Last year, the brown-skinned narrator of this encouraging picture book took a spill at the city’s outdoor ice rink. Now, with the rink reopening for the season, the protagonist is determined to try again, and to execute a perfect spin. Does Momma think the child can do it? “Nothing is impossible,” she says. Again stepping onto the ice one day, the youth quickly hits the cold surface in another spectacular belly flop. But they get up, block out the crowd, and with “Momma’s magic words spinning out of my mind,” begin to whirl: “I am spinning./ I am spinning./ I am spinning./ Bet.” Thurman aptly renders self-aware kid talk, capturing the immediacy—and comedy—of the ice-rink experience and the deeper, driving power of dreams. Depicting a kid who is by turns impish and tenacious, digital artwork by Mil renders the smooth, glimmering ice as both adversary and launchpad for triumph. Background characters are portrayed with various skin tones. Ages 4–8. (Nov.)

Reviewed on 09/05/2025 | Details & Permalink

Estranged friends find love while contending with drug dependency, suicide, and grief in this heavy romance by Scott (Full Tilt). In a prologue set in Watch Hill, R.I., popular 10-year-old Emery introduces herself to loner Xander. When Xander moves away, he promises he’ll write to Emery; unbeknownst to the friends, his letters never reach her. Following his divorced father’s mental breakdown, Xander—now 17—returns to Watch Hill, where he must care for his father while attending Emery’s school. Emery is nothing like Xander remembers. She’s adopted a mean girl attitude and is even dating Xander’s childhood bully. Still, Xander and Emery form a tentative bond after Emery approaches Xander for tutoring. While opening up about the years they were apart, Emery reveals her brother’s death by suicide and that she’s seeking emancipation from her domineering father. The teens agree on a plan: they’ll enter a marriage of convenience. As real romantic feelings make their pretend marriage feel more real, tumultuous school and home lives threaten to tear them apart. Moments of tender first love buoy the complexly layered social dynamics featured throughout the white-cued protagonists’ melancholy alternating first-person narration. Ages 16–up. Agent: Georgana Grinstead, Seymour Agency. (Oct.)

Reviewed on 09/05/2025 | Details & Permalink

Teens vie for wealth and access to magic in this jam-packed fantasy from the Nanua sisters (the Ria & Rani series). After “famous aerial artist” Tara Gupta disappears into the Seine River in 1906 and is declared dead, her 11-year-old daughter, Sana, goes to live with relatives in Canada. Seven years later, Sana—newly 18—returns to her mother’s Parisian estate, Razorthorn Manor, in response to a letter from her estranged aunt. Sana assumes she’s there to celebrate her birthday and collect her inheritance. Instead, she learns that, in accordance with her puzzle-loving mother’s will, she and three other teens—Fox, Isabelle, and Minho—have been summoned to Razorthorn to compete in an elaborately constructed game of riddles. The victor wins not only the house but the seed for a long-extinct flower that can purportedly bestow “godly abilities.” As the contest unfolds, friendships form and attraction sparks, but trust proves dangerous in this high-stakes game. Despite underdeveloped worldbuilding, the soapy melodrama of the interpersonal conflict plus a barrage of increasingly mystifying plot twists, depicted via passionate first-person narration, keep the pages turning. Characters are intersectionally diverse. Ages 14–up. Agents: Pete Knapp and Stuti Telidevara, Park & Fine Literary. (Oct.)

Reviewed on 09/05/2025 | Details & Permalink

Chupeco (The World’s End) channels the unsettling ambiance of Welcome to Night Vale in this spine-tingling supernatural horror mystery. Four years after 17-year-old Storymancer’s six-year-old brother, Lee, went missing in the cryptid-infested woods surrounding Wispy Falls, the teen—a popular streamer who investigates abandoned and haunted areas around town—continues trying to understand what happened. When Storymancer learns that a dead body recently found in the woods was purportedly misidentified, he delves into the circumstances surrounding the corpse and the rash of disappearances within the woods, and begins investigating key personnel employed at Penumbra, a mysterious nearby facility responsible for studying the cryptids terrorizing Wispy Falls. Delightfully nightmarish creature descriptions and intriguing town lore enlivens this genre-savvy take on found footage horror. Multimedia formatting throughout features video transcripts, social media correspondence, message board threads, and more, blending conspiracy-laced paranoia, creeping supernatural menace, and astute social commentary into a narrative that steadily builds into an unnerving portrait of small-town politics. Ages 14–up. Agent: Rebecca Podos, Neighborhood Literary. (Nov.)

Reviewed on 09/05/2025 | Details & Permalink

The devil’s daughter teams up with a ghost to uncover secrets surrounding their respective pasts in this irreverent romantic drama from Joyce (Dealing in Deception, for adults). Seventeen-year-old Devica dreads the day she turns 18, after which her father—the devil—will retire, and Devica will assume his role as ruler of Hell. She’s processing the incoming souls of sinners when she meets Nate, a 17-year-old human killed by police at the scene of a murder for which he claims he was framed. After Devica learns that her assumed dead demon mother is actually human—and, what’s more, alive in Los Angeles—Devica decides to help Nate break out of Hell, ostensibly so he can prove his innocence, though Devica secretly plots to search for her mom along Nate’s quest for redemption. The teens fall for each other as they confront their deepest fears while fighting their way through the underworld. But Devica is unprepared for what she and Nate find on Earth—and what she must do to prevent Hell from reclaiming them both. A buoyant romantic subplot and Devica’s introspective yearning to experience more than what she believes the underworld has to offer juxtapose unflinching depictions of the horrors that the white-cued protagonists encounter throughout their journey, which recalls elements of Dante’s Inferno. Ages 14–up. (Nov.)

Reviewed on 09/05/2025 | Details & Permalink

Following her arrival at an all-girls Catholic boarding school, a queer teen discovers a hidden ability to transform into a wolf in this alluring fantasy from DeRose (For Girls Who Walk Through Fire). After 16-year-old Rue Holloway is caught kissing a girl, her mother sends her to Sacred Heart in rural New Hampshire. Rue instantly falls for her troublemaker classmate Charlotte Savage, who takes the blame for Rue’s production of a rebellious zine questioning the school’s dress code, reasoning that Charlotte’s wealthy senator father’s large donations to the school cushion her from severe consequences. When students begin hearing howling from the off-limits woods surrounding the school, Charlotte settles Rue’s anxiety with a secret: all women who hear “the call” can change into wolves. Now capable of transforming, Rue—accompanied by Charlotte and others—frolics through the woods as a wolf. But soon the school ramps up its efforts to hunt them down, sowing panic among the shifters; simultaneously, Rue’s own family strain sets the stage for a tense climax that emphasizes the novel’s focus on control vs. freedom. The 1990s-leaning setting lacks detail and leads to a somewhat unmoored narrative. DeRose’s fresh reframing of familiar werewolf mythology alongside artfully wrought characters buttresses charged messaging about religious dominion and patriarchal attitudes. Rue and Charlotte read as white. Ages 14–up. Agent: Kathy Green, Kathryn Green Literary. (Nov.)

Reviewed on 09/05/2025 | Details & Permalink

K-drama-worthy conflict unfolds on- and off-screen throughout this theatrical rom-com in which two Korean American college students produce a student-run reality TV dating show. Everything in meticulous Marlon University freshman Mia Yoon’s life has gone to plan, including leaving her small Texas hometown to attend film school in Los Angeles, scheduling her classes for the next four years, and creating a campus-based dating show called The Cuffing Game. When lack of interest jeopardizes the program, however, she enlists popular senior Noah Jang—the campus’s “most eligible student bachelor” and Mia’s crush—as a contestant to elevate the show’s appeal. As The Cuffing Game’s matchmaking antics start heating up and Noah’s love life is broadcast for all to see, showrunner Mia—watching from behind the camera—becomes increasingly unsettled. Her growing rapport with, and deepening feelings for, Noah could upend everything she’s worked so hard to attain. Good-natured humor and easygoing prose by Lee (Flip the Script) make for a lighthearted, behind-the-scenes-feeling look at a Love Island–esque production. Nuanced subplots surrounding other Cuffing Game participants and queer relationships are this tidy novel’s biggest strengths. Ages 14–up. Agent: Penny Moore, Aevitas Creative Management. (Nov.)

Reviewed on 09/05/2025 | Details & Permalink

In a near-future world ravaged by deadly disease and extreme weather caused by climate change, humans rebuff reality for a virtual realm in this allegorical telling by Gong (Foul Heart Huntsman). Global superpowers Atahua and Medaluo vie for societal dominance in a decades-long cold war fought both IRL and virtually. Two Atahuan teens of Medan descent soon find themselves caught in the crosshairs. Framed for treason by an infamous anarchist, 18-year-old Eirale—a soldier for the virtual reality world developer NileCorp—flees into Medaluo to clear her name. Meanwhile, 17-year-old Lia, eager to complete her final exam mission and secure valedictorian at NileCorp Military Academy, sets out into Medaluo’s artificial reality to retrieve classified research from a rogue scientist. When their respective journeys converge, Eirale and Lia unravel a conspiracy that threatens to undermine everything they know about themselves and the world they live in. Using alternating first-person perspectives, Gong capably explores themes of diaspora, corporate control, and artificial intelligence while spinning a labyrinthine mystery with a sprinkle of romance. A slow beginning gives way to a tightly paced climax and a juicy sequel hook. Ethnic Medans cue as Chinese; Atahuans cue as white. Ages 14–up. Agent: Laura Crockett, Triada US. (Nov.)

Reviewed on 09/05/2025 | Details & Permalink

Dietrich (The Rules of Royalty) embraces the chaos and uncertainty of redefining oneself in a new setting and the joy of discovering community in this tropey paranormal rom-com. When freshman Owen arrives at Point University, he discovers that his roommate is Zarmenus, prince of the newly discovered Hell dimension, who is attending college as part of an inter-dimensional exchange program. Though Owen is reluctant to deal with an arrogant partier—and the drunken frat boys, fanatical demon hunters, and supernatural nuisances he attracts—classmate Dean persuades Owen to give it a go, hoping to use the duo’s successful cohabitation as proof that humans and demons can coexist. Initial friction between Owen and Zarmenus settles into a tentative truce until media scrutiny prompts the roomies to cook up a fake-dating arrangement to distract from Zarmenus’s partying. But when their manufactured relationship starts feeling too real, they must figure out what they really want. As introverted Owen explores his queerness, both alone and in relation to Zarmenus’s open-book nature, he’s able to embrace his identity with more confidence, resulting in a gratifying—if somewhat predictable—tale about personal agency and forging one’s own path. Owen and Dean read as white; Zarmenus has red skin. Ages 12–up. Agent: Moe Ferrara, Triada US. (Nov.)

Reviewed on 09/05/2025 | Details & Permalink

Christensen (Welcome Home, Stranger, for adults) and Henderson layer sweeping fantasy with chaste romance and spiritualism in this beguiling story about occultist sisters determined to save their town and their reputations. In 1848 Redcliffe, Mass., the Wolfsons—17-year-old Avery and 16-year-old twins Daisy and Morrigan—are beloved for their divination and tarot skills. Daisy has a “healing touch” and prescience; Morrigan sees visions of the past; and Avery, who prefers breeches to gowns, intuits “unseen things in the present moment.” As Daisy becomes entangled in a love triangle with feuding newcomers—infuriating Jasper, whose skepticism of magic matches Daisy’s passion for it, and Jasper’s charismatic enemy, Nate—a demon, and the mass hysteria that’s summoned upon its arrival, turns Redcliffe against the sisters. The teens’ search for a remedy to the demon’s influence exposes family secrets, and the truth about Nate and Jasper. Close third-person narration centering Daisy is steeped in immersive period details. Slow pacing and unresolved plotlines prove occasionally frustrating. Nevertheless, the collaborators cleverly assemble a hero’s journey narrative by highlighting the novel’s mystical elements—chapter headings’ numerical designation refers to specific tarot cards that, when pulled in sequential order, portend personal transformation. Protagonists read as white. Ages 12–up. (Oct.)

Reviewed on 09/05/2025 | Details & Permalink