BookPage starred review, January 2019

High stakes and heartbreak are at the center of award-winning author Holly Black’s The Wicked King, the second book in the Folk of the Air series and the luscious sequel to her New York Times bestseller The Cruel Prince.

When The Wicked King opens, it’s been five months since 17-year-old human Jude planted Faerie Prince Cardan on the Elfhame throne. Now, she’s struggling to maintain her behind-the-scenes power, and it doesn’t help that Cardan is trying to undermine their deal or that her twin sister’s marriage to the duplicitous Locke comes with its own set of challenges. On top of all that, Jude’s stepfather is strategizing behind her back.

But when the Queen of the Undersea threatens the Faerie kingdom and Cardan’s rule, Jude must spy and scheme to protect her family and her hold on the throne. But Jude can’t foresee everything, and someone is out to betray her. Despite growing up in a Faerie world, Jude is not one of them. And there’s only so much power a mortal girl can wield when fighting monsters.

Fans of The Cruel Prince have been clamoring for this book, and they will not be disappointed. Black ratchets up the action with even more sinister settings, wicked villains, surprising plot twists and her haunting, melodic prose. Cardan and Jude’s infatuation with one another is seductively tense as they continue to fight their feelings. And Jude’s ability to steamroll her enemies with violence and wit offers a particularly feminist high.

The Wicked King is intense and entertaining storytelling at its finest.

This article was originally published in the January 2019 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

An enchanting story about a book-loving girl who’s shunned by gossipy villagers and the evil stepmother who forces her to leave home may seem more than a little familiar to even the most casual Disney fan, but author Joanna Ruth Meyer (Beneath the Haunting Sea) lovingly builds upon recognizable tropes from classic fairy tales while still making her latest YA novel, Echo North, feel fresh and original.

When she was a child, Echo Alkaev was mauled by a white wolf in the woods, leaving her with a face covered in scars. Ostracized by her cruel peers, her only sources of companionship are her doting father and older brother, who treasure her intellect and the “echo” of her dead mother’s love and beauty that they see within her. But Echo’s small happiness is shattered with the arrival of her father’s new wife, who mocks Echo in private and plunges the family into debt. When Echo’s father sets off to sell his rare books, he becomes lost in the wintry woods. Echo finds him unconscious in the snow with the very white wolf who attacked her so many years ago. To save her father’s life, she strikes a curious bargain: She will live alone with the wolf for one full year, and she cannot tell her family where she’s going or have any contact with them. 

Meyer takes a hard left turn into the fantastical as Echo joins the talking wolf in his house under the mountain, a beautiful but dangerous estate guarded by the North Wind and filled with old magic and enchantment. As Echo learns how to care for the cantankerous old house, including its charmed library and shifting rooms, she makes friends in unexpected new worlds and takes ownership over her life’s direction. And of course, the closer she gets to the wolf, the more determined she is to break the spell that binds him to his animal form.

Based on the Norwegian folk tale “East of the Sun, West of the Moon,” this lyrical and romantic fantasy offers plenty for both YA lovers and fairy-tale connoisseurs to appreciate.

This article was originally published in the January 2019 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

People hear about America’s opioid crisis on the news, but author Kristin Russell brings readers up close and personal to this problem in her debut novel, A Sky for Us Alone. Cultural richness and material poverty collide in Russell’s fictional Appalachian setting of Strickland County. This is much more than a simple cautionary tale of how opioids can devastate a community. Instead, Russell has created a living, breathing tapestry of Appalachian life that is filled with voices both ancient and youthful.

When 18-year-old Harlowe Compton discovers his older brother Nate’s body on their front porch, he vows to figure out who shot him. Nate served as the rock of their family, and his brutal death has devastating consequences for the Comptons. While Harlowe grieves over the loss, he also watches his family disintegrate. Harlowe’s mother deals with her physical and mental pain by slipping back into opioid use, and his father, unable to cope with both his wife’s addiction and his son’s death, simply disappears.

However, Harlowe finds an unexpected bright spot in his life when a new girl named Tennessee Moore moves to town, and despite their overwhelming family issues, the two teens find true friendship, support and love.

The coal-mining industry and its Mafia-like bosses—the powerful and conniving Prater family—serve as the backdrop for the action and mystery in A Sky for Us Alone. All life in Strickland County is viewed through coal’s influence. Vivid contrasts abound between the mining rubble, draglines, polluted runoff and the pristine beauty of the southern Appalachian wilderness.

Readers can expect a satisfying and uplifting ending despite the overall grimness of Russell’s well-told teen drama.

This article was originally published in the January 2019 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Born two decades after the Civil War in segregated Savannah, Georgia, Essie has had the odds against her from the start. And with a formerly enslaved mother who’s become bitter and is subsequently not much for nurturing, Essie’s pretty much on her own, and her dreams seem impossibly out of reach. Even as she gathers some people into her corner—like Ma Clara, her mother’s housekeeper who cares for her, and Binah, the best (and only) friend she’s ever had—making something of herself still seems like a long shot.

Essie spends most of her days working as a maid at a boardinghouse, until a wealthy black woman known as Dorcas Vashon shows up and makes her the offer of a lifetime: She will provide Essie with a classical education and a fine wardrobe, and then she will spirit her away to Washington, D.C., where Essie will meet and mingle with the upper echelons of black society. It’s everything Essie has ever dreamed of. But the road to her new life is not entirely smooth, and she’ll have to decide how much of her former self she’s willing to part with. As her dreams begin to become her reality, she decides to gift herself with a new name to suit her new identity, one that embodies all the grace and tenacity she hopes to exhibit: Victoria.

Coretta Scott King Honor-winning author Tonya Bolden (Maritcha, Crossing Ebenezer Creek) has penned an atmospheric and fresh historical novel with Inventing Victoria. Her prose is rich in period detail, evoking both the barren loneliness of Essie’s childhood and the luxurious fortune that her generous benefactor offers. Bolden has created a sweeping and exhilarating story of a teen girl filled with hope and perseverance.

Told from the perspective of a young woman of color in a time period rarely seen in historical fiction for young adults, Inventing Victoria is a truly unique and necessary addition to the genre.

This article was originally published in the January 2019 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Following his parents’ divorce and his mother’s decision to take a job at the University of Texas, black Canadian teen Norris moves to perpetually muggy, burnt sienna-colored Austin, Texas. Leaving behind his ambivalent father and his only friend in Montreal, Norris is catapulted into a typical American public school midway through his junior year, and he finds himself hiding behind sarcasm and surface-level, stereotypical perceptions of everyone he meets. But on prom night, Norris messes up big time, and he realizes it might be time to drop the protective mask and embrace his new life.

Debut author Ben Philippe’s The Field Guide to the North American Teenager mirrors his own experience and paints an authentic portrait of what it’s like to feel like a fish out of water—not only for his protagonist but also for a richly developed cast of supporting characters whose Breakfast Club-style stereotypes fall away to reveal teens who are just trying to find their places in the world. Philippe’s buoyant prose and Norris’ snark allow some of the story’s heavier themes (broken families, depression, race) to feel light, poignant and approachable. And with this undercurrent of messy reality, characters are affected by these issues instead of defined by them.

For contemporary YA fans, this witty look at what we learn about ourselves by observing others will be a fantastic back-to-school read.

This article was originally published in the January 2019 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

BookPage Top Pick in Teen, starred review, January 2019

In bestselling author Roshani Chokshi’s The Gilded Wolves, a crew of young people in an alternate version of belle epoque Paris use their wits and daring to restore their leader to his rightful place.

In this world, some have “Forging” power—creative and metamorphic power over matter or minds—which is made possible through fragments of the Tower of Babel. These broken pieces are scattered across the world and safeguarded by the mysterious Order of Babel, which is organized in national factions and then further divided into Houses.

Séverin Montagnet-Alarie is the heir to France’s House Vanth, but he was denied his Order inheritance years ago and now watches the two remaining French Houses—Nyx and Kore—with envy. But Séverin has a plan to claim his right, and a crew of various talents who live with him at his glamorous hotel will help him pull it off. They plot to steal an ancient artifact that will help Séverin buy his way back into the good graces of the Order, but the artifact and its owner turn out to be more than they bargained for.

With a diverse ensemble—characters are multiracial, from different cultural and religious backgrounds, have differing sexualities, and one character is non-neurotypical—Chokshi challenges the notion that historical fantasy novels (even those with a European setting) must be populated by mostly white characters. She balances four points of view, although the lack of any significant entry into the psyche of two major characters is awkward, especially in light of their significance to the plot.

The glittering and lavish 1890s setting is the perfect complement to the marvelous possibilities of Forging, and the chemistry between Chokshi’s romantic pairs is realistic yet slightly off-script from what readers may expect. In this delicious first entry in a new series from a veteran YA author, readers will find sumptuous visuals, deep characters and a maddening eleventh-hour twist.

This article was originally published in the January 2019 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Elizabeth Acevedo’s novel-in-verse, The Poet X, is an empowering, feminist tale of a young woman discovering her own voice through writing—and then learning to use it as boldly and best she can to push back against everything aiming to drag her down. Though The Poet X is Acevedo’s debut, she’s already made a name for herself through her two collections of poetry and electrifying spoken-word performances that have made her a National Slam Champion.

Xiomara Batista, though only 15 years old, quickly learns that she’s been both blessed and cursed with the body and the problems of a grown woman. As an Afro-Latina girl and the daughter of Dominican immigrants growing up in New York City’s Harlem neighborhood, she discovers at a young age just what men’s catcalls and compliments really mean. So she first learns to fight back with her fists, but then she uses those same hands to quietly craft powerful poems in her notebook.

With wise eyes and incisive words, Xiomara dives head first into the tough topics like complicated family dynamics and parental abuse, body shaming and acceptance, the burdens of an overbearing religion, and finding both self-love and romantic love. When her teacher invites her to join the school’s slam poetry club, Xiomara is torn between remaining as the obedient daughter who attends the Catholic confirmation classes that her regimented mother has forced upon her and practicing an art and craft that is opening her heart to love and personal growth.

In Blanca & Roja, Anna-Marie McLemore (The Weight of Feathers, Wild Beauty) blends familiar fairytales The Swan Princess and Snow White and Rose Red into a rich, luxurious story of friendship, love and self-acceptance that is told with her signature style of magical realism.

Despite being polar opposites—Blanca is fair-skinned, blond and graceful while Roja is dark-skinned and a little wild—the del Cisne sisters are so close they might as well be one person. But thanks to a mysterious family curse, they know their time together is drawing short. As the del Cisne women have accepted for generations, soon the swans will take one of the two sisters for themselves, leaving the other to live as a human. But when two local boys—one who is fleeing a family scandal and the other who is running from parents who can’t understand why he identifies as their son and not as their daughter—become entangled in the del Cisne girls’ fates, the swans’ magic becomes unpredictable, and all four teens have to face difficult truths about themselves and their families in order to survive.

McLemore’s fans will be delighted to dive back into her lush, poetic prose and revel in the nuanced composition of her characters and their relationships as they learn to navigate a world in which they must constantly overcome stifling expectations and damaging stereotypes in order to protect their identities and their hearts.

In Blanca & Roja, McLemore gives readers a modern twist on timeless stories, making this the perfect read for a shadowy autumn afternoon.

A deft portrayal of female friendship and sexuality, Natasha Ngan’s new novel, Girls of Paper and Fire, is a satisfying tale told almost exclusively through the eyes of strong and courageous young women.

Seventeen-year-old Lei lives in Ikhara, an empire with a caste society that’s based on how much animal-demon blood a person possesses. Lei is part of the lowliest group: the fully human Paper caste. Above her are members of the Steel caste (those with a mix of both human and animal features) and Moon caste (those who are fully demon, and whose members appear to be animals but possess human intelligence and extraordinary strength and abilities).

While Lei and her father live in a remote province, the cruel regime has directly touched their lives; Lei’s mother was taken during a raid. Now, years later, Lei is shocked when a caravan of animal-demon soldiers comes to take her to the Demon King’s court as one of his annual batch of concubines known as Paper Girls. Terrified and furious, but knowing that compliance will keep her family safe, Lei enters into the pampered yet horrific life of a Paper Girl imprisoned inside the Hidden Palace. Among the girls, Lei allies with sweet Aoki and graceful Chenna while also making a couple of enemies. But it’s the beautiful and mysterious Wren who most sparks Lei’s interest, and as the two girls become closer, Lei falls into a web of love, intrigue and danger.

A touching (and refreshingly steamy) lesbian romance is at the core of this thrilling fantasy, and it adds emotional weight to an otherwise familiar plot. The sexual violence experienced by Ngan’s characters is portrayed as exactly that: traumatic violence, with a range of emotional and physical responses from the victims and no redeeming arc for the male perpetrator.

Lei is a compelling narrator because she is so refreshingly commonplace. She’s not a magical chosen one, nor a long-lost heir, nor a sleeper agent. She is simply a young woman whose bravery and passion will be relatable and recognizable to readers of Girls of Paper and Fire, despite the fantastical world that surrounds her.

This article was originally published in the December 2018 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

In M.K. England’s The Disasters, the Ellis Station Academy is an elite training program for Earth’s next generation of intergalactic pilots, programmers and politicians. Unfortunately for four students, their studies are over before they even begin.

Nasir “Nax” Hall is a Muslim farm boy, wannabe pilot and self-proclaimed screw-up. After a disastrous first day at the academy, he is unceremoniously kicked out along with three other students: Case, a straight-laced genius; Zee, a Kazak footballer with medical training; and Rion, a snarky Brit with a keen sense for diplomacy. But before the teens can be shuttled back to Earth, the academy is attacked and the foursome must make a daring escape.

Forced to crash land on a colonial planet called al-Rihla, they discover that they’re being framed for the devastating terror attack. If the four are caught, they’ll surely be executed. With help from a colonial girl, this ragtag group of academy rejects must hide from the authorities while simultaneously trying to prove their innocence. If Nax and his new friends can’t clear their names, then they’re going to die trying.

England has created a fast-paced sci-fi adventure story with a diverse cast of likable but flawed teenage heroes. Told through Nax’s point of view, the action is heart-pounding and immediate as these wayward heroes run from one disaster to the next—but there’s also a dash of romance as Nax takes time to consider his attractions to both Case and Rion.

Although the most ardent science-fiction fans might balk at the novel’s world building, which resembles Earth a little too closely, readers seeking humor, heart and good storytelling will find it within the pages of The Disasters.

This article was originally published in the December 2018 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Dia, Jules and Hanna, the three members of the band Fairground, may have been high school students when their music was getting noticed, but Hanna’s addiction and Dia’s unplanned pregnancy broke up the act along with their friendship. When a big music contest announces a $15,000 prize for the winning act, they consider reuniting in order to enter. Hanna’s sober now, but a return to the scene could be triggering. Dia is haunted by ghosts of what could have been with her child’s dad. And Jules might be in love with a near-perfect girl, but she’s distracted by her overblown expectations.

Author Rebecca Barrow (You Don’t Know Me but I Know You) uses the contest’s tight timeline to force her characters to reckon with the past, which unfolds in flashbacks. Each young woman has her own issues at home, work and school, and the future and its uncertainty hang over each of them. It’s a pleasure to follow them as they navigate the old hurts and grudges and try to make a new start together.

This Is What It Feels Like is a punched-up power chord of a book. Readers will be reminded that it’s possible for friends to grow apart, find their way back together and be stronger than before.

This article was originally published in the December 2018 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.