Review of Red Star Rebels, by Amie Kaufman

Audiobooks, Science Fiction, Starred Review, Suspense, Teen Fiction Review 0

Red Star Rebels

by Amie Kaufman
performed by Max Meyers, Jessica Almasy, and a full cast

Listening Library, 2026. 7 hours, 33 minutes.
Review written August 14, 2026, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred review

The audio production for this book is amazing. It’s to the level of a radio play. There’s even a music soundtrack throughout. Occasionally, when the music turned happy in the romantic parts, it felt a tiny bit hokey, but mostly it dialed my tension way up. At one point I turned it off a couple times to make sure that machine sound wasn’t coming from inside my own home. This was a good thing – you’re completely immersed in the story. This one was hard to stop at any point in the story, and had me so riveted, it maybe wasn’t the best background listening if I was trying to do anything else. (But I didn’t miss any turns or get into any accidents while driving, so it all worked out.)

Red Star Rebels is set in a United Nations station on Mars – one of the last and lowest budget bases that was built on Mars. We have two viewpoint characters. First is Cleo, who got to Mars as a hitcher when she was trying to escape debt collectors after her for medical debt from the illness that killed her father. Since Cleo isn’t registered to be there, she’s got tricks for places to hide and stashes of food. And a pressure suit in case there’s ever an evacuation – because the system doesn’t know she’s there and rovers won’t wait for her.

Our second protagonist is Hunter Graves. He’s the billionaire grandson of the man who got to Mars first and put a compound there, breaking rules, but also breaking new ground. Hunter didn’t let his mother and sister know that he was coming, and used his money to keep them from finding out. He has just arrived at the UN station and wants to arrange passage to the Graves compound, but is told that a dust storm will make it impossible to travel for a few days.

And then an alarm goes off. A voice repeats a message in several languages that everyone needs to get to the evacuation rovers because a toxin has been identified in the air, and the station is going to be vented. Trouble is, Hunter wasn’t registered yet, so the system doesn’t know he’s there, so the evacuation rovers for visitors don’t wait for him. Fortunately for him, after he puts out a Mayday call (blocked by the dust storm from anyone outside the station), a girl with red hair wearing a pressure suit comes to him bringing a second pressure suit. (And on the audiobook, her voice sounds like it’s coming from a microphone in a suit.)

But after Hunter thinks this girl Cleo has saved his life, the station doesn’t start venting after all. In fact, some Rovers pull up to the station on the opposite side from where the evacuees left. A group of people enter the station and come to the command center. Cleo and Hunter hear them say there are six hours left before everything blows, and they see them doing something with the computer system.

Hunter and Cleo don’t make their presence known right away. Can they figure out a way to escape the station before it gets blown up to erase the evidence? And what, exactly, are these people planning?

There are different phases to the story as Cleo and Hunter grapple with changing situations, revisions in their information, and a dawning knowledge of what the intruders are planning to do.

Meanwhile, Cleo has every reason to hate anyone from the Graves corporation, who produced the medicine that her father needed and couldn’t afford. And Hunter has every reason to hate hitchers, since a group of them from “Mars For All” killed his father. Nobody has ever been there for them before, but they may need to rely on each other to get out of this alive.

I don’t want to say much more than that except that the tension doesn’t let up for a minute. When you think they’ve overcome one obstacle, something new happens to threaten them. But as they’re working for survival, it turns out they’re both good at thinking on their feet. Cleo’s knowledge of the base – from living in secret for months – is crucial, and so is Hunter’s knowledge of the computer systems used by all the bases on Mars. And it’s an awful lot of fun to hear about.

The story was excellent and made me believe that could be what life on Mars is like in forty years, including the part about rich people not caring about the lives of others, sadly. I’m going to strongly recommend if you read this book, do it via audiobook. The production was that good. Be prepared for high tension, though!

amiekaufman.com

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Review of One Word, Six Letters, by Adib Khorram

Contemporary, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

One Word, Six Letters

by Adib Khorram

Henry Holt and Company, 2026. 213 pages.
Review written August 11, 2026, from a library book.
Starred Review

I’ve got a soft spot for Adib Khorram’s writing because his Morris-Award-winning debut novel, Darius the Great Is Not Okay, was published the year I was on the Newbery Committee. Although Darius did not win the Newbery (and is really more of a young adult book than a children’s book), it was a 2018 Sonderbooks Stand-out – in a year that I read ALL the best children’s and young adult books of the year and read most of them at least twice. So, yeah, I love his writing.

This book is about the effects of bullying language. The word referred to in the title is never printed on the page, but the cover tells us it starts with F and we know that one of the students is afraid people are saying it about him because they think he’s gay.

We’ve got two perspectives in this book, and both are presented in present tense, addressed to “you.” Usually I hate present-tense novels, let alone second-person – but Adib Khorram pulls it off, and it didn’t bother me a bit. I’ll give you a taste with the starting paragraph of each character.

For Dayton:

You know you’ve messed up when you get marched into the principal’s office.

For Farshid:

You’re so used to people saying your name wrong, you don’t realize it at first. After all, people have been messing up Farshid for as long as people have been saying it. Even the teachers who get it (mostly) right can’t quite do the ar, which is sort of halfway between air and are.

The situation is that both boys are freshmen in high school. They barely know each other, but have a class together. In an all-school assembly, a visiting poet was speaking, and a guy named Reggie bet Dayton to shout that word. Dayton wanted the $20 to buy some food (He hadn’t eaten breakfast.), so he did it. And it affected his whole school year. And Reggie never paid up.

Farshid wasn’t singled out by Dayton, but he’s afraid everyone was thinking of him. He insists to himself that he’s not gay. He focuses on lifting weights, working out, and watching his diet. His best friend, a girl named Nour, drags him to the Rainbow Coalition to show solidarity after the incident in the assembly. Farshid hopes people know he’s going as an ally.

Dayton gets in-school suspension the same time as another kid, named Brody. Dayton’s told to write an apology letter, and he knows he only did it for the bet – but no one else at school sees it that way. Dayton’s former friends don’t want anything to do with him, so his new best friend is Brody, who isn’t as picky about his language and doesn’t hold that mistake against him.

We go through the whole school year with these two boys. The incident has surprisingly long-lasting effects – which they eventually have to face up to.

And it’s all written engagingly, so you care about both boys, even the one who shouted the slur, as he learns a lesson about trying to repair your mistakes.

adibkhorram.com
fiercereads.com

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Review of Sabriel, by Garth Nix

Audiobooks, Fantasy, Sonderbooks25, Stand-outs, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Sabriel

by Garth Nix
read by Tim Curry

Listening Library, 2002. 10 hours, 43 minutes.
Review written October 21, 2025, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review
Original review posted January 20, 2004.
2004 Sonderbooks Stand-out: #3 Fantasy for Young Adults

As part of #Sonderbooks25, celebrating 25 years of posting Sonderbooks, I’m rereading many of my Sonderbooks Stand-outs from previous years and writing new reviews for the ones written before my 2006 revision of the website. The project is taking me much, much longer than I thought it would, because I’m reading more of my old reviews than planned and rereading (or listening) to more of the books – but I’m having a whole lot of fun with it, so what’s not to like?

And I don’t think I remembered just how good Sabriel is. I wish I could define why it’s head and shoulders above your run-of-the-mill current romantasy – because then maybe I could write one myself. But I’ll try to put my finger on some of the things that make the book so excellent.

First, Garth Nix does an incredible job with world-building. The world and the magic system is unlike any other fantasy novel I’ve ever read, and is incredibly complex, but he expertly pulls you along without ever a boring exposition drop. Sabriel has been brought up in a school close to the border with the Old Kingdom – full of Charter Magic – but her father has been teaching her the skills of an Abhorsen – a necromancer on the side of good who can send dead things back into Death.

But one day Sabriel gets a messenger from Death bringing her father’s bells and sword. She’s told she is the new Abhorsen. So Sabriel goes on a quest into the Old Kingdom to try to find her father’s body and free him from whatever trapped him in Death. And it turns out along the way, she is trying to save the entire Old Kingdom from the Greater Dead creature that trapped him there.

We get information about what she needs to do and how to do it as she goes – but it’s not done in a haphazard way. Sabriel starts with basic knowledge of how to use the Abhorsen’s bells against dead things – which she has to use in her journey. She finds broken Charter stones and decimated villages in her travels, and there are many terrifying moments when she is chased by powerful dead beings.

Yes, there’s a little bit of romance. The romance is shown to the reader rather than told. Though honestly, they could have said a little more about it – but I happen to like understated romance more than overstated romance.

And the story pulls you in, from Sabriel’s first small venture into death to save a friend’s pet to her frantic stand against a creature of Destruction. This book was even better than I remembered.

garthnix.com

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Review of Sonnets and Serpents, by Elizabeth Lowham

Fantasy, Teen Fiction Review 0

coverSonnets and Serpents

by Elizabeth Lowham

Shadow Mountain Publishing, 2025. 373 pages.
Review written May 20, 2026, from a library book.

Sonnets and Serpents is a sequel to Casters and Crowns. It involves different people in a different place, so you could get away with reading this one without reading the first. But I think you’ll understand the world and its magic better if you read them in order.

Eliza, the sister of Aria, the princess of Loegria who featured in the first novel, has taken a ship to Pravusat to follow Henry, the young man she loves, who’d said he’d court her, but then got exiled. Silas Bennett was also exiled – and was asked by Aria to find her sister, make sure she was safe, and send her home. Silas was happy to be in exile from Loegria, a place where his status as an Animal Affiliate – who can take the shape of a snake and communicate with other snakes – is not appreciated.

But when Eliza arrives in Pravusat, they tell her that Henry’s ship sank, and there were no survivors. She refuses to believe it, and determines to continue to search for him. Since she can’t understand the language, she buys a charm from a Stone Caster to understand it better. But she asked for the charm in a language she didn’t understand – and it turns out that when she snaps one bracelet on herself and the other on Silas’s wrist, they are stuck. Yes, she can now understand the local language as well as Silas can. But they are not able to go far apart from each other. They can be in the next room, but the physical distance can’t be too great.

So they have to make a deal. On alternate days, Eliza searches for Henry and Silas attempts to do magical research to land a professorship at the university in Pravusat where he had previously been a student.

And it so happens, they uncover a plot and get into big trouble. And the banter between them as this happens is a whole lot of fun.

As the book started, I thought Eliza was a bit annoying. She was impulsive and silly and not very good at making plans. She’s in love with the idea of love and hardly even knows Henry, but now insists he’s alive despite evidence. But Eliza grew on me, and her character grew on the page.

There were things about the plot I didn’t like. It walked the line just barely on the side of believable. Little things like she evaded the secret police in the marketplace and they seemingly just stopped searching for her. Or that they’d decide it was a reasonable plan to go into a prison to search. Or even the coincidence about stumbling into a major plot in the first place.

But the slow-burn romance was so much fun to watch, I was less picky about details like that. This is a no sex, plenty of kissing kind of romance and the enemies-to-lovers plot did feel believable as proximity forces the two to get to know each other.

The government in Pravusat is left in not the greatest shape, making me wonder if there are more adventures to come. (No more princesses, though!)

elizabethlowham.com

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Review of Together We See, by Ari Tison

Contemporary, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Together We See

by Ari Tison

Farrar Straus Giroux, 2026. 310 pages.
Review written July 24, 2026, from my own copy, sent to me by the publisher.
Starred Review

I suspect the publisher sent me Ari Tison’s new book because I was on the 2024 Morris Award Committee that chose her debut novel, Saints of the Household, as a finalist, and they knew I’d love it. They were right. I was already a huge fan of Ari Tison’s work, and I think she’s gotten even better with her second novel.

Ulá lives with her mother in Wisconsin, making plans for after high school. She’s excited to see her brother, coming home from time in Costa Rica, but is less than thrilled when their dad shows up along with him.

Their dad lives on Bribri territory in Costa Rica after years as an activist. As far as Ulá is concerned, he’s got a long history of not keeping his promises, and that’s reinforced when he gets a flight back to Costa Rica after only two days.

But then they get the news that he died of a heart attack only a couple days after going back. Ulá and her brother go to attend his funeral, in keeping with the Bribri ways. But then things turn up that suggest maybe his death wasn’t from natural causes as the police believe.

We end up with a gripping mystery, and a story about family and community, with plenty of historical background information about injustices against indigenous people in general, and Bribri people in particular.

There are chapters interspersed from the perspective of Ulá’s ancestors, watching over her, seeing what’s happening on the land.

And all of this is told about characters you quickly care about, with relationships that are complicated, as in real life.

And yes, as the cover hints, there are venomous snakes in this book.

aritison.com

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Review of Let Them Stare, by Jonathan Van Ness and Julie Murphy

Audiobooks, Contemporary, Teen Fiction Review 0

Let Them Stare

by Jonathan Van Ness and Julie Murphy
read by Jonathan Van Ness and Jeremy Arthur

Storytide (HarperCollins), 2025. 10 hours, 5 minute.
Review written July 1, 2025, from a library eaudiobook.

Let Them Stare is a light-hearted romp about a queer teen with a haunted handbag – with serious overtones about the history of how queer people were treated and how they fought back.

As the story opens, Sully is having a high school graduation party and looking forward to leaving Hearst – a small town near Pittsburgh – the very next day for the glamour of New York City as a junior assistant to an influencer. When their uncle misgenders and insults them while pretending to give them a gift, Sully is all the more ready to put it all behind them. They sell their car to Brad, the only gay guy in town, with a small last-minute make-out session to seal the deal.

But in the morning, the influencer decides to go to Tahiti and sends Sully notice that they won’t be needed after all. So Sully’s left with no job, no money, and no car – stuck in Hearst. However, when they go back to the thrift shop to try to get their job back, they don’t succeed – but they do score a vintage handbag worth potentially tens of thousands of dollars – enough to go to New York after all! Trouble is, when Sully takes it home and gets the lock open – a ghost comes out of the bag.

Rufus, the ghost, is a flamboyant drag performer (or, as he calls it, “female impersonator”) from Hearst in the 1950s. Rufus and Sully instantly recognize their similar ways of being. But Rufus doesn’t remember what happened to him or how he died young. And Sully can’t sell the bag with a ghost living in it. So Sully takes on the quest of researching Rufus and their history. Since they don’t have a car, they get rides with Brad, and Rufus is eager to give advice on Sully’s love life.

It’s all told with lots of humor. Sully has always been over-the-top, and they get into some comical situations when talking to the ghost in their bag. Rufus slowly remembers more and more of his life, leading them to various locations around Hearst to find out more. And along the way, the full story comes out of how queer people historically had to hide – and were punished severely if they didn’t.

The plot borders on melodramatic – complete with a nefarious politician who wants to sell off historical parts of the town. But the whole thing is as flamboyant as Sully, and this only adds to the fun. I appreciate how, even with such serious historical material to deal with, the authors keep it light and give everyone a happy ending. The good guys – or good people – win in this one.

jonathanvanness.com
imjuliemurphy.com

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Review of The Last Best Quest Ever, by F. T. Lukens

Audiobooks, Fantasy, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

The Last Best Quest Ever

by F. T. Lukens
read by Lindsey Dorcus

Simon & Schuster Audio, 2026. 11 hours, 52 minutes.
Review written June 5, 2026, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

F. T. Lukens’ stories are always full of magic and full of fun. This one features 17-year-old Ellinore, who is known in the kingdom as Ellinore the Brave, and has been winning the kingdom’s quest competitions since she was thirteen.

It all started when she was twelve and a reckless knight lured a giant magical bear into their village. After Ellinore picked up the knight’s fallen sword, the bear fell on her – and luckily for her, impaled itself on the sword. At her next quest, when she was thirteen, she was supposed to get rid of the golden dragon that was plaguing a village. Well, Ellinore befriended the dragon, whose name was Dave, and convinced him to hide out in a different place, only fly at night, and take out his penchant for practical jokes on Ellinore.

Dave gave her a golden scale to take back to the king, and since then, he helped her win further quests – finding ways to make deals and talk reasonably instead of hacking and killing.

But the pressure of the lying was wearing Ellinore down, so after she earned enough bags of gold to move her parents to a nice cottage by the sea, she decided she was going to retire from questing.

But then her twin brother Zig foolishly made a bargain with a couple of mages in a tavern. In exchange for a big bag of gold, Ellinore had to bring them the horn of the Elderbeast. The catch: If she doesn’t succeed in sixteen days, the mages will take her brother’s heart.

Zig can be annoying, but Ellinore will do anything to keep him alive. So she sets out on a quest to find the Elderbeast’s horn. She usually works alone, but this time, she ends up gaining some companions: her brother, who insists on coming along; Aven, the attractive second-best quester in the kingdom; a royal young lady who wants to learn from Ellinore the Brave; and a young bard who has a map that shows the whereabouts of the Elderbeast.

But there are multiple rivals and multiple obstacles, and as the clock is ticking (or rather the candle is burning), Zig gets weaker and weaker. But the trouble with going on a quest with other people is that she can’t let them find out she’s a fraud.

This book has all the fun things I’m used to from F. T. Lukens’ books – magic, adventure, friendship, romance, danger, a refreshingly queer-normative society, and characters I love spending time with. I think there’s still a couple of their books I’ve missed, so I will for sure be looking those up. Their books always leave me smiling.

ft-lukens.com

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Review of Spindle’s End, by Robin McKinley

Audiobooks, Fairy Tale Variant, Fantasy, Old Favorites, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Spindle’s End

by Robin McKinley
read by Justine Eyre

Tantor Media, 2019. 12 hours, 30 minutes.
Review written May 31, 2025, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

I was surprised to realize I never reviewed this Old Favorite on Sonderbooks. I was looking for Robin McKinley books the library has as eaudiobooks, thinking I’d be rereading books from the early years of writing Sonderbooks – and found Spindle’s End. It wasn’t until I looked for the old review on Sonderbooks that I discovered there wasn’t one. Amazon now tells me I purchased a hardcover copy of this book on May 5, 2000 – so I read it a year before I started writing Sonderbooks.

And I honestly hadn’t remembered how good it is! This time through was a delight. I loved the narrator – with a delightful English accent – much more than the narrator of my two favorite Robin McKinley books, The Blue Sword, and The Hero and the Crown. Am I so shallow that I require an English accent? I do think it seems appropriate for a fairy tale retelling. Anyway, I loved this narrator.

Spindle’s End is a very loose retelling of “Sleeping Beauty.” Very loose, with many significant details changed. I think the first time I read it, I couldn’t quite forgive those changes. This time, I knew they were coming, and I was simply caught up in the wonderful tale.

One significant change makes the story make a whole lot more sense – The evil fairy who curses the princess explicitly states that while she originally planned her curse for the princess’s 21st birthday, she could make it happen at any time. So this is why the princess must go into hiding.

I like the way the book begins by focusing in on 15-year-old Catriona, a young fairy learning from her aunt. She’s handed the baby princess and gets the responsibility of hiding her and bringing her home. Along the way, Catriona, who can talk to animals, gets help from animals who arrange to feed the baby.

And these are the sort of delightful details Robin McKinley has added to the fairy tale. The kingdom is packed full of magic, so much so that ordinary folks have ways of dealing with it to avoid the inconvenience of things transforming unexpectedly. First we focus on Catriona, bringing up baby Rosie as an ordinary village girl with the help of her aunt. Then as Rosie grows, the focus shifts to her, as her 21st birthday approaches and it appears that the evil fairy has finally found her.

The story is lovely, but you won’t find any princess passively waiting for a prince to save her. I like the way they subverted some of the fairy “gifts” bestowed at birth by, for example, not ever teaching Rosie to embroider, so her being supernaturally good at it wouldn’t be noticed. They didn’t have to worry about the magically perfect ringlets in her hair, because Rosie cut her hair short even as a small child.

So, yes, the frame of the fairy tale is there, but the delightful particularity comes entirely from Robin McKinley, who’s especially good at making characters who are far from perfect, but get you completely on their side. They work for their happily ever after, and you’ll be with them all the way.

robinmckinley.com

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Review of Young World, by Soman Chainani

Science Fiction, Starred Review, Suspense, Teen Fiction Review 0

Young World

by Soman Chainani

Random House, 2026. 474 pages.
Review written June 11, 2026, from a library book.
Starred Review

This novel is bonkers, chaotic, and far-fetched – but the truth is, I loved the wild ride.

The premise is that a 17-year-old named Benton Young, to impress an earnest girl, made a video that went viral and won the US presidency as a write-in. Okay, he didn’t get 270 electoral votes, and then there’s that little detail about it being unconstitutional – but politics got him actually in the White House. You see, his election started a global movement – a Young Revolution – and across the globe young people got put into positions of power. (The politicians were afraid of the movement and put the right pressure on the Supreme Court to say his election is okay. They’re planning to impeach him soon anyway.)

But being elected isn’t the same as wielding the power of the presidency. The powers that be don’t even want to let him appoint his own Cabinet – until he strikes a deal and gets his two best friends in.

But then the stakes move to a G-8 summit in Sweden. And it’s all about an island found in the Arctic among the melting ice caps that is claimed to be the ticket to great wealth for the country that claims it. But rumor has it, there’s a giant volcano under that island that could wipe out the planet.

So this is what’s being discussed when one of the leaders at the summit is murdered and the whole world thinks Benton did it. So for the rest of the book, he’s on the run across the globe and different powers are after him and trying to make deals with him and he can’t tell whom to trust or what to do. And that’s where it gets pretty chaotic at the end. I couldn’t completely picture what was happening in the big climactic scene.

But there’s lots and lots of action, along with plenty of thoughts about power and about what’s important. Benton comes to power because he sees the world as divided not by Red and Blue but by the Spend-Its and the Save-Its – the Save-Its being the young people who want to live in a world that’s going to last until they’re old. This book leaves you with lots to think about while you’re enjoying the wild ride.

somanchainani.com

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Review of Heir, by Sabaa Tahir

Audiobooks, Fantasy, Teen Fiction Review 0

Heir

by Sabaa Tahir
read by Vidish Athavale, Esme Lonsdale, Joe Pitts, Marco Young, and Rachel Petladwala

Listening Library, 2024. 17 hours, 47 minutes.
Review written April 24, 2025, from a library eaudiobook.

Epic fantasy is how Sabaa Tahir started out as an author. Her only book I’ve read is the incredibly good multiple-award-winning All My Rage, so when she started a new fantasy series that is wildly popular, I decided to check it out.

I have to say this book was great for a little road trip I did – keeping me intent on the story for the whole drive. It starts out with three main characters, narrated by three different voice actors. (The two additional narrators get some time, but they are voicing side characters.) At the start, we don’t know how the three characters will come together, and we’re a good way in before we realize the story of one of the characters is being told on a different timeline.

Aiz is the first character we meet. She grew up in an orphanage and plans to assassinate the ruler – who set the orphanage on fire ten years ago and killed many of her friends. She prays to Mother Div for help for her people, the Kegar, who live on a barren island and have to raid other lands using their magic to even be able to eat.

Next up is Quil, the Crown Prince of the Martial Empire, being trained by his Aunt to replace her as ruler. But when he’s in a foreign city, there’s a horrible attack on children, with their hearts torn out and dried up.

Sirsha is next. She has the magic of tracking, but has been cast out of her tribe and ordered never to use magic again. But when a man offers her enough money to escape the empire and never work again, she can’t refuse. The man asks her to track a monstrous creature who has been killing children horribly.

And yes, the characters’ lives end up intertwining, some sooner than others. There are attacks on the Empire – and the monster killing the children is hard to defeat.

It all adds up to an epic story – which, fair warning, is not finished when the book is done. In fact, something awful happens at the end, and the author just better straighten that out in the next book!

There is much suffering and many horrible deaths in this book, and some sex as well, not always consensual, so this isn’t one of the sweet fantasy tales I prefer. But it is an epic tale with skillfully interwoven storylines, about politics, power, magic, and deciding what you’ll do to help your people.

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