Greetings fellow readers! I’ve been meaning to share some of my recent reads – mostly YA fiction, focusing on mental health and some with Hispanic and Caribbean themes. I found some new favorite authors and enjoyed exploring topics such as mental health and illness and what it’s like to be internet famous in a new way. Would recommend all of these!!
To start off with, here are some of the books I picked out with mental health/mental illness elements, which went nicely with my Dear Evan Hansen bullet journal theme.
The Museum of Us by Tara Wilson Redd
Daydreams gone too far, figuring out the difference between dreams and reality and healing from trauma. The FMC often drifts into a fantasy world where she goes on elaborate adventures with a boy named George. This distracts her from her real life, where she has a BFF, a loving boyfriend, and parents who are… struggling with their own traumas. The story largely takes place in a mental hospital, where the protagonist has been placed after crashing her car into a tree, and all is gradually revealed. I was rooting for her to heal and succeed in life SO MUCH! This is a heartbreakingly beautiful book about dealing with trauma and learning to exist in the Real World.
Listen World! by Julia Schemers and Allison Gilbert
This is a nonfiction biography of Elsie Robinson, the most-read female writer of her times who overcame lots of difficulties in 20th century America. It deals with the expectations for women to marry and be content to raise children at home, and the stigma of becoming divorced and living with another man. Elsie was truly an amazing woman who was willing to do whatever it took to provide for her family, first by marrying a man she would realize later was not her true love, then choosing to escape her unhappy marriage and move her chronically ill son across the country to start a new life. She then went on to write and illustrate an amazing number of newspaper columns and editorials, becoming the most-read female writer in America.
This is one of the nonfiction books that don’t feel like a chore to read — in some ways, the underlying themes and what Elsie Robinson experienced bear an *interesting* resemblance to the YA dystopian fantasy novel I was reading at the same time 🤔 (the other book was We Set the Dark on Fire by Tehlor Kay Mejia – also highly recommend).
Maybe We’re Electric by Val Emmich
Written by the author of the Dear Evan Hansen novel, two acquaintances meet during a snowstorm and develop a connection, but she’s hiding a dark secret. The FMC in this novel was born with a malformed left hand, and has struggled with insecurity surrounding it her whole life, which has led to isolation and a resentment of the rest of her high school class. The MMC appears to have the perfect life on the outside, but is actually dealing with secrets of his own. They meet on the night of a terrible blizzard in the Benjamin Franklin Museum, home of the eternally burning lightbulb and lots of other inventions, and form a connection that is shattered when her deepest, darkest secret is revealed…
Words in Deep Blue by Cath Crowley
This book gives me some serious Dash and Lily’s Book of Dares vibes, and I LOVED it! Set in Australia, it begins as the FMC is moving back to the city after the loss of her brother. She ends up working in a bookstore (or bookshop) with her ex-best-friend/crush. He’s recovering from the loss of the relationship that is no good for him (also some “You Belong With Me” vibes) and the confusion caused by his best friend ghosting him in the two years they’ve been apart. As the bookshop is forced to close, they find their way back to each other, and she finally begins to heal and grieve for her brother in a healthy way. There are lots of overlapping subplots in this book that make each character seem real to me, and it’s all framed by the letters and annotations written or left in the bookshop’s “Letter Library.” Such a good read!
Hope and Other Punch Lines by Julie Buxbaum
A young survivor of 9/11 attacks who’s the subject of a famous photo and wants to live a normal life. Abby Hope is better known as “Baby Hope” and is famous for being photographed with a handful of other people, and gets recognized wherever she goes. She wants to live a normal life, so she starts working for a summer camp two or three towns away – where she meets the son of another victim who has become convinced that one of the others in the photo is his long-lost father. Together, they work to track down and interview the other people in the “Baby Hope” photo, all while he’s struggling with the loss of his father and she’s coming to terms with a most-likely-fatal illness known as 9/11 Syndrome. And these two main characters are also adorably awkward together, and end up falling in love, which adds a nice light-hearted side to an otherwise heavy topic. Love, love, love!!
These next two books focus on/are inspired by Hispanic and Caribbean themes, which I LOVE! I could spend a whole year enjoying all the books in this category, which goes along with my Encanto bullet journal theme for October.
Where the Rhythm Takes You by Sarah Dass
This novel is a Caribbean retelling of Jane Austen’s Persuasion, with the FMC the daughter of a hotel owner and the MMC a now-famous musician. The main conflicts come from her feeling that she’s forced to stay on the island and take over the running of her mother’s hotel business, and his return after two years, famous and likely in love with the internet influencer who has become part of his group’s entourage. It includes lots of arguments between the characters, which leads to genuine development for both of them and a believable ending that I really rooted for them to achieve. Also includes lots of music, including a style called Soca that I had never heard of before!
Diamond City by Francesca Flores
An assassin living in a city divided between rich industrialists and poor Everyone Else overcomes addiction and uncovers a conspiracy to throw her country into war (again), all while dealing with various threats on her life. This book has some subtle Hispanic elements (such as the last name Solís) but it is truly its own world and I am LOVING IT! The FMC in this book has spent her whole life fighting her way off the streets after her parents were killed for their faith, which has been outlawed by the ruling class. She ends up freeing prisoners, collaborating with previously unimaginable allies, and is betrayed by the one she thought was her savior. There’s also a subtle love-triangle between the FMC and two others, but the author does a SPECTACULAR job of accurately representing the we-can’t-do-this-right-now-there’s-way-too-much-at-stake thing, so it’s only hinted at here and there. Kind of like what happens in the Hunger Games series, except that the male characters (cough, Gale) are a lot less pushy. Just started the second book in this series and can’t wait to see what happens next!
I hope you’ve enjoyed this recap of some of the most recent books I’ve read and enjoyed. This isn’t even all of them 😹 something about working in a library just makes you want to read more I guess 🤷♀️
Happy reading!
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