Hey YA Readers!
I was down for almost a week with a brutal case of food poisoning and let me tell you, being back upright and able to do things like read is so, so nice. You forget how much you miss a thing you love until you just cannot do it.
Now that we’re in June and we continue to see book bans raging at schools and public libraries across the U.S., we’ll be spending this month highlighting queer YA as much as possible. More later in the newsletter.
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Bookish Goods
Read Diverse Books Bookmark by SelfCareMysteryBoxes
You will want to click the image to see it bigger, but this pro-diverse books bookmark is a beaut. $5.
New Releases
This week is a GEM with new releases, so narrowing my picks down to two was not easy. You can grab the entire roundup of new hardcover YA books over here. We’ll highlight two paperbacks on Thursday, per usual.
The Library of Broken Worlds by Alaya Dawn Johnson
Within the tunnels beneath the Library — the one place where peace reigns among three different kingdoms — there is a secret waiting to take down society. Freida has the power to to uncover it, though, as the daughter of a Library god and her knowledge of the vast network of tunnels…and gods.
Things get more complicated when Frieda meets two individuals desperate to save themselves and their communities from persecution and destruction. She wants to help them, but to do puts her into danger and into parts of the underground tunnels she’s never explored before.
When she comes face-to-face with an ancient war god, Frieda knows she needs to destroy him before he takes down everyone else.
Ride or Die by Gail-Agnes Musikavanhu
The cover for this one is everything, isn’t it? It reminds me of Your Driver Is Waiting, another outstanding cover.
Loli Crawford and Ryan Pope have been trouble-making besties since kindergarten and that reputation has not changed throughout high school.
While they both love danger and chaos, it’s Loli who is the instigator. So when the pair decide to throw the wildest party their school’s ever seen and Loli meets a stranger boy who goes by the name X, she’s challenged to a game. Of course she’s up for it, even if it might test even her limits of thrills and danger.
As Loli and X continue to challenge one another, everything is at stake. Their lives, of course, and also Loli’s best friendship with Ryan.
For a more comprehensive list of new releases, check out our New Books newsletter.
A Rainbow of Queer YA
Would you call a rainbow of queer books a Pride? I plan to. Here are seven new queer YA novels that make up a rainbow of book covers, with a little bit of everything in terms of genre. Given that the last several years have been nonstop in terms of book challenges and bans, the bulk of which focus on queer (and BIPOC) books, this month’s YA newsletter spots will focus exclusively on all things queer YA.
The Minus-One Club by Kekla Magoon
Kermit knows what it is to grieve. He’s 15, and he’s lost his sister to a car accident and nothing can pause those immense feelings of loss.
When he gets a mysterious invitation at school, signed with a “-1,” he decides to take a chance and show up. It turns out to be a group of students of all backgrounds who’ve lost someone close to them. It’s a supportive space, and it’s one where Kermit begins to find himself and allow himself to get close to Matt. Matt is the only openly gay student at school and his gregarious nature is magnetizing to Kermit.
But as Kermit falls harder, Matt’s truth begins to crack open more and more, potentially putting both of them in danger.
Monstersona by Chloe Spencer
This one is pitched as Thelma and Louise meets Godzilla, y’all. I feel like leaving it at that, but I’ll give you more.
Riley’s parents have divorced and she’s forced to move from Portland, Oregon, to small town Little Brook, Maine. Little Brook is home to Titan Technologies, an international tech lab.
The night of the school’s homecoming game, Riley wakes up to a town on fire and she and her dog plop into their truck to flee town. As they’re leaving, they run into the only other person in town who seems to have survived: Aspen, a classmate that Riley’s been observing (/slash crushing on?). When they get to safety, they realize things are even worse than they seem, and every Titan Tech lab across the eastern seaboard has been attacked.
Riley and Aspen do what makes sense: road trip back to Riley’s hometown of Portland in hopes of safe escape.
But Aspen may not be who she seems…
Teach the Torches to Burn by Caleb Roehrig (August 22)
This is Romeo & Juliet but A WHOLE LOT QUEERER.
Venom & Vow by Anna-Marie McLemore and Elliott McLemore
Transgender prince Cade is doubling for his brother while also vowing to protect Gael, an infamous boy assassin. Prince Gael plans to destroy Patrick, who is not interested in being heir to a kingdom. Add to the mix Valencia, a dama who attends to the future Eliana queen.
Gael and Valencia are the same person. Valencia, in her battles against Patrick, is actually battling Cade. So when Valencia and Cade are blaming each other for what’s happening with their families, they’re unaware just what is at stake for themselves and the kingdom itself.
Enemy kingdoms + curse breaking + being forced to work together? It sounds like a queerly good/devastating time.
Chasing Pacquiao by Rod Pulido
What happens when someone you look up to lets you down by declaring people like you are less than human? That’s a big part of this story, which follows a queer teen named Bobby who wants nothing more than to graduate high school safely.
Bobby’s school is notoriously violent, and he knows that being openly queer would make him the perfect target. This is made more true by the fact is Filipino community does not easily accept people like him. But when he’s outed without permission, Bobby realizes being quiet and unprepared is no longer an option. He turns to take up boxing in order to prepare himself were he to be in a fight.
Bobby looks up to champion Filipino boxer Manny Pacquiao. Pacquiao is his inspiration in all ways: he helps Bobby keep going when things get too hard. But then Pacquiao publicly declares that he does not support queer people, leaving Bobby wounded beyond words.
So where does he turn now?
Take a Bow, Noah Mitchell by Tobias Madden
Noah Mitchell is 17 and a gamer (gaymer!). He doesn’t have a whole lot of friends offline, but he’s got a very close one in his gaming community with someone who goes by the identity MagePants69. Noah wants to meet them in person so bad, knowing they’d be true soulmates. Although Noah doesn’t know everything about MagePants69, he’s convinced that MagePants69 is performing at a local community theater. So Noah does what anyone who is smitten would do: sign up to be part of the community theater, even though it is so outside of his comfort zone.
But Noah’s plan to make MagePants69 fall in love? It’s going to be much harder than he thought.
The Dos and Donuts of Love by Adiba Jaigirdar (out today!)
Shireen Malik might be mourning the breakup she’s had with Chris, but it’s not prolonged once she learns that she’s been accepted as a contestant on a new teen baking competition television show. Not only is Shireen stoked for the potential prize money but it’ll also bring attention to her family’s donut shop.
But you know this isn’t going to be easy.
See, Chris is also a contestant on the show.
And Shireen is starting to become close with the good-looking Niamh, first as friends and then as maybe something more.
Can she keep her eyes on the prize and avoid sabotage to win the competition? Or will love take all?
As always, thanks for hanging out. We’ll see you later this week for your YA paperback releases and YA news.
Until then, happy reading!
–Kelly Jensen, currently reading the nonfiction book Hey Hun on audio because messy MLM stories are so my jam.