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Tag: YA

Review: For a Muse of Fire, Heidi Heilig

Some of you may recall Heidi Heilig from her previous duology, TIME TRAVELING PIRATES (also known as The Girl from Everywhere and The Ship Beyond Time), and she has returned with a whole new series that won my heart before I ever began it by including music and script pages and letters as well as the straightforward narrative. For a Muse of Fire is about a girl called Jetta whose family is the most renowned troupe of shadow players in Chakrana. She and her parents hope to use their art to gain passage on a boat to Aquitan, where it…

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Mariam Sharma Hits the Road, Sheba Karim

The short version of this review is that Mariam Sharma Hits the Road is a gem and a treasure that I want to hug very hard directly in its face. Did y’all know about Sheba Karim and not tell me? Is that the situation? Because it’s very hurtful if so. When Mariam’s friend Ghaz ends up on a sexy billboard in Times Square, Mariam and their third BFF Umar come up with a scheme to rescue her from her furious, abusive parents: They take her on a road trip to New Orleans, where this year’s Islamic Association of North America…

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Review: The Summer of Jordi Perez, Amy Spalding

Well LOOK, since Hollywood is évidemment out of the business of making teen rom-coms or even, it seems, rom-coms whatsoever, at least thank the Lord for YA authors stepping into the breach. In a world where the news is the news and nobody has yet financed a Man from U.N.C.L.E. sequel, at least I got to read Amy Spalding’s new YA novel The Summer of Jordi Perez (and the Best Burger in Los Angeles), the cutest sweetest teen rom-com that I have laid my eyes on since When Dimple Met Rishi. Abby knows that she’s a sidekick. Queer fat girls…

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January YA Round-Up

Here’s what happened in January: I had to wear this neck brace that made it impossible to ever sit comfortably. In part because of this, I was very, very cranky in the month of January.1 Every time I thought about going out and doing something, I’d be like “ugh I’m too cranky for that so instead I will stay home and read and that will cheer me up.” But because it was impossible to sit comfortably, staying home and reading did not cheer me up. But because I am very stupid, I did not figure this out until I had…

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Review: The Girl with the Red Balloon, Katherine Locke

Does anyone else here have a habit of mentally constructing syllabuses to replace the syllabuses you had as a kid? Where you’ll be like, “Instead of A Separate Peace, I decree that all the youths will now read Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe,” or whatever. I haven’t exactly decided what specific book on youthful summer reading lists The Girl with the Red Balloon should replace, but I’d love for it to be on those lists. Ellie Baum thinks her grandfather’s stories about being saved from the Holocaust by a magic red balloon are just that —…

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Review: Song of the Current, Sarah Tolcser

Either book covers have become more beautiful lately, or I have become more susceptible, but I find myself in a constant state of awe over book covers these days. Look at this one, for Sarah Tolcser’s YA novel of at-sea adventures, Song of the Current: With the moon? And the way it sparkles on the water? I’m into it. Song of the Current is about a girl called Caro who comes from a family of wherrymen favored by the river god. At seventeen, she’s never heard the river god’s voice and fears she never will. When her father is arrested…

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Review: Iron Cast, Destiny Soria

Oh friends, I needed this book so much. Iron Cast is a YA alternate history novel about two best friends who can do illegal magic and have fallen in with a gangster club on the eve of Prohibition. I liked it a ton, and it cheered me right the hell up in a week where I was feeling hopeless. Ada and Corinne are hemopaths: Corinne can create completely believable illusions by reciting poetry, while Ada can induce strong emotions with her music. They work for the gangster Johnny Dervish of the Cast Iron club, where they perform for crowds of…

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