Review: "Suffer a Witch" by Joy McCullough

Suffer a Witch by Joy McCullough
Published August 2026 via Dutton Books for Young Readers
★★★★

Admit it, the priests told you, and twelve years was old enough for you to know you must listen to church authorities. Old enough to know the truth didn't matter anyway. Old enough to know someone had to pay for a boy's wounded pride. (loc. 669*)

McCullough was a young teenager, a preacher's daughter, when a new youth pastor was hired at her father's church. That is not the point she describes as the tipping point, the moment when things could have been different—but fundamentally, this pastor who groomed her and sexually assaulted her tipped her life upside down. And: He was not subtle. And: Nobody spoke up, not when it was McCullough and not when it was her sister and not when it was the next girl behind closed doors with the youth pastor.

The story is devastating. McCullough is so clear about what happened and the ways in which she was silenced, both then and later; also the ways in which it affected her, then and later. (I won't get into the family parts of things here, but...if she's not still angry, she's a more forgiving person than I.) Her story comes in conversation with women accused of witchcraft—in Salem, in Sweden, in Scotland, beyond. (See the quotation up top.) It's also in conversation, at times, with itself: I do say that, in a previous draft, in a poem my editor says / isn't quite landing (loc. 855).

I had some trouble with the story format—verse works best for me when I can't just read it as sentences flowing one into another with extra line breaks, and when I have to slow down and reread to get all of the nuance and wordplay. While there is some play of structure and word choice here, for large parts of the book I was able to just read straight through. This is more personal preference than anything, but I probably would have found this a better fit for me in a different format (more prose, or a different style of poetry, or maybe a play). That said, maybe also worth noting that the formatting wasn't quite right on my Kindle (I read an ARC and assume this will work better in the final version, so not something to worry about), and if I'd realized earlier I would have switched to reading on my phone, where things like page breaks came across more clearly. And if you like your poetry on the more straightforward side, this is likely to be a better fit for you.

3.5 stars; structure wasn't for me, but the story is powerful and important, and I love the tie-ins to history. At one point McCullough mentions a previous book being called "timely" when it came out in 2018, and she notes that it was timely then and now and in the 1970s and in the 1610s and in so many years in between, and this feels the same way. It's a timely book, published now when so many stories have been told about abuse within churches and religion (and when restrictive evangelical religion is doing its best to take over the US), but it also would have been timely five years ago or ten or fifty, and I expect it will be timely still some years from now.

*Quotes are from an ARC and may not be final.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

Review: "Alchemy of Souls" by Adriana Mather

Alchemy of Souls by Adriana Mather
Published August 2026 via Feiwel & Friends
★★★

Grayson wants to bring down his uncle. Eloise wants a better life for her family. They've been in each other's orbit for years, but kept their distance...until they have no choice but to work together to ensure their mutual survival.

I had it in my head that this would be a boarding school book, but it's more of a restrictive college with boarding school rules (curfew, very limited freedoms, sneaking out to drink, etc.) setting. This is a highly regulated society with strict class division, which plays a huge role. Think dystopia books from the early 2010s; Eloise and her family are on the poverty track with very limited options for upward trajectory, while Grayson's family is high up in the food chain and determined to keep it that way.

I loved the premise (and the cover!) but could have used a bit more by way of worldbuilding. It was late in the book before I got a sense of what the wards were, and I never did figure out why Eloise's bestie from Maine has an aggressive Irish(?) accent. (Maggie doesn't serve a whole lot of purpose in the book—she's mostly accent and Eloise feeling guilty that she doesn't have time to hang out with Maggie because she's trying to save her own life.) I'd also be curious to know more about how the wards, which seem to have quite strict and limited borders, work across continents, and what exactly they do beyond keep out the "riffraff".

This is YA, so there's a romance; it's not really my jam, but it'll be good for readers who like enemies-to-lovers and a pretty high level of knight-in-shining-armor heroics. I wondered for a while whether this might be the first in a triology (again: dystopia books from the early 2010s!), but things feel fairly wrapped up by the end, so while it's possible that it'll spin off in other directions (or with other characters?), this makes for a quick read on its own.

Thanks to the author and publisher for inviting me to read a review copy through NetGalley.

Review: "Stepping Up" by Kiara Valdez, illustrated by Diana Tsai Santos

Stepping Up by Kiara Valdez, illustrated by Diana Tsai Santos
Published August 2026 via HarperAlley
★★★★

Andover was an opportunity Valdez couldn't pass up—an excellent education, a bit of breathing room from a sometimes complicated home life, the promise of future opportunities. It was also a place where she did not fit the mold, and where students who did fit the mold kept reminding her of that...and a place where, eventually, she found her people.

There are relatively few boarding school memoirs out there (though plenty of fiction!), and even fewer written by people who were minority students. For Valdez, Andover represented a certain amount of culture shock—her family and friends did not have the money to go to Broadway shows, or buy the new iPhone, or take fancy vacations; Andover was also way Whiter than she was used to. (Wikipedia says that Andover is more racially diverse than Massachusetts generally, but still very different from Valdez's New York.)

For the most part, Valdez writes Andover as something that was for her a good experience—she made close friends and tried things she wouldn't otherwise have had the opportunity to do. (And, well, my own boarding school was very different from the prep school environment of Andover, but boarding school is an experience that is really like none other.) There are few big dramas here, and certainly not any involving Valdez directly. This isn't always exciting as far as book plots go, but I can't object because 1) that's certainly better for Valdez! and 2) honestly, I'm still looking for a boarding school book that echoes my own experience, and while this isn't it (for myriad reasons, most of which I knew going in), this does feel like much more a reflection of, well, a normal experience of boarding school. What Valdez did experience, over and over again, were microaggressions—sometimes unthinking ones and sometimes, ah, they were not unthinking. (And not so micro.) I can imagine this being a really valuable book for a teenager who is changing environments in the way that Valdez did, not necessarily to boarding school but...things along those lines.

As an aside, I loved the inclusion of step here—it's something I haven't seen performed in a very long while, and it was so lovely to see as an important part of Valdez's experience at Andover. I don't know that much about step, so I'd have loved a bit more history here, but it's a nice plot point. A bit more about Valdez's family also would have been interesting, though that may not have been somewhere she wanted to go for any number of reasons, which is of course entirely fair.

3.5 stars; this is one I'd like to see in a lot of high school libraries.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

Review: "Gingerbread Bones" by Lindsay Lovise

Gingerbread Bones by Lindsay Lovise
Published August 2026 via Entangled: Mayhem Books
★★★★

Georgie knows exactly why she and her brother are two of the teenagers selected to take part in a reality TV program that drops a group of "troubled" teenagers in the woods and forces them to learn some survival skills and adapt: Their parenting-influencer stepmother is the one who conceived of the show, and that same stepmother hates them. Georgie figures they can get through a week or two in the Maine woods, and they'll be eighteen and out of the house soon enough...but what she doesn't know is that "learn some survival skills" is about to get really, really literal.

Everyone thinks Ashley is so kind and wholesome, when really she's the razor blade hidden in the Halloween candy. (loc. 139*)

I picked this one up for the woods: I love me an everyone-might-die murder story set in the woods, because who doesn't? (Don't answer that.) What ended up interesting me most, though, is the fact that all of these teenagers have been labelled as "troubled". They've been cast for drama, of course; every one of them has their own backstory and their own problems. Every one of them is also likely to be, in the eyes of the show and the public, a perpetrator rather than a victim. Their voices don't count. No matter what happens.

We are disposable. And I'm afraid [the production company] knows it. (loc. 2362)

The romance didn't (surprise!) interest me much, but I loved how much the characters—well, mostly the teenagers—were allowed to grow throughout the book. Early on, especially, they're all guarded and angry and not happy to be there. And certainly they don't get any happier to be out in the woods; the woods make sure of that. But I've read too many mysteries (written for teenagers and adults alike) in which virtually every character is so perfectly awful that I'm just hoping that their death will come sooner rather than later, and Gingerbread Bones sees that and steers mindfully away from it.

There's a paranormal element, which is not generally my jam; entirely personal preference, but I like it better when the big bads are all things that can happen in real life. Paranormal stories just don't give me that visceral thrill. That said, I did know going in that there was a paranormal element, which helped, and that part of things was done well. There's a twist toward the end that I had half guessed at, but in a shape that I couldn't have known to guess at, which was great. All in all, a speedy read that will be perfect for autumn when the weather cools down a bit.

*Quotes are from an ARC and may not be final.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

Review: "The Ginghams" by T.C. Kemper

The Ginghams by T.C. Kemper
Published July 2026 via Henry Holt and Co.
★★★★

Joni's excited to get home from camp and see her best friend, May, again—except, when she gets home, May has changed. The town has changed. And not, Joni fears, for the better.

Now, I read this because—bear with me—I've been down a trad-wife-thriller rabbit hole lately, and something told me that this might be the middle grade version of that. And I was right, or right enough for my (very arbitrary) purposes, which made this a super fun comparison point.

As a middle grade read, this feels just right. Joni is stubborn and sometimes a bit rash, but her heart is in the right place. There's a clear villain (we'll come back to this in a moment), and a fair amount of action, including a bit of blood (the ears, oh gosh), and a librarian who is part of the resistance, as a middle school librarian should be. I'm reminded a bit of Eventown, though The Ginghams is a fair bit darker.

I spent a fair amount of time thinking, while reading this, about ways in which this book might be different if it were written for an older audience. The first thing is religion—there's no mention of religion here, though there are clear influences from certain parts of white American evangelical Christianity (and of course the Stepford wives). In that way the book feels a bit sanitized for a younger audience, but in a way that is fair. Interesting to see, though, that one of Joni's friends is queer-coded without being explicitly identified as gay, and that's something that the bad guys pick up on too (to them it's officially a problem of standing out, but we all know where their real prejudice lies...)

And the second thing is how the bad guys are structured. Again, The Ginghams has a pretty clear villain here, which feels appropriate for middle grade. It becomes obvious farily early that there's an element of force to the changes in town: the people taking on new views and new personalities do not have a choice in it. And yet again, I think this makes sense for a middle grade read. But there's an extent to which this makes it a much less alarming read for me as an adult—it's one thing to have one main bad guy who is controlling the people around him, one main bad guy who can be vanquished. In a book for older readers, I would expect much more of an element of choice to it—imagine how much more difficult it would be for characters to come out of this book knowing that their fathers and mothers and friends had chosen to go down this track. (Do I have to watch The Stepford Wives now? I've never seen it, and I don't know where it falls on this.) Women choosing to give up their rights and men choosing to exert total control on women and girls is far more terrifying than a clear bad guy who can be vanquished.

Because The Ginghams is a middle grade novel, this is all fine, of course; I'm pushing the boundaries of what is on topic because I have tangential interests! Given the recent rise of trad wife thrillers (and everything that is the contemporary mashup of politics and contemporary religion), I would not be surprised to see more along these lines in the near future.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

Review (Deutsch): "Eine Wichtige Entscheidung" von Irene Margil und Andreas Schlüter

Eine Wichtige Entscheidung von Irene Margil und Andreas Schlüter, gelesen von Henning Nöhren
Herausgegeben 2026 von Silberfisch
★★★

Yao liebt Fußball—und wenn er die Chance, in einem Fußball-Internat zu studieren, hat, kann er nicht "nein" sagen. (Seine Eltern denken anders...aber was für eine Aktionsgeschichte würden wir haben, wenn sie "nein" gesagt hätten?)

Dies war lebhaft und voller Energie, mit vielen Soundeffekten. Yao und seine neue Freunde sind grundsätzlich gute Kinder, aber sie sind Kinder, und ihre Energie braucht manchmal...Grenzen. (Lust auf eine Kissenschlacht?)

Es gibt nicht so viel Fußball in diesem Buch, aber das Buch ist kurz, und andere Bücher mit denselben Figuren folgen. (Ich hätte lieber zwei Erzähler:innen, wenn es mehr Mädchen in der Geschichte gibt—ein Mann und eine Frau—aber mit den verschiedenen Jungenfiguren kommt Nöhren gut zurecht.) Für sportliche Kinder wäre diese Buchreihe perfekt; es gibt Abenteuer und Action und ein bisschen Chaos.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley. Deutsch ist nicht meine Muttersprache, und alle Fehler sind meine eigenen.

Review (Deutsch): "Seaside Sisters: Lenes Inselcommerglück" von Mia Andersen

Seaside Sisters: Lenes Inselsommerglück von Mia Andersen, gelesen von Chantal Busse
Herausgegeben 2026 von Silberfisch
★★★★

Sommer ist hier, und Lene freut sich. Sie hat ihren Zwilling, ihre beste Freundin...und vielleicht ist es die Zeit, dass Max sie bemerken wird.

Seaside Sisters: Lenes Inselsommerglück war für mich ein fast perfektes Hörbuch—klare Stimme, nicht zu schnell, eine Geschichte, der ich ohne Probleme auf Deutsch folgen konnte. Lene und ihre Schwester und Freundinnen sind normale (junge) Teenager mit normalen Minidramen, und ich fand es echt super, dass die Dramen nicht zum Thema "schlechte Freundinnen" gehörten. Es gibt Missverständnisse, aber am Ende sind diese Mädchen gute Leute und versuchen, gute Freundinnen zu bleiben.

Es gibt natürlich "side plots" und Themen—Journalismus, Tourismus, Respekt vor Wildtieren, und so weiter. Eine gute Option für junge Leser und Leserinnen diesen Sommer. Ich würde das zweite Buch gern lesen.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley. Deutsch ist nicht meine Muttersprache, und alle Fehler sind meine eigenen.

Review: "Spindlewood" by Freddie Kölsch

 

Spindlewood by Freddie Kölsch
Published July 2026 via Balzer + Bray
★★★★

Lilac is the newest student at a secret boarding school for Seers—but there's just one problem. She isn't a Seer. She's never Seen a ghost in her life...and if she wants to stay in this new adventure, she'll have to keep everyone around her convinced that she can, in fact, See.

This makes for such a lively and compelling middle grade read. Lilac is great fun—she's book-smart but not always people-smart; she wants to be honest, but she also wants to stay at Spindlewood, and she's perfectly willing to engage in deception to do so; if she could See, she'd probably be near the top of her class, but...well, she can't. (There's a wry nod or two to the fact that Lilac, despite being the main character of this book, is not in fact the Chosen One...although I think we'll be learning more about Lilac's power, or lack thereof, in future books.)

I'd love to see more of the school and school grounds, but the cast is nicely diverse—a mix of ethnicities and body shapes and disabilities and genders and sexualities. I'm afraid Lilac does do one of my pet-peeve things in that she immediately identifies everyone by their correct gender, including the one character who is nonbinary (or at least uses they/them pronouns); as always, I am compelled to note that this isn't how it works, and I'd have been happier if she'd gotten it wrong and the character had said "Actually, these are my pronouns," and Lilac had had to course-correct. But it's a relatively minor thing in a book that is making a point to show a broad range of diversity.

There's also a rather arch narrator, and I am very curious to see what else might come out about the narrator as the series continues. It's very break-the-fourth-wall in places, and I kind of loved it because I don't read as much middle grade as I do books for a YA or adult audience, and it reminded me of the way that books for younger readers sometimes get away with more interesting structures than books for older readers—just like plays, I think, though I'm getting very off-topic here. Generally speaking I liked the characters, though. Lilac and her friend Emmanuelle have the most depth, but I really enjoyed the way they're good people but not too good and smart but not too smart. I hope the other characters get rounded out a bit in the next book, just because that'll complicate things even more.

So: engaging, smart, and inclusive; with any luck book two is already in the works, because I'd pick it up promptly.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

Review: "The Weight of One Pomegranate" by Brynne Rebele-Henry

The Weight of One Pomegrante by Brynne Rebele-Henry
Published July 2026 via Soho Teen
★★★

Isa's sister Eleni was her north star—but Eleni died recently, suddenly, unexpectedly, and her death has torn Isa's whole world apart. And to make matters worse, she's only now finding out just how much Eleni didn't tell her.

I read this largely on the strength of Rebele-Henry's Orpheus Girl. I'm cautious with books about grief these days, but I like a coming-of-age story and stories with queer characters, and, well, curiosity calls. Isa's grief is still new and raw, and she's still trying to understand her place in the world now that her sister is no longer there to show her the way.

Some mornings, when I wake up, I've forgotten. Then I swing open the bedroom door only to realize that it's not the door to our room anymore. And something dark and sharp edges its way into my throat and makes it hard to speak. It's like falling, the remembering. (loc. 49*)

That grief is visceral and real, but I struggled to connect with the characters in other ways. Isa's parents are shadows of themselves and whispers on the page (or, more often, off the page); she starts to understand her sexuality throughout the book, but it's unclear how close she really is to the person she likes and whether she really likes them or more the idea of them. I can read Isa as neurodivergent or as someone who simply hasn't found her people yet, and though it doesn't really matter for the purposes of the story, I'm left with a lot of questions. (There are some letters in the book, incidentally, one of which brings Isa some peace but for me again raises some questions.)

The language is lovely, and I do wonder whether I might take more away from this one if I come back to it in the future. Not a bad one to pick up for poetic writing and a quieter look at grief.

*Quotes are from an ARC and may not be final.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

Review (Deutsch): "Die romantischen Tragödien eines Drama Kings" von Harry Trevaldwyn

Die romantischen Tragödien eines Drama Kings von Harry Trevaldwyn
Übersetzt von Henriette Zeltner-Shane und Sylvia Bieker
Herausgegeben 2026 von Dragonfly
★★★★

Es ist ein neues Jahr, und Patch hat einen Plan: Jetzt ist das Jahr, dass er seinen ersten Freund finden wird...seinen ersten Kuss bekommen...und natürlich die Hauptrolle in dem Theaterstück gewinnen.

Auch natürlich: Nicht alles geht genau nach Plan.

"Drama King", sagt der Titel, und der Titel hat Recht. Patch hat viele Emotionen und viele Ideen und viel Persönlichkeit. Er ist ein echter Charakter, mit Ecken und Kanten; er macht nichts ruhig. Patch kann ganz schön anstrengend sein—aber er ist auch (normalerweise) ein guter Freund und jemand, der immer (okay, fast immer) das Richtige tun will.

Ich freue mich, dass ich nicht mehr Teenager bin. Es macht doch immer noch Spaß, Bücher über dramatische Teenager zu lesen, und Patch ist keine Ausnahme. Sein Herz ist (mehr oder weniger) an der richtigen Stelle, aber er ist immer noch jung und hat kein Augenmaß.

Diese Übersetzung passte mir (als eine nicht-flüssige Leserin) hervorragend: schnelllebig, mit unvergesslichen Charakteren und schlagfertigen Dialogen. Und hey! Ein neuer Zungenbrecher für mich: Auf den sieben Robbenklippen sitzen sieben Robbensippen, die sich in die Rippen stippen, bis sie von den Klippen kippen (loc. 3016). Sag das fünf Mal schnell!

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley. Quotes are from an ARC and may not be final. Deutsch ist nicht meine Muttersprache, und alle Fehler sind meine eigenen.

Review: "We Became Wild" by H.D. Carver

We Became Wild by H.D. Carver
Published June 2026 via Norton Young Readers
★★★

Val is dead—and Lottie had a hand in it. Wracked with grief and guilt, she and her other best friend, Messina, set out on the Pacific Crest Trail, Val's ashes in tow, to escape their pasts, their demons, their home lives. Officially, they're hiking towards something. Unofficially...they both have a lot to run from.

I love a long hike and I love a long-hike book. Lottie and Messina don't set out on the PCT for themselves, exactly; it's something Val had dreamed of doing, and about their only consistent source of information is Val's annotated copy of Wild. They have packs full of supplies, but to say they go in unprepared is an understatement: They are dangerously unprepared, with a lack of knowledge that has potentially lethal consequences. They don't have a viable map; they're in the desert without sunscreen; they don't know how far they might have to walk without water or what a water cache is. The PCT is not for the faint of heart, and well, while neither Lottie nor Messina is the faint of heart, it's also not something that should be approached without forethought and preparation. And yet: Here they are.

This is not a light book. Quite aside from the girls' grief over the loss of Val, they have a lot of reasons to want out of their present-day lives—neither of them has a happy home life, and Messina in particular knows that going home is really not an option. The girls are best friends, but neither of them is in a position to trust anyone with their secrets; at most, they can acknowledge how much they haven't said. They become stronger on the PCT, stronger and to some degree more knowledgeable and more capable (though they're always pretty much flying by the seat of their pants), but the extent to which they become happier or learn to trust each other (or trust themselves!) more is limited at best.

It's messy. These girls' lives are messy, and not in a way that can be untangled through a restorative tromp through nature. (Don't we all wish!) Their physical experience is messy too; there's enough mention of vomit and farts and period-blood-as-warpaint that I checked to see if the writer was a man (old habit that I learned when I was reading Camino books by the handful—women and nonbinary people puke and fart and get horrific weeping blisters and so on, of course, but in my unscientific opinion they're less likely than cis men to write about those things in detail). I think I struggled a bit with both of these things; I really don't enjoy detailed discussion of bodily function (this isn't even that detailed, it's just pretty present), and I also wanted some emotional relief or levity. It makes some sense that there isn't that levity: Their best friend has just died! Messina is constantly looking over her shoulder in fear! They both badly need therapy and responsible role models and a promise of stability. (Also water and electrolytes, both of which are in short supply throughout the book.) In that context, it's probably not realistic to expect a great deal of levity and joy from them...just, when some things did get easier, it was so late in the book, and with so little that came before to indicate something positive to come. The messiness and darkness aren't bad things, and I'd certainly prefer a grungier take to one that is all sunshine and roses (and romance). In the end I'd probably call this a mood read; best if read when in the mood for trauma and grief and grit and grime.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

Review: "Good Luck, Babe!" by Erin Baldwin

Good Luck, Babe! by Erin Baldwin
Published June 2026 via Viking Books for Young Readers
★★★★

Until nine months ago, Noelle and Yumi were inseparable. Then they kissed, and it torpedoed their friendship. But now a reality-show application they sent in before they fell out has come back to haunt them—and because of events of the past nine months, Noelle really needs the prize money. So they're thrown together into a relationship that is strictly for the cameras...and for better or for worse.

I noted when I read Baldwin's first book that it was a delight to have YA enemies who are not awful to each other, and the same is true here. Yumi doesn't want anything to do with Noelle—but under the circumstances she'll do what it takes to work together anyway. They still know each other; if you asked either of them who their person is, they might no longer admit it, but they both know who would come to mind. And more than that, there are no real villains here: There are competitors who Noelle and Yumi don't like, and they're both vividly aware that the reality show has drama rather than their best interests at heart, but the stakes of the story don't come from evil villains.

There are some other small things that could be overdone but that the book turns on its head: Early on, for example, Noelle is given something with intensely personal value. I immediately worried that she'd lose it on the competition—but before I could worry too much about that, she brings that up as a concern, and she's reminded that it is only a thing and it will be okay if she loses it. Not that she won't lose it; that the world will not stop spinning if she does. This is a small thing, but I think it's illustrative of the way the book says "we see those standard plotlines, and we're taking a tangent, thanks".

The plot is lively (though I did spend some time wondering about the environmental impact on, and ethics of, this show), with entertaining side characters and main characters who are easy to root for. I could have used a bit more to the conversation about how the relationship torpedo went down, and also a bit more about how financial matters shook out in the end. But overall? A delight; well worth reading.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

Review: Short story: "Safe Harbor" by Nicola Yoon and David Yoon

Safe Harbor by Nicola Yoon and David Yoon
Published June 2026 via Amazon Original Stories

Isabel isn't sure of much, but she is sure that she doesn't want to be at the Safe Harbor therapy program. Her parents' divorce is bad enough; having to discuss it with other teenagers whose families are going through divorce is adding insult to injury.

The authors do a good job of differentiating the various characters throughout the story, which is impressive given the length of the story and that almost all the characters are introduced pretty much all at once at the beginning. I'm not wildly impressed by the therapist in the story; on the one hand, she's human, which is great (I do not stan Miracle Therapists in books), but on the other hand, I found her pretty unprofessional. Nice to see the teenagers connecting anyway, and finding ways to bring their walls down a bit.

Reading short stories from this collection has been super interesting, because many of the authors are ones whose books I've seen but not (yet) read; nice to get a chance to try them out.

Thanks to the authors and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

Review: Short story: "Winter Breakage" by David Levithan

Winter Breakage by David Levithan
Published June 2026 via Amazon Original Stories

It's winter break, and Eric is meeting up with his college friends in New York. He likes them (mostly), but he still feels like an odd one out...like maybe none of them has quite seen him yet.

This makes for a sweet and very relatable short story. I wonder how many people have felt just the same way as Eric—these are sort of his friends by default, and he's not sure if he really fits in, if they actually like him or if he's just the one tagging along. And that feeling when you think you've finally found someone you actually click with!

I quite liked the sense that there could be something romantic or there could be something platonic—or, I guess that's not entirely accurate; maybe it's more the reminder that a fledgling friendship can feel as exciting and daunting as a fledgling romance. This felt just right for a short story, too; satisfying without inspiring a wish that it were longer.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

Review: Short story: "The Price of Admission" by Dustin Thao

The Price of Admission by Dustin Thao
Published June 2026 via Amazon Original Stories

Evan's life isn't easy, but he makes do: between scholarships and part-time jobs, he's confident that he can move up in the world and fulfill his mother's dreams for him. And there's a boy—one who comes from an entirely different world, but who seems to see Evan for who he is...at least, behind closed doors.

This is one in a collection of coming-of-age stories, and one of the most interesting things about it is the ambiguity of the role of Dalton, that boy from a different world, for so much of the book. Evan is not ashamed of who he is or who his family are or the world he comes from (immigrant background, tight financial situation), but he's aware that Dalton might have reservations about their different financial backgrounds, and he responds accordingly, bending over backwards to fit better into Dalton's world. I wondered, for much of the story, how far he might be willing to go to excuse Dalton's behaviour, and at what point one of the boys would have to change their tune.

The telling is a little bit removed—the story isn't long, but it covers a significant chunk of time, so a lot of the events of the story are told through summary rather than scene. I think I might have preferred to see fewer events, but in more detail; or maybe just a longer work where the individual elements of the book could be given a bit more room to breathe. (Also interesting, in the end, who Evan chooses to criticise, and what type of work he chooses to pursue in the long run; I'd have loved to see that explored more.) Still, it explores interesting themes and allows most of the characters to have some complexity.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

Review: Short story: "Back to You" by Ann Liang

Back to You by Ann Liang
Published June 2026 via Amazon Original Stories

Allison has done all the "right" things—competitive degree, high grades, prestigious job...and she's miserable. And maybe she wouldn't act upon that, but then there's a little incident with a late-night snack, and suddenly she finds herself with a chance to redo things...

I've read a few of Liang's novels, so it was interesting to pick up this short story for a change. For a moment I thought the book would be adult fiction, as, when the book opens, Allison is working her first job out of college...but then we got back into a more YA feel. It has a bit of a sliding-doors sense, or at least a do-over sense.

One quibble: Allison never really questions her do-over. This makes some sense in a short story (there's only so much room to figure out what might happen if two different timelines), but as someone who really loves a sliding-doors story (or, for that matter, a do-over story!), I would have liked to read something longer with this same premise. What if she had to choose? What if she didn't have to choose, but she did have to give up things she loved? What if her do-over were more temporary? Still cute, but I'd be really curious to see a longer-form version.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

Review: "Blood City Rollers: Move It or Bruise It" by VP Anderson and Tatiana Hill

Blood City Rollers: Move It or Bruise It by VP Anderson and Tatiana Hill
Published January 2026 via Labyrinth Road
★★★

The Blood City Rollers are back at last. This second instalment finds Mina searching desperately for her missing team...who eventually show up with a new home, but also some complications.

These books are super cute, but I find the story a little lacking. I thought the same in book 1—I was so excited for the book (vampires playing roller derby? yes please), but I was left wanting a lot more detail. Why is derby the most important thing in these vampires' unlives? When they find a new place, they give themselves about eight hours to make it safe for vampires to sleep in during the day...and also to lay their new track. I want to know what the stakes are for these vampires, other than being able to say that they've won, and what they do with their time other than play derby.

There are one-time stakes for the match this book focuses on. I'm not sure I love the outcome—lots more new characters, but the books are short, and I already don't have a great handle on the existing characters (not enough time and space for significant character development).

Still fun, and I'll still eagerly read future books, but Roller Girl would be my go-to roller derby graphic novels.

Review: "Lost in Taiwan" by Mark Crilley

Lost in Taiwan by Mark Crilley
Published May 2023 via Little, Brown Ink
★★★

In which a jaded teenaged boy is sent to Taiwan to stay with his brother, only he finds himself lost and with no way home...

I found this to be...okay. I've never been to Taiwan and like reading books set in places I've never visited, so this was something of a no-brainer. Plus, I liked some things about Crilley's art in My Last Summer with Cass, and art can make or break a graphic novel.

But the plot felt kind of...teenage boy wet dream? Like, I can see what Paul sees in Peijing: She's cute and nice and drives a little too fast and is happy to shepherd him around and show him the best of Taiwan and put up with his ignorance and flirt with him. But I have a harder time seeing what Peijing sees in Paul. Granted, the reader sees more of him than Peijing does—we see that at the beginning of the book, he's a rude dweeb who is hell-bent on throwing away the chance to explore part of a foreign country. He's polite to Peijing, and fairly quickly starts to see the value of new experiences, but other than Paul saying "yes, go for your dreams"...what is she getting out of their budding relationship? She's getting a boy who calls her "exotic" and thinks it's a compliment (though he does recognize the error of his ways and apologize); a boy who admits that he puts no effort into relationships and instead cuts out the moment things get rough; a boy who is foreign and thus perhaps exciting to her but really doesn't seem to bring much else to the table.

The art is indeed pretty (though I don't really understand why Peijing's irises are often so much bigger than Paul's—the Disney effect, where hot girls have enormous eyes and the boys have normal eyes?). The glimpse at Taiwan is nice, and I read this while visiting my in-laws in India, so I could relate to some of the cultural disconnects. But...the plot is thin, and Paul's character development is too abrupt for me to trust that it'll last. Nice little romance for them, but hopefully it fizzles out and Peijing can find herself someone who knows better to think that his culture is the "normal" one and hers is the "exotic" one.

Review: "Queerleaders" by Olivia Cole and Ashley Woodfolk

Queerleaders by Olivia Cole and Ashley Woodfolk
Published May 2026 via Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
★★★★

They're here, they're queer, and they're ready to cheer...whether or not the local stick-up-their-bums crowd has anything to say about it.

This is a delightful take on Bring It On—or, I guess I shouldn't say it's a take on Bring It On; it's more accurate to say that there are plenty of sly nods to the classic (fewer, unfortunately, to But I'm a Cheerleader...but I can't have everything). This is a squad that's out and proud and also good at what they do. And we've come a long way in the last quarter-century(!!), which means that they're a team that has the good sense to be supportive of each other, and not food-shame or body-shame, and skip as much of the mean-girl drama as possible. And now they just need to spin that into a good showing at Nationals...

So it's a lot of fun. There's a conservative media personality who tries to make a stink (I'm reminded of the time the college conservatives brought Ann Coulter to my college, ugh), and I would say she's over the top, but...Ann Coulter. Lots of Big Personalities, but for the most part they manage to be Big Personalities who try to bring out the best in each other. There is of course a romance, and while Kendall and Davie manage to make things a little more angsty than strictly necessary (they're teenagers; it's allowed), I genuinely liked both main characters (and the side characters), which made them easy to cheer root for.

One quibble: I found it hard to believe that a team that is regularly a contender at Nationals—which are, let's be honest, a big deal—would struggle so much to find qualified, or even adequate, new cheerleaders. Kendall and her sister swoop in at just the right time...and, to be fair, the way things play out here makes sense in the context of Bring It On. But I honestly think that a team good enough to contend (and to know that they'll contend) at Nationals would have hopefuls moving into the school district, or driving/flying in to try out with a parental pledge that they'll move if they get on the team (because this is a thing in sports), or frankly the team having the ability to recruit from other schools or at least have a middle-school-to-high-school cheer pipeline. And probably a JV squad, for that matter. Have you seen the stuff top competitive cheerleaders do? They are not falling into those athletic feats by chance (or, for that matter, changing things at the last minute). It's not a huge deal (again: Bring It On context), but just something that made me think.

And now if you'll excuse me, I have to go convince my very disinterested partner that it is time to watch Bring It On, and also But I'm a Cheerleader...

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

Review: "Calling Me Home" by Laurin Becker Macios

 

Calling Me Home by Laurin Becker Macios
Published May 2026 via Holiday House
★★★★

Jenny is fresh out of high school and off to Europe for the summer. It's not her first time in Europe, but it is her first time traveling alone, on her own terms, on her own schedule. It's not quite what she expected...and then she changes the parameters, and the parameters change themselves, and suddenly her expectations of her future change.

I had nowhere else to go, just a goal / of communing with the caryatids, of letting / my eyes wander among the milk-white stones / that dotted the wild grass—lime-green, overgrown, / sun-yellow blooms holding their own against / the Mediterranean breeze. (53*)

Verse made this a very quick read—I probably should have spread it out over two days, but I was invested enough to read straight through. Jenny is a compelling character, and seeing her grow is great. Initially she thinks her summer story is going to be defined by going off plan and doing her backpacking with a little more spontaneity than she'd expected, but eventually she has much bigger decisions to make and bigger shifts in her understanding of herself.

Perhaps my favorite thing: There's quite a lot of backstory (Jenny's nomadic childhood, previous relationships), but it's slipped in quietly; although any of those things could be a story in themselves, here they're used to flesh out the story and make more sense of Jenny's actions and reactions.

I hope this one makes it into a lot of high school libraries.

*Quotes are from an ARC and may not be final.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.