The Strangers

Haddix, Margaret Peterson. The Strangers. Katherine Tegen Books, 2019.

Chess, Emma, and Finn come home from school to find their mother staring at her laptop, where there is a news recording of three children in Arizona who have been kidnapped. Three children who have the exact same first and middle names as they do and who share their birthdays. The next day their mother has to leave town for work, and the trio stumble into a mystery that has them looking for clues, breaking secret codes, and traveling to other worlds.

I remember reading and loving Haddix's Hidden Children series as well as her book Running Out of Time. I was very excited, then, to receive a digital ARC of this book to review. Similar to Haddix's other books, this book is filled with lots of action and adventure to help keep kids reading and turning the pages. Unlike many of her other works, though, this one has a rather slow build. There is a lot of explanation and a lot of description of the kids sitting around trying to figure things out. If you have read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, you'll remember the 100+ pages when Harry and Hermione (and sometimes Ron) are camping - they move from place to place and keep trying to figure things out, but there isn't much action in that section of the book. It's the same in this book for the first 75% or so.

It's a very slow build up, which makes it quite different from many other of Haddix's shorter, compelling stories. Because of this, I wouldn't give this book to a reluctant or struggling reader, but I would give it to a child who enjoyed A Wrinkle in Time, and I would give it to a child who had read all of Haddix's other works and was looking for a new book to read. The story is interesting, but not compelling. It's a solid clean read, though, so keep it on your shelves for patrons who want books without violence or language.

Recommended for: middle grade
Red Flags: mild peril
Overall Rating: 4/5 stars

Read-Alikes: Book Scavenger, What We Found In the Sofa and How It Saved the World, A Wrinkle in Time

I received a complimentary copy of this book through Edelweiss for the purpose of review.

Love & Other Curses

Ford, Michael Thomas. Love & Other Curses. HarperCollins, 2019.

Sam's family is under a curse. Every person in his family who falls in love before the age of 17 sees their loved one die. This has happened as far back as anyone in the family can remember. So of course Sam is trying to do everything to stay away from romance for at least a few more weeks. This shouldn't be a problem for the openly gay teen in a small coastal tourist town, until Tom comes into town. And with Tom comes a boatload of trouble for Sam.

There's a lot to unpack in this story. There is the idea of a generational curse, similar to that in Louis Sachar's Holes, along with Sam's family's belief in the supernatural. Additionally, Sam has been sneaking out to spend time at a gay bar (which he isn't legally old enough to do), and while there he spends most of his time backstage assisting the drag queens. On top of all of that, Sam finds out that Tom is transgender and Tom's family is not supportive, deadnaming him and using female pronouns in reference to him. Furthermore, Tom is straight, so even though Sam is attracted to him, it isn't reciprocated.

The overall story arc is interesting enough. Sam's supportive family is a wonderful relief to read about in contrast to Tom's family. The issues Tom has with his family - wearing makeup and feminine clothing around them and hearing them say that obviously he would like those things now that he's tried them, them making references to his need to grow his hair out and allowing him to spend time with Sam under the guise that they are dating - ring true as I am married to a transgender man and witnessed these very types of things when we were dating.

Sam's inability to use consistent pronouns with the drag queens is irritating beyond belief, especially once he is informed that female pronouns are always okay, but male pronouns are only okay when a queen is out of drag. That, combined, with Sam's consistent use of male pronouns for Tom make things weird when he's around the queens and changes pronouns mid-thought or mid-sentence. This is one of those sad books about transgender teens who don't get support at home, and Tom does not get his happily ever after ending, and indeed falls prey to the "transgender person must harm themselves or be attacked or something" plot line that is so overused. Apart from these flaws, the story is a good one.

Recommended for: teens
Red Flags: misgendering and deadnaming of Tom and the drag queens, drug use and alcohol use, Tom and Sam fight and through homophobic and transphobic slurs at each other.
Overall Rating: 4/5 stars

Read-Alikes: Holes, Drag Teen, What If It's Us

I received a complimentary copy of this book through Edelweiss for the purpose of review.

All the Things That Could Go Wrong

Foster, Stewart. All the Things that Could Go Wrong. Little, Brown BYR 2018.

Alex has OCD which is seriously affecting his ability to do his schoolwork and interact with his classmates. Dan's older brother has been incarcerated, and Dan's so angry about this that he attacks and bullies Alex. The two boys are forced to spend time together when their moms, who are friends, decide they could each use a friend.

Let's start with the characters before moving into a traditional review. Alex has OCD, but he is not on any medication or seeing a therapist with any regularity. His parents worry about the expense of a therapist, which is understandable, but Alex's OCD is problematic, causing him to be frequently late for school and damaging his hands and his school supplies from multiple washings. It also appears that his teachers are indifferent or ignorant of his condition.

Dan is set up as a secondary protagonist, and the reader is supposed to sympathize with him because his older brother is in juvenile detention for stealing a car and robbing a store. Dan bullies Alex because Dan hangs out with bullies at school, bullies who aren't really friends to him, either. While Dan is a fully fleshed-out character in this story, the other bullies - the Georges and Sophia - are just random evil flat characters.

The whole point of this book is clearly to make a person feel empathy for a bully and to understand that bullies have back stories and things going on in their lives that cause them to bully. However, the worst of the lot - Sophia - is not given a story. All we ever see her do is instigate trouble with Dan, with Alex, and with others.

All in all, this is an easy enough story to read, although I think that since Alex's OCD was diagnosed it would have been more realistic for him to have some more support for it, and the story's very didactic feel may turn off the very readers it was intended for. The two main characters are well-rounded, but all of the rest fade into the background, which only adds to the didactic feel of this story.

Recommended for: middle grade
Red Flags: lots of bullying - Alex has his head stuck in a toilet, for example, which is horrifying for a neurotypical person but traumatic for a person with OCD
Overall Rating: 3/5 stars

Read Instead: You Go First, The Losers Club, Absolutely Almost

I received a complimentary copy of this book through Netgalley for the purpose of review.

The Meaning of Birds

Brown, Jaye Robin. The Meaning of Birds. HarperCollins, 2018.

Jess and Vivi were inseparable for more than two years. Jess felt like Vivi completed her, understood her, helped calm the rage of anger that so frequently spilled over before. But now Vivi is dead, and Jess isn't sure what to do anymore. Her rages and fights at school land her in an alternative school for a month; her mother is hoping she will use this time to work through her grief and find her own way.

This is a lovely book about grieving the loss of a loved one. It is not a happy book, but it is a good one and a necessary one, particularly because of the amazingly queer cast of characters. Jess is a lesbian; Vivi never self-identifies but reads as pansexual; Jess's best friend is asexual; a classmate at the alternative school is a straight guy who is dating a transgender girl and he takes a lot of flack for it but loves her anyway. Jess's grief reads as genuine. She spirals in and out of rages; she loses interest in her activities from before Vivi's death; she loses touch with her friends. Numerous people figure she should be "over it" by now, as if grief somehow has a deadline.

I also appreciated the discussion of alternative education opportunities - internships, etc. - for those who may not be interested in attending college. Jess becomes interested in blacksmithing, which is fascinating and different and not something you'd see at most traditional colleges or universities. With the student loan debt situation and job situation we have in this country, it's good to remind people that there are other ways to make a living and be an adult, and not all of them require fancy degrees.

Recommended for: teens
Red Flags: some language; some violence particularly on Jess's part; one character grabs Jess's crotch in order to determine what kind of genitalia she has; lots of underage drinking and recreational drug use
Overall Rating: 4/5 stars

Read-Alikes: We Are Okay, Summer Bird Blue, You'll Miss Me When I'm Gone

I received a complimentary copy of this book through Edelweiss for the purpose of review.

The Lonely Dead

Henry, April. The Lonely Dead. Henry Holt & Co, 2018.

Adele can speak with the dead. Like her mother and grandmother before her, Adele can see and communicate with the dead when she is near the place their remains lie. Diagnosed with schizophrenia at a young age, Adele has been taking medication to damper the voices of the dead. But recently she stopped taking her meds, and now her former best friend is speaking to her, right over the place where her body is buried. Soon the murder is discovered, the police are looking for someone to pin the crime on, and Adele is looking like the ideal suspect.

Anyone who enjoys shows like Supernatural or X-Files where people can speak to the dead, combined with shows like Criminal Minds or Bones where there are murder investigations, would enjoy this book. The ending was completely predictable in the way many suspense/thriller endings are, but that didn't make it any less enjoyable. This book focuses mainly on the action of the plot, and it is certainly a compelling story. There is not much world-building and not a ton of character development, but if you are looking for a fast-paced story, this is the one for you.

I can't speak to the use of schizophrenia as Adele's diagnosis, but I do hope some #ownvoices reviewers on Goodreads do address this issue. It is unsurprising that she was diagnosed, especially with the history of her mother and grandmother also speaking to the dead, but I don't know how an #ownvoices reviewer would see the way this issue was handled.

Recommended for: teens
Red Flags: language, attempted murder
Overall Rating: 3/5 stars

Read-Alike Authors: Jennifer Lynn Barnes, Nick Lake, Lucy Christopher

I received a complimentary copy of this book through Netgalley for the purpose of review.