Review of Bridget and Gabe Are Not Okay, by Lex Croucher

Audiobooks, Fantasy 0

Bridget and Gabe Are Not Okay

by Lex Croucher
read by Kishore Walker and Theodore Taylor

Macmillan Young Listeners, 2026. 12 hours, 4 minutes.
Review written August 26, 2026, from a library eaudiobook.

This book is a sequel to Gwen and Art Are Not in Love, where we’ve got an alternate-reality medieval England featuring descendants of King Arthur. You should read the first book first, and then, like me, you’ll be delighted that there’s a sequel and you can spend more time with these characters.

But the events of the first book have left their mark. Gabe is now king, and he doesn’t feel up to the task, and he keeps having panic attacks that get him hiding in a closet. And Bridget has what amounts to PTSD – except of course there’s no name for that in medieval times. And both of those conditions are messing up the budding romances from the end of the first book. On top of that, there are rumblings in the country about the “Lancelot Laws” – that it’s okay for men to love men and women to love women. Not everyone’s happy about that, and I’m afraid the Catholic church hosts the main opposition.

In this book, they go on a quest. Gabe has an aide who amounts to a publicist, and she convinces him to assemble his own Round Table of knights and go on a quest to verify the reported sightings from Arthurian legend – a Questing Beast, a person purporting to be the Green Knight, another said to be the Lady of the Lake, and of course the Grail. This way, Gabriel’s subjects will get to know him.

So the quest throws them into a company that includes the two couples in question, and they track down each reported Arthurian legend. Most of them indeed have a natural explanation – but there’s a touch of wonder thrown in before the book ends that I did enjoy.

I hate to say it, because I loved the book, but this one felt a bit long. The couples went back and forth on being harmonious or at odds with one another, and the quest didn’t feel very focused, kind of wandering from one thing to another. On the other hand, I enjoyed the characters, and it’s not like mental health issues would have been easily resolved in medieval times – these are handled well.

Bottom line: Read the first book first. If you enjoy it, and want more from those characters, I’m happy to report that you can read on.

lexcroucher.co.uk

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Review of We Carry the Sun, by Tae Keller, illustrated by Rachel Wada

Children's Nonfiction Review, History, Science, Starred Review 0

We Carry the Sun

by Tae Keller
illustrated by Rachel Wada

Norton Young Readers, 2025. 48 pages.
Review written 2/6/26 from a library book.
Starred Review

This is a nonfiction picture book about the history of solar power. The illustrations are lavishly beautiful, and I like the way the author addresses the reader as we – talking about humankind’s collective efforts to harness the power of the sun.

And I had no idea the long history and the wide scope of efforts to produce solar power. She mentions ancient peoples who built their homes to be cooler in summer and warmer in winter. And then goes on to the people who figured out how to make solar panels – and the many people after them who kept refining the design.

It’s a story of people working across the globe, using ideas of others, improving on them, for the good of all. Tae Keller and Rachel Wada capture this idea in their “We”-centered text and stunning illustrations.

There’s a timeline at the back that gives more information about the specific scientists featured. Especially interesting are recent developments – including a scientist in Mexico who makes biodegradable solar panels and scientists in Korea, Germany, China, Saudi Arabia, and Singapore working with perovskite solar panels which are transparent and can be used in place of glass.

All sorts of fascinating information here – told in a way children can understand – and be inspired to wonder what they might do to add to the progression of science improving our lives.

Here’s the last page of the main text:

How does an idea grow?
With people bouncing off one another
like photons,
teaching and inspiring,
listening and learning.
Across the world,
we turn to one another and say,

We are incredible.

Look at all we can do.

We reached into the sky
and carried the sun home —

and what if we could do even more?

rachelwada.ca
taekeller.com
nortonyoungreaders.com

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Review of Brigands and Breadknives, by Travis Baldree

Audiobooks, Fantasy, Fiction Review, Starred Review 0

Brigands and Breadknives

by Travis Baldree
read by the Author

Macmillan Audio, 2025. 8 hours, 25 minutes.
Review written July 13, 2026, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

Brigands and Breadknives is the third cozy fantasy novel for adults that I’ve read from Travis Baldree, and now I’m sad that I’ve read all three he’s written so far. I’m happy, though, to discover an author whose books I love so much and who seems to be young enough to write lots more.

This is not a romance – it’s a tale of friendship and adventuring and navigating a sort of midlife crisis.

Do read the other two books before this one, because there are hints dropped of what went before. This one features Fern, the Ratkin who sold her bookshop in the seaside town where she first met her friend Viv the Orc lady to move to Thune and start a new bookshop there, right next to Viv’s coffee shop, Legends and Lattes.

But after Fern moves and her new bookshop in Thune is doing fine, she’s still discontented. It still feels like there’s a hole in her life. She doesn’t know what she wants, but it’s not this. She gets drunk and makes a promise to tell Viv how she’s feeling and apologize for all the trouble Viv had to set Fern up here.

But instead of telling Viv that night, Fern falls asleep in a cart – and a day and a half later wakes up to find she’s in a cart driven by a fabled adventurer known as the Elf Maiden. She’s 500 years old, and Fern has sold books about her. She’s got a chaos goblin in the cart and is currently on a mission to deliver the goblin to another town in exchange for a very high bounty.

And one thing leads to another, and Fern ends up going along on the quest, and even helping during life-threatening situations. Because the bounty is so incredibly high, there are many other adventurers who want a piece of the action. Even more threatening is the orc who doesn’t want any bounty but just wants the goblin dead. Along with anyone who will keep them from killing her.

So there’s lots of adventure, including fixes you’re afraid they really can’t get out of. (When I find myself reminding myself it’s a book and there’s no way the author will let that character die – will they? – I know the author has done a great job of raising the stakes.) But it’s also an exploration of friendship and life purpose, and simply a wonderful story.

I’ve decided that the new label of “cozy fantasy” is exactly what I was looking for when I started reading young adult fantasy as an adult – but now YA fantasy has moved away from. It’s not super dark, isn’t bogged down with world-building details, and has the feeling of ordinary people doing ordinary things – with a dash of magic involved. (In this case, there’s no obvious magic, but the fantasy characters make it firmly a fantasy world.)

Oh wait, did I say no magic? The elf maiden has a sword, an Elder Blade that was forged with the spirit of a warrior, and which talks. Well, after meeting this sword, we then discover that the chaos goblin has somewhere picked up an Elder Blade that’s now a breadknife. An Elder Blade in Reduced Circumstances, so to speak. So yes, there’s plenty of humor in this tale as well.

Why is it for adults and not teens? For starters, Fern is over forty years old and has adult concerns. I still find this refreshing in a tale. But there’s no need for content warnings if a teen picks it up. Nice and cozy – and a joy to listen to.

Oh, and the author was already an audiobook narrator before he wrote his own books, so he does a fantastic job reading his own work.

travisbaldree.com

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National Book Festival 2026

Conference Corner 0

I went to the National Book Festival yesterday!

Based on my blog posts, I’ve been to the National Book Festival six times in the past – but I burned out on it after they moved it from the mall to the convention center, so the last time I attended was 2015. And honestly? Yesterday’s experience reminded me why I’ve given it a pass since then.

Basically, back in 2011, I had figured out three tips for making the National Book Festival a good experience. They are:
1) Purchase books you want signed ahead of time.
2) Plan your schedule.
3) Plan to get a good seat in a tent – and stay there.

Unfortunately, Tip 3 is no longer possible in the convention center – because staff empty the rooms in between speakers. So I spent more of the day in line than I did listening to speakers. And planning your schedule is fruitless if you plan back-to-back activities, because many events require an hour of waiting in line first.

However, despite all that, I did have a good time yesterday, because I kept my expectations low for how much I would do. I had one big goal: Get some books signed by Shannon Hale. I reviewed her very first book, back when that wasn’t tremendously common, and when I met her at the 2009 National Book Festival, she knew who I was! Since then, I’ve met her at various American Library Association events, and we were even Facebook friends until I got on the Newbery Committee and sadly unfriended my author friends. She’s always kind and generous, and when I saw her this time, she said, “I know you,” and gave me a hug and asked how I was doing. And it made my day.

But first, I had to do some waiting.

One thing different about getting to the National Book Festival now is that now the Metro Silver Line comes all the way out to Loudoun County. So I only have to drive 15 no-traffic minutes to get to the metro station instead of 30 stressful minutes back in 2015 – so then I usually opted for driving. But yesterday, there was an Indy race going on in DC – so all the more reason to ride the Metro.

In the station, one other person got on, toting a book bag. I asked, “National Book Festival?” She said Yes, and we got to talking. It turns out she works in the same building as I do, on the library side rather than the technical operations side. So that was a fun way to get to know her. (We each thought the other looked familiar.) And made the over-an-hour Metro ride not feel as long.

I did not get up as early as planned, (Hey, it was Saturday!) so I completely missed Shannon Hale’s 9:30 to 10:00 talk with Meg Cabot. Shannon was signing from 10:30 to 11:30, so I figured it wouldn’t even matter if I was late to that. Oh, how wrong I was!

Unfortunately, I didn’t double-check my schedule when I got there. I thought I remembered the signings were on the bottom floor, but also thought they were in Hall D. So when I went to the basement and then learned that Hall D was on the second floor, I spent a good half-hour walking around and up and down, so when I finally got in line, it was 10:30, which I thought was fantastic.

I’d brought along four books I’d purchased in advance (see tip above) – two copies of the new Princess Academy graphic novel for two of my nieces, and copies of the new, revised, Austenland and Midnight in Austenland for me. [Christmas in Austenland is coming out this Fall! I’m excited!]

What I didn’t realize was that the line I’d happily gotten toward the front of was Line G. They were on Line A when I got there. Around 11:25, they told us that she was going to stay past the 11:30 end time – but then when it got close to noon, and they were only on line C – she had to leave. They did tell us that she would be reading in the Story Time pavilion later and would then be at the Utah booth in the Road Map to Reading section.

So – it got to be noon and I had not gotten anything signed, nor attended any talks. I had met some nice people in line – and read most of the Princess Academy graphic novel. So I actually felt good about it. They at least didn’t make you crowd too much in the lines, so it had been a peaceful wait, sitting on the carpet and reading, talking with other book lovers.

But when I gave up on that line, I did want to catch an author talk, so I found Room 202 for “Peace Is Anywhere (Even Out of Time and Space)” with Elana K. Arnold and Amber McBride. I was twenty minutes early for the 12:30 session, and got a good seat.

Some gems from their discussion, which included questions about their recent books Holloway and The Leaving Room:

EKA: One of the greatest pleasures of reading is inferring. Don’t overdo it on telling your readers.

Her new book, Holloway, is a portal fantasy, and she chose rules to follow. All the characters her protagonist meets in 1946 France are actual inmates and doctors from the insane asylum there.

You get one big ask of your readers, and all the rest has to follow from that.

Her process is Art, then Craft, then Business. Thinking about the effect on the reader is, for her, a Craft question.

Your creative mind is like a friendly dog. You need to learn to be gentle and receptive when your creative mind brings you ideas. If you turn it away, it will stop bringing things.

AM: You must trust yourself enough to fix something after you make it. She writes a quick first draft to shut off the inner critic.

EKA: Don’t compare your ideas to finished books.

AM: When you write your first book, you’re teaching yourself to write a book. It’s a process of learning and growing.
Her characters are allowed to be messy.

EKA: Books are great places to practice consent. If you can’t handle the content in a book, close the book.

We conflate ignorance with innocence. She says in her life, “My actual innocence would have been more preserved if I hadn’t been so ignorant.”

AM: In talking about romance in their books, they talked about intimacy and friendship. That moment when the other person first sees you is magical.

EKA: She loves middle age! We talk about the journey from Maid to Mother to Crone, but we’re missing an important step: The Harvest Queen! The Harvest Queen has bounty and energy to give.

[The person sitting next to me and I agreed that we are absolutely adopting the title of Harvest Queen.]

Her YA books are about sex, death, and God. She’s constantly grateful to be alive.

AM: We should be talking about death more. Her vision of The Leaving Room includes the hope that when young people die, they land in a safe place.

That session ended at 1:30. Shannon was going to be reading Kittycorn upstairs in Hall B from 1:15 to 1:45, so I headed upstairs.

I stopped to talk with some friends at the Capitol Choices booth – and it was 1:45 by the time I found the Story Time plaza, no sign of Shannon. So I looked for the Utah booth and found it. They had a hand-written sign that Shannon Hale would be there at 2:15 – so I waited for this to happen, while giving space to families who were trying to get stamps from all fifty states. The person in front of me in the original line showed up soon after me, so we waited together – and were at the front of the line when Shannon Hale did, in fact, sit down to sign books.

And yes, when she saw me, she recognized me right away, gave me a hug, and asked how I was doing. I see why her line was so long, because she took her time talking with me. I got to tell her I’ve got a whole page on my website of reviews of her books. It made my day, and was worth all the waiting!

By then it was almost 2:30. I had something I was interested in at 3:30, so I naively thought I’d catch what was going on in the Main Stage (starting at 2:30) in the meantime. Well, I followed signs for the Main Stage, and as the line got longer and longer, I realized that I was in a line to see Martin Scorcese at 4:00. So I ducked out of line, but decided I’d attend one more session. I made my way to room 146 (thinking maybe I could catch the 1:45 session in Room 145, but No).

My final session of the day was Ron Charles interviewing Sasha Waters about the documentary she made about poet Mary Oliver. They showed a fairly long clip of the documentary, “Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World,” and it was lovely. Made me want to get a book of Mary Oliver’s poems.

Some things I learned from the discussion:

The Library of Congress was gifted a collection of her papers, curated by Mary Oliver herself. She had worked on the papers of Edna St. Vincent Millay, so had thought about legacy.

Mary Oliver was a nature poet who didn’t want to be pigeonholed as a nature poet. She didn’t like categories of any kind.

Mary was sending out work from a young age but didn’t get public readings until 1979. She was patient. Humble, but committed to her work. She was an outsider not trying to get on the inside.

Her popularity grew during the pandemic when young people discovered her work – a small section of the documentary looked at TikTok readings of her poetry.

They had a display of all 26 National Book Festival posters. These are from three of the years I attended:

So – that was my day at the National Book Festival. I only attended two sessions, and I spent lots of time in line, but I got a hug from Shannon Hale!

And really, I was okay with that. I had forgotten how excessively crowded it is, but by taking the Metro instead of driving in, I didn’t feel tense about it. Maybe it helped that I started by sitting down (in line) and reading a graphic novel! But the whole thing was free, I saw some cool things, and didn’t feel obligated to maximize my time. There were some awesome speakers in the evening – I’d had my eye on Jenny Lawson, and most other people I talked with were looking forward to Cynthia Erivo – but I decided I’d had a long enough day. And eventually, the Library of Congress is going to have most of the sessions on their website. I got on the metro at 5:00 pm, and arrived at my station at 6:00 pm.

And I’m so happy with my signed books!

Review of Beauty, by Robin McKinley

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

coverBeauty

by Robin McKinley
read by Charlotte Parry

Recorded Books, 2013. (Print book originally published in 1978.) 7 hours, 5 minutes.
Review written July 29, 2025, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

As part of #Sonderbooks25, celebrating my 25th year of writing Sonderbooks, I’ve been rereading books by one of my very favorite authors, Robin McKinley. When doing so, I was surprised to discover that I’d never written a review of several of her books – turns out I read them before I began writing Sonderbooks in 2001. Now, I do own copies of every one of them – but the easiest ones to fit into my queue were the ones my library has as eaudiobooks. I’m happy to say that, even after all these years, Beauty still has a holds list.

Beauty is a sweet retelling of the fairy tale “Beauty and the Beast” – and is one of the books that made me realize I love fairy tale retellings. This was Robin McKinley’s debut book, and is a totally positive take on Beauty and her family. Even her sisters – who in the fairy tale are selfish and grasping and lazy – are wonderful and kind. After the family’s financial disaster, one sister’s fiance takes the family away to his home town by a magical forest – and they all build a good life together there. The other sister’s fiance was lost at sea along with their father’s ships, and the family has nothing but love for Beauty, the youngest.

This book was written long before it was acceptable to put sex into young adult novels, so the romance between Beauty and Beast is built on shared activities rather than blistering attraction – and indeed Beauty must overcome repulsion at the idea of him even touching her. This Beast is honorable and says he never would have killed her father – Beast would have sent him home if Beauty had refused to come – but he tells her that she would have been eaten up with guilt over sending him to what she thought was his death.

The book does not even broach the subject of Stockholm syndrome or how maybe Beast isn’t all that honorable if he’d deprive someone of their freedom. It doesn’t broach the vast disparity in their ages.

But what we’re left with is a sweet fairy tale with a heroine we can’t help but love. Yes, like the Disney version, Beauty loves to read. She also has a magnificent horse that only she can handle. And she’s someone who makes the best of things.

Read this book for a feel-good Happily-Ever-After tale. And it’s a great introduction to the grand mistress of fantasy’s work.

Note: It doesn’t look like the audiobook is currently available, but do check your local library.

robinmckinley.com

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Review of Incredibly Fast and Not at All Fun, by Tadgh Bentley

Animal Characters, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

Incredibly Fast and Not at All Fun

by Tadgh Bentley

Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2026. 44 pages.
Review written August 17, 2026, from a library book.
Starred Review

I love roller coasters, so the cover of this book made me laugh out loud.

Here’s the set-up, that takes up the first few spreads:

Many summers ago
the world’s first roller coaster
was invented almost entirely by mistake.

All Bear wanted was a quick
and easy way to get from
the stillness of home . . .

to the calm of his beehives.
One that avoided the hustle and bustle
of the chattering woods below.

Bear called his invention the Honey Runner.
It was a bit steep.

The corners took some
getting used to.
And it was way too fast.

But he needed the speed to get up the slopes.

During all of these, we see a beautiful autumn forest with roller coaster tracks popping up between a vertical pillar where bear lives and a place on the forest floor with his hives. The start of the track is a vertical drop from bear’s house. There’s another hill and a bend before the track ends.

To Bear’s great surprise, his neighbors – from squirrels to moose, want to try out his invention. And even though they scream with terror, they want to do it again! What’s going on?

Bear tries signs:

It is incredibly
FAST
not at all
COMFORTABLE
and definitely not
FUN

But that doesn’t work at all.

He tries making rules against screaming or riding at night. That also doesn’t work.

Then he tries making the ride even scarier, with loops and twists, but that only brings bigger throngs.

I don’t know if this will delight the hearts of people who, like Bear, don’t understand the appeal of roller coasters – but it delighted me. (I have a theory that if you are exposed to roller coasters when you are in junior high, when your good sense is outweighed by your desire to try new things that your friends are doing – you will love roller coasters forever. I was at that crucial age when I first went upside down in a roller coaster and decided that nothing could scare me after that.)

Bear finally gives up and leaves his invention to the forest creatures who keep swarming it – and finds a new location for his home and hives that have a waterfall between them.

Bear’s cluelessness in not understanding the love other folks have for fast rides is shown rather than told – and it’s a delight! Check this one out to see for yourself and your kids.

TadghBentley.com

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Review of Unclobber, by Colby Martin

Christian, Current Issues, Nonfiction Review, Starred Review, True Stories 0

Unclobber

Rethinking our Misuse of the Bible on Homosexuality

by Colby Martin

Westminster John Knox Press, 2022. 218 pages.
Review written August 6, 2026, from my own copy, purchased via Amazon.com
Starred Review

I’ve owned this book for quite some time, and since I am attending Wild Goose Festival this coming September, and the author will be there – I wanted to make sure I finally got it read.

This book would have been helpful to me several years ago when I was thinking through the Bible’s teachings on homosexuality. As it is, I am so glad this resource exists.

My background is similar to Colby Martin’s – I grew up a conservative evangelical, and my life was about my faith. I did not become a pastor – because I was a woman, so of course not. He was a pastor at a large evangelical church, so when he started questioning his church’s blanket condemnation of gay people, he got fired.

This book tells about his journey. And in alternating chapters, he talks about the six “Clobber” passages in the Bible that are used to condemn homosexual people. And he makes a strong case that modern day readers are taking them out of context and not interpreting them in a legitimate way.

He didn’t come to this because of anybody in his life who was gay. He began researching the topic because it seemed like a discrimination issue to not allow same-sex couples to get married, whether or not you think it’s sinful.

I appreciate his approach, because I, too, felt in my heart that it wasn’t right to condemn same-sex couples, but wasn’t sure how to square that with the Bible. I like the way he looks at each passage and lays out the case that they are being misused.

I am at least twenty years older than Colby Martin, and this wasn’t as big an issue (or rather one I could ignore) in the churches I attended when I was young. As an adult, I gradually changed my way of thinking with the help of books like God Believes in Love, by Gene Robinson, and Paul Among the People, by Sarah Ruden.

I didn’t think it affected me, but when Caitlin Jenner came out as transgender, I thought it through and realized that I didn’t believe for a second that’s contrary to Scripture. I was glad I thought it through, because it wasn’t long after that when my own adult child came out as transgender. And a few years later, my home church decided to make it part of their church constitution that LGBTQ people are sinning. I wrote a whole blog series about why I think churches should welcome LGBTQ people, especially transgender people. I called it Transcending. I used some ideas from Austen Hartke’s, a transgender pastor’s, wonderful book, Transforming. My emphasis is similar to Colby Martin’s here. What does the Bible have to say about transgender people?

All of this ties in with a book I recently reviewed, Better Ways to Read the Bible, by Zack Lambert. If you are interpreting the Bible so it can be used as a weapon to clobber people, rather than to build people up with love, joy, peace, and the other fruit of the Spirit – then something is wrong with your interpretation. Colby Martin shows us how we can rightly divide the word of truth and also be more loving people.

colbymartinonline.com

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Review of Fruitcake, by Rex Ogle and Dave Valeza

Biography, Children's Nonfiction Review, Graphic Memoir 0

Fruitcake

by Rex Ogle & Dave Valeza

Graphix, 2026. 240 pages.
Review written June 12, 2026, from a library book.

Fruitcake is another graphic novel memoir about Rex Ogle’s middle school years, following up on Four Eyes and Pizza Face. This one is about eighth grade, when all his friends were pairing up.

And Rex, too, found a nice girl who liked him – but he couldn’t stop thinking about a boy he spent time with outside of school – and it was the boy who made him blush.

Meanwhile, his Abuela takes him to two different churches – one in his own neighborhood when Abuela is visiting, where the preacher says gay people will burn in hell. Then at Abuela’s home church, the pastor says that God loves everyone.

So Rex keeps trying to hide who he is – until he can’t anymore.

This graphic novel is a quick read, but it’s got a very relatable story about a kid figuring out who he really is.

rexogle.com
davevaleza.com

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Review of Old Bones, by Aaron Elkins

Contemporary, Fiction Review, Mystery, Starred Review 0

Old Bones

by Aaron Elkins

Open Road, 1987. 209 pages.
Review written June 18, 2026, from my own copy, purchased via Amazon.com
Starred Review
1988 Edgar Award Winner, Best Mystery Novel

When I told my friend Paul that I was going to Mont Saint-Michel on vacation and had signed up for a tour of the bay, he told me I needed to read this book. So I bought myself a copy, and since it is paperback, I brought it on my trip, and it’s the first book I read.

Right at the start, someone dies by drowning when he gets stuck in quicksand in the bay when the tide comes in. That’s not the main mystery of the book, though. His family manor was in the area, and he had ordered his family to come visit, because he had something important to tell them.

But while the family is gathered, some workmen had come to update the cellar – and found a skeleton. Good thing Gideon Oliver, the Skeleton Detective of America, was speaking at a law enforcement conference in nearby St. Malo.

Gideon isn’t actually in law enforcement himself. He’s got a PhD in the study of bones, and, well, he has a habit of getting mixed up in detective cases. The cover informs me this is the fourth novel about him. But since he’s in town, he gets called in to consult on the case, and notices plenty about the bones that escapes the attention of others.

And the skeleton seems to be from 1942, when some of the family members were in the Resistance, and some… weren’t. Tensions are still high 45 years later.

But as Gideon is looking at the bones, there’s a present-day murder, as well as attempted murder, and more people almost die in the bay of Mont Saint-Michel.

When I went on the tour, we learned how to escape quicksand. I asked the guide if the scenario of getting stuck in quicksand is realistic, and she confirmed that it can happen. I was glad I was with a guide! (It was SO cool!) The tide comes in very quickly, but we got out right after it went from ankle deep to thigh deep – and we were right near the island at that point.

Besides the amazing setting, this is a cozy mystery with fun characters and an interesting puzzle with historical roots. I may look up more books in this series.

Oh, one funny thing: The cover says this was the 1998 Edgar Winner, which didn’t match the publication date. So I looked it up, and the cover is wrong, it won in 1988.

aaronelkins.com

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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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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/red_star_rebels.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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