Review of Warrior Girl Unearthed, by Angeline Boulley

Contemporary, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Warrior Girl Unearthed

by Angeline Boulley
read by Isabella Star LaBlanc

Macmillan Young Listeners, 2023. 11 hours, 33 minutes.
Review written May 11, 2023, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

Warrior Girl Unearthed is a companion novel to the amazing multiple award-winning Firekeeper’s Daughter, so you can be absolutely sure that I preordered a copy signed by the author. However, since I’m currently reading for the Morris Award (and this is not eligible), instead of reading my signed copy, I listened to the library eaudiobook. I will reread both books when the award reading is done.

This book takes place ten years after Firekeeper’s Daughter, so Daunis’s little nieces Perry and Pauline are now sixteen years old. Yes, you can get away without reading the first book, but as I usually say, why would you?

As the book begins, Perry was planning a summer of fishing and relaxing, but when she runs into a deer while speeding, Auntie Daunis holds her responsible for paying for the repairs, and she needs to do an internship. As the summer begins, she is assigned to Cooper, the museum curator. She learns about NAGPRA, the 1990 federal law requiring universities and museums to return ancestral remains and sacred items of Native Americans to their people. But she also learns that universities and museums have found ways to drag their feet indefinitely.

Cooper, though sometimes frustrated, is committed to working within the rules and the laws to get the remains returned. Perry is not so patient. And she’s horrified by what she sees at the local university and even at a local tourist shop — ancestors’ remains and crafts treated with complete disrespect.

A subplot along with that story is that indigenous young women are going missing. And the authorities outside of the tribe don’t seem to be taking it seriously. When it happens to Perry’s dear friend, she may have to take matters into her own hands. Though will that interfere with her plans to get her ancestors back?

And, yes, it all comes together in a dangerous adventure where stakes are high and lives are at risk.

I love the way this story is told, because we feel Perry’s heart for her people. If I read simple facts – for example, that Harvard has more Native remains than it does living Native students – I am bothered with my mind. But Perry’s story makes my heart hurt for them and helps me understand the significance more deeply.

Another amazing and wonderful book from Angeline Boulley. I hope there will be many more to come.

angelineboulley.com

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Review of The Summer of Bitter and Sweet, by Jen Ferguson

Audiobooks, Contemporary, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

The Summer of Bitter and Sweet

by Jen Ferguson
read by Julie Lumsden

Heartdrum, 2022. 10 hours, 8 minutes.
Review written May 5, 2023, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review
2023 William Morris Award Finalist
2023 Stonewall Honor Book
2022 Cybils Award Winner, Young Adult Fiction

I try to read the winners I miss during the year of publication, and this one took me a long time to get around to listening to. I think the cover put me off, honestly — maybe they could have done something with ice cream? But as soon as I started listening, I was captivated.

The story is of the summer after high school of a Métis girl named Louisa who lives with her mother and uncles in the prairies of Alberta, Canada. They’ve got a dairy farm, and her uncle makes ice cream, experimenting with a wide variety of natural flavors. Bits at the start of each chapter talk about the ice cream and the flavors and colors and how to create them, and oh my goodness, it made me want some ice cream, preferably from Salt & Straw, which also uses natural local flavorings (for the most part).

This summer, Lou is working with her best friend and boyfriend at the ice cream shack. And then she learns that her uncle has hired King Nathan, her best friend from four years ago, who fled to his mother in Toronto after a big bust-up between them.

But right at the start, Lou breaks up with her boyfriend. Their relationship has been all about Louisa giving him oral sex, and she isn’t feeling it. (The book isn’t even that delicate about saying what’s been going on.) Because she didn’t enjoy anything they did together, she’s worried something’s wrong with her and afraid to start a relationship with King because of that.

But a much bigger drama comes into her life when she starts getting letters from her biological father — the white guy who raped her mother and left her for dead eighteen years ago. He’s gotten out of prison, and now wants his name on her birth certificate. And gets more and more threatening about it.

Lou’s mother is out of town, selling her beadwork on the powwow circuit, and Lou wants to protect her from knowing her rapist is out of prison and in their town. But at the same time, Lou wishes her mother were there when her life is getting so complicated.

I hope my summary of these problems doesn’t make you think, Why would anyone want to read something with so many problems? But, oh, the writing is so beautiful! And yes, Lou is a flawed character — but she learns to face her issues, and the growing relationship with King is beautifully portrayed. I especially like that they have setbacks and get mad at one another — but then take steps to make it right and really listen.

Now, there’s talk about being asexual or demisexual — and I’m not sure I like the idea that not enjoying even kissing someone whom you don’t know well and who’s pressuring you to have oral sex with him makes you remotely out of the ordinary. But on the other hand, yes, this may be what a teen would think, so all the more power to having this situation shown on the pages of a wonderful book. (Lou says she gave her consent until she broke up with him. But all the more reason to look for enthusiastic consent.)

There are also many instances of racism portrayed in this book. And things aren’t tied up in a tidy bow at the end of it. But again, let me stress that I came away from listening to this audiobook simply overwhelmed by the wonderful experience of being pulled into Lou’s world.

jenfergusonwrites.com

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Review of The Sinister Booksellers of Bath, by Garth Nix

Audiobooks, Historical, Paranormal, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

The Sinister Booksellers of Bath

by Garth Nix
read by Marisa Calin

Listening Library, 2023. 9 hours, 49 minutes.
Review written April 10, 2023, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

The Sinister Booksellers of Bath is the sequel to The Left-Handed Booksellers of London (which is the best title ever). I didn’t remember very well what happened in the first book, but was quickly brought up to speed and delighted with this new adventure. Both books feel complete in themselves, which I always appreciate in a series. I’m not sure if there will be more, but I enjoyed the adventures.

Both books are set in an alternate-reality Britain of 1983. In the first book, Susan Arkshaw discovered a force of left-handed and right-handed booksellers who deal with powerful magical entities from the Old World, trying to keep ordinary mortals safe. But Susan discovered she’s not exactly an ordinary mortal.

This book begins as Susan’s friend Merlin (a left-handed bookseller) gets pulled by a magical map into a place outside of our world and our time. Merlin’s sister Vivian (a right-handed bookseller) tells Susan she needs her help, and Susan and Vivian go to get Merlin, using Susan’s power to bring them back to our world.

But that exercise of power stirs up powers in Susan. She starts getting vivid dreams as her powers seem to be awaking. At the same time, the entity who made the original map is now aware of Susan and all signs point to Susan being the target of the next Wild Hunt to happen on the Winter Solstice. All Susan wants is to live an ordinary life as an art student.

It all makes for a fun adventure, complete with magic and danger and surprising characters. This world has shades of Arthurian myth, but has a unique take on magic that makes it not your typical fantasy novel. And the characters are folks I was delighted to spend time with.

garthnix.com

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Review of The Lesbiana’s Guide to Catholic School, by Sonora Reyes

Award Challenge, Contemporary, Romance, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

The Lesbiana’s Guide to Catholic School

by Sonora Reyes

Balzer + Bray, 2022. 385 pages.
Review written February 21, 2023, from a library book
Starred Review
2023 Walter Awards Honor Book, Young Adult
2023 Pura Belpé Author Honor Book, Young Adult
2023 Morris Award Finalist

The Lesbiana’s Guide to Catholic School is a debut novel that introduces an author with lots of promise. Our protagonist is Yamilet, who’s just been told she and her brother Cesar are going to Catholic school. Yamilet’s job is to look after her younger brother, in her same grade because he’s so smart, who keeps getting into fights at the public school. Their mother is hoping a new environment will keep him out of trouble.

What their mother doesn’t know is that Yami is happy to go to Catholic school herself because her once-best friend outed her at public school after Yami told her she was in love with her. It turned out Bianca did not share her affection and was horrified that Yami is gay. So Yami is determined to not make the same mistake at Catholic school and does everything she can to appear straight.

But then there’s one person who’s lesbian and out at her new school — and Yami finds herself falling for her. She can’t let that happen!

And that’s not all that’s going on. Cesar keeps getting detention (at least he’s not fighting!) and spins a story for their mother that he’s on the football team. Yami’s trying to make some money, in case their mother finds out she’s gay and kicks her out, and much more. Their father was deported years ago back to Mexico, but Yami thinks he might understand what she’s going through, since he was never as sincere about the Catholic faith.

It’s all put together in a story that keeps you reading and makes you care about Yami and all she’s trying to navigate. We’re rooting for her to be able to be herself and find love as herself. I liked the way people in the story surprised her, without it feeling unrealistic.

sonorareyes.com
EpicReads.com

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Review of All My Rage, by Sabaa Tahir

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

All My Rage

by Sabaa Tahir

Razorbill (Penguin Random House), 2022. 376 pages.
Review written February 13, 2023, from a library book.
Starred Review
2023 Printz Award Winner
2023 Walter Award Winner, Teens
2022 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature Winner
2022 Boston Globe/Horn Book Award Winner, Fiction and Poetry
2022 Cybils Finalist, Young Adult Fiction

What a beautiful book. I closed the book completely understanding all the awards and acclaim this book has received.

All My Rage tells the story of two Muslim seniors in high school who have been best friends for most of their lives — until recently when they had a fight after Noor told Salahudin she had feelings for him and wanted something more. He said she’d ruined their friendship.

But they come back into each other’s lives when Salahudin’s mother Misbah dies with failing kidneys — a problem she couldn’t afford to treat because they don’t have health insurance, running their own motel.

Both of them have more problems than they can cope with after Misbah’s death. Salahudin’s father numbs his mind with alcohol, so it’s up to Salahudin to figure out how to pay the bills and keep the motel, the place his mother had loved.

Misbah was like a foster mother to Noor. She came to America after all her family but her were killed in an earthquake in Pakistan when she was a second-grader. Her uncle who was studying in America found her, digging her out of the wreckage of their family home. But he couldn’t find any other living relative to take care of her, and now he runs a liquor store near the army base where he’d first found work in America. He doesn’t want Noor to go to college, but work in the liquor store so he finally can go to college. She secretly submitted seven applications, but without Salahudin to help her with the essays — she’s getting rejections. Will she never be able to leave the small desert town?

Their problems and misunderstandings get much much worse as the novel goes on. I will only say that although hard things happened, and some of the characters made bad decisions along the way, the ending was tremendously satisfying. Don’t give up on it as a depressing and discouraging book! The difficulties they face makes the story all the more of a triumph.

And the writing is lyrical and beautiful. Along with the stories of Noor and Salahudin, we get his mother’s story, beginning with when her parents told her she was getting married. Captions at the beginning of the parts come from Elizabeth Bishop’s poem “One Art,” which is about “the art of losing.” As our characters cope with one loss after another, the reader gets pulled into the story, rooting for them and suffering with them. These are characters I will never forget.

SabaaTahir.com
PenguinTeen.com

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Review of When the Angels Left the Old Country, by Sacha Lamb

Award Winners, Historical, Paranormal, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

When the Angels Left the Old Country

by Sacha Lamb

Levine Querido, 2022. 400 pages.
Review written February 24, 2023, from a library book
Starred Review
2023 Michael L. Printz Honor
2023 Sidney Taylor Award Winner, Young Adult
2023 Stonewall Book Award Winner, Young Adult

Oh, this is an amazing book. I read it because of the awards it won, and even with my expectations high, I was blown away.

The story tells of an angel and a demon who are leaving a shtetl in Poland and going to America to check on Essie, the granddaughter of a rabbi in their shtetl whose letters haven’t made it back home. But this book is nothing like what I’d expect from that description. Along the way, they encounter various people preying on Jewish immigrants and defend their people.

Along the way, they also befriend Rose, a girl who’s emigrating to America on her own, after her best friend she thought would go with her had the audacity to marry a man. But Rose takes an interest in Essie and her lovely picture.

This book reminded me of the wonderful book The Golem and the Jinni, by Helene Wecker, with some of the same naivete of the angel in dealing with people. At the same time, this book is very different, surprising, and refreshing. It’s the kind of book I couldn’t resist talking about because it so captivated me.

Here’s the first paragraph:

In the back corner of the little synagogue in the shtetl that was so small and out of the way it was only called Shtetl, there was a table where an angel and a demon had been studying Talmud together for some two hundred years. Indeed, they had been studying in that corner since before the little shul was built, and had been rather startled to look up one day and realize an entire building had sprung up around them.

And on the next page:

Little Ash knew hardly any magic and did not even have the wings with which most adult demons fly from place to place. He had made trouble in the demons’ yeshiva, where they learn their magic, and without completing his studies he had been sent to Poland, where he found he liked it better than at home, as in his father’s palace other demons were always treating him like a child and telling him what to do.

The angel had been sent to Shtetl for a purpose it had now forgotten, and had stayed in Shtetl to hinder the mischievous whims of Little Ash. Like Little Ash, it resembled a human youth; unlike Little Ash, who considered himself to be male, the angel had merely chosen the shape of a man for convenience, as angels have done since the time of Abraham, Our Father. It had never had a bar mitzvah, or a bat mitzvah, or any such ceremony at all, and had never bothered to wish for one.

Its name, of course, changed according to the activity in which it was engaged. At the moment, the angel’s name was Argument.

The argument they’re having at the beginning is that they should follow the young people of Shtetl to America. Little Ash convinces the angel by showing it that doing so would be a mitzvah, finding out what happened to Essie.

Much of the book takes place on the way to America, where they encounter the first unscrupulous person and a spirit not at rest. The angel gets a name when the demon makes him papers, and that changes some things about it.

And I don’t need to tell you all that happens. But it’s an imaginative, wonderfully-spun historical novel about an angel and a demon working together to help people who need help, with much danger to themselves along the way.

levinequerido.com

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Review of The Stolen Heir, by Holly Black

Audiobooks, Fantasy, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

The Stolen Heir

by Holly Black
read by Saskia Maarleveld

Hachette Audio, 2023. 10 hours, 10 minutes.
Review written February 24, 2023, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

Oh my goodness, Holly Black has done it again! The Stolen Heir begins a new duology set in Elfhame. (Yay! We only have to wait for one more book!) These events happen eight years after the trilogy The Cruel Prince, The Wicked King, and The Queen of Nothing. So those who were children in the earlier books have grown. You don’t have to have read the trilogy to enjoy this book, but why not? It made me want to go back and reread them.

This book features Suren, who was once the child queen of The Court of Teeth, but bridled and manipulated by Lady Nore of the Court of Teeth. She was then betrothed to Oak, the young heir to Elfhame, as Lady Nore planned to use her to take over Elfhame.

Now Suren is in exile in the human world. She scrounges a life in the forest and spies on the human family with whom she spent the first seven years of her life, before Lady Nore stole her back and tormented and abused her. Without glamour, she’s a thing of horror to humans, with the teeth of a predator.

Oak, on the other hand, has been living a life of luxury at court. He’s beautiful, smooth and well-spoken, makes everyone at ease. Although like all the Fae, he can’t lie, he does know how to deceive and manipulate.

Suren thinks she’s at least safe in her lair in the woods. But then one day a storm hag comes hunting for her. She’s rescued by Oak and his knight and their prisoner — someone who wears the very bridle that once controlled Suren.

They tell Suren that they are going to the Court of Teeth to recover Mab’s Bones, which Lady Nore has acquired and is using to create deadly creatures and wield power. Suren is Lady Nore’s one vulnerability, having been given the power to command her. But because of that, Suren is now in danger. Lady Nore’s simplest way to stop the vulnerability is to kill Suren.

Suren agrees to go on the quest. The storm witch coming after her has convinced her that Oak is right and her life is in danger unless she commands Lady Nore to stop. But she quickly realizes that Oak isn’t telling her everything.

What follows is another story from Holly Black full of twists and turns that keep you guessing. What is Oak not telling Suren? And what is she keeping back herself? And how, exactly, do they feel about each other? As they travel on the journey, Suren must also confront the trauma of her past and think about how she wants to go forward.

The book is full of danger, schemes and counterschemes, and unexpected actions that weren’t part of the schemes but are consistent with the complex characters. Suren has been told all her life that she’s worthless and useless, so we’re pulling for her as she tries to come into her own — and figure out what that means.

The book ends in a satisfying place — and yet an infuriating one, because the story is by no means complete, and we’re dying to know what happens next.

blackholly.com

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Review of So This Is Ever After, by F. T. Lukens, read by Kevin R. Free

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

So This Is Ever After

by F. T. Lukens
read by Kevin R. Free

Simon & Schuster Audio, 2022. 9 hours, 33 minutes.
Review written December 27, 2022, from a library eaudiobook
Starred Review

So This Is Ever After is simply a whole lot of fun. The book begins when there’s supposed to be a Happily Ever After — after Arek defeated the Vile One by fulfilling the prophecy, assembling a band of allies, infiltrating the castle, and chopping off the evil king’s head.

What Arek hoped would happen after that was that things would slow down and he’d get a chance to confess his love to Matt, his best friend and the mage who fought beside him on the quest.

But they don’t want to leave the throne empty for just anyone to take over, and Matt urges Arek to put the crown on his head and take the kingship for a few hours while they go rescue the rightful ruler — the last princess of the royal line, who’s locked in a tower.

Well, they do find the princess in a tower — but she’s so dead, she’s become a skeleton. And Arek discovers, much to his discomfort, that he’s magically bound to the throne. He can’t abdicate, or it will kill him. And then he learns that he has to bond with a soulmate by his eighteenth birthday only four months away. He doesn’t want to tie Matt to him unless Matt is willing, but when he awkwardly tries to find out, the door gets totally shut. So instead, Arek asks Matt to help him find a soulmate in four months.

What follows is a comedy of errors. Yes, it does feel contrived for Arek to do everything exactly wrong. Arek isn’t particular about whether his soulmate is male, female, or neither, so he tries to woo each one of his friends in turn — with comical results that always seem to throw him toward Matt.

This is a totally fun, light-hearted story about what happens after the quest is done and you’re stuck ruling a kingdom. It helps if you have tried-and-true friends by your side.

ft-lukens.com

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Review of The Many Half-Lived Lives of Sam Sylvester, by Maya MacGregor

Contemporary, Stand-outs, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

The Many Half-Lived Lives of Sam Sylvester

by Maya MacGregor

Astra Young Readers, 2022. 350 pages.
Review written December 9, 2022, from a library book
Starred Review

Sam is an eighteen-year-old nonbinary kid who’s moving with their dad from Minnesota to small-town Oregon after an episode of bullying that almost killed them. They’re comforted that in their new school, they find other queer kids and even start making friends.

But there are bullies everywhere. For years, Sam has been obsessed with the stories of kids who didn’t live to age nineteen. They’ve got a book about those half-lived lives. And as it happens, the house their family bought used to belong to one of those kids, named Billy. And Sam is now sleeping in the bedroom where Billy died thirty years ago.

The adults in town all seem to say the same words about Billy, “It was a tragic accident.” But was it? Sam starts thinking they sense Billy’s presence, and what’s up with that persistent smell of popcorn?

What really happened to Billy? Sam’s new friend Shep thinks they can learn the truth.

But someone doesn’t want them to mess around with the past. Or is it just another case of Sam being bullied for who they are? Sam can’t help but wonder if they will ever reach the age of nineteen or end up as another half-lived life.

This book tells a compelling mystery in a warm and loving story about a queer teen recovering from trauma and finding their people. There is danger as they come close to the solution of the mystery, and the book certainly touches on serious topics, but I was left uplifted and encouraged by a group of people trying their best and landing on the side of caring.

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Review of All That’s Left in the World, by Erik J. Brown

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

All That’s Left in the World

by Erik J. Brown
read by Barrett Leddy and Andrew Gibson

HarperAudio, 2022. 10 hours, 6 minutes.
Review written October 21, 2022, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review
2022 Sonderbooks Stand-out: #6 General Teen Fiction

All That’s Left in the World is about two teenage boys trying to figure out how to go on in a post-apocalyptic world after everyone they loved died in a superflu epidemic.

The author’s note says that he signed the contract for this book in March 2020 — so he had no idea how realistic it would feel. But the illness in this book is much, much worse than Covid-19, and civilization in America has completely broken down.

At the start of the book, Jamison is in a mountain cabin that has its own electricity and well water. Andrew is in the woods in big trouble because he stepped into a bear trap. He needs help. When he sees the cabin, he tries the door, expecting anyone who lived there to be dead. Jamie almost shoots him, but instead ends up giving him antibiotics and helping him recover.

But after they’re settling into life in the cabin and getting used to each other and Andrew’s leg is much better, a group comes and steals their food, trying to get them to join their settlement. Andrew takes off to where he was going before — following rumors that the European Union is going to bring help to Reagan National Airport. He tries to sneak away so Jamie won’t stop him — and Jamie ends up coming after him.

What follows is a road trip novel with lots of danger. Some of the people they meet along the way are helpful and kind, but most are the opposite. (I wish I didn’t believe there’d be so many guns in post-apocalyptic America!) Just when I’d think they had things in a good place, some new danger would find them.

So there’s lots of tension, and there’s also romance. It’s the kind I like best, very slow and gradual, and you can understand why they like each other. Andrew knows he’s gay from the start, but Jamie has had only girlfriends in the past, and is confused by his developing feelings for Andrew. But it’s all handled really well, and the reader just hopes against hope they’ll be able to make it to somewhere safe.

I read a novel in late 2020 where the whole population caught a bug, and knowing so much about pandemics by then, I thought it was completely unrealistic. (Viruses don’t spread instantly, for example.) With this one, which took place after most people had died, I wish I didn’t feel like it was believable, but unfortunately it very much seems like it could happen like that.

Of course, there are things I would have done differently if I were writing a post-apocalyptic novel, but this author had me believing the story all along, and worrying about how the boys would survive and figure out they loved each other.

For something as disturbing as this scenario, this was an awfully satisfying novel.

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