In Driving by Starlight, Anat Deracine’s noteworthy debut, 16-year-old Leena is the top student in her Saudi Arabian high school, but with her father in jail for sedition and no money in the bank, her future looks bleak. Just when she thinks she’s found her ticket out—Saudi Arabia’s first-ever all-girls debate competition, with a grand prize of a full ride to college—Leena’s blacklisted from the debate team. Unable to escape her father’s shadow, Leena is crestfallen. Heartbreak follows heartbreak when Leena’s crush tricks her into betraying the confidence of her best friend, Mishail, and posts scandalous photos of Mishail online in an attempt to embarrass her high-level bureaucrat father. Realizing how much she and her friends need one another, Leena orchestrates an escape from Saudi Arabia for both Mishail and herself.

The Saudi Arabia of Driving by Starlight is a haunting land of morality police, hyper-surveillance and hypocrisy. Against this background, it is no surprise that social commentary threads throughout Deracine’s novel. It is one thing to document the desperation of the hard-pressed, but Deracine also captures the hope and joy that nourish Saudi people in desperate straits.

With a keen sense of drama and a gift for understated exposition, Deracine has blessed readers with an intriguing window into a part of the world most of us know very little about.

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

Meet Mila, a fat Mexican-American teen witch in a small, boring town. Well, technically she’s a Wiccan. If you hadn’t already guessed, her life isn’t exactly easy at Fairmont Academy, and her best (and only) friend is a fellow Wiccan weird girl, Riley. But Mila has a pretty huge problem: Riley was just found dead in a creek around the same time the bodies of two infamous mean girls from their school were found hanging in the trees near the bank.

Although the local police have ruled Riley’s death as a suicide, Mila is convinced that Riley was murdered. Naturally, Mila decides to get some magic involved in her investigation, and when a mysterious grimoire shows up that contains a spell called “The Seven-Day Breath of Life,” she knows the best way to find the identity of Riley’s killer is to bring her back to life and ask Riley herself. Of course, a local coven of older witches warn her of the dangerous consequences that come with dabbling in dark spells, and Mila soon discovers that having Riley back comes with a price.

Don’t miss Lily Anderson’s smart debut that combines a witchy mystery with a tender tale of friendship. With a singular and hilariously cutting teen voice, Undead Girl Gang is sure to be one of the most talked-about YA novels of the year.

Ah, summer: a time for long days hanging out at the pool with friends, culminating in a vacation to an exotic locale. Or, at least that's what Clara Shin has in mind. But what Clara actually gets is a summer working in her father’s Korean-Brazilian fusion food truck, the KoBra, beside her mortal enemy, Rose Carver. This is bad news for Clara, but great news for readers of this bubbly and fun summer read. As Clara reluctantly learns to tolerate Rose, a boy named Hamlet who works at a coffee shop near one of the KoBra’s regular stops catches Clara’s eye. Hamlet is cute, nice and sincere—exactly the things that prank-loving Clara isn’t. In fact, Clara’s built her identity on never taking anything seriously and never getting attached for long—just like her mother, a professional social media influencer who left for a jet-setting life when Clara was 4.

Clara expects she’ll join her mother for their planned trip to the resort town of Tulum in Mexico at the end of the summer, but she doesn’t expect to be a different person by the time the summer ends. As Clara and Rose become friends, Clara and Hamlet become more-than-friends and she begins to rethink her assumptions about both the present and the future.

Like the fusion cuisine of the KoBra, The Way You Make Me Feel is also a fusion of sorts, with Goo combining the sweet breeziness of a light summer read with the spice of a coming-of-age story that deals with having to leave part of yourself behind and grow into new relationships and new perspectives. Enjoy this book with a cool glass of lime juice for a true summer treat.

Four Long Island teens are obsessed with Fatima Ro, a bestselling YA author, and her book Undertow. When the teens meet Fatima at a book signing, they can’t help but gush, only to be further floored when she takes an interest in them. Miri, confident and self-possessed; Soleil, the ultimate fangirl; Penny, rich, but insecure; and Jonah, the enigmatic, new guy become disciples of Fatima’s philosophy about “precious truths” and “authentic connections.” Fatima encourages the teens to be honest and transparent with her, and in turn, she invites them into her home, doles out dating advice and, in Penny’s case, lets her cat sit. But Fatima has her own agenda—one that lands Jonah in the hospital and uses the other teens to advance her career. As noted on the cover of author Lygia Day Peñaflor’s meta novel, All of This Is True, what happens next will shock you.

This cleverly constructed story uses an atypical narrative structure, resulting in a mystery with a fresh twist. Told entirely through interview transcripts, journal entries, text messages and snippets from Peñaflor’s novel-within-a-novel, All of This Is True is meta without being confusing. What must have been a daunting creative undertaking for the author reads effortlessly. Peñaflor manages to propel her plot and deepen her characterization while tackling complex themes in a compulsively readable package resulting in a fantastic story that’s sure to be a bestseller.

Each of King Henry VIII’s six wives were very different from each other, so what better way to tell their stories than with six different authors? Award-winning and bestselling young adult writers M.T. Anderson, Jennifer Donnelly, Candace Fleming, Stephanie Hemphill, Deborah Hopkinson, Linda Sue Park and Lisa Ann Sandell have joined forces to give the wives a distinctive voice of their own in this unique novel.

As Donnelly points out in a preface to Fatal Throne: The Wives of Henry III Tell All, much has been written about Henry VIII, but the wives have often been reduced to caricatures. We know their lineage, how they came to be noticed by the king and how they ended, and several of their letters are extant, but how they truly felt is left to speculation. These writers have taken on the task of telling the queen’s stories “in their own words.” Though each a work of fiction, the stories are still based on historical research—which is listed in the bibliographic afterword. Anderson weaves his imagined thoughts of the king between the women’s stories and adds a final look at his heir, Queen Elizabeth.

The varying personalities of Henry’s wives can be felt palpably and deeply in this novel. The first-person voice lends an immediacy that allows the reader to connect with each woman. This also means that each wife is a sympathetic character —for who would portray themselves otherwise?—which may or may not be an accurate representation. Still, Fatal Throne is a fun read and great introduction to a turning point in English history.

Jennifer Bruer Kitchel is the librarian for a Pre-K through 8th level Catholic school.

Rufus Holt lives in suburban Vermont, but his life is no ice-cream-and-pie suburban fantasy. It’s more of a nightmare. He’s gay in a small town, house-on-the-brink-of-foreclosure poor and the illegitimate son of a sociopathic lawyer hellbent on his demise. And that’s all before Rufus finds his half-sister passed out in her dead lover’s arms with a bloody butcher knife dangling from her sleepy grip.

Caleb Roehrig’s White Rabbit is a murder mystery set in a suburban enclave so twisted it’s almost dystopian. Rufus lives in a town where the cool kids aren’t just spoiled narcissists, they’re grade-A psychopaths. There are drug dealers, rapists and at least one murderer. While the more sordid details are left to the reader’s imagination, the plot of White Rabbit is violent and twisted enough for a Quentin Tarantino screenplay. But White Rabbit’s not all malice and malcontents. Woven throughout the mystery is the on-again, off-again love story of Rufus and his boyfriend, Sebastian—an endearing thread that highlights the drama of coming to understand and embrace one’s sexuality.

Though Roehrig’s plotting is tight and his handling of the love story deft, his ear for the modern vernacular may be his most subtle gift. In a book with a massive body count, his dialogue is dead on. Though too dark and violent for some, White Rabbit will certainly appeal to teen readers on the more mature end of the spectrum.

At the conclusion of Becky Albertalli’s Morris Award-winning Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda, Simon Spier and his mysterious online crush finally become a couple. But what happens to Leah, Simon’s best friend? In the sequel, Leah on the Offbeat, we learn that Leah is a talented drummer and artist, comfortable in her overweight body and okay with being economically disadvantaged in a wealthy town. She’s perfectly fine with staying out of the college-choice drama that consumes her friends; she’ll be going to a local university where a scholarship awaits. She’s also confident in her bisexuality . . . even if she hasn't told any of her friends about it yet.

A perfectly nice guy is interested in Leah, but she only has eyes for her friend Nick’s girlfriend, Abby. Leah longs to kiss Abby, but she worries that doing so will cause her friendships to shatter irreparably. Should she pursue her dreams—in romance and in art—or settle for always feeling slightly off beat? Leah initially dismisses prom night as a high school cliché, but everything ends up converging there, and the very prom-night magic she mocks might just be exactly what she needs.

Leah on the Offbeat is funny, authentic and totally in step with contemporary sensibilities, both serious and silly (Leah calls out racism when she sees it, speaks in teen patois and draws Harry Potter fan art). This one is highly recommended for Simon fans, or anyone wondering how to navigate saying goodbye to one part of life as another begins.

As a blond-haired blue-eyed Jew in 1939 Germany, 15-year-old Sarah’s best option is to hide in plain sight, right in the jaws of the beast, which is exactly what happens in Matt Killeen’s stunning first novel a ferocious tale of life in Nazi Germany set within the framework of an elite girls’ school.

After soldiers kill Sarah’s mother, a stranger, who the Germans are also hunting, gives Sarah sanctuary in his home. In return, he asks Sarah to infiltrate an elite boarding school that’s attended by the daughters of the Nazi elite. After relaxing momentarily in the luxurious surroundings of this house, Sarah soon becomes determined to accept his mission and do something about the German National Socialists and their monstrous treatment of Jewish citizens.

While steadfast in her resolve to play a part in influencing the course of history, Sarah is also exceedingly fragile. She blunts her sorrow and anger over her mother’s death by remembering the insults that her mother hurled at her while she was alive. Her mother’s unkind words fill her head, but rather than destroy her, these thoughts empower Sarah and give her the resolve and insight she needs to survive.

Sarah’s mission in the girl’s school is to befriend the daughter of a Nazi scientist. Sarah finds this seemingly easy task nearly impossible as the daughter is protected by a phalanx of über mean girls. The school serves as a microcosm of the wider Nazi culture, and the girls rule by intimidation, sadism and social decree.

Orphan, Monster, Spy has so much to offer readers beyond its gripping content; it serves as a reminder that people must speak out against societal wrongs because, ultimately, they will affect everyone.

Julie Murphy’s companion to 2017’s Dumplin’ (read it first to avoid spoilers) is as full of heart, hope and hilarity as its predecessor. With an incredibly diverse cast of new characters, two unlikely love interests and emotions that are bigger than the state of Texas, Puddin’ will have readers laughing, crying and rooting for these teens as they navigate the tough terrain that is high school and find the strength to persevere when life throws a curveball or two.

While beauty queen Willowdean Dickson is still in the mix, Murphy’s new novel focuses on life after the pageant for reader favorite Millie Michalchuk. Millie hangs with a group of unpopular misfits and is a regular attendee of fat camp, but she’s thrown into an unlikely friendship with popular girl Callie Reyes when a prank goes wrong. Callie is co-captain of the Shamrocks, Clover City High School’s dance team, and the girlfriend of the school’s ace football player. When Millie’s family-run gym gets into financial trouble and has to drop their sponsorship of the Shamrocks, putting the dance team’s chance at winning a national competition in jeopardy, Callie and her fellow dancers decide to take revenge into their own hands—by vandalizing the Michalchuk’s gym, with Callie as the only identifiable culprit. Millie’s Uncle Vernon, the owner of the gym, agrees to drop all charges if Callie will work at the gym for free. Millie and Callie are then forced to either be miserable together or make amends.

In chapters that alternate between Millie’s and Callie’s point of view, Murphy nails the teen voice with online and in-person conversations that are filled with snort-laugh-out-loud lines. The characters are faced with typical teenage dilemmas, from dating and sneaking around (nobody is perfect, even Millie) to facing realistic consequences for their actions.

Hysterical and perfect for teen readers looking to have their voices heard, Puddin’ encapsulates everything that a high-caliber YA novel should.

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

BookPage Teen Top Pick, May 2018

Twins Mara and Owen are closer than close, so when Mara’s best friend, Hannah, accuses Owen of rape, Mara is shattered. Torn between the brother she loves more than anything and her own visceral understanding of the truth, Mara doesn’t know where to turn or how to reconcile family loyalty with right and wrong. As she tries to grasp this new reality, Mara must come to terms with a trauma from her own past as well.

In her highly anticipated novel Girl Made of Stars, Ashley Herring Blake (Suffer Love, How to Make a Wish) delivers a thoughtful, genuine exploration of consent, victim blaming and sexual assault—themes that fill the media today. Far from an ideological lecture, the novel forces readers to grapple with a difficult question: What do you do when someone you love is accused of rape?

Blake’s prose is specific and captivating, but what really brings this book to life is her ability to render fully developed, complex and diverse characters. From Mara and Owen to Hannah and Mara’s ex-girlfriend to the teens’ parents, all of the characters struggle in their own ways with what this situation means for their relationships moving forward. Each character is both deeply likable and deeply flawed, and readers will struggle to find their footing right along with Mara.

Though younger teens should be aware of Blake’s no-holds-barred exploration of the themes of sexual assault, homophobia and anxiety, Girl Made of Stars adds an important dimension to the discussions we’re having today, both in public and in private, and Blake’s deft handling of tough topics makes for an engaging and powerful read.

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

Near the end of Sarah Nicole Smetana’s debut novel The Midnights, her protagonist, Susannah, muses about “the strangeness of these in-between moments, these points of intersection between one thing and the next.” The Midnights follows Susannah through a sort of in-between year, one in which she loses someone precious and perhaps gains something priceless.

Susannah’s dad was once the guitarist for a band called the Vital Spades, a rock group that was on the verge of greatness until personal circumstances broke them apart. Ever since they called it quits, her dad has mourned what could have been. Susannah secretly harbors her own musical ambitions but has always been too unsure of herself to share them outside of the midnight music lessons with her father. After he dies suddenly at the start of her senior year, Susannah and her mother move from Los Angeles to Orange County, California, where Susannah discovers she’s not the only one in her family with secrets. In her new surroundings, Susannah quickly makes friends with a charismatic free spirit and finds an opportunity to redefine herself as a fearless musician with a strong voice of her own—but is it possible she’s still undervaluing her own worth?

Smetana’s debut is ambitious but thoughtful, especially when it comes to Susannah’s knowledge and intuitive understanding of music and lyrics. Some narrative paths turn into dead ends while others (especially romantic ones) remain at times frustratingly unexplored, but the story’s occasional meanderings mirror Susannah’s own circuitous journey toward knowledge and self-respect, one on which readers will be more than happy to accompany this talented young woman.