Review of Oathbound, by Tracy Deonn

Fantasy, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Oathbound

by Tracy Deonn
read by Joniece Abbott-Pratt, Andrew Eiden, Hillary Huber, Tim Paige, and Adenrele Ojo

Simon & Schuster Audio, 2025. 25 hours.
Review written July 28, 2025, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

25 hours listening to Book Three and the series still is not done! Fair warning about that – but honestly, with the kicker ending to this book, I’m not upset – I want to hear more.

This series is growing on me. I think after listening to Book Three, I’m willing to call myself a fan. I liked the concept of Book One – a Black girl destroying expectations by proving herself to be a part of a magical secret society of descendants of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. I thought that was what the series would be about.

But Book Two showed us, right at the start, that of course the white men accustomed to ruling the Order wouldn’t put up with that. And we find out that Bree has another kind of magic from her Black foremothers, and she meets practitioners of that art – all while seeing scenes from Arthur’s life as he, too, tries to control her. And basically Book Two was pretty confusing for me – different kinds of magic, different practitioners, lots of “dreamwalking,” and I wasn’t even sure who Bree was really in love with.

I enjoyed Book Three, though. I didn’t worry about remembering what went on before and got the idea pretty quickly. It seems like she’d established how the different kinds of magic worked in the earlier books, and now it was easier for me to simply accept what’s happening. In this book, Bree is trying to learn to use her power apart from Arthur – apart from all her friends, too. (Oh! Something I appreciated was that Arthur was hardly mentioned in this book. Every single time the narrator said the word “Author,” I couldn’t help myself and said “Arrrthur” under my breath – this happened much less in Book Three than it had in Book Two.)

This book progresses at a leisurely pace – 25 hours! – and I think could have been done without so many viewpoint characters. But I especially liked what’s basically a heist set-up in the last half of the book – and getting to become clear on which one is actually Bree’s love interest.

And there’s a huge kick at the end – that packs a punch precisely because of what you’ve learned during the course of the book.

So, yes, this series is growing on me. Bree Matthews is a character you can’t help but root for. One thing’s for sure – the white patriarchy shouldn’t underestimate her.

tracydeonn.com

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Review of Ride or Die, by Gail-Agnes Musikavanhu

Contemporary, Teen Fiction Review 0

Ride or Die

by Gail-Agnes Musikavanhu

Soho Teen, 2023. 368 pages.
Review written July 31, 2023, from a library book

Ride or Die is the story of a rich Black teenage girl named Loli who likes to shake up expectations. She’s gotten into trouble many times, but her best friends Ryan and Cairo always back her up.

Then Loli meets a mysterious stranger – in a closet at a party.

Loli’s not one to hang out in closets at parties. But when she goes after her missing necklace in the pocket of a coat in the closet, there’s someone sitting in there. And they do some talking. She accidentally leaves the necklace behind with him.

But the next day, she gets it back in an envelope at her regular hang-out. Along with a letter proposing that they don’t investigate each other’s identity – but that they do start setting missions for each other. Adventures to solve, and then prove that they’ve accomplished them. To fail a mission is to stop the adventure.

And Loli can’t resist. When the missions get more and more out there, she gets hooked on the adrenalin. And then they start thinking about meeting.

But while Loli is obsessed with accomplishing each task (and creating her own clever challenges), she starts neglecting her current friends, the folks who have stood by her forever.

I enjoyed this novel, and the mystery kept me going. It was refreshing that race was not an issue, but that the privileged rich girl at the center of it was Black. However, as it went along, some of the things she did in the name of completing these missions went way too far for me. I know that was partly what the book was about, but I lost some sympathy for her. Now, I did like the way the ending took that into account. And I did thoroughly enjoy the story. But here’s fair warning: You won’t want to try any of these things at home.

Sohoteen.com

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Review of The Dagger and the Flame, by Catherine Doyle

Audiobooks, Fantasy, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

The Dagger and the Flame

by Catherine Doyle
read by Emily Carey and Freddy Carter

Simon & Schuster Audio, 2024. 13 hours, 23 minutes.
Review written July 21, 2025, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

This is another eaudiobook I decided to put on hold because so many other people had done so. Maybe they were onto something! I saw that the sequel is out soon, and it already has lots of NotifyMe tags in Libby – I decided to see what the fuss is about, and was glad I did.

This is a romantasy with a dash of violence, but a unique set of fantasy world-building. Seraphine has grown up on a farm with her mother, a smuggler of Shade – a magical substance with an affinity for shadows. But the Prologue tells us about a strange experiment her mother didn’t want her to see, when something she did with Shade turned their cat into a monster.

There are two groups in the city that use Shade, but Sera’s mother only sold to the Cloaks. The Cloaks wear cloaks woven and sewn and created with Shade that enable the wearer to turn invisible in shadows. They are a guild of thieves, hired by those who desire their services. Sera’s mother told her to go to them if she is ever in trouble.

So when Sera comes home to find her mother dead, their farm burned, and sees a member of the other guild, the Daggers, standing over her – Sera runs to the Cloaks. She knows she may be next if she can’t find sanctuary. Can she fit in with them and learn to be a thief? She’s used to Shade, but not to wielding it.

After establishing all this, we hear from our second viewpoint character – Ransom, a Dagger who has indeed been tasked with assassinating Seraphine. He’s in no hurry, but finds himself more intrigued by his mark than he’s accustomed to. Daggers actually drink a potion made of Shade. It’s said that drinking Shade eventually eats out their hearts, but they can actually wield shadows and kill with impunity.

And then some monsters start appearing in the city, killing people with much less finesse than the Daggers used – but the same symptoms on their bodies. Does it have something to do with Sera’s mother’s experiments? And then when Ransom tries to carry out his assignment – she discovers the necklace her mother gave her has a strange power.

The history of the city, the guilds, and shade, is all woven into the story. Both characters have strong friendships in their guilds that help guide their actions and choices. It all builds to a crisis that leaves things unsettled, but with a new kind of power to explore. I’m definitely wanting to find out what happens next – coming in September! (And I’m currently in line for the eaudiobook. Note: I think it’s related to the author being Irish, but the ebook and eaudiobook are available to the library before the print book, which comes out in December.)

catherinedoylebooks.com

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Review of Pedro and Daniel, by Federico Erebia

Historical, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Pedro and Daniel

by Federico Erebia

Levine Querido, 2023. 425 pages.
Review written July 28, 2023, from a library book.
Starred Review

The author gives us a hint of what we’re in for in an Introduction:

This novel is a work of fiction based on my memorable relationship with Daniel, my brother. Other characters, and some scenes, are composites, and/or fictional. All other names are fictional.

We know from the start how the book will end:

After Daniel’s death in 1993 at age thirty, the seeds of this novel were planted within the fertile grounds of the controlled chaos of my mind, where they germinated – constantly calling out for the light of day, to be written down, to be shared with others.

Yes, this is the story of two brothers, Pedro and Daniel, close in age and close in spirit. They have a frighteningly abusive mother, who especially targets Pedro with her physical and verbal abuse.

I’m going back and forth thinking whether this book is an epic tapestry of the lives of two brothers, or if it’s a slightly self-indulgent set of memories that were only partly shaped into a novel. It’s interesting that it’s marketed for young adults, because there’s more about the brothers’ childhood and after-college years than the time they spent in high school and college, when they were separated.

But as I reflect, I’m leaning more toward thinking of it as an epic tapestry. I remember how I eagerly began, but bogged down in the middle where it got a little slower, a little more meditative. We feel their bond, and the different ways the two of them approach life. Both are gay, though Pedro took longer to admit it to himself. Daniel wants to be a priest, and Pedro wants to be a doctor. This becomes poignant when Daniel contracts HIV which progresses into AIDS, and Pedro knows medically what he’s going through, but still didn’t have any effective treatment to help him.

I enjoyed the Dichos that Daniel loves – Mexican proverbs. They’re given throughout the book, with translations. An index at the back is fun to read through. I have to say that he caught many biblical references, but I did find four biblical proverbs that were listed as “Origin unknown.” Oh well, if Daniel had been the one writing the book, he probably would have known.

This is not an action-packed novel. It’s a literary novel that covers the boys’ entire lives, with plenty of social commentary along the way. They were born about the same time as me, and I appreciated the little details that reminded me of my very different childhood. Give this to teens who like to read and think deeply. And I hope that gay boys who read it will find kindred souls in Pedro and Daniel.

levinequerido.com

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Review of Truth Is, by Hannah V. Sawyerr

Award Winners, Contemporary, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Truth Is

by Hannah V. Sawyerr

Amulet Books, 2025. 474 pages.
Review written September 23, 2025, from an Advance Reader Copy signed by the author.
Starred Review
2025 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature Longlist

I’m definitely biased about this book, since it came with a hug! Hannah Sawyerr was one of the debut authors who was a Morris Award Finalist the year I was on the Morris committee, and we got to have lunch with the authors after the award ceremony. So when I was in line at ALA Annual Conference this year to get this Advance Reader Copy, Hannah recognized me at once and gave me a hug! It had me smiling all day because she is a genuinely great author, and being on the Morris feels like we’re discovering authors – even though the Walter Award committee and the Cybils committee also recognized her first book, All the Fighting Parts.

So I was thrilled when her second book showed up on the National Book Award Longlist. I had just gotten around (finally) to reading the ARC. It shows that I may be biased, but I am certainly not wrong in thinking that her writing is good!

Truth Is is about a girl named Truth Bangura who is a slam poet in Philadelphia, starting her Senior year, and trying to decide what to do after she graduates.

And then she discovers she’s pregnant by her ex-boyfriend. She wrestles with the decision, but chooses an abortion. That brings consequences especially in her relationship with her best friend. But it doesn’t bring regret.

Truth is hiding a lot of things from her mother, including her pregnancy and abortion, but also her participation on the slam poetry team. So when her performance of a poem goes viral – about the abortion and about how she’s scared to tell her mother – her mother is not happy.

I love the Author’s Note at the front of the Advance Reader Copy (I hope it will be in the finished book!), especially this part:

Truth Is is a pro-choice novel in every sense of the phrase. Truth’s choice to move forward with an abortion is made early on in the novel, and the majority of the novel focuses on her life and her choices after the abortion. My intention behind this was always to show readers that life continues after big decisions.

For young people who decide to read Truth Is, it is important to me that you know that, like Truth’s poetry, life is filled with many deliberate choices and a whole lot of revision. A lot of questions and heartbreak. But a lot of gain and victories too. You have the power to make new decisions every day and can always choose to revise and write a new story.

Hannah Sawyerr beautifully pulls off this theme, as besides navigating her senior year and her relationships, Truth is learning to be a slam poet. We see the three poems Truth ends up taking to the slam poetry competition at the end of the year – and how Truth revises them along the way.

The book takes us through three trimesters of the school year, and Truth’s choice at the end about what she should do next. Like All the Fighting Parts, this story is told with power and beauty.

hannahsawyerr.com

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Review of My Father, the Panda Killer, by Jamie Jo Hoang

Historical, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

My Father, the Panda Killer

by Jamie Jo Hoang
read by Quyen Ngo

Listening Library, 2023. 10 hours, 17 minutes.
Review written November 3, 2023, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

My Father, the Panda Killer is the story of Jane, an American teen living in San Jose in 1999, the daughter of Vietnamese refugees. Jane’s mother left their family four years before, leaving Jane to go through high school as the mother of her little brother, then three years old. As well as giving her the responsibility to spend most of her time helping her father run their family convenience store. And bearing the brunt of her father’s unpredictable wrath and violent beatings.

Now it’s the summer after Jane’s senior year. She’s been accepted to UCLA, but doesn’t know how her father will respond to the news that she’s leaving. And she doesn’t know how to even begin to tell her brother that she won’t be there any longer to shepherd him through life and protect him from their father.

But alongside Jane’s story, we also hear the story of her father’s harrowing journey as a 13-year-old refugee from Vietnam. That part of the story is horrific with lots of death and life-threatening situations. But as Jane pieces together her father’s history, including a trip to Vietnam where she meets her grandparents for the first time, she begins to understand him better. As she understands her father better, she’s better able to understand herself and her heritage.

One little problem with this? I’m not sure I actually wanted Jane to come to terms with her father’s abuse in that way. I was reminded very strongly of the nonfiction book What My Bones Know,, by Stephanie Foo, and her C-PTSD and journey to come to terms with it through therapy as an adult. This book implies that even calling it abuse is a violation of Vietnamese culture. It left me feeling uneasy.

However, it certainly gave you sympathy and understanding for Jane’s father. In view of the horrors he endured, you can understand his ways of coping much better. So I was left not wanting to judge – but I still don’t think the beatings his daughter received are okay. Understandable, but not okay.

Anyway, the author’s note at the end said that the next book will be about the little brother – and his mother. I definitely want to read more. The interweaving of the father’s journey with the daughter’s conflicts was a big strength of the book. The front of the book says, “THIS IS NOT A HISTORY LESSON,” but at the same time the author points out that there aren’t many narratives of the Vietnam War told from the perspective of the Vietnamese people. At the very least, this book is valuable for filling that gap.

heyjamie.com

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Review of Somadina, by Akwaeke Emezi

Audiobooks, Fantasy, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Somadina

by Akwaeke Emezi
read by Nene Nwoko

Listening Library, 2025. 9 hours, 47 minutes.
Review written September 2, 2025, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

Somadina is a powerful fantasy novel about a girl with magical powers on a quest to rescue her twin. The story is completely rooted in an African cultural world, a refreshing change from the usual white medieval-based fantasy stories I read.

It’s been many years since the Split – when to protect themselves in a war, the magic-users in the community did such powerful magic, the earth split open – and everyone who survived ever since gets a magical gift when they come of age. But Somadina and her twin Jayaike are slow to get their gifts and slow to develop physically, confirming to some in the village that twins are inherently evil and should have been left to die.

But then when their gifts do manifest, they’re surprisingly powerful. When Somadina uses her gift to protect her friend being raped, the result revives the village’s fear that she is evil. Her own mother calls her an abomination. As if that weren’t enough, her twin brother is taken by a man who has appeared in Somadina’s dreams, telling her he’s going to eat their power. Her brother is like another part of her, and Somadina is compelled to find him, which brings its own adventures.

I was glad I listened to this book, because I love the narrator’s African accent that helped me feel immersed in that world. The story is full of mythic elements and comes to a wonderfully satisfying conclusion after the big showdown at the end.

A powerful fantasy tale that is definitely not the same old thing.

akwaeke.com

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Review of Mattie and the Machine, by Lynn Ng Quezon

Historical, Teen Fiction Review 0

Mattie and the Machine

by Lynn Ng Quezon

Santa Monica Press, 2022. 264 pages.
Review written April 23, 2023, from my own copy, sent by the publisher.

I really enjoyed Mattie and the Machine. I think part of its appeal is that as a woman studying math in college, I did feel like I had to prove myself.

This novel tells the true story of Margaret Knight, a mechanic and inventor. She starts out the book working as a mechanic at a bag-making factory. But when she learns that the male mechanic – and all the men – are making more than her, simply because they’re men, she confronts the owner.

And a challenge is born. Mattie is challenged to make a new machine that will produce the new square-bottomed bags. But her machine has to do it more quickly than the male mechanic’s machine.

The challenge takes up the first half of the book. Once Mattie has her machine, she’s urged to get a patent. But there are obstacles all along the way, and no one wants to work with a woman. And then she gets betrayed and has to go to court to get credit for her invention.

The storytelling style in this book is old-fashioned and reminds me of books I read when I was a kid, though Mattie is fifteen. It’s a little slow-moving, but I was fascinated by Mattie’s quest to prove herself.

The book closes with a copy of Margaret Knight’s patent. I wish that there was an author’s note about what is fact and what is fiction and what she went on to do with her life. How many more patents did she get? Did she ever marry, and was it to someone who appeared in this novel? For that matter, how many of the characters in the novel were actual people. This book made me want to find a biography of her life to find out how much was true and what this amazing woman went on to do.

Wikipedia article on Margaret Knight
NgQuezon.wordpress.com
santamonicapress.com

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Review of Lies We Sing to the Sea, by Sarah Underwood

Fantasy, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Lies We Sing to the Sea

by Sarah Underwood

HarperTeen, 2023. 420 pages.
Review written March 12, 2023, from a library book
Starred Review

Ah! This is the sort of book I was hoping to read by being on the Morris committee! (It came after two in a row that I didn’t finish.)

I’m not sure if Lies We Sing to the Sea is based on an actual Greek myth or embellished as a history of Ithaca after the story of Odysseus. But the premise is that Ithaca was cursed and every year has to offer twelve maidens to Poseidon, or the sea will ravage the island and kill many others.

As the book begins, Leto, the daughter of the last oracle, has received the mark of Poseidon – scales around her neck – so she’s sentenced to be hung with eleven other maidens. She almost escapes at one point, and of course we think that’s going to happen, because it’s the start of the book. We get the perspective of the prince as well, who hates to oversea the deaths of twelve girls every year.

But it actually happens. Yes, she meets eyes with the prince – but then Leto actually dies by the noose and her body is swept into the sea.

The next chapter, though, introduces us to Melantho. She lives alone on an island. She has become Poseidon’s creature. And she takes twelve bodies out of the water.

But then one of the dead girls opens her eyes – as one has done many times before, but decades ago. Leto is the twelfth girl to wash up alive on Melantho’s island. And it will be up to her to break the curse – by killing the prince.

We know it won’t be easy. After all, the prince is a viewpoint character, not some nameless evil guy. He doesn’t even want to order the killings.

And then Leto manages to bring Melantho with her as she leaves the island, something that’s never happened before. Together, they go back to Ithaca, posing Leto as the prince’s betrothed from Athens, and equipped with the power of Poseidon over the waters of the sea. Leto needs to kill the prince, and she needs to do it in the sea.

The story from there is woven expertly with twists and turns. Each character has secrets and back story that come out only gradually. They all want to break the curse, but will they be able to do it?

Fair warning, there’s some sex in this book, but not very closely described. Something that struck me as interesting was that this was the second young adult book I’ve read recently where a main character loves two people – but it’s not presented as a love triangle or even a choice she has to make – she simply loves both of them. I’m not quite sure how I feel about that, but in this particular book it worked out believably.

And the writing in this book is lyrical and beautifully woven – appropriate for a mythological tale.

I’m writing this review at the start of my Morris reading, but now I know that whatever we pick, they’re sure to be excellent – because this is one of the choices. It’s always wonderful in committee reading to find that first book you would be proud to include as your winner – and know that our choices are only going to expand.

sarahunderwood.uk
EpicReads.com

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Review of A Language of Dragons, by S. F. Williamson

Fantasy, Teen Fiction Review 0

A Language of Dragons

by S. F. Williamson
read by Henrietta Meire

HarperCollins, 2025. 12 hours, 47 minutes.
Review written February 3, 2025, from a library eaudiobook.

Here’s a historical fantasy novel set in an alternate reality 1923 in a London where sentient dragons live among humans, and the prime minister is a woman, having negotiated a peace agreement with the Dragon Queen after the dragons of Bulgaria rose up and killed all the humans there. However, written into the peace agreement is a strict class system. And staying in Second Class, with its privileges of being able to go to University, is conditional on passing exams at seventeen.

Vivian Featherswallow passed her exams and hopes to become a dragon linguist. She already knows six dragon languages. But when her parents are arrested as being part of the rebellion, and her cousin taken as well, Viv will do anything to save them – even set free an imprisoned criminal dragon to burn the prime minister’s office where they’ve got the evidence against her parents.

Well, that doesn’t work so well, and let’s just say that the rebellion heats up. Viv has a chance to redeem herself if she’ll work on solving a dragon code – at a place called Bletchley.

I laughed when Bletchley was mentioned, because it’s the current favorite topic in children’s books. Last year, off the top of my head, there was Max in the House of Spies, The Bletchley Riddle, and The Enigma Girls. This time, the top secret folks at Bletchley were trying to figure out what the dragons were saying with their high-pitched squeaks and clicks (like bats or whales) above the pitch that human ears can hear, but able to be modified by a clever machine.

Okay, up to this point I was all in. I loved the nuances of the dragon languages Viv knows (because yes! It makes sense that dragons would develop their own languages). But I had a little trouble with the whole Bletchley code-breaking apparatus applied to it. They were trying to figure out what the dragons meant with “Trill #4” or “Tone #11” – and I never did understand how the codebreakers even learned which pitch was which, let alone what they meant.

Beyond that, though, there are bullies guarding them and more and more reasons to join the rebel side, but Viv has been promised her whole family (including her baby sister, now in an orphanage) will go free if she gives the prime minister the key to the “dragon code.” And it gets somewhat convoluted from there – who to trust, what’s going on. Mind you, this could be a case of I didn’t listen closely at a crucial point and lost the thread, but there was also a bit more Angst on the part of the main character about every decision than I care for in a novel, and her decisions did go back and forth, so it was hard to keep track of what she was trying to do. It was also a little bit hard to believe anyone would have accepted the dystopian society they were living in. And there was some awful violence portrayed. I mean, they’re fighting with dragons, so what did I expect?

All that said, I loved the idea of sentient dragons who are not exactly tame dragons, living together with humans in a fragile peace. The story did not end with this book, and things are very likely about to get much worse, but it did end at a satisfying pausing point. Despite those quibbles, I’m fascinated enough by this book, I’m sure I’ll want to hear more.

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