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by Mercedes Lackey

2/5 Stars

Hunter by Mercedes Lackey takes place in a world that is ravaged by monsters. The most fortunate people live inside cities that have a border protecting them from the monsters. The not-so-fortunate live outside the cities, left to fend for themselves. There are some people with the ability to battle and defeat monsters called Hunters. Joyeaux Charmand is a hunter who’s lived in the mountains her entire life. One day, she’s called by her uncle to go to the city, where she finds out that things aren’t as they seem. The situation keeps getting worse and worse and Joy might be too late to stop it. 

I think that the author had a really good idea. I liked the mix of dystopian fiction and fantasy; however, the story was very repetitive and there was a lot of info-dumping. At the start of the story we get page-length descriptions of things that don’t add to the story. Approaching the middle, the story becomes really repetitive, with the same events taking place every couple of chapters. It’s only in the last couple of chapters that the story gets really interesting. I was forcing myself to read the book, thinking that it would eventually get interesting, but I was wrong. Overall, the author had an excellent idea, but their execution of said idea was rather poor. Personally, I wouldn’t recommend this book. 

Haniya W.

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by Patrick Ness

3/5 Stars

More Than This by Patrick Ness is a sci-fi/dystopian fiction novel about a boy named Seth who wakes up in the middle of an abandoned street after drowning. He’s unsure of whether he’s dead or alive. He explores the town and finds out that not only is the street where he woke up abandoned, but the entire town is also. The town is also quite familiar to him, but that’s impossible, he thinks. As he discovers more and more secrets, he finds out his entire life might have been a lie. 

The plot of this story was really interesting, and I loved the writing style. The characters are very well-written and each had very distinct backgrounds, which I also loved. The reason why I took off two stars was because it was rather slow-paced and some parts became very repetitive. The story was around 500 pages long, but I think a more appropriate length would have been around 300 pages by editing out all the repetitive attack scenes. The book switches from “before” and “after” a lot, and I found myself just skimming through the “after” scenes until the end of the book because it became rather predictable after a while.  

Haniya W.

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by Victoria Laurie

4.5/5 Stars

‘When’ by Victoria Laurie is about a girl named Maddie Fynn, who has the unique ability to see the death date of every single person she sees. Her mother makes her use her ability for fortune-telling so they can earn extra income. One day, Maddie points out the approaching death date of a little boy, but as she can only see dates (and not how the person dies), the client calls her a liar and leaves. The next week, when the boy goes missing, the police come to Maddie’s school to interrogate her. As more and more people begin to go missing, Maddie and her best friend are named prime suspects of the murder and Maddie also becomes a target of the investigation. Maddie is desperate to prove that her and her best friend are innocent and to catch the real serial killer. 

I loved this book. There were so many people who I suspected but the real murderer ended up being someone who I never even thought of. It was a pretty quick but amazing read. I appreciated the fact that the author was straight to the point and didn’t drag anything out. It was a genuinely interesting book and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who likes murder mysteries.  

Haniya W.

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by Leigh Bardugo

5/5 Stars

Nina Zenik, Zoya Nazyalensky and Nikolai Lantsov are all fighting desperately to save their country. Nina has disguised herself and fights hard from inside the Fjerdan capital. Zoya sacrifices a part of herself to become the weapon her country needs. Nikolai uses everything in his power to get the help he needs to win this war. A war with Fjerda, a conflict with Shu Han and wavering relations with the Kerch—can Ravka really be saved? 

Leigh Bardugo’s Grishaverse series is one of the best series I’ve ever read. The characters in this book were amazing, and their personalities weren’t lost or changed; they were the same as the previous books, which I liked because I hate it when characters go through a sudden change in personality (because it usually makes them worse). The plot was pretty intriguing and I really liked how this book was more about the political side of ruling a kingdom. Even though this is a fictional story, I liked how the portrayal of the kingdom, government and wars were pretty realistic. Nothing was too far-fetched. The book was much longer than the previous ones but it wasn’t without reason; there were lots of things happening and it didn’t feel like a slow-paced story. 

Haniya W.

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by Gretchen McNeil

3/5 Stars

#murdertrending by Gretchen McNeil is about an app where you can stream live feeds of convicted criminals being hunted down 24/7. Dee Guerrera has been framed for the brutal murder of her stepsister. She wakes up on Alcatraz 2.0, the island where the worst criminals must fight to survive as they are hunted down by hired serial killers. The citizens can watch these executions from the comfort of their homes for free on The Postman app. Dee teams up with others on the island to prove their innocence and expose the reality of Alcatraz 2.0, but can they do it before they’re hunted down? 

The idea for this book was really cool and quite unique. The representation of social media and how that influenced the island was also pretty cool. The execution of the idea wasn’t so great, though. The story was incredibly rushed and felt a little undeveloped. I feel like the author could’ve added a couple more things to the plot because it didn’t feel like there were any subplots of any kind. This story had a lot more potential. I gave it three stars because, as I mentioned before, the idea was cool, and the climax of the story is really good. I would recommend this book if you don’t have anything else to read or if you’re looking for something that you can read quickly and isn’t that deep.  

Haniya W.

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by Nova Ren Suma

“Nova Ren Suma’s novel, The Walls Around Us, follows two different perspectives: Amber, a girl who was in Aurora Hills juvenile detention center for girls (currently deceased), and Violet, a ballet dancer who is alive three years later. This book is suspenseful, psychological and paranormal. The story starts with Amber, a girl who is in a juvenile detention center, who doesn’t actually belong there because she is innocent. All the other girls exclude her and treat her differently because of this.   

Then the story turns to Violet, an 18-year-old ballet dancer who is excited to pursue her dance career at Juilliard. How are these two girls connected? By Orianna, a girl who was sent to Aurora Hills 3 years ago. There are rumors going around that Orianna did not actually commit any crimes. Orianna met Amber as they shared the same cell, and she shared that she used to be friends with Violet, and that she isn’t as innocent as she seems.  

 This novel was really interesting and well-paced. There wasn’t really a moment where I got bored of what was happening, or wished for it to be over. The only problem I had with it was that there were a lot of events left unexplained that you had to try to figure out yourself. I literally had to google what the ending meant because it was so vague. But overall, this is a pretty decent read! Make sure to look up the trigger warnings if you need to!” 

Suzana B.

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by Zoraida Córdova

Emotions: Surprised but not disappointed

Brujas. Bisexuals. Mistakes. Apologies. Love. Hate. Good. Evil. Diverse. Alice in Wonderland. All those words describe Labyrinth Lost by Zoraida Córdova and yes, I recommend it.

The book follows Alejandra, aka Alex, a powerful encantrix (a bruja, latinx witch, who can essentially do everything) who doesn’t like magic. As a result, she tries to get rid of it on her Deathday (a made up quinceañera but for brujas kind of thing) but instead she ends up getting rid of something else, something more important to her than magic: her family. Frantic, Alex enlists the help of Nova, a bruja who annoys the heck out of her, and together, they venture into Los Lagos (a place in between heaven/hell). There, they discover an evil sorceress has taken the place — and Alex’s family — captive. Together, Nova and Alex have to find a way to defeat her. Oh, and Rishi, Alex’s HUMAN best friend who followed them.

Review: Wow, I… I was not expecting to like this book as much as I did. At first, it started out as a badly written fanfiction but it actually, thankfully, got better. Alex was an OK character but truly, I was immersed in the world and the surrounding characters. Zoraida did an incredible job making everything easy to understand but also interesting so props to her for that! On the other hand, I disliked the love-triangle (though loved the queerness-bisexuality- of it). It felt forced and reinforced negative stereotypes about bisexuals not being able to make up their mind. However, I did appreciate the romance that was included- the LI, Love Interest, and the MC, Alex, had a super cute romance.

Conclusion: read it if you like diverse, sapphic, YA, fantasy books!

3.5 Stars

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These Violent Delights

by Chloe Gong

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It is 1926 in Shanghai, and Juliette Cai is the heir to the Scarlet Gang. After returning from America, Chloe must assert herself back into a leadership position and earn the respect of the gangsters she will one day lead.

On the other side of town is the White Flowers, the Scarlet Gang’s only opposition. At their helm is Roma Montagov, Juliette’s once lover, now turned enemy.

While both heirs try to navigate the hierarchy within their gangs, a madness takes the city. Civilians, and gangsters on both sides are starting to claw their own throats out and the city is afraid. Together, Roma and Juliette must figure out the cause of this disease and end it.

In this Romeo and Juliet retelling, Chloe Gong weaves a beautiful and inventive tale full of intrigue and action. It is compelling and witty and is sure to leave your heart pounding.

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Heartstopper Vol. One

by Alice Oseman

Charlie and Nick could not be more different. Charlie, an openly gay, anxious teen has spent the last year avoiding bullies and dealing with being outed at school. Nick is a soft hearted jock who just happens to be the star of the school rugby team.

Heartstopper: Volume One (Heartstopper, #1) by Alice Oseman

Nick and Charlie do not know each other, at least not yet. As Charlie learns more about Nick and gets to know him, he discovers that there may be something there that’s bigger than friendship.

Meanwhile, Nick thinks he’s chasing after something that’s impossible. Little does he know that Charlie may be exactly what he’s looking for.

A beautiful and heartfelt romance, Heartstopper Vol. One is the book version of the heart eye emoji.

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Aurora Rising

By: Jay Kristoff and Amie Kaufman

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Get ready for a spaceship ride of a lifetime! Together, in Aurora Rising, Jay Kristoff and Amie Kaufman set the scene for an epic space adventure.

In the year 2380, the cadets at Aurora Academy are trained, pushed hard and expected to achieve greatness. Nothing less is expected of Tyler Jones and the crew he decides to choose on draft day. However, on the day of the draft, Tyler makes a decision that will change the course of his life, and of his career. This decision: rescusing a girl named Aurora Jie-Lin O’Malley, and she’s hundreds of years old. Now, Tyler is stuck with the dregs of Aurora Academy, the cadets no other team wanted. Tyler’s biggest problem is wrangling his team and forcing them to get along, until they realize that something much bigger is brewing in space. There is a war approaching and the answer may lie with Aurora Jie-Lin O’Malley, and once she joins their crew, everything changes. Can the crew find a way to overcome their differences? Together they must discover the secrets of the universe and unearth secrets bigger than any black hole.

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