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Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse

April 14, 2021 Leave a Comment

I did the thing. I saw a fantasy written by a female author and assumed it was YA. I am not proud of how long it took me to realize this wasn’t YA. I t convinced I was calculating the character ages wrong. *sigh*. Anyway…

Black Sun is an immersive pre-Columbian-inspired fantasy with intrigue, danger, and magic. The countdown is on as we follow an ensemble of characters to the day of a prophetic solar eclipse, where a vengeful god is set to claim his rightful place from the Sun Priest. The characters and plot completely pulled me into the story and left me wanting more.

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Skyhunter by Marie Lu

December 30, 2020 Leave a Comment

11 hours 58 minutes| Macmillan Audio| Dystopian| Release Date: 9/29/2020

Skyhunter feels like a follow-up to Legend (which is almost a decade old at this point). It has all of the things that made Legend such an enticing read; betrayal, biological warfare, experimentation, and coats. Lu loves to write characters in sweeping coats…though there are noticeable fewer epaulets in this one.

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Everything I Thought I Knew by Shannon Takaoka

December 27, 2020 Leave a Comment

320 pages | Candlewick Press| Contemporary | Release Date: 10/13/2020

On the blog, Kat and I sometimes refer to slice-of-life books that don’t make it into the hype rotation as “the quietest YA to ever quiet” and that’s how I feel about Everything I Thought I Knew. It’s the low-stakes story of Chloe, whose senior year is thrown off balance when she discovers she needs a heart transplant. Soon someone else’s tragedy becomes her miracle and after the transplant, Chole begins to see flashes of her donor’s life and begins a journey to give them closure.

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Miss Meteor by Tehlor Kay Mejia and Anna-Marie McLemore

December 6, 2020 Leave a Comment

I’ve been wanting to specifically read A-M forever. From what I’ve heard their novels are a blend of fantasy and contemporary which is a genre mash-up that has always been right up my alley, so when I had a chance to review the audio for Miss Meteor, jointly written by Tehlor Kay Mejia, I jumped at the chance.

In Miss Metoer a small-town beauty pageant brings together estranged best friends, Chicky a loner and outcast who doesn’t quite fit in with her three larger-than-life big sisters; and Lita, en eccentric girl born from the stardust of the meteor that gave their small New Mexico town its name. Yes, there is a magical realism element to this story that the authors quietly weave in that I think adds a layer of actual alien to the alienation the girls already feel being brown girls in a town that often rewards blonde-haired white girls.

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Book Review: The Midnight Lie by Marie Rutkoski

December 5, 2020 2 Comments

Unrated | 358 pages | Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)| YA Fantasy | Release Date: 03/03/20

Years ago I read Marie Rutkoski’s much-buzzed-about The Winner’s Curse. I mean this book was the ARC to have in 2013. When the book debuted in 2014 I actually purchased a copy from Books-A-Million because of all the buzz … and it just didn’t live up to the hype for me.

However, I 100% believe that just because one book in the authors’ backlist doesn’t work for me, that doesn’t automatically cross the author off my list. I mean I didn’t love the Grisha trilogy by Leigh Bardugo but I enjoyed Six of Crows and while Holly Black’s Cruel Prince was a no for me I’ve always been a fan of her Curse Workers series.

How did Midnight Lie hold up ?

Well, I liked it better The Winner’s Curse. I think I enjoyed it more after I had a few days to sit with it.

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AudioFile’s 2020 Best Young Adult Audiobooks

November 30, 2020 2 Comments

Today we are excited to present AudioFile’s 2020 Best Young Adult Audiobooks. AudioFile Magazine is the place to find audiobook reviews, narrator interviews and recommendations. For avid listeners don’t forget to subscribe to the AudioFile Magazine Podcast.