From Little Tokyo, With Love is a modern day, urban, feminist Cinderella meets nure-onna. It is a YA featuring a biracial girl with a ‘kaiju temper’ who prefers monsters to princesses and I am totally here for it. Riki is the daughter of a Japanese-American woman who died in childbirth. Her father, who abandoned Riki’s mother when she found out she was pregnant, was White. Riki is being raised by her Japanese-American aunts, alongside her … Continue reading From Little Tokyo, With Love by Sarah Kuhn →
I adored this book. But it wasn’t always an easy read. It’s a book drowning in grief and desperation, finely wrought and deeply felt, and it’s an understatement to say that at parts it was so good and so sad and so precise in its pain that I was simply made of tears. So fair warning, if your heart can’t handle a story of surviving the unexpected loss of a parent, there’s nothing wrong with … Continue reading Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo →
I love modern-day witches. I love queer romance. I love mysteries. I’m not typically a huge YA reader, but I like the first three things enough to give queer YA witch romance mystery These Witches Don’t Burn a try. While this book was not without its flaws, there was something quite fresh-feeling about These Witches Don’t Burn that I appreciated. It took a lot of common YA tropes, such as “I’m trying to be a … Continue reading These Witches Don’t Burn by Isabel Sterling →
The Hallowed Ones by Laura Bickle is a YA horror novel set in the Amish community, and it’s one of the most genuinely frightening books I’ve read in a long time. It’s far more scary than some adult horror novels I’ve read, and it doesn’t rely on themes like sexual violence or violence against children to be frightening. It’s also incredibly well-executed and uses the choice of setting (a small Amish community) to amplify the … Continue reading The Hallowed Ones by Laura Bickle →
Here’s what was going through my head when I finished this book: wow woah wow woah wow woah wow woah wow!! In a good way. I’ve been majorly excited about this book since June when I saw the beautiful cover and read these words in the synopsis: “an impossible love between two girls—one human, one Made—whose romance could be the beginning of a revolution.” This book features SO many things that are right in my … Continue reading Crier’s War by Nina Varela →
I know we’re not especially far into 2019 yet, but We Set the Dark on Fire is hands down my favorite book of the year so far. It’s a YA novel about two women who are placed in competing positions inside a toxic patriarchy, then say “fuck that noise,” fall in love with each other, and help foment rebellion. It’s completely gripping, the world-building is excellent, and as a dystopian future, it feels alarmingly possible. I … Continue reading We Set the Dark on Fire by Tehlor Kay Mejia →
I’ve been in a bit of a reading rut, so I decided that I should try something completely different to break my cycle of ennui. It worked. First off, Contagion isn’t a romance (as you can probably tell from the cover). It’s a YA SciFi/Horror novel about a ragtag team sent to investigate a distress call from a drill site on a remote planet. If you’re like, “Oh hey, I’ve seen this movie. I know how … Continue reading Contagion by Erin Bowman →
Sweet Black Waves by Kristina Perez is a YA retelling of Tristian and Isolde, and while it contains romantic elements, it is not a romance. If you know the story of Tristian and Isolde, then you know it’s not a happy story. I’m not sure what direction Perez is ultimately going to take the legend as this is the first book in a trilogy, but I walked into it knowing enough not to anticipate a HEA. … Continue reading Sweet Black Waves by Kristina Perez →
Perfekt Order by ST Bende is the first book in the Ære Saga, and (in my opinion) it borrows pretty heavily from Marvel’s Thor movies. Not Thor: The Dark World though. We’ve all agreed that that movie doesn’t exist. This is a YA adventure / romance with plenty of sequel bait handy for future books. It’s pretty uneven in a lot of areas, but it made me really nostalgic for Buffy the Vampire Slayer in the sense that a teenage … Continue reading Perfekt Order by S.T. Bende →
I live in the upper Midwest, so I am prepared for some pretty gnarly winter weather. We had all thought spring had sprung when in mid-April we got hit with the second worst snowstorm in our state’s history. I didn’t leave the house for three days except to dig out our dryer vent to keep us from accidently asphyxiating. So what’s a Bitch to do when stranded at home? Make sure you’re stocked up on … Continue reading Spindle Fire by Lexa Hillyer →
I am super impatient for the season three of The Expanse to start, with the wonder that is Shohreh Aghdashloo as Chrisjen Avasarala, so when I saw this YA sci-fi romance with an amazing cover, I picked it up to help tide me over. Our Dark Stars is much more sci-fi action-adventure than it is romance, and it has more of a Happy for Now ending than I’d prefer, but I still enjoyed it. Talia Starchaser … Continue reading Our Dark Stars by Audrey Grey and Krystal Wade →
