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Steve Sheinkin’s meticulously researched young adult nonfiction books (Fallout, Undefeated, The Port Chicago 50) have won him countless accolades, and he’s been a finalist for the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature three times. His latest offering tells the incredible true story of Rudolph Vrba, who was only a teenager when he escaped Auschwitz-Birkenau and warned the rest of the world about the atrocities being committed by the Nazis in the concentration camps. Sheinkin weaves Vrba’s tale with that of his Jewish friend Gerta Sidonová, whose family concealed their identities and fled to Hungary.
With the success of films such as Black Swan and Suspiria, it’s fair to say that there’s something about the rigorous life of a ballerina that lends itself particularly well to horror. Naturally, we’re eager for more—and debut author Jamison Shea promises just that with I Feed Her to the Beast and the Beast Is Me, which follows Laure Mesny, who will do anything to succeed in the Paris Ballet. But even perfection is not enough to stop the elite Parisen ballet world from overlooking a Black ballerina—until she makes a deal with a sinister entity in the depths of the Catacombs.
After the New York Times bestselling Wings of Ebony series, readers have been eagerly waiting for J. Elle’s next YA offering. The author, who was a 2022 NAACP Image Award Nominee for Outstanding Literary Work for Youth and Teens, is sure to delight fans with House of Marionne. Facing constant danger due to the magic she possesses, 17-year-old Quell seeks shelter with her grandmother—headmistress of a magical boarding school—and enters the mysterious world of an elite debutante society.
Delilah S. Dawson’s latest contemporary YA fantasy is a retelling of The Tempest that takes place in a strange Las Vegas hotel. Anna enters the Houdini in order to take refuge from a tornado. Inside, she meets an intriguing boy named Max. But now she can’t find a way out of these enchanted hallways—and at midnight, she’ll be trapped in the Houdini forever. One would expect nothing less fascinating from an author as prolific as Dawson, whose previous works include Star Wars tie-in novels, steampunk paranormal romances and comic books.
Andrew Joseph White’s debut novel, Hell Followed Us, was a smashing success, both with critics and on the bestseller lists. He’s back with a gothic horror set in an alternate Victorian London, where people born with violet eyes possess the ability to reach through the Veil and commune with spirits. But society refuses to see violet-eyed Silas, who is an autistic trans boy, as anything other than a potential wife for one of the Speakers who govern all of the mediums. An attempt to escape gets him sent to a finishing school, where he’ll have to survive abusive attempts to “cure” him.
Kendare Blake has captivated audiences everywhere with her bestselling horror and dark fantasy novels, which include All These Bodies and the Three Dark Crowns series. She kicks off a new duology with Champion of Fate, a sweeping epic about an orphan girl named Reed who is raised by the Order of the Aristene, a group of legendary female warriors who guide heroes to glory. Now, in order to be officially initiated into the Order, Reed has to complete her Hero’s Trial and bring her first hero to victory. But Hestion is not at all what she expected.
We’ve all been waiting to see what Ava Reid would do next after The Wolf and the Woodsman and Juniper & Thorn. In A Study in Drowning, architecture student Effy Sayre is prevented from pursuing her true passion, as her university doesn’t allow women to study literature. So she jumps at the chance to redesign the estate of her favorite author, whose famous books gave her solace throughout a childhood haunted by dreams of the Fairy King.
Kylie Lee Baker’s new historical fantasy duology promises to be just as entrancing as her Keeper of Night series. In an alternate Tang dynasty China, orphaned Fan Zilan helps her family get enough to eat by performing illegal alchemy for others in her small Guangzhou village. Her one chance to break free from this life of struggle is to become a royal court alchemist by passing the civil service exams. But by the time she makes it to the capital of Chang’an for the second and third exam rounds, Zilan discovers that her reputation precedes her: Somehow, she’s captured the attention of the Crown Prince.
Two-time National Book Award finalist Eliot Schrefer will undoubtedly bring the same engaging flair from his last book, Queer Ducks (and Other Animals), to Charming Young Man, which takes inspiration from real historical figures such as Léon Delafosse and Marcel Proust. In this coming-of-age story, 16-year-old Léon is a brilliant pianist from an impoverished background who—accompanied by a young Marcel—climbs his way into high society. In real life, Proust eventually used Delafosse as the basis for a character in his classic novel, Remembrance of Things Past.
Pritty already took the world by storm once, in the form of a viral Kickstarter campaign to fund Pritty: The Animation, a short film whose goal (according to the Kickstarter) is to “bring Hayao Miyazaki to the hood.” When Keith F. Miller, Jr. shared the unpublished manuscript for Pritty with his friend Terrance Daye, Daye immediately recognized the beauty of this queer coming-of-age story about a Black teenage boy finding hope and community. Clearly, others did too: Pritty: The Animation raised almost $115,000. Now, readers will get to experience the story of Jay and Leroy in its original written form.
Iyanu wants nothing more than to fly under the radar at Wodebury Hall, a prestigious English boarding school where fitting in is everything. But then someone steals the photographs she took at a matchmaking event and spreads them throughout the school. The photos are all captioned with shocking secrets—including one about her estranged cousin, Kitan. Lies, betrayals, scandals: No one’s sure what’s true and what’s not, and everyone thinks Iyanu started it all. Kitan and Iyanu begin investigating—one seeking the truth behind the secret she received and the other determined to clear her name—but along the way, they discover the school may have even darker secrets.
Everyone’s Thinking It (Balzer + Bray, $19.99, 9780063225671) is an intense mystery about privilege and community. The story unfolds through two perspectives: Iyanu, a self-proclaimed outcast and photographer, and Kitan, desperate to keep her place in the school’s most popular trio.
Though they’re both Nigerian students in a majority white and upper-class environment, Iyanu and Kitan have developed completely different approaches to the Wodebury experience. Iyanu cuts herself off from anyone who could hurt her, while Kitan is willing to compartmentalize her pain in order to fit in. The stolen photos challenge Iyanu and Kitan to ask themselves hard questions: What would it mean to let yourself be seen? What do we lose when we give up our personal beliefs in order to please others?
As Iyanu and Kitan explore different ways to build community, they learn how to cut off ties that do more harm than good. Ultimately, they discover the value of being truthful—both to others and to themselves.
Sharp social commentary, compelling plot twists and tender moments of love make Everyone’s Thinking It a fun, insightful mystery and a great read for anyone seeking a mature YA novel that’s true to the experience of growing up.
It’s the 26th century, and humans have colonized Mars with the help of artificial intelligence. Aspiring teenage inventor Clementine Chang needs a fresh start, so she books a one-way ticket to the Red Planet, where she has scored her dream job working in a robotics repair shop for an AI pioneer. There, she meets the infamous Dr. Marcella Lin, and her assistant, Kye, a humanoid custom-built AI with whom Clem is immediately fascinated.
When Kye begins glitching and seeing a strange child within his hard drive, he seeks out Clem’s help. As their relationship grows, the line between AI and human begins to blur for Clem, who resolves to help Kye break free, even if it means risking everything she came to Mars for.
The Infinity Particle (Quill Tree, $18.99, 9780062955760) is a stunning standalone graphic novel that offers a tender and timely look at AI. Questions of autonomy and generational trauma ground readers in the humanity of this sci-fi tale, while small details such as chapter headings written in binary code build a sense of immersion in this futuristic world. The one complaint readers may have is wanting more—more background about the AI system, more time with Clem and Kye.
Wendy Xu (Tidesong) uses a two-color palette to great effect. Panels are largely shaded with blue, while sparingly used reds can instantly make scenes romantic or dramatic. Dynamic gutter backgrounds add to the visual appeal and mood. Xu plays with unique panel shapes; for example, scenes of Kye glitching are given a dreamlike quality with wavy outlines. Occasional chibi figures and exaggerations like giant sweat drops add lightheartedness and are sure to appeal to manga readers.
A hopeful vision of life alongside technology is a welcome deviation from the trope of antagonistic AI. The Infinity Particle is perfect for fans of speculative works with well-developed characters such as Molly Knox Ostertag’s The Girl from the Sea and Danie Stirling’s Crumbs.
18-year-old Effy Sayre has read the late Emrys Myrddin’s books “so many times that the logic of his world was layered over hers, like glossy tracing paper on top of the original.” Emrys is the country of Llyr’s most beloved author, and his novel Angharad has long served as a balm for Effy’s troubled soul and a source of support on her darkest days.
As Ava Reid’s darkly dramatic A Study in Drowning opens, readers are swiftly drawn into Effy’s miserable life in her first year at Llyr University. Because its literature college doesn’t admit women, she’s a reluctant architecture student adrift in a sea of snide, unfriendly men. Meanwhile, nightmarish visions of the Fairy King that have plagued her since childhood exacerbate her anxiety.
A ray of hope arrives when Myrddin’s family begins searching for someone to redesign their estate, Hiraeth Manor. This feels like fate to Effy—especially when she wins the competition to secure this daunting project. Grateful for the escape, she sets off for Myrddin’s cliffside hometown, the Bay of Nine Bells.
Thanks to Reid’s knack for atmospheric, immersive writing—as seen in her adult fantasy novels, The Wolf and the Woodsman and Juniper & Thorn—humidity seems to rise from the page as Effy strives to comprehend her strange new reality. Not only is Hiraeth Manor mildew-ridden and on the verge of crumbling into the sea, but another Llyr University student is on-site: the self-important Preston Heloury, who is ostensibly there for an archival task—but asks Effy to join his true mission to debunk Myrddin’s authorship of Angharad.
Readers will delight in the scholars’ slow-burn attraction as they delve into Myrddin’s complicated legacy. Reid uses the characters’ clashing worldviews to prompt readers to consider the ways in which power structures affect what we learn and believe. A Study in Drowning is at once an absorbing gothic mystery and an intriguing social commentary set in a richly detailed world where history and magic collide.
Jacqueline Woodson flawlessly intersperses explosive moments—and games of basketball—among quiet, reflective scenes while responding to her protagonist’s weighty fears with reassurance about the permeance of
Weaving history and fiction together, David Bowles fashions a rich story of political intrigue, ferocious battles, beautiful landscapes and the enduring hope of humanity.
C Pam Zhang’s sentences are visceral and heated. She writes about food and bodies with frenzied truthfulness. There is nothing pretty in Zhang’s second novel,
In The Unsettled’s short but perfectly paced chapters, Toussaint, Ava and Dutchess tell of not only their disappointment and despair but also their dreams, crafting
The Burning of the World is an absorbing Windy City history, and Scott W. Berg, clearly a lover of rowdy Chicago, tells it well.
Drawing on Jewish traditions of reconciliation, Rebecca Clarren seeks to find a path for meaningful reconciliation and reparation for the harm done to Native American
In his memoir, award-winning novelist Viet Thanh Nguyen “re members” and “dis remembers,” excavating and reassembling memories as if working on his family’s portrait.
Safiya Sinclair’s memoir should be savored like the final sip of an expensive wine—with deference, realizing that a story of this magnitude comes along all
KJ Charles concludes her Doomsday Books duology with the masterfully crafted, deliciously adventurous and so, so horny Nobleman’s Guide to Seducing a Scoundrel.
Alix E. Harrow’s Starling House is a riveting Southern gothic fantasy with gorgeous prose and excellent social commentary.
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Gone Wolf begins in 2111 with Inmate Eleven, a 12-year-old girl being kept in a tiny room. Her only company is her dog, Ira, who has been “going wolf” more often—pacing, narrowing his eyes and imagining he is free. Inmate Eleven is a Blue, which refers to her blue skin and hair. As a genetic match for the president’s son, she is designated to serve as his companion in a mysterious and sinister system. And as Inmate Eleven gathers more information about the world outside her room, she begins to feel the calling to go wolf too.
The narrative switches to Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2022, where Imogen—also 12 years old—is often told she feels too much. She used to rely on her brothers to help settle her worries, but now the pandemic has isolated her from everyone other than her mother and therapist. When Imogen connects with a Black college student in the Big Sister program through a mutual love for stories, she begins to open up and heal the sadness—the blueness—in her own heart.
Gone Wolf is divided almost evenly between the future and present timelines. Its first half effectively makes the reader feel as trapped as Inmate Eleven. Each chapter is followed by disturbing “flash cards” that the ruling Clones use to brainwash the society of 2111 into complacency. In parallel, the second half set in the present day uses excerpts from Imogen’s Black History for Kids textbook, which illuminate the resilience of Black Americans without shying away from the atrocities of slavery and racism. Both imagined texts demonstrate the power of choosing which narrative to tell.
Unlike her previous two young adult novels in verse—Me (Moth) and We Are All So Good at Smiling—National Book Award finalist Amber McBride has written her middle grade debut in prose. Her syntax shines with beautiful symbolism, such as, “I know that minds can’t be hurricanes but that is what it feels like.” “But that’s what it feels like” is repeated like a mantra throughout the book—yet another echo of verse. Both of Gone Wolf’s protagonists write poetry, which further allows McBride to slip some of her magic in.
Imogen’s therapist puts it best: “History and the truth are sometimes hard.” Gone Wolf examines the ways in which both the COVID-19 pandemic and slavery’s ongoing legacy impact Black youth while also celebrating storytelling’s ability to heal and bring us together. There is nothing quite like it.
The crown prince Acolmiztli is determined to see his kingdom of Acolhuacan flourish with art, innovation, architecture and poetry. But the war between Acolhuacan and Mexico grows increasingly fierce. When a brutal attack leaves his father dead and his mother and siblings missing, Acolmiztli escapes into the wilderness and takes on a new name: Nezahualcoyotl, which means “fasting coyote.” Faced with cruel enemies, natural dangers and haunting memories, Acolmiztli must choose to either embrace a new life or find a way to reclaim his kingdom.
The Prince and the Coyote is an intense and moving epic based on the life of Nezahualcoyotl, an influential and artistic Mesoamerican leader. Weaving history and fiction together, David Bowles fashions a rich story of political intrigue, ferocious battles, beautiful landscapes and the enduring hope of humanity.
The novel dares to be detailed and unflinching in its descriptions of violence and grief, while also luxuriating in depictions of natural beauty, man-made wonders and cherished relationships. Fast-paced prose is interspersed with expressive songs written by Acolmiztli that paint vivid pictures of his emotions as he grows from an idealistic child into an experienced, wise leader. Bowles gives Acolmiztli a sharp, honest voice that’s sure to draw readers in—whether by narration or song.
Just as the Temple of Duality stands high above Acolmiztli’s hometown of Teztcoco as a symbol of the coexistence of ideas, this nuanced novel challenges binary thinking. Acolmiztli’s tutor, Izcalloh, is a xochihuah, a queer gender in Nahua culture. Acolmiztli himself comes from two hostile kingdoms: His Acolhua father and Mexica mother risked everything to be together.
As Acolmiztli undergoes different life experiences, his perspectives on leadership, faith, death, sexuality and lifestyle shift. The Prince and the Coyote asks readers to reevaluate their preconceived notions and ultimately put love and respect for all humankind first. The story of Nezahualcoyotl comes to life in this breathtaking retelling that feels both legendary and human.
Wil Greene has spent months stalking Elwood Clarke’s family and obtaining photographic evidence about their Garden of Adam cult. On one stakeout, she even caught the Clarke patriarch sacrificing a rabbit in the woods. Police say Wil’s mom merely skipped town, but Wil suspects the Clarkes are actually behind her disappearance. It would be easier to find out where they’re keeping her mom if Wil was still talking to her former best friend, but Elwood told her that his family did nothing wrong, and Wil doesn’t have space in her life for liars.
But then, on Elwood’s 18th birthday, Wil finds him dying of hypothermia and with nowhere to go. The self-flagellating Clarke heir is on the run from his own parents, who intend to violently sacrifice him to the woods. Wil agrees to help him, but as they dig up secrets about the Clarke family, the town’s dark history and the fate of Wil’s too-inquisitive mother, Wil discovers that something demonic is growing inside of the boy she still loves.
Skyla Arndt’s debut novel takes second-chance romance in a gruesome, horrific direction as together, feisty outcast Wil and soft, sheltered Elwood fight for agency regarding their own fates. Beautifully written, Together We Rot (Viking, $18.99, 9780593526279) shines best in moments where Wil and Elwood stumble back into their old friendship. Their faith in each other, even in moments of visceral body horror, will set readers’ hearts fluttering—though mileage may vary on whether out of love or terror.
A well-balanced cast of teen friends and adult companions—including Wil’s grief-stricken father and tarot-loving eccentric Cherry—flesh out the small town of Pine Point with realism, while the terrifying Garden of Adam cult acts as a mythical stand-in for parents who dictate their children’s lives. Though the villainous group’s comeuppance happens too swiftly as the plot rushes to its end, it is nonetheless satisfying. Fans of twisted, monstrous romantic horror in the vein of Rory Power’s Wilder Girls and Sarah Hollowell’s A Dark and Starless Forest will love Together We Rot.
As a child, Sophia Galich starred in her sister Layla’s viral horror film, Vermillion, about a demonic entity supposedly haunting the seaside mansion their parents were renovating. In the years following the film’s release, Sophia has grappled with the scars—both psychological and physical—that it left behind, while Layla has spent her time avoiding press and obsessive fans, known as V-heads. Then, Layla suddenly vanishes without a trace.
Now, five years after the film’s release, Sophia has returned to Cashore House under the guise of starring in a documentary about Layla But Sophia knows that Cashore has something to do with Layla’s continued absence, and she has spent the past two years searching for clues and doggedly monitoring the V-heads’ posts on CrimsonDread.net, an online forum dedicated to Vermillion. Whatever happened five years ago was more than just a movie, and the truth behind Layla’s disappearance lies somewhere within the house’s walls.
Katya de Becerra’s third young adult novel, When Ghosts Call Us Home, is a gothic, spiraling ghost story that draws inspiration from Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House. But unlike many authors who have attempted to adapt the 1959 masterpiece, de Becerra sidesteps typical retelling structures and allows her book’s modern context to be bolstered by the original rather than restrictively tied to it.
As Sophia reenacts key scenes from Vermillion and is pulled deeper into the shrouded lore of Cashore, her memories begin to blur and reform. Sophia’s first-person perspective provides the intimacy of diaristic narration while holding true to the hallmarks of the unreliable narrator. As girl and ghost become more closely intertwined, Sophia becomes less trustworthy—both to herself and to the reader. This is unfortunately where the book suffers: de Becerra’s prose is at times overworked and redundant, which leaves little to the imagination and undercuts moments of fear.
Regardless, When Ghosts Call Us Home is a satisfying and imaginative haunted house story that uses its influences to great effect. Fans of books like Marisha Pessl’s Night Film and horror movies like The Ring will undoubtedly make themselves right at home in Cashore House.
The YA books we’re most looking forward to in 2023 will push boundaries, revisit beloved characters and, above all, remind us why we love reading.
National Book Award-nominated author Tahereh Mafi’s first YA high fantasy novel, This Woven Kingdom, was everything you could want from a writer known for her deep grasp of character psychology and world building. A retelling of “Cinderella” that became an instant bestseller, This Woven Kingdom ended on what BookPage reviewer Annie Metcalf called a “whopping cliffhanger,” so we’re eager to resume the story in These Infinite Threads.
If you haven’t heard the buzz about this debut horror novel by now, you might want to plant more bee balm in your yard. The cover reveal for Trang Thanh Tran’s haunted-house tale basically broke the bookternet last fall—and deservedly so, because artist Elena Masci’s cover art is both stunning and deeply unnerving. As creepy as the novel’s cover is, we suspect it’s nothing compared to the nightmares that await within its pages.
Raise your hand if you’ve gasped and/or sobbed while reading one of Elizabeth Wein’s historical fiction masterworks. We know we’re far from alone in this, which is why we can’t wait to soar away with Stateless, which follows a group of top-notch pilots on a weeklong race all over Europe in 1937. After a detour into code breaking in her previous novel, The Enigma Game, we hope Wein’s incredible knowledge and passion for flying retakes center stage in Stateless.
We’ll be honest: Francesca Flores’ debut fantasy novel had us from the title, but when we learned that it was a queer reimagining of “Rapunzel” with a friends-to-enemies-to-lovers story arc, we started counting the days until The Witch and the Vampire’s late March publication date. Witches, vampires and all things paranormal are having another moment in YA, and we couldn’t be happier about it.
Australian author Helena Fox’s debut YA novel, How It Feels to Float (2019), has become a quintessential BookTok success story. Videos hashtagged with its title have been viewed hundreds of thousands of times, and many BookTokkers praise Fox’s depiction of her protagonist’s mental illness and grief. Readers have been patiently waiting almost four years for Fox to publish another book, and The Quiet and the Loud—which explores similar themes of mental health, family and hope—promises to be worth the wait.
If there’s one thing we love, it’s an author with range, and at this point, we’re beginning to wonder if there’s anything that bestselling author Marie Lu can’t do. Dystopian thrillers? Check. Cyberpunk sci-fi? Check. Historical fantasy? Check. With Stars and Smoke, Lu adds “espionage thriller” to this list, as the novel follows a pop superstar-turned spy and the gifted agent posing as his bodyguard.
A deadly curse, a magical New Orleans family, twins setting out to heal intergenerational trauma and solve a 30-year-old cold case—if you’re thinking that debut author Terry J. Benton-Walker packed a lot into Blood Debts, you’re not wrong. Benton-Walker’s narrative and world building both seem incredibly ambitious and intriguing, and we can’t wait to see how he untangles it all.
Vancouver-based Métis author Cherie Dimaline’s 2017 dystopian YA novel, The Marrow Thieves, was an acclaimed bestseller in Canada, while her first book for adults, Empire of Wild, was one of our favorite debuts of 2020. Dimaline followed these with a Marrow Thieves sequel in 2021 (Hunting by Stars), but Funeral Songs for Dying Girls will be her first standalone YA novel in seven years. Although it contains similar speculative elements as her previous works (in this case, ghosts), its contemporary setting marks an intriguing departure from the Marrow Thieves world, and we love to see writers as gifted as Dimaline setting themselves new challenges.
Alexandra Bracken initially found success during the dystopian YA boom of the early 2010s with The Darkest Minds, the first volume in a four-book series that was eventually adapted into a movie co-produced by “Stranger Things” producer Shawn Levy. In the years since, Bracken has built on her early success with time-travel romances, a supernatural middle grade duology and 2021’s Greek mythology-inspired blockbuster Lore. With Silver in the Bone, Bracken brings her considerable talents for breakneck pacing and complex world building to a new arena: Arthurian legend.
They say you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but . . . just look at the incredible cover of Lorraine Avila’s debut YA novel and its gorgeous illustration by artist Blane Asrat. As soon as we saw it, we couldn’t wait to learn more about The Making of Yolanda la Bruja, the story of a teen girl who, as she waits to be initiated into her family’s magical brujería traditions, begins having upsetting visions about the son of a prominent local politician.
Becky Albertalli’s 2015 William C. Morris Award-winning debut novel, Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda, helped to usher in a welcome wave of LGBTQ+ YA fiction that readers are still happily surfing today. Albertalli could have coasted on Simon’s success for the rest of her career, but instead, she’s explored new dynamics across three solo novels, a novella and three co-authored novels and established herself as one of contemporary YA fiction’s most beloved writers in the process. Imogen, Obviously draws on some of Albertalli’s own experiences to tell a story about identity, honesty and, of course, falling in love.
Angeline Boulley’s Firekeeper’s Daughter was one of the most exciting debut YA novels of 2021. Readers loved its gripping, twisty mystery and breathless prose, and the novel was optioned to be adapted into a Netflix TV series by Barack and Michelle Obama’s production company. This year, Boulley returns with another thriller, which she has described as starring “an Indigenous Lara Croft” named Perry Firekeeper-Birch. Warrior Girl Unearthed also features a gorgeous cover illustration by Caldecott Medalist Michaela Goade.
Few authors combine vibrant, word-perfect prose and a keen grasp of narrative pacing the way Zoboi does, let alone across as many genres and categories as Zoboi has worked in: The author has written acclaimed bestsellers in every category of children’s publishing, from picture books (The People Remember, a Coretta Scott King Honor book) to YA novels (American Street, a National Book Award finalist) to nonfiction (Star Child). The titular character in Nigeria Jones is the daughter of Black separatists, and she begins to question the very foundations of her life when her mother disappears.
The Grimoire of Grave Fates isn’t a short story anthology as we usually think of them: a collection of contributions on a common theme. It’s more like listening in as 18 of our favorite YA authors play a role-playing game inspired by Clue, each contributing a chapter about the magical Galileo Academy for the Extraordinary, where students are trying to solve the murder of a professor. Hanna Alkaf and Margaret Owen lead a contributor list that includes Darcie Little Badger, Julian Winters, Kat Cho, L.L. McKinney, Mason Deaver, Tehlor Kay Mejia and more.
Ever since her debut novel, Conviction (a finalist for the 2015 William C. Morris Award), Kelly Loy Gilbert has been on our auto-read list—as in, we automatically want to read everything she writes. All of her books (and there are only three of them, so you could catch up between now and June) combine achingly beautiful prose with subtle storytelling that always leaves us in awe and often in tears. Everyone Wants to Know explores the impact of reality TV fame through the story of a teen girl who has grown up in the spotlight gets burned when a private conversation draws public ire.
The people of Raddith are used to living with magic. The country bustles with business, bureaucracy and other hallmarks of humanity, but around its edges are whispers of curses—dangerous magic spawned from intense negative emotion. Kellen, an unraveller with the rare ability to undo these curses, and Nettle, his stoic companion with a hidden past, make a meager living catching cursers and helping those they’ve cursed. After an old enemy threatens revenge against Kellen for unraveling her curse and leading to her imprisonment, Kellen and Nettle stumble into a mystery that challenges everything they know about Raddith, magic and their friendship.
In Unraveller, acclaimed author Frances Hardinge creates two settings that both feel fantastical and familiar: Raddith, the land of humans, and the Wilds, the marshy woods where magic thrives. The novel features otherworldly creatures such as spell-weaving Little Brothers, which are “not spiders, however much they look like them,” terrifying bog spirits and more, but Hardinge also depicts how humans coexist with such creatures. The humans in Raddith see them as a source of power, while people in the Wilds treat them with respect, even reverence. The novel’s unique magic system reflects this intertwining of the mundane and the marvelous as well: Strange, unpredictable curses that transform people into animals or steal their shadows stem from pent-up human emotions like resentment, anger and hatred.
This emotion-fueled magic system places character development at the forefront of Unraveller. Nettle seems calm and collected, but she actually struggles to express how she feels, while Kellen understands the importance of communication but flees as soon as a curse is lifted, not realizing that true healing takes time. Their personalities clash and complement each other throughout the book, demonstrating how growth and friendship aren’t linear—but are rewarding.
Hardinge isn’t afraid to challenge her readers to rethink their perceptions of hatred and healing, and she does so by venturing into some of the darkest aspects of human guilt, shame and anger. Almost every member of the novel’s large cast must learn to deal with complicated emotions, whether they’re cursers or cursed, from minor villagers to Kellen and Nettle’s most trusted allies. Some characters fall prey to their feelings, while others open up, forgive and change their ways.
Unraveller is a multilayered, challenging and unflinching read, with occasional depictions of gore and body horror that may unsettle some readers. It poses a difficult but deeply necessary question: What does it mean to truly heal and be healed?
In her second novel in verse, National Book Award finalist Amber McBride blurs the lines between fantasy and reality.
Eighteen-year-old Whimsy has been hospitalized for the 11th time in 10 years. Although her grandmother taught the young conjurer that “Fairy Tales are real, / magic is real,” she also offered a warning: “Careful, Whimsy, / sometimes your own mind will unroot you.” When a green-haired boy named Faerry is admitted to the hospital, Whimsy instantly identifies him as Fae.
When the two are released from the hospital, Whimsy discovers that Faerry’s family recently moved to her neighborhood. As Whimsy and Faerry are drawn both to each other and to the forest at the end of their street, they discover that their lives have intertwined before, and they embark on a journey to a haunted garden where the embodiment of Sorrow has trapped a number of fairy tale characters. To free them and return home, Whimsy and Faerry must face a truth they’ve spent years running from.
In a lengthy dedication at the beginning of We Are All So Good at Smiling, McBride explains that the novel “borrows from my personal experiences with clinical/major depression” and that she wrote it to remind herself and readers “that whenever you find yourself in Sorrow’s Garden—you have tools & you can find a way out.” The book’s significant back matter includes mental health resources, as well as a playlist, a glossary and more.
McBride conveys Whimsy’s struggle with depression through unusual and striking language, text alignment and structure. Words and phrases frequently appear in parentheses, mimicking intrusive thoughts. When Whimsy speaks, the text is aligned on the right-hand side of the page, literally separating her speech from the rest of the text and reflecting the way her depression alienates her from herself. McBride often establishes and then changes structural patterns, mirroring the disorientating nature of recovery.
We Are All So Good at Smiling elevates everything that made McBride’s debut novel, Me (Moth), such a success. Readers who loved Ibi Zoboi’s American Street or Anna-Marie McLemore’s Blanca & Roja will especially enjoy its blend of magic and emotion.
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