Fans of The Wilder Girls and The Grace Year will devour this stinging feminist horror debut about girls claiming their power.
MY DEAREST DARKEST
by Kayla Cottingham
Sourcebooks Fire, April 2022
Finch Chamberlain is the newest transfer student to the ultra-competitive Ulalume Academy…but she’s also not what she seems. Months before school started, Finch and her parents got into an accident that should have left her dead at the bottom of the ocean. But something monstrous, ancient, and terrifying wouldn’t let her drown. Selena St. Claire sees right through Finch, and she knows something is seriously wrong with her newest classmate. But despite Selena’s suspicion, she feels inexplicably drawn to Finch, leaving her with a sinking feeling that from now on, the two will be unnaturally linked to each other. Then one night, Finch, Selena, and her friends accidentally summon a carnivorous creature of immense power from the depths of the school. Can Finch and Selena learn to work together to stop the horror they unleashed before it consumes them and the entire island?
Kayla Cottingham is a youth services library assistant at her local library and an MLIS candidate at Simmons University. After receiving her BA in writing, literature, and publishing from Emerson College, Kayla worked as an editorial intern for The Horn Book and Page Street Publishing before switching to librarianship. She currently resides in Brookline, Massachusetts, where she spends most of her free time playing video games, reading in parks, and befriending as many dogs as she can.
When Mari hails a Ryde to a music festival, the last thing she expects is for the car to pick up a gorgeous guy along the way. Mari doesn’t believe in dating—it can only end with a broken heart, like it did for her parents. Besides, she’s only staying at her dad’s house in Chicago for the weekend. How close can you get to a guy in three days?
Leena Edenfrell never dreamed of igniting a war, and her pair bond, Noc Feyreigner, never wanted to set foot on a battlefield again. But when their enemies combine forces, they have no choice but to fight. While Noc makes moves to reclaim his throne, Leena acts as the new Crown of the Charmer’s Council, searching for a way to stop the enemy from raising an ancient dragon destined to burn their world to ash. But no matter how hard Noc and Leena fight, the odds are stacked against them, and soon a winged shadow reigns over Lendria. It’s then they learn the true price of victory: in order to tame the terrifying beast, Leena will have to sacrifice her own heart…and perhaps lose herself in the process.
Vera has a nagging feeling that she’s forgetting something. Not her keys or her homework—something bigger. Or someone. When she discovers her best friend Riven is experiencing the same strange feeling, they set out on a mission to uncover what’s going on. Everyone in Vera’s world has a special ability—a little bit of magic that helps them through the day. Perhaps someone’s ability is interfering with their memory? Or is something altering their very reality? Vera and Riven intend to fix it and get back whatever or whomever they’ve lost. But how do you find the truth when you can’t even remember what you’re looking for in the first place? The Forgotten Memories of Vera Glass is a cleverly constructed, heartbreaking, and compelling contemporary YA novel with a slight fantasy twist about memory, love, grief, and the invisible bonds that tie us to each other.
It’s Tally Tuttle’s first day of second grade, and she’s so nervous that she feels like she ate butterflies for breakfast! On top of moving to a new town and new school where she doesn’t know anyone, everyone starts teasing her when her full name, Tallulah, is revealed during roll call. She just wishes she could retreat into a shell . . . Then, all of a sudden, the desks and her classmates around her seem enormous, and Tally is shell-shocked to discover that she’s actually turned into a turtle! She’d heard that Mrs. Norrell’s class was special, but she hadn’t expected this. Tally likes having a shell to hide in, but there are other parts of turtle life—like the fear of being stepped on—that aren’t exactly ideal. And once she’s tired of hiding, how can she change back into a girl? Tally will have to forge her own transformation back to herself and come out of her shell—both literally and figuratively!