List

Category
Audience

After Life

Gayle Forman

A Good Morning America Book Club YA Pick

"Gayle Forman has an uncanny ability to create characters in which we see ourselves, and her latest--which looks at where love goes, after a loss--is an honest, heartbreaking elegy to how memory makes relationships eternal." --Jodi Picoult, #1 New York Times bestselling author

"I was consumed by this thought-provoking, deftly written, multilayered novel. Gayle Forman reigns as the queen of breaking hearts with a touch of magic." --Adam Silvera, #1 New York Times bestselling author of They Both Die at the End

One spring afternoon after school, Amber arrives home on her bike. It's just another perfectly normal day. But when Amber's mom sees her, she screams.

Because Amber died seven years ago, hit by a car while on the very same bicycle she's inexplicably riding now.

This return doesn't only impact Amber. Her sister, Melissa, now seven years older, must be a new kind of sibling to Amber. Amber's estranged parents are battling over her. And the changes ripple farther and farther out: Amber's friends, boyfriend, and even people she met only once have been deeply affected by her life and death. In the midst of everyone's turmoil, Amber is struggling with herself. What kind of person was she? How and why was she given this second chance?

This magnificent tour de force by acclaimed author Gayle Forman brilliantly explores the porous veil between life and death, examines the impact that one person can have on the world, and celebrates life in all its beautiful complexity.

View Details >>

I'll Tell You No Lies

Amanda McCrina

From Amanda McCrina, the acclaimed author of Traitor and The Silent Unseen, I'll Tell You No Lies is a riveting YA novel of the Cold War era about a girl in post-World War II America who becomes entangled with an escaped Soviet pilot and must learn to decipher truth from lies.

New York, 1955. Eighteen-year-old Shelby Blaine and her father, an Air Force intelligence officer, have just been wrenched away from their old life in West Germany to New York’s Griffiss Air Force Base, where he has been summoned to lead the interrogation of an escaped Soviet pilot. Still in shock from the car accident that killed her mother barely a month earlier, Shelby struggles with her grief, an emotionally distant father, and having to start over in a new home.

Then a chance meeting with Maksym, the would-be defector, spirals into a deadly entanglement, as the pilot’s cover story is picked apart and he attempts to escape his military and intelligence handlers—with Shelby caught in the middle. The more she learns of Maksym’s secrets, including his detention at Auschwitz during the war, the more she becomes willing to help him. But as the stakes become more dangerous, Shelby begins to question everything she has been told, even by her fugitive friend. Allies turn into enemies, and the truth is muddled by lies. Can she trust a traitor with her life, or will it be the last mistake she ever makes?

View Details >>

Ida, in Love and in Trouble

Veronica Chambers

For fans of Bridgerton and The Davenports comes a sweeping historical novel from bestselling author Veronica Chambers about courageous (and flirtatious) Ida B. Wells as she navigates society parties and society prejudices to become a civil rights crusader.

Before she became a warrior, Ida B. Wells was an incomparable flirt with a quick wit and a dream of becoming a renowned writer. The eldest child of newly freed parents who thrived in a community that pulsated with hope and possibility after the Civil War, Ida had a big heart, big ambitions, and even bigger questions: How to be a good big sister when her beloved parents perish in a yellow fever epidemic? How to launch her career as a teacher? How to make and keep friends in a society that seems to have no place for a woman who speaks her own mind? And - always top of mind for Ida - how to find a love that will let her be the woman she dreams of becoming?

Ahead of her time by decades, Ida B. Wells pioneered the field of investigative journalism with her powerful reporting on violence against African Americans. Her name became synonymous with courage and an unflinching demand for racial and gender equality. But there were so many facets to Ida Bell and critically acclaimed writer Veronica Chamber unspools her full and colorful life as Ida comes of age in the rapidly changing South, filled with lavish society parties and dances, swoon-worthy gentleman callers, and a world ripe for the taking.

View Details >>

Immortal Dark

Tigest Girma

"Entirely irresistible. Immortal Dark takes the best parts of vampire lore and brings the undying, violent enmity to full throttle. Tigest Girma pushes morally gray fantasy exactly where it needs to go, and you won't be able to look away." ―Chloe Gong, #1 New York Times bestselling author of These Violent Delights

The Cruel Prince meets Ninth House in this dangerously romantic dark academia fantasy, where a lost heiress must infiltrate an arcane society and live with the handsome vampire she suspects killed her family and kidnapped her sister. 

It began long before my time, but something has always hunted our family.

Orphaned heiress Kidan Adane grew up far from the arcane society she was born into, where human bloodlines gain power through vampire companionship. When her sister, June, disappears, Kidan is convinced a vampire stole her--the very vampire bound to their family, the cruel yet captivating Susenyos Sagad.

To find June, Kidan must infiltrate the elite Uxlay University--where students study to ensure peaceful coexistence between humans and vampires and inherit their family legacies. Kidan must survive living with Susenyos--even as he does everything he can to drive her away. It doesn't matter that Susenyos's wickedness speaks to Kidan's own violent nature and tempts her to surrender to a life of darkness. She must find her sister and kill Susenyos at all costs.

When a murder mirroring June's disappearance shakes Uxlay, Kidan sinks further into the ruthless underworld of vampires, risking her very soul. There she discovers a centuries-old threat--and June could be at the center of it. To save her sister, Kidan must bring Uxlay to its knees and either break free from the horrors of her own actions or embrace the dark entanglements of love--and the blood it requires.

View Details >>

The Girl I Am, Was, and Never Will Be

Shannon Gibney

A Michael L. Printz Award Honor Book
A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the 21st Century (So Far)

Part memoir, part speculative fiction, this novel explores the often surreal experience of growing up as a mixed-Black transracial adoptee.

Dream Country author Shannon Gibney returns with a new book woven from her true story of growing up as the adopted Black daughter of white parents and the fictional story of Erin Powers, the name Shannon was given at birth by the white woman who gave her up for adoption. 

At its core, the novel is a tale of two girls on two different timelines occasionally bridged by a mysterious portal and their shared search for a complete picture of their origins. Gibney surrounds that story with reproductions of her own adoption documents, letters, family photographs, interviews, medical records, and brief essays on the surreal absurdities of the adoptee experience.

The end result is a remarkable portrait of an American experience rarely depicted in any form.

View Details >>

To the Bone

Alena Bruzas

This gripping, shocking, and exquisitely crafted survival story reveals the truth of America's colonial history in a powerful new way—visceral and breathtaking.

After the long journey from England, Ellis arrives in America full of hope. James Fort is where a better life will begin for her: where she will work as an indentured servant to Henry Collins and his pregnant wife, gain financial security, and fall deeply in love with bold, glorious Jane Eddowes.

But as summer turns to fall, Ellis begins to notice the cracks in this new life—the viciousness of the colonists toward the Indigenous people and the terrifying anger Henry uses to control his wife and Ellis—leaving her to wonder if she has sentenced herself to a prison rather than a new home.

Then winter arrives and hunger grips the Fort. Ellis is about to learn that people will do whatever it takes to survive.

To the Bone is a riveting story of survival and horror that forcefully overturns the mythos of the American settler. It will stay with you, forever.

View Details >>

On the Bright Side

Anna Sortino

A hopeful novel about love, disability, and the inevitability of change by the author of Give Me a Sign.

“Poignant, romantic, and deeply heartfelt.” —Amber Smith, New York Times bestselling author of The Way I Used to Be

Ellie’s Deaf boarding school just shut down, forcing her to leave the place she considered home and return to her hearing family. But being mainstreamed into public school isn't exactly easy. So her guidance counselor pairs her with Jackson, a student who’s supposed to help her adjust. Can the boy who tries to say the right things, and gets it all wrong, be the lifeline Ellie needs?

Jackson has been avoiding his teammates ever since some numbness in his legs cost them an important soccer match. With his senior year off to a lonely start, he’s intrigued when he’s asked to help the new girl, initially thinking it will be a commendable move on his part. Little does he know Ellie will soon be the person he wants most by his side when the strange symptoms he’s experiencing amount to a life-changing diagnosis.

Exploring what it means to build community, Anna Sortino pens a story about the fear of the unknown and the beauty of the unexpected, all wrapped up in a poignant romance that will break your heart and put it back together again.

"Tender, honest, and utterly human." —Adib Khorram, award-winning author of Darius the Great Is Not Okay

View Details >>

Take a Sad Song

Ona Gritz

It's the summer of 1970, and 15-year-old Jane is still reeling from the death of her father. She starts partying to deal with her grief, but a frantic call from her mother leads to her arrest. Jane awaits her hearing with hope, but instead she is sentenced to a yearlong stay at the New York State Training School for Girls. She faces bullying and solitary confinement, and all seems lost. Then she's introduced to the Racket, an underground world of gender role-play, romantic relationships, and chosen families the inmates have created. She befriends and develops deep feelings for fellow inmate Jo-Jo, who shares her love of music. Jane comes to appreciate the complex lives of people she never would have gotten to know on the outside--but she knows that her new family can be taken away in an instant.

View Details >>

The Strange House (Manga) Vol. 1

Uketsu

Based on the hit novel, this series follows a chilling mystery about a house designed for murder--which is now a live-action movie!

I've always had a fascination with the occult; you might even call it my specialty. I've been brought in as a consultant on many supernatural and strange mysteries. But nothing could have prepared me for this house. It seemed so ordinary at first, except for that one room. It had no doors, no windows, and was tucked away, leaving anyone to think it was just a wall. I knew that there was something more to it. It shouldn't be there, it shouldn't exist, and yet...

Just what is this house, and what dark secrets does it hold?

View Details >>

Mr. Villain's Day Off 05

Yuu Morikawa

One evil supervillain spends most of his time hatching nefarious plots to take over the world--but on his days off, nothing gets between him and the cute pandas he adores! This fresh, charming comedy series answers the age-old question of what a villain does off the clock!

Even the heinous General, a member of the Evil League attacking Earth, can see that working overtime is inefficient! Leaving the office at a regular time is true righteousness! And after clocking out, one must revive their withered soul by watching videos of pandas and eating delicious food! But between a robot cat and a new leader shaking up the ranks of the Evil League, life is about to get a whole lot rowdier for one overburdened villain...

View Details >>

Saint? No! I'm Just a Passing Beast Tamer!, Vol. 3

Inumajin

Am I trendy with the "Am I popular now? fluff?! Being a Beast Tamer rules!!" With the goddess's curse lifted and the royal capital saved, Kanata and Zaggy have set off in search of adventure and fluff! Deep in the woods, they come across a pair of goblins about to make a meal of an adorably furry puppy. Kanata rescues the poor puffball with zero hesitation, but this is no ordinary beast--he's the legendary Spirit Wolf Fenrir, and he seems to be very familiar with Kanata! Will Zaggy be replaced as her most faithful follower?

View Details >>