High School (9-12)

Valentina Tran's favorite day of the year is Valentine's Day. She is named after the holiday and it's no wonder that her imaginary friend is Cupid. Val and Cupid are cuddly and sweet buddies when Val is younger, planning out hand decorated cards and heartfelt messages for friends and family. As Val grows older and learns more about her family history she starts to hate Valentine's Day. Her pal Cupid takes a dark turn and manifests as a terrifying spirit version of the martyred Saint Valentine. No matter what she does, Val cannot shake the haunting.

Clark introduces readers to a new fantasy world in this latest novella and I'm so here for it.

Eveen is a an undead assassin. When she died she was offered a chance at an undead life - though she has no memory of how that came to be or why she would have made such a choice. As part of her deal she owes her goddess years of service as an assassin. As the goddess's assassin she has to follow 3 rules:

I was late to The Guncle party and truthfully only got it read because I needed to read this sequel. So here I am having read both in quick succession which had pros and cons as a reading experience. Before I get into those pros and cons, let me set the scene.

With summer just over the horizon, who doesn’t love a good family road trip story? In this sequel to Huda F Are You?, the Fahmy family travels to Disney World, where hijinks and chaos ensue – including a fight between Huda and a boy who makes fun of her hijab. Huda F Cares is an easy-to-love graphic novel, every bit as hilarious, heartwarming, and thoughtful as its predecessor.

--reviewed by Ros

The students at Urban Promise Prep School must follow the "Principal Moore Method" for conduct and behavior at all times. Principal Moore is strict, but his method saves lives, or so the boys are told time and time again. Infractions include not walking on a line painted on the school floor, talking in the hallway or having unauthorized food in a locker or backpack. The infractions result in demerits that never get recouped. After a certain number of demerits, the students find themselves in detention, or even worse, expelled.

Chiamaka and Devon, two Black students at a prestigious high school, couldn't be more different from each other. Devon's goal is to keep his head down until he can get into Juilliard; Chiamaka, to claw her way up the social ladder and graduate as homecoming queen. That makes it all the more mysterious when they're targeted by an anonymous saboteur named Aces. Aces's meddling starts with rumors spread throughout the halls, but escalates into a dangerous game that could ruin the students' futures forever.

Makiia Lucier wowed me a few years ago with a book I've re-read many times. Her Year of the Reaper  was set in a fully realized fantasy world and featured a flawed, but honorable, protagonist facing impossible choices with much grace and compassion. Since reading it, I've been eagerly waiting for Lucier's next. And here it is.

Sylvie Cathrall's debut is an epistolary novel - a novelistic style that sometimes works for me and sometimes does not. Here it mostly does. I was immediately drawn in by the dreamy, carefully anxious letter that E. is writing to Scholar Henerey Clel. E. (you'll learn her full name later) lives alone in an underwater abode called The Deep House. She writes to Henerey and her sister Sophy and an array of others to stay in contact with the world. This world is one that is about 99% covered in water and most abodes are on floating islands.

Locus Magazine has published their recommended reading list for 2023 titles and wow is there so much goodness to discover. They suggest best novels in science fiction, fantasy, and horror, but also have best in young adult and first novels (so happy to see To Shape a Dragon's Breath, which I loved).