Kate Mester

Needed to be editted down by about a third but the audio was funny and well done, especially because the actor could speak Korean. The book actually got better towards the end (except for the Q reveal, that felt tacked on and disrespectful to the character) as it got heavier about race/class and family duty/communication. I've had a few kids read and enjoy, will add to the booktalk rotation for my upper grades.

4.5 but I'll rate it as a 5 here. The audiobook is EXCELLENT - Acevedo reads Yahaira (I could listen to her perform the phone book) and Melania-Luisa Marte holds her own reading Camino. As a novel in verse, the performance of the verses really lends emotional heft. Acevedo's characters are always so alive and vibrant, and within the context of her story she always hits universal themes: family obligation and the meaning of family, whether it's through blood or choice, what it means to be a teenage girl in the world and how you express “femaleness” in varying ways, voices and who is represented and has a right to be heard. My only minimal critique is that I wanted just a bit more before the book ended. It built to the meeting of the sisters, and a dramatic confrontation between a lurking pimp and all the women in this new family, but I wanted just a bit more expansion of their lives intersecting before the end. I love that Acevedo built this story around a real incident of a plane crash that didn't receive the national attention it should have - I had never heard about it until now.

Unfortunately surprised that she's not a good narrator of her own audiobooks. Eventually quit the audio and just read the book. She's trying for quirk and uplift but kept beating us over the head with the themes of privilege/poverty, have/have nots, will they/won't they...for a loooong time, oof. Spends so much time on the mains that other characters are barely realized. Dear Martin remains a fave but the 2 following were...not. Wonder if the tight editing of DM (she said editor cut it in half from what she wrote) made it her superior book.

Thomas, already a bar setter, gets better with every book. I loved every second of this book, read perfectly by Dion Graham. Maverick is one of the realest male-identifying YA characters I've ever read. I KNOW this kid. She's imbued Mav with such depth, heart, and soul that you feel and understand every decision he makes. A knockout.

DNF about halfway through. He's a terrible audiobook narrator; he doesn't even land his own punchlines. He also started with some super problematic claims about just thinking your way out of some serious and real mental health issues. I kept going after that, giving him the benefit of the doubt to explain, but no, it didn't get better.

Short stories done Reynolds-style, so obviously they're moving and funny and REAL. I cried twice and laughed more than that. Glad he's doing more middle grade.

Definitely lived up to the hype! I had only the most superficial knowledge about the Troubles before starting this, so I learned a great deal and was compelled to pause and spend some time looking people and topics up and reading more about the history of this time. I particularly liked the through line of the McConville case as the lens through which this history was viewed. Radden Keefe explains his research and writing process at the end, which I appreciated, and did well in giving people nuance while explaining their horrific actions and choices. The audiobook was well done, hope he reads for more books in the future.

4.5 Used the same “something and something” writing convention as her first book, in this case to divide everything into Marvels and Oddities, but it worked much better here. Her characters and dialogue, plot, and style have all improved and jelled together. This book was really well done and the epilogue felt right and earned. It was a chaste romance but with a central focus of activism and speaking out against injustice while also thinking deliberately about making choices that feel right to you within your own culture. Think this will have a wide audience after booktalks and adding it to the potential BOB books list!

Excellence. A collection of essays on female body image, feminism, white supremacy, who gets to be a public intellectual, and so much more. Academic but with the framework of her own personal narrative, it was so was illuminating, sometimes witty and sometimes a gut-punch. I highlighted so many quotes that I'll return to. Also, if there was an award for best footnotes, this would be the clear winner!

I had high hopes for this one, coming from a clipping song and read by Daveed himself! Unfortunately, and weirdly, he reads this like it's a children's book, which is a super disservice to the serious, tragic, and haunting tone of the material. This is a short novella, but I couldn't even make it through all 4 hours of the audiobook without speeding it up and even skipping some super cringey parts. It's incredibly repetitive and the middle parts drag on. Some action picks up at the end but I was so uninvested by then that I wasn't moved by it.

Listened to the audiobook. He's definitely not a writer, but there are some flawed/funny stories, some in particular about risk-taking, boundary issues, and sorting through your multiple performative-selves that I think teens especially will find relatable. He does at least acknowledge that his family privilege got him out of some circumstances that others would not be able to bounce back from. A mostly interesting listen.

Truly excellent and should be up for more awards beyond the National Book Award come YMA season! My only tiny quibble is on one page his phone was dead and then 2 pages later it magically was working, but that's beyond minor. A unique story and perspective that was elegantly and emotionally written. Moving and thoughtful, I'll be thinking about this book for a while and recommending it to everyone I talk to!

Though the central story line is a murder mystery, this is her most joyful book yet! At it's surface, it's a love letter to Brooklyn and 90s hip hop, but going deeper it's about friendships, survival, loyalty, and who has the right to make choices/have their voices heard (spoiler - everyone!). The audio narration is shared between 3 characters, and they were all great, especially the voice of Jarrell. As someone who was a teenager at this time, I loved the walk through nostalgia, but I think kids will enjoy the look into what is now history for them!

A fun and predictable diversion from the heavier stuff I've been reading. There was so much overdescription and her character development is all telling, no showing, keeping it all very surface. This seems written for a 20s/30s straight female audience, a little bit of queer pandering.

4.5 Really enjoyed this audio. So honest and of the moment, realistically veering from the truly funny to the very real work of dealing with mental health and trauma, with a main character who grows and learns through the arc of the book. 20s me found much to relate to here! The female friendships were great and relatable but I do wish she had explored more of Darcy's relationship story, because there were always hints it was bad but that thread was left hanging. Kyazike and Cassandra's stories felt more fully realized. Will definitely be looking out for what Carty-Williams' writes next .

3.5 Liked learning the background to her work and her family history, and her use of language/words remains impressive, but I didn't feel compelled by it, though the emotions are powerful. Think students will resonate with the anger & catharsis but struggle with some of the more metaphorical/less autobiographical poems.

3.5 Liked this one better than The Guest List. The audio was well done, with different actors for each narrator. The last hour contained all the twists in a flurry, but overall a fun diversion.

Simple and relatively sweet, will definitely be an easy sell for teens, and as an added bonus, they'll learn some British slang too. I liked the chill simplicity of Oseman's black/grey/green color palette. I do wish that the romance didn't hinge on Nick rescuing Charlie from relationship violence, with that violence repeating over and over again.

Read this along with 2 senior AP Lit classes. While I really loved discussing the book with the students, I didn't love the book. In fact I plain didn't like it, though I appreciated a good portion of the writing, even though there was some heavy-handedness at times. I definitely had to take emotional breaks when it was at peak humanity's-descent-to-hell. I'm not sure I'm ever getting that pivotal blood/semen/shit gang rape & murder scene out of my head, unfortunately.

Especially excellent as audio because he adds lots of backstory before performing each piece. So well done.

Well written but waaaay too long and set in a period in time I'm not sure kids will be moved to put in the work for the 300+ pages, though it is about important queer history, so maybe that'll move a few. Not much happens here other than slow builds to relationships/sex (graphic but in a loving and consensual way, which YA needs way more of!) and it's through the lens of a friend/love triangle of three teens, yet this feels more like something adults will appreciate. So far one of my readers has quit on it, but I'll push it to more and see if I can find the right kids for this.

Not the most compelling mystery of the series (it was kind of boring) but a satisfying end to the series showing the changes to Jamie and Charlotte over time. Like that it ended with Charlotte's full self-actualization vs how the first book started with her through Jamie's lens.

Every choice here is excellent. The humor is zingy and current, the teen voices are accurate, the microagressions and depictions of well meaning and much-less-well-meaning teachers are true and deep, the family and friend relationships live and breathe. Wow. So good. The chapter titles all as puns/jokes on movies and books was particularly delightful. So much for kids, teens, and adults to unpack and discuss. This should be cleaning up come award season!

Absolutely wonderful. I only got to listen to the first half read by Michelle before I ran over my library loan, but by then I could read the second half in her voice. What a treat to enter her world through her eyes and learn the backstory to so many well known events. She's so thoughtful and insightful and has a way of distilling complex matters into a perfect sentence or line that's pure art.

When my sole complaint is down to my personal pet peeve in YA writing (3 instances of “x released a breath they didn't know they were holding” - ahhhhh your writing is so much better than that stop relying on that trite & overused phrase!!) then I have to give it the full 5 stars it deserves. Acevedo delivers exquisiteness again. Listen to the audiobook for her reading - a true treat. Sumptuous and vibrant and loving and uplifting. I'll be reading anything she writes and kids will want to, too.