Fiction – Mini Collection Blog (2024)

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Bibliographical Information

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Book Trailers & Other Media

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Plot Summary

Hell Followed With Us is a gritty, fierce novel set in a post-apocalyptic world, where Armageddon, brought forth by a fundamentalist cult, has befallen humanity and much of the population has died. Benji, a sixteen-year-old trans boy, a former member of the cult, is on the run, to prevent the cult from getting their hands on him, or rather, the bioweapon underneath his skin.

Benji encounters a group of teens from the local LGBTQ+ center, known as the ALC, and is rescued from the clutches of destruction-born monsters. He is immediately enamored by Nick, ALC’s leader, who is beautiful, autistic, and deadly with a gun. His feelings are tempered by Nick knowing his secret, the bioweapon within him is turning him into a monster that could rid Earth of humanity. There are multiple battles occurring within Benji at once–one between the graphic mutations his body is undergoing and another between him and Nick, who has secrets of his own that may very well change everything.

Hell Followed With Us is a story about people, the resilience of humanity in the face of terrors beyond belief. The characters are not children, they have been forced to grow up too fast, forced to become soldiers to fight for their lives, but even in the midst of the brutality, there is a tentative peace. Hell Followed With Us pulls together horror, religion, sexuality, and moral struggles into a gripping novel that is hard to put down.

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Critical Evaluation

Hell Followed With Us is a brutal, unrelenting story of a post-apocalyptic world, where religious zealots of a cult bring for the “Rapture” and decimate the majority of humankind. Benjamin, a trans man with his genetic makeup being changed little by little by a monstrous concoction that was turning him into a Seraph, escapes the hellish cult he was trapped in and encounters a set of teens at a local LGBTQ+ center, who eventually become his queer found family. The book, despite its dark themes, can still have its light-hearted moments, showcasing that these teenagers, while forced to go up and become soldiers, can still act their age. Most prevalent among all the themes is the religious extremism of the cult. At the barebones, it describes the sometimes cult-like nature of religion, specifically the Fundamentalist sects, and how it causes trauma in those who are indoctrinated. Benj’s continually deadnaming and the use of the wrong pronouns is a direct analogy to the Church’s transphobia and the fight that many religious have over being part of their faith but knowing that they are not welcomed. Benji considers his transformation as a monster, his body being injected with foreign substances. This may allude to the body dysmorphia that is part of the transgender experience, but as someone who is cisgender, my observations may be incorrect and thus can be disregarded. It takes a while for Benji to be able to accept himself and be content (because happiness is so rare in this book) with who he is. Anything facet that alludes to the trans experience is the constant threat of battle, and the need to defend himself. Benji is fighting at every moment of the book. He is wrought with self-loathing at his transformation, forced to swallow hearing his deadname and the wrong pronouns, seeing himself as something no one would accept, fighting back against the cult and their monstrous creations called the Graces. This is unfortunately often true of transgender people around the world, where even an inkling of assumption can get them hurt or even, killed, and yet they still fight for their rights, facing vitriol, beatings, and so much more. Andrew Joseph White is successful in making his book into a metaphor for religious trauma, religious extremism, and transgender individuals and their own struggle with identity, mirroring the real world but dialed up to ten.

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Reader’s Annotation

A transgender boy escapes from a religious cult and meets a group of queer teens at the LGBTQ+ center, but he has a secret that could tear his newly built friendship apart in his body, he houses a doomsday weapon meant to turn him into a monster. Struggling to hide his transformation and fighting his growing attraction towards the autistic and gorgeous, Nick, will Benjamin be able to get his happy ending or is he doomed to be martyred for the sake of others?

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About the Author

Genre: Horror, LGBTQ+

Booktalking Ideas: Having the author come for a visit,

Reading Level/Interest Age:

Challenge Issues: body horror, religious themes, transgender characters, autism, ableism

Challenge Issue Resources

Why Include This Book?

What I like about this book is despite how grotesque the monsters within the book may be, nothing is as despicable as the religious fanatics. This book is very different from what most people would read, but even so, it is worth a try. I love highlighting diverse authors and the stories they tell.

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Bibliographical Information

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Book Trailers

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Plot Summary

Marin lives with a loneliness that has found a home in her heart. Her old life, back in California, is one that she has long since left beyond. She speaks to no one from that life. They are left in the dark about the last final weeks before she left. Even her best friend, Mabel, doesn’t know what led Marin to flew the California coast to New York. But tragedy is never easy to outrun and it eventually catches up to Marin in the form of Mabel coming to visit for winter break. Marin is forced to face the past that she has worked so hard to escape and confront the feelings that welled up inside from the moment she left.

We Are Okay is a story of a character who learns to be okay after traumatic events rock her entire world. The book shows that running away from the past will only lead to more pain and facing what has happened is the only way to obtain closure. Follow Marin as she journeys through the depths of her emotions and faces the demons that she has tried to run for so long. Will she manage to overcome them or will she drown in her struggles?

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Critical Evaluation

We Are Okay is a book about learning the darkest parts and the inner demons of the people they love, a reality contradicting what you know. It is about accepting that the past, when left unaddressed, is always one step behind and learning to move on and heal. It is about letting grief through and learning to cope with loss. It is about how lonely and isolating pain can be, and how it can make life suffocating and empty all at once.

Marin runs away from sunny California after her grandfather passes away to New York, pushing away her best friend, Mabel, in the process. She can successfully evade the past until Mabel is in town and Marin is forced to deal with the terror of being known. She is so desperate for Mabel to accept her, to love her both as a friend and maybe something more, but she is so scared of Mabel’s reaction, a mirror of so many queer experiences throughout time. But the book does not end with a neatly wrapped bow. At first glance, it would seem like Marin and Mabel will end up together after clearing up misunderstandings, but that, unfortunately, is not the case. Nina LaCour even said it herself, that what makes the book so compelling is the idea of falling in love with your best friend, but also not wanting to break the friendship. It is different for a queer person to have the same attraction to their best friend, there is an element of fear, not just the rejection of their love but also their identity, their whole person as well. This reinforces the theme of loneliness. Marin feels lonely even when she is with Mabel. Her guardian figure, the only one that was left, died, leaving Marin all alone. She runs away across the country and lives with a roommate, but still feels utterly alone. Marin must confront her path for her to move on.

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Reader’s Annotation

We Are Okay is a novel about grief, how different people react to the same events, how being queer comes with the ever-present worry that you will not be accepted by the ones you love, and how the past will always catch up to you, one way or another.

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About the Author

Nina LaCour is the bestselling and Michael L. Printz Award-winning author of picture books, a chapter book series, young adult novels, and adult literary fiction. Her novelWe Are Okaywas named one of TIME Magazine’s Top 100 YA Novels of All Time. Her adult literary debut,Yerba Buena,was a Book of the Month Club selection, Target Book Club selection, and Indie Next Pick. Garnering starred reviews from Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, BookPage, Booklist, and others, Nina’s books have been translated into over a dozen languages.

Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, Nina received her undergraduate degree from San Francisco State University, and an MFA in Creative Writing from Mills College. Her graduate thesis became her first novel, Hold Still, which received a William C. Morris honor from the American Library Association.

Nina has taught, guest lectured, and appeared at conferences and conventions all around the country and internationally. Her novels have been Junior Library Guild selections, ALA Best Books for Young Adults, and have been named among the best books of the year by the Boston Globe, Seventeen, Booklist, Bustle, Publishers Weekly, and the New York Public Library among others. Nina won the 2009 Northern California Book Award for Children’s Literature, and was featured in Publishers Weekly as a Flying Starts Author.

Nina loves cooking, gardening, and daytripping through the ever-inspiring regions of Northern California with her wife and their daughter. She lives in San Francisco.

Source: Nina LaCour’s website

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Genre: Contemporary

Booktalking Ideas: Having an open session where a therapist or a psychologist sits in and explains to the attendees about mental health, Conducting a session dedicated to the mental health resources that are available through the library

Reading Level/Interest Age: Grades 9 – 12.

Challenge Issues: death, grief, depression, suicide

Challenge Issue Resources

Why Include This Book?

This book got me through a really dark time in my life and I felt like it had almost saved me. I cried so much through this book and no doubt if I were to read through it once more, I would still cry. There is such a poignant message about grief, loss and love that I want everyone to read through this book.

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Bibliographical Information

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Book Trailers & Other Media

Source:Fan Art

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Plot Summary

Paris, 1889. A time of decadence, mystery, and change.

Severin Motagnet-Alarie is a treasure-hunter and a hotelier. Forced to help the elite, elusive Order of Babel on a mission, Severin is offered a prize that he would have thought to be lost–his true inheritance.

The Order seeks an ancient artifact that requires more than what Severin could provide to find. He puts together a team of unlikely people:
– himself, Severin, the leader of the group and the heir to House Vanth, but lost his title because he is half French and half Algerian
– Tristan, Severin’s brother in everything except blood, who has a passion for plants and tarantulas
– Lalia, a beautiful Indian dancer with a horrifying past and an even more terrifying power
– Zofia, a Jewish-Polish genius engineer who suffers from the inability to express her feelings and a hefty debt to pay
– Hypnos, the half French, half black Haitian heir to House Nyx
– Enrique, the Spanish-Filipino historian who was banished from his home

Can this rag-tag team find the ancient artifact? With Severin’s inheritance on the line, he would do anything to obtain the item. But at what cost?

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Critical Evaluation

The Gilded Wolves is set in the 1880s right in the center of Paris when the world is experiencing an upheaval of power and a paradigm shift towards new technology. Chokshi crafts a world that is not too different from our own with a magic system called forging and artifacts of the past bestowing great powers to the bearer. Power is always accompanied by greed and selfish intentions and in this book, it is by the hands of the controlling Houses, one of which Severin has lost his inheritance and strives to get back his title. Severin forms a team of outcasts, each with their own reason for not being able to conform to society, and stages a heist not unlike Six of Crows. Despite the ragtag, hastily-thrown-together group, each individual character can draw upon their talents and not a single character is considered “useless”. For example, Enrique is a historian, not a strength that most would consider for a heist, but Enrique provides the group with much-needed information through his research skills. Laila is a dancer, but her secret identity and her dexterity become extremely handy in tight situations. However, it doesn’t mean the Chokshi doesn’t explore the other side of the coin–the characters’ flaws–as well. Zofia is neurodivergent-coded, unable to understand the emotions of those around her, and is often very literal, so she sticks to her forging and tries to limit interaction as much as she can. Severin is a complex character caught between his growing fondness and protectiveness for his friends, especially Laila, and his need to take back what is rightfully his. This causes a deep conflict within Severin that stretches through this book and spills into the rest of the trilogy. Hypnos, the heir of House Nyx, appears cold and demeaning but is simply lonely at heart. He has what Severin lacks, a title, and while that leads to them butting heads often, they grow to tolerate and even care for each other. Chokshi crafts a brilliant story, rich with diverse characters and even more unique backgrounds. The magic system is not difficult to understand and it draws the reader’s attention towards power and the constant need for more. You can’t help but root for the group, wanting Severin to get his title back, for Laila to be able to reveal her dark secret and still be accepted, for Hypnos to no longer feel lonely, for Enrique to be recognized for his talents as a historian, and for Zofia to be seen more than the parts of her that don’t fit in with society.

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Reader’s Annotation

Decadent and mysterious, The Gilded Wolves follows a group of diverse characters as they endeavor to steal a power artifact in exchange for their leader, Severin, taking back his power. Trouble is constantly at their heels, but Severin is willing to do anything to get his title back, which begs the question of what lengths Severin will go to ensure everything goes as he wants?

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About the Author

Roshani Chokshi is the award-winning author of the New York Times bestselling series The Star-Touched Queen, The Gilded Wolves and Aru Shah and The End of Time, which Time Magazine named one of the Top 100 Fantasy Books of All Time. Chokshi’s adult debut, The Last Tale of The Flower Bride, was a #1 Sunday Times bestseller. Her novels have been translated into more than two dozen languages and often draw upon world mythology and folklore. Chokshi is a member of the National Leadership Board for the Michael C. Carlos Museum and lives in Georgia with her family.

Source: Roshani Chokshi’s website

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Genre: Historical, Fantasy

Booktalking Ideas: Escape Room, Puzzles

Reading Level/Interest Age: Grades 7 – 9.

Challenge Issues: ableism, racism, antisemitism, mental illness, hom*ophobia, child abuse, violence

Challenge Issue Resources

Why Include This Book?

This book had a beautiful cover and that was what originally drew me to reading it. I was pulled in by the diverse characters, and how their unique backgrounds initially clashed but later became something that tied them together as a group and then as a family.

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Bibliographical Information

Plot Summary

Nora O’Malley has worn many faces in the span of her teenage life. Her mother is a con artist whose marks are always men with a criminal history. Nora grows up under her mother’s wing and is supposed to follow in her path until her mother falls in love with the mark and Nora has no choice but to escape.

Five years later, Nora is living the “normal” life with a girlfriend, Iris, and Wes, her ex, whom she is still friends with, but doesn’t know about Nora and Iris. Everything gets turned on its head when Nora goes to the bank with her friends to deliver the money they had fundraised, only to the caught in the crossfire in the midst of a bank robbery. Nora may have left that life after she ran away, but she dusts off the cobwebs of her mother’s teachings to save her friends. The robbers have no clue who they are dealing with…

Told in snippets of the past and the present, The Girls I’ve Been, is a compelling thriller young adult novel that speaks of regaining agency in a world that has tried so hard to mold girls into the vision of others.

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Critical Evaluation

The Girls I’ve Been is an arresting, tension-filled thriller with unexpected twists and turns that make the outcome difficult to predict. This book spans the events happening within a few hours, but Tess Sharpe takes the reader beyond the bank robbery and the accompanying hostage situation to the past and the faces of six, very different girls. Nora O’Malley’s past is a revolving door of men that her mother cons and then leaves until she falls for a mark and Nora is forced to be the perfect daughter until she can free herself. By having alternating chapters between the past and present, Sharpe can showcase how Nora’s upbringing has shaped her into who she is in the present. Sharpe provides an authentic and considerate discussion on trauma and therapy without romanticizing or making light of what Nora experienced, which witnessing Nora from the past become the Nora of the present so much more compelling. But Nora’s traumas, both emotional and physical, is not the only one that Sharpe highlights. Iris, Nora’s girlfriend, suffers from endometriosis, a bodily trauma different from Wes, who has an abusive parent. There is the trauma that accompanies a queer relationship, in this case, Nora who is bisexual gets together with Iris who is lesbian. This may happen as a result of gatekeeping, where some lesbians will never accept a bisexual because they can’t pick a side. But despite all the traumas, Nora can outsmart the robbers with her sharp, quick thinking and some unsavory skills she learned from her mom and mobster step father. But, will everyone come out unscathed?

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Reader’s Annotation
Nora O’Malley, her girlfriend Iris, and her ex-turned-friend-again with some awkwardness, are at the bank at the perfect time to be caught in a robbery and taken as hostages. A dual timeline follows Nora in the past, how she became the person she is now, and how everything that she learned will be put to the test to rescue her friends.

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About the Author

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Genre: Thriller

Booktalking Ideas: Escape Room Games, Have a Book Club

Reading Level/Interest Age: Ages 14 and up.

Challenge Issues: abuse (physical and emotional), violence, hom*osexuality

Challenge Issue Resources

Why Include This Book?

This book was one that I finished within the hour that I had received it from Libby. It was engaging, fast-paced, and a book that I found to be so so good.

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Bibliographical Information

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Plot Summary

In the small town of Little Kilton, a murder-suicide ended in the brutal death of Andie Bell and the suicide of her boyfriend, Sal Singh, who was accused before he decided to take his own life. Five years later, the town has moved past the tragic event, hoping to leave the deaths of Andie and Sal behind, however, 17-year-old Pippa believes that the real killer is still at large. She launches a secret investigation with the help of Sal’s brother, Ravi, who is hoping to clear Sal’s name, under the guise of a final project about the interconnections between the case and the media. Their investigation unearths deep webs of lies and corruption, but the killer knows of their involvement and will everything in their power to keep their secrets hidden from the public, even if it means killing Pippa and Ravi. Will Pippa and Ravi be able to catch the killer and reveal the truth, before the killer catches them?

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Critical Evaluation

A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder is set in a small town, where stories are often misconstrued down along the grapevine. Rocked by a murder-suicide five years ago, Andie Bell was brutally killed by her then-boyfriend, Sal Singh, who later committed suicide. Pippa Fitz-Amobi is an intelligent seventeen-year-old who is confident that Andie Bell’s murder is still at large and that Sal Singh is innocent. She enlists the help of Ravi, Sal’s brother, and the two of them undergo an investigation akin to Nancy Drew or Veronica Mars under the guise of a school project. Their investigation leads them down a path that neither expects, their list of person of interests growing and encompassing people that they know. A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder is fast-paced and heart-pounding. Pippa begins to receive threatening messages from an unknown person and danger seems to look at every corner.

Their investigation unearths truths that other characters would have very much preferred to be hidden. Spoilers from here on out. Please highlight to see the words.

[Andie Bell is nothing as she seems. She is dramatic, deals drugs, and blackmails other people. This brings to question whether Andie deserved her fate or even if she is really dead. Her body was never found, so it could be that Andie is in hiding. With her personality, it isn’t an absurd assumption to make. Sal, on the other hand, from both Ravi’s and other characters’ descriptions of him, was kind and sweet in all the ways that Andie was not. It was unfathomable why Sal could have done such a heinous act. Jackson is able to create this conflict in the characters and the readers. It is difficult to discern who to trust and who is the murderer. Everything is not as it seems and Jackson writes the tension beautifully.]

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Reader’s Annotation

Andie Bell’s murder and her boyfriend Sal Singh’s subsequent suicide close what everyone thinks to be an open-and-shut case. However, Pippa Fitz-Amobi is determined to find the supposed killer and convince everyone her Sal’s innocence, but will she be able to gather enough evidence before the person sending her threatening messages gets to her first?

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About the Author

Holly Jackson started writing stories from a young age, completing her first (poor) attempt at a novel aged fifteen.

She lives in London and aside from reading and writing, she enjoys playing video games and watching true crime documentaries so she can pretend to be a detective.

A Good Girl’s Guide to Murderis her debut novel. Good Girl, Bad Bloodis the hotly anticipated sequel.

You can follow Holly on Twitter and Instagram @HoJay92​.

Source: A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder Podcast

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Genre: Mystery, Thriller

Booktalking Ideas: Solving mysteries, Playing a game of Clue and seeing how the game relates to the investigation conducted in the book

Reading Level/Interest Age: Grades 9 – 12.

Challenge Issues: drug use, murder, death, sexual assault, child abuse, underage drinking, cyberbullying

Challenge Issue Resources

Why Include This Book?

I always love a good mystery and this one was too difficult to pass up. I had read this book in a span of three days.

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Listen to a sample here! Read an excerpt and peek inside the book here!

Bibliographical Information

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Book Trailers

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Plot Summary

Ten years ago, three sisters–Iris, Vivi, and Grey Hollow–went missing for an entire month. They returned wrong, different from the children that their parents remember them being. Their dark hair had turned white and their eyes, once blue, were now black. Eerie as the transformation was, it was made worse by the fact that the sisters would only speak to one other with the bespoke ability to manipulate through touch alone.

When Grey misses Vivi’s show, it is up to Iris and Vivi to uncover the truth behind her disappearance. The truth is covered in the smell of carrion flowers and rotting flesh, buried deep in the recesses of the supernatural. Iris and Vivi are not the only ones who are searching for Grey. They encounter a bull-headed man who is intent on hampering their path. Iris’ seemingly normal life falls apart at the seams as Grey’s disappearance brings up more mysteries than answers. Where is her sister? What happened to them ten years ago? Are they really Iris, Vivi, and Grey Hollow?

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Critical Evaluation

House of Hollow follows Iris Hollow–one of three siblings–as she navigates her life trying for “normal”, only slightly successful as her life has since been filled with trouble and strangeness. One singular event–when Iris and her sisters went missing for an entire month and began to undergo a transformation–becomes a focal point around which each event revolves. The mystery of what happened ten years ago was left unsolved with the casualty of their father, who was so confident that the girls who returned were not his girls. But it seems like the past is rearing its head once again when Grey goes missing and Iris has to follow the clues left behind to track her down. This is where House of Hollow earns its mark as a horror novel, as the unsettling truth is unveiled in a mess of flowers and rot. Most prominent is the theme of sisterhood, except in the case of Iris and Vivi, it becomes twisted with terror at seeing what their sister is capable of doing. It calls into question the lengths to which some people may go for the people that they love. Is it forgivable if done in the name of saving the family? Iris tackles this and the question of whether Grey is even recognizable as her cool sister anymore. This story circles back to the Hollows’ disappearance, specifically what their father had accused of them being, and weaves the past into the present seamlessly yet still with a level of mystery that has the readers reaching for more. The novel’s progression was not easy to parse out, but it was an interesting mystery to see where the book would go–and it was always a much more creepy depth. In the end, Iris is left to answer: what does she value more–her sisters or her own life? Will she right the wrongs of the past or will she step aside and let the past drift away? Sutherland captures Iris’ struggle through a fast-paced, tension-filled climax, in which her beliefs about sisterhood, love, and her whole life were shaking at the foundations.

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Reader’s Annotation

Ten years ago, the Hollow sisters–Grey, Vivi, and Iris–went missing for a month and returned different. Now comes a sense of deja-vu when Grey disappears unexpectedly and leads her sisters to unearthing the truth of their eerie past.

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About the Author

Krystal Sutherland is an internationally published author. Her first novel, Chemical Hearts, was published in over 20 countries and was named by the American Booksellers Association as one of the best debuts of 2016. The film adaptation, produced by Amazon Studios, stars Lili Reinhart (Riverdale) and Austin Abrams (Euphoria); Sutherland served as an executive producer on the project. Her second novel, A Semi-Definitive List of Worst Nightmares, was published to critical acclaim in 2017 and has been optioned for adaptation by Yellow Bird US. In 2018, she appeared on the annual Forbes “30 Under 30” list. Originally from Australia, she has lived on four continents and currently calls London home. Her next novel for young adults, House of Hollow, is set for publication by Penguin in spring 2021.

Source: Krystal Sutherland’s website

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Genre: Horror

Booktalking Ideas: Flower meanings, Faerie Lore (changelings)

Reading Level/Interest Age: Grades 9 – 12.

Challenge Issues: horror, gore, supernatural elements, self-harm, suicide, body horror

Challenge Issue Resources

Why Include This Book?

This book was my foray into the horror genre. It was definitely dark, spine-tingling yet hard to put down. I think anyone looking for a creepy, urban fairytale should try reading this book. It will definitely leave behind an impression.

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Check out an excerpt here!

Bibliographical Information

Book Trailers & Other Media

Lunar History

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Plot Summary

Cinder is a Cinderella retelling set in New Beijing, where humans and androids coexist in tandem, though cyborgs, half human and half android, are considered second class citizens. A deadly plague is sweeping across the nation with a threat from outer space, ruthless people from the moon, lying in wait.

The fate of Earth lies in the hands of Cinder, who is a gifted mechanic and also, a cyborg. Her past is veiled in mystery, her present filled with a stepmother’s hatred and the blame for her stepsister’s sickness. In a whirlwind of events, Cinder meets Prince Kai, a forbidden love blooming between the two. Pulled into a struggle that goes beyond the edges of the earth and into the stars, Cinder has to battle her love for Kai, her loyalty to New Beijing, and her need to be a free citizen, to protect Earth from the Lunarians.

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Critical Evaluation

Cinder is a Cinderella retelling set in New Beijing where the populace consists of humans and cyborgs. Considered second-class citizens, androids are made to work under humans, and having one is the height of wealth. Cinder is a mechanic and a cyborg. She has very little memory of her childhood, having been found by her “father” as a child, and now lives with her stepmother who is cruel and perpetually angry, while her stepsister is sweet and kind, unlike what is expected. Marissa Meyer distinguishes her version of Cinderella in several ways. Cinder is a direct contrast to Cinderella, who is traditionally written as passive and a pretty face. Cinderella in the original fairytale gets lucky and catches Prince Charming’s eyes without doing much work on her own, while Cinder, a cyborg, knows her place in society and knows that if she wants freedom then she will have to get it herself. Cinderella adaptations usually have her dealing with her wicked stepsister(s), but in Cinder, as mentioned above, her stepsister is her friend. Cinder can experience the love of someone who can see her as human in a way much of society doesn’t, showing that Cinder, despite her metal parts, is still human and has needs such as love and safety that have to be fulfilled. Lastly and this is the part that is a spoiler. Please highlight the text below to view.

[Cinder’s Prince Charming is Prince Kai, but even upon meeting, this doesn’t guarantee that they will have a happy ending. Kai is forced to choose between his country and the girl he has grown to love. He is flawed and human, serving as a lesson to Cinder not to blindly trust a person she meets and to not let the illusion of beauty hide another’s blemishes.Kai rejects Cinder, leaving her heartbroken and sentencing her to torture and death, something he has prior knowledge about. ] Marissa Meyer’s Cinder sets itself apart from the other Cinderella adaptations by circumventing the usual tropes and twisting them to make the fairytale her own.

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Reader’s Annotation

Cinder is a cyborg mechanic living with her nice stepsister and evil stepmother, a Cinderella remix in everything but appearance, ability, and luck. She encounters her Prince Charming, Prince Kai, but is swept into the country’s fight against the dangerous people of the Moon and learns that she will have to fight for herself if she wants to be free.

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About the Author

One of my first spoken words was “story” (right along with “bath” and “cookie”), my favorite toy as an infant was a soft, squishable book, andI’ve wanted to be a writer since I first realized such a job existed.

When I was fourteen my best friend introduced me to anime and fanfiction—over the years I would complete over forty Sailor Moon fanfics under the penname Alicia Blade. Thoseso inclined can still findmyfirst stories at fanfiction.net. Writing fanficturned outto beawesome fun and brought me in contact with an amazing group of fanfiction readers and writers. As Alicia Blade, I also had a novelette, “The Phantom of Linkshire Manor,” published in the gothic romance anthology Bound in Skin (CatsCurious Press, 2007).

When I was sixteen I worked at The Old Spaghetti Factory in Tacoma, Washington, affectionately termed “The Spag.” (Random factoid: This is also the restaurant where my parents met some 25 years before.) I attended Pacific Lutheran University where I sorted mail that came to the dorm, carted tables and chairs around campus, and took writing classes, eventually earning a Bachelor’s degree in Creative Writing and Children’s Literature. Knowing I wanted a career in books, I would also go on to receive a Master’s degree in Publishing from Pace University (which you can learn more abouthere). After graduation, I worked as an editor in Seattle for a while before becoming a freelance typesetter and proofreader.

Then, day of days, someone thought it would be a good idea to give me a book deal, so I became a full-time writer. CINDER was my first completed novel, though I have an adorable collection of unfinished ones lying around, too.

I married my husband in 2011, two months before the release ofCinder,and we adopted our two beautiful twin daughters, Sloane and Delaney, in 2015. Reading lots and lots of bedtime stories is most definitely a new favorite pastime.

Source: Marissa Meyer’s website

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Genre: Fantasy

Booktalking Ideas: Connection to Cinderella

Reading Level/Interest Age:

Challenge Issues: racism, synthetic body parts

Challenge Issue Resources

Why Include This Book?

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Bibliographical Information

Source: Mars

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Plot Summary

“But now your mess is my mess, too.” He tilted his head towards Yadriel and spoke softly. “It’s bound to be easier if we’re both cleaning it up, right?”

Cemetery Boys is a foray into the Latinx culture–the nuclear family structure, large family gatherings, sticking to old traditions, and remembering the dead. Yadriel is a trans boy who struggles with his traditional family accepting his gender. He wants to prove himself as a true brujo, which is traditionally only male, and with a slow-to-change family, they are hesitant to let Yadriel perform the ritual. Yadriel and his cousin, Maritza, do the ritual anyway, trying to summon the ghost of his cousin who had been murdered. Except Yadriel summons someone else instead, Julian Diaz, the bad boy from Yadriel’s school. Julian is fierce even as a spirit, refusing to die without a fight. He intends to discover what happened to make him a ghost and drags Yadriel along for the ride. But as they spend more and more time together, Yadriel grows closer to Julian, even as he knows that the only path left for Julian is to be set free.

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Critical Evaluation

“But now your mess is my mess, too.” He tilted his head towards Yadriel and spoke softly. “It’s bound to be easier if we’re both cleaning it up, right?”

Cemetery Boys is a foray into Latinx culture: the nuclear family structure, large family gatherings, sticking to old traditions, and remembering the dead. Yadriel, a trans body, is itching to be seen as a brujo by his family and his own eyes. A brujo is considered a male’s position, but Yadriel who identifies as male doesn’t qualify as his family doesn’t understand his gender identity, stuck amongst their old traditions. Leading up to Dia de los Muertos, Yadriel’s cousin, Miguel, is murdered, which has Yadriel and his trusty friend and cousin, Maritza, looking for the body to release Miguel’s spirit. But Yadriel accidentally releases Julian Diaz, considered a delinquent at his school. Julian is fierce, unwilling to leave until he figures out what happened to him and until he sees that his friends, his found family are alright. As time passes, Yadriel feels a connection with Julian and it becomes harder and harder for him to think of releasing Julian.

Julian Diaz is definitely a multi-faceted character. Written off as a bad kid when Julian, verified by Thomas himself, was actually living with undiagnosed ADHD and coupled with the fact that Julian is a person of color, it makes Julian a prime example of the type of kids that the education systems leave behind. Even with the small glimpse into the world of Julian and his friends, Yadriel and the reader can see how it mirrors the BIPOC experience under the American school system. Because Julian and his friends cannot fit into certain boxes, they are labeled as a “problem” and cast aside in favor of their white counterparts. It speaks of how shared trauma brings people together because Julian and his friends are extremely loyal to one other, a found family that is fiercely protective of each other.

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Reader’s Annotation

Yadriel is looking to prove himself as a brujo and sets out to solve the mystery of his cousin’s murder, but he releases the spirit of Julian Diaz, his high school’s resident bad boy, instead. As Yadriel follows through with Julian’s wishes of figuring out his own happenings and checking up on his friends, Yadriel finds himself drawn to Julian and finds it harder and harder to let Julian go.

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About the Author

Genre: LGBTQ+, Romance, Paranormal

Booktalking Idea: Deep dive into brujos & Latinx culture, Dia de los Muertos celebration and bringing in a Latinx person to help facilitate the making of sugar skulls

Reading Level/Interest Age: Grade 9 and up.

Challenge Issue: magic, transgender character, transphobia, death, gender dysphoria

Challenge Issue Resources

Why Include This Book?

Cemetery Boys is an own-voices novel written by Aidan Thomas. The storyline is rich and compelling, exploring the depths of Latinx culture and the LGBTQ+ experience in more traditional families. I think this book is important for people to read not just if they are Latinx or transgender, but also just as a window into what other people may experience.

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Bibliographical Information

Plot Summary

The Inheritance Games is the story of Avery Grambs who is caught in the middle of a game. She is a girl who doesn’t quite have a place where she belongs but is trying her best with what she is given. Before the shocking announcement, Avery had a few simple goals: get through high school, win a scholarship, and leave. Now, she is embroiled in a race against the four Hawthorne grandsons, each equally brilliant and charismatic in their own ways. The Hawthorne House is the center of the game, where there are secret passages, puzzles, riddles, and codes in every room. Avery has found an enemy in the heir apparent, Grayson Hawthorne, who is absolutely sure that she is a con artist. Jameson, his brother, sees Avery as a mystery to pick apart. Thrown into a world of wealth and privilege like nothing she has ever known, Avery will have to use her clever mind to navigate the perilous encounters with the Hawthornes to survive and hopefully, get the fortune that she may not deserve but definitely needs.

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Critical Evaluation

He left you the fortune, Avery, and all he left us is you.

The Inheritance Games is a Cinderella story and a Knives Out-esque plot all rolled in one. Avery Grambs is a regular teenager at first glance, but she hides her struggles with poverty and finding a home behind a veil of intelligence and determination. She is so different from the Hawthorne brothers she finds herself in competition with–for their own fortune, no less. Avery is poor, living out of her car sometimes, whereas the Hawthornes are living in luxury day in and day out without appreciation for what they have. They feel entitled to their inheritance, spurred on by their other relatives, to disparage the usurper, but Avery is clever and desperate for money, so she takes on the challenge left by Tobias Hawthorne.

Barnes explores the dynamics between Avery and the Hawthorne brothers by their interactions. Xander and Nash are two brothers who want to stay out of the game, only interested in watching the drama unfold. Jamesons and Grayson, who was the heir apparent before Avery came into the picture, are racing against time to claim what is rightfully theirs. Except Jameson and Grayson become intangled with Avery and her them in a love triangle, however Avery, being the clever girl that she is, doesn’t let her emotions get the better of her and works to solve the puzzles and play the game even as her attraction grows for both of the boys. The Inheritance Games is a story of identity–learning that the person you were raised to be and the person that you want to be are not always the same and the shallow things such as wealth do not make a person.

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Reader’s Annotation

In a wild turn of events, Avery Grambs from Connecticut is set to inherit the fortune of Tobias Hawthorne, the richest man in Texas, and ousts the four Hawthorne brothers who were thought to be the true heirs. Avery is racing against the Hawthornes to play Tobias’ game, but will she be able to get the fortune or will her heart by stolen first?

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About the Author

Jennifer Lynn Barnes (who mostly goes by Jen) is the author of more than a dozen critically acclaimed young adult novels. She has advanced degrees in psychology, psychiatry, and cognitive science, including graduate degrees from Cambridge University, where she was a Fulbright Scholar, and Yale University, where she received her Ph.D. in 2012. Jen wrote her first published novel when she was nineteen-years-old and sold her first five books while still in college. In additional to writing YA novels, Jen has also written original pilot scripts for television networks like USA and MTV, and she is one of the world’s leading experts on the psychology of fandom and the cognitive science of fiction and the imagination more broadly. Jen is an Associate Professor at the University of Oklahoma, where she holds a dual appointment in Psychology and Professional Writing.

Source: Jennifer Lynn Barnes’ website

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Genre: Mystery, Thriller

Booktalking Ideas: Puzzles / Mystery, Escape Room

Reading Level/Interest Age: Grade 7 and up.

Challenge Issue: poverty, homeless people

Challenge Issue Resources

Why Include This Book?

A rags to riches story where a girl can stick it to the rich? Count me in.

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Let them start their dreadful wars, let destruction rain down, and let plague sweep through, but I will still be here, doing my work, holding humankind together with love like this.

– Aphrodite, Lovely War

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Bibliographical Information

Plot Summary

Aphrodite is called to trial for her constant infidelity with Ares, the god of war. Caught in a trap set by her husband, Hephaestus, Aphrodite is forced to explain her betrayal and why she continues to stray from her husband’s side. Aphrodite uses the story of four mortals– James and Hazel, Aubrey and Colette–during World War II whose lives show why love is constantly drawn to war.

James and Hazel meet on the cusp of James being sent to France to fight. They are smitten with some nudging from Aphrodite and spends a week together, before their tear-filled goodbye. James becomes acquainted with a gun and the battlefield, while Hazel, unwilling to sit still at home, signs up as a volunteer for the YMCA in France. Stationed at the Camp Saint-Nazaire, Hazel meets Colette, another volunteer from Belgium, with a beautiful singing voice, and Aubrey, a brilliant jazz musician from Harlem.

Colette’s story is wrought by tragedy, German forces killing her entire family and her love, Stephane, while Aubrey fights the prevalent racism for being a Black man. The two meet and are drawn to one another through their love for music. But their relationship draws the ire of those around them–Aubrey leaves camp, while Colette and Hazel are dismissed from their position.

The war continues and predictably, tragedy strikes when James experiences shell shock and is sent home. His relationship with Hazel is tumultuous as he has fundamentally changed from the sweet, young lad from before.

Lovely War chronicles the life of four mortals, told by Aphrodite as a means to explain her infidelity. Why does Aphrodite choose to tell their stories, instead of her own? If she is to be freed from her crimes, what will become of her and her husband?

In a story where gods seem incapable of love and mortals live tragically short but meaningful lives, what draws Aphrodite to mortal love?

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Critical Evaluation

Even Greek gods and goddesses yearn for love..

Julie Berry’s writing is exquisite and for all intents and purposes, not all that flowery, but it captures the essence and soul of the characters. Aubrey, Colette, Hazel, and James are all endearing characters. Their romance may have started out quick, but I think it’s the taste of almost that cinches it in. It’s the taste of almost being able to kiss the girl, almost getting her letter, almost being the one to die, that really seals the deal. Their love is so tender and passionate and sweet that leaves an ache in the reader’s heart. The contrast between the love between mortals and the supposed inability of immortals, like gods and goddesses, to do the same is a theme revisited again and again. It intercuts the main story of the four characters to remind the readers that this is still ultimately a story of goddess on trial and how she is using their story as a way to justify her actions. Ares, the god who she had been caught having an affair with, scoffed at her yearning for love. He could not understand why she would want something so fragile when immortals are beings are above such things. The other gods in attendance–Hades and Hephaestus–thought similarly to Ares, until they heard the entirety of Aphrodite’s story. Despite the tragedy that befalls each character–James experiencing shell shock and coming home to a Hazel that he couldn’t bear to be with, Collete and Aubrey’s relationship in light of the era-typical racism–there does exist a happy ending. Julie Berry artfully wraps up their stories in a way that shows that love is worth all of the trouble. This leads to Hades clearing Aphordite of her crimes, but it still remained that immortals are not ones to love. Hephaestus, enamored with his wife’s story, had discovered a different, softer side to Aphordite and sought to convince her that the type of love mortals is possible. Immortals, despite what they may seem to be, are not perfect and if mortals are inhernetly flawed and imperfect, then why couldn’t immortals be able to experience that wonderful, redemptive love?

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Reader’s Annotation

Caught red-handed for having an affair with Ares, Aphrodite is forced to stand trial in front of Hades and Hephaestus. To defend her actions and show why exactly love is never far from war, she weaves a tale of four mortals-James, Hazel, Collette, and Aubrey–and the love that blossoms between them.

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About the Author

Genre: Historical Romance

Booktalking Idea: Greek mythology, WWII

Reading Level/Interest Age: Ages 13 and up.

Challenge Issues: war, mythology, racism

Challenge Issue Resources

Why Include This Book?

This book has a special place in my heart. It was so wonderful that I ended up reading the book twice over. It is the contrast between love and war, how the story was framed as a story told by Aphrodite who yearns for redemptive love.

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