August Young Adult and Middle Grade Roundup Our latest Young Adult and Middle Grade for August 2022 features nine new or relatively recently published titles. This time out we feature Lindsay Currie for the second month on the bounce with What Lives in the Woods, a terrific Middle Grade slow-burner, and you never know Lindsay may well return next month with another book. Finbar Hawkins also impressed me greatly with his second novel Stone (we also reviewed his great debut Witch) in an earthy tale of grief and magic which bridges Middle Grade and YA. It was also great to read a novel with a boy as a main character as they truly are becoming endangered species and this is the only one of these nine books reviewed to have a male narrative, which is a fairly shocking statistic but a definite trend in newly published YA fiction, which we have highlighted in previous roundups. Tag You’re Dead is the third enjoyable page-turning thriller on the bounce from Kathryn Foxfield and Rebecca Barrow’s Bad Things Happen Here is in the same ballpark. I love discovering new authors and devoured Go Hunt Me by Kelly Devos, an outstanding horror thriller with lots of cool nods to horror films. Kelly has another couple of books I am definitely going to read and so she is sure to reappear in future roundups. I have read most of Melinda Salisbury’s novels and her latest Her Dark Wings is a strange spin on the Persephone myth set on a remote island, with its own weird traditions and beliefs, close to the Underworld. The last two books have been out for a while and I was delighted to catch up with Our Crooked Hearts by Melissa Albert, we reviewed her debut The Hazel Wood a few years ago and was another impressive dark fantasy about modern day witches, grudges and cross-generational curses. Only a Monster was the impressive dark time travel urban fantasy debut from Vanessa Len when a teenage girl realises her family are monsters and that the ‘hero’ of the hero is out to get her, but by sucking the life force of others is able to jump through time and hide. Bring on the sequel! We will be back with another roundup in September. Meantime, if you have anything you think we might like get in touch. The books are presented in alphabetical order. Melissa Albert – Our Crooked HeartsWe reviewed Melissa Albert’s debut dark fantasy novel The Hazel Wood back in 2018, which she followed with a sequel and a collection of short stories, Our Crooked Hearts is a standalone novel. There are some similarities between the two works in that both have connections to dark supernatural worlds and deal with mother, daughter and complex family relationships which are dominated more with what is not said, rather than what is. Our Crooked Hearts was an intriguing dark fantasy drama which branched into witchcraft, curses and the occult and was a slow burner which will be enjoyed by older teens as it had an unhurried pace and kept the supernatural storyline on the backburner as the plot was slowly unpeeled over two mother/daughter plotlines told twenty years apart. This was one of those dramas which was full of secrets, lies, very bad choices, undiscovered magic and inherited family power. Much of the supernatural stuff was very subtlety handled and if you are after a loud witchy book with explosions and magic wand cliches then look elsewhere. The story opens with seventeen-year-old Ivy contemplating dumping her boyfriend whilst driving home from a party when they nearly run over a nude young woman. This is the beginning of a series of odd occurrences including a dead rabbit in the driveway and her finding weird stuff in the house which points to her mother and triggers complex family memories. Dana (the mother) had Ivy when she was only twenty years old and the second story flicks back to Chicago (1990s) before she was born and slowly the two twenty year apart stories begin to connect together via the nude girl, with the sins of the mother coming home to roost. Of course, it is clear to the reader that the apple does not fall far from the tree and Ivy and Dana are remarkably similar. There was a lot going on amongst the family drama, including clever characterisation, subtle twists, well developed supernatural ideas and a convincing teen love story. For thoughtful teen readers everywhere. AGE RANGE 13/14+ Rebecca Barrow – Bad Things Happen Here |
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