Review of This Wicked Fate, by Kalynn Bayron

Paranormal, Teen Fiction Review 0

This Wicked Fate

by Kalynn Bayron

Bloomsbury, 2022. 310 pages.
Review written November 13, 2022, from a library book

This Wicked Fate is the second book about Briseis, a descendant of Hecate, one of the Greek gods. In the course of her battle in the first book with descendants of Jason, one of her two mothers was killed. By the same descendant of Jason who years ago killed her birth mother, the descendant of the goddess.

But Hecate can keep her mother safe for one cycle of the moon. So in this book, Bri and her allies and relatives are working to complete an impossible task — collect the last piece of the Heart of Absyrtus.

If that sounds like the plot of a Rick Riordan book, it did to me, too. I think it’s safe to say that if you enjoy the Rick Riordan books, you’ll enjoy this one, too. The main difference being these characters are older teens, most of them are black, and the romances are between women.

Although there are life-or-death stakes, the story reads as light-hearted and fun. I like Briseis powers — she can command plants, make them grow, and is unaffected by any poisonous plant. Two of her allies have become immortal from previous encounters with the Heart.

But they face many obstacles learning where the remaining piece of the Heart is, getting there, and bringing the pieces together. And of course there’s a deadline with the cycle of the moon, and others who want to get there first.

I wasn’t tremendously invested in the characters, which might be simply because I hadn’t read the first book. But I did enjoy reading the story and liked seeing a brainy Black girl triumph in an action-packed adventure tale.

kalynnbayron.com
bloomsbury.com

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Review of Echoes of Grace, by Guadalupe García McCall

Paranormal, Teen Fiction Review 0

Echoes of Grace

by Guadalupe García McCall

Tu Books (Lee & Low), 2022. 375 pages.
Review written November 5, 2022, from a library book

This was a hard book to read, yet a lyrical and powerful one.

Grace and her sister Mercy live near the border in Texas with their father, their abuela, and Mercy’s little boy Alexander. But right at the beginning, when Grace is supposed to be watching Alexander, he runs out into traffic and is killed.

But Grace keeps on seeing him. He follows her around as she goes about her day, as he did before. And this goes with the Echoes that Grace sees, strange visions and otherworldly people. Her mother and grandmother had visions like that, but her family isn’t very patient about them, and her sister hates her because of Alexander’s death.

And while Grace is coping with everything life is throwing at her, she also remembers what happened three years earlier, when she went to Mexico and stayed with her mother’s mother. This was after her mother was killed nine years before that. The chapters alternate, leading up to an awful event.

But why did her mother never tell them that their grandmother was alive? And why is Grace only now remembering what happened? And how does it relate to the visions of her mother that keep popping up in disturbing ways?

This book is not about sweetness and light. But it is about love and power and carrying on.

ggmccall.com
leeandlow.com

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Review of Time and Time Again, by Chatham Greenfield

Science Fiction, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Time and Time Again

by Chatham Greenfield

Bloomsbury, 2024. 327 pages.
Review written November 6, 2024, from a library book.
Starred Review

This is a time loop novel. Instead of taking us through how Phoebe figures out she’s in a time loop, this book starts on Version 26 of her August 6th. She has the same breakfast with her mom, walks to her dad’s house, plays Scrabble and eats his chicken parmesan and then goes to sleep with her Irritable Bowel Syndrome acting up, because the time she told her dad she couldn’t eat it, she hurt his feelings and it wasn’t worth it.

But every day on the way to her dad’s house, she sees her childhood best friend Jess drive by, and they exchange a look. Phoebe analyzes the look, but doesn’t know what to make of it, and starts thinking of that as the brightest spot of her (repeated) day.

And then one of the repeated days, she’s not paying attention and walks in front of Jess’s car. Jess hits Phoebe, and comes out of her car, very much alarmed. Phoebe isn’t hurt, but it’s a dramatic change from the other days. And then the next day, Jess remembers that it happened! Before long, it becomes apparent that Jess has been pulled into the time loop, too. Jess is appalled that Phoebe has been doing the same thing every day, so she decides to show Phoebe how to have fun.

And then the two girls fall in love – or rather both realize that they already had a crush on each other. It’s beautifully done, since they have all the time in the world. But we see the progression of shared moments and plans to brighten each other’s days.

Now, in any speculative fiction novel, I’m picky about how the magic (or “science”) works. But I do tend to suspend my criticism for time loop novels, because it’s such a fun story idea. However, I have to say the biggest challenge is how they come out of the loop and what the repercussions are. And does it help the whole thing make any sense? For me, that was where this novel fell short and I didn’t really buy how it worked at the end. That said, I still loved reading this – it’s a charming romance between a fat girl with IBS and a girl who is disabled. Because no, those aren’t the most important things about either one. And I love the way their romance builds on their childhood friendship and how each one fills in encouragement when the other one needs it. So no matter how you feel about the time loop, this is a delightful romance.

chatgreenfield.com

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Review of The Lost Dreamer, by Lizz Huerta, read by Elisa Melendez and Inés del Castillo

Audiobooks, Fantasy, Teen Fiction Review 0

The Lost Dreamer

by Lizz Huerta
read by Elisa Melendez and Inés del Castillo

Macmillan Audio, 2022. 10 hours, 52 minutes.
Review written November 5, 2022, from a library eaudiobook

The Lost Dreamer says on Amazon that it’s book one of a duology, so fair warning that there’s not much resolution at the end of this book — it feels like half of a story.

But what we do have is full of rich world-building. Chapters alternate between two different teenage girls. Both of them are dreamers — at night, they experience “The Dream,” a world inhabited by spirits, where they learn truths about the waking world. When someone dies, they say they “returned to the Dream.”

Indir, the first featured character, is part of a family of Dreamers, and she serves at the Temple of Night in the capital city. But after she dreams to answer a question for the king on his deathbed, her ability to enter the Dream disappears. Is she still a Dreamer? And then when the new king brings fire warriors to the city and seems hostile to Dreamers, they all fear that he’s ushering in chaos.

Our alternating featured character is Saya. Nobody knows she’s a dreamer, because her mother won’t allow her to tell anyone. In fact, her mother uses Saya’s gift to act as a seer in the villages where they travel. But Saya begins to want to come into her own.

Both of the girls’ stories increase in danger. The way they come together toward the end of the book surprised me.

The Dream is fantastical, and both characters spend plenty of time there. The author does a good job conveying how the Dream and the world about it works. As well as making us worry about what’s coming to that world.

lizzhuerta.com

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Review of Sunrise Nights, by Jeff Zentner and Brittany Cavallaro

Audiobooks, Contemporary, Romance, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Sunrise Nights

by Jeff Zentner and Brittany Cavallaro
read by Alexandra Hunter and Michael Crouch

Quill Tree Books, 2024. 7 hours, 28 minutes.
Review written October 30, 2024, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

Sunrise Nights is a sweet young adult romance described by the publisher as a “novel in verse and dialogue.” Since I was listening to it, I didn’t realize the verse was there until I got to a few spots that were artistically poetry. Most of the book read as the girl and the boy describing their night.

And the book takes place during three all-night parties at the end of a summer camp for the arts. Florence is there for dance, and Jude is there for photography. They don’t meet until the last night – Sunrise Night – of their first year in the program. They go out on the town, and they hit it off in ways that are delightful to witness. Then they make a pact not to contact each other until the next Sunrise Night the following year.

Their first night together, Jude has a girlfriend. So that keeps them both from acknowledging their attraction. The second Sunrise Night, Florence has a boyfriend. But, well, the discussion between the two of them makes her rethink that.

And still, despite Jude saying he’s not going to let a simple misunderstanding make this like a teen rom com, they still don’t talk about their attraction until the third Sunrise Night.

I like that Florence and Jude are nuanced characters. Florence is losing her ability to dance because she has a deteriorating eye condition that destroys her balance. Jude is the first person besides her parents that she’s talked with about it. Jude has OCD that is undiagnosed until he takes Florence’s suggestion to see a therapist. He only knows the first year that his thoughts spiral. He’s also hurting because his parents recently split up, and he’s afraid that he drives away love.

It all adds up to a sweet story of two teens who are open with one another and find a listening ear when they need it most. But then they go a year between these times of connection. Which builds exactly the right amount of romantic tension.

jeffzentnerbooks.com
brittanycavallaro.com

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Review of Gwen & Art Are Not in Love, by Lex Croucher, read by Sarah Ovens and Alex Singh

Fantasy, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Gwen and Art Are Not in Love

by Lex Croucher
read by Sarah Ovens and Alex Singh

Macmillan Young Listeners, 2023. 10 hours, 48 minutes.
Review written October 26, 2024, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

Okay, this one is just lots of fun. It’s set in England a few hundred years after Arthur Pendragon. Gwen’s father, a descendant of Arthur Pendragon, has moved the capital to Camelot to try to hold onto the kingdom. He’s also made an alliance when Gwen was a baby to win over the cultists, and betrothed her to Arthur, now 19 years old and also a descendant of Arthur Pendragon.

Gwen and Art have despised each other since they were children and Gwen broke Art’s arm and Art put a toad in her bed. Now? Well, as it happens, Gwen spots Art kissing a boy, but then Art discovers Gwen’s diary and learns she’s in love with Lady Bridget, the only female knight in the kingdom, who is currently competing in the big tournament in Camelot.

And then Art starts falling for Gabriel, Gwen’s brother and the heir to the throne. But both Gwen and Gabriel thought that someone in their position wasn’t allowed to be happy. But maybe Gwen and Art should go through with their engagement, because who could understand them better?

I’m calling this Fantasy because it’s a fantasy England where Arthur was real, and many in the story believe in magic, but no actual magic happens in the book (that we can be sure is magic, anyway).

The story has lots of hijinks and laughs and scrapes, but there’s a serious side because there is unrest in the kingdom. The narrators are lovely (I always like British accents!) and this is one I’m sure I enjoyed all the more from listening to it. Just plain fun.

lexcroucher.co.uk

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Review of Death at Morning House, by Maureen Johnson, read by Katherine Littrell

Contemporary, Mystery, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Death at Morning House

by Maureen Johnson
read by Katherine Littrell

HarperTeen, 2024. 9 hours, 23 minutes.
Review written October 28, 2024, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

I believe that in reading this book, I’ve caught up on all the Maureen-Johnson-authored murder mysteries. And they’re good! As you can tell from her guidebook for adults, Your Guide to Not Getting Murdered in a Quaint English Village, she knows the conventions of the great mystery novels and how to use them to create something modern and new.

Death at Morning House is a stand-alone murder mystery, not part of the Stevie Bell Truly Devious series, but like those books, there’s a place where mysterious deaths happened almost a hundred years ago – and there’s a more recent death – and then someone goes missing in the novel’s present day. We do get the story of the old deaths slowly revealed, and our teen protagonist Marlowe Wexler discovers clues to the modern-day deaths. And yes, finding those clues puts Marlowe in great danger – in this book, before she even knows who’s responsible.

As the book opens, it’s the start of summer, and Marlowe is taking the girl she’s long had a crush on to her aunt and uncle’s cabin – a place Marlowe is paid to watch over in their absence. Marlowe had gotten a special scented candle in a scent her crush likes – and while they are kissing, the candle explodes and the house sustains serious fire damage.

Marlowe does not respond well. She’s afraid to talk to her crush. She becomes famous in her small town as a pyromaniac (even though the police confirm it was an accident), and she decides the only way to cope is to mope around in bed.

But then her history teacher tells Marlowe about an opportunity to spend the summer on an island in the St. Lawrence River, part of a team of teens offering tours of a historic home there. It sounds like a great way to get out of town, but the teacher doesn’t tell Marlowe that the reason there’s an opening is that one of the local teens who was planning to be there recently died at a party after prom. And part of the history of the house is the two children who died there from the original family that owned the house.

It all adds up to a great story with interesting characters and a strong sense of place. And of course, a big storm comes in not long after someone new goes missing, so there’s no way to get off the island for help if anything bad should happen.

I have to say that I am completely on board with Maureen Johnson’s recent trend of writing mysteries. She’s good! The situations and characters are varied, but there’s always an intriguing puzzle and characters you enjoy spending time with – and hope will stay alive.

maureenjohnsonbooks.com

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Review of A Drop of Venom, by Sajni Patel

Fantasy, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

A Drop of Venom

by Sajni Patel

Rick Riordan Presents (Disney/Hyperion), 2024. 393 pages.
Review written October 26, 2024, from a library book.
Starred Review

Here’s the idea behind this book: What if Medusa’s wrath was justified? The story is told by the victors, after all. A Drop of Venom combines the idea of Medusa with Indian mythology to give us one of the Nagin people with an affinity for snakes.

We’ve got two protagonists throughout the book. One is Manisha, a girl who when she was small was sent away from her family for her own protection when her family’s home was attacked. Manisha was sent to the temple, to hide her origins and become a temple priestess. There she meets our other protagonist, the king’s slayer, Pratyush.

Pratyush is the last in a line of supernatural monster slayers. His father and mother lived in hiding from the king, but when the king’s soldiers found them, a monster killed him. They took Pratyush to the king, and he had to slay monsters in order for his sister to be cared for. But after his sister got married off to a noble who abused her, and she eventually died, Pratyush has lost enthusiasm for killing for the king. He wants to settle down and marry that beautiful priestess he’s been flirting with at the temple. The king agrees, if he brings back the head of one last monster, the Serpent Queen who’s been turning men into stone.

What Pratyush doesn’t know was that while he was gone, Manisha was raped by a powerful man and kicked off the temple mountain in the clouds. But she didn’t die. In fact, a pit of vipers cushioned her fall, and the snakes gave her magical powers. She has a golden snake familiar that keeps growing bigger and bigger, and she’s traveling south to find her family. But she encounters people along the way, and some of them are very bad, and Manisha now has power to fight back.

There is violence in this book, and some horrible deaths. But for the most part, it’s a book about the powerless fighting back against injustice.

The book is atmospheric and pulls you along with each character. Unfortunately or fortunately (there will be more!), the story is not finished with this book, though we do have a face-off between the supposed monster and the slayer.

This is a fantasy story with many overtones about justice and power. It felt good to watch Manisha coming into her power.

sajnipatel.com
RickRiordan.com
HyperionTeens.com

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Review of Unbecoming, by Seema Yasmin

Contemporary, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Unbecoming

by Seema Yasmin

Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2024. 352 pages.
Review written October 21, 2024, from a library book.
Starred Review

Unbecoming is just barely speculative fiction – may it continue to be speculative! It’s about a near-future United States where abortion is illegal, and so is any and all type of hormonal pill. So birth control pills are illegal, as is hormone replacement therapy and IVF.

Our two teen protagonists, Laylah and Noor, are seniors in high school living in Texas in a Muslim community. Laylah is active with the mosque youth group, but Noor has been staying away for a couple years. They are working together to write an online website called “A Texas Teen’s Guide to Safe Abortion.”

But as the book opens, Laylah is in a sketchy mobile clinic disguised as a taco truck – and learns that she is pregnant.

This does not fit with her plans to go to medical school and become a doctor. She would like to take the abortion pill within 70 days since her last period – the time when it’s effective – but that clinic is out of them and says they’re impossible to find in Texas.

So the book is about Laylah trying to pretend nothing is wrong and that she’s researching for the Guide – but trying to find a way to get the abortion pill before she runs out of time. Her adventures include a couple of dangerous scenarios, and the clock is ticking the whole time. (If she has to get a surgical abortion, she’s told she’ll have to go to Mexico.)

Meanwhile, Noor is working to become an investigative journalist, and she’s convinced the wife of the iman and leader of the mosque’s youth group is up to something shady with mosque funds. But she doesn’t want to tell Laylah, because Laylah trusts the woman. And on top of this there are family expectations, not to mention the expectations of all the ladies in their community. So both Laylah and Noor have secrets from each other and feel guilty about it.

This is a good book to read before the election – may it never come true!

Now, if you believe abortion is murder (as I once did), this might be hard to read. Laylah doesn’t give a thought to the beginning life inside her and can be taken as an example of someone who forgot to use birth control and now is paying the price. (It didn’t help that the birth control pill is illegal, but her partner didn’t use a condom, either, and she’s kicking herself.)

But hold on. Even if you believe that, this book illustrates the exact thing that made me stop being a one-issue voter about abortion. Why would banning abortion work any better than Prohibition did? If you pass a law that the majority do not feel is right – it’s going to become a matter of pride and virtue to help people get around that law. All the mobile clinics, including the sketchy ones, the teen guide – you’d better believe a whole network would rise up to subvert the law. It would end up being only the people with the most resources and connections who could find safe treatment, but definitely a movement would rise up.

Either way, you’re going to have sympathy for a teen who made one bad decision, knows she did, and now must deal with the consequences. Seema Yasmin tells a good story about interesting characters. Oh, and there’s a historical story in this book about her grandmother in India who almost got involuntarily sterilized by her government in the 1970s. (I had no idea that happened.) Controlling people’s reproductivity has a long history.

This book gives you a good story, but it also makes you think.

seemayasmin.com

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Review of The Invocations, by Krystal Sutherland, read by Kit Griffiths

Paranormal, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

The Invocations

by Krystal Sutherland
read by Kit Griffiths

Listening Library, 2024. 13 hours, 7 minutes.
Review written October 20, 2024, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

First, fair warning: This book is much darker than the books I usually review, closer to horror than the cozy kind of fantasy I usually enjoy. But even I have to admit that this book is skillfully written, building suspense throughout and tying multiple threads together in a satisfying way.

This is a world like ours, but where women can do magic by tattooing an invocation on their skin that gives a demon a small piece of their soul in exchange for power, and tethering that demon to the person for the rest of her life.

This book has three main characters: Zara is in high school and is trying to find reliable books on necromancy. Because she’s determined to bring her sister back to life. Her sister was killed almost one year ago, and the books all say that after a year, there’s not enough of the person left to reliably bring them back. If Zara can’t do it, she’d like to find a witch who can.

Jude is the daughter of a billionaire, but she’s been sequestered away from the family ever since she messed up her life by accidentally cursing herself. She found a spell book and thought she’d mess with it – and did a terrible job of tethering a demon to herself. The wound is rancid – and so is Jude’s soul. She tried two more invocations to try to help deal with the consequences, but they didn’t work as hoped for, and Jude is looking for a witch with real power.

How does Jude look for a witch? She throws money at things, and she pays a detective to see the crime scenes of a serial killer who’s killing women with spells on their bodies – and removing the skin where the curse was tattooed. It turns out that Zara’s also visiting crime scenes, since her sister was the first victim of the serial killer. Well, they find a business card at a crime scene, which leads them to Emer.

Emer is hiding out at Oxford, pretending to be a student so she has access to the library and ways to get food. Ten years ago, her entire family of nineteen other witches was slaughtered by witch hunters, when she was only seven years old. It turns out that all of the serial killer’s victims had shortly before their deaths gotten a spell from Emer.

So now they have a new agenda – to find the serial killer. Emer feels a responsibility to the women who turned to her for help. And is there a connection between the serial killer and the witch hunters who killed her family? She tells Jude that she can’t break the tether with the demon who’s tormenting her, but Jude is persistent, and she has money and connections to help Emer find the killer. Zara, too, is told that Emer wants nothing to do with necromancy – but let’s just say that Zara is a very determined girl. (And this is yet another book where I’m screaming at the character who wants to raise the dead: “That’s a really bad idea!” But I do believe that she would do it.)

And yes, it all comes together in a truly horrifying way. And yet it’s satisfying. How is that possible? Well, you’ll have to read it to find out. We’ve got a mystery – figuring out the serial killer. We’ve got light romance – attraction between two of the girls. We’ve got misogyny against women with power, and we’ve got a terrifying final showdown where we’re not sure anyone’s going to survive.

No, that doesn’t sound like something I’d normally pick up. It happened to be the first YA Speculative Fiction book nominated for the Cybils where my audiobook hold came in. But it had me riveted all the way. Before long, I was rooting even for the rich girl with the festering soul, so that shows you Krystal Sutherland is a skillful writer indeed.

krystalsutherland.com

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