More June books, friends! Another pretty good batch here, some great, none terrible!

Bad Graces by Kyrie McCauley
The Stardust Grail by Yume Kitasei
Cuckoo by Gretchen Felker-Martin
Craft: Stories I Wrote for the Devil by Ananda Lima
The Bound Worlds by Megan E. O’Keefe
Assassins Anonymous by Rob Hart

Bad Graces by Kyrie McCauley
Published by Katherine Tegen Books on June 6, 2024
Pages: 320
Format:eARC
Source:Copy provided by publisher for review, via Netgalley

Yellowjackets meets House of Hollow in award-winning author Kyrie McCauley’s gripping and magical YA thriller following a group of young women as they face the stress of harsh elements, a mysterious monster, and an unraveling of secrets after their yacht is wrecked off the coast of North America.

Liv Whitlock knows she doesn’t belong there. But after years of stumbling between foster homes, often due to her own self-destructive tendencies, Liv desperately needs to change the trajectory of her life … so she steals her perfect sister’s identity.

Liv starts to rewrite her story, winning a prestigious internship on a movie set filming in Alaska, and finds herself on a luxury yacht alongside pop star Paris Grace, actress sisters Effie and Miri Knight, Olympic gymnast Rosalind Torres, and social media influencer Celia Jones. Liv tries to find common ground with her famous companions, but just as the group starts to bond, a violent storm wrecks their vessel, stranding them on an island in the North Pacific Ocean.

Among the threats of starvation and exposure, they learn there is a predator lurking in the forest, unlike anything they’ve seen before—until they begin to see it in themselves. Every injury they suffer on the island causes inexplicable changes in their bodies. With little hope for rescue and only each other as their final tether to humanity, can the girls endure the ominous forces at work on the island? Or will they lose themselves to their darker natures?

“But we’re teenage girls. We’ve all been prey before.”–Bad Graces

Oh, how I devoured this book! I was hooked from the start, and it ended up taking a very different road than I expected but in the best possible way. And there is so little I can say about it without giving stuff away so… I will tread carefully and keep it brief.

It’s comped as Yellowjackets meets House of Hollow, and while I don’t know what the latter is, there is definitely the YJ vibe I was hoping for but another very big vibe I got was The Wilds, which um, yes please! Let’s just say that the atmosphere and overall feel was a complete win, yeah? The whole book is full of mysteries and excitement and trying to survive. Main character Liv is even a mystery in her own right, as she is not who the others think she is. She is, however, a character you will definitely root for- all the girls really are, which I found refreshing. Even though some are famous and they obviously have flaws, they weren’t the stereotypical “rich kids”. The author did a great job of fleshing them all out and giving them their own stories.

There is a big survival element too, which I am always a fan of. The stakes are immeasurably high, and while I didn’t fully understand the “why” behind some of the potentially more paranormal parts, I still loved the story so much that it didn’t matter. There were twists upon twists, secrets and mysteries to unfurl, and I could not put the book down.

Bottom Line: Bad Graces feels like such a fresh take on YA Horror, and I absolutely loved every second.

The Stardust Grail by Yume Kitasei
Published by Flatiron Books on June 11, 2024
Pages: 320
Format:eARC
Source:Copy provided by publisher for review, via Netgalley

Save one world. Doom her own.

From the acclaimed author of The Deep Sky comes a thrilling anti-colonial space heist to save an alien civilization.

Maya Hoshimoto was once the best art thief in the galaxy. For ten years, she returned stolen artifacts to alien civilizations—until a disastrous job forced her into hiding. Now she just wants to enjoy a quiet life as a graduate student of anthropology, but she’s haunted by persistent and disturbing visions of the future.

Then an old friend comes to her with a job she can’t refuse: find a powerful object that could save an alien species from extinction. Except no one has seen it in living memory, and they aren’t the only ones hunting for it.

Maya sets out on a breakneck quest through a universe teeming with strange life and ancient ruins. But the farther she goes, the more her visions cast a dark shadow over her team of friends new and old. Someone will betray her along the way. Worse yet, in choosing to save one species, she may condemn humanity and Earth itself.
--
CW: violence and gore, xenophobia, xenocide, colonization, vomit, torture, war, infertility, chronic illness, confinement, suicidal thoughts (minor), pandemic, migraines

I have to confess that any fault I may have with this book are likely due to my insane expectations. And the fact that I was really tired when I read it maybe, although I am always really tired so maybe less so on that front. I next-level loved Yume Kitasei’s debut, so no question I was looking forward to her sophomore offering. And it was not bad by any means! I have seen plenty of reviewers even say they preferred it! And honestly, I don’t have any objective reasons for liking it less. I just kind of did? And honestly a four star rating is still really good so I have no idea why I am trying to explain myself so much. Let’s… just get to it!

The premise is amazing. I love the whole moral complexity of the “what lengths would you go to to save the world”, and this ups the ante by basically asking that question but adding multiple worlds and species! To save one, you may end up destroying another, and that is where things get extra dicey. So suffice it to say, the stakes were very high. I think the only things that kept me from fully loving this are twofold: One, it started off a little slow, and two, I think some of the worldbuilding confused me a bit. I got the general idea, but the more technical stuff went a bit over my head. Also, there is a fabulous guide to the other species in the back of the book, which I definitely think would have been handy during the reading, so keep that in mind!

I found the characters, especially main character Maya, to be a particularly strong aspect of the book. Maya was giving me some “badass women of The 100” vibes, which I am here for all day. She would have fit right in with her “no good choices” and her aptitude for intergalactic quests. Obviously, here for it. The second half of the book especially sucked me in, as not only was the action ramping up, but it was clear that decisions were going to need to be made.

Bottom Line: If you are into a bunch of cool species and worlds and morally complex decisions, this is one for you!

Cuckoo by Gretchen Felker-Martin
Published by Tor Nightfire on June 11, 2024
Pages: 352
Format:eARC
Source:Copy provided by publisher for review, via Netgalley

Cuckoo is a searing new novel from Manhunt author Gretchen Felker-Martin, where a motley crew of kidnapped kids try to stay true to themselves while serving time in a conversion camp from hell.

In the late 90s, five queer kids, whose parents want them “fixed,” find themselves thrown together at a secretive "tough love" camp deep in the scorching Utah desert.

Tormented and worked to the point of collapse by hardline religious zealots intent on straightening them out, they slowly become aware that something in the mountains north of the camp is speaking to them in their dreams, and that the children who return home to their families have...changed.

Bottom Line: Always, always here for calling out (loudly and very creatively, in this case) the vile atrocities some parents force on their kids.

Craft: Stories I Wrote for the Devil by Ananda Lima
Published by Tor Books on June 18, 2024
Pages: 192
Format:eARC
Source:Copy provided by publisher for review, via Netgalley

At a Halloween party in 1999, a writer slept with the devil. She sees him again and again throughout her life and writes stories for him about things both impossible and true.

Stories I Wrote for the Devil lures readers into surreal pockets of the United States and Brazil, where they’ll find bite-size Americans in vending machines and the ghosts of living people. Ananda Lima speaks to modern Brazilian-American immigrant experiences―of ambition, fear, longing, and belonging―and reveals the porousness of storytelling and of the places we call home.

At the start, I was into this, really. I didn’t quite get what the deal was, if the Devil was a real person, etc., but I was curious, and I liked the stories, which seemed like moments of time in the main character’s life through a third person narrator. Cool! I enjoyed these slices of life, and even was down for the Devil’s role. But then about halfway through… Idk man, narrators/POVs changed, I got confused, not really knowing whose story we were following half the time. Where’d the “writer” go? She still the main character? I hadn’t a clue. When I got to the cannibalizing of tiny vending machine people, I was just flat out lost. I feel like maybe I was supposed to understand and didn’t? So now I feel kind of stupid, and no one likes that.

That said, the parts that I enjoyed were definitely worth reading. Maybe it’ll make more sense to you than it did to me at the end.

Bottom Line: Was really digging it, but then got a little too confused. Still, cool premise, and I mean… tiny vending machine people-snacks are always worth saying you’ve encountered, so there’s that.

The Bound Worlds by Megan E. O'Keefe
Series: The Devoured Worlds #3
Published by Orbit on June 25, 2024
Pages: 496
Format:eARC
Source:Copy provided by publisher for review, via Netgalley

Worlds will collide and fates will be rewritten in the thrilling conclusion to the Devoured Worlds space opera trilogy by award-winning author Megan E. O’Keefe.

Naira and Tarquin have found a new home on Seventh Cradle. But the peace they’ve built is short-lived as mysterious assailants ambush the settlement and Naira is haunted by visions of a monstrous future. Catastrophe strikes when Tarquin uncovers a plot to bring about the end of the universe. As humanity races against the clock to prevent their extinction, old secrets come to light and loyalties fracture, and Naira realizes she may be the key to saving the world—or ending it.

This is a really strong finale to a great series overall. In this conclusion, the stakes are higher than ever, especially for our main characters, but also, for the entirety of humanity. They keep finding out things that prove their situation to be more and more dire- and preventing it will inevitably cost someone, or multiple someones, their lives. I thought that especially in this book, the pacing was great. I was never bored, and always on the edge of my seat.

The characters were, as always, very well developed. I think even more than ever, their relationships with each other played a huge role in the story. Who to trust was akin to literal life or death, so their relationships were so important to the plot. The romance was not the focus, which I appreciated, but it was still present. I was honestly quite impressed that the author was able to have an active relationship between main characters that didn’t at all weigh down the book. For me personally, that is a rare feat. Also because of the well developed characters and relationships, the emotional stakes for the reader was equally high, and the author delivered on that front, too!

My only qualm, and my only real qualm with the series really, is that I didn’t ever fully get a grasp of the worlds- like, I could never quite picture the “cradles” and such. I think because of that, I had a wee bit of trouble understanding what was going on with Naira a few times, but this is really not a huge complaint. There were a lot of great twists to the story, and a lot of stuff I never saw coming. All in all, this was an excellent conclusion, and I finished the series very satisfied.

Bottom Line: We just love when a series finale nails the landing.

Assassins Anonymous by Rob Hart
Published by G.P. Putnam's Sons on June 11, 2024
Pages: 320
Format:eARC
Source:Copy provided by publisher for review, via Netgalley

In this clever, surprising, page-turner, the world’s most lethal assassin gives up the violent life only to find himself under siege by mysterious assailants. It’s a kill-or-be-killed situation, but the first option is off the table. What’s a reformed hit man to do?

Mark was the most dangerous killer-for-hire in the world. But after learning the hard way that his life’s work made him more monster than man, he left all of that behind, and joined a twelve-step group for reformed killers.

When Mark is viciously attacked by an unknown assailant, he is forced on the run. From New York to Singapore to London, he chases after clues while dodging attacks and trying to solve the puzzle of who’s after him. All without killing anyone. Or getting killed himself. For an assassin, Mark learns, nonviolence is a real hassle.

Let’s get the obvious out of the way, this book contains murder and violence and such. Because assassins. Even ones who are trying to change their murdery ways. First of all, the premise is kind of genius: a group of folks who are trying to reform themselves from their lives of murder, but the Assassin Life is not willing to let them go so easily. Mark is really trying. He goes to his meetings, he has a sponsor. He just wants to live a normal life.

But… someone attacks Mark, and attacks him bad. Which leads him back into the life he’s been so desperate to leave. Thing is though, Mark has quite a few… shall we say, talents?

So sure enough, he’s swept back into the life, because sometimes it’s kill or be killed, right? And he is trying to do the right thing, but as he chases clues, literally around the world, he knows that it won’t be so easy to hold his ground. The premise is just perfect, because even though you know Mark has done Some Stuff in his past, the fact that he is trying so earnestly to do better makes you like him, even if he is maybe one of the best killers on the planet. And there is a lot that Mark is going to have to unravel- his brain, in this case, is just as vital as his proverbial sword.

I could not put this book down, both because I was engrossed in the mystery, and because I was rooting so hard for Mark and everyone else who wanted to be reformed. There were so many great twists, but also, the characters were fabulous, which is something I did not expect from a book about literal mass murderers.

Bottom Line: Brilliant premise and equally great execution- pun absolutely intended.

Have you read any of these books? Plan to? Let us chat about them!  

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