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Sapphic YA for Halloween

October starts tomorrow, and Halloween is just around the corner, so everyone will start putting together their TBRs for the month of all things spooky! So I thought I'd help you along with a list of sapphic YA horror and supernatural reads perfect for this time of year.

Perfectly Preventable Deaths by Deirdre Sullivan

Everyone in Ballyfran has a secret, and that is what binds them together...

Fifteen-year-old twins Madeline and Catlin move to a new life in Ballyfran, a strange isolated town, a place where, for the last sixty years, teenage girls have gone missing in the surrounding mountains.

As distance grows between the twins - as Catlin falls in love, and Madeline begins to understand her own nascent witchcraft - Madeline discovers that Ballyfrann is a place full of predators. Not only foxes, owls and crows, but also supernatural beings who for many generations have congregated here to escape persecution. When Catlin falls into the gravest danger of all, Madeline must ask herself who she really is, and who she wants to be - or rather, who she might have to become to save her sister.

Dark and otherworldly, this is an enthralling story about the bond between sisters and the sacrifices we make for those we care about the most. From StoryGraph.

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Review: Medusa by Jessie Burton

I was sent this proof for free by Bloomsbury for the purposes of providing an honest review.

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Medusa by Jessie Burton

Published: 28th October 2021 | Publisher: Bloomsbury Children's Books | Source: Publisher
Jessie Burton's Website

A dazzling, feminist retelling of Greek myth from the internationally bestselling author of The Miniaturist, stunningly illustrated by Olivia Lomenech Gill.

Exiled to a far-flung island by the whims of the gods, Medusa has little company except the snakes that adorn her head instead of hair. But when a charmed, beautiful boy called Perseus arrives on the island, her lonely existence is disrupted with the force of a supernova, unleashing desire, love, betrayal, and destiny itself.

Filled with glorious full-colour illustrations by award-winning Olivia Lomenech Gill, this astonishing retelling of Greek myth is perfect for readers of Circe and The Silence of the Girls. Illuminating the girl behind the legend, it brings alive Medusa for a new generation. From Goodreads.

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The StoryGraph | Goodreads

Trigger/Content Warnings: This book features rape and rape culture.

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Review: The Witch Haven by Sasha Peyton Smith

The Witch Haven by Sasha Peyton Smith

Published: 31st August 2021 | Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers | Source: Bought
Sasha Peyton Smith’s Website

In 1911 New York City, seventeen-year-old Frances Hallowell spends her days as a seamstress, mourning the mysterious death of her brother months prior. Everything changes when she’s attacked and a man ends up dead at her feet—her scissors in his neck, and she can’t explain how they got there.

Before she can be condemned as a murderess, two cape-wearing nurses arrive to inform her she is deathly ill and ordered to report to Haxahaven Sanitarium. But Frances finds Haxahaven isn’t a sanitarium at all: it’s a school for witches. Within Haxahaven’s glittering walls, Frances finds the sisterhood she craves, but the headmistress warns Frances that magic is dangerous. Frances has no interest in the small, safe magic of her school, and is instead enchanted by Finn, a boy with magic himself who appears in her dreams and tells her he can teach her all she’s been craving to learn, lessons that may bring her closer to discovering what truly happened to her brother.

Frances’s newfound power attracts the attention of the leader of an ancient order who yearns for magical control of Manhattan. And who will stop at nothing to have Frances by his side. Frances must ultimately choose what matters more, justice for her murdered brother and her growing feelings for Finn, or the safety of her city and fellow witches. What price would she pay for power, and what if the truth is more terrible than she ever imagined? From The StoryGraph.

The StoryGraph | Goodreads

Trigger/Content Warnings: This book features vomit, blood, gun violence, mutilation of corpses, historical abuse of Native Americans, and attempted rape.

Continue reading Review: The Witch Haven by Sasha Peyton Smith

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10 Bisexual YA Books for Bisexual Visibility Day

Happy Bisexual Visibility Day! With the work I've been doing recently at the bookshop I work at for our Queer YA section, I have been discovering more and more LGBTQ+ books that I massively want to read - including a lot more bisexual YA books than I thought. So I thought to celebrate the day, I'd put together a list of books I desperately need, plus a few I already have on my TBR.

Continue reading 10 Bisexual YA Books for Bisexual Visibility Day

Review: Precious Catastrophe by Deirdre Sullivan

I received this eProof for free from Hot Key Books via NetGalley for the purposes of providing an honest review.

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Precious Catastrophe by Deirdre Sullivan

Published: 30th September 2021 | Publisher: Hot Key Books | Source: NetGalley
Deirdre Sullivan on Twitter | Deirdre Sullivan on Instagram

Look. Madeline. You've lost your soul. You've lost your freedom. You've lost a bit of your sister. What else could go wrong?

Catlin and Madeline are extraordinary sisters, living extraordinary lives - in a place that seems entirely ordinary, but which in fact seethes with secrets, both sacred and sinister. Ballyfrann is a village where, for centuries, people who are not quite human have gathered. Catlin has already fallen foul of one such creature - a dark, vicious predator who almost killed her - and only Madeline giving up a part of her own soul was able to bring Catlin back from the brink of death.

Now, the girls are making their strange new lives: Catlin, haunted by what happened to her, is isolated and bereft; Madeline is learning ancient magics under the tutelage of local wise woman Mamó. Learning that magic isn't mindfulness and hats. It's work - hard work. And Madeline knows she has to keep watch. On her sister. On the things that happen. Notice things before they start to happen. And before long, they do... From The StoryGraph.

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The StoryGraph | Goodreads

My other reviews of Perfectly Precentable Deaths Series:
Perfectly Precentable Deaths

WARNING! I cannot review this book without spoiling the others in the series. Read no further if you're planning on reading this series and don't want it spoilt for you.

Trigger/Content Warnings: This book features blood, emotional blackmail, self-harm, animal cruelty/sacrifice, mutilation of a corpse, cannibalism, brief mention of most if not all of the scandals involving the Catholic Church in Ireland, implied mention of paedophilia, elder abuse, and trauma following rape.

Continue reading Review: Precious Catastrophe by Deirdre Sullivan

Review: Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson

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Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson

Published: 16th January 2018 | Publisher: Katherine Tegan Books | Source: Bought
Maureen Johnson’s Website

Ellingham Academy is a famous private school in Vermont for the brightest thinkers, inventors, and artists. It was founded by Albert Ellingham, an early twentieth century tycoon, who wanted to make a wonderful place full of riddles, twisting pathways, and gardens. "A place," he said, "where learning is a game."

Shortly after the school opened, his wife and daughter were kidnapped. The only real clue was a mocking riddle listing methods of murder, signed with the frightening pseudonym "Truly, Devious." It became one of the great unsolved crimes of American history.

True-crime aficionado Stevie Bell is set to begin her first year at Ellingham Academy, and she has an ambitious plan: She will solve this cold case. That is, she will solve the case when she gets a grip on her demanding new school life and her housemates: the inventor, the novelist, the actor, the artist, and the jokester.

But something strange is happening. Truly Devious makes a surprise return, and death revisits Ellingham Academy. The past has crawled out of its grave. Someone has gotten away with murder.

The two interwoven mysteries of this first book in the Truly Devious series dovetail brilliantly, and Stevie Bell will continue her relentless quest for the murderers in books two and three. From The StoryGraph.

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Trigger/Content Warnings: This book features anxiety and panic attacks, and a dead body.

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Review: The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

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The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Published: 3rd September 2020 | Publisher: Penguin | Source: Bought
Jennifer Lynn Barnes’ Website

Avery Grambs has a plan for a better future: survive high school, win a scholarship, and get out. But her fortunes change in an instant when billionaire Tobias Hawthorne dies and leaves Avery virtually his entire fortune. The catch? Avery has no idea why - or even who Tobias Hawthorne is.

To receive her inheritance, Avery must move into sprawling, secret passage-filled Hawthorne House, where every room bears the old man's touch - and his love of puzzles, riddles, and codes. Unfortunately for Avery, Hawthorne House is also occupied by the family that Tobias Hawthorne just dispossessed. This includes the four Hawthorne grandsons: dangerous, magnetic, brilliant boys who grew up with every expectation that one day, they would inherit billions.

Heir apparent Grayson Hawthorne is convinced that Avery must be a conwoman, and he's determined to take her down. His brother, Jameson, views her as their grandfather's last hurrah: a twisted riddle, a puzzle to be solved. Caught in a world of wealth and privilege, with danger around every turn, Avery will have to play the game herself just to survive. From The StoryGraph.

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Trigger/Content Warnings: This book features blood, poverty, absent and dead parents, guns, gun violence, domestic abuse, and an attempt to run off the road.

Continue reading Review: The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes