Erica Ezeifedi, Associate Editor, is a transplant from Nashville, TN that has settled in the North East. In addition to being a writer, she has worked as a victim advocate and in public libraries, where she has focused on creating safe spaces for queer teens, mentorship, and providing test prep instruction free to students. Outside of work, much of her free time is spent looking for her next great read and planning her next snack.
Find her on Twitter at @Erica_Eze_.
Within the past few weeks, I’ve gotten quite a few really exciting YA books from publishers. There’s the haunting novel-in-verse The Leaving Room by Amber McBride (out in October), the Twilight-esque Blood Moon by Britney S. Lewis, and the campy You’ve Goth My Heart by Lev A.C. Rosen. There are also books that I would say fit into a mini trend that seems to have made its way to YA. Hekate by Nikita Gill and If Looks Could Kill by Julie Berry are both books that breathe fresh life into stories of female characters from Greek mythology. One tells the coming-of-age story of a Titan witch (Hekate), while the other (If Looks Could Kill) has Medusa out for revenge against Jack the Ripper (!). Both of these are so very up my alley that I almost don’t know which one to start with. They are also beautiful books to just look at.
In addition to those, there are also the new books out this week. There’s a historical queer story, a body-switching graphic novel, an anthology by and about disabled characters in horror, and more. We are truly eating well this fall.
New Hardcover YA Releases This Week
Exquisite Things by Abdi Nazemian
Living under the shadow of Oscar Wilde’s trial for gross indecency, Shahriar has to believe he was born in the wrong time. But when he’s granted the opportunity to live in a different time, will it offer him the happiness and love he’s always hoped he could find? In 1920s Boston, Oliver knows he’s lucky to have the acceptance of the secret queer community at Harvard. But still, he’s not exactly free to live fully as himself. Finding out he loves boys would break his mother’s heart. Will there ever be a time when he can be true to himself, too? — Rachel Brittain
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Flip by Ngozi Ukazu
Ready for the next Ukazu comic? This one is coming in with a massive print run, too, meaning you’ll be seeing it far and wide in the coming months.
Chi-Chi Ekeh finds herself falling for the rich white boys at the school where she is a Black scholarship student. There’s no way any of them will ever return her feelings. She’s proven right when Flip Henderson, the school’s most popular boy, publicly humiliates her following her private promposal video to him.
Then the two wake up and find they’ve switched bodies. Chi-Chi is now Flip and Flip, Chi-Chi. It’s a crash course for both of them in living very different experiences. As their senior year goes on longer and longer, the two of them strike up a surprising friendship . . . and they begin to wonder where and how they can ever return to their own bodies and lives. — Kelly Jensen
These Bodies Ain’t Broken, edited by Madeline Dyer
If you’ve ever wondered why you hardly ever see disabled people as the Final Girls/People in horror, it’s because they largely aren’t there. But These Bodies Ain’t Broken, disabled people are the heroes in all kinds of horrific settings. They upend the narratives surrounding ability, as they break ancient curses, outsmart deadly video games, hunt monsters in the woods, and more. Characters’ disabilities range from visible to invisible, and each story is accompanied by a short entry by the author that places the characters’ experiences in perspective.
New Hardcover Series Releases:
- A Steeping of Blood by Hafsah Faizal
- Never Ever After by Sue Lynn Tan
- Torchfire by Moira Buffini
- Unending by Ivelisse Housman
English (US) · 