THE HATE U GIVE This novel follows Starr Carter who witnesses the death of her childhood best friend, Khalil, when he is wrongfully shot by the police. As rumors run rampant Starr is forced to choose between staying safe and silent or speaking up for justice. MY REVIEW This novel was emotional, powerful, and eye opening for someone like me (a privileged white reader who's never had to suffer from racism or police brutality). Starr and her father Maverick were my favorite cha

GENRE: YA fantasy LENGTH: 338 pages PLOT Cerys lives in the kingdom of Aloryia which is surrounded by a cursed wildwood. When the curse escapes the woods and takes her people she must travel into the wildwoods along with her fox companion. They seek the mystical city of Voryn in the hopes of finding help. CHARACTERS Cerys is a loyal friend and dedicated daughter who carries with her a lot of survivor's guilt. A part of her longs for something more, but she also has a lot of f

GETTING INTO K-POP AND ABOUT THE BOOK This past fall I started casually listening to K-pop (Korean pop music). I know a lot of people who listen to K-pop are hardcore fans. I am definitely not that. There are so many groups I am unfamiliar with as so far I've only explored the more popular groups. I mostly listen to Blackpink and Twice, though I am a fan of a handful of other songs by various other girl groups as well. I doubt I'll ever be a 'stan' as some super fans call the

GENRE: YA Contemporary LENGTH: 404 pages PLOT Josie returns to her New England hometown of Beauty after having fled in the night with her mother five years prior. After an incident where she breaks the window of a prominent store in town owned by a wealthy family, her estranged childhood friend Lucky takes the fall. As Josie attempts to pay Lucky back for the cost of the window the two find themselves falling for each other. CHARACTERS Josie has a passion and a drive for phot

GENRE: YA Fantasy LENGTH: 343 pages PLOT Tarisai has grown up with a distant mother known only as The Lady and a revolving door of servants and tutors. All she longs for is a family and she just might get it when her mother commands her to travel to the empire's capital. She is to win the love of the crown prince and gain a place on his council. The only catch? Then she has to kill him. CHARACTERS There are quite a few characters in this novel but I'm mainly going to focus on

Jenn Bennett is the author of 4 YA contemporary novels to date. She has a fifth coming out in early November which I do plan to read and review but, for obvious reasons, it won't be included in this blog. She also has several adult fantasy novels and one YA fantasy novel. However, this blog solely covers her contemporaries. For each book I will give a brief plot summary, my review, and my star rating. The books are ordered from my highest to lowest rating. TITLE: Starry Eyes

ABOUT THE RECOMMENDATION Forest of Souls by Lori M. Lee is my favorite YA fantasy of 2020 to date. Not too long ago I did a blog reading 3 Goodreads' recommendations, but none were in my favorite genre (YA fantasy). That experiment had...mixed to negative results. However, I wanted to give Goodreads one more chance. So, I picked up one of the books they recommended me based on my enjoyment of Forest of Souls. That book was The Kinder Poison by Natalie Mae. This blog will exam

Genre: YA Contemporary (Poetry) Length: 417 pages Rating: 5 stars Plot: Yahaira is a girl growing up in the United States. Camino is a girl growing up in the Dominican Republic. Neither girl knows of the other's existence until a tragedy brings them together; the death of their father. Characters: The two main characters are half-sisters Yahaira and Camino. Yahaira is, by her own admission, a girl who is good at most things but doesn't necessarily stand out. The one thing she

Genre: Urban fantasy Length: 420 pages Plot: Set in Seoul, South Korea, the novel follows two main characters, an ordinary high school boy and a mythical gumiho (nine tailed fox) whose fates become intertwined. The plot centers around gumiho Miyoung losing her yeowu gusel (fox bead), which is the equivalent of a human soul. The story is imbued with lots of Korean culture from aspects of religion, to food, to superstitions, to school life, language etc. Characters: Ahn Jihoon

Summary: Grim Lovelies is a young adult fantasy novel by Megan Shepherd. It is the story of five beasties (animals turned into humans by a witch) whose newfound humanity is threatened when their witch mistress is murdered. They have three days to find the spell that will keep them human or risk turning back into animals. Narrative Style: The novel is told from the third person perspective of Anouk. I feel as though, especially in YA, this particular narration style is underus