WHAT I LOVED: Because I was a six-year-old white child at the time it occurred, 9/11 changed very little of my life. The day of it, my second grade teacher turned out all the lights, gathered all us kids into a circle, and gave us the gentlest overview...

WHAT I LOVED: Thanks to my brother being big into Dungeons & Dragons, I have some familiarity with tabletop gaming like the five characters at the heart of this story have been playing together for years. It’s not my thing, but I get why people love it. Nijkamp’s own...

WHAT I LOVED: Nathalie Baudin is an extraordinary girl even before she discovers her psychometric abilities. She’s just sixteen, but she’s a journalist ghostwriting a paper’s column of new arrivals to the public morgue. Those columns and the deceased’s public display may lead these unknowns to be identified,...

Everything I know about K-pop comes from thirsty Twitter fancams, what has made it into the American mainstream, and an expose or two. Basically, I’m a newbie and know very little about it. A K-pop-related, Hong Kong-set rom-com from Maurene Goo, though? Sign me up! ...

WHAT I LOVED: Tavia and Effie’s world is ours with just a little myth-made-real on top. The Hart family murder-suicide and the murder very suspicious death of Sandra Bland are brought up, as are multiple fictional Black women whose murderers got away with it by claiming the women...

WHAT I LOVED: Marlowe has spent much of her life living on the edge of death thanks to a congenital heart defect, but she’s got a new lease on life thanks to a heart suddenly becoming available. Not that it’s doing much to make life easier other than...

Content warnings: rape, sexual harassment, sexual abuse Once upon a time, I had an ambition to become a journalist. That was way back in high school and I realized I wasn’t cut out for it when I faked a few interview quotes to avoid talking to people....

WHAT I LOVED: Rani is your modern Indian girl with some serious photography skills. Oliver is a gifted artistv with a troubled home life. When they collide at an art show, the sparks are immediately and Rani is content to sneak around to be with him since her...

WHAT I LOVED: Claire is a rich Chinese girl living the high life in Shanghai with both her parents even though her dad is usually gone because he’s working or spending time with one of his mistresses. Meanwhile, Dani is a Filipina American debate team star living paycheck to...

WHAT I LOVED: Tracy's family is an outsider in multiple ways in their Texas town: they're one of the few Black families, they're relative newcomers (they settled there after being uprooted by Hurricane Katrina), and her dad was convicted of murdering two white people. He's on death...

*Connor is Deaf and has implants *Alex has light brown skin *Tasha is Black Warning: graphic descriptions of both human and animal corpses. WHAT...

WHAT I LOVED: Ever’s pushy parents have already gotten their way by making her apply to medical school, but Ever expects to have one last summer to herself. Then they drop the bomb on her that she’s going on an intensive summer program in Taiwan instead. Even though...

WHAT I LOVED: The stories vary in genre, time period, and the makeup of the couples, but many of them remind readers that you can't simply play colorblind when your partner is from a different ethnic group than you. When you do, you also don't see the discrimination they...

WHAT I LOVED: Haneul "Skye" Shin is talented, fat, and contrary to the max. Her mom tells Skye she can't dance because she's fat and Skye just commits to it harder, which I can relate to because I'm just as contrary. A dude told me throughout middle school...

WHAT I LOVED: We think of the glitz, glamorous mega-stars, and classic movies when we think of the Golden Age of Hollywood, but that’s not the Hollywood that Kate Hildebrand walks into when she’s sent to live in Hollywood with her grandfather. She sees the real Hollywood–the working class...