Hooray, It’s Time for New Books!

From the delightful Philpott (you should really follow her on Twitter) comes a new humorous and heart-squeezing collection of essays about life and anxiety, family and love. She discusses how no matter how you worry or prepare, you never know what is going to happen. It’s based around an incident involving her teenage son that woke her in the middle of the night. In these relatable essays Philpott talks about how despite all the frightening unknowns in the world, we still have love and joy to keep us anchored. And we get to hear about her nature friend, Frank the Turtle. (That’s him on the cover!) Philpott is very funny, very wise, and a joy to spend time with. (CW for illness, child peril, health issues, pandemic talk, anxiety, death.)

Backlist bump: I Miss You When I Blink: Essays by Mary Laura Philpott

This compelling drama about two young people meeting in high school is inspired by Chinese mythology and Romeo and Juliet. (Which, tbh, is not a Shakespeare play I enjoy but I did love Pan’s last novel, so I had to read it anyway.) Hunter Yee and Luna Yang are two teens caught up in the lies and mistakes made by their families. They both feel misunderstood and despite the problems between their families, they are drawn to one another like moths to a flame, leading to a slightly magical and angsty romance, and an ending that will punch you in the heart. I will say that this is definitely a slow-burn of a book, but I think Pan is a wonderful writer. (CW for infidelity, illness, physical and emotional abuse, torture, violence.)

Backlist bump: The Astonishing Color of After by Emily X.R. Pan

This is a candid and heartbreaking memoir by actress Shannon, a Saturday Night Live alum. She opens up about the car accident that claimed the lives of family members when she was young, and how her grieving father, who was severely injured in the accident, was left to raise his children alone. Shannon explores how she was bitten by the acting bug at a young age and her journey to the most famous sketch comedy show in the world, with lots of great anecdotes about people she has worked with along the way. It’s a really honest and sweet story of her love for her father and for life, and the unexpected moments, good and bad, that make us who we are. (CW for car accident, injury and loss of a loved one, chemical dependency, trauma, grief, sexual harassment.)

This book was compared to I Know What You Did Last Summer, and I’ve been missing a good Lois Duncan-esque read, so I picked it up. And it is indeed a fun YA thriller, about a group of friends who may be being haunted by their best friend. Last year, Chelsea and her friends spent a week at a lake house for summer vacation. At the end of that week, Emily was dead.

Now it’s a year later and the friends have all been sent anonymous invitations back to the lake house, by someone claiming that one of them is a murderer. No one is particularly excited to go back and stir up the pain and grief of losing Emily, but they feel like they have no choice. As the story unfolds, we get more and more info about just what happened last summer. And as suspicions among the remaining friends grow, someone continues to toy with the friends. And as far as they can tell, it’s Emily herself. But…how? This is a fun, super-fast read with all the thrills of a horror movie and a resolution I didn’t see coming! (CW for infidelity, stalking, violence, murder, drowning, house fires, and animal death.)