A group of promising young writers are plagued by death, mystery, and shocking personal revelations in this satisfying psychological thriller by Niven (Breathless). For eight lucky high schoolers—including the novel’s primary protagonists Effy and Arlo—attending an intense three-week writers’ workshop led by enigmatic, controversial author Meredith Graffam at a remote New England manor seems like the opportunity of a lifetime. Even more coveted than learning the art of the trade from Graffam, though, is the opportunity to win $15,000 and obtain life-changing connections with professional creatives for their future careers. Though Graffam claims that the goal of the workshop is to refine her pupils’ craft, she begins demanding impossible things of them, such as leaping from dangerous heights, placing them into increasingly perilous scenarios, and using fear to thin the herd (“You cannot be afraid and write. Because if you’re afraid, the writing will be dishonest”). Each student must decide if a shot at fame and fortune is worth rising to Graffam’s horrifying—perhaps even deadly—challenges. A moody prologue immediately establishes stakes and tension, which Niven deftly builds upon through each subsequent and tautly paced chapter. While development of most members of the large white-cued cast is somewhat thin, Effy and Arlo’s complex alternating POVs stimulate readers’ engagement as the novel spirals toward a chilling resolution. Ages 14–up. Agent: Kerry Sparks, Levine Greenberg Rostan Literary. (Sept.)

Reviewed on 08/01/2025 | Details & Permalink

Two teens flee fraught circumstances in debut author Simmonds’s thrilling evocation of Thelma & Louise. Upon returning home to find her abusive stepfather’s corpse, 17-year-old Jessie plots to flee Seattle to avoid being implicated in his death. When her crush—popular, wealthy Brooke—offers Jessie a ride in her vintage Mustang, Jessie readily agrees. As the girls embark on a cross-country road trip to Disney World, they resolve not to pry into each other’s reasons for leaving. Along the way, however, Jessie worries that she’s being chased by the police. Worse, she notices that a black van starts tailing them following their stopover in Salt Lake City, during which a man attempted to break into their hotel room. While outrunning their pursuers, the teens divulge more about their contrasting backgrounds—Jessie’s tense relationship with her single mother and her mom’s lousy boyfriends, and Brooke’s seemingly charmed life feeling overshadowed by her exceptionally successful siblings—and rely on Brooke’s surprising pickpocketing skills to fund their road trip. Simmonds builds lived-in character dynamics using natural-feeling dialogue that smoothly sows the seeds toward the girls’ simmering romance, while evenly paced revelations and a plot riddled with high stakes and near misses add grit. The pair reads as white. Ages 14–up. (Oct.)

Reviewed on 08/01/2025 | Details & Permalink

In 1873 New York City, orphaned 18-year-old Molly O’Rinn is determined to make her way as an independent woman working as a trainee nurse at Bellevue Hospital. She can also see and talk to ghosts, including the apparition of a mysterious, sad-eyed young man who appears to comfort grieving hospital patrons. Molly’s plans are derailed when she is suddenly whisked away to Tarrytown to act as a live-in nurse for Charles Voss, a wealthy young heir dying of tuberculosis. As she investigates Voss’s beautiful but strangely empty manor, she’s shocked to uncover a crypt, inside which she finds a corporeal young man who resembles the sad-eyed hospital apparition and is chained within an occult circle. Despite her misgivings about his supernatural origins and her desire to remain unattached to men, she finds herself intensely attracted to the stranger, whom she learns is a death god called Nin, the Prince of Mourning, who is trapped in the mortal realm. As the pair delve deeper into the secrets of Voss’s manor, they must rely on each other if they hope to make it out of the estate alive. Using clean and engaging prose, Bennett (Always Jane) spins a serpentine occult mystery with a gothic atmosphere that delivers steamy romance and propulsive adventure. The protagonists read as white. Ages 14–up. Agent: Laura Bradford, Bradford Literary. (Oct.)

Reviewed on 08/01/2025 | Details & Permalink

Debut author Liu delivers a breakneck paranormal mystery through the eyes of 17-year-old Colin Ong, a gay Hakka Canadian teen navigating high school, cultural homophobia, and self-confidence issues. After Colin and his best friend, 18-year-old Ren Hsu, sneak out to a club, they encounter something eerie while fleeing from bullies in the birch woods behind their school: a creepy apparition of a teenage boy wearing short shorts. Venturing deeper into the forest, they stumble upon peculiar bluebells and an overturned tree, and the chills intensify when a deep disembodied voice calls Ren’s name and a zombie-like hand pulls him further into the woods. When Colin catches up to him, Ren insists that nothing bad happened, and Colin believes him—until Ren starts acting strangely, becoming distracted and secretive, avoiding foods with MSG, and whispering to himself. As Colin faces ghostly warnings and spectral visions, he realizes something terrifying has attached itself to Ren, and it’s up to Colin to find out what. Infused with the theatrical charm of a teen drama, Colin’s candid first-person narration balances supernatural suspense with familiar adolescent struggles, offering an emotionally complex interpretation of authentic and multilayered friendship. Beneath the haunting scenarios lies an understated tale about bravery and the power of connection. Ages 14–up. Agent: Amy Moore-Benson, Cooke McDermid Literary. (Oct.)

Reviewed on 08/01/2025 | Details & Permalink

A mysterious monster hunts teens hiding personal secrets in this harrowing horror novel by Crespo (Saint Juniper’s Folly). After the Watcher, a local Oregon cryptid, attacks secret girlfriends Shay and Lauren, Shay manages to escape unharmed while Lauren is admitted to the hospital in critical condition. Suddenly, Shay and her troublemaker BFF Jack become the prime suspects in Lauren’s assault. Hatching a plan to prove the creature’s existence—and their own innocence—the pair enlists yearbook photographer Zoe, who agrees, hoping to use the photos to spice up her college admissions portfolio. But to get the perfect pic, the trio must learn everything they can about the Watcher, including its history, its attack patterns, and its motives. Along the way, the teens form complex bonds, uncover one another’s deepest secrets, and plumb the depths of their own hidden truths. Via an omniscient POV, quippy dialogue, and whirlwind action sequences, Crespo explores the shame and terror that can come from hiding one’s true self from the world, even during a literal life-and-death situation. Characters are intersectionally diverse. Ages 14–up. Agent: Mary Moore, Aevitas Creative Management. (Oct.)

Reviewed on 08/01/2025 | Details & Permalink

The sports-obsessed residents of Hamilton Lakes, Mich., expect great things from high school junior and hockey superstar Luke Dawson. But when the coach of the high school team is fired for embezzlement, it throws the athletes (and their upcoming season) into turmoil. Meanwhile, rumors start spreading that Luke’s classmate Harper Braedon—a well-known critic of the funding imbalance between athletics and other school activities—is responsible for the coach’s dismissal, an accusation that tanks her social standing and dashes her hopes of using her academic connections to expand her online jewelry-making business. Though Luke and Harper are constantly feuding at school and at the diner where they both work, their mutual dislike soon softens into understanding and, to their shock, attraction. As the year progresses, the hockey team founders under their new coach’s management style and Harper contends with mounting social vitriol. Charlotte’s debut hits all the right notes for an enemies-to-lovers romance as Luke and Harper navigate personal and romantic complications while pursuing their respective goals. Few surprises ensure an always-buoyant atmosphere and the white-cued protagonists’ sizzling chemistry, as well as exciting and vividly described hockey sequences, further enrich this fun, fast-paced, and flirty read. Ages 14–up. Agent: Caryn Wiseman, Andrea Brown Literary. (Nov.)

Reviewed on 08/01/2025 | Details & Permalink

Living in Omaha, Neb., attending a mostly white school, and having been named after Jane Eyre, 17-year-old third-generation Korean American Jane Choi feels out of tune with her heritage. To her chagrin, her Korean culture–obsessed classmates seem to know more about Jane’s heritage than she does: she doesn’t speak Korean, she’s not versed in the latest K-dramas or K-pop songs, and she hates kimchi. When she learns that her parents plan to name her baby brother Franklin, after the American founding father, she resolves to save him from experiencing the internal shame she holds from feeling ignorant about her Korean heritage. With help from her grandmother, Jane educates herself in all things Korean, including the food, language, music, and more, which she documents on a private social media account. But when a specific video somehow goes viral, Jane struggles to manage the emotional fallout of online infamy. Hilarious and heartening, this earnest novel by Kang (the Control duology) excavates one teen’s longing to connect—with her identity, her family, and the people around her who seem to find comfort in aspects of her culture that she wasn’t raised to celebrate. Quick pacing and lighthearted prose buoy weighty themes of parental pressure and the sometimes devastating influence of social media on one’s self-perception. Ages 13–up. Agent: Jordan Hill, New Leaf Literary. (Oct.)

Reviewed on 08/01/2025 | Details & Permalink

Orphaned 17-year-old Evander spends his days managing a severe unknown illness that causes episodes of missing time and requires frequent surgeries. All the while, he’s sequestered within the Hazelthorn estate—owned by his reclusive guardian Byron—who forbids Evander from leaving the mansion, entering the gardens, or interacting with Byron’s grandson, heir apparent Laurie, who tried to kill Evander seven years ago. But when Byron seemingly dies of poison, and his death is brushed off, Evander determines to uncover the killer. His mission is complicated, however, when Evander—not Laurie—is named heir to Byron’s fortune and estate. Soon Bryon’s money-hungry relatives descend upon the manor, and Evander finds an unlikely ally in Laurie, who helps him both unravel the mystery of Byron’s murder and navigate Hazelthorn’s increasingly fraught social politics. As the boys’ bond grows, so too do the estate’s strange gardens and the family’s tangled web of secrets. Recalling elements of The Secret Garden, Drews (Don’t Let the Forest In) deploys crisp prose to spin a gothic psychological thriller rife with brutal twists and gruesome scenes of botanical body horror. Characters cue as white. Ages 13–up. Agent: Claire Friedman, InkWell Management. (Oct.)

Reviewed on 08/01/2025 | Details & Permalink

Because of a finfolk curse placed upon her human family, 19-year-old Annie Fairfax is slowly transforming into a monstrous creature. As a child, Annie believed she had no reason to fear the curse, which dictates that if she suffers heartbreak, she’ll turn into a bloodthirsty entity. Then Annie narrowly escapes a shipwreck that kills her parents, an incident purportedly perpetrated by the finfolk that terrorize the whaling ships of her coastal village, Kirkrell. Now the head of her father’s whaling company, Annie grapples with the terrifying reality that her worsening heartache has caused her monstrous traits to emerge. When disgraced captain Silas Price, half human and half finfolk, warns Annie that her human betrothed, August Hargreave, is plotting her murder, she becomes more desperate to break the curse. But only finfolk can undo the enchantment, forcing Annie to jeopardize her company, risk her heart, and trust in Silas. Sea-swept horror and folklore elements fuse into a pulse-pounding parable of gender, love, and power. Holland (Phoenix Flame) cloaks the tightly woven plot in murky, ominous atmosphere, a stormy backdrop against which a titillating love triangle of intricately rendered white-cued characters grapple with their worst fears. Ages 13–up. Agent: Pete Knapp, Park & Fine Literary. (Nov.)

Reviewed on 08/01/2025 | Details & Permalink

A secluded island finishing school off Canada’s coast harbors sinister secrets in Pipps’s bone-chilling 1893-set debut. Sixteen-year-old Gwendolyn Donovan is devastated when her formerly feisty older sister, Izzy, returns home to Manhattan a vapid socialite with inexplicable memory gaps following a four-year stint at the Delphi School for Girls. When Izzy eagerly and uncharacteristically weds a virtual stranger shortly after her homecoming, Gwen engineers her own conscription to Delphi, desperate to learn what’s been done to Izzy and how to reverse it. At Delphi, Gwen discovers that students are confined year-round to a largely windowless manor, where bookshelves hold off-limits volumes that “symbolize the history of the girls who came before.” Disobedient pupils get sent to the Writing Room for a grueling punishment they promptly forget but that supposedly “pull[s] the evil from [their] veins.” It’s clear that something predatory hides in the shadows, and, upon making friends (and developing a crush), Gwen redoubles her efforts to uncover Delphi’s dark truth. But dangerous forces are determined to stop her. Gwen’s indomitable spirit and candid first-person-present narration enrich this feminist gothic horror, underscoring stakes, heightening suspense, and injecting heart. Though some members of the intersectionally diverse cast lack depth, the twisty plot and creepy trappings command readers’ attention. Ages 12–up. Agent: Caitlin White, Emerald City Literary. (Oct.)

Reviewed on 08/01/2025 | Details & Permalink