A blended family grapples with shifting relationships throughout an expertly crafted and emotionally perceptive graphic novel by Smith (Sea Legs). Kenzie, an avid rock collector with a prominent facial birthmark, and Quinn, a quick-tempered redhead whose favorite pastime is texting her crush, have been stepsisters for years, ever since Kenzie’s mother died and their single parents found each other. When that relationship begins to splinter, though, the girls are sent to their grandmother’s home on North Carolina’s Outer Banks for a summer marred by uncertainty. Against a backdrop of sand dunes and roaming wild horses, Kenzie and Quinn process the looming possibility of separation in sharply contrasting ways: Kenzie turns inward with preemptive grief, while Quinn’s emotions manifest in angry outbursts. With care and nuance, graceful linework captures both the grandeur of the windswept coastline and the intimacy of strained glances and interrupted conversations; the dialogue feels natural and subtle, allowing readers to read between the lines and come to their own conclusions as the narrative unfolds. The arrival of a literal storm underscores the pale-skinned siblings’ emotional turbulence, while steady, warm Gramma provides a refuge where the sisters’ bond can hold fast. This insightful exploration of change will resonate with nature lovers and readers weathering upheaval of their own. Ages 9–12. Agent: Charlie Olsen, InkWell Management. (June)

Reviewed on 03/27/2026 | Details & Permalink

Adult romance author Kennedy makes her YA debut with a taut, empathetic thriller that probes the long shadow of familial and communal trauma and its effect on the 17-year-old daughter of a serial killer. High school senior Ryan Shipley returns to her childhood home in Starling, Tenn., to live with her aunt and uncle following her grandmother’s death. Her father, Gabriel, is on death row for the murder of seven women, including Ryan’s mother, and the town’s obsession with the case has only intensified with the announcement of a million-dollar reward for information about the victims’ whereabouts. As Ryan navigates the pressures of reintegrating herself into Starling society and nurtures budding romantic feelings for a charismatic quarterback and an archetypal bad boy, she must reconcile complicated memories of her father with his monstrous actions. Meanwhile, Ryan’s twin cousins Jasmine and Conner dive headlong into the renewed frenzy over the case, drawing Ryan into an investigation that tests her wit and courage. Suspenseful writing and nuanced, morally complex characterization—relayed via Ryan’s intelligent and resilient first-person narration—anchors both introspective examinations of the ripple effects of violence and a grimly layered mystery about identity and reconciliation. The cast is intersectionally diverse. Ages 14–up. (June)

Reviewed on 03/27/2026 | Details & Permalink

Everett (Some Other Now) blends speculative dreamscape shenanigans with 1990s rom-com elements across a buoyant love story in the vein of While You Were Sleeping. Seventeen-year-old Zadie seems to have it all: stellar grades, a likely Princeton acceptance, and a picture-perfect boyfriend, Jason, captain of the soccer team. That image shatters when Jason abruptly breaks up with her on their anniversary—and the night ends with a car accident that leaves him in a coma. Reluctant to reveal their split, Zadie claims that Jason gave her a promise ring prior to the incident, a tale everyone believes, except Jason’s cousin Marcus. Complications mount when Zadie and Marcus begin having shared dreams, during which they revisit the arc of Zadie and Jason’s relationship. Marcus begrudgingly agrees to help Zadie uncover what went wrong between her and Jason before he wakes, and through these nocturnal adventures, Zadie begins to question her feelings for Jason, confronts what she truly wants in love, and realizes she may have been chasing the wrong guy all along. Language that is equal parts humorous, fantastical, and heartening renders Zadie’s fully realized first-person POV, along which she grapples with matters of the heart as well as grief. Zadie is Black; Jason and Marcus cue as white. Ages 14–up. Agent: Suzie Townsend, New Leaf Literary. (June)

Reviewed on 03/27/2026 | Details & Permalink

Missing persons cases and a long history of violence haunt a fogbound coastal town in this brooding supernatural thriller by Riesen (Free Radicals). After a hit-and-run kills her uncle, Afghan Australian 17-year-old Zayn Pereira moves with her father and seven-year-old sister, Mania, from Newport Beach to Mendocino. The residents prove secretive and insular, matching Zayn’s father’s recent emotional coldness. Even Sunny, Zayn’s 22-year-old cousin, keeps his distance. But Zayn has a secret of her own: she can inexplicably heal people through touch. At school, she befriends classmate Ollie, and through her Zayn learns of the recent disappearance of a student named Charlie, in whose house she now lives and whose car she now owns. Zayn is also unexpectedly drawn to Charlie’s ex-boyfriend, Tiago, who many believe responsible for her vanishing. When Zayn witnesses Tiago being struck by a car and instinctively heals him, the reveal impels Tiago to introduce her to hidden local lore stretching back to the 1850s, when those with paranormal gifts were hunted as witches in a shadow war that continues to shape the town. Cinematic settings, pulse-pounding pacing, and a distinctively rendered, culturally diverse cast propel a wholly original and fiercely character-driven tale that grapples with generational trauma and economic disparity. Ages 14–up. Agent: Mollie Glick, CAA. (June)

Reviewed on 03/27/2026 | Details & Permalink

“Nothing bad ever happens” on the Long Island Sound’s exclusive Pelican Island—until tragedy strikes in this knotty seaside mystery by Goodman (The Meadowbrook Murders). Neighboring families the Golds and the Silvers share many things, including beach days, bonfires, a reputation for being wealthy and well-connected, and secrets. Eighteen-year-old Lucy Gold and her sisters, intense 17-year-old Millie and watchful 15-year-old Frankie, have grown up alongside Lucy’s boyfriend Ethan Silver and his brothers, amiable middle child Trevor and youngest child Alex, who is gay and closest to Frankie. Orbiting them are Lucy’s ex-girlfriend Olivia Godwin and Olivia’s widely disliked cousin Billy. After a raucous party, Billy is found dead in the surf, and the tight-knit circle begins to fray. As romantic histories, jealousies, and long-buried resentments surface, it seems that nearly everyone has a motive. When local police prove incompetent, Frankie launches her own investigation. Via the sisters’ rapidly alternating perspectives, the author showcases her thriller savvy, playing fair with genre conventions and planting evidence in plain sight while preserving a final surprising turn. The result is a polished slow burn that peels back the layers of the white-cued protagonists’ coastal affluence to expose the sinister secrets beneath. Ages 14–up. Agent: Alyssa Reuben, WME. (June)

Reviewed on 03/27/2026 | Details & Permalink

A teenage circus performer enters a deadly competition seeking freedom and revenge in Bandreddi’s ruthless debut, set in 19th-century Paris. Falan Sunkara, a trapeze artist from Yanaon, India, who is bound by a magical contract to the sinister le Cirque des Ombres, has spent the past year contemplating vengeance. Her closest friend, Lavanya, was killed in the Game of Oaths, a tournament engineered by the circus’s calculating ringmaster, Jean-Pierre, who Falan is certain orchestrated her death. Aligning herself with others who have been disenfranchised by the Parisian elite and the reach of French imperialism, she navigates shifting alliances, moral compromise, and lethal spectacle. Falan proves a deliciously cutthroat heroine, unwavering in her ambition yet rendered with empathy-drawing vulnerability. While a crowded cast and lengthy exposition occasionally hamper narrative immersion, sharp twists restore momentum, culminating in a heart-pounding tournament finale. This intricately built and darkly sumptuous story of vengeance and liberation will appeal to fans of Roshani Chokshi’s The Gilded Wolves. Ages 14–up. Agent: Catherine Cho, Paper Literary. (June)

Reviewed on 03/27/2026 | Details & Permalink

In this moody paranormal romance by Prith (the Uncivil Wars series), a living teen from a society where ghosts mingle among humans confronts dark truths about herself and the world around her. Seventeen-year-old Persephone’s brilliant but distant mother spends most of her time sequestered in a basement lab, offering little explanation for the family’s constant relocating. As Persephone navigates adolescence, she must also contend with the lingering fallout of the Ghost War, a conflict, brought about by humans’ experimenting with ghost magic, that’s considered by many to be a conspiracy theory. Following the conclusion of the event 17 years ago, spirits roam freely, capable of killing with a single touch. For reasons Persephone can’t explain, they are drawn to her, shadowing her steps while ignoring everyone else. On her first day at yet another new school, she meets classmate Sebastian, and their connection is immediate and disquietingly familiar. The discovery that neither teen has a heartbeat upends Persephone’s understanding of herself and exposes the scope of her mother’s long-held secrets. Teaming up with Sebastian, she sets out to untangle the truth of her origins before the ghosts turn their sights toward her loved ones. Though occasionally weighed down by dense prose, it’s an angsty blend of supernatural intrigue and star-crossed romance that considers probing questions of identity, betrayal, and loss. Main characters cue as white. Ages 14–up. (July)

Reviewed on 03/27/2026 | Details & Permalink

An Indigenous teenager yearning for stability finds that and more as he connects with his family history in this memorable and heartfelt novel from Ojibwe author Graves (Rez Ball). According to 15-year-old Bryce, his mother has been a “hot mess” since his father’s death some years ago (“always in and out of trouble, drinking, never able to keep a job”). When she’s arrested for drug possession, Bryce moves in with his grandparents on Wolf Creek reservation, where he was raised. There, he revels in the easy camaraderie he shares with two former childhood friends, who spend the summer teaching him how to skateboard. Simultaneously, Bryce helps Wolf Creek residents organize against a pipeline that threatens ancestral land, navigates first love, prepares for a high-stakes skateboarding contest, and contends with his grandfather’s physical decline from cancer, all while bracing for his mother’s eventual release. Natural-feeling dialogue and measured emotional pacing keep the story grounded in Bryce’s resilient first-person POV. Skateboarding sequences carry electric energy, and the adroitly wrought activism plotline underscores challenges faced by Indigenous communities. A concluding author’s note and glossary of Ojibwe language and skate terminology add depth to this sincere portrait of grief, growth, and finding balance on and off the board. Ages 13–up. Agent: Terrie Wolf at AKA Literary Management. (June)

Reviewed on 03/20/2026 | Details & Permalink

The traumatic loss of a classmate has unprecedented ripple effects in one 17-year-old’s life and hometown in Moya’s propulsive debut. In 1994 La Sombra, Calif., high school senior Cal Garcia witnesses valedictorian Nora fall from a bridge onto steel train tracks. The event rattles residents and exacerbates Cal’s feeling of being an outsider among his peers, especially when he’s implicated as a suspect in her death. Support from his Mexican immigrant parents is scarce: while his mother turns to her evangelical church community for guidance, his father has been absent since an incident years prior that left Cal physically and emotionally scarred. Yearning for freedom, Cal purchases a used Mustang. Yet as he fixes it up into a reliable means of escape, the vehicle delivers more complications than he bargained for, ushering Cal into a widening circle of encounters, including with two troublemaking teens, a slippery mechanic, and a reclusive elder. When longtime workers are replaced with temps at Cal’s supermarket job, an employee’s desperate retaliation further shakes the community and forces Cal to examine his own place within it. Questions of family, religious faith, and belonging drive a complex and moving coming-of-age that’s distinguished by vividly drawn characters and kinetic prose. Ages 13–17. (June)

Reviewed on 03/20/2026 | Details & Permalink

A Syrian American teenager uses art to navigate Islamophobia and grief in this searing speculative novel by Katouh (As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow). “All the color has disappeared” from 17-year-old artist Jihad’s world following her mother’s sudden death more than a year ago. After her withdrawn father transfers Jihad from her Queens public school to Braxton Academy, she reluctantly attends, calculating that the school’s pedigree could bolster her chances of gaining entrance to her dream art school. At Braxton, she reunites with childhood friend Alexis, who initially welcomes Jihad into her social circle, until verbal bullying from Alexis’s friends escalates to physical harm. Threaded throughout realistic conflict is Jihad’s reckoning with feelings of disconnect from generational magic passed down through her maternal line, which allows her to see colors that reveal a person’s essence. When she begins sketching in a notebook discovered inside a family heirloom vanity, her drawings manifest as murals across the city, forcing Jihad to confront her tangled emotions on a grand scale. Unflinching text depicts systemic failures that leave Muslim American teens vulnerable to physical and emotional violence as well as institutional neglect, and magical elements lend moments of wonder to the novel’s weighty messaging. It’s a powerful exploration of injustice, identity, and the radical act of making oneself feel seen. Ages 12–up. Agent: Alexandra Levick, Writers House. (June)

Reviewed on 03/20/2026 | Details & Permalink