[Book Review] Anger Is A Gift by Mark Oshiro

Six years ago, Moss Jefferies' father was murdered by an Oakland police officer. Along with losing a parent, the media's vilification of his father and lack of accountability has left Moss with near crippling panic attacks.

Now, in his sophomore year of high school, Moss and his fellow classmates find themselves increasingly treated like criminals by their own school. New rules. Random locker searches. Constant intimidation and Oakland Police Department stationed in their halls. Despite their youth, the students decide to organize and push back against the administration.

When tensions hit a fever pitch and tragedy strikes, Moss must face a difficult choice: give in to fear and hate or realize that anger can actually be a gift.

[Book Review] Girl Made of Stars by Ashley Herring Blake

"I need Owen to explain this. Because yes, I do know that Owen would never do that, but I also know Hannah would never lie about something like that."

Mara and Owen are about as close as twins can get. So when Mara's friend Hannah accuses Owen of rape, Mara doesn't know what to think. Can the brother she loves really be guilty of such a violent crime? Torn between the family she loves and her own sense of right and wrong, Mara is feeling lost, and it doesn't help that things have been strained with her ex-girlfriend and best friend since childhood, Charlie.

As Mara, Hannah, and Charlie navigate this new terrain, Mara must face a trauma from her own past and decide where Charlie fits in her future. With sensitivity and openness, this timely novel confronts the difficult questions surrounding consent, victim blaming, and sexual assault.

[Book Review] Dash and Lily's Book of Dares by David Levithan & Rachel Cohn

“I’ve left some clues for you.
If you want them, turn the page.
If you don’t, put the book back on the shelf, please.”

So begins the latest whirlwind romance from the bestselling authors of Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist. Lily has left a red notebook full of challenges on a favorite bookstore shelf, waiting for just the right guy to come along and accept its dares. But is Dash that right guy? Or are Dash and Lily only destined to trade dares, dreams, and desires in the notebook they pass back and forth at locations across New York? Could their in-person selves possibly connect as well as their notebook versions? Or will they be a comic mismatch of disastrous proportions?

Rachel Cohn and David Levithan have written a love story that will have readers perusing bookstore shelves, looking and longing for a love (and a red notebook) of their own.

[Book Review] Golden Boy by Abigail Tarttelin

Max Walker is a golden boy. Attractive, intelligent, and athletic, he's the perfect son, the perfect friend, and the perfect crush for the girls in his school. Now that Max is getting older and his mother won't have as much control, she worries that the facade of effortless excellence she has constructed might crumble. Adding tot he stress, her husband has decided to run for public office. The media spot-light is about to encircle their lives.

The Walkers are hiding something, you see. Max is special. Max is different. Max is intersex. When a childhood friend abuses his trust in the worst possible way, Max is forced to consider the nature of his well-kept secret. Why won't his parents talk about it? What else are they hiding? And the biggest question of all: Who is Max Walker really?

A coming of age story like no other, Golden Boy is a fascinating exploration of autonomy, identity, and a family in crisis that you'll read in one sitting and never forget.

[Book Review] The Summer the World Ended by Matthew S. Cox

As far as Riley McCullough is concerned, her best friend getting ‘dragged’ off to Puerto Vallarta for the first two weeks of summer vacation was the end of the world―at least until the bombs fell.

Life in suburban New Jersey with her mother has been comfortable, not to mention boring, to an introverted fourteen year old. As if her friend’s surprise trip wasn’t bad enough, her expectations for the ‘best summer ever’ disintegrate when she gets sent across the country to stay with a father she hasn’t seen in six years. Adjusting to a tiny, desert town where everyone stares at them like they don’t belong proves difficult, and leaves her feeling more isolated than ever. To make matters worse, her secretive father won’t tell the truth about why he left―or what he’s hiding.

Her luck takes an unexpected turn for the better when she meets a boy who shares her interest in video games and contempt for small town boredom. In him, she finds a kindred spirit who might just make the middle of nowhere tolerable.

Happiness is short lived; fleeing nuclear Armageddon, she takes shelter with her dad in an underground bunker he’d spent years preparing. After fourteen days without sun, Riley must overcome the sorrow of losing everything to save the one person she cares about most.

[Book Review] The Way I Used To Be by Amber Smith

In the tradition of Speak, this extraordinary debut novel shares the unforgettable story of a young woman as she struggles to find strength in the aftermath of an assault.

Eden was always good at being good. Starting high school didn’t change who she was. But the night her brother’s best friend rapes her, Eden’s world capsizes.

What was once simple, is now complex. What Eden once loved—who she once loved—she now hates. What she thought she knew to be true, is now lies. Nothing makes sense anymore, and she knows she’s supposed to tell someone what happened but she can’t. So she buries it instead. And she buries the way she used to be.

Told in four parts—freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior year—this provocative debut reveals the deep cuts of trauma. But it also demonstrates one young woman’s strength as she navigates the disappointment and unbearable pains of adolescence, of first love and first heartbreak, of friendships broken and rebuilt, and while learning to embrace a power of survival she never knew she had hidden within her heart.

[Book Review] How To Make A Wish by Ashley Herring Blake

All seventeen year-old Grace Glasser wants is her own life. A normal life in which she sleeps in the same bed for longer than three months and doesn't have to scrounge for spare change to make sure the electric bill is paid. Emotionally trapped by her unreliable mother, Maggie, and the tiny cape on which she lives, she focuses on her best friend, her upcoming audition for a top music school in New York, and surviving Maggie’s latest boyfriend—who happens to be Grace’s own ex-boyfriend’s father.

Her attempts to lay low until she graduates are disrupted when she meets Eva, a girl with her own share of ghosts she’s trying to outrun. Grief-stricken and lonely, Eva pulls Grace into midnight adventures and feelings Grace never planned on. When Eva tells Grace she likes girls, both of their worlds open up. But, united by loss, Eva also shares a connection with Maggie. As Grace's mother spirals downward, both girls must figure out how to love and how to move on.

[Book Review] Leah on the Offbeat by Becky Albertalli

Leah Burke—girl-band drummer, master of deadpan, and Simon Spier’s best friend from the award-winning Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda—takes center stage in this novel of first love and senior-year angst.

When it comes to drumming, Leah Burke is usually on beat—but real life isn’t always so rhythmic. An anomaly in her friend group, she’s the only child of a young, single mom, and her life is decidedly less privileged. She loves to draw but is too self-conscious to show it. And even though her mom knows she’s bisexual, she hasn’t mustered the courage to tell her friends—not even her openly gay BFF, Simon.

So Leah really doesn’t know what to do when her rock-solid friend group starts to fracture in unexpected ways. With prom and college on the horizon, tensions are running high. It’s hard for Leah to strike the right note while the people she loves are fighting—especially when she realizes she might love one of them more than she ever intended.

[Book Review] Turtles All The Way Down by John Green

Sixteen-year-old Aza never intended to pursue the mystery of fugitive billionaire Russell Pickett, but there’s a hundred-thousand-dollar reward at stake and her Best and Most Fearless Friend, Daisy, is eager to investigate. So together, they navigate the short distance and broad divides that separate them from Russell Pickett’s son, Davis.

Aza is trying. She is trying to be a good daughter, a good friend, a good student, and maybe even a good detective, while also living within the ever-tightening spiral of her own thoughts.

[Book Review] Seven Ways We Lie by Riley Redgate

Trigger Warnings: teacher-student relationship, publicly outing a LGBTQIA member without their consent, slut shaming.

Paloma High School is an ordinary high school until the administrators get an anonymous note saying that there is a student-teacher relationship happening at their school. We follow seven main protagonists (each resembling one deadly sin) as they, and everyone else in the school, try to figure out which teacher and which student are having relations. Each character is going through something specific and meaningful to them, which makes everything a bit messier than they expected.

[Book Review] Queens of Geek by Jen Wilde

Three friends, two love stories, one convention: this fun, feminist love letter to geek culture is all about fandom, friendship, and finding the courage to be yourself.

Charlie likes to stand out. She’s a vlogger and actress promoting her first movie at SupaCon, and this is her chance to show fans she’s over her public breakup with co-star Reese Ryan. When internet-famous cool-girl actress Alyssa Huntington arrives as a surprise guest, it seems Charlie’s long-time crush on her isn’t as one-sided as she thought.

Taylor likes to blend in. Her brain is wired differently, making her fear change. And there’s one thing in her life she knows will never change: her friendship with her best guy friend Jamie—no matter how much she may secretly want it to. But when she hears about a fan contest for her favorite fandom, she starts to rethink her rules on playing it safe.

Queens of Geek by Jen Wilde, chosen by readers like you for Macmillan's young adult imprint Swoon Reads, is an empowering novel for anyone who has ever felt that fandom is family.

[Book Review] Radio Silence by Alice Oseman

Radio Silence is about Frances Janvier, a high school student who mostly is known for spending most of her time studying. She is seen as pretty boring and uneventful to her school friends, and she is pretty content with that. Even if she's not boring at all because after school she goes home and does fan art for a YouTube based podcast she loves called Universe City. She gets an email from the creator of Universe City, Radio Silence, asking her if she'd be interested in doing some art work for the podcast. Frances finds her life becoming anything but boring when she starts to become good friends with Aled Last. Especially when she finds out that he is the creator of Universe City.

H & E Bookish Chat: Eliza And Her Monsters

Erica Robyn Reads and I recently buddy-read Eliza And Her Monsters by Francesca Zappia. After messaging one another to say that we had each completed the book, this happened:

H: I’m not even sure how to review this book. I immediately revert into caveman Heather, "IT GOOD. READ. NOW.”

E: Ah, right??!?! That’s how I started my review!!! I was like: I don't even know where to start... I just kept typing “I LOVE THIS BOOK!”

Needless to say, we agreed that this would be the perfect book to roll out an idea we have had for a while now; H & E Bookish Chats!

But first, if you missed either of our reviews, feel free to check them out by clicking below:

Erica’s Review

Heather’s Review

They're both spoiler free, where the discussion will not be! So SPOILER WARNING!

This is part two of our discussion, go here to read part one!

Now, let’s jump into the chat!

[Book Review] When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon

Dimple Shah is determined to kick start her career immediately now that she has graduated high school and plans to go to Sanford for web design. She convinces her parents to let her go to Insomnia Con, a technology program for six weeks. Her mother wants her to focus on finding an "Ideal Indian Husband" but finally agrees to allow Dimple to go. Dimple is shocked that she agrees, and is happy her parents are finally on board with her focusing more on her career than her love life. Rishi Patel is a charismatic hopeless romantic who's parents have told him that his future wife will be at Insomnia Con but he will have to woo her. Rishi believes in tradition, stability, and feels immense pressure to live up to his family's expectations. Even if that means putting aside his passions to focus on something more practical.

Dimple and Rishi think they have each other figured out, but when opposites clash, love works hard to prove itself in the most unexpected ways.

[Book Review] Eliza And Her Monsters by Francesca Zappia

Trigger Warnings: mental health, anxiety, and suicide

Eliza Mirk is an eighteen year old senior impatiently wanting her high school career to come to an end. She focuses most of her time working on Monstrous Sea, a incredibly popular webcomic that she created anonymously a few years ago as LadyConstellation. She prefers her life online, she has two close online friends, a massive following because of her art, and she finds herself more at home with her sketchpad than she does with her family or anyone at school. Until a new boy at school motivates her to start living life off her computer and out of her sketchbook.

[Book Review] Ramona Blue by Julie Murphy

Ramona was only five years old when Hurricane Katrina changed her life forever.

Since then, it’s been Ramona and her family against the world. Standing over six feet tall with unmistakable blue hair, Ramona is sure of three things: she likes girls, she’s fiercely devoted to her family, and she knows she’s destined for something bigger than the trailer she calls home in Eulogy, Mississippi. But juggling multiple jobs, her flaky mom, and her well-meaning but ineffectual dad forces her to be the adult of the family. Now, with her sister, Hattie, pregnant, responsibility weighs more heavily than ever.

The return of her childhood friend Freddie brings a welcome distraction. Ramona’s friendship with the former competitive swimmer picks up exactly where it left off, and soon he’s talked her into joining him for laps at the pool. But as Ramona falls in love with swimming, her feelings for Freddie begin to shift too, which is the last thing she expected. With her growing affection for Freddie making her question her sexual identity, Ramona begins to wonder if perhaps she likes girls and guys or if this new attraction is just a fluke. Either way, Ramona will discover that, for her, life and love are more fluid than they seem.