Debut author Jodie Lynn Zdrok transports readers to 1887 Paris in this fascinating YA murder mystery that follows a 16-year-old newspaper reporter named Nathalie Baudin. Nathalie finds her new beat—reporting on the unclaimed bodies that show up at the public morgue—fascinating but also a bit grisly. As the story opens, we find her waiting her turn in an incredibly long line to enter a morgue. Morgue viewing was indeed a popular pastime in fin de siècle Paris—even for families with young children.

But soon one corpse claims Nathalie’s attention: a young woman, hardly more than a girl, who was viciously stabbed. As she looks at the girl, Nathalie suddenly finds herself transported to the scene of the murder and relives the girl’s final moments. Nathalie feels shaken to her core, “as if the horror she’d witnessed was both real and not real.” The incident marks the beginning of Nathalie’s quest to understand her strange new supernatural abilities and harness them to help find the serial killer who is terrorizing the city

Zdrok holds a degree in European history, and her writing sparkles with details that evoke 19th-century Paris. Spectacle’s cliffhanger ending will leave readers eager for Nathalie’s next case. 

Paris Secord—known as DJ ParSec to her growing fan base—is throwing one last pop-up party before taking the world by storm. But then she’s unexpectedly murdered. Her body is found by Paris’ friends, Kya and Fuse, but the two are sworn enemies. But in order to find ParSec’s killer, they’ll have to set their differences aside and work together. Spin is a fast-paced, intricately layered whodunit: Be prepared to stay up late to finish it.

Edgar Award-nominated author Lamar Giles (Overturned) serves up plenty of potential suspects in this thriller, from a demanding ex-boyfriend to ParSec’s older manager who was fired, to a subset of fans whose love sometimes turns into obsession. Fuse and Kya have to bridge uncomfortable class divisions to find common ground; they unite in the belief that the police don’t care about finding their friend’s killer, an assumption that’s proven to be not entirely correct. The generational gap between these tech-savvy kids and their parents—whose 1980s and ’90s rap and R&B records are the classics these teens were raised on and inspired by—tugs at the reader’s heart.

By the time the killer is sussed out, our frenemies have found they have more than their late friend in common. Giles has created a true-to-form mystery that’s utterly modern and occasionally surreal. (The horror movie masks favored by ParSec’s more out-there fans are deeply creepy, just like their behaviors.) Even the title, Spin, is eventually revealed to mean more than it does at first glance, just one more twist in this gripping thriller.

Josie and Delia are so similar that they’re often confused for sisters, especially when they’re decked out as their alter egos Rayne Ravenscroft and Delilah Darkwood in order to host their campy public access horror show, “Midnite Matinee.” But as graduation approaches, Josie dreads having to choose between staying in her hometown with Delia and leaving to pursue her TV career. Delia, meanwhile, is desperate to find a way to make each Saturday broadcast of “Midnite Matinee” good enough to hold Josie’s attention and maybe even bring back her own estranged father. 

Tensions come to a head, but eventually the friends realize that moving on doesn’t have to mean breaking up. In Rayne & Delilah’s Midnite Matinee, bestselling author Jeff Zentner (Goodbye Days) trades in his signature weightiness for a story filled with campy humor and a dash of feminism as he takes us behind the scenes of Josie and Delia’s public access show—and their friendship. But in making the shift in tone, Zentner has successfully retained his knack for crafting unique and charming teen characters who are tackling tough issues—like abandonment and mental illness—with grace and wit.

Josie and Delia’s spitfire dialogue will have readers in stitches, while the tough lessons they learn about growing up (despite all their best efforts) will be a powerful catharsis for anyone who’s felt the pain and loss that so often comes with changing friendships.

The cleverly plotted, page-turning sequel to Maureen Johnson’s hit bestseller Truly Devious (2018) manages to outshine its predecessor as true crime aficionado Stevie Bell returns to posh private school Ellingham Academy and unearths even more confounding clues in her investigation of a classmate’s mysterious disappearance.

Stevie promised school officials and her parents that she would refrain from inserting herself into any more real-life murder investigations and decades-old cold cases. But when she gets an internship with the wacky Dr. Fenton—who wrote the book on the 1936 unsolved kidnappings of Academy founder Albert Ellingham’s wife and daughter—she makes a gruesome discovery that rattles the school once more.

To further complicate matters, Stevie has made a deal with corrupt Senator Edward King to keep tabs on his son, David, the boy with whom she shares a burgeoning romance. And then there’s Dr. Fenton’s handsome nephew, who has some revelations of his own for Stevie. It’s not just several murders that Stevie is trying to puzzle out, but her social life as well. All the adults keep warning her away from investigating, but Stevie can’t resist a good mystery, and her murder obsession might get her killed.

Suspense and intrigue abound in The Vanishing Stair as Johnson illuminates suspects and teases out clues that will flummox even the most adept murder mystery aficionado. Like the humorous and intellectually curious Stevie, Johnson is a true crime lover, and she dedicates this sequel “to all the murderinos” (fans of the popular “My Favorite Murder” podcast).

Savvy sleuths will devour this sequel in one gulp, but they’ll have to wait until 2020 for the next installment.

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

Goodbye, Perfect, the latest novel from British author Sara Barnard (A Quiet Kind of Thunder, Fragile), is a bittersweet exploration of the bonds of friendship, the limits of how well we can know one another and the power of internal and external pressures to unravel our identities.

Eden and Bonnie have been best friends since they were 7 years old, when Eden—a rough-around-the-edges foster kid—arrived for her first day of school and perfect-in-every-way Bonnie took her under her wing. Though the two girls are drastically different, they’ve always balanced each other and kept each other steady. 

But during the week before the start of final exams, now 15-year-old Bonnie runs off with Jack, her secret boyfriend who is also their school’s 29-year-old music teacher, and Eden is left to question everything she thought she knew—both about her best friend and about herself.

In the vein of Carrie Fountain’s I’m Not Missing, Barnard’s novel is written from the point of view of the friend who’s left behind. Bonnie’s disappearance is the catalyst for Eden to begin a complex journey of growth and self-discovery, and Barnard uses a light touch to bring readers along as Eden receives a string of emails from Bonnie and re-evaluates her perceptions of love, friendship and her relationships with her adoptive family and her “lovely, non-secret, drama-free” boyfriend, Connor.

Fans of Sarah Dessen will be eager to inhale this nuanced, heartfelt coming-of-age story about the pain of losing what you once held dear—and the joy and satisfaction of finding yourself in the process.

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

“I might have to kill somebody tonight.” It’s a powerful opening line for multiple award-winning author Angie Thomas’ sophomore novel, On the Come Up, which brings readers back to the neighborhood of Garden Heights, the setting of her debut, The Hate U Give. But what 16-year-old Bri really wants to slay is her competitor in the Ring, a place where wannabe rappers come to compete against each other. She’s beyond confident; after all, she’s the daughter of Lawless, a legendary and influential rapper who was killed in the midst of gang violence.

Fueled with a desire to be like her father, Bri goes big with her verse—maybe too big. When she wins the rap battle and a buzzworthy video of her performance goes viral, she discovers that her war has just begun. Bri’s raw and controversial lyrics put her in danger when they incite misunderstanding and anger, and her classmates label her as “hood.” Add to that an eviction notice, a drug-dealing aunt and an out-of-work mom who’s a recovering addict, and it looks like Bri has bitten off more than she can chew on her way to the top.

Can Bri remain true to herself while rapping behind a tough persona? And is free speech really free—especially for young black people? Bri discovers that this fighting-for-your-life thing gets real in more ways than one.

Thomas knocked it out of the park with The Hate U Give—amassing scores of literary awards and a blockbuster movie deal. In the introduction to her new book, she calls that experience “surreal.” But Thomas should prepare for even more attention and accolades, because On the Come Up is another raw and powerful look at the challenges of being young and black in America.

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

In Someday We Will Fly, Rachel DeWoskin presents a perspective of World War II that is seldom represented in contemporary classrooms—the Jewish people who found refuge in Japanese-occupied China, one of the last places to accept European refugees without visas.

In 1940, both Warsaw and Shanghai were situated within countries that were devoured by conquering nations, and both cities were populated by those who were either ignored or shunned by the rest of the world. Fifteen-year-old Lillia Kazka has a good life in Poland, performing with her parents in an acrobatic circus and attending school with her friends. But everything changes when her mother is taken by Nazis during a raid on their final circus performance, and Lillia, her father and her disabled younger sister are forced to set out on a multi-month journey to reach Shanghai. Although Lillia is free from Nazi violence and persecution when she first arrives in China, she finds that life in an occupied country so far from home is anything but comfortable or easy.

Meticulously researched and breathtakingly detailed, Someday We Will Fly is based on real accounts of Jewish refugees living in Shanghai and the difficult conditions they endured in order to survive. DeWoskin beautifully intertwines Lillia’s hope, pain, joy, sorrow and love with the larger narrative of the war-torn world’s fear and uncertainty. DeWoskin gives a voice to tens of thousands of forgotten people as she uncovers their stories and experiences. This is essential reading.

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

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.