The Return of Ellie Black

The Return of Ellie Black

by Emiko Jean

Simon & Schuster, 2024. 299 pages. Fiction

It's been twenty years since Detective Chelsey Calhoun's sister vanished when they were teenagers, and ever since she's been searching: for signs, for closure, for other missing girls. But happy endings are rare in Chelsey's line of work. So when local teenager Ellie Black, who disappeared without a trace two years earlier, is found alive in the woods of Washington State, Chelsey is determined to track Ellie's kidnapper down. But something is not right with Ellie. She won't say where she's been, or who she's protecting, and it's up to Chelsey to find the answers. She needs to get to the bottom of what happened to Ellie: for herself, and for the memory of her sister, but mostly for the next girl who could be taken.

This fast-paced novel keeps the suspense high while also taking time to explore the motivations of each character. Jean does this by jumping between perspectives and timelines a bit, in order to help the reader understand the background stories of both Ellie and Chelsey. This means the story depicts some of Ellie's time with her abuser, which some readers might be uncomfortable reading, although the point of these sections is not to glorify Ellie's situation, and isn't overly graphic. I found myself entirely invested in the story, hoping that the kidnapper would be caught and that both Chelsey and Ellie could move on to leading happier lives. This is a gripping page-turner of a missing person novel.

If you like The Return of Ellie Black you might also like:

When the Stars Go Dark

by Paula McLain

Ballantine Books, 2021. 370 pages. Fiction

Anna Hart is a seasoned missing persons detective in San Francisco with far too much knowledge of the darkest side of human nature. When unspeakable tragedy strikes her personal life, Anna, desperate and numb, flees to the Northern California village of Mendocino. The day she arrives, she learns a local teenage girl has gone missing. Anna is in no condition to become involved with the search—until the village sheriff pleads for her help. Then, just days later, a twelve-year-old girl is abducted from her home. As Anna investigates the cases, she slowly realizes that true courage means getting out of her own way and learning to let others in.

Long Time Gone

by Charlie Donlea

Kensington Publishing Corp., 2024. 344 pages. Fiction

When DNA results reveal a disturbing connection to the mysterious disappearance of a famous baby from nearly three decades ago, a woman's search for answers draws her to an ominous small town in Nevada and a dangerous web of corruption, power, and lies.

MB

The Last Cuentista

The Last Cuentista

by Donna Barbra Higuera
Levine Querido, 2021. 320 pages. 
YA Science Fiction

A girl named Petra Pena, who wanted nothing more than to be a storyteller, like her abuelita. But Petra's world is ending. Earth has been destroyed by a comet, and only a few hundred scientists and their children - among them Petra and her family - have been chosen to journey to a new planet. They are the ones who must carry on the human race. Hundreds of years later, Petra wakes to this new planet - and the discovery that she is the only person who remembers Earth. A sinister Collective has taken over the ship during its journey, bent on erasing the sins of humanity's past. They have systematically purged the memories of all aboard - or purged them altogether. Petra alone now carries the stories of our past, and with them, any hope for our future. Can she make them live again? 

While I typically don't dive into science fiction, The Last Cuentista surprised me with Higuera's seamless blend of futuristic themes like spaceships and exploration with rich folklore. I was drawn into Petra's world and on the edge of my seat. This novel is not just a tale of adventure, but a testament to the enduring power of stories themselves.

If you like The Last Cuentista, you might also like: 

The Grief Keeper
by Alexandra Villasante
G.P Putnams's Son's, 2019. 310 pages. 
YA Science Fiction

American television has shaped 17-year old Marisol's idealized dream of life in the United States. When her opportunity finally comes, its not in a way she could have wished or expected. After her relationship with Liliana comes to light, Marisol's mother is forced into hiding, and Marisol and her little sister Gabi are forced to flee for their lives. They leave El Salvador and cross the American border illegally. They are caught and will almost certainly be sent back home until Marisol is presented with an unusual opportunity. If she will take on the grief of someone else--become a grief keeper--her participation in this study will allow her and her sister to stay in the United States. Marisol will do almost anything to protect Gabi, even if it means falling in love and overcoming her own grief.

The Sound of Stars

by Alechia Dow

Toronto, Ontario:Inkyard Press, 2020. 426 pages. 

YA Science Fiction

Two years ago, a misunderstanding between the leaders of Earth and the invading Ilori resulted in the deaths of one-third of the world's population. Seventeen-year-old Janelle "Ellie" Baker survives in an Ilori-controlled center in New York City. With humans deemed dangerously volatile because of their initial reaction to the invasion, emotional expression can be grounds for execution. Music, art and books are illegal, but Ellie breaks the rules by keeping a secret library. When a book goes missing, Ellie is terrified that the Ilori will track it back to her and kill her. Born in a lab, M0Rr1S was raised to be emotionless. When he finds Ellie's illegal library, he's duty-bound to deliver her for execution. The trouble is, he finds himself drawn to human music and in desperate need of more. They're both breaking the rules for the love of art--and Ellie inspires the same feelings in him that music does. Ellie's--and humanity's--fate rests in the hands of an alien she should fear. M0Rr1S has a lot of secrets, but also a potential solution--thousands of miles away. The two embark on a wild and dangerous road trip with a bag of books and their favorite albums, all the while creating a story and a song of their own that just might save them both.

BWW

A Long Stretch of Bad Days

A Long Stretch of Bad Days
By Mindy McGinnis
Katherine Tegan Books, 2023. 362 pages. Young Adult Fiction

A small town's past and its secrets are unearthed by two teenage girls and a podcast in this witty, animated, and suspenseful young adult novel. Lydia Chass and Bristal Jamison are a modern-day, teenaged odd-couple focused on the 1994 unsolved murder case of a local trailer resident. Lydia's podcast is called "On the Ground in Flyover Country," which is focused on solving this murder, as well as the week leading up to it, known around town as the "long stretch of bad days." In that week, there was a tornado, a flood, and the town's only murder. Lydia's father is a defense attorney, and he has taught her plenty about the sliding scale of morality, but it becomes harder to stand up for what she knows is right when it becomes clear that someone is willing to resort to violence again to keep certain truths hidden.

The audiobook was a great way to digest this story, because the added effects of the podcast episode transcripts make it feel realistic. I enjoyed the relationship between Lydia and Bristal, and the way they are "forced" to work together on this school assignment that turns into a very real murder mystery. Their back-and-forth banter is clever, and they often discuss really poignant topics related to life as a teenage girl in today's world. This book feels like something I would've devoured as a teenager, which is exactly why I'm recommending it. 

If you like A Long Stretch of Bad Days, you might also like: 

Everyone's Thinking It
By Aleema Omotoni
Balzer + Bray, 2023. 356 pages. Young Adult Fiction

This young adult novel is Mean Girls meets Dear White People and it's completely engrossing. Within the walls of Wodebury Hall, an elite boarding school in the English countryside, reputation is everything. But aspiring photography Iyanu is more comfortable observing things safely from behind her famera. For Iyanu's estranged cousin, Kitan, life seems perfect. She has money, beauty, and friends like the queen bee Heather. But, as a Nigerian girl in a school as white and insular as Wodebury Hall, Kitan struggles with the personal sacrifices needed to keep her place -- and the protection she gets -- within the exclusive popular crowd. 

Then, photos from Iyanu's camera are stolen and splashed across the school - each with a juicy secret written on it. With everyone's dirty laundry suddenly out in the open, the school explodes in chaos, and the whispers accusing Iyanu of being the one behind it all start to feel like deja vu. Each girl is desperate to unravel the mystery of who stole the photos and why, but exposing the truth will change them all forever.

The Lies We Tell
By Katie Zhao
Bloomsbury, 2022. 294 pages. Young Adult Fiction

This is a tense and thrilling YA novel about what it means to not feel safe in the places we call home and it hit me like a brick! Anna Xu moves out of her parent's home and into the dorms across town as she starts freshman year the local, prestigious Brookings University. But her parents and their struggling Chinese bakery, Sweetea, aren't far from campus or from mind, either. At Brookings, Anna wants to keep up her stellar academic performance and to investigate the unsolved campus murder of her childhood babysitter. She also finds a familiar face - her middle school rival - Chris Lu. 

The Lus happen to be the Xu family's business rivals since they opened Sunny's, a trendy new bakery on Sweetea's block. Chris is cute, but still someone to be wary of...until a vandal hits Sunny's and Anna matches the racist tag with a clue from her investigation. Anna grew up in this town, but more and more she feels like maybe she isn't fully at home here - or maybe it's that there are people here who think she doesn't belong. When a very specific threat is made to Anna, she seeks out help from the only person she can: Chris. They team up to find out who is stalking  her and take on a dangerous search into the hate crimes happening around campus. Can they root out the ugly history and take on the current threat? This book is a social activism/we all belong here anthem crossed with a thriller and with a rivals-to-romance relationship set on a college campus.

You're Not Supposed To Die Tonight
By Kalynn Bayron
Bloomsbury, 2023. 230 pages. Young Adult Fiction

At Camp Mirror Lake, terror is the name of the game. Charity has the summer job of her dreams, playing the "final girl" at Camp Mirror Lake. Guests pay to be scared in this full-contact terror game, as Charity and her summer crew recreate scenes from a classic slasher film, The Curse of Camp Mirror Lake. The more realistic the fear, the better for business.

But the last weekend of the season, Charity's co-workers begin disappearing. And when one ends up dead, Charity's role as the final girl suddenly becomes all too real. If Charity and her girlfriend Bezi hope to survive the night, they'll need to figure out what this killer is after. As they unravel the bloody history of Mirror Lake, Charity discovers that there may be more to the story than she ever suspected.

LKA

The Good Neighbors

The Good Neighbors
By Holly Black & Ted Naifeh
Graphix, 2023. 352 pages. Fantasy Graphic Novel

Rue Silver's mother has disappeared... and her father has been arrested, suspected of killing her. But it's not as straightforward as that. Because Rue is a faerie, like her mother was. And her father didn't kill her mother -- instead, he broke a promise to Rue's faerie king grandfather, which caused Rue's mother to be flung back to the faerie world. Now Rue must go to save her -- and defeat a dark faerie that threatens our very mortal world.

If you love stubborn female characters and faeries that are a little twisted then you have to know about Holly Black. This graphic story was originally published in three separate volumes between 2008 and 2010, making it one of her earlier works. I enjoyed having the combined set to make the story more cohesive and to ensure I didn't have to suffer any cliffhangers. The black and white illustrations skillfully contributed to the gloomy atmosphere of both the town and the story. My only complaint is that I missed seeing more of the inner-thoughts of the characters. However, I believe that comes from the way that graphic novels are paced, which can also be a plus. You can move through the story a lot faster. Overall, I enjoyed the story and the characters, and seeing an earlier iteration of this authors work.

If you like The Good Neighbors, you might also like: 

After Lambana

By Eliza Victoria

Tuttle Publishing, 2022. 185 pages. Fantasy Graphic Novel

Lambana-the realm of supernatural fairies known as Diwata-has fallen, and the Magic Prohibition Act has been enacted. To add to his troubles, there's something wrong with Conrad's heart and only magic can prolong his life. He teams up with Ignacio, a well-connected friend who promises to hook him up with the Diwata and their magical treatments-a quest that's not only risky but highly illegal! On the shadowy, noir-tinged streets of Manila, multiple realities co-exist and intertwine as the two friends seek a cure for the magical malady. Slinky sirens and roaming wraith-like spirits populate a parallel world ruled by corruption and greed, which Conrad must enter to find the cure he seeks. He has little idea of the creatures he will encounter and the truths to be revealed along the way. Will Lambana spill its secrets and provide the healing balm Conrad needs? Or will he perish in the process?

The Mushroom Knight

By Oliver Bly

Mad Cave Studios, 2024. Unpaged. Fantasy Graphic Novel

A chivalrous faerie mushroom embarks on a quest to uncover a clandestine threat that has brought calamity to his magical woodland kingdom. An adolescent girl from northwest Philadelphia desperately searches for her lost dog. As their destinies coalesce, a whimsical friendship forms. But peril is nigh, and their respective journeys threaten to challenge the foundation of their realities … and reality itself. David the Gnome meets David Lynch in this boundary crossing ecological fantasy filled with humor, horror, depth and delight.

Daughters of Snow and Cinders

By Nuria Tamarit
Fantagraphics, 2023. 208 pages. Fantasy Graphic Novel

Fleeing the fires of her war-torn homeland, a young woman travels to the New World in search of gold to rebuild her life. In this strange, lawless land, Joana encounters friends (the kind Native women Tala and Opa), foes (the cruel gold hunter Matwei and his men), and an unexpected traveling companion who may just be her good luck charm -- and amidst the icy reaches of the wilderness, a fearsome fantastical beast lurks in the shadows.

KJ

Traces of Madness

Traces of Madness

By Fernando Balius, Illustrated by Mario Pellejer
Graphic Mundi, 2024. 1 volume unpaged. Graphic Novels
 
In Traces of Madness, Fernando describes what it feels like, both mentally and physically, to lose your grip on reality. His life spins out of control when the voices he hears inside his head, depicted in the narrative as a monster, work to destroy his self-esteem and, worse, urge him to hurt himself. Various psychiatric diagnoses and prescribed medications do more harm than good, prompting Fernando to question whether stifling his voices is truly the right path for him. Throughout his experiences, he finds that his connections with others lend him the strength to survive.

Social Categorization is something that helps us navigate a complicated world with a myriad of people, but it often leads us quickly to prejudice.  So when our brains put someone in a little box based on their illness or disability (or some other noticeable trait) we need to be actively aware of the bias that entails and make sure that we aren't dehumanizing people down to a single trait. I found a line from the graphic novel to be especially apt: "I didn't know any 'psychotics' or 'schizophrenics' (I later realized there are no such things--there are only people)."  As with all subjects, hearing directly from someone with experience can be the most enlightening option. This is an honest window into a lived experience not well understood.  

If you like Traces of Madness, you might also like:
 

Psychiatric Tales

By Franckie Alarcon
Bloomsbury, 2011. 139 pages. Graphic Novels
 
This books delves inside the mysteries of mental disorders - presenting explanations and recollections using the cartoonist's own experiences as both a psychiatric and care nurse and as someone who himself has suffered from depression. Being able to see the issue from both sides allows Darryl to present matters in a forthright and instantly accessible way which will allow many to understand the trials of both sufferers and those connected to them - perhaps for the first time. Topics covered include Bi-polar disorder, self harming, suicide, depression and the author also shows how for some famous people mental disorders were part of what may have made them great. Frank, hard hitting and moving.
 

Where Black Stars Rise

By Nadia Shammas
A Nightfire Book, 2022. 1 volume unpaged. Graphic Novels

Nadia Shammas and Marie Enger's Where Black Stars Rise is an eldritch horror graphic novel that explores mental illness and diaspora, set in modern-day Brooklyn.
 
RBL

Observar las Estrellas

Observar las Estrellas
Por Sara Gillingham
Cincotintas, 2020. 213 páginas. No Ficción

 
Hace miles de años, la humanidad alzó la mirada al cielo y vio grupos de estrellas que se podían conectar con líneas imaginarias para dibujar imágenes. Esas estrellas recibieron el nombre de dioses, animales y objetos, y las historias que se narraban acerca de ellas fueron pasando de generación en generación. Se han usado para navegar, para predecir las cosechas y para marcar las estaciones. Estos conjuntos de estrellas se llaman constelaciones y tanto los astrónomos aficionados como los científicios siguen usándolas para identificar las distintas partes del firmamento.

Si le gusta «Observar las estrellas» le recomendamos:

Atlas de las Estrellas
Por Serge Brunier
Larousse, 2023. 63 páginas. No Ficción

El mejor atlas de las estrellas para localizar 15 constelaciones fáciles de observar, que nos permiten contemplar los astros más brillantes e interesantes.

Dioses de Jade y Sombra
Por Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Minotauro, 2023. 351 páginas. Ficcion

La Era del Jazz está en pleno apogeo, pero Casiopea Tun está demasiado ocupada trapeando en casa de su adinerado abuelo como para prestar atención a las nuevas melodías. Sueña, de todos modos, con una vida lejos de su pequeño y polvoriento pueblo en el sur de México. Una vida que pueda calificar de propia. Sin embargo, esta nueva vida parece tan remota como las estrellas, hasta el día en que encuentra una curiosa caja de madera en la habitación de su abuelo. La abre y libera sin querer el espíritu del dios maya de la muerte, que le pide ayuda para poder recuperar su trono, que está actualmente en manos de su traidor hermano. El fracaso significaría la muerte de Casiopea, pero el éxito podría hacer realidad sus sueños. En compañía de un dios extrañamente seductor y armada con su ingenio, Casiopea comienza su aventura, una odisea que la llevará por las selvas de Yucatán, las brillantes luces de Ciudad de México, hasta sumergirla en las oscuras profundidades del inframundo maya.

MEB

Labels: Español, MEB, No Ficción, Ficción

Tom Lake

Tom Lake
By Ann Patchett 
Harper Collins Publishers, 2023. 309 pages. Romance

During the spring of 2020, Lara's three daughters return to the family's Northern Michigan orchard. The girls beg Lara to tell them the story of Peter Duke, a famous actor who shared a stage and a romance with Lara many years prior when both were part of a theater company called Tom Lake. As Lara tells her daughters the story of the past, the girls examine their own lives and their relationship with their mother. Lara sheds light on her life before being a mother while her daughters are forced to reconsider everything they thought they knew. As the family spends time together, they meditate on the differences between youthful love and married love and the lives of parents before they become parents. In both the past and present, Lara shows her daughters how to be hopeful and happy even when it seems like the world is falling apart.

Patchett is so good at creating characters with such authenticity that you can't help but connect with their journeys on a personal level. Her portrayal of family dynamics—both past and present—adds a rich layer to the narrative, making the story not just engaging but relatable.

Also, if you choose to listen to the audiobook, Meryl Streep’s narration is a great performance! Her voice and delivery breathe life into Patchett’s beautifully written prose, making the story even more captivating.

If you like Tom Lake, you might also like:

My Name is Lucy Barton
By Elizabeth Stout 
Random House, 2016. 193 pages. Fiction

Lucy Barton is recovering slowly from what should have been a simple operation. Her mother, to whom she hasn’t spoken for many years, comes to see her. Gentle gossip about people from Lucy’s childhood in Amgash, Illinois, seems to reconnect them, but just below the surface lie the tension and longing that have informed every aspect of Lucy’s life: her escape from her troubled family, her desire to become a writer, her marriage, her love for her two daughters. Knitting this powerful narrative together is the brilliant storytelling voice of Lucy herself: keenly observant, deeply human, and truly unforgettable.

French Braid 
by Anne Tyler
New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2022. 243 pages. Romance

The Garretts take their first and last family vacation in the summer of 1959. They hardly ever leave home, but in some ways they have never been farther apart. Mercy has trouble resisting the siren call of her aspirations to be a painter, which means less time keeping house for her husband, Robin. Their teenage daughters, steady Alice and boy-crazy Lily, could not have less in common. Their youngest, David, is already intent on escaping his family's orbit, for reasons none of them understand. Yet, as these lives advance across decades, the Garretts' influences on one another ripple ineffably but unmistakably through each generation.

BWW

BoyMom: Reimagining Boyhood in the Age of Impossible Masculinity

BoyMom

By Ruth Whippman

New York: Harmony, 2024. 290 pages. Nonfiction

 

Combining painfully honest memoir, cultural analysis, and reporting, BoyMom is a humorous and heartbreaking deep dive into the complexities of raising boys in our fraught political moment. As the culture wars rage, and masculinity has been politicized from all sides, feminist writer and mother of three boys Ruth Whippman finds herself conflicted and scared. With young men in the grip of a loneliness epidemic and dying by suicide at a rate of nearly four times their female peers, Whippman asks, how do we raise our sons to have a healthy sense of self without turning them into privileged jerks? How can we find a feminism that holds boys to a higher standard but still treats them with empathy? And what do we do when our boys won’t cooperate with our plans? With wit, honesty, and a refusal to settle for easy answers, BoyMom charts a new path to give boys a healthier, more expansive, and fulfilling story about their own lives.

Do you ever read a book and think it was written especially for you? As a mother of boys, this book piqued my interest right away. How do you raise boys into men that are capable of emotional connection and are able to avoid the loneliness that seems to plague todays men? The author uses her own experience of raising 3 young boys to fuel her deep dive research. Because of the biographical details, the book almost feels like a conversation despite its presentation of research and statistics. Raising boys in today's culture is a complex issue and it was refreshing to read the research all the while the author is open about her viewpoints being challenged and states that there are no easy answers. 

How to Raise a Feminist Son: Motherhood, Masculinity, and the Making of My Family

By Sonora Jha

Seattle: Sasquatch Books, 2021. 265 Pages. Nonfiction.

This book is both an incredibly moving mother-son love story told in personal essays, and a parenting manual with concrete advice and actionable takeaways for feminists of all stripes hoping to dismantle toxic masculinity, one sweet boy at a time 

A Better Man: a (Mostly Serious) Letter to My Son

By Michael Ian Black 

Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2020. 291 pages. Nonfiction

 

Michael Ian Black takes a poignant look at manhood, written in the form of a heartfelt letter to his teenage son before he leaves for college. Black offers a radical plea for rethinking masculinity and teaching young men to give and receive love.

JK

Soil : the story of a Black mother's garden

Soil: the story of a Black mother's garden
By Camille T Dungy 
Simone & Schuster Paperbacks, 2024. 325 pages. Nonfiction

Poet and scholar Camille T. Dungy shares her seven-year journey to diversify her garden in the mostly white community of Fort Collins, Colorado. After moving there in 2013 with her family, she faced strict rules about what could be planted. To challenge these uniform policies, Dungy uses the diverse plants in her garden as a metaphor to show how a lack of diversity can harm our planet. She argues that promoting varied and inclusive language in environmental discussions is crucial for protecting the future of our world. 

"Soil" resonated with me on multiple levels. Whether I was gardening alongside Camille's narrative or reflecting on her experiences as a mother and community member, her words felt intimate and instructive. Camille's storytelling enriched my understanding of the need for diversity in a garden and our community while deepening my love for gardening.

"Soil" reminds me of storytelling's power to inspire change and growth. While this is a great read it's also a great listen with Camille as the narrator. 

If you like Soil: the story of a Black mother's garden, you might also like:

Braiding Sweetgrass

By Robin Wall Kimmerer  
Milkweed Editions, 2015. 408 pages. Nonfiction

Botanist Robin Wall Kimmerer, trained in scientific inquiry, also views plants and animals as ancient teachers through her Potawatomi heritage. In her book Braiding Sweetgrass, she blends scientific and indigenous perspectives to offer a journey that is mythic and scientific, sacred and historical, clever and wise.

Through her experiences as an Indigenous scientist and woman, Kimmerer reveals how plants and animals—like asters, strawberries, salamanders, and sweetgrass—provide valuable lessons and gifts. She explores topics from the creation of Turtle Island to modern threats against it, arguing that to awaken ecological awareness, we must recognize and honor our reciprocal relationship with all living things. By learning to understand the languages of other beings, we can better appreciate the earth's generosity and respond with our own gifts.

The Hidden Life of Trees
By Peter Wohlleben
Greystone books, 2016. 288 pages. Nonfiction

In The Hidden Life of Trees, forester Peter Wohlleben argues that trees are indeed social beings, creating a complex network similar to human families. He uses recent scientific discoveries to show how trees interact with each other in forests: they communicate, support their offspring, share nutrients, and even alert one another to dangers. Wohlleben combines this scientific insight with his personal passion for forests, offering a detailed look at the processes of life, death, and renewal he has witnessed in the woods.

BWW

Maelstrom: a Prince of Evil

Maelstrom: A Prince of Evil

By Lorian Merriman

Henry Holt and Company, 2024. 236 pages. Young Adult Comic.

Maelstrom is a half-demon prince pining for a place in history. (Honestly, he's just bored and searching for a way to pass the time.) Twigs is the young, prophesized Hero of Virtue fated to face him--or so we've been told... But Maelstrom's mother, regent to the throne and a powerful necromancer, is determined to keep an iron grip on her domain. Bemoaning his lost destiny, Maelstrom teams up with the Hero to stop his mother and forge a new destiny for himself. What Twigs doesn't know is that Maelstrom has a cunning plan to build his own epic legend and double-cross Twigs at the perfect moment...

I was a little hesitant when I first picked up this book because I wasn't sure if it would be an enjoyable book.  I'm very happy to report that I was wrong!  The vibrant color scheme changed slightly throughout to match the mood of the fast-paced plot, and the well-developed characters gave the book a life of its own.  With gentle and subtle life-lessons and an engaging storyline, Maelstrom is a fun coming-of-age story you'll want to read in one sitting!

If you liked Maelstrom: A Prince of Evil, you may also like:

 

Nothing Special

By Katie Cook

Ten Speed Graphic, 2024. 399 pages. Young Adult Comic.

 

In the grand scheme of the worlds at large, Callie thinks she's nothing special. Sure, she's friends with the ghost of a radish and her dad owns a magical antique shop--but she's spent her life in the human world. Her dad won't let her join him on his collection trips in the magical realm "for her own protection", so she's only caught glimpses of that world through the gates of the town where her father's store is. On her seventeenth birthday, Callie goes home with her friend Declan to find her home in disarray and her dad missing. Signs of a struggle point to the portal to the magical realm and when there are signs, you follow them. Now it's up to Callie, Declan, and Radish to band together and bring him home. As they face creatures good and bad, and all sorts of adventure, Callie and Declan may just find out that they are both special in their own ways after all.

DeadEndia: The Watcher's Test

By Hamish Steele

Union Square & Co., 2023. 203 pages. Young Adult Comic.

 

Follows the lives of Barney, his best friend Norma, and a diverse group of employees at the Dead End theme park as they deal with demonic forces, time-traveling wizards, and scariest of all--their love lives.

ERB

Horror Movie

Horror Movie

By Paul Tremblay

William Morrow, 2024. 275 pages. Fiction

In June 1993, a group of young guerilla filmmakers spent four weeks making Horror Movie, a notorious, disturbing, art-house horror flick. The weird part? Only three of the film's scenes were ever released to the public, but Horror Movie has nevertheless grown a rabid fanbase. Three decades later, Hollywood is pushing for a big budget reboot. The man who played "The Thin Kid" is the only surviving cast member. He remembers all too well the secrets buried within the original screenplay, the bizarre events of the filming, and the dangerous crossed lines on set that resulted in tragedy. As memories flood back in, the boundaries between reality and film, past and present start to blur. But he's going to help remake the film, even if it means navigating a world of cynical producers, egomaniacal directors, and surreal fan conventions--demons of the past be damned. But at what cost? 

This nostalgic dive into the world of cursed films is the low budget filmmaking of The Blair Witch Project meets the ill-fated lore of The Poltergeist. The story jumps between the filming of the original movie and the present-day reboot interspersed with the original screenplay lending itself to an immersive reading experience. Tremblay creates a truly mysterious character with “The Thin Kid” and, at times, it’s difficult to know where the character ends and the actor begins. He doesn’t stop there; you’ll find yourself questioning what is real and what is simply the storytelling magic of filmmaking. Tremblay excels at building a creeping tension throughout the entirety of Horror Movie propelling the reader toward the inevitable tragedy of the original. Overall, if you love 90’s nostalgia and the low budget horror genre, you’ll devour this meta experience!

If you liked Horror Movie, you might also like:

Silver Nitrate

By Sylvia Moreno-Garcia

Del Rey, 2023. 318 pages. Fiction

Montserrat has always been overlooked. She's a talented sound editor, but she's left out of the boys' club running the film industry in '90s Mexico City. And she's all but invisible to her best friend, Tristán, a charming if faded soap opera star, though she's been in love with him since childhood. Then Tristán discovers his new neighbor is the cult horror director Abel Urueta, and the legendary auteur claims he can change their lives even if his tale of a Nazi occultist imbuing magic into highly volatile silver nitrate stock sounds like sheer fantasy. The magic film was never finished, which is why, Urueta swears, his career vanished overnight. He is cursed. Now the director wants Montserrat and Tristán to help him shoot the missing scene and lift the curse, but Montserrat soon notices a dark presence following her, and Tristán begins seeing the ghost of his ex-girlfriend. As they work together to unravel the mystery of the film and the obscure occultist who once roamed their city, Montserrat and Tristán may find that sorcerers and magic are not only the stuff of movies.

Mister Magic

By Kiersten White

Del Rey, 2024. 293 pages. Fiction 

Thirty years after a tragic accident shut down production of the classic children's program Mister Magic, the five surviving cast members have done their best to move on. But just as generations of cultishly devoted fans still cling to the lessons they learned from the show, the cast, known as the Circle of Friends, have spent their lives searching for the happiness they felt while they were on it. The friendship. The feeling of belonging. And the protection of Mister Magic. But with no surviving video of the show, no evidence of who directed or produced it, and no records of who, or what, the beloved host actually was, memories are all the former Circle of Friends has. Then a twist of fate brings the castmates back together at the remote desert filming compound that feels like it's been waiting for them all this time. Even though they haven't seen each other for years, they understand one another better than anyone has since. After all, they're the only ones who hold the secret of that circle, the mystery of the magic man in his infinitely black cape, and, maybe, the answers to what really happened on that deadly last day. But as the Circle of Friends reclaim parts of their past, they begin to wonder: Are they here by choice, or have they been lured into a trap?

BW