The Lost Dreamer: A Review

“Stories don’t end, they just change shape.”

Indir is a Dreamer. Growing up in Alcanzeh surrounded by her sisters in the Temple of Night, Indir has always been protected. Her gift to Dream truth earns her respect both within the temple and the city beyond.

But change is coming and this cycle will end in chaos before another can begin.

With the king’s death Indir’s gift is a threat to Alcan–the king’s heir intent on dismantling the kingdom’s traditions and rituals–especially those surrounding the Dreamers.

Saya is a seer. She walks the Dreaming but she is not one of the revered Dreamers. Instead she travels from village to village with her calculating mother only staying long enough for Saya’s mother to explore her gift and get everything they can before moving on. Saya knows her mother is hiding things from her, but this unmoored life is also the only one she has ever known.

As Indir and Saya search for answers, both young women creep ever closer to the chaos and danger that threatens from all sides. When everything they know is threatened, both Indir and Saya will have to choose between staying to fight and running to survive in The Lost Dreamer (2022) by Lizz Huerta.

Find it on Bookshop.

The Lost Dreamer is Huerta’s debut novel and the start of a duology inspired by ancient Mesoamerican mythology. The story alternates between Indir and Saya’s first person narrations offering different perspectives on both the kingdom and Dreaming.

With readers dropped into the middle of the action, The Lost Dreamer is a fast-paced fantasy filled with surprising twists and high stakes. The less you know about how the pieces fit together, the more satisfying all of Huerta’s reveals will be. Themes of female solidarity and friendship play well against the matrilineal history underpinning this richly developed world. Recommended.

Possible Pairings: Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi, A Song of Wraiths and Ruin by Roseanne A. Brown, A Thousand Steps into Night by Traci Chee, The Never Tilting World by Rin Chupeco, Ever Cursed by Corey Ann Haydu, The Bone Charmer by Breeana Shields

Huda F Are You?: A Graphic Novel Review

Egyptian American Huda thought she knew exactly who she was: the hijabi girl.

But now that her family has moved to Dearborn, Michigan, Huda is facing a big identity crisis because in a town filled with Muslims it turns out everyone is the hijabi girl.

Not sure where this leaves her, Huda embarks on a journey of self-discovery. She isn’t athletic enough to be a hijabi athlete. She doesn’t want to get up early to perfect her makeup like the hijabi fashionistas. She isn’t competitive enough to be a hijabi gamer. And she definitely doesn’t know everything about being Muslim (or hijabi) so that’s out too.

Even being the smart one–previously a given for Huda in her large family–gets a lot harder with a teacher who is unfairly hostile to Muslim students.

As she navigates a new town and a new school Huda will make new friends, stand up to bullying and microaggressions, and maybe even have a new crush (or maybe not) all while figuring out who she wants to be in Huda F Are You? (2021) by Huda Fahmy.

Find it on Bookshop.

Fahmy’s fictionalized memoir tackles universal growing pains through a Muslim lens in this full-color graphic novel. Large panels and stylized cartoon illustrations lend a webcomic feel to this quick read. Muslim characters are shown with a variety of skintones (and hijab styles) and all characters have a variety of body types.

Huda’s experiences with her matriarchal family and her efforts to find her niche in school offer a nuanced and well-rounded portrayal of Huda’s search for herself.

Sharp humor and astute observations from the protagonist make Huda F Are You? a funny, immersive read. Fans can watch for the sequel Huda F Cares? in 2023.

Possible Pairings: Perfectly Parvin by Olivia Abtahi, Awkward by Svetlana Chmakova, Does My Body Offend You? by Mayra Cuevas and Marie Marquardt, All-American Muslim Girl by Nadine Jolie Courtney, Symptoms of Being Human by Jeff Garvin, Good Talk: A Memoir in Conversations by Mira Jacob, Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass by Meg Medina

Frizzy: A Graphic Novel Review

Marlene would rather have her nose in a book or spend time with her best friend Camila than focusing on school and growing up the way her mom wants. Tia Ruby–her mom’s younger sister–is a grown up but she’s still cool and fun. Can’t Marlene be like her instead?

According to her mom, the answer is no. Instead Marlene has to trek to the salon every weekend with her mom to make sure that her naturally curly hair can be properly straightened and relaxed to look “good” and “proper.” It’s not even just the salon because after that Marlene has to make sure she doesn’t run around too much, or get her hair wet, or do anything fun that might ruin the straightening.

Marlene doesn’t understand why her curls are so bad–she loves her natural hair and the way Tia Ruby has the same (admittedly more under control) curls. And she’s beautiful. Can’t Marlene’s hair be like that?

With help from Camila and Tia Ruby (and quite a few disasters along the way), Marlene hopes that she can learn how to maintain her natural hair and convince her mother that her curly hair can be “good” without all of the salon visits in Frizzy (2022) by Claribel A. Ortega and Rose Bousamra.

Find it on Bookshop.

Frizzy is Ortega’s first graphic novel and Bousamra’s debut; it received a 2023 Pura Belpré Award for Children’s Text. Bousamra’s illustrations and their soft color palette tenderly bring Marlene’s story to life. The soft colors and fine line work lovingly portray both Marlene and Ruby’s curls in this ode to natural hair. The interplay between Ortega’s text and Bousamra’s art make this full-color graphic novel a delight with a great balance of dialog, expository text, and visual cues.

Marlene and her family are Dominican American. Laugh-inducing efforts to properly style Marlene’s uncooperative curls add humor to this relatable story that also tackles anti-blackness (in relation to seeking “good” hair styles reminiscent of white hair) within the latinx community in thoughtful and age-appropriate conversations with both Marlene’s mom and her aunt. In addition to celebrating natural hair, Frizzy also joyfully gives Marlene space to choose how she will present herself to the world and–with support from her loved ones–also helps her find the agency to reclaim wash day for family bonding instead of dreaded salon trips.

Frizzy is a wonderfully empowering story about family, acceptance, and growing up. Highly recommended.

Possible Pairings: The Other Half of Happy by Rebecca Balcárcel, Miss Quinces by Kat Fajardo, Mercy Suarez Changes Gears by Meg Medina, Chunky by Yehudi Mercado, The Tryout by Christina Soontornvat and Joanna Cacao, Lotus Bloom and the Afro Revolution by Sherri Winston

*An advance copy of this title was provided by the publisher for review consideration*

Miss Quinces: A Graphic Novel Review

Suyapa “Sue” Gutiérrez wants to spend her summer drawing comics and hanging out with her friends at sleepaway camp.

Instead, Sue’s parents whish her away to visit family in Honduras with older sister Carmen and younger sister Ester. But unlike sleepaway camp, which would only be a few weeks, this trip is going to last all summer. To make matters worse their relatives live in the country where it’s so rural there is no phone, no internet, and not even any cable.

Just as Sue grudgingly makes her peace with all of that, she finds out that her mother has planned an entire quinceañera for Sue. In secret! With over 100 guests invited! And a pink princess theme!

Sue likes black a lot more than she’ll ever like pink, she doesn’t want to learn how to dance, and she definitely doesn’t want to wear a frilly pink gown.

As Sue learns more about her family history, new perspective from her artist grandmother might lead Sue to a compromise about the dreaded quinceañera if a sudden loss in the family doesn’t eclipse the entire party in Miss Quinces (2022) by Kat Fajardo.

Find it on Bookshop.

Miss Quinces is Fajardo’s debut graphic novel and hopefully the first of many. The story starts in New York before Sue’s summer plans are upended and is primarily set in Honduras–speech bubbles present English dialog in black text and Spanish dialog (translated into English) in Blue.

Bright, full color illustrations work well with Fajardo’s graphic style that focuses on her characters. Sue’s story is firmly grounded in Latinx culture and the customs surrounding quinceañeras but Sue’s struggles to balance her Honduran heritage with her own American sensibilities will ring true to any reader trying to straddle two worlds.

Along the way, both Sue and readers learn more about quinceañera traditions while also seeing ways that Sue (and her family) are able to adapt in order to make sure Sue’s quinceañera is one she’d actually want to attend. The story does include the death of Sue’s grandmother which, while obviously sad, is handled well.

An author’s note at the end includes some thoughts from Fajardo on her own quinceañera.

Miss Quinces is an optimistic coming-of-age story from an author to watch. Recommended.

Possible Pairings: Be Prepared by Vera Brosgol, Isla to Island by Alexa Castellanos, Pashmina by Nidhi Chanani, Stepping Stones by Lucy Knisley, Frizzy by Claribel A. Ortega and Rose Bousamra, For the Love of Laxmi by Bijal Shah

Salt Magic: A Graphic Novel Review

Vonceil is ecstatic when her older brother, Elber, comes home after serving on the front in the Great War. But the brother who comes back isn’t the one the Vonceil remembers. Wartime has made him serious and responsible–ready, even, to marry the girl he left behind–when Vonceil thought they’d have more time to play and get to know each other again.

Things get stranger when a sophisticated and mysterious woman arrives at their Oklahoma farm dressed all in white. She blames Elber for leaving her behind in France. She wants him to join her now.

When Elber refuses, she curses the family well and turns the entire town’s fresh water supply into saltwater.

To save her town and try to rescue her brother, Vonceil will have to travel far from everything she’s ever known into a world filled with magic, shapeshifting animals, and witches including a fickle Sugar Witch and the lady in white herself–a Salt Witch in Salt Magic (2021) by Hope Larson and Rebecca Mock.

Find it on Bookshop.

Salt Magic is the latest standalone graphic novel from Larson and Mock. All characters are presented as white.

Vonceil’s adventure blends historical fiction set at the end of World War I with larger than life fairytale magic–a contrast that mirrors Vonceil’s own mixed feelings about getting older and growing up. Mock’s artwork is sophisticated and layered as she captures both the vast emptiness of the midwest and the lush, decadent magical world Vonceil discovers. Detailed and vibrantly colored artwork fully capitalizes on the full color page design and perfectly conveys the lush magic of the story–especially the Sugar Witch’s confections.

A well-paced plot and nuanced characters elevate this story filled with action, adventure, and magic.

Possible Pairings: A House Divided by Haiko Hornig, Amulet by Kazu Kibuishi, Pony by R.J. Palacio, Tom’s Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce, Oyster War by Ben Towle

*An advance copy of this title was provided by the publisher for review consideration*

Roses, in the Mouth of a Lion: A Review

Corona, Queens in the 1980s is changing as the area’s first wave of primarily Italian immigrants are replaced with Pakistani family’s like Razia Mirza’s. The tension between the old and new in the neighborhood is palpable; the criticism clear as carefully tended gardens turn to weeds in the hands of new tenants and change keeps coming.

That tension between old and new is familiar to Razia Mirza. As the daughter of Pakistani immigrants who herself feels increasingly more American than Pakistani, Razia sees that same tension in herself; in her own life. Being a kid in Corona felt easy. Razia could understand the dimensions of her childhood even while she chafed against the narrow boundaries of her role as a “good girl” and a respectful part of her Muslim community.

But now, like her neighborhood, Razia is changing. She buys miniskirts from thrift stores, she listens to music her mother would call wild. Then she gets accepted to Stuyvesant all the way in the East Village in Manhattan where, for the first time, Razia feels like she has the space to be who she wants to be and not who her parents expect.

When her deepest friendship at Stuyvesant blossoms into something bigger, Razia has to decide if she can reconcile her family, her heritage, and her faith with the future she is chasing in Roses, in the Mouth of a Lion (2022) by Bushra Rehman.

Find it on Bookshop.

Short, vignette-like chapters unfold Razia’s story from early childhood into adolescence. For an even more immersive reading experience, check out the audiobook read by the author. Be aware of a few incidents of animal violence (mostly off page, but described after the fact) throughout the book if that’s a point of concern for you as a reader.

Vivid descriptions bring Razia’s world to life as her sphere slowly expands from the careful influence of her conservative parents into the punk scene surrounding Stuyvesant’s East Village neighborhood. Razia’s first person narration hints at larger stories unfolding with the circle of girls and women that comprise the Pakistani-American community in Corona but the tight focus on Razia’s experiences leave many plot threads open to interpretation by readers as they unpack Razia’s experiences alongside out protagonist.

Although romance in the conventional sense doesn’t appear in the story until the final act, Roses, in the Mouth of a Lion is a love story at its core. Again and again, Razia’s world expands as she discovers learning whether it’s at school, borrowing books from her local library, or gaining a deeper understanding of what her faith means to her while reading the Quran with her mother and other female community members at regular Vazes–religious parties–in the neighborhood.

Roses, in the Mouth of a Lion is a tantalizing window into one girl’s life as her world starts to expand, creating a friction between family obligations and personal growth as Razia tries to reconcile her own wants with the expectations of her family and community. Richly detailed prose bring Razia–and New York City–to life alongside provocative feminist themes of agency and freedom; this book and its author are ones to watch.

Possible Pairings: Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi, My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante, All the Rage by Courtney Summers, All My Rage by Sabaa Tahir, The Girls in Queens by Christine Kandic Torres, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong, Frankly in Love by David Yoon

*An advance copy of this title was provided by the publisher for review consideration*

We Deserve Monuments: A Review

Seventeen-year-old Avery Anderson is still smarting after breaking up with her first girlfriend over an argument she’d rather not remember. But that doesn’t mean she’s excited to have her entire life uprooted so that she can move from DC with her Mom and Dad to the middle of nowhere in Bardell, Georgia.

Avery barely knows her grandmother, Mama Letty, but with news of a terminal diagnosis Avery’s mother tells the family they have to be there for Mama Letty–whether she wants them there or not. Avery has known about the tension between her mom and Mama Letty for longer than she can remember. Based on the less-than-warm welcome they receive, Mama Letty dying seems unlikely to change anything.

Thank goodness for Simone Cole the cute girl next door who offers Avery some much-needed fresh air while being totally crush-worthy. Simone is a big personality and she’s quick to let Avery into her inner circle alongside best friend Jade Oliver–daughter of one of the town’s most prominent families with one of the most notorious reputations.

Secrets run deep in Bardell. As Avery unpacks the town’s racist past she also begins to fill in the gaps in her own family’s tragic connection to the town. As endings get wrapped up with new beginnings Avery has to decide if some secrets are worth burying when it also means keeping the peace in We Deserve Monuments (2022) by Jas Hammonds.

Find it on Bookshop.

We Deserve Monuments is Hammonds’ debut novel. Avery is biracial (Black mother and white father) and queer, Simone and her family are Black, and Jade’s family is from one of the wealthiest white families in Bardell. Avery’s first person narration alternates with short vignettes throughout the novel exploring different aspects of Bardell including painful pieces of the past as well as moments of first love and even an unlikely refuge for the local queer community highlighting just how varied even a small town can be for each of its residents.

Hammonds packs a lot into this deceptively slim novel with explorations of generational trauma, racism, and identity both through Avery’s story and her investigation into her family’s legacy in Bardell. Avery’s changing feelings about her family, especially Mama Letty, serve as a counterpoint to her complicated new friendships with Jade who Avery is hesitant to trust and Simone who might end up being something more.

In learning more about Mama Letty’s history in Bardell, Avery also starts to understand more about her own identity as a biracial and queer young woman and how to embrace both of those pieces of herself to take up space in her own life. Spare prose and evocative descriptions immediately draw readers into both Avery’s story and her search for answers.

We Deserve Monuments is grounded in a post-pandemic world that feels both timeless and current. Come for the romance, stay for the story of two girls learning how to love every part of themselves and their families–even the pieces no one wants to talk about.

Possible Pairings: Down and Across by Arvin Ahmadi, Starfish by Akemi Dawn Bowman, The Last True Poets of the Sea by Julia Drake, Darius the Great is Not Okay by Adib Khorram, Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo, A Very Large Expanse of Sea by Tahereh Mafi, I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson, Sugar Town Queens by Malla Nunn, The Astonishing Color of After by Emily X.R. Pan, We Are the Scribes by Randi Pink, Jagged Little Pill: The Novel by Eric Smith et al, The Serpent King by Jeff Zentner

Be sure to also check out my interview with Jas!

*An advance copy of this title was provided by the publisher for review consideration*

This Golden State: A Review

“I didn’t even know the choices, because I didn’t have the information.”

Poppy has grown up with five family rules:

1. No using your real name.
2. No staying in one place too long.
3. If something’s weird, take one thing and run to the meeting spot.
4. Keeping our family together is everything.
5. Don’t ask about the past. For your own safety. It’s the smallest mistake that will get us caught.

Lying constantly, hiding all the time, always waiting for one disastrous slip up hasn’t left much room for seventeen-year-old Poppy to ask questions. When she was little it all seemed normal. Now, Poppy has her little sister Emma and her parents. What more does she need?

Right away, Poppy knows that their latest move is different. Her parents never answer Poppy’s questions but once they arrive in California, Poppy has even more: like how a room prepared in a safe house can feel more like hers than anywhere else she’s ever lived and why it feels like pieces of her family’s secrets are waiting to be discovered.

With her parents distracted, Poppy has more freedom than she’s used to with a chance to attend an advanced math class, earn her own money, and maybe make a real friend in the unlikely form of ultra-wealthy and popular Harry. Family has always been enough for Poppy. It has to be. But as Poppy begins to dig deeper into her parents’ past with a secret DNA test and to think more about her own desires, Poppy also realizes that no secret can be kept forever in This Golden State (2022) by Marit Weisenberg.

Find it on Bookshop.

This Golden State is a tense standalone novel narrated by Poppy. The Winslow family and most characters are cued as white with Harry’s DNA results showing ancestry going back to Jamaica, South India, and Europe.

Perfect pacing and an urgent, close-focus narrative amps up the tension immediately as readers are drawn into Poppy’s world where nothing can be taken at face value. While family secrets and the looming results from Poppy’s DNA test drive the plot, this is ultimately a story about a girl who is leaning to dream and understanding how much bigger her world can be. As Poppy tries to keep up with her wealthier classmates who have had more consistent schooling, Poppy also starts to unpack the privilege that comes with stability and everything that she has lost growing up on the run–losses that her younger sister Emma has already begun to chafe under.

Harry gives Poppy a window into a world she knows she can never inhabit living the way she currently does–one fileld with opportunity and growth. Brief moments with Harry’s verbally abusive father also underscore to Poppy how much her parents have sacrificed to keep their family safe and intact. Weisengerg thoughtfully unpacks Poppy’s loyalty and deep love for her parents alongside her growing resentment at their rules and how they have to live. As she learns more about her parents’ roles in leading the family to this point, Poppy also has to learn how to maintain her affection and fond memories while leaving room for the anger that comes with understanding.

This Golden State is a taut exercise in suspense where family is everything. Until it isn’t. While the payoff for all of Poppy’s questions and investigating can feel anticlimactic, This Golden State is a story that will stay with readers long after the open-ended conclusion. Recommended for readers seeking a thriller focused on tension instead of scares.

Possible Pairings: Don’t Look Back by Jennifer L. Armentrout, Love and Other Perishable Items by Laura Buzo, My Mechanical Romance by Alexene Farol Follmuth, The Safest Lifes by Megan Miranda, The Liar’s Daughter by Megan Cooley Peterson, Remember Me Gone by Stacy Stokes, In the Wild Light by Jeff Zentner

Listen, Slowly: A Review

Twelve-year-old Mai has a lot of plans for the summer including hanging out the at the beach with her friends, being cool, and maybe even talking to HIM. Mai’s plans do not by any means include traveling to Vietnam with her grandmother, Ba, to find out what happened to Ba’s husband during the Vietnam War. Although her parents thing the trip is important and a great chance for Mai to connect with her Vietnamese culture, all Mai can see is missed opportunities in her actual home which is California.

Arriving in Vietnam Mai is unprepared for the hear, the smells, or how isolated she feels in a country that everyone says is hers where she still feels like a stranger. With limited Vietnamese and even less familiarity with local customs, Mai can’t wait for this summer trip to end. At least she’s with her grandmother.

Ba doesn’t speak much English and Mai doesn’t speak much Vietnamese but they always understand each other. As Ba returns to a country she never thought she’d see again and Mai discovers a place she never imagined visiting, Mai begins to understand that embracing her Vietnamese heritage isn’t going to diminish her life in Califorina; instead, if she lets it, this trip has the potential to make her world a lot bigger in Listen, Slowly (2015) by Thanhha Lai.

Find it on Bookshop.

Listen, Slowly is set primarily in Vietnam–all main characters are Vietnamese. Lulu Lam’s narration in the audiobook perfectly captures Mai’s conversational voice along with pronunciation of all the included Vietnamese words and phrases which might be harder for non-Vietnamese speakers to parse from print.

Mai’s snappy narration captures her California aesthetic and barely contained energy with an exciting crush on HIM, dashed summer plans and, eventually, tentative excitement about seeing Vietnam herself for the first time. With no previous interest in her cultural identity, Mai experiences a series of shocks as she learns about Vietnamese customs, foods, and how to deal with the unbearable heat and bugs.

The heaviness of the journey with Ba making what might be a final trip to the country she had to flee as a much younger woman to confront the truth of her husband’s death add melancholy to this story but are handled well. Lai expertly balances all of these nebulous feelings to create a story that focuses on resolution and progress rather than leaving any character stagnant. Mai navigating being decidedly out of her comfort zone as well as a potential friend who would much rather talk to her frogs than to Mai add levity and humor to the plot.

Mai’s explortation of Vietnam and tentative new connections with both family and her prickly friend contrast with Mai’s efforts to keep in touch with her American (presumed white) friends. Feeling isolated and left out from summer adventures back in California, Mai begins to wonder if having to make herself smaller and deny keys parts of herself–like being Vietnamese–are things she should have to do to keep up any friendship.

Listen, Slowly is a beautiful middle grade novel that blends a coming of age story with a travelogue as Mai and her grandmother explore Vietnam, reconnect with relatives and, for Mai, with her heritage.

Possible Pairings: Full Cicada Moon by Marilyn Hilton, Sunny Side Up by Jennifer L. Holm, Blackbird Fly by Erin Entrada Kelly, Dumpling Days by Grace Lin, Finding Junie Kim by Ellen Oh, Gone Crazy in Alabama by Rita Williams-Garcia, Front Desk by Kelly Yang

The Last Graduate: A Review

“They were saving me, and I was going to save them. It felt more like magic than magic. As though it could make everything all right. As if the whole world had become a different place.”

At the Scholomance, surviving the schoolyear is only part of the story. The real test, the final hurdle, is surviving the literal gauntlet of graduation. Every student knows the real challenges start senior year with alliances formed, weapons being tested, and the final run from the dorms through a hall filled with all of the worst magic-eating monsters waiting for the annual all-they-can-eat buffet.

This is the way it’s always been at the school. But with two once-in-a-generation talents in this year’s senior class it’s clear that things are about to change.

After spending his entire tenure at the Scholomance saving every student he can, Orion Lake is used to fighting mals and protecting everyone–often to his own detriment. With a tight rein on her own monstrous dark magic Galadriel “El” Higgins has spent the last year trying to protect Orion from himself and everything else the school has to throw at them.

Now, with senior year upon them, El has to build her alliance, prepare for graduation, and figure out if her mom’s advice to stay the hell away from Orion is prescient or just common sense. She’s going to ignore it either way, but it’s good to know when it comes to her mom’s edicts.

With no teachers or staff of any kind, the school’s motivations are always opaque but as graduation nears, it becomes clear the magical building is trying to say something to El specifically. If El listens in time it could change everything at the Scholomance–not just for this graduating class but for every wizard who will come after in The Last Graduate (2021) by Naomi Novik.

Find it on Bookshop.

The Last Graduate is the second book in Novik’s Scholomance series and picks up mere moments after the conclusion of book one A Deadly Education–start there to avoid spoilers and get the most out of this story.

There was a lot happening around the release of book one including a passage that had to be removed from the text and criticism of racist world building. My review of A Deadly Education provides links to articles detailing all of that–I decided I wanted to see how Novik built and improved on book one.

I won’t say that The Last Graduate is perfect–as a white reader I’m not the reader who needs to make that call–but I think Novik does take a lot of the potential with the world building that was baked into book one and works to do better here. Other readers may not want to give this series a second chance which is also fair.

After laying out what students–and readers–can expect from the Scholomance, Novik expertly upends all of that multiple times as not only the game but every rule is changed while El and her allies-turned-friends (or is it friends-turned-allies) prepare for graduation. Although still narrated by El, readers get to see and learn more about many characters within El’s widened social circle (most notably Aadhya and Liu).

El’s status as potentially the worst villain the magical world has ever seen is as fundamental to her character as her choice every day to fight against that destiny. This internal battle to choose to be better and do better rather than taking the easy or self-serving option is writ large as El is forced into an unexpected direction by the school itself which becomes a character in its own right in this installment.

The Last Graduate takes the raw potential of this series and makes it even better with thoughtful explorations of love, friendship, and classism within the confines of a magical adventure.

The Last Graduate is a dramatic, laugh-out-loud story where magic has sharp edges and villains can be heroes.

Possible Pairings: The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert; The Cruel Prince by Holly Black; All of Us Villains by Amanda Foody and Christine Lynn Herman; Magic for Liars by Sarah Gailey; An Unkindness of Magicians by Kat Howard; Killing November by Adriana Mather; The Left-Handed Booksellers of London by Garth Nix; Deadly Class by Rick Remender, Wes Craig, Lee Loughridge; Carry On by Rainbow Rowell; And I Darken by Kiersten White; Fable by Adrienne Young