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.
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.
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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 Lies We Tell
.jfif)
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.
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
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