Review of Cursed Boys and Broken Hearts, by Adam Sass

Audiobooks, Contemporary, Teen Fiction Review 0

Cursed Boys and Broken Hearts

by Adam Sass
read by Torian Brackett

Listening Library, 2024. 9 hours, 25 minutes.
Review written March 24, 2025, from a library eaudiobook.

Here’s a gay teen romance that’s formulaic and predictable – but completely sweet.

I’m still blaming Annabel Monaghan’s book Nora Goes Off Script, about a writer for the Romance channel finding her own romance, for me noticing when a Romance Novel follows a pattern. But even though I knew where this book was going, I kept listening and enjoyed the ride.

The protagonist is Grant Rossi, a designer who’s been in a funk for a year since his boyfriend left him. He’s convinced that he’s cursed to always be left ever since he made a wish on his family’s legendary Wishing Rose at 13 years old – he’s convinced it doesn’t work for gay boys, especially since after making his wish, his childhood crush Ben got together with his summer boyfriend and dropped Grant. That all happened at Grant’s grandma’s funeral, and Grant hasn’t been back to the family vineyard and B&B since.

But now, to get out of his funk, Grant shows up at the vineyard and spends his summer helping his aunt and uncle bring it back into shape so they won’t have to sell it. There’s a lot of work to do, and Grant’s social media following will help – but then he discovers that Ben is there, working as a gardener, also helping get it all back into shape.

Oh, there’s also a nice thread about mental illness – Grant’s been diagnosed with anxiety – and nice modeling of making contact again with his therapist and restarting his meds to help him function better.

And, yeah, you can tell where this is going. There’s a big Rose Festival at the end to work toward. There are big misunderstandings and years of resentment to clear up. And Grant and Ben just happen to get thrown together and must work together to save the family business.

It all adds up to a fluffy story and a sweet romance. But sometimes fluffy and sweet hits just right.

adamsassbooks.com

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Review of The Faraway Inn, by Sarah Beth Durst

Fantasy, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

The Faraway Inn

by Sarah Beth Durst
read by Soneela Nankani

Listening Library, 2026. 11 hours, 2 minutes.
Review written April 21, 2026, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

I’ve loved Sarah Beth Durst’s books for years, so I’m delighted that now they’re hugely popular at the library. The only catch is that it takes longer for a hold to come in. Today I ordered more print copies for the library than my initial purchase because demand was so high – I’m happy that others have found this wonderful author.

The Faraway Inn is an inn deep in the wilds of Vermont. Sixteen-year-old Calisa hasn’t been there since she was very small, when her Mom Kate had a falling-out with Calisa’s great-aunt, Auntie Zee. But now Calisa needs a refuge after she discovered her long-time boyfriend cheating on her. She needs to rethink her whole future and where she’ll apply to college – because it’s not going to be with him. Mom Kate suggests Calisa stay at the Faraway Inn and help out Auntie Zee for the summer.

But apparently Auntie Zee was not in on the plan. She tells Calisa she’s going to have to leave, then gives in that she can stay three days. This is despite the fact that she can obviously use some help. The yard and garden are completely overgrown, inside is rundown, the front porch breaks when Calisa steps on it, and the only staff is Jack, the son of the groundskeeper. The groundskeeper left on a supply run and hasn’t returned.

Auntie Zee tells Calisa there are two rules in the inn: No opening doors without permission, and no asking questions. Calisa quickly accumulates lots of questions. She tries asking Jack, but he’s evasive.

The beginning of the book felt slow to me, because it took Calisa forever to figure out there was magic going on. I had to remind myself that she didn’t know she’s a character in a fantasy novel, so she wasn’t primed for it like I was as a reader. But the book becomes delightful after the magic becomes impossible to ignore, and it’s more a matter of finding out how it works to solve some tough problems – like finding Jack’s dad. And getting the inn in better shape for guests. Yes, there’s some romance, but it stays sweet and low-key.

There’s also some fun magic wildness in the guests from other realms, and it ends up being a happy story full of magical possibilities. And like Sarah Beth Durst’s other books (Go back and read them if you’re only discovering her now!), it’s a whole lot of fun.

sarahbethdurst.com

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Review of The Brightness Between Us, by Eliot Schrefer, read by James Fouhey

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

The Brightness Between Us

by Eliot Schrefer
read by James Fouhey

HarperCollins, 2024. 11 hours, 3 minutes.
Review written February 8, 2025, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

The Brightness Between Us is a sequel to The Darkness Outside Us – and it’s very much a sequel. Don’t read the second without reading the first. The good news is that both are outstanding. I was lucky that I didn’t start the first until after the second was out, so the only waiting I did was for my hold to come in.

This book begins on a distant planet with Ambrose and Kodiak, the universe’s last two surviving humans – and now two children, Owl and Yarrow, who were born from zygotes sent across the galaxy in their ship. Yarrow turns sixteen at the start of the book, and Owl will reach that age soon. So far, they are the only children to survive out of many attempts.

Our fledgling human settlement is up against two major challenges in this book. First, external to them, is the fact that the planet where they live is prone to comet strikes. They need to make a bunker before the next one strikes. The second one is more personal to them. Yarrow has undergone a strange personality change since his sixteenth birthday. He’s getting intrusive thoughts about killing all his loved ones.

And then a beacon appears – falling from space – with lights specifically telling Ambrose and Kodiak to find it. Well, it lands somewhere out in the unexplored part of the planet, where Owl has been hoping to explore anyway.

And after the beacon appears, the narration takes us back to earth many thousand years in the past – to the original Ambrose and Kodiak shortly after they learned that their supposed mission to Titan was a ruse.

And in the process of going back and forth between the two time periods, we learn more about the original twosome (and I love that they ended up meeting each other and together trying to escape capture). But we also learn that there is a reason for some of the troubles of the colony – and why the beacon got sent to try to fix them.

Now, the whole thing about the sabotage – that was the first place in this whole saga where the science got hard for me to believe. Let me just say I’m skeptical about that whole part. And I also wasn’t thrilled to go back to the younger, more hedonistic and immature Ambrose character. But once I got past those things, it was good to again watch Ambrose and Kodiak learning to work together. And the situation certainly gave the characters on the planet challenges to overcome together.

And honestly, by the time the book was past about the halfway point, I found myself looking for more excuses to listen. These characters – in all their iterations – have firmly found a place in my heart.

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Review of Silenced Voices, by Pablo Leon

Graphic Novel, Historical, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Silenced Voices

Reclaiming Memories from the Guatemalan Genocide

by Pablo Leon

HarperAlley, 2025. 240 pages.
Review written February 17, 2026, from a library book.
2026 Pura Belpré Honor Book, Young Adult
2026 Robert F. Sibert Honor Book
Starred Review

Silenced Voices is a graphic novel with children on the front – that covers a horrific part of history, so this is firmly for teens, rather than children. The historical event was a genocide carried out by the Guatemalan government in the 1980s against indigenous people they claimed were helping the guerrillas.

The graphic novel focuses on the story of one character at a time. First, a boy in America who hears about a genocide trial of a former Guatemalan military leader and asks his mother about it – who’s never said much about growing up in Guatemala.

Then the bulk of the book is his mother’s story – how she barely escaped, with the help of her sister, when soldiers came and wiped out their whole village in horrible ways. But before she could get to safety, she and her sister split up, and they never saw each other again.

And there’s more in the present and in the past tying up that story. (I won’t give it away.)

This is a graphic depiction (literally) of a family and culture traumatized and victimized – showing the fallout into the next generation. But I appreciate the positive and optimistic framing of letting voices that were once silenced speak up and that injustice won’t stand forever. All in a compelling and powerful story.

artsypabster.com
harperalley.com

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Review of Relit, edited by Sandra Proudman

Fantasy, Short Stories, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Relit

16 Latinx Remixes of Classic Stories

edited by Sandra Proudman

Inkyard Press, 2024. 346 pages.
Review written December 26, 2024, from a library book.
Starred Review

Here’s a bit of the Foreword from the editor so you know what’s going on in Relit:

This anthology began with a hope, a dream, a spark of an idea that the contributing authors and I felt passionately about: to take some of the most popular classics out there (the novels, myths, and plays we’ve all read in class or seen adaptations of on TV and in movies)… and reimagine, reignite, remix them into some epic science fiction and fantasy tales, with Latinx characters at the center of all the action.

I’ve always loved a good retelling, and this authors of the stories in this collection bring creativity and a sense of fun to the originals. Some of my favorites: Anna Meriano starts off by giving us Pride and Prejudice as livestreamed from space. Monica Sanz gives us a version of Jane Eyre with witchcraft and some female empowerment. David Bowles writes a science fiction version of Hamlet with fighting in mech suits. And Sandra Proudman does a version of The Old Man and the Sea in the future barren desert of Nevada.

There’s lots more here, with a collection of stellar authors retelling tales as varied as “Bartleby, the Scrivener” and “Goldilocks and the Three Bears.” They all have a speculative fiction twist, and they all feature Latinx characters showing resourcefulness and creativity. It took me a long time to get this book read – it’s too tempting to put it down between stories – but that way I got to lengthen the fun.

sandraproudman.com

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Review of A Constellation of Minor Bears, by Jen Ferguson

Contemporary, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

A Constellation of Minor Bears

by Jen Ferguson
read by Julie Lumsden, Jesse Nobess, and Shaun Taylor-Corbett

Heartdrum, 2024. 8 hours, 51 minutes.
Review written March 2, 2026, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

So far, I love every book by Jen Ferguson I’ve read (or story – She had one in the award-winning Legendary Frybread Drive-in). I’m not quite sure what took me so long to get to this one, but it did help when we got the eaudiobook edition. As with all of her books, this is mostly about relationships between quirky characters who quickly find their way into your heart.

A Constellation of Minor Bears is about a group of teens hiking the Pacific Crest Trail after graduation. Well, that was the plan anyway. Molly and Tray did graduate, Molly at 17 years old, but Molly’s brother Hank had a terrible accident that caused a traumatic brain injury earlier in the year, so he didn’t graduate, and needs to do summer school instead. Tray is the best friend of both Molly and Hank, but Molly’s been angry with him ever since Hank’s accident. Because Tray was there and failed to stop Hank’s fall.

But Molly has been icily polite. They need to talk things out and figure things out – and the Pacific Crest Trail is a good place to do so. Though Molly’s doing a lot of hiding – including hiding from her parents that she’s planning to keep hiking and not actually go to college in the Fall. But would that break the bargain she made with various gods to become a doctor if her brother woke up?

So, yes, Molly and Tray and Hank (our three viewpoint characters) have plenty to work through. And then along the way they encounter a fat girl who quickly befriends them – but needs their help. This book includes profound thoughts on fat phobia and ableist thinking, all in a realistic story setting. As well as issues from Molly and Tray being Métis, and Molly not feeling like she knows enough about what that means.

But above all, this was a book about characters I quickly came to care about in a setting that challenged them emotionally and physically.

jenfergusonwrites.com

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Review The Second Death of Edie and Violet Bond, by Amanda Glaze

Historical, Paranormal, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

The Second Death of Edie and Violet Bond

by Amanda Glaze

Union Square & Co., 2022. 362 pages.
Review written November 26, 2022, from my own copy, sent by the publishers for the Cybils Awards.
Starred Review

The Second Death of Edie and Violet Bond is a historical paranormal novel about twins who inherited their mother’s gifts of interacting with the Dead who have crossed beyond the Veil. Violet can open the veil between life and death and communicate with spirits there, and Edie can cross into the spirit world. The Second or Final Death is when spirits go beyond. But spirits who have recently died often linger on the other side of the veil, and Edie and Violet can interact with them.

But the process isn’t without danger. Their mother was working with an unknown client a year ago, and Edie saw her use belladonna to force a spirit into the beyond — and her mother went with the spirit. After their mother’s death, their father threatened to save them by sending them to an asylum. That night, they tied bedsheets together and escaped.

Now they’re traveling with a company putting on shows of spiritualism. Most of what they do is fake — but not all of it. Part of Edie’s act is to deliver speeches on current issues — claiming to “channel” dead white men — whom people are interested to hear. (This was a real thing at the time!)

But their show has brought them back to Sacramento — close to the home they ran away from. A handsome young reporter is nosing around. And Edie senses something disturbing at the nearby asylum. She goes to a speech about the rights of women — and how a husband or father could consign a woman to an asylum with just his word.

And some Spiritualists are going missing. It comes close to home when a girl from their own traveling show goes missing, and Edie sees her beyond the veil.

It’s all put together in an absorbing way. I like all the actual history that’s thrown in — with an Author’s Note explaining it at the back. And I love her line in the Acknowledgments — “No librarians were harmed during the making of this book, but many were consulted.” I was impressed when I discovered this is a debut novel. I felt like there were a few too many coincidences as things came together, but on the other hand, everything was neatly tied together.

Overall, the theme of the connection between sisters made this a heart-warming book. I hope this author writes many more.

amandaglaze.com
unionsquareandco.com

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Review of Where Wolves Don’t Die, by Anton Treuer

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

Where Wolves Don’t Die

by Anton Treuer
read by the Author

Recorded Books, 2024. 7 hours, 4 minutes.
Review written March 11, 2026, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review
2026 American Indian Youth Literature Award Honor Book

I loved every minute of this audiobook. I’m so glad it won Honor from the AIYLA, because I’d completely missed it in 2024. (They give the award every other year, but so many great books are being written by indigenous authors lately, I hope they increase it to every year.)

The book begins with teen Ezra Cloud thinking about how much he hates living in Minneapolis with its gray snow. And since his mother died of cancer – which she surely got from working at the factory – Ezra has a hard time even looking at his father.

Then Ezra sees Matt, the kid who’s long been his bully, harassing his best friend and secret crush Nora. Ezra only just manages to keep from punching Matt. He punches a locker and breaks his hand instead. That night, when under the influence of painkillers, he dreams about a group of wolves burning down a house – and the next day Matt’s family home, which housed a meth lab, has burned down, and Matt’s father and uncle are dead.

The next time Matt sees Ezra, he claims he saw Ezra at the fire. There’s a detective poking around. Ezra’s sure he couldn’t have been there, but his father wants Ezra well out of the way. So they go to see his grandparents – on a reserve in Canada – for Christmas, and Ezra stays after to spend the winter with his grandpa working the traplines.

Most of the book is in remote Canada, Ezra in a cabin with his grandpa, learning the lore of trapping – and lore of their people thrown in. He also has a chance to work through some emotional baggage. There are moments of great danger, and mystical encounters with wolves – and by the time they’re back from the trapline, there’s still the mystery of who set the fire to clear up.

So this is a book with its share of survival, mystery, and danger – but what I truly loved about it was the emotional depth. Truly a wonderful book to listen to.

antontreuer.com

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Review of Soundtrack, by Jason Reynolds

Audiobooks, Contemporary, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Soundtrack

by Jason Reynolds
performed by a full cast

Listening Library, 2025. 6 hours, 29 minutes.
Review written February 16, 2026, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review
2026 Odyssey Honor Audiobook

I always listen to Odyssey Award Winners and Honorees, because they are without exception excellent productions. Even knowing that, I was blown away when I listened to this book.

Jason Reynolds wrote this as an original audiobook – they’re coming out with the novelization next month, but the audiobook came first. It’s about a kid fresh out of high school forming a band in New York City and then playing in subway stations and gaining a following. And the audiobook production is incredible. It’s got a full cast (and a large one), with full sound effects. When they’re talking in a group, you hear them as if they’re talking in a group, there’s crowd noise and sounds of objects they refer to – and music!

Throughout the entire production this story about a young band is accompanied by the sounds of a band jamming to music. It’s astonishingly good.

For a minute there, I was astonished on this audiobook’s behalf that it had “only” won Odyssey Honor, because I was misremembering which one won the award. Then I remembered that the actual winner was Trans History, also with a full cast and full sound effects, and including the actual voices of present-day trans folks – and I understood the decision better. Still, this audiobook is incredible, and together these books have raised the bar on what an audiobook production can be.

Our main character in this book, Stuy, is the drummer, and his mother was a drummer before him, who dropped out of her band when she gave birth to Stuy and his father left. But now Stuy’s mom’s boyfriend throws his drum set into a corner, and Stuy goes to stay with his Uncle Lucky – where he meets a kid who plays the guitar. That leads to finding the rest of their band, and the whole adventure is tremendous fun – though with some serious undertones (fair warning).

It was a truly engaging story – and the music and the cast made the whole thing into an experience.

jasonwritesbooks.com

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Review of One of the Boys, by Victoria Zeller

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

One of the Boys

by Victoria Zeller

Levine Querido, 2025. 331 pages.
Review written February 11, 2026, from a library book.
Starred Review
2026 Stonewall Young Adult Award Winner

Grace Woodhouse is a senior in high school who thought she had to give up football last summer after she came out as trans. When everyone thought she was a boy, she was a kicker for their team and ranked the eighteenth best high school kicker in the nation as a junior. Even though she still thinks about the kick she flubbed that stopped them from going to State championships, it’s still hard to watch her team go on without her.

So when the teammate replacing her asks for help, she gives in and gives him some pointers. But they all know that she could do a better job – so the football captains ask Grace to come back to the team.

So, yes, this is the story of a trans athlete, but in this case it’s about a trans girl playing with the boys. The team captains are supportive, but not everyone on the team is, and yes, she faces transphobic slurs at games. And her new girlfriends aren’t always understanding of the time that playing football takes away from hanging out with the girls.

I loved this book. I’m not a football fan and didn’t know much about the position of kicker, but this book got me into the head and heart of the person doing the kicking. She was up against plenty, on the field and off, and this book showed us a nuanced character, trying to figure things out, trying to be accepted for who she is, and trying to help her team.

I appreciated that Grace wasn’t able to articulate very well for anyone why she was trans – it makes her feel all the more real, not just a spokesperson. But she never questioned that she was trans. The questions were more how could she live her life and help out her team and can she keep this up in college? Does she want to?

The book is full of football players trying to avoid “feelingsball,” but with feelings happening all over the place. I loved the characters in this book, the realistic conflicts, and the many kindnesses as well.

victoria.monster

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