In this laugh-out-loud horror adventure, 16-year-old twins Soren and Eira must get their cardio game on-point if they hope to survive the zombie apocalypse that’s descending upon a small Alaskan town. Deciding to strike out on their own away from their fundamentalist parents (who don’t know that both siblings are queer), Soren and Eira leave their prepper family’s remote homestead. Upon their arrival to the nearest town, Marion Gap, the sisters discover it has been ripped apart by zombies. The only survivor seems to be their friend Racer, a Special Olympics gold medalist who has his work cut out for him in training the twins to outrun and outpace the infected hordes. As the trio attempt to make sense of this new and ravaged world, they venture out in search of help and community amid the collapse of society and find like-minded (and not-so-like-minded) survivors. Fans of zombies and comedic horror novels will find a lot to enjoy here; snappy prose by Mac (Wildfire) drives the subversive plot at a brisk clip, bouncing from place to place and introducing new and intriguing characters while maintaining focus on the girls’ catalyzing plight. Though the ending is somewhat abrupt, the emotional punch it delivers is well earned. Main characters read as white. Ages 14–up. Agent: Jess Regel, Helm Literary. (Aug.)

Reviewed on 05/31/2024 | Details & Permalink

In an exhilarating thriller reminiscent of The Descent, Urban (Lying in the Deep) follows four teens who find themselves fighting for their lives in the catacombs of Paris while on a class trip abroad. When Ruby arrives in the city, her best friend Val quickly befriends a mysterious French boy who invites Val to a party deep within the catacombs. Believing that this exclusive view of the underground site will provide great content for her burgeoning YouTube channel, Ruby—as well as friends Selena and Olivia—tags along. But they soon become lost and stranded—and a group of skull-masked, knife-wielding strangers starts pursuing them. As media attention surrounding the girls’ disappearance unfolds topside, classmate Sean, who’s in love with Ruby, struggles to piece together information to help exhume her from the vast necropolis before it’s too late. Without sacrificing nuanced character relationships, Urban utilizes propulsive prose to imbue the fascinating setting with haunting atmosphere. Punchy dialogue, drum-tight pacing, and tense stakes permeate this nail-biting adventure, a delight from start to finish. Protagonists read as white. Ages 14–up. (Aug.)

Reviewed on 05/31/2024 | Details & Permalink

King (Attack of the Black Rectangles) delivers a searing, surreal novel about toxic relationships and systemic abuse. Since the Covid pandemic began, Jane Vandermaker-Cook has been homeschooled by her dictatorial father, Vernon. After banning electronics and music from their “pristine Victorian prison” home in West Philadelphia, Vernon purports that Jane’s mother, celebrated punk musician Mina Placenta, is a murderous, unloving “witch”; when she’s not touring, he isolates Mina using an elaborate system of pneumatic tubes within the house to restrict her physical and social interactions. Now 16, Jane covertly accesses decades of security camera footage that undermines Vernon’s accusations, compelling her to rally for both her mother’s freedom and her own. Metaphors for the entrapment of women in situations that foster abuse crystallize in an actual system of fabricated tubes, underground stations, and spider-webbing truths that Jane processes by composing a mobilizing, original punk opera. Helmed by Jane’s penetrating commentary, this unconventional narrative melds punk anthems and bewildering interludes from a shape-shifting rat with King’s quirky blend of present-day issues and mind-bending twists to unlock complex, thought-provoking insight. The Vandermaker-Cooks read as white. Ages 14–up. Agent: Michael Bourret, Dystel, Goderich & Bourret. (Sept.)

Reviewed on 05/31/2024 | Details & Permalink

Two teens are the only survivors of a shipwreck in this swashbuckling fantasy from Coats (Spindle and Dagger). After years of fighting, countries Ariminthia, a monarchy, and Dura, a democracy, are on the verge of peace. Delegations from both nations are preparing to sign a treaty aboard the Burying Ground, a ship anchored in neutral waters, when a storm destroys the vessel. Cora, daughter of a Duran journalist, and Vivienne, lady’s maid to an Ariminthian princess, have a tense encounter upon washing up on the same uninhabited island, but the girls call a truce after evading capture by pirates and discover that much of what they’ve been told about the war and their enemies is false. Both resolve to advocate for amity going forward. Their determination is tested, however, when their Ariminthian rescuers blame Cora for the disaster and expect Vivienne to testify against her. Chapters following a Duran covert operative are woven amid Cora and Vivienne’s alternating narration. While survival initially comes too easy for the marooned duo and Vivienne at first lacks Cora’s complexity, patient readers will be rewarded with shocking reveals and conniving court intrigue. Most characters cue as white. Ages 14–up. Agent: Ammi-Joan Paquette, Erin Murphy Literary. (Sept.)

Reviewed on 05/31/2024 | Details & Permalink

In 1927, 17-year-old Gertie Pound lives a cloistered existence in Washington Female Seminary, learning to be a proper society lady by day and sneaking out to speakeasies with her best friends and classmates Milly Otis and Clara Blum by night. Though Gertie’s family expects nothing more from her future than a rich and well-connected marriage, young and unconventional headmistress Mrs. Rose pushes Gertie to question societal expectations and examine what she wants out of life. But when Mrs. Rose is found dead under suspicious circumstances, the society rumor mill churns with speculation about her mysterious and potentially scandalous past. Seeking to clear her mentor’s name and prevent the seminary from shutting down, Gertie and her friends launch their own investigation, which plunges them deep into the seedy underbelly of Prohibition-era Washington, D.C. Talley (The Love Curse of Melody McIntyre) examines intense queer longing and self-discovery through a well-realized jaunt into Gilded Era high society, juxtaposing suffocatingly stiff etiquette with an undercurrent of misogyny and homophobia. Though twists occasionally feel underdeveloped, tender explorations of Gertie’s burgeoning awareness of her queer identity drive this glitzy murder mystery. Characters cues as white; Clara is Jewish. Ages 14–up. Agents: Jim McCarthy, Dystel, Goderich & Bourret. (Sept.)

Reviewed on 05/31/2024 | Details & Permalink

After three miserable years attending boarding school, 17-year-old Brodie McKellon is back in her small town of Warwick, where she’s known as the McKellon Felon for being a “wild child with a bad rep.” She’s thrilled to reunite with her beloved grandmother and childhood neighbor Elliot; she’s less thrilled to see Levi, her infuriatingly handsome former friend and current enemy. Now that she’s returned, she can focus on figuring out who stole the supposedly magical Adder Stone from the local museum and clear her name of the crime that led to her and Levi’s falling out. She’s also eager to investigate the identities of the three teenagers who lived in the town 20 years ago whose letters she acquired from her family’s Mail Redistribution Center. As Brodie learns more about Warwick and the people who inhabit it—and as secrets past and present intersect—she must navigate conflicting feelings about Levi. A lack of geographic and cultural specificity regarding Warwick and the surrounding locale somewhat dampen the emotional impact brought about by Brodie’s inquiry into its history, making for a meandering tale by Australian author Draper (Museum of Broken Things). Main characters read as white. Ages 13–up. Agent: Annabel Barker, Annabel Barker Agency. (Aug.)

Reviewed on 05/31/2024 | Details & Permalink

Prendergast (Aftershock) chronicles the epic adventure of two white-cued foster brothers trying to survive a natural disaster in this intense climate drama. For the past three years following his parents’ deaths in a car accident and his grandfather’s refusal to become his guardian, 17-year-old Zack has been living with kindly foster parents the Tates, who help him manage his ADHD. Zack’s relative peace is disrupted by the arrival of 14-year-old Peter. Having been removed from his neglectful parents’ care, Peter struggles adjusting to his new circumstance, an experience that’s further complicated by his fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, which he says “makes him slow to learn. And clumsy. And sometimes he makes bad choices.” During a rainstorm, Peter runs away, prompting the Tates to search for him, leaving Zack alone at home. When Peter returns without their foster parents, the two boys must journey together to safety after the town levee breaks. Though Zack and Peter continuously clash over the course of this harrowing read, their growing bond and mutual realization that they are stronger together than apart emphasizes the simple messaging of this brief story about family. Ages 12–up. (Aug.)

Reviewed on 05/31/2024 | Details & Permalink

With a quirky blend of history and the paranormal, Savaryn (The Edge of In Between) plumbs the depths of familial relationships and the lengths to which people will go to live their truth in this tender ghost story. All their lives, 12-year-old fraternal twins Maddie and Nat Maverick, who read as white, have done everything together, including wearing matching Halloween costumes, sharing secrets, and appearing on their family’s YouTube channel, Wrecked to Decked, where their parents upload videos of them flipping eerie dilapidated houses. The only thing they don’t share is a birthday—one twin was born on October 31, the other on November 1. When their nana dies, the girls discover a new commonality: they have each inherited Nana’s ability to communicate with ghosts. As their parents endeavor to renovate Signalman’s Cottage in the small town of Hush, residents prepare for the once-every-13-years reenactment of the train disaster that put them on the map, and Maddie and Nat attempt to navigate their newfound gifts to aid the ghosts of the decades-old wreck. While first-person narration by Maddie sometimes reads as too mature, her interactions with others, particularly Nat, ring true in this life-lesson-laden adventure-drama. Ages 8–12. (Aug.)

Reviewed on 05/31/2024 | Details & Permalink

When strangers Hans and Nils arrive in 11-year-old Rolf’s town of Heroldsberg, Germany, in 1929, Rolf senses something sinister about the pair and their group, the Hitler Youth. Rolf’s older brother Romer, however, quickly falls in with them; at the same time, townsfolk are similarly ensnared by the youths’ speeches promising a better Germany. Soon, Hitler Youth begin targeting Jewish storefronts and Rolf and his friend witness the attack of a Jewish business owner. They’re horrified by this act of violence but even more so by the lack of help provided by the members of their community. When Romer leaves the family to join the Nazi Party, Rolf and his father attempt to find him at Hitler’s rally in nearby Nuremburg. It is there that Rolf realizes, “When things are bad, someone must be blamed. And if you had power, you could blame anyone you wanted.” Via heated arguments between Romer and his father, Spradlin (Close Calls) provides context for WWI’s impact on Germany and the resulting hopelessness and economic hardship. It all coalesces into a thoughtful reflection— a series launch—on the rise of evil that will have readers drawing parallels to the current political climate. Ages 8–12. (Sept.)

Reviewed on 05/31/2024 | Details & Permalink

As the only child of the superintendent, Roya Alborzi doubts that anyone knows more about the residents and history of their Brooklyn apartment complex on Ocean Parkway than she does. The intrepid 11-year-old, an aspiring investigative journalist, helps her mother maintain the building and hones her observational acumen by reporting the daily goings-on for the 47 (mostly Danish) subscribers of her secret podcast, The Queen of Ocean Parkway, while avoiding the subject of her science teacher father’s colon cancer. After overhearing tenants Stefanie Turner and her wife Katya Petrov discussing Katya’s family curse and the fortune tied to it, Roya is intrigued—and then alarmed when Katya vanishes 24 hours later. Stefanie explains that Katya’s great-grandfather built a Coney Island fortune-telling attraction called Grandmother’s Predictions that is linked to decades of mysterious Petrov disappearances. With the help of shy and studious new tenant Amin Lahiri, Roya vows to find Katya and uncover the truth behind the Petrov family curse. Dusted with speculative elements, this cozy and surprising mystery by Tash (A Whole Song and Dance) features appealing and perceptively drawn characters coping with genuinely wrought emotions in a vivid setting. The cast is intersectionally diverse. Ages 8–12. Agent: Molly Ker Hawn, Bent Agency. (Sept.)

Reviewed on 05/31/2024 | Details & Permalink