Review of Icarus, by K. Ancrum

Audiobooks, Contemporary, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Icarus

by K. Ancrum
read by Kirt Graves

HarperTeen, 2024. 8 hours, 32 minutes.
Review written January 14, 2025, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review
2024 CYBILS Award Finalist, Young Adult Fiction

Oh my goodness. After the CYBILS Award Finalists were announced, I put all the books on hold (I do a program for other librarians about award winners, and this *probably* gives me a head start for ALA award winners), and this was one of the first audiobooks to come in. And it is amazingly good! If the other Finalists are anywhere close, the second round judges are going to have a difficult time.

This isn’t a retelling of the Greek myth, but it borrows themes from the myth. Our hero is indeed Icarus, a teen who lives alone with his father, but he lives in modern times. He and his father are both expert artists – but they’re also expert thieves. Icarus has been trained all his life to steal objects of art from the mansion of Angus Black and replace them with forgeries. And now that his father’s hands have begun to shake, all the active work falls on Icarus.

At school, Icarus makes a point of having one friend in each class – so that he’s not part of a friend group that expects him to do things with him after school. He’s never had anybody over to his house, and he never can have anybody over to his house. His goal is to stay under the radar.

But then some of those classroom friends start noticing that he can’t stay awake. They seem to care, which Icarus isn’t sure he can handle.

At the same time, Icarus gets spotted when stealing in the Black mansion – Angus Black’s son is there, with no phone and no internet and a cuff to keep him in place. They develop a friendship that looks like it’s going toward romance – and as the reader, I got awfully worried about how it would turn out once it was revealed that the son’s name is Helios. Because I know how that story ends.

So there’s lots and lots of tension in this book, and teens in tough situations – but there are also beautiful portrayals of friendship. Icarus learns how to be a friend and how to accept friendship. And all of the interactions and character growth make this book shine brightly – while keeping up the tension throughout the whole book. And yes, tender romance. Oh, and the audiobook is wonderfully done, too. This book will linger with me for a long time to come.

kancrum.com

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Review of Twenty-four Seconds from Now…, by Jason Reynolds

Audiobooks, Contemporary, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Twenty-four Seconds from Now . . .

A LOVE Story

by Jason Reynolds
read by Guy Lockard

Simon & Schuster Audio, 2024. 4 hours, 28 minutes.
Review written January 7, 2025, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review
2024 CYBILS Award Finalist, Young Adult Fiction
2025 Capitol Choices selection

Yes, this is a book about a seventeen-year-old boy having sex for the first time. And it turns out to be very sweet.

I was afraid it would go into detail about each second building up to the moment of connection. But no, it’s much more interesting than that. It does open with “Right now” where the teenage boy, Neon, is in the bathroom of his girlfriend Aria’s house, looking at a picture of her dog – a dog he dislikes that is now living in his own house – and feeling extremely nervous about what’s supposed to happen in approximately twenty-four seconds from now.

But instead of going into excruciating detail about those seconds, the story backtracks to 24 seconds before that – when they were kissing in her bedroom, and he had to excuse himself to go to the bathroom, he was so nervous.

But then we look at 24 minutes before that – when he was using the whole note knocker on her front door (made by his family’s door knocker company), bringing her the chicken nuggets that she loves.

And then it switches to 24 hours before that – when he was interviewing other students for their high school’s video yearbook, which Aria also works on. And he was having his sister make a special door knocker for Aria to take to college with her. And his sister has some good advice about what’s going to happen.

And then we move to 24 days before that – when he walks with his Gammy and that same dog to visit his grandfather’s grave and he hears Gammy tell the story of how they met, and gives Neon some advice about love. And he’s talking with Aria because they want to have sex, but they want to make it special. And his mother has some good advice.

And then we see 24 weeks before that – when Neon took the dog off Aria’s hands, because her mother didn’t like his barking – and Gammy fell in love with that dog. And his father has some good advice.

And finally we see what happened 24 months ago, when Neon was at his grandfather’s funeral, and an out-of-control dog interrupted them, and he met Aria, and his life was never the same again.

Before we finally come back to the present and what’s about to happen.

And all of this shows us the story of these two teens and their families. And how much they care for each other and care about each other. And there’s some good advice in what Neon hears.

And no, it doesn’t describe the details. This isn’t a how-to manual. But it shows the thought and care and love that went into the decision these two teens make. A decision that’s ultimately, as it should be, about the two of them.

I don’t think of this as a book that promotes teens having sex so much as a book that promotes teens giving thought and care into their decisions about when and whether to have sex. And it tells a good story, too! The strategy of going backward in time piques our interest and is used extremely effectively.

jasonwritesbooks.com

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Review of Kingdom of Without, by Andrea Tang

Science Fiction, Teen Fiction Review 0

Kingdom of Without

by Andrea Tang

Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2024. 275 pages.
Review written December 19, 2024, from a library book.

I loved the setting of this novel in a future Beijing where society has become literally stratified – the poorest live in the Sixth Ring and have to pass checkpoints to even be allowed to enter the lower rings. The Sixth Ring has a strict curfew, patrolled by androids, and life is difficult. As the book opens, Ning’er has just sold her artificial arm and leg on the black market, because she has a friend who can get her a new one, and she needed cash to make rent on her small place. Her father is addicted to the drug Complacency, and takes any of her money he can access to get more. He is the one who sold her natural limbs long ago to get some cash.

So when Ning’er gets the offer of a job pulling off a heist, she can’t afford to let it go. It turns out the job is from the Red Yaksha, a powerful force of resistance against the current corrupt regime. But when she learns that the person behind the Red Yaksha’s mask is the Young Marshal – the son of a chief minister and an up-and-coming member of the gendarmes – Ning’er has some rethinking to do. If she takes the job, she’ll have to work with a team and break into the biolabs of the corporation that produces Complacency.

So it’s a heist novel with many political ramifications and bad guys who control the lives of the powerless and make those lives worse and worse. I wanted to love the book, but as the heist went down, I’ll just say that some details got murky for me. I very much hope there will be a sequel, and that will make it more clear what actually happened at the end.

All the same, I am a fan of Ning’er, a scrappy girl with a prosthetic arm and leg, scratching out a living – but beginning to hope maybe that changes can be made and that the powers that be aren’t invulnerable.

AndreaTangWrites.com

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Review of My Throat an Open Grave, by Tori Bovalino

Paranormal, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

My Throat an Open Grave

by Tori Bovalino

Page Street YA, 2024. 301 pages.
Review written December 30, 2024, from a library book.
Starred Review

Based on the cover, not being a horror fan, I honestly didn’t expect to even like this book. I expected I’d give up after about twenty pages, deciding it’s not for me. I did not at all expect to read it avidly and to be sorry I was finished at the end because I loved it. I didn’t expect to recognize shades of my own upbringing in its pages and to have my heart go out to the girl telling the story.

Now, I also don’t like books where religious people are the bad guys – except, well, when they deserve to be. This book portrays a rural village in a forest – where the church is the center of the community and it’s all about purity culture. The girls are given a “Love Waits” ring and told that if they “give themselves” before marriage, they will be broken and worthless.

But they’re also told about the Lord of the Wood. Sometimes he comes into the village and takes babies. And then the villagers send a girl to the Lord of the Wood to get the baby back. Only no babies or girls have ever returned.

And now it’s Leah’s turn. She’s convinced that because she was worn down by her baby brother’s cries and wished for respite – that must be why the Lord of the Wood took him away. And her mother is convinced it’s Leah’s fault, too. So the whole village gathers in the church. Her mother brings her forward, the pastor marks her with a bloody hand print, and together the whole village sends her across the river to the Lord of the Wood.

And then she meets the Lord of the Wood, and he’s not what she expected at all. In fact, that part is what made me love the book. There’s a whole community on the other side of the river. They’re kind, compassionate, and patient with Leah, and she begins to be able to see herself more clearly.

There’s magic in this book, and magic in the Lord of the Wood and the community living in the forest. But it’s not the sinister magic Leah was led to believe in, and the people she meets there win her heart, as well as winning over the reader.

But she also has to reckon with what she learned about her home village. And about herself.

This isn’t so much a book for horror fans as it is a book shining light on the damage that purity culture can do and celebrating self-determination and the beauty of young lives – rising above judgment.

Trust me! It’s a wonderful book!

toribovalino.com

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Review of We Mostly Come Out at Night, edited by Rob Costello

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

We Mostly Come Out at Night

15 Queer Tales of Monsters, Angels & Other Creatures

edited by Rob Costello

Running Press Teens (Hachette Book Group), 2024. 364 pages.
Review written December 30, 2024, from a library book.
Starred Review
2024 Cybils Finalist, YA Speculative Fiction

I don’t read a lot of short story collections, because there are too many opportunities to put down the book and move on to something else, but when my fellow Cybils Award panelists had shortlisted this book not long before our discussion was due, I read it all within a couple days, and ended up loving it.

The subtitle tells you what’s going on. We’ve got queer authors writing about magical creatures. In a fun bonus, every story has a “Monster Reflection” afterward, with that author talking about how they feel about monsters.

Something I particularly liked about this anthology was how often the teens featured had been taught to think of themselves as monstrous – and in the story, they get the chance to discover their own beauty. There were a lot of stories where the monsters are the characters you like best.

Here’s a bit from the wonderful Introduction by the editor:

But that’s what stories do. They prepare us to face the unknown. They arm us with possibility. They enable us to apply some semblance of order and meaning to a universe that is otherwise indifferent to our existence. Telling a monster story is a powerful act, not least because such a story gives a shape and limmit to an otherwise amorphous anxiety, making it seem less scary, less immense, less baffling and unconquerable. Stories change our perspective on our own strengths and vulnerabilities. They alter our perception of what threatens us most. They provide us with comfort and reassurance — even in the face of tremendous loss — and in so doing, they offer us the hope that we can conquer our worst fears and take back control of our fate.

There’s a huge amount of variety in this collection. I’m not a monster movie or a monster book fan – but I loved the creativity and insight and imagination in this set of tales. The stories were consistently good, and so many of them get you thinking. I’m proud this is on our Cybils list.

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Review of The Thirteenth Child, by Erin A. Craig

Fantasy, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

The Thirteenth Child

by Erin A. Craig

Delacorte Press, 2024. 497 pages.
Review written December 24, 2024, from a library book.
Starred Review

The Thirteenth Child is wildly popular at my library – so many holds on the audiobook, I decided to read the print book – and the hype is completely deserved.

The set-up is that Hazel, the thirteenth child in her family, was given away by her desperate parents to the god of Death. However, he didn’t care for her right away, but came and took her on her twelfth birthday. And from there, he’s got a long life set out for her. She’s going to be an amazing healer. In fact, she has a gift that when she touches a sick person, she gets a vision of how to heal them. But sometimes, instead she sees a Deathshead – and then she’s supposed to kill the person to avert catastrophe – for example, a person with the plague who will spread it to thousands of others if she doesn’t act.

This reminded me of two of my favorite young adult novels: Little Thieves, where the protagonist is also a thirteenth child and is given away by her parents to gods; and Grave Mercy where a whole convent of nuns serve the god of Death as assassins and see a mark on the people they are supposed to kill.

As in Grave Mercy, the protagonist can’t help but wonder what will happen if she doesn’t kill the person with marked for death. In both books, there are consequences if she doesn’t.

Eventually, Hazel becomes a healer at court with the ear of the king, but that means that her actions are all the more weighty.

This book pulled me in as much as those other two favorites did, though by the time I finished, it hadn’t won my heart quite as completely. (Still really good, though!) There’s an odd chapter in the middle that’s a very sexy dream, right after she’s met the prince. At first, I thought maybe the author was trying to tip her hand that this is a romantasy, since there hadn’t been much sex yet, so this was to get us warmed up for what’s to come – but no, this was the sexiest chapter in the book, and didn’t feel at all warranted by the encounter with the prince so far. If it was to show she was attracted to him, it felt out of place at that point. (And I’m sorry, but I rolled my eyes so hard when his hands found “parts of me I never even knew existed.” It’s a dream. It’s all coming from your subconscious. You knew those parts existed.)

One other nitpicky detail is that there’s no way, chemically speaking, that an ill human body can produce a glittering golden discharge. If it’s a magical illness, it’s not going to be solved by some special herb. However, I did love the way Hazel, despite her gift, has to study healing and is able to use logic and knowledge to determine a cure when her gift fails her.

Despite those two small quibbles, I loved this book. It’s long, but I read it quickly because it was so immersive. I didn’t really notice the quibbles until I was done and thinking over the book, because I loved the character so much. The plot gets a tiny bit convoluted toward the end of the book, but nothing it can’t sustain. And I absolutely loved the tender and beautiful Epilogue that shows us what happens for most of our beloved characters many years down the road. It answered the question as to whether the author is going for a sequel – no, this is definitely a stand-alone, and a good one.

erinacraig.com

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Review of When the World Tips Over, by Jandy Nelson

Audiobooks, Contemporary, Teen Fiction Review 0

When the World Tips Over

by Jandy Nelson
read by Michael Crouch, Alex McKenna, Briggon Snow, Caitlin Kinnunen, and Julia Whelan

Listening Library, 2024. 17 hours, 16 minutes.
Review written December 17, 2024, from a library eaudiobook.

When the World Tips Over is a family saga for teens, with a strong dose of magical realism. Our main characters are the three siblings Wynton, Miles, and Dizzy Fall, all named after their missing father’s favorite trumpet players, as well as a mysterious rainbow-haired girl who joins the story later along the way.

As the story opens, 12-year-old Dizzy has had a terrible day, with a disgusting boy farting in her face and her former best friend joining in the laughter about it. So she climbed over the fence and walked blindly away from the school, but she wasn’t paying attention when she stepped into the street, and that was her first encounter with the rainbow-haired girl, who pushed her out of the way of the truck barreling down upon her. But she didn’t see the girl afterward, so Dizzy is convinced she’s an angel.

Miles is the next sibling to see the rainbow-haired girl. His siblings call him “Perfect Miles,” but not fondly. What they don’t know is that he’s quit track, the math club, academic decathlon, volunteering at the animal refuge, and even going to school altogether. He’s been intercepting notes to his mother. On top of that, he’s gay but hasn’t dared to come out to anyone. Oh, and he can have conversations with dogs. The next-door neighbor’s dog is his best friend.

And then he meets the rainbow-haired girl, when he should be in school. They drive around in her vintage orange truck, and he can open up to her like nobody he’s ever met before. He can feel hope returning.

Then there’s Wynton, the oldest brother. He’s been kicked out of the house after driving under the influence and knocking the head off the statue of their ancestor in the town square, and after stealing their mother’s wedding band to pawn for money to buy a new bow for his violin. Wynton has his big chance coming up – he’s going to perform in front of a scout that could bring him into the big time. But his mother has heard it before, and nobody’s paying attention. And he runs into the rainbow-haired girl after the concert, when he’s again under the influence. But she’s not able to get him out of the road in time.

That’s all just the beginning. As the story winds on, we learn more about the rainbow-haired girl, and how she grew up driving around northern California with her mother in an RV named Sadie May. We also learn about the history of the Fall family and their ancestors who came to Paradise Springs from Europe, bringing magical vines. We learn the identity of those ghosts Dizzy’s always been able to see, where their mother got her gift for baking food so good it makes you fall in love, why their father left and never came back, and how that rainbow-haired girl turns out to be connected to them.

There are lots of coincidences in this book, but they’re explained by magic and destiny – which ended up being a little weak for me, but that’s the grinchy part of me, and it makes a nice story.

But there’s also lots of abandonment and betrayal in the back stories, and that’s where it was just a little too harsh for me, along with the Cain-and-Abel curse on the family. I’ve been abandoned and betrayed myself, so that hit me a little too hard to be completely outweighed. And this covers not only romantic partners, but children as well – so it’s not quite a feel-good story for me.

Though I do completely love the explanation at the end for the title:

I do believe now that when the world tips over, joy spills out with all the sorrow.

But you have to look for it.

That’s a message I can get behind.

jandynelson.com

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Review of Spellbound, by F. T. Lukens

Audiobooks, Fantasy, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Spellbound

by F. T. Lukens
read by Kevin R. Free and Neo Cihi

Simon & Schuster Audio, 2023. 10 hours, 25 minutes.
Review written December 10, 2024, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

I recently read my second F. T. Lukens book, Otherworldly. It was super fun, and reminded me of how much I enjoyed So This Is Ever After – so I realized I needed to listen to the book I’d missed (while on the Morris committee in 2023), Spellbound.

I was very glad I made up the oversight. And a hot tip is that these ones are all worth listening to. Kevin R. Free voices the main male lead in all three books, and he comes across beautifully as an adorkable, slightly goofy and outgoing character you want to hug and have as a best friend.

In this book, he reads Edison, a teen who’s been cut off from the world of magic since the death of his grandmother a year ago. So he goes to the office of Hexagon, where Antonia Hex works as a Cursebreaker, and begs for a job. Never mind that he doesn’t have any magic of his own. He misses his grandma and wants to be back in the magical community. Besides, he’s good at fixing electronic gadgets that always break around Antonia.

Edison has also been working on an app that will show him where the ley lines are – the lines that magic workers can naturally see and access. Since he can’t see them, maybe the app can make up the difference. What Edison doesn’t know is that according to the Consortium, that app is highly illegal. Also, after what happened with her last apprentice, Antonia is not allowed to take on a new apprentice. And it’s even more illegal to train someone who can’t see magic on their own.

But one thing leads to another. Antonia gives him a new name, Rook, and working in the office he meets another cursebreaker and his cute apprentice, Sun. Then later, when they’re supposed to be sorting cursed objects in a haunted house, Sun saves Rook from a Cursed Curtain that tries to kill him. Sun is prickly, but Rook thinks they’re awfully cute. Later, it turns out he can help Sun with their math homework – which brings the two of them even closer together.

But the more Rook learns about magic, the more illegal his existence becomes, and the greater the danger the Consortium will find out about his app. When he does get into trouble, both Cursebreakers and Sun are in trouble, too. Will Rook be able to do anything to save them all from the powerful magic wielders who are in charge?

This book ends up being a madcap adventure with a sweet romance thrown in. As with all of the F. T. Lukens characters I’ve heard read by Kevin Free, I found Rook lovable right from the start. Not that this is the same character! Both Rook and Sun are fleshed out with their own quirks and foibles, and here’s wishing them a long and happy career in the world of magic.

ft-lukens.com

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Review of Old Wounds, by Logan-Ashley Kisner

Contemporary, Teen Fiction Review 0

Old Wounds

by Logan-Ashley Kisner

Delacorte Press, 2024. 326 pages.
Review written December 9, 2024, from a library book.

This book reminded me very much of Compound Fracture, by Andrew Joseph White. Both books are horror novels with transgender protagonists. Both books feature the very real horror of transphobic characters looking for the deaths of our protagonists, and in both books the transgender characters manage to fight back – and it’s horrific, but satisfying. The bad guys are punished. In both books, there’s death and violence, but it’s still good to see that the all-too-realistic bullies completely get their comeuppance. Old Wounds is more fantastical and less sophisticated than Compound Fracture – but this one is going for a horror movie vibe and hits that vibe perfectly. And what both books do incredibly well is help the reader feel what it’s like to be a transgender teen, only wanting to be yourself, and being faced with hate.

This book features a transgender boy, Max, and a transgender girl, Erin, on a road trip from Ohio to California after Max turns eighteen. Erin has an understanding family who supported her transition, but Max has the opposite, and his mother and stepfather have done everything in their power to stop his transition, doing things like cutting up his binders and posting about him on a Facebook prayer group. But now he’s eighteen and taking charge of his own life. Erin is coming for moral support and to be part of the queer community in Berkeley.

But when Max’s old clunker car drives over a strip of nails in a small town in Kentucky, the folks helping them are a little bit creepy. They talk about a legendary monster in the town who eats girls who get lost in the woods. Erin and Max try to joke about it when their car is fixed right at sundown. Does a cryptid understand transgender folks? Which one would the monster want to eat, the trans girl or the trans boy?

However, when a spark plug dies a little way down the road in the dark, the question isn’t so funny any more. The book cover will tip you off, but the monster is real. And there are thugs in the town who make sure the monster gets fed twice a year, and all they know is the sun won’t come up until it does. Whichever one the monster doesn’t eat, the thugs will make sure won’t be telling anyone about it.

Did I mention that I am decidedly not a fan of horror novels? Or horror movies, which terrify me? So I’m not the intended audience for this book. All the same, I couldn’t stop reading because I cared about the characters and all I was learning about their experiences. And just before I finished reading it, in real life I learned about a local teen who’s been living with friends after her parents kicked her out – who’s turning eighteen this week and has an appointment to see about starting estrogen. So it makes me happy that transgender teens will find a way, despite obstacles. And it was good to see the kids in this book facing horrific obstacles indeed and coming out on top.

loganashleykisner.com

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Review of The Wilderness of Girls, by Madeline Claire Franklin

Paranormal, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

The Wilderness of Girls

by Madeline Claire Franklin

Zando Young Readers, 2024. 360 pages.
Review written December 7, 2024, from a library book.
Starred Review

This is a story where you’re never quite sure if the magic really happened. I’m going to give the magic the benefit of the doubt and list in in the Paranormal section of my Teen reviews page.

The book opens on the night Eden’s father is arrested for embezzlement. The same night, her stepmother takes off for a tropical resort, and her stepbrother is doing graduate work in Germany – so Eden goes to stay with her Uncle Jimmy in Happy Valley. Even though she hasn’t seen much of Jimmy since her mother died many years ago, since her father kept him away from her.

Eden decides to change her name to Rhi, and adjusts to life in Happy Valley, though she still doesn’t have many friends. But she does some work for the rangers at the wildlife preserve, and one day when she’s walking a trail, she discovers four wild girls accompanied by two wolves – and one of the girls has her leg stuck in a bear trap.

The wolves tell the girls they can trust Rhi before they run off, and Rhi then becomes responsible for getting them help. The girl in the trap would lose her leg if she didn’t, but she feels a bit guilty.

It turns out that the girls have lived in the wilderness for thirteen years, cared for by a man named Mother. They lived in a “castle” – a giant hollow tree. He told them that they were four princesses from another world, Leutheria. And he’d seen a vision that soon after they found their fifth sister, a portal would open to bring them back to Leutheria and save that world.

But after Mother died – not long before Rhi found them – his magic stopped protecting their castle and it toppled. They are not angry with Rhi for taking them from the wild, because they believe she is the fifth princess. And that they’ll all go back to Leutheria together at the next lunar eclipse.

In the process of adjusting to the modern “civilized” world, many things happen to challenge their beliefs in what Mother told them. Was Mother a liar all along? A run-of-the-mill kidnapper? Can his prophecies be trusted? Is the magic real? And through it all, Rhi is walking with the girls, trying to come to terms with her own past.

It’s all very beautifully done, and I love the way the girls, including Rhi, are portrayed as growing strong and figuring out their own destiny rather than necessarily accepting the destiny put upon them. The characters – good and bad – are distinctively drawn and you feel the power of Rhi finding belonging and courage.

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