Kelly Jensen's Blog, page 23

Your Favorite Book Website Closed — How You Can Support Those Still Going

Over the last few months — weeks, really — we’ve seen a number of websites that book lovers adore cut their freelance writers and editors. Bustle’s books section lost its contributors and editors, and the Barnes and Noble genre blogs, including the teens blog, let their writers go. Both sites promise to continue producing content, but without savvy, insightful, and well-versed writers, they’ll never be the same.

Something I’ve thought about as an online writer is how these losses are painful, and while they’re not preventable (anyone in digital media knows this is a reality), there are things that readers can do to help with the longevity of these writers and sites. Too often, there’s a big mourning and public sadness about the loss of these sites. But, that same enthusiasm and engagement isn’t there continuously.

These suggestions aren’t going to be a fit for every person, nor will they fit in every situation. But they’re all small, manageable acts that you can do to show support for your favorite writers and editors in the bookish web.

Turn Off Your Browser’s Ad Blocker

The easiest and simplest way you can support writers you love online is to turn off your ad blockers. Yes, ads are annoying. They can slow down your computer a tiny bit. They are selling you things you may or may not be interested in. But those ads are what keep the lights on, whether you actively click on them or night.

You lose nothing by doing this or by – if your ad blocker supports this function – shutting it off for certain websites. Display ads make up a not insignificant amount of revenue for a website, and the fewer eyes that see them, the less likely advertisers will buy in, which reduces the revenue for websites, leading to cuts.

Think of it this way: display advertising on your screen is money in the pocket of those writers you love, even if you don’t click them.

Share Work You Love On Social Media

Seems obvious, but it’s not always the case. If you love something, share it among your social feeds. Clicks those garner not only bring in traffic to the site and, as noted above, more eyes on advertising, but that can help those writers gain exposure. As their reputations increase, so do the opportunities they might see when it comes to contributing in other capacities, be it another website in the future, a book, or even within their own company. If a writer is seeing good traffic, they’ll get more prime assignments or see their voices heard more frequently within the organization.

Too often, we forget that part of a writer’s livelihood is in their work being shared. If you’ve found something interesting or helpful, chances are someone else in your circle does.

Comment on Work You Love

Interacting with work you love is extremely helpful. It feels like it’s small, and it is. At least for you. For the writer, this interaction is not just a self-confidence boost, but it can be proof to an organization their work is important and valued.

While many sites have eliminated commenting directly on posts, most social media still allows it. Love a post? Go to the organization’s Facebook page and comment on the post. For Facebook, Twitter, and other algorithm-based streams, engagement increases a post’s chances of being seen by more people. A comment has more value than a thumbs up or like. Even something as simple as “this was a great read” can do wonders.

Leave Reviews (On Facebook, For Podcasts, etc.)

Facebook allows you to rate companies if they have a page, as opposed to a group. Rate the sites with work you love. Leave those five stars and write something about the value you see in that organization’s work.

For writers who are responsible for more than writing on-site content, leave reviews of their other projects. For example: is one of your favorite writers also a podcast host? Go to Apple Podcasts, to Spotify, to Stitcher, to Google Play, and to any other podcatcher of your choice and leave a positive review. Those reviews help increase the podcast’s visibility on those services, bringing in more listeners, which translates into both more traffic and more ad revenue.

If leaving reviews everywhere feels daunting, one thing I’ve found helpful is to set aside one day a month to spend 30 minutes leaving reviews everywhere I can think of. That’s it! It doesn’t need to be daily, doesn’t need to be a big project. Just a set period of time to do it and be done.

Click The Links On Posts

Most websites you read that link to products are using affiliate links, meaning that they get a small percentage of any sale made from that site when clicked for a set period of time. For example: if a writer links to a book on Amazon and you click that link, regardless of whether or not you buy that specific product, whatever you do buy in that session or for a set period of time after (time differs), the site gets a small percentage of the sale. This costs you literally nothing.

Want to make a significant purchase on Amazon? Go to a website you love and click one of their Amazon links, then navigate to the products you’re purchasing. Voila — you’ve put some cash into one of that site’s revenue streams.

It’s not just Amazon, of course. Many book websites (and, of course, other websites) have affiliate links for other outlets, too. Often the same principle applies. You don’t want that Harry Potter toy from Target? Click the link, then navigate to the things you want to buy. Again, you’ve done something for that website for literally no cost to you.

Subscribe to Newsletters

Newsletters are the new blog, and they bring in good ad revenue for many websites. If you subscribe, even if you don’t want to read them regularly, open them up, scroll to the bottom, then save it or delete it. You’ll impact the open rates.

If you CAN read them through, do so. That will be beneficial, as will clicking through on links that might be included in the newsletter. See above for why you want to click those links, even if the product linked to isn’t one you want to ultimately purchase.

I can say from personal experience that some of my best and most interesting YA book related work for Book Riot isn’t on site. It’s in the biweekly “What’s Up in YA?” newsletter. I know my audience is there because they love YA, and I can cater what I write to that audience in a way that I can’t and don’t on Book Riot.

Buy Your Favorite Writers a Coffee (Ko-Fi), Join Their Patreon, or Support Their Pet Causes

I don’t have the time or energy to have a Ko-Fi or a Patreon, but many writers do (I use that energy I have here at STACKED, which is a project I love doing with Kimberly because it brings me joy). When the budget allows, drop those writers a little spare change and help them buy a coffee at their favorite coffee shop or support their creative work beyond the organization for which they work.

If that writer doesn’t have one of those outlets, one thing you can do that would touch them personally (though maybe not professionally) is to ask them what organizations or nonprofits they love, and drop some cash that way in their honor. It doesn’t seem like a huge deal, but it can be. Digital media doesn’t pay big salaries, and even a $10 donation in a favorite writer’s name to a cause they love can mean the world to them.

 

How do you support your favorite online writers? These are the things I’ve learned are helpful from my own work in the field and that cost the least amount of money, time, and energy, but I know there are others out there. I’d love to hear them in the comments.

 

This Week at Book Riot

Over on Book Riot this week…

 

The best book covers of 2019.

 

Baby Yoda gifts you won’t be able to resist.

 

Pop these literary socks on your feet.

 

You’ll want some of these collector’s editions of YA books on your shelves.

 

Two podcasts to share this week, too! First up, I was on All The Books sharing 8 of my favorite nonfiction titles of the year. There’s also a new episode of Hey YA, wherein Eric and I talk about under-rated 2019 YA books and the books on our winter TBR.

A Few Cybils Reads – Part 4 (2019)

Wilder Girls by Rory Power

Power’s debut is a bestseller and I know a lot of readers have loved it, but it didn’t work for me. It’s a dystopia-type story set in the near future at a school for girls called Raxter. It’s not much of a school anymore since the island where the school is located was hit with the Tox, a mysterious illness that causes body deformations (like an extra external spinal cord) and erratic, violent behavior in its victims. The girls have been promised that the Navy and the US government are working on a cure, but in the meantime they’re restricted to the island and sent a few meager supplies every so often. When Hetty’s best friend Byatt disappears, she and her other friend/new love interest Reese team up to find her, discovering a few secrets and lies along the way.

Many other readers have praised the writing as well as the plot, but I found neither particularly engaging. I’m surprised this has garnered so much positive attention this long after dystopian YA’s heyday. There’s nothing especially interesting or revelatory about the girls’ situation at Raxter, and the hand-wavey explanation for the Tox at the end is almost insulting in its generality.  The only really fresh thing it offers in terms of plot is the body horror, which doesn’t do anything for me as a reader but I’m sure fascinates others. Contrary to other reviewers, I didn’t really observe anything particularly feminist about the story (though it’s not anti-feminist either). I did appreciate that Power included a romance between two girls (Hetty and Reese).

 

Aurora Rising by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

Instead of attending the draft where he would be able to handpick his team for the Aurora Legion, a futuristic spacefaring version of the United Nations, Tyler Jones followed a wayward distress signal and rescued Aurora O’Malley from the the space fold.  She had been trapped there in stasis for the past two centuries, the only survivor from a ship on its way to colonize one of the many new worlds that had been discovered thanks to fold technology. As a result of missing the draft, Tyler – the top Alpha at the Academy – was stuck with the dregs, the recruits no one else wanted. His twin sister Scarlet, the designated diplomat, stuck with him, as did his best friend and pilot Kat, but the other three members of his new team (including two aliens of separate species) are…less than stellar. Things get off to a rocky start when the team is sent on its first mission, a throwaway job that appears almost meaningless. And then Aurora shows up, an unwelcome stowaway who not only seems to have uncontrollable superpowers, but is also being hunted by a group of truly scary Earth enforcers who will stop at nothing to get to her.

This is a high-concept, high-action thriller of a space adventure that doesn’t skimp on its characters. As readers will expect, the prickly team bonds over time, eventually becoming each others’ found family. I loved a lot of the world-building touches, like the fact that just before first contact with aliens, religion on Earth had pretty much died out, but the discovery of so many different alien species (and their remarkable similarities to humans and each other – all bipedal, all carbon-based, and so on) prompted humans to create a new unified religion. Kaufman and Kristoff do a really solid job with the two main alien cultures, too, which are distinct and have their own complex culture and histories.

The audio production is pretty great. Told in rotating point of view chapters, each team member (including Aurora) is voiced by a different reader, and the voices of the masked villains are modulated so they sound mechanized and extra-creepy. One main character, Kat, is Australian, and while the reader for her does a good job with the accent (at least to my ears), the others are pretty bad at it, to the point that it drew me out of the story a lot. Other than that, though, this is an above-average audiobook, a real treat for listeners who enjoy full cast productions.

 

December 2019 Debut YA Novels

Get ready to get your read on with these December 2019 debut YA novels. There are only three debut books this month, so it’s a great chance to catch up on titles you’ve missed and to dive into this year’s Morris Award finalists. I’ve read only one of the titles on their short list, so I’ve got some reading to do there, too.

This round-up includes debut novels, where “debut” is in its purest definition. These are first-time books by first-time authors. I’m not including books by authors who are using or have used a pseudonym in the past or those who have written in other categories (adult, middle grade, etc.) in the past. Authors who have self-published are not included here either.

All descriptions are from Goodreads, unless otherwise noted. If I’m missing any debuts that came out in December from traditional publishers — and I should clarify that indie/small presses are okay — let me know in the comments.

As always, not all noted titles included here are necessarily endorsements for those titles. List is arranged alphabetically by title, with publication dates in parentheses if the book hasn’t already been published. Starred titles are the beginning of a new series.

December 2019 Debut YA Novels
Dangerous Alliance by Jennieke Cohen

Lady Victoria Aston has everything she could want: an older sister happily wed, the future of her family estate secure, and ample opportunity to while her time away in the fields around her home.

But now Vicky must marry—or find herself and her family destitute. Armed only with the wisdom she has gained from her beloved novels by Jane Austen, she enters society’s treacherous season.

Sadly, Miss Austen has little to say about Vicky’s exactcircumstances: whether the roguish Mr. Carmichael is indeed a scoundrel, if her former best friend, Tom Sherborne, is out for her dowry or for her heart, or even how to fend off the attentions of the foppish Mr. Silby, he of the unfortunate fashion sensibility.

Most unfortunately of all, Vicky’s books are silent on the topic of the mysterious accidents cropping up around her…ones that could prevent her from surviving until her wedding day.

Couple leaning on brick wall

Hearts, Strings, and Other Breakable Things by Jacqueline Firkins (17)

Mansfield, Massachusetts is the last place seventeen-year-old Edie Price wants to spend her final summer before college. It’s the home of wealthy suburbanites and prima donnas like Edie’s cousins, who are determined to distract her from her mother’s death with cute boys and Cinderella-style makeovers. Edie has her own plans, and they don’t include a prince charming.

But as Edie dives into schoolwork and applying for college scholarships, she finds herself drawn to two Mansfield boys who start vying for her attention. First there’s Sebastian, Edie’s childhood friend and first love. He’s sweet and smart and . . . already has a girlfriend. Then there’s Henry, the local bad boy and all-around player. He’s totally off limits, even if his kisses are chemically addictive.

Both boys are trouble. Edie can’t help but get caught between them. Someone’s heart is going to break. Now she just has to make sure it isn’t hers.

 

Reverie by Ryan La Sala

All Kane Montgomery knows for certain is that the police found him half-dead in the river. He can’t remember how he got there, what happened after, and why his life seems so different now. And it’s not just Kane who’s different, the world feels off, reality itself seems different.

As Kane pieces together clues, three almost-strangers claim to be his friends and the only people who can truly tell him what’s going on. But as he and the others are dragged into unimaginable worlds that materialize out of nowhere—the gym warps into a subterranean temple, a historical home nearby blooms into a Victorian romance rife with scandal and sorcery—Kane realizes that nothing in his life is an accident. And when a sinister force threatens to alter reality for good, they will have to do everything they can to stop it before it unravels everything they know.

This wildly imaginative debut explores what happens when the secret worlds that people hide within themselves come to light.

 

This Week at Book Riot

 

On Book Riot this week…

I’ve spent the last long span of time working on this piece — a look at how tablet companies for prisons have stolen money from both incarcerated populations and Project Gutenberg.

 

Here are the best gifts for readers in 2019 under $20.

 

Over 50 YA books hitting shelves in paperback this winter.

 

I’ve also got a piece on School Library Journal this week that I’m so excited about: YA anthologies and how teachers and librarians are using them.

Cybils Spiderweb 2019

I’m deep into my Cybils reading for this year, with a total of 20 books read in full and many others begun. When I read so many books in such a short period of time, it’s easy to pick up on similarities, patterns, and trends. As in previous years, I made note of these and organized them into a sort of mind map that I call a spiderweb. Some of the common themes this year have been stories set in France, gods who meddle in human affairs, and a whole lot of warrior girls. I anticipate the spiderweb will grow over the next few weeks, and I hope to provide a final version sometime after the announcement of our shortlist in January.

Dispatches From Audies Judging

Over the last couple of months, I’ve listened to hundreds of hours of audiobooks, thanks to being a judge on this year’s Audie Awards. The Audies are hosted by the Audio Publishers Association and seek to highlight the best audiobooks of the year across a wide variety of categories. Unfortunately, the one rule of Audies is that while I’m allowed to talk about being on a judging panel, I’m not allowed to share which one. But what I will say is I’m in a category with a significant amount of listening to a lot of different books.

My selections are due on December 12, a mere week and a half away. I’ve got about five titles left in my list, which feels extremely doable. As I listen to one of those books, I thought it’d be fun to share a few of the things that I’ve learned from this experience. For readers who are curious about becoming part of the Audies in the future, details for how to be a judge are on the APA website, and if you like listening to audiobooks, I cannot recommend the experience highly enough — even though, as you’ll see, I might not choose to do the category I’m in again.

 

 

The judging round I’m in comes in two waves. I got my first round of titles in late September, then my second round in early November. The very first thing I did was look at the list of titles and their time. I’m required to listen to books all the way through in my round, as opposed to the first hour or so, and I needed to come up with a game plan. My approach was going from the longest audiobook down to the shortest. When I finished the first round, I realized this worked really well and made me excited for the shorter titles by the time I got to them, so I took the same method for round two. This is why finishing up five books in a week and a half feels so doable at this point. They’re all under 8 hours, meaning I can listen to them in a day.

 

The bulk of my audiobooks have been in the 10+ hour range. As someone who prefers shorter books to longer ones, I came to the experience nervous, but realized pretty quickly that while the narrative mattered, for the purposes of the awards, I needed to focus more on performance aspects than I did whether or not the story captured my attention wholly. But in many cases, it did grab my attention anyway. I had one book that was the second title in a trilogy, and I’d not read the first one — but I loved the audiobook and never felt like I missed out on anything vital by diving right in. I did note this, in part because I think that’s a pretty powerful sign of a masterful audiobook.

 

We are not allowed to listen at any speed faster than at speed. As someone who listens at 1.25 or even 1.5, this has been the most difficult part of the process. It’s so slow. But that slowness is purposeful: you really do have to focus on the performance.

 

My category included both fiction and nonfiction, but I was sad to see only two nonfiction titles in the whole of 20 or so audiobooks. I’ve got the second one yet to listen to, but I found the first to be among the best I listened to. My general listening tends toward nonfiction, so I’ve got a bit of bias there, but I’ve been surprised that the judges in the prior round did not think there were more than two nonfiction titles worthy of a second listen, as my own year of listening has suggested quite otherwise.

 

That said, I learned how quickly I can adapt to fiction on audio. I used to listen to novels all the time while driving, but that fell away for me. I was nervous I’d be unable to keep with one, but this experience has proven quite opposite. In fact, I had to listen to the audio of a book I’d read in print, and I think that, despite how much I liked it in print, I liked it even more in audio.

 

There is a big lack of diversity in my collection of audiobooks. I can’t put my finger on why, of course, but I was disappointed to see so few books by authors of color in my rounds, and more, disappointed to see so few performers of color reading the titles. It wasn’t — and isn’t — entirely surprising, though, that I’ve found those books to be at the top of my list, particularly as accents have been authentic and added such depth to the narrative in ways that really made those books come alive.

 

Speaking of performers, I’ve had multiple books performed by a voice that many people adore. As I’ve listened to multiple titles by them, though, I’ve come to discover while I can see why they’re a great performer, I don’t like them personally. I don’t know so much if it’s them, or it’s the fact their voice tends to perform many thrillers where the strong female character in the book is seen as masculine. It’s been interesting to see this trend play out, wherein a strong female character is given a deeper, more masculine voice. I can’t say I like it, and the more I hear it, the more it bothers me.

 

Children’s voices in audiobooks are not good. A number of my titles have included a performer giving voice to a child, and nearly all of them have sounded exactly like that: an adult trying to sound like a child. It’s grating and pulls me out of a listen in no time, as I hope for that part to end as soon as it can.

 

Something I’ve thought a lot about are Audible originals. For those unfamiliar, these are audiobooks available through Audible only, and they can be titles done just by Audible or titles that Audible has acquired to record and produce. What’s bothered me about these particular titles has nothing to do with the performance — they’ve been good. Instead, I’ve spent a lot of time wondering about accessibility of these titles to a larger listening audience. To listen to them, a person needs an Audible account. They’re not available in stores, via outlets online that sell audiobooks beyond Audible/Amazon, and most crucially, they’re not available for libraries. This isn’t one of my judging criteria, but equity in access is something I cannot stop thinking about. How can we name a book as the best if only a small number of people can acquire it? It doesn’t leave a good feeling in my ears.

 

The round before mine was not required to listen to audiobooks all the way through, and at times, that showed. It’s not a lack of judgment on their part, but rather, really allowed me a chance to see what they saw initially and then see where and how the rest of the audio did or did not hold up. They were super into thrillers and mysteries, which are two genres I don’t especially care for, and yet, I quickly learned how fast I can discern what makes a good audiobook for one of those genres and what doesn’t.

 

I’ve kept notes on each title via a spreadsheet with four categories: Performance, Direction, Production, and Content. The bulk of my notes fall in the first and third category. What’s been most interesting in my listening is how clear production can impact the overall book in ways that a general listener would never notice. One of my books had a weird production issue where each chapter would become more or less echo-y, depending upon where the performer was in relation to the mic. This became easier to discern as the problem when I switched from listening without headphones to listening with. It took me hours of that 14+ hour audiobook to put my finger on it, and when I did, I realized that it was something most listeners would potentially notice but never put a name to.

 

A number of my books have had British, Canadian, or Australian accents, which has been neat. Some are more engaging than others, and some have impacted the experience. I had one with what was clearly a performed accent — not all of them were — and it immediately put me off and kept me off. That title is at the bottom of my list because the performance was so grating. A title with an Australian accent, performed by an Australian narrator, is among those titles near the top of my list for being so compelling.

 

The thing that’s most surprised me about this experience is that I haven’t once gotten sick of listening to audiobooks. If anything, this has made me even more drawn to audio, especially as I discover the genres that work for me beyond nonfiction. In past book judging panels, I’ve found myself utterly burned out, but this has had the opposite effect. I cannot wait to listen to the loads of non-Audies audiobooks I’ve been building up in my personal library, and I am not worried that I’ll be analyzing them to the point of disliking them.

 

Although the book is neither at the top of my list nor the bottom, one of my favorite listens was a queer, interracial romance. I’ve dipped my toe into reading romance and have enjoyed it, but never had I considered listening to it on audio. Let me just say it was pretty hot, and I’m glad I wasn’t driving while listening to it.

 

How did I accomplish all of this listening? I worked it into my every day routine in more ways than I already do. I listened every time I was in the car by myself, and I gave myself spare time getting from place to place so I could listen for a bit in my car when I arrived. I listened every morning while getting ready for the day, and I used time while working on activities that didn’t require intense concentration for work. I packed my audiobooks with me when I’d work at the local cafe, which let me knock out 4 or 5 hours of listening at a time, and every opportunity I had to go for a walk, I took, audiobook in ears. I also downloaded a few mindless phone games — Candy Crush and Word Scapes being two I’ve really taken to — so that at night before going to bed, I could listen for a stretch of time and also do something while listening. It became routine pretty quickly, and in fact, now my husband and I unwind before bed by playing a couple rounds of Word Scapes together. For the most part, I kept notes in my spreadsheet as I listened, but there were a few times that I’d have to scramble for a piece of paper or my Notes App to jot down something I did not want to forget.

 

Last, but not least, we do not talk as a committee of judges. All of our listening and decision making is done individually, and I have no idea who else is in the same category as me. This is a fascinating experience, as my judgments and insights are only ever shared in a final form with the titles I wish to move forward. Will other listeners on my committee agree? Disagree? Working in solitude is fun and really forces me to listen carefully, but it’s also been strange not to be able to talk with fellow judges and ask what they thought or if they noticed the same thing I did (or if they, like me, have found this trend of masculine sounding women voicing thrillers to be bothersome).

 

I can’t talk about my favorites yet, but I’m so excited to see what the final slate of titles for my category will look like and be able to share those with other listeners. I’ve really felt myself grow as a listener, as well as a judge of audiobooks, and I’m eager to take this knowledge forward and listen to more books than I initially thought possible.

This Week at Book Riot

I didn’t open my task keeper yesterday at all, thus today’s post is up a little later than usual because, well, I enjoyed a day of reading and marathoning Netflix. Cheers!

Here’s what’s happening on Book Riot this week…

Your ultimate guide to Harry Potter goods at Target!

 

The Available Reads extension hooks up your Goodreads account with your local library’s and will change your reading life.

 

Need some book puzzles?

 

Yes, lots of bookish goods stuff this week, as I’m deep in the midst of working on a couple of news pieces and need something lighter in between — bookish fridge magnets.

 

There’s also a brand new episode of Hey YA of reader requests! Eric and I offered book recommendations to nearly 20 listener-submitted questions and it was a blast.

Speaking of Hey YA:

 

 

You can catch Eric and I at The Book Stall in Winnetka, Illinois on February 25 at 6:30 pm for discussion of Eric’s latest book, as well as a LIVE Hey YA podcast recording. For Chicago readers in the city, it’s right off the Metra line, as well as just off the El.

Cover Trend: Cross Outs, But For Faces

In early 2018, Kimberly highlighted a cover design trend: the cross out. Words in titles specifically were being crossed out as part of the design and there were a slew of them.

That post came back to me vividly as I perused cover trends in YA for 2020, but in a bit of a different way. We’re having a lot of cross outs in 2020 YA, but rather than most of them being part of the title, they’re across a teen’s — or multiple teens’ — face. This isn’t especially new or novel, but the fact there are so many of them is worth taking a peek at (heh) if for no reason than it might be hard to distinguish among them.

The trend makes sense in many ways. As YA has grown to accommodate a significant rise in thrillers, the cross out of the face can cue to readers the type of story they’re about to pick up. It’s mysterious and it gives a sense of anonymity.

Interestingly, most of these books feature white characters with their eyes or faces crossed out. It’s interesting because we have seen a huge rise in the number of teens of color on YA book covers, which is great, but we haven’t necessarily seen thrillers become inclusive in the same way many other genres within YA have. This isn’t to say they don’t exist, but they’re much rarer here than in, say, YA contemporary or YA fantasy.

I’ve pooled the crossed out face covers for 2020 best as I can, but if you know of others, drop them in the comments. I’ve pulled descriptions from Goodreads.

All Your Twisted Secrets by Diana Urban (March 17)

Welcome to dinner, and again, congratulations on being selected. Now you must do the selecting.

What do the queen bee, star athlete, valedictorian, stoner, loner, and music geek all have in common? They were all invited to a scholarship dinner, only to discover it’s a trap. Someone has locked them into a room with a bomb, a syringe filled with poison, and a note saying they have an hour to pick someone to kill … or else everyone dies.

Amber Prescott is determined to get her classmates and herself out of the room alive, but that might be easier said than done. No one knows how they’re all connected or who would want them dead. As they retrace the events over the past year that might have triggered their captor’s ultimatum, it becomes clear that everyone is hiding something. And with the clock ticking down, confusion turns into fear, and fear morphs into panic as they race to answer the biggest question: Who will they choose to die?

 

Clique Bait by Ann Valett (April 28)

Pretty Little Liars meets Burn for Burn in this thrilling debut from Wattpad star Ann Valett.

Chloe Whittaker is out for revenge. Last year her best friend Monica’s life was unceremoniously ruined by the most popular students at their high school, so this year Chloe plans to take each and every one of them down. She traded her jeans and T-shirts for the latest designer clothes, deleted everything on social media that would tie her to Monica (and blow her cover), and carefully devised a way to befriend the members of the popular clique. Now all that’s left to do is uncover their deepest, darkest secrets and reveal them to the world.

Chloe has the perfect plan…that is, until she begins to fall for one of the people she’s determined to destroy.

 

Girl From Nowhere by Tiffany Rosenhan (July 21)

Ninety-four countries. Thirty-one schools. Two bullets.

Now it’s over…or so she thinks.

Sophia arrives in Montana with the promise of a normal high school experience. But after a turbulent few years abroad with her diplomat parents, forgetting the past is easier said than done. After all, “normal” high schoolers aren’t trained in several forms of combat.

Then Sophia meets Aksel and finds herself opening up in ways she never thought she could. Except Sophia’s past is about to catch up with her, and she must confront who she really is, why she was betrayed, and what she is capable of in the name of love and survival.

Full of heart-stopping action and breathtaking romance, this cinematic debut features a girl willing to risk everything to save the life she built for herself.

 

 

Girl, Unframed by Deb Caletti (June 23)

Sydney Reilly has a bad feeling about going home to San Francisco before she even gets on the plane. How could she not? Her mother is Lila Shore—the Lila Shore—a film star who prizes her beauty and male attention above all else…certainly above her daughter.

But Sydney’s worries multiply when she discovers that Lila is involved with the dangerous Jake, an art dealer with shady connections. Jake loves all beautiful objects, and Syndey can feel his eyes on her whenever he’s around. And he’s not the only one. Sydney is starting to attract attention—good and bad—wherever she goes: from sweet, handsome Nicco Ricci, from the unsettling construction worker next door, and even from Lila. Behaviors that once seemed like misunderstandings begin to feel like threats as the summer grows longer and hotter.

It’s unnerving, how beauty is complicated, and objects have histories, and you can be looked at without ever being seen. But real danger, crimes of passion, the kind of stuff where someone gets killed—it only mostly happens in the movies, Sydney is sure. Until the night something life-changing happens on the stairs that lead to the beach. A thrilling night that goes suddenly very wrong. When loyalties are called into question. And when Sydney learns a terrible truth: beautiful objects can break.

 

Jane Anonymous by Laurie Faria Stolarz (January 7)

Then, “Jane” was just your typical 17-year-old in a typical New England suburb getting ready to start her senior year. She had a part-time job she enjoyed, an awesome best friend, overbearing but loving parents, and a crush on a boy who was taking her to see her favorite band. She never would’ve imagined that in her town where nothing ever happens, a series of small coincidences would lead to a devastating turn of events that would forever change her life.

Now, it’s been three months since “Jane” escaped captivity and returned home. Three months of being that girl who was kidnapped, the girl who was held by a “monster.” Three months of writing down everything she remembered from those seven months locked up in that stark white room. But, what if everything you thought you knew―everything you thought you experienced―turned out to be a lie?

 

One Of Us Is Next by Karen M. McManus (January 7)

Come on, Bayview, you know you’ve missed this.

A ton of copycat gossip apps have popped up since Simon died, but in the year since the Bayview four were cleared of his shocking death, no one’s been able to fill the gossip void quite like he could. The problem is no one has the facts.

Until now.

This time it’s not an app, though—it’s a game.

Truth or Dare.

Phoebe’s the first target. If you choose not to play, it’s a truth. And hers is dark.

Then comes Maeve and she should know better—always choose the dare.

But by the time Knox is about to be tagged, things have gotten dangerous. The dares have become deadly, and if Maeve learned anything from Bronwyn last year, it’s that they can’t count on the police for help. Or protection.

Simon’s gone, but someone’s determined to keep his legacy at Bayview High alive. And this time, there’s a whole new set of rules.

 

 

You’re Next by Kylie Schachte (June 30)

When a girl with a troubled history of finding dead bodies investigates the murder of her ex, she uncovers a plot to put herself—and everyone she loves—on the list of who’s next.

Flora Calhoun has a reputation for sticking her nose where it doesn’t belong. After stumbling upon a classmate’s body years ago, the trauma of that discovery and the police’s failure to find the killer has haunted her ever since. One night, she gets a midnight text from Ava McQueen, the beautiful girl who had ignited Flora’s heart last summer, then never spoke to her again.

Just in time to witness Ava’s death from a gunshot wound, Flora is set on a path of rage and vengeance for all the dead girls whose killer is never found. Her tunnel-visioned sleuthing leads to valuable clues about a shocking conspiracy involving her school and beyond, but also earns her sinister threats from the murderer. She has a choice—to give up the hunt for answers, or keep digging and risk her loved ones’ lives. Either way, Flora will regret the consequences. Who’s next on the killer’s list?

 

This Week at Book Riot

 

Over on Book Riot this week….

 

Snap up some fun library stickers.

 

Books that’ll hit the public domain in 2020.