Review: "A Year Without Home" by V.T. Bidania

A Year Without Home by V.T. Bidania
Published January 2026 via Nancy Paulsen Books
★★★★

1970s Laos: Home is the only place Gao Sheng has ever wanted to be—but with the end of the Vietnam War and the withdrawal of the American troops comes a different kind of instability, and her family has no choice but to flee.

A Year Without Home is a fictionalized version of Bidania's family's story, told from the perspective of her older sister. Despite the dramatic setting and context (to say nothing of near misses), it's a relatively quiet story; Gao Sheng and her family are incredibly fortunate (insofar as one can be fortunate while also having to flee one's home) to get out before things get even worse, but "fortunate" still means living in various refugee camps with very little agency and very few opportunities and, sometimes, not so much as a roof over their heads.

This is middle grade, but I think it might work just as well or better for YA readers who are interested in something that's largely romance-free. Gao Sheng has so much more to worry about than an eleven-year-old should have to consider, but there are lots of details in here to pique the curiosity. The discussion of refugee camps also feels very topical—that is, perhaps it's never not been topical, but it's still a timely reminder that many refugee accommodations and options are no better (and often worse) than they are for Gao Sheng and her family in the 70s.

A fast read and a thoughtful one.

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

Review: "Gaslit" by Megan Davidhizar

Gaslit by Megan Davidhizar
Published January 2026 via Delacorte Press
★★★

It's New Year's Eve, and when Ella's plans go awry, she pivots to babysitting her cousin—except when she gets to her aunt's house, the door is open. Her aunt and cousins are inside—and the air isn't breathable. And despite Ella's best efforts, she can't save them all. It seems like a terrible accident...but things don't quite line up. And the police aren't moving fast enough. And it looks like Ella will have to take things into her own hands...

This one is full of twists and turns and red herrings. I highlighted a passage early on that I knew was going to be either a clue or a red herring (or even both), and I was right, but lo and behold, there were numerous other twists that I didn't see coming. Some of them worked a little better for me than others (vaguesauce to avoid spoilers), though what was interesting is that a lot of the surprise elements weren't really about who was responsible but around the circumstances surrounding the events.

One thing maybe worth noting: Ella and her teenage cohorts are...uh...absolute dummies at times. Some of that is pure Ella, who withholds information from most of the characters in the book because she's afraid of being looked at differently, then gets furious with them when there is actually reason to wonder whether an ask-no-questions policy is actually a good idea. Some of it is teenage stupidity (it's not clear to me how good a job the police would eventually do, but Ella at least is convinced that they would do nothing). There's vague mention of the possibility of consequences at some point, but I honestly wouldn't have minded something more concrete. (This isn't even a "don't interfere with police investigations"—it's a "if you're going to interfere with police investigations, don't be incredibly short-sighted about it.")

Overall, though, a quick and engaging read with plenty of surprises to keep things interesting.

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

Review: "Wandering Wild" by Lynette Noni

Wandering Wild by Lynette Noni
Published May 2025 via Blackstone Publishing
★★★

It's the trip of a lifetime, even if Charlie doesn't want it: a multi-day adventure trip with a Hollywood star (plus an adventure-television star). The catch: Zander is using her to salvage his reputation. The other catch: The reason his reputation needs salvaging is also the reason she can no longer stand him.

Initially, I loved this. Give me a wandering-in-the-woods book any day of the week, but more than that, I loved that Rykon (the adventure-television star) isn't out to make the characters look dumb. Charlie isn't out to be humiliated—she's encouraged to learn new skills and push her limits. Rykon and his husband-slash-cameraman Bentley are thoughtful, supportive (supporting) characters.

But then things take a turn. Major spoilers below.

There was a long enough pause between me seeing the book and reading it that I'd forgotten the details of the summary—which is just how I like it—but I retained a vague sense that Charlie and Zander would eventually be separated from Rykon and Bentley and need to survive on their own. I liked R&B enough to be genuinely worried that something would happen to take them out for good (death, life-changing accident, etc.). Instead, it's simpler: Rykon breaks his ankle.

"Someone has to stay with Rykon," Bentley answers for him. I'm about to point out that perhaps it shouldn't be the only other person who has any real survival experience, but he continues before I can, "And I'm not leaving my husband behind." (171)

My suspicions shot up at this point, because if this were genuine, it would be wildly irresponsible. (Well, it's wildly irresponsible regardless, but...) Leaving two untested teenagers with minimal skills to traverse the Australian wilderness by themselves...? Rykon talks them into "going for help" rather than staying put and, like, lighting a signal fire. Their planned route involves rappelling down a 300-foot waterfall without harnesses and with only a 100-foot rope, traversing a slot canyon prone to flash floods, and crossing a bridge that they already know is unsafe. And that's the version of things that has things going to plan.

Nothing goes to plan.

As it happens, the teens later learn that the only thing about this that was to plan was Rykon's "injury"—they were always meant to be stranded alone in the wilderness (better for Zander's reputation!), and because they didn't read their contracts properly, they don't know that they're actually being streamed live rather than 1) having a normal one-off show or 2) the cameras not being around at all, which is what they think when they set off on their two-person misadventure.

The irresponsibility of it all is breathtaking. Naturally the already dangerous obstacles (that Rykon thinks they should be able to handle, no problem!) become immediately life-threatening: they fall into the waterfall; the canyon is flooded; the bridge collapses while they're on it; etc. etc. To add to this, Charlie and Zander are on an artificial deadline: they've been told that if they're not at the designated meeting point before the extraction helicopter lands, the helicopter will leave, and a search party will be sent out, and it could take days for anyone to reach them. (It does not occur to them, at any point, that the people searching would likely start with their route, so, say, staying on the far side of a falling-apart bridge that is on their route would likely only delay their escape by a matter of hours, and they'd have a much lower chance of dying by falling into a canyon.)

How Rykon and Bentley are supposed to come out of this as good guys is beyond me. How Zander does not immediately fire his agent (who tricked him into this) is also beyond me.

Separate from this, incidentally, is the true story of Zander's fall from grace. Said fall came about because he was caught driving under the influence. Now...he's a YA hero, so I figured that there was probably more story there, some circumstances that would make him look better. And indeed: It transpires that not only did Zander 1) drive to save a suicidal friend, but he 2) didn't even know he was under the influence, because someone spiked his drink. He's still beating himself up for driving when he didn't feel 100%, of course, so he still takes responsibility, and he hasn't publicly shared that he was roofied because it might make the friend whose party he was at feel bad.

In other words: He's supposed to be, still, a squeaky-clean good guy who is not at fault for anything. And...it's YA. I get it. But I think he'd have been a lot more interesting if he weren't able to explain it all away, and he was horrified by how out of control he'd gotten and determined to make real changes.

So that's...where we are, I guess. Whiplash! I wanted to love this, but I just couldn't get past the part where a bunch of adults tricked a couple of teenagers into doing <i>wildly</i> dangerous things while unknowingly being streamed live, and it doesn't matter in the end because romance. Three stars and a whole lot of side-eye.

Review: Short story: "The Last Father-Daughter Dance" by Lisa Wingate

The Last Father-Daughter Dance by Lisa Wingate
Published January 2026 via Amazon Original Stories

A love story, after a fashion: Kalista has taken a break from her California life to help out her father, who is in desperate need of a heart transplant...but who might or might not get that transplant. With the long-term future up in the air, they decide to make the most of the immediate future.

Always nice to see short stories (and longer works, but this is a short story, so...) focusing on non-romantic relationships. There are characters here beyond Kalista and her father, yes, and there is potential for a romance to develop, but mostly this is about family, and what is important, and to a certain extent how you carry on anyway. I'm not sure I needed Kalista-as-Olympian (it adds to the backstory, but something else could easily have been substituted without changing the trajectory of the story), and I will say that any side character who is so blatantly uninterested in a main character's desire for privacy is not going to last in that main character's life. (Said character is not written to be a bad person, but ooof. "Let's capitalize on the family trauma your family wants to keep private" is never a good look.)

At any rate, it's a quick read and a sweet one.

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

Review: "Homeschooled" by Stefan Merrill Block

Homeschooled by Stefan Merrill Block
Published January 2026 via Hanover Square Press
★★★★

When Block was nine, his mother pulled him out of public school in favor of homeschool. Ostensibly, this was because public school was stifling his creativity; in practice, the way Block describes it, his mother was lonely and bored and floundering (among other things, the family had recently moved to Texas for Block's father's career, so his mother had given up her own career). In theory, Block had the freedom to get ahead of his peers academically while pursuing his passions. In practice, well. That's where it gets complicated.

I read this out of curiosity about homeschooling. I went to public school from kindergarten all the way through grade twelve (even my nerdy boarding school was public—but that's another story), but I've known people with stories not too dissimilar to Block's, and more recently I've also read a fair amount about homeschooling that is done for religious or political reasons. Block's mother didn't have religious motivation, but Block touches lightly on the political climate that made his homeschooling (and often lack of schooling) possible.

It became clear to me, midway through the book, that there would have had to be some kind of cataclysm at some point between Block's youth and the present day to make it possible for him to publish this book: either his mother having a major change in perspective, or her dying, or Block cutting ties with her. Maybe there are other options, but those were the major three I could think of. This is not to say that Block speaks unkindly of his mother—he describes a deep filial love for her that made it hard to go against her wishes and instructions, even when those things made it much harder for him to navigate the world (and, more to the point, high school in Texas) in a way that was comfortable for him. It's to say that he speaks bluntly about how off-kilter so many of his mother's decisions were, and how much that impacted him, and I couldn't imagine that he'd be writing so openly about it if nothing had changed.

Two things that struck me: First, at some point in Block's middle school years, his mother started something of at at-home tutoring business, based on her success (or whatever you want to call it) with Block...but what she did as a tutor involved a great deal more actual teaching than what she did as a homeschool teacher with Block, and also seemed (at least, as I read it) to bring her a great deal more satisfaction. Block doesn't get into this in detail, but it makes me wonder about what could have been—if she'd found a paying job earlier in Texas, for example, might that have brought her the purpose she seems to have sought in homeschooling? And second, late in the book, Block (speaking of himself as a young man in New York), says Still, I've never met an actual writer (loc. 3101*). No great insights about this, it just...in the context of Block having spent so much of his tweenage years in his room, writing (something his mother encouraged because she was sure he'd be a famous writer), it seems to me so sad and rather strange that he'd never had the opportunity to sit down with a writer and ask all sorts of questions.

Homeschooling can be great...for the right kid, and with the right supervising adult, and with broader oversight. But that wasn't the kind of homeschooling that Block got, and frankly I don't know what proportion of homeschooled kids get the right confluence of factors. Here's hoping that this can be a loud and critical voice for the lack of regulation.

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

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

Review: "Blade" by Wendy Walker

Blade by Wendy Walker
Published January 2026 via Thomas & Mercer
★★★

Then, Ana was a promising young skater living away from home for the first time. Now, she’s moved on to a law career and put skating behind her—put it in a box, taped the box up, put the box on a high shelf in the closet, closed the door, and walked away. But the past has a way of coming back to find you, and when Ana is brought in to defend a young skater accused of murder, she has to face the strange world she once inhabited.

Skating books are up there with ballet books and gymnastics books for me—I have virtually no experience in the actual sports, but I'll read about them til the cows come home. And this particular book contains a tantalizing author's note:

When I was thirteen, I was accepted into an elite figure skating program in Colorado. I moved far from my home to live in a dormitory and train with promising skaters and champions from around the world. While this story is a work of fiction, the personal impact of my own experience remains with me to this day.

I know I'm not alone. (loc. 4110)

I'll assume, of course, that a murder was not part of Walker's experience as a skater—and, also of course, I won't assume anything else about her own experience. But Blade hints at the damage that can be wrought upon talented young girls, far away from home. Because the obvious objective of the Palace, where first Ana and now her client trained, is clear: Create champions. But the lengths to which the Palace will go to achieve those goals...well, let's just say that that's not part of the marketing materials. And moreover, the stated objective is not the only one. Every adult responsible for the care of these girls has his or her own priorities, and rarely does the health and well-being of the girls in question top anyone's priority list.

While some of the reveals I could see coming, others provide dramatic twists in the story. There is an extent to which Ana is hiding things from the reader for much of the book, which is not a writing choice that particularly appeals to me (I like to be on the same page as the POV character!), but it does keep that element of surprise in. I'd have liked to see a bit more skating, though; Walker is in a unique position to write with authority about the daily ins and outs of a training program like the Palace, and I would have liked more about that: other than landing or falling on given skills, and getting praise or rejection in response, what would a typical practice look like, a typical day, a typical week?

A good one for readers who want their ice-princess dreams shattered and grit rubbed in the resulting wound.

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

Review: "Dreamland" by Sarah Dessen

Dreamland by Sarah Dessen
Published 2000
★★★★

When Caitlin's sister rejects the life that has been set out for her, Caitlin finds herself floundering in the shadows. With attention elsewhere, she throws herself into new things—cheerleading, a new boyfriend. Cheerleading she hates. The boyfriend, though, takes up more and more of her time...and gradually leaves her with more and more bruises.

Dessen made her name on summer (or summer-like) romances set in North Carolina, but once upon a time, before she'd settled into the rhythm of YA romance, she wrote Dreamland. I was twelve when this came out, and I probably read it that year or the next. I read (and loved) a lot of Dessen's books, but this one still stands out—darker, not a romance (or not really), a time in Dessen's writing when her heroines were allowed to make mistakes and find themselves in unhealthy relationships and not be squeaky clean. It's so interesting to see reviews from people who read some of Dessen's later work first and prefer that, because I have always felt that this is one of Dessen's stronger works—no healthy happy romance, a heroine who get wrapped up in drugs, etc.

I realized I'd grown out of Dessen's books some time ago, when I read yet another book about a heroine with problems that weren't her fault and concluded that I wasn't likely to see another heroine who got to be at all messy (and definitely not one who was poor or fat or queer or political or from somewhere other than small-town-but-not-too-small-town North Carolina). I remember this one as one of Dessen's only books that allows for that messiness (an abusive relationship isn't Caitlin's fault, of course, but she at least goes willingly into her experiments with pot and class-skipping—agency, yay?). But, rereading it now, it's perhaps not so big a difference; Caitlin is still a White, wealthy (or wealthy enough to never worry about money) teenage girl with an enormous safety net. I'm still so happy to see a YA character who gets to make some mistakes, but even the dramatic drug plotline feels quite late-90s these days; while I wouldn't recommend that high school students go get stoned, an author writing this in the 2020s would probably have to get Caitlin hooked on something stronger for it to carry the same weight that it did then.

Because this was published 25 years ago, it's interesting to see what else still feels contemporary and what doesn't—Caitlin calling every number where she thinks she can reach Rogerson, for example, is a distinctly pre-cell-phone vibe. A few word choices and targets of not-quite-snark would give me pause today but aren't so out of line for 2000s NC. Late in the book, there's some stuff involving residential treatment and characters who are in said treatment for months, even more than a year—partly a sign of changing times (contemporary insurance companies would likely give most of the patients the boot within weeks), partly a sign of this being a world populated by people with a certain degree of financial comfort, partly perhaps just that Dessen might not have considered insurance policies when writing the book back then.

As a nostalgia read, this was a win, and I can still imagine it resonating with teens, especially those in unhealthy relationships. But...these days, I'd probably recommend something else.

Review: "The Girl You Know" by Elle Gonzalez Rose

The Girl You Know by Elle Gonzalez Rose
Published February 2025 via Bloomsbury YA
★★★

Luna's world fell apart when her twin, home for winter break, was found dead—and with the police planning to make this an open-and-shut case, there's only one thing to do: take over her sister Solina's identity, infiltrate her fancy boarding school, and find proof that her sister's death was murder...as well as proof of who did it.

I love me a boarding school book, but I ran up against my inability to suspend disbelief pretty quickly here. Hard to believe that Luna was able to financially support herself and her sister (who has a scholarship, but one that doesn't cover anything by way of incidentals) on a less-than-minimum-wage diner job; hard to believe that she lasts more than a day in a school where everyone should know her, she doesn't know even the barest details; hard to believe several different event sequences. Like...Luna realises once she gets to the fancy fancy prep school that Solina was presenting a different version of herself to the people there, one Luna knows nothing about, and yet nobody calls Luna on...really anything? She struggles in her classes, and despite Solina having a GPA that nobody else can even touch, nobody questions Luna-as-Solina struggling; she can barely mask her revulsion when kissing Solina's boyfriend; she runs around ready to stab people with her rusty-but-trusty knife, and nobody really notices.

I can't help but think of Tana French's The Likeness, in which the main character is called in to impersonate another woman, one who visually could be her twin. She has to swallow buckets of information in a minuscule amount of time, but she's trained to do it, and also, she plans and practices in the limited amount of time; she holds her breath and watches people's reactions and adjusts on the fly; things are weird, and she actively works to smooth things over. I know the rules are different for YA, but if I do a reread, it'll be of The Likeness, not of The Girl You Knew.

Review: "Death and Other Occupational Hazards" by Veronika Dapunt

Death and Other Occupational Hazards by Veronika Dapunt
Published January 2026 via Poisoned Pen Press
★★★★

Death needs a sabbatical: Life is exhausting, the Boss takes centuries to mull over every change in their image (really, he needs a marketing department), the VP for Pandemonium & Perdition is up to all his usual shenanigans, and the Human Communications Director has stretched his three-day vacation into more than two millennia. (He hasn't been totally slacking, though: He has a side gig as a hair model.)

So yes—Death needs a sabbatical. Unfortunately, her sabbatical coincides with the first Unplanned deaths she's seen in her career...and those deaths could have devastating consequences if she doesn't figure out who (or what) is behind them.

This was just about as tongue-in-cheek as I could have hoped for, with a serving of murder on the side. It's a pretty delightful romp (if that can be said about a book about Death): Death is fed up with the black robes and scythes and eager to mix and match the loudest patterns and brightest colors she can find, but for all her experience, she doesn't always quite...get...humans, and she often doesn't understand when she gets things not quite right, or why.

It's worth noting that the setup here is oriented in a very Specific Western Religion direction; although Death mentions having spent time all over the world (picking up souls—it's not clear how she is managing the workload of tens and tens of thousands of people dying each day, but that's kind of beside the point), nearly the entire book takes place in London, which for whatever reason seems to be favored not only by Death but also by the VP for P&P and the HCD, and there's never any mention of how Death comes into play when, for example, a Hindu or Buddhist or Muslim etc. etc. etc. person dies. In some ways it's maybe for the best that that isn't explored (I do not want a book that tried to make it global but in which the answer is "it's all the same outcome for everyone! But oh, haha, it just so happens that it looks a lot like a very white version of Christianity!"), and it would have had to be a very different book to get into the weeds without making it super problematic, but...well, just a heads-up that the vision here is pretty specific.

All that said—it was a ride. I'd love to have a coffee with this version of Death.

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

Review: "Tales of Enchantment" by Shanna Swendson

Tales of Enchantment by Shanna Swendson
Published August 2023
★★★★

Enchanted, Inc. is one of my all-time favorite chick lit series, and I do not use "all-time favorite" lightly. In Tales of Enchantment, Swendson adds a few short (and not so short) stories to the mix, fleshing out the series with moments that didn't fit into the main event.

I've read two of these before, as the stories featuring Sam were also published separately, but the others were new to me. The ones that resonated most were those about Owen and Rod, before the series starts (not sure why, but they felt the most playful), but most of all I loved the short essays and commentary from Swendson—a bit of background on each given story, some cultural context, etc. My poor little millennial brain can't really wrap itself around the idea that younger readers need reminders that there was a time when you couldn't just whip out your cell phone and call someone (or look something up), but here we are. My least favorite story was probably the last one, narrated by Katie's grandmother, I think just because the voice didn't feel as distinct...but that's a pretty minor quibble.

As ever, reading anything by Swendson is a reminder to reread the whole Enchanted, Inc. series...especially as it's been a decade since I last read the earliest books. Will this finally be the thing that pushes me to give the German versions a go? Only time will tell.