Author: Tirzah Price

In the small town of Springville, GA, things are done the way they’ve always been done…including hosting separate proms rather than integrate them. Maddy Washington is a loner in Springville, and she tries to fly under the radar, but when an unexpected rainstorm reveals that she’s been passing as white her entire life, the school is in an uproar. And when the bullying hits the Internet, it’s time to change their image. Cue: the school’s first integrated prom. The white teen in charge of it even gets the idea to have her boyfriend, who is Black, invite Maddy as his date to show the world they’re not as racist as everyone thinks. But Maddy has been told what to do her entire life, and when prom night starts to go wrong, she finally comes into her own terrifying power.

This book is an obvious homage to Stephen King’s Carrie and there are a lot of parallels between the story, characters, and events, but whether you’re a King fan or unfamiliar with King’s classic, this book really does stand on its own. The characters are compelling, and Jackson does a really great job at encapsulating the mental gymnastics many go through to justify upholding the past, while also showing how many characters have learned to adapt in order to survive in Springville. It takes some truly unexpected twists and turns, with some gratifying moments and some horrifying ones, and it left me wondering how on earth everything would be resolved. It’s not a book for the faint of heart, but it is a fascinating look at small town tensions and what happens when everything reaches a boiling point. Unlike White Smoke, this book doesn’t have a lot of sustained suspense or scary moments, but it has an incredible amount of tension that has you hurdling to an explosive ending!

Sue loves drawing and comics, and wishes she could be spending her summer break on a camping trip with her friends instead of traveling to Honduras to visit her family with her parents and two sisters. Once in Honduras, she learns of a shocking betrayal: Despite telling her mom she doesn’t want a quinceañera, Mom secretly already sent out the invites and the event is happening. Sue begrudgingly agrees to it…in exchange for her mom letting her go camping when they get home. But Sue soon finds herself in over her head with the planning, and none of the ultra-feminine traditions really resonate. How is she supposed to survive all this party planning when none of it is her style?

I really enjoyed Sue’s story, and I could definitely relate to her feelings of feeling excluded or not listened to when she discovered that her mother had gone ahead with the party planning against her wishes. The author does a great job setting Sue up to be a really sympathetic reader to characters — you start out thinking, How dare her mom do that! But Fajardo slowly peels back the layers of the story and family dynamic so that readers see how important this tradition is to her extended family, and how it is especially important to her mom because they live so far away from Honduras. And Sue, with her special relationship with her abuela, also really wants to make them happy, even if she’s not the kind of girl who gets excited about a big party. While it’s not a case of magically changing her mind, Sue does understand the value of tradition and family connection, while also lending your own flair to these traditions. It’s a sweet and funny story about family, and learning to find your place in family tradition.

Dylan has just made contact with her father and has decided to skip school and hop on a train to meet him for the first time, against her mother’s wishes. She’s on the train when she awakes to an empty car and a bleak landscape — the train has crashed, and she is now in the afterlife. That’s when she meets Tristan, a brusque ferryman meant to guide her across this terrain and into the afterlife. Along the way there are wraiths and lost spirits, formed by Dylan’s fears and lost dreams, and the journey will be treacherous. But despite her many questions and fears, Dylan finds herself falling for Tristan, and Tristan is intrigued by the first human to stir emotion in him in a very long time. But when Dylan begins to ask impossible questions and look for another path, her future in the afterlife is no longer certain.

I was intrigued by the gorgeous U.S. cover, but there’s a lot more to this novel than just an interesting set up. I really enjoyed Dylan’s struggle to accept her mortality and all its implications, and her fascination with Tristan and his peculiar job. Their relationship was deftly written, and while the idea of falling for an immortal ferryman might be a bit of a stretch for most people, in this book it just made sense. The author does a great job of balancing dual points of view and the past and present to tell not only Dylan’s story, but Tristan’s as well. And even though the ending seems inevitable from the beginning, this book genuinely left me wondering what would happen next, and eager to find out. It’s a romantic page-turner with an unexpected twist and lots of heartfelt emotion and bravery, and you’ll definitely want the sequel on hand when you finish!

Cassie is a college senior who has no interest in hanging around campus for Family Weekend, so she finds herself in an off, off campus bar where she flirts with a very beautiful older woman. One thing leads to another, and they have a hot hookup that should be a one and done deal…but the next day Cassie is shocked when she’s invited to breakfast with her new friend, a college freshman…and her mom turns out to be Cassie’s one night stand.

Erin didn’t mean to hookup with a younger woman, and she’s horrified to realize that her daughter is friends with Cassie. She resolves to put the whole situation behind her…but the more she gets to know Cassie, the harder it is to stay away. But how can they have a real relationship after all this clandestine action?

I loved Meryl Wilsner’s debut novel, Something to Talk About, so I was super excited to read their next book and this one surpassed all expectations. Not only is it fun and super sexy, but it is a thoughtful take on relationship age gaps and what society views as permissible. (To be clear, Cassie is 23 while Erin is 39 so nothing is illegal or icky on that count.) Cassie and Erin have an electric connection and it goes beyond the physical element to a deeply emotional connection, which they’re both reluctant to admit and explore, but when they do they find something that shocks them: the chance at a genuine connection and happiness. I loved that this book starts off as a sexy one-night stand and turns into a heartfelt romance about two people learning to take a chance on love and be brave in the face of judgement or others’ opinions. It’s also a great book about found family and learning to embrace those who accept you, even if the relationships might look unconventional. Definitely pick this one up if you want a sapphic romance with heat and heart.

Alex Easton, a sworn soldier now in retirement, has just received word that their childhood friend Madeline Usher is gravely ill. They rush to the Usher ancestral home, a forlorn estate crumbling into ruin in rural Ruritania. There, Alex finds that not only is Madeline consumed by some peculiar wasting disease, but her brother Roderick is afflicted with a nervous condition and the local wildlife behaves very strangely. Alex also discovers a redoubtable English mycologist conducting research nearby (yes, there’s creepy mushrooms in this one), and an American doctor who is baffled by the whole situation. Time is not on their side as Alex tries to get to the bottom of what’s really going on.

Alex’s voice is delightful in this book — they’re a bit playful and humorous in how they recount their history and relate details of their world, keeping the book from being overly somber even as some really dark and serious events unfold. I loved their encounters with the various colorful characters, and how Kingfisher situates this novel in European history, giving enough clues to place the book in time while also being vague enough to play fast and loose with some details. The details of the plot and the setting are just peculiar enough to create a sense of unease, but when things take a turn they really get foreboding! This may be a brief book but it’s unforgettable and let’s just say I’ll never look at hares the same way again!

Maeve is an Irish teenager going to a Catholic school, and she’s not the best at school. One day, during detention, she finds a deck of tarot cards and teaches herself how to give readings. Finally, this is something she’s good at, and she even comes up with a nice little side hustle giving readings to her classmates. But when she reads the cards for her ex-best friend Lily, she draws a terrifying card she’s never seen before: the Housekeeper. Then, Lily disappears the next day. Maeve is alarmed, and she can’t help but feel guilty and somehow responsible when she learns that Lily was last seen with a tall, dark-haired woman bearing a striking resemblance to the Housekeeper card. Maeve teams up with Lily’s sibling and a new friend to get down to the bottom of this magical mystery, and get Lily back.

I loved the creepy vibes of this book, which has a light mystery element to it, but is mostly a witchy read about realizing the extent of your power and wielding it responsibly. I loved that Maeve is a teenager who isn’t conventionally good at school and often feels out of place as the youngest child of a big family with siblings who are all a lot older than her. She has insecurities and doubts, and those feed into her budding powers. Her journey is all about learning to come into her own powers, owning up to her actions, and facing her mistakes. There is also a delightful queer romance at the heart of this book, and some really interesting local history, with an all-too-real villain in the form of a far-right Christian conservative group. All of the elements came together really well, and while this book is set in spring and not in fall, it feels like a perfectly atmospheric and witchy book for October. Bonus: The sequel is excellent, too!

I defy anyone to look at this book and not be a little curious — it’s an audacious title, and the vintage inspired cover strikes the perfect balance. For those who don’t know who the heck Jennette McCurdy even is: McCurdy was a child actor who mostly got bit and guest roles in TV shows and movies until at age fourteen she was cast as Sam Puckett in the Nickelodeon TV show iCarly. If you are a young millennial or Gen Z, there’s a good chance you grew up watching her play the spunky best friend and then later star in her own show (alongside Ariana Grande before she hit it big.

In this memoir, which is told in short vignettes that are recounted chronologically, we learn that McCurdy was brought up in a deeply dysfunctional Mormon family in Southern California, one that barely managed to make ends meet until her acting paychecks came in. Her mom was ambitious, overbearing, emotionally unhealthy, a hoarder, and a cancer survivor. She wanted Jennette to have the life she always wanted, and Jennette wanted to make her mom happy, so she agreed to start acting and let her mom push her into these roles. Gradually, as she entered her teen years, she realized just how deeply dysfunctional her mom’s actions really were but, in denial, she went along with it until her mom’s cancer came back and she died when Jennette was 21. That was where the true work began of trying to sort through the tangle of emotions and destructive coping mechanisms Jennette had picked up from a young age as she slowly steered herself toward recovery.

Despite the title, for much of the book Jennette isn’t glad her mom died — she grows up terrified that she’ll succumb to cancer, and she’s devastated when her mother finally does pass. With a dry sense of humor, Jennette shows readers just how eager she was to please her mom, and how the entire family would get twisted up in her schemes. In many ways, Jennette was trapped and it took her mom dying to break free of both the mental and emotional abuse, but also the rigid way of thinking that had kept her compliant for so long. This is a deeply emotional, very uncomfortable, and yet very heartfelt memoir about the dangers of parental ambition in Hollywood, learning to break free of bad systems, and figuring out how to get help. It’s also really funny — sometimes awkwardly so. After all, it’s not everyone that can say they’re glad their mom died.

Set in 2001 in the small town of Durton, some seven hours west of Sydney, this story follows the lives of the small community when twelve-year-old Esther disappears while walking home from school. The people in her life, from her best friends to parents to parents’ friends, are all shocked and dismayed that something so alarming could happen in their town, but as two investigators from Sydney show up and begin peeling back the layers of their community and its secrets, the citizens of “Dirt Town” will find that there is far more lurking beneath the surface than they thought… When Esther’s best friend Ronnie decides to investigate the disappearance herself, it will have life-changing consequences that no one could have foreseen.

I really enjoyed this book because it reminded me of the intriguing mysteries and procedurals of Jane Harper’s work, which tends to focus in on small communities and long-held secrets, but Scrivenor’s writing has a slightly more literary bent to it. The book is told from the point of view of the investigators, one of whom is a lesbian suffering a recent break up, and from the many townspeople of Durton, including Esther’s friends. It also features a Greek chorus of the townspeople, which offer some of the most elegant and haunting perspectives on the mystery. The entire book unfolds over the course of a single summer weekend, winding between perspectives and timelines to build a puzzling mystery that suggests more than one person is responsible for a variety of crimes in Durton—but how are they all linked? The ending was bittersweet but emotionally satisfying, and I know that I would happily pick up anything else she writes! If you like small town crime mysteries, procedurals, or mysteries that are less about flash and more about mining emotional depths of a very particular place, this is a great read for you.

You might know Lindy West from her searing and hilarious essays about culture and politics, or her adaptation of Shrill, but before she wrote about serious topics, she used to be a film critic. (Her take on Love Actually has made the Internet rounds for years!) In this book, she returns to those roots in a hilarious and irreverent review of a truly random selection of movies—everything from The Fugitive (the only good movie, apparently) to American Pie, Titanic to Lion King. Her commentary is hilarious and she gives enough of a recap so even if you haven’t seen the movie, it doesn’t matter! Just enjoy the ride.

I will say that I think this book will probably appeal most to millennials—most of the movies West focuses on are big hits from the 90’s and early 2000’s, when she was a young adult, and the essays manage to balance a hint of nostalgia with some appropriate reflection and also a healthy dose of calling out problematic material. But even when she’s pointing out problematic tropes, toxic masculinity, racism, and other questionable elements, these essays are still fun and they delight in the absurdity, making this a surprisingly reflective and insightful book about society and the movies that influenced us! I also found myself excited to turn to a new chapter to see what movie she’d tackle next. Bonus: Lindy reads the audiobook, and as always with her work, you want that experience!

Hani and Ishu are the only two Bengali girls in their Irish (and Catholic to boot) girls’ school. As a result, everyone thinks they should be friends, but that’s not really the case. Hani hangs with a popular crowd and Ishu is bent on studying to succeed and please her parents. But when Hani comes out as bisexual to her friends, and they don’t believe her, she makes up a girlfriend to prove her identity is valid…and then assigns the girlfriend status to Ishu.

Luckily for Hani, Ishu has her sights set on being Head Girl, which is as much of a popularity contest as it about perfect grades. And Hani can help get Ishu in with her friends, so they launch a fake dating scheme, complete with real rules, and soon find that rules can’t keep their feelings safe when opposites attract.

There is so much to love about this book—a fun grumpy/sunshine dynamic, a fake dating scheme that feels plausible, and two really heartfelt characters who are also dealing with major things in their personal lives. One thing I really admire about Jaigirdar’s writing is she manages a really nice balance of funny, rom-com writing with exploration of deeper and much more serious topics, such as family estrangement, microaggressions, bigotry, Islamophobia, and homophobia. (Heads up for all those things, although I will say the book doesn’t feel super dark.) The balance makes the book feel very real, and it also shows readers that you can be facing these very hard things, but you still deserve a romance and a happily ever after. The dialogue is funny and smart, and I love that the author shows us different layers of the Irish Bengali community.

Bonus: The audiobook is really sweet and very well done! Another bonus: Read Jaigirdar’s debut novel The Henna Wars if you love this one, and keep an eye out for her new book out this winter, A Million to One, which is a Titanic heist story!