I always need more books that acknowledge and embrace the deep rage that so many teenage girls have. This does that really well.
There's been kind of a big wave of "horror, but the horror is a metaphor for systemic oppression" type books in YA in the last year or so. (And a lot of fish-out-of-water stories that involve a POC character in a very white, very affluent environment, too, although that's just a more diverse twist on a long-standing trope). Full disclosure: this has been one of my favorite trends in YA in a long time. And our library has a lot of horror loving teens, too. However, the more elements that a book has in common with other new releases, the harder it is to stand out and be well received. This book had some stiff competition and yet managed to be an absolute standout YA horror book during a time when that genre is very trendy.
Something I'm always looking for in YA books is this sense of just making teens feel seen. Just an inherent understanding of what being a teenage girl (or, much more rarely, a teenage boy or nonbinary person) can feel like and a willingness to really live in that sensation. So much of this genre is catered to adult women and doesn't worry about being entertaining or relatable for actual teens and it makes it so hard to recommend things to our teens at the library. It's even harder to find ones that deal with the "ugly" emotions and really grapple with the fact that, yes, teenage girls can have a lot of anger, and they are justified in feeling that way. This is an absolute standout in that category. It was already something I was planning to recommend to our horror lovers, but I honestly think that even our teens who aren't big horror readers (but can stomach those elements) would love this. Jamison Shea is an author to watch--I'll be picking up whatever they write next, and if they have any recommendations from other authors I'd pick those up too.
I enjoyed the plot, I enjoyed the characters, I enjoyed the pacing, really there was very little for me to nitpick or dislike. But the bigger, less definable sense of "this person gets it" is the best thing about this book.
There's been kind of a big wave of "horror, but the horror is a metaphor for systemic oppression" type books in YA in the last year or so. (And a lot of fish-out-of-water stories that involve a POC character in a very white, very affluent environment, too, although that's just a more diverse twist on a long-standing trope). Full disclosure: this has been one of my favorite trends in YA in a long time. And our library has a lot of horror loving teens, too. However, the more elements that a book has in common with other new releases, the harder it is to stand out and be well received. This book had some stiff competition and yet managed to be an absolute standout YA horror book during a time when that genre is very trendy.
Something I'm always looking for in YA books is this sense of just making teens feel seen. Just an inherent understanding of what being a teenage girl (or, much more rarely, a teenage boy or nonbinary person) can feel like and a willingness to really live in that sensation. So much of this genre is catered to adult women and doesn't worry about being entertaining or relatable for actual teens and it makes it so hard to recommend things to our teens at the library. It's even harder to find ones that deal with the "ugly" emotions and really grapple with the fact that, yes, teenage girls can have a lot of anger, and they are justified in feeling that way. This is an absolute standout in that category. It was already something I was planning to recommend to our horror lovers, but I honestly think that even our teens who aren't big horror readers (but can stomach those elements) would love this. Jamison Shea is an author to watch--I'll be picking up whatever they write next, and if they have any recommendations from other authors I'd pick those up too.
I enjoyed the plot, I enjoyed the characters, I enjoyed the pacing, really there was very little for me to nitpick or dislike. But the bigger, less definable sense of "this person gets it" is the best thing about this book.