amari’s roommate Elsie and Agents Fiona and Magnus. All in all, this was a really fun book to read, and a great start to the series.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.

Representation
Amari is Black and a born magician. In the supernatural world, being a magician, meaning someone has a high percentage of magic in their blood, is illegal.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
An Irish character says a British swear word a couple times.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
Amari has the ability to create illusions. A friend has the ability to manipulate technology with magic.

Violent Content
Situations of peril. Brief battle scenes. Some descriptions of injuries from monsters called hybrids, which are part animal and part human.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support this blog.