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.

As bombs pelt World War II London, a group of young siblings are transported to another world. Once there, they befriend magical creatures, fight a war, grow into adults and finally, via a majestic stag, return home at the exact moment they departed. If it feels like you’ve read this story before, rest assured The Light Between Worlds still has some surprises in store.

Evelyn hasn’t been the same since she abruptly returned from a magical land called the Woodlands six years ago. Each night, she sneaks out of her boarding school to wander the woods, seeking a way back to the world of her heart. Evelyn’s older sister, Philippa, has long been her main source of support, but Philippa’s become so interested in chasing popularity that Evelyn barely recognizes her.

Surrounding herself with a swirl of activities has become Philippa’s defense and coping mechanism against her own sadness. When an unexpected development leads Philippa to take a job in the conservation department at the National Gallery, she meets a young man with his own reasons for wanting to repair damaged treasures.

The unspoken presence of C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia pervades Laura E. Weymouth’s debut novel. How might travelers feel upon finding themselves children again after living half a lifetime in another world? What could explain a teen’s defection from fantasy, turning instead toward seemingly spurious concerns? And what can someone do when their heart calls them home to a different world?

Fans of Narnia and contemporary interpretations like Lev Grossman’s The Magicians will relish The Light Between Worlds.

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

BookPage Teen Top Pick, December 2018

The teen years can be taken over by impossible ideals of beauty informed by images of airbrushed bodies that inundate popular media, as well as rigorous college applications that demand impeccable transcripts, off-the-charts test scores and athletic prowess.

As genetic science advances—specifically with the experimental protein known as CRISPR that can “cut” chunks of DNA and essentially edit the strands—and with the rising popularity of plastic surgery among teens, Stronger, Faster, and More Beautiful is a chilling, necessary look at a near-future world where the quest for human improvement runs amok.

Structured like the popular sci-fi Netflix series “Black Mirror,” Arwen Elys Dayton’s novel unfolds in a series of six vignettes that each follows a different young protagonist.

In one story reminiscent of Kazuo Ishiguro’s wrenching classic Never Let Me Go, a 15-year-old twin wrestles with allowing the heart of his beloved, dying sister to be fused with his own failing organ in order to create a “super-heart.” Another story examines the societal repercussions of using biomachinery to save gravely injured trauma patients. Those who have had their vital organs and limbs rebuilt become targets of intense scorn and hate crimes, while religious pushback against the procedures spirals violently out control.

We can’t put the proverbial genie back in the bottle in terms of scientific discovery, but as Dayton proves in these thrilling and often poignant stories, we can, and we should, seriously consider the constraints of what makes us human and the dangers of chasing an ideal.

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

Laini Taylor returns to the city of Weep in this sequel to her 2018 Printz Honor book, Strange the Dreamer. Muse of Nightmares starts the moment Strange the Dreamer ends, with many characters facing new circumstances and others continuing to struggle against old problems. Minya, tamer of ghosts, remains ever vigilant; Eril-Fane, both hero and villain, remains trapped in his inability to love. Meanwhile, Lazlo and Sarai face beginnings and endings of their own.

Minya is determined to destroy Weep, but her fellow godspawn want to break the cycle of violence. As the godspawn argue—and as Sarai mines Minya’s dreams, seeking ways to calm her appetite for vengeance—a second plot is introduced. In this new time and place, two sisters are separated by the whim of a powerful young metalsmith with godly ambitions. As the two plots converge, the world of the story expands, eventually answering the core question from Strange the Dreamer: Why have the gods spent 200 years raping human women to breed half-god children, and where have all the godspawn babies gone?

Not everything is serious, though. Feral and Ruby continue their romantic squabbles, while the untouchably princely Thyon is teased for the first time, making a friend and possibly more. Observant readers will also notice a reference to Taylor’s Daughter of Smoke and Bone series.

Overflowing with the luscious language, moral ambiguity and detailed fantasy world-building characteristic of Taylor’s writing, Muse of Nightmares brings the story of Weep to a satisfying conclusion.

BookPage Teen Top Pick, November 2018

Cutthroat. Ruthless. Unpredictable. That’s modern politics, but it’s also modern high school. In Gordon Jack’s satirical novel, Your Own Worst Enemy, three candidates fight dirty to be Lincoln High’s next student-body president.

Stacey Wynn was supposed to have this in the bag. She’s running unopposed, and after all, who has done more for this California high school than she? She champions all the clubs, attends all the spirit rallies, and she hands out free cupcakes—off school grounds and in accordance with the state’s strict nutritional policy, of course.

With her best friend and campaign advisor, Brian, by her side, Stacey thinks that all she needs to do is rehearse her acceptance speech—until Julia Romero, a new student and French-Canadian immigrant, shows up and throws her hat into the ring. The race gets even more complicated when Chinese-American Tony Guo, a stoner and slacker, is manipulated by a Steve Bannon-esque freshman into running on a populist platform.

What should have been a quiet election turns into a circus of misinformation, fake news and low-down tactics. Will the best candidate for the job win?

Jack succeeds in using the microcosm of high school to explore the complexities of race, privilege and class as it relates to the American political process. And through multiple points of view (the three candidates, Brian and his troubled brother), readers get a sense of the personal stakes involved for everyone in the political arena. While the current political landscape is polarized, Your Own Worst Enemy reminds us that hope lies with the younger generations.

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

Leanne “Lee” Bauer is ready to set the record straight. It has been three years since her high school’s mass shooting led to the deaths of 9 students (10 if you count the shooter himself) and 2 teachers. The shooting also left one student paralyzed and the others severely traumatized. Lee was in the bathroom holding hands with her best friend, Sarah, as the shooter aimed and fired at Sarah. Everyone believes that Sarah died while proclaiming her religious faith, but only Lee and one other survivor know the truth of what really happened in the bathroom that day.

When Sarah’s family decides to publish a book about their daughter and the massacre, Lee decides it’s time to reveal what actually happened, because all of the survivors deserve to have a voice.

Keplinger (The Duff) pens an extremely powerful, mind-blowing and chilling account of what it is like to be on the inside of a high school shooting and how details and facts can become misconstrued as a result of trauma. In chapters that deserve a trigger warning, Lee and the other survivors recount the massacre as they experienced it. Featuring a cast of diverse characters, and unique narration that includes poetry and letters,    Keplinger shows she’s up to snuff with this heavy hitting that is unfortunately trending. Reminiscent of Marieke Nijkamp’s This Is Where It Ends (2016), this novel would make an excellent springboard for parents or teachers who want to open a discussion about gun violence with their teens.

The truth is out there and Penny wants to find it. The “real” truth, of course, and not that garbage her paranormal conspiracy-theory touting father feeds the readers of his publication, Strange World. In Lindsey Klingele ’s The Truth Lies Here, Penny is determined to get accepted into Northwestern’s school of journalism, even if that means returning to her tiny hometown of Bone Lake to write the article that will get her there. What Penny finds, however, is much more than she bargained for.

Things seem immediately amiss, as Penny’s father doesn’t pick her up from the airport, and, in fact, seems to be missing. Couple that with the fact the people keep repeating the same phrase to her over and over, strange men are wandering around town and burned bodies keep showing up in the woods, and Penny has to rethink her stance on the paranormal. She decides to take matters into her own hands and begins to search for her father with the help of Dex, her closest childhood friend, and Micah, the high-school quarterback (and Penny’s hidden crush). This search leads all of them to discover that things in Bone Lake are much stranger than they believed.

Ideal for fans of Netflix’s “Stranger Things,” The Truth Lies Here brilliantly keeps readers second-guessing. Multiple, complex plot lines are woven together with rich, thoughtful characters, and an eerie and unsettling mood hangs over every page. This is the kind of book that keeps you up at night. You won’t want to stop reading until you reach the deeply satisfying and somewhat disturbing conclusion.

The youngest dancer in the Atlanta Ballet Conservatory, Cason Martin is one of the best ballerinas in the country. Her very first memories are of ballet, and she’s well on her way to a successful career on the stage. But when a strain in her leg turns into her worst nightmare, she knows she may never perform again. While Cason is learning to give up control of her life, Davis Channing—a cancer survivor and recovering drug addict—is regaining control of his by volunteering in the oncology department that saved him once before. As the two teens get to know each other at the hospital, they discover that, together, they may just be brave enough to reinvent their dreams.

Kati Garnder’s debut novel, Brave Enough, is in many ways a frothy, fun teenage romance, but the author—a childhood cancer survivor and amputee herself—tackles tough subjects with a masterful nuance that is both candid and compassionate. The emotions Gardner’s characters experience as they swing through hope and grief and back again feel raw, real and deserved, and each is well developed and complex. Whether they can always see it or not, Gardner has made sure Cason, Davis and their friends are much more than their afflictions.

Though the plot is somewhat predictable, Gardner’s strong storytelling skills and her knack for dealing with subject matter that is so often relegated to hushed whispers make her debut novel a powerful one.