This week we have a memoir, a story of grief and a ghost, an ex along with a murder spree, and a little bit of horror.
Coming Home (Adapted for Young Adults) by Brittney Griner; Michelle Burford
Random House Children’s Books
On February 17, 2022, Brittney Griner arrived in Moscow ready to play for a Russian women’s basketball team. Instead, a security checkpoint became her gateway to hell and she was arrested for mistakenly carrying a small amount of an illegal substance in Russia. Brittney’s world was violently upended in a crisis that would capture the interest of an entire nation.
Brittney shares this harrowing story of courage and strength, while recalling her teenage years where she found meaning and empowerment in sports, and overcoming her own struggles with her sexual identity. Her principles of fortitude and courage are ever evident as she goes on to recount her feelings of isolation while navigating a foreign legal system, her emotional and physical anguish as the first American woman ever to endure a Russian penal colony, the chilling prisoner swap with Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, and her remarkable rise from hostage to global spokesperson on behalf of other detained Americans.
Young readers will identify with Brittney’s story of overcoming insurmountable odds, finding strength within herself, and navigating the ups and downs of coming of age as a queer Black woman. Coming Home is both a story of survival and a testament to love—the bonds that brought Brittney home to her family, and ultimately, to herself.
Goodbye and Everything After by Mae Coyiuto
Feiwel & Friends
It’s been five years since Nika’s beloved father passed away, but her family has never fully grieved. They don’t speak of him much at all, except on the anniversary of his death.
Whenever they visit her father’s grave, Nika’s superstitious mother still insists on practicing pagpag, a Filipino belief that you can never go directly home after attending a funeral—or risk the spirit of the departed following you back home.
But when her mom’s new fiancé suddenly shows up at the cemetery for this year’s memorial for her dad, she furiously walks out, breaking the pagpag superstition. The next day, she finds herself face-to-face with the ghost of her dead father. . . and Nika’s the only one who can see him.
As she spends time reconnecting with her dad’s ghost, Nika learns about her parents’ past and how they started dating back in high school. And when she starts to fall for her neighbor Seph and accidentally re-creates memories of her parents’ love story with him, her dad’s spirit slowly becomes more solid and alive. Fearing that she’ll lose her dad again, Nika makes it her mission to find a way to make her dad stay permanently, no matter what the cost.
With a perfect blend of humor and heart, Mae Coyiuto artfully brings past to present in a way that explores grief head-on.
Ungodly Chaos by Selma Soren
Margaret K. McElderry Books
Amira Shah is having a perfectly good, perfectly normal year—until her boyfriend (and hottest boy in school) Kaidan Jaziri breaks up with her on her seventeenth birthday. But Amira is never one to let things go, and after overhearing Kaidan loudly arguing with someone in town, she follows him, only to fall through a portal to the underworld, also known as Duat.
There, she learns the chaotic ex-boyfriend who would endlessly rope her into trouble inherited his impulsive nature from his ancestor Apep, the god of chaos.
Kaidan is intent on solving a spree of murders happening in the human realm. Someone is killing other descendants—and if Kaidan isn’t careful, he might be next. Feeling a mystical pull to Kaidan and the underworld, Amira insists on helping solve the mystery.
Together with Kaidan’s rival and descendent of the sun god, Zain Neilos, they uncover secrets behind Amira’s mysterious connection to the Egyptian pantheon and pursue the clever killer who may have been hiding among them all along.
They Call Her Regret by Channelle Desamours
Wednesday Books
Every year horror-loving Simone Washington throws an epic Halloween party for her classmates. Party-planning is her favorite escape from the dark secrets in her past, and this year, she’s taking things up a notch with an invitation-only event to celebrate her eighteenth birthday—something that will leave the halls of Pinegrove Academy flooded with gossip about the big ghoulish bash. The overnight stay at Doll’s Head Lake will be filled with spooky pranks and scary stories told by the fire—including the legend of a local witch named Regret.
But those dark secrets from Simone’s past are forced to the surface at the party when her best friend Kira dies under questionable circumstances. The witch appears and offers Simone a deal: if Simone can figure out how to release Regret from the curse trapping her at the lake within fourteen days, all of Simone’s regrets will be erased. If Simone accepts, Kira’s life will be immediately restored. But if she fails, Kira will die again—and Simone will be the one to kill her.