November 5th
Stranger Skies by Pascale Lacelle (Simon and Schuster)
Opening locked doors has a price—even for those who hold a key.
After going through the door that called to them both in dreams, Emory and Romie find themselves in the Wychwood: the same verdant world written of in Song of the Drowned Gods, albeit a twisted, rotting version of it. A sinister force has awoken with their arrival, intent on destruction as it spills across realms, and now Emory and Romie must stop it before it reaches their own shores.
Meanwhile, Baz and Kai are desperate to follow their friends through the door to other worlds, but a mishap pulls them back in time instead—where they come face to face with Cornus Clover himself, famed author of Song of the Drowned Gods. Stuck together in the past, they must navigate a very different Aldryn as they unravel the school’s darkest secrets.
Across time and worlds, Emory, Romie, Baz, and Kai find their fates eerily interwoven with the heroes from Clover’s book. But when stories can’t be trusted, friendships are put to the test, and deadly enemies are not always as they seem, they must decide who gets to be a hero—and who is desperate enough to see themselves become a villain.
Heart-Shaped Lies by Elizabeth Agyemang (Delacorte) - moved from 2023.
Kiara, Priscilla, and Nevaeh have nothing in common—except they just found out that they’re all dating Tommy Harding, the internet's most famous teen prank star.
KIARA is the girlfriend who the cameras know and love, the academic star who Tommy parades around in public to keep his image in check.
PRISCILLA is Tommy's co-star. As a beauty influencer and an accomplice to Tommy’s notorious antics, she’s always known that the two of them could be the Internet’s power couple—if only he would confess to his girlfriend what really goes on during their 'rehearsals'.
And NEVAEH is the good girl, the pastor's daughter who'd never dream of dating a boy who’s already taken.
When a viral post from Tommy’s social media account exposes his cheating ways during their high school class trip to Florida’s biggest theme park, the girls are crushed—and furious. Tommy claims his account was hacked. Now, Kiara, Priscilla, and Nevaeh want him out of their lives. Forever. After all, Tommy doesn’t just hold their hearts—he holds their secrets, too.But when Tommy's body is found the next morning, their so-called wish becomes a twisted reality. Because Tommy may be gone, but the internet is forever. And the girls are about to go from strangers to suspects….
Shadowed by Carl Deuker (Clarion Books)
Nate plays soccer, but he doesn’t love it. He plays because it’s what his family expects.
Then Lucas Cawley moves in across the street. Lucas isn’t like any of Nate’s sports friends—he’s poor, his parents are mostly absent, and he’s devoted to his sister, Megan, who has a learning disability. Lucas may be an outcast at school, but he and Nate find common ground in their fierce games of one-on-one basketball.
It’s not long before Nate realizes that basketball is his sport. But Nate has an ax to grind with star players Colin and Bo, who have disrespected him for years. Nate believes that outplaying those two is the most important thing . . . until he learns that life is about more than getting ready for the next game.
Thanks for Listening by Molly Horan (Clarion)
Mia knows what she’s talking about.
Class schedules, significant others, existential life crises—you name it, she’s talked someone through it.
The problem? No one actually takes her advice.
So when her latest round of (very sensible!) guidance is ignored, resulting in a class flyer stapled to her best friend’s arm and her brother going steady with a girl he doesn’t have feelings for, Mia is done talking. Instead, she creates HereToHelp, an anonymous account to give advice. If her friends don’t know it’s her behind the account, maybe they’ll finally listen for once.
Throw in the girl of her dreams, a plethora of sound (and not-so-sound) advice, and a couple of best friends who seem to have a lot more to hide than Mia knows…and Mia could use some advice of her own to make it through this senior year.
Hilarious and deeply insightful in turn, Thanks for Listening is a must-read for fans of Not My Problem and Eliza and Her Monsters—and any reader who has wanted to feel fully, truly, completely heard.
It's Not Me, It's You by Alex Light (HarperCollins)
Jackie Myers is a fraud—or she’s a genius. Jury’s still out.
By day, Jackie works at Monte’s Magic Castle, where she’s stuck playing “woodland frog” in a smelly green costume—and where Wilson, her insufferable eternal nemesis, is the assistant manager.
But at night? She’s a superstar, anonymously running pleasebreakmyheart, a gone-viral account where people ask for advice on how to end their relationships.
Then Jackie’s advice somehow breaks up Wilson and his picture-perfect girlfriend—which means Jackie’s paycheck is on the line. (And OK, she does feel guilty about it.)
There’s only one thing to do. Jackie’s going to help Wilson win his ex-girlfriend back.
But as the two team up, new feelings begin to bloom in her chest, and Jackie realizes disaster has struck. Because the last thing she wants is to see Wilson get back together with his ex-girlfriend. Instead—she wants Wilson to be with her.
The snark and instant chemistry of Better Than the Movies meets the indulgent summer fun and family hijinks of The Summer of Broken Rules in this compulsively readable rom-com from Alex Light, author of The Upside of Falling.
All the Truth I Can Stand by Mason Stokes (Astra/Calkins Creek)
Juniper, Wyoming high school student Ash is still reeling from his mother’s death and ostracization by his friends when his father signs him up to join the crew for a college production of Oklahoma!
Ash is slowly drawn out of his shell by student reporter Jenna and the star of the show, Shane, with whom a romance slowly blooms. Shane is talented, sensitive, and magnetic, but also deeply troubled.
When Shane is found brutally beaten and unconscious, Jenna and Ash are shattered. And after Shane dies, they watch his death become a rallying point for gay rights advocates, and they wonder what the full story is and if they truly knew Shane at all. All The Truth I Can Stand is a heartbreaking exploration of grief and legacy, and details the good and the bad that can come to pass when an imperfect person is made into a symbol.
Snow Drowned by Jennifer D. Lyle (Sourcebooks Fire)
Gracie Hutchinson has lived on Fall Island her whole life and knows there's some truth to those words. Fall's snowstorms have a spooky way of claiming people, making them disappear without a trace or driving them mad. Now, with a hundred-year-storm approaching, most of Fall's residents have fled to the mainland. But not Gracie. Left behind her with physician father, she braces for landfall.
Gracie's not the only one left behind. Her classmate Joseph Wescott, descendant of the legendary pioneer who founded Fall Island, has stayed, too. After a chance encounter, the two stumble across something more unsettling than the snow: a ritually mutilated corpse. By night, as the snow begins to fall, it becomes clear that whoever (or whatever) murdered the man they found has their sights set on Gracie.
Seeking refuge at Wescott Manor, Gracie feels safe surrounded by dozens of locals hunkered down in the huge house. But as the storm assaults the island, Gracie discovers secrets that have been kept since Fall was settled. If she can't uncover the hidden history and terrifying truth about Fall Island before the storm's end, she'll be the next to disappear into the snow.
The Donut Prince of New York by Allen Zadoff (Holiday House)
As
Eugene “Pudge” Gutterman starts his junior year of high school, he is
hoping just to get through life. His father has abandoned the family,
his mother nags him about his size—and about going to med school—and
Eugene would like to just hide out through the year, and maybe write a
play.
But his plan doesn’t work when he accidentally tackles the
star of the high school football team in gym class, and Eugene gets
recruited to play the team. Him, Eugene, a football star? Suddenly
popular, Eugene has access to the world he’s dreamed about. The life of
“The Pops”, the secret world of athletes, parties, and dating. To
Gutterman, it’s like a school within the school he’s known.
But
it’s not all it seems from the outside—the cool kids have a lot of
pressure on them, too, and Eugene has to find out if he has the guts to
break out on his own, and finally be seen for who he really is, in plus
size clothing and all.
Streetlight People by Charlene Thomas (Dutton) - previously titled Peekaboo.
Streetlight is small town that most people couldn’t find on a map. If you actually live in Streetlight, though, you definitely know where you stand: you're either a Have-Not or a Have-A-Lot—it's been this way as long as anyone can remember and no one ever forgets the difference. If you’re not from Streetlight, you're probably thinking that what some people have a lot of is money. That’s true, but it’s not the whole story—not even close. Some things are much more valuable than money, especially in Streetlight.
Streetlight People is a story of a have-not girl named Kady who falls for a have-a-lot boy named Nik. Their life together seems like bliss for one strangely timeless summer. But even have-a lots don’t have it all; they just have more than most. When Halloween comes, Kady crosses the one line no have-not can cross in a desperate attempt to get her summer back.
Eighteen-year-old Beatrice has never been a fan of her neighbor Bennie, but when Beatrice's beloved younger sister starts dating one of Bennie's closest friends, Beatrice is drawn into their social circle. As Beatrice wrestles with increasingly confusing feelings for Bennie, her usually close relationship with her sister is fraying, her grief over their mother’s death is simmering in the background, and she’s overwhelmed by looming senior-year decisions about what she wants to do with her life. But after a crisis arises, Beatrice must figure out how to process past traumas and open up to the possibilities of the future.
November 12th
Rani Choudhury Must Die by Adiba Jaigirdar (Fiewel and Friends)
Meghna Rahman is tired of constantly being compared to her infuriatingly perfect ex best friend now rival. Everyone, except, at least, her boyfriend Zak, seems to think that Rani Choudhury can do no wrong—even her own parents! It doesn’t help that Rani is always accepted into the Young Scientist Exhibition, while Meghna’s projects never make it. But this year, she finally has a chance at defeating Rani in something.
Rani Choudhury is tired of feeling like she doesn’t have much say in her life—not when it comes to how her mom wants her to look and act or how her parents encourage her to date incredibly charming close family friend Zak. She would much rather focus on her coding, especially once she places high enough at the Young Scientist Exhibition to go on to the European Young Scientist Exhibition
When Meghna and Rani figure out that Zak has been playing them both, they decide to do something no one would see coming: they team up. They’ll compete in the EYSE as partners, creating an app that exposes cheaters and a project that exposes Zak. But with years of silence and pressure between them, working together will prove difficult. Especially once each girl starts to realize that the feelings they had for the other may have been more than platonic...
Hey, no one ever said science was easy!
Skyshade by Alex Aster (Amulet) - description and cover not yet added to Goodreads.
Love kills kingdoms…
Back in Grim’s castle on Nightshade, Isla is reeling in the wake of a brutal battle and the devastating truths it exposed. Her future—and the fate of the world—now hinge on a heart split in two.
Past Isla, who fell in love with the ruler of Nightshade, fights to resist feelings she considers treasonous. The Isla of the present, who has seen the ruin her powers can cause, will do anything to save Lightlark and its king.
As the line between enemy and friend is tested, Isla is more desperate than ever to understand the oracle’s final prophecy and change her heartrending fate. But a storm is coming. And with it, a long-buried evil greater than anything the realms have faced before.
With the clock ticking on her destiny and the survival of two warring kingdoms hinging on her own shattered heart, Isla Crown will either save the world—or destroy it.
Darkly by Marisha Pessl (Delacorte) - moved from September 2024 and October 2024,
What would you kill for?
When an ad for an internship with the Louisiana Veda Foundation poses this question, seemingly every high school student in the country rushes to apply. Arcadia “Dia” Gannon has been obsessed with Louisiana Veda, the late game designer whose obsessive creations have attained a cultlike status, ever since she and her mom played Disappearing Act—but Dia has never won anything in her life. So she’s shocked when she’s chosen as an intern, along with six other teenagers from around the world.
Little is known about Louisiana Veda. Her game-making empire, Darkly, was renowned for its ingenious, utterly terrifying toys and games, rife with hidden symbols and secrets. But after Veda’s mysterious death, Darkly went bankrupt and production was discontinued. The remaining games are priced like highly sought-after works of art, with the rarest and most notorious items commanding tens of millions of dollars at auction.
Now the interns are thrust into the enigmatic heart of Louisiana Veda’s operation, and Dia immediately questions everything. Who are these other kids? Why do they all seem to have something to hide? And why was she really chosen? It soon becomes clear that this summer will be the most twisted Darkly game of all.
As chilling and addictive as one of Louisiana Veda’s complicated and inventive games, Darkly is an intricate labyrinth full of buried clues and hidden connections created by Marisha Pessl, whose dazzling prose and signature powers of imagination will startle, tantalize, and delight readers.
In Want of a Suspect by Tirzah Price (HarperCollins) - previously titled Lizzie & Darcy.
The tenacious Lizzie Bennet has earned her place at Longbourn, her father’s law firm. Her work keeps her busy, but luckily she often has help from (and steals occasional kisses with) Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy, a stern but secretly soft-hearted solicitor at Pemberley.
Lizzie is hired to investigate a deadly warehouse fire, and to find the mysterious woman who was spotted at the scene moments before the flames took hold. But when the case leads her to the sitting room of a woman Darcy once proposed marriage to, the delicate balance between personal and professional in their relationship is threatened.
Questions of the future are cast aside when the prime suspect is murdered and Lizzie’s own life is threatened. As the body count rises, and their suspicions about what was really going on in the warehouse grow, the pressure is on for Lizzie and Darcy to uncover the truth.
Lizzie and Darcy are back for more suspense, danger, and romance in this first in a duology spinoff of the Jane Austen Murder Mysteries!
The Glass Girl by Kathleen Glasgow (Delacorte)
Everyone in fifteen-year-old Bella’s life needs something from her. Her mom needs her to help around the house, her dad needs her to not make waves, her ex needs her to not be so much. The only person who never needed anything from her was her grandmother—and now she’s dead.
There’s only one thing that dulls the pressure: alcohol. Vodka, beer, peppermint schnapps—alcohol smooths the sharp edges of Bella’s life. And what’s the big deal? Everyone drinks. Besides, Bella can stop whenever she wants. But after she gets blackout drunk at a Thanksgiving party and wakes up in the hospital, it’s time to face reality. And for Bella, reality means rehab.
Gorgeously written and deeply compassionate, Kathleen Glasgow’s The Glass Girl is a candid exploration of the forces pushing young women toward addiction—and what it really takes to help them get better.
I Am The Dark That Answers When You Call by Jamison Shea (Henry Holt) - moved from August 2023.
Though Laure has tried to close the lid on her ballet shoes and the feelings she once held for dance since the Palais Garnier incident two months ago, Laure is spinning out. Between partying, drinking, and avoiding anything and, well, everyone, she has no time to be anything but a monster. But when Laure stumbles across a mysterious dead body during one of her nights out, she’s forced to notice the cracks stretching beyond herself.
Below the streets of Paris, Elysium is dying, and Acheron and Lethe’s influence is spilling into the streets like a blight. Laure isn’t the only of Elysium’s beasts to rise from the ruins of Palais Garnier, and someone is mobilizing an army of monsters with plans greater than Laure, Andor, and Keturah could have ever guessed. While Laure is warring between her wants and Acheron’s ever-demanding appetite, she and her circle of monsters are left to reckon with a not-so-simple question: how do you save yourself from oblivion?
Jamison Shea's sharp and unflinching voice will bring readers to terrifying new heights in this vicious sequel to the "relentlessly gory and almost euphoric in its embrace of the horrific" (NPR) I Feed Her to the Beast and the Beast is Me.
Where the Library Hides by Isabel Ibañez (Wednesday Books)
1885, Egypt
Inez Olivera is left reeling from her cousin Elvira’s murder, and her mother’s betrayal, and when Tío Ricardo issues an ultimatum about her inheritance, she’s left with only one option to consider.
Marriage to Whitford Hayes.
Former British soldier, her uncle’s aide de camp, and one time nemesis, Whit has his own mysterious reasons for staying in Egypt. With her heart on the line, Inez might have to bind her fate to the one person whose secret plans could ruin her.
Dead Girls Don't Dream by Nino Cipri (Henry Holt)
Except for Riley Walcott.
Riley knows better than to stray from the trail in the woods behind her uncle Toby's house. But her little sister Sam breaks the rules in pursuit of a local legend, so Riley chases after her and discovers a masked, knife-wielding figure and a waiting grave.
Madelyn lives deep in the forest. Subject to her mother's strict rules, she's forbidden from leaving home or using her magic--but one night, she risks everything to help a stranger who's lost in the woods.
When Riley is murdered in a strange ritual, Madelyn uses her magic to resurrect her, and their lives are immediately entwined in the gnarled history of Voynich Woods. Riley, who feels trapped in her small town but too afraid to leave, was never a believer, but now the evidence is taking root under her skin. Madelyn has the scars to prove how terrible magic can be, and longs for a life beyond her mother's grasp. Together, with the ghost of long-dead Jane, they're forced to uncover the truth about Voynich Woods and the legends within.
At once tender, violent, and thrilling, Dead Girls Don't Dream is a novel of recovery, healing, and finding your power.
Midnights With You by Clare Osongco (Disney Hyperion) - previously titled When the Sky Is Deepest Blue.
“Nowhere.”
“Great,” he says lightly, putting the car in gear. “Then we’ll go there.”
Seventeen-year-old Deedee’s life is full of family ghosts and questions she can’t ask. She longs for an escape, but guilt holds her back—that, and the fact that her strict Filipino single mom won’t let her learn to drive. But one sleepless night leads Deedee down a road she never thought possible: secret driving lessons with the new boy next door, Jay, whose turbulent family life also keeps him up until sunrise.
As midnights stretch into days, Jay helps Deedee begin to unravel her past, and as shared secrets blossom into love, Deedee starts to imagine a life where happiness is possible. But the deeper she digs into the trauma that has shaped her, the more that trauma threatens to tear Deedee and Jay apart. Together, these two must decide if the pain they’ve both inherited has the power to choose their fate, or if they have the power to choose for themselves.
A Wild and Ruined Song by Ashley Shuttleworth (Simon and Schuster) - moved from 2023, release date and cover not yet updated on Goodreads.
Arlo
Jarsdel has lost everything. Her family. Her freedom. Her name. And now
that she’s sharing her body with Ruin, the formidable titan of
devastation, she’s even beginning to lose herself.
In their most
dangerous game of deception yet, Arlo has just one goal: destroy the
three Bone Crowns corrupting the mortal and immortal realms before her
time runs out and Ruin takes permanent control of her being.
With
Celadon fighting on the political front against the ruthless High Queen
Riadne—now armed with the cataclysmic power of her Crown, the Sins, and
Ruin—Vehan and Aurelian are scrambling in secret to build an army to
rival the Riadne’s infernal forces. Meanwhile, Nausicaä will do whatever
it takes to save her girlfriend from obliteration, despite knowing the
odds of survival are nearly nonexistent.
When the line between
hero and villain becomes blurred, and bonds are put to the ultimate
test, it has never been more imperative—or more difficult—to stand
united. For this is not the first lifetime that these five friends have
faced the evil behind this impending war, but if they can’t find their
way back to each other, it might just be their last.
Heist Royale by Kayvion Lewis (Nancy Paulson Books)
In the aftermath of the betrayals revealed in Thieves’ Gambit, Ross and Devroe are now reluctant partners pulling jobs all over the world, run by Count, the Organization’s enigmatic leader. Astoundingly, even after Devroe’s treachery has been revealed, he’s still trying to make a play for Ross’s heart, but Ross can’t trust him and staying alive has to be her number one priority. Devroe’s wish that could end not only her life, but her family’s, is still in force. But when another high-ranking member of the Organization attempts to oust Count, Ross sees her chance to save herself. A new gambit is proposed to see who should lead the Organization into the future—Count or Baron, a crafty and ruthless opponent who will stop at nothing for the win. And so begins the ultimate Gambit to determine not who the best thief is, but who will rule the Organization of cutthroats, and more importantly to Ross, who will live and who will die.
It’s Team Count vs. Team Baron. Whose team will Ross join? After Baron tries and fails to win Ross’s trust, Ross decides to stick with the devil she knows and hope Count will make Devroe’s wish null and void at the gambit’s end should they win. Along with Mylo, Noelia, Taiyo and her mother, Ross faces off against team Baron, led by Devroe and his mother who wants nothing more than to see Ross dead and filled out by her former best friend Kyung-Soon. Though emotional entanglements with her mother, Devroe and Kyung-Soon threaten to throw Ross off course, she is determined to prove she can always count on herself to get the job done. As this gambit takes the globe-trotting crew to such far-flung places as Antarctica and South Africa, the growing stakes will test loyalties and may break more than hearts as Ross tries to fend off death at every turn. May the best thief win.
Games Untold by Jennifer Lynn Barnes (Little, Brown) - details not yet added to Goodreads.
There is nothing frivolous about the way a Hawthorne man loves.
An amnesiac playboy and the woman with every reason to hate him. A daredevil, his favorite heiress, and three nights in Prague. An unlikely pairing between a cowboy and a goth. Four brothers with an inescapable bond, strengthened by the family they chose, in a house of wonders that promises to always deliver one more secret.
Discover their stories of love and loss, power, puzzles, and life-and-death secrets in this mind-blowingly romantic collection that proves that when you love the way Hawthornes love, there is no going back.
Flopping in a Winter Wonderland by Jason June (Disney Hyperion) - previously titled Balking in a Winter Wonderland.
All Kris wants for Christmas is for his uncle to move back to Winter Wonderland to be the first gay Santa. And so, he needs to win the Race, his grade’s annual competition to see who can get a guest to fall in love with them first. Winning means a trip to New York, where Kris would be able to plead his case for his uncle to the founder of Winter Wonderland himself.
Then Aaron and Kris flop into each other during a flash mob and Kris agrees to help Aaron with his plan to keep Casey single. Soon, both can’t stop thinking about kissing the other, and it’s not just because of the mistletoe around every corner. Too bad true love isn’t on either of their Christmas lists…
This adorable rom-com from bestselling author Jason June unwraps the healing power of love and the magic of the Christmas season.
Leap by Simina Popescu (Roaring Brook Press) - YA graphic novel.
Ana has been studying contemporary dance since she was little, but her heart isn’t in it anymore. Instead her focus is on Carina―a beautiful, ambitious ballerina whose fear of being outed keeps Ana in the closet and their fragile relationship from seeing the light of day. Risking her own career, Ana gives up more and more in order to fit into the shadows of Carina’s life.
Sara, on the other hand, is fielding whispers she may be the best dancer their school has produced in years. Much of that is thanks to her mentor and instructor, Marlena, who plucked Sara from the classical track and encouraged her to blossom as a contemporary dancer. Sara has always been in awe of Marlena, but recently, that admiration has sparked into something more, and Sara’s not sure what to do about it.
As junior year at their performing arts school begins, Ana and Sara are assigned as roommates. What starts off as a tentative friendship soon becomes a much-needed anchor.
Greater Secrets by Ananth Hirsh and Tess Stone (Random House) - YA graphic novel, moved from 2024.
Maya’s family is cursed.
Or blessed, it depends on who you talk to. For as far back as anyone can remember, her family has had to ability to see a mysterious pillar of light in the distance. Those who have tried to find it have never come back. Maya has no idea what you're meant to find if you follow the light. Adventure? Destiny? But what if your destiny isn't a good thing?
Maya’s sister left to follow her light…and has been missing ever since.
That’s how Maya finds herself on a surreal road trip with two people she barely knows, headed towards a ghost town where her sister was last seen. Unfortunately, the closer Maya gets to her sister...the closer she gets to her own pillar of light. Maya doesn't know if she's ready to face her destiny but if it means finding her sister then she'll do whatever it takes.
Fortune's Kiss by Amber Clement (Union Square Kids)
Known by many names throughout the years, it returns to Milagro as El Beso de la Fortuna . . . and the game is Lotería. And best friends Mayté Robles and Lorena (Lo) de León are determined to change their lives, escape the dangerous men who threaten them, and gain riches.
Mayté, the sole daughter of the disgraced Robles family, wishes to leave her family and become a successful painter, while Lo suffers at the hands of her powerful and abusive father and seeks to find her mother, who escaped to Fortune’s Kiss years ago but never returned.
When Fortune’s Kiss finally returns to their city, the pair follow on their childhood blood pact to enter the gaming salon. But once inside, Mayté and Lo quickly realize that beneath the marvelous glamour, the salon is hiding dangerous secrets and the house always wins. And the game of Lotería is not the children’s game they grew up playing—it is a deadly lottery of chance.
With the help of a young, handsome croupier, the girls embark on a mission to unravel the mystery of the salon’s magic, find Lo’s mother, and try to win a nearly impossible game as their friendship is put under the greatest of tests.
The Seven by Joya Goffney (HarperTeen) - moved from May 2024, release date likely to be moved.
"Exploring the sisterhood formed between seven teen Black girls, all from different walks of life."
November 19th
If You Can Hear This by Faith Gardener (HarperCollins)
Posey Spade loves asking questions—it’s what’s going to make her a fantastic journalist someday. And ever since her best friend and crush chose someone else, Posey’s only focusing on her future career.
Unfortunately, she’s just moved to the small town of Wild Pines—which doesn’t provide a lot of groundbreaking journalism opportunities, only a scrappy AV Club full of self-proclaimed slackers . . . who Posey must somehow inspire to greatness.
She never thought that inspiration would come from the disappearance of the club’s beloved sponsor and teacher, Ms. Moses. But as the days tick by with no answers, Posey and the AV Club take it upon themselves to dig into the mystery.
From a nepotism scandal to a local cult, Posey learns a lot about her new town. And as she spends more time with the AV Club, she also learns that friendship is just as necessary to solving a mystery as lots of questions. Good thing Posey has both.
The twisty, intricate mystery of I Killed Zoe Spanos meets the whip-smart sleuthing of A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder in the newest novel from acclaimed author Faith Gardner, where a club of misfits must come together to solve a dangerous mystery—and learn to lean on each other all the while.
When Mimi Went Missing by Suja Sukumar (Soho Teen) - moved from June 2024, then from July 2024.
Tanvi doesn’t remember the night her perfect, popular cousin Mimi disappeared. But she hasn’t told the cops about the bump on the back of her head, the muddy scratches on her legs, or how she woke up with Mimi’s favorite scarf clutched in her hands. She needs the town to keep believing Mimi ran away because she was busted doing drugs. Otherwise, Tanvi’s violent past will make her the prime suspect in the police investigation.
Then Tanvi discovers Mimi’s clothes on a local beach. With the cops hunting a murderer, and her beloved aunt suffering a mental health breakdown, Tanvi desperately tries to find out who wanted her cousin dead. Her suspect list is short: Mimi’s drug-dealing boyfriend who refuses to answer her questions, her best friend, who catalyzed the fight between the once-loving cousins, an ex-best friend turned stalker, and the school jock who hated Mimi for getting him kicked off the football team—and Tanvi herself. Because, lurking in the deepest part of her is that dark fear. The fear that she’s inherited her mother’s evil.
Then she starts receiving texts from Mimi accusing her of attempted murder. The texts allege that Tanvi tried to kill Mimi so she could take everything her cousin had, including a loving family. Torn between fearing she’s a killer like her mom and the gut feeling that she’d never attempt to kill the cousin she loved, Tanvi races to fill the gaps in her memory. But her attempt to expose the truth of what happened that night triggers malevolence in her quiet Michigan town, and now Tanvi’s the target. To protect the family she has left, Tanvi must learn to face her darkest fears and discover what happened to Mimi, even if it puts her life in danger.
Dead Below Deck by Jan Gangsei (HarperTeen) - previously titled The Escape.
It was supposed to be the best-ever girls’ trip: five days, four friends, one luxury yacht, no parents. But on the final night, as the yacht cruised the deep and dark waters between Florida and Grand Cayman, eighteen-year-old heiress Giselle vanished. She’s nowhere to be found the next morning even after a frantic search, until security footage surfaces . . . showing Maggie pushing her overboard.
But Maggie has no memory of what happened. All she knows is that she woke up with a throbbing headache, thousands of dollars in cash in her safe, a passport that isn’t hers, and Giselle’s diary. And while Maggie had her own reasons to want Giselle dead, so did everyone else on board: jealous Viv, calculating Emi, even some members of the staff.
What really went down on the top deck that night? Maggie will have to work her way backward to uncover the secrets that everyone—even Giselle—kept below deck or she’s dead in the water.
Jan Gangsei crafts a compulsively readable tale of privilege, family, and identity wrapped in a wholly original mystery that will keep readers on the edges of their seats until the final twist.
Sophomore Year by Brianna Peppins (Disney Hyperion)
Avielle LeBeau is beginning her second year at Briarcliff Prep, and she's got big dreams. Top of the list? Starting her own student life magazine and rooming with her besties Rhyon and Zazie. But a housing mix-up splits Avi from her friends—and to make matters worse, she's rooming with her rival, Fallon Walsh, instead.
How does one girl juggle school, a fracturing friendship, living with a mean girl, and getting caught in a potential love triangle between the ex she can't move on from and a friend who’s becoming something more? It's a lot. Made even harder by the panic attacks Avi has been experiencing lately.
If one thing is true about the LeBeau family, it's that they’re always there for each other. But with her older sister Belle away at college and her brothers preoccupied chasing their own dreams, Avi must learn how to find support in new (unlikely) places.
Will Avi finally find her voice? Or will her dreams be drowned out by everyone else?
Perfect Girl by Tracy Banghart (Feiwel and Friends) - moved from October 2024.
When a freak storm takes out the power during a sleepover at Jessa’s creepy, old house, things go south before the pizza gets cold. Her friends are at each other’s throats, unexpected guests keep showing up (some more welcome than others), and it’s not just her brother serving up jump scares. A killer looking for the perfect girl has targeted Jessa, and she’ll have to reject everything she’s been taught if she wants to keep herself—and her friends—alive until sunrise.
Who knew perfection could be so dangerous?
Visitations by Corey Egbert (FSG) - YA graphic novel, moved from 2022.
Corey's mom has always made him feel safe. Especially after his parents' divorce, and the dreaded visitations with his dad begin. But as Corey grows older, he can't ignore his mother's increasingly wild accusations. Her insistence that God has appointed Corey as his sister's protector. Her declaration that Corey's father is the devil.
Soon, she whisks Corey and his sister away from their home and into the boiling Nevada desert. There, they struggle to survive with little food and the police on the trail. Meanwhile, under the night sky, Corey is visited by a flickering ghost, a girl who urges him to fight for a different world--one outside of his mother's spoon-fed tales, one Corey must find before it's too late.
Drawing inspiration from his own upbringing in the Mormon church, Corey Egbert welcomes readers on an emotionally stirring, nuanced journey into the liminal spaces between imagination and memory, faith and truth.
November 26thNot for the Faint of Heart by Lex Croucher (Wednesday Books) - UK cover revealed but not US.
‘You
aren’t merry,’ said Clem to her captor. ‘And you aren’t all men. So
there’s been some marketing confusion somewhere along the line.’
Mariel,
a newly blooded and perpetually grumpy captain of the Merry Men, is
desperate to live up to the legacy of her grandfather, the legendary
Robin Hood. Clem, a too-perky backwoods healer known for her new-fangled
cures, just wants to help people.
When Mariel's ramshackle band
of bandits kidnap Clem as retribution for her guardian helping the
Sheriff of Nottingham, all seems to be going (sort of) to plan … until
Jack Hartley, Mariel’s father and Commander of the Merry Men, is
captured in a deadly ambush. Determined to prove herself, Mariel sets
out to get him back – with her annoyingly cheerful kidnappee in tow.
But
the wood is at war. Many believe the Merry Men are no longer on the
right side of history. Watching Clem tend the party’s wounds and crack
relentlessly terrible jokes, Mariel begins to doubt the noble cause to
which she has devoted her life. As the two of them grow closer, forced
by circumstances to share a single horse and bed, one thing is clear.
They must prepare to fight for their lives and for those of everyone
they’ve sworn to protect.
Lex Croucher's Not For the Faint of Heart is
a thrilling adventure full of hijinks, found family, and romance
destined to change the lives of the inhabitants of the Greenwood Forest
forever.
No comments:
Post a Comment