Archives de catégorie : Young Adult

WE COULD BE ANYONE d’Anna-Marie McLemore

Two teen con-artists must execute an almost impossible scam at an exclusive mansion in this thriller that’s White Lotus meets Mexican Gothic – for teens.

WE COULD BE ANYONE
by Anna-Marie McLemore
Feiwel & Friends, May 2026
(via Dystel, Goderich & Bourret)

“Lola and I grew up hearing that we could become anything, but our parents hadn’t meant it the way gringo parents did. They meant it as a warning.”

Lola and Lisandro are actors during Hollywood’s Golden Age, but you won’t see them on any silver screen. Instead, these siblings use their talents to scam the rich and famous out of their ill-begotten cash. They have their act down to a science: Lola plays the tragic ghost who haunts the mansions of the wealthy, and Lisandro plays the brave spiritualist who will help her soul find peace. For a small fee, of course.

The siblings have their sights set on their next target: The Coterie, the opulent estate of newspaper tycoon Bixby Fairfax and his famous mistress Blythe Bell. A score this big will allow them to move… well, anywhere but here. But this job requires them to do something they’ve never done before: switch roles. And as strange things keep happening at The Coterie… things that even Lola and Lisandro can’t explain.

As they are drawn deeper into The Coterie’s gleaming façade and tensions rise between brother and sister, one question looms over them. Will they be able to pull off their act? Or will this be their last performance?

“McLemore’s signature prose both cuts like ice and rolls languidly off the tongue.” –Shelf Awareness, starred review

“Mixing horror and fantasy, the deftly woven plot simmers…” –Publishers Weekly

Anna-Marie McLemore (they/them) is the author of The Weight of Feathers, Wild Beauty, Blanca & Roja, Dark and Deepest Red, Lakelore, Venom & Vow (co-authoredwith Elliott McLemore), and National Book Award longlist selections When the Moon Was Ours, The Mirror Season, and Self-Made Boys: A Great Gatsby Remix. They have received the Michael L. Printz Award, the Stonewall Honor, the Otherwise Award, three Northern California Book Awards, and an Américas Honor.

DARK AND SHALLOW LIES de Ginny Myers Sain

A teen girl disappears from her small town deep in the bayou, where magic festers beneath the surface of the swamp like water rot, in this chilling debut supernatural thriller for fans of Natasha Preston, Karen McManus, and Rory Power.

DARK AND SHALLOW LIES
by Ginny Myers Sain
Razorbill, September 2021
(via Park, Fine & Brower)

La Cachette, Louisiana, is the worst place to be if you have something to hide.

This tiny town, where seventeen-year-old Grey spends her summers, is the self-proclaimed Psychic Capital of the World—and the place where Elora Pellerin, Grey’s best friend, disappeared six months earlier.

Grey can’t believe that Elora vanished into thin air any more than she can believe that nobody in a town full of psychics knows what happened. But as she digs into the night that Elora went missing, she begins to realize that everybody in town is hiding something—her grandmother Honey; her childhood crush Hart; and even her late mother, whose secrets continue to call to Grey from beyond the grave.

When a mysterious stranger emerges from the bayou—a stormy-eyed boy with links to Elora and the town’s bloody history—Grey realizes that La Cachette’s past is far more present and dangerous than she’d ever understood. Suddenly, she doesn’t know who she can trust. In a town where secrets lurk just below the surface, and where a murderer is on the loose, nobody can be presumed innocent—and La Cachette’s dark and shallow lies may just rip the town apart.

* “Dreamy prose conjures a mythical Southern Gothic atmosphere, mixing violence with a Byronic characterization of Elora’s stepbrother Hart. Taut pacing builds sustained terror on the page with each successive suspect in this formidable debut.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review

“Haunting and arresting, this is one stunning debut. Ginny Myers Sain has written a totally engrossing small-town mystery about what happens when you finally dig up long-buried secrets.” —Jessica Goodman, New York Times bestselling author of They’ll Never Catch Us

“Enchanting and chilling at once, you’ll instantly get sucked into this atmospheric tale of kindred spirits brimming with secrets that could tear them apart. Ginny Myers Sain’s haunting, lush, lyrical prose will keep you captivated till the end.” —Diana Urban, author of All Your Twisted Secrets

Ginny Myers Sain lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and has spent the past twenty years working closely with teens as a director and acting instructor in a program designed for high school students seriously intent on pursuing a career in the professional theatre. Having grown up in deeply rural America, she is interested in telling stories about resilient kids who come of age in remote settings. She is also the author of Secrets So Deep. Follow her on Twitter @stageandpage and on Instagram @ginnymyerssain, or find her on her website at ginnymyerssain.com

ON STARLIT SHORES de Bex Glendining

In this YA urban fantasy graphic novel, Alex must return to the town where she was born to unravel the magical mysteries her late grandmother left behind.

ON STARLIT SHORES
by Bex Glendining
Abrams Fanfare, September 2025

Alex Wilson hasn’t been back to Indigo Harbor, the seaside village where she grew up, in years. In fact, she can barely remember anything about it. But when her grandmother dies unexpectedly, Alex will have to return to her childhood home to say goodbye.

Accompanied by her best friend, Grim, Alex travels back to her hometown and begins cleaning out her grandmother’s house, but the longer they stay, the stranger things get. Indigo Harbor isn’t your average town—there are falling stars, witches running tea shops, and a name that comes up again and again: Elizabeth. Who was this woman, and how did she know Alex’s grandmother?

As she explores the town and sorts through her grandmother’s belongings, Alex reconnects with her past and tries with increasing desperation to uncover the greatest secret of all, the identity of the mysterious Elizabeth. Tackling grief, acceptance, and how to honor a loved one’s life, Bex Glendining has crafted a beautiful and moving graphic novel perfect for readers who loved The Dark Matter of Mona Starr, Girl From the Sea, and the Magic Fish.

Bex Glendining is an award-winning, biracial, queer, UK-based illustrator, comic artist, and colorist. Their clients include Netflix, Huffpost, DC Comics, Marvel, Penguin Random House, the New York Times, and NPR. When not working, they can usually be found building miniature rooms, playing video games with friends or fussing Cookie, their very spoilt tortoiseshell cat.

STRANGE BLOOMS de Darren Simpson & Keith Robinson

A fully illustrated, darkly gripping tale of a town suddenly invaded by mysterious and deadly plants – Thornhill meets The Owl Service.

STRANGE BLOOMS
by Darren Simpson
illustrated by Keith Robinson
Pushkin Press, September 2026

Fran is an ordinary teenage girl, living in an ordinary seaside town. But one day, something horrifyingly out of the ordinary begins to take root…

They start slowly, almost imperceptibly. But soon the strange, uncanny flowers have infiltrated the whole town. And every young person who smells the intoxicating blooms falls victim to a life-sapping illness. All except one: seemingly ordinary Fran.

Told in a dual timeline, Strange Blooms takes the reader on an exciting journey to discover the truth behind these deadly flowers, and uncover a mystery that rocked the town 40 years earlier.

Darren Simpson writes vivid, unruly fiction for older children and teens. His debut novel, Scavengers, was a Guardian Best Book of the Year and his latest book, Furthermoor, was a Waterstone Book of the Year. He has been nominated twice for the prestigious Carnegie Medal.

Keith Robinson has created jackets for, among other projects, the Waterstones Book of the Year I Am Rebel.

PEARL BEACH de Beth Steiner

A poignant free verse novel about the challenges of growing up and the joy of connecting.

PEARL BEACH
by Beth Steiner
Pushkin Press, May 2026

This summer
I’ll grow up

For as long as Billie can remember, summer has meant one thing: Pearl Beach. The idyllic seaside home belonging to her old Aunt Edith, and the place where she met her best friend, Andy.

But this summer, everything seems to be changing. Andy is more interested in makeup and boys than in Billie, and Aunt Edith has decided to stay with them for the whole summer. Edith is a holocaust survivor, and whenever Billie tries to talk to her, her words seem to crumble under the weight of this knowledge.

But Edith was fourteen once too and knows all too well the pains of growing up. When Billie finds her old diary, she starts to realise just how much they have in common…

Beth Steiner is a debut writer, with a background as a primary school teacher. A passionate slam poet, she skilfully weaves poetry into her narratives, bringing a lyrical quality to her storytelling.