Whatcha Reading Wednesday - A Scar like a River

A Scar like a River

by Lisa Graff

What they say: Everyone assumes that the day Fallon got the awful scar across her face must have been the worst day of her life. But when Uncle Geebie dies, his funeral starts a cascade of events that force Fallon to confront the big and small tragedies she has lived through, all of which feel worse than Scar Day. Her best friends Trent and Darcy are crushing on each other and feel more distant than ever, the school play in which Fallon is cast as the lead is spiraling out of control, and her Mom’s grief has her in despair. Still, none of these things compare to the worst day of her life—not even close.

Through unflinching prose and with a pitch-perfect voice, Lisa Graff explores the power of confronting the past as a way to heal in the present.

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Whatcha Reading Wednesday - Queen of Faces

Queen of Faces

by Petra Lord

What they say: A desperate girl at a cutthroat magical academy faces a choice between life and death: become an assassin for the enchanted elite or watch her decaying body draw its last breath.

Anabelle Gage is trapped in a male body, and it’s rotting from the inside out. In Caimor, where the magical elite buy and swap designer bodies like clothes, Ana can’t afford to escape her tattered form. When she fails the entrance exam to the prestigious Paragon Academy, her last hope of earning a new body implodes. As the clock ticks down to her last breath, she’s forced to use her illusion magic to steal a healthy chassis—before her own kills her. 

But Ana is caught by none other than the headmaster of Paragon Academy, who poses a brutal ultimatum: face execution for her crime or become a mercenary at his command. Revolt brews in Caimor's smog-choked underworld, and the wealthy and powerful will stop at nothing to take down the rebels and the infamous dark witch at their helm, the Black Wraith.

With no choice but to accept, Ana will steal, fight, and kill her way to salvation. But her survival depends on a dangerous band of an impulsive assassin, a brooding bombmaker, and an alluring exile who might just spell her ruin. As Ana is drawn into a tangled web of secrets, the line between villain and hero shatters—and Ana must decide which side is worth dying for.

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Whatcha Reading Wednesday - The Danger of Small Things

The Danger of Small Things

by Caryl Lewis

What they say: Imagine a world where honeybees have died out. It’s a patriarchal world where famines are rife. It’s a world without art, without books, without plays. Girls are sent away from home, forced to pollinate crops by hand with brushes and to marry as soon as they can. Inhabiting this world is Jess and her friends Cass, Deva, and Ruth. But even if one fourteen‑year‑old knows that brushes weren’t invented for pollinating, can she really stoke a revolution?

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Whatcha Reading Wednesday - The Moon Without Stars

The Moon Without Stars

by Chanel Miller

What they say: At the end of sixth grade, Luna knows who she a small, quiet girl who loves writing and making zines with her best friend, Scott. But when one of their zines takes off, somehow Luna is swept up into the popular group and learns just how much of herself she's going to have to compromise to stay there. Will she give up her writing? Her best friend? What about her own beliefs about who she is and what she stands for?

In a contemporary novel that feels like today’s Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, Newbery Honor winner and bestselling author Chanel Miller explores what it means to lose and then find yourself again in the middle of middle school. 

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Whatcha Reading Wednesday - Tidespeaker

Tidespeaker

by Sadie Turner

What they say: Corith Fraine is a Floodmouth—her words can control water. Yet for those born with her rare elemental ability, paths forward are few, and Corith is one of the lucky ones. She has spent most of her life in a prestigious magic institution, training to one day achieve the highest possible honor for a member of her kind: the chance to serve one of the hundred noble houses.

When Corith learns she’s secured a post working for House Shearwater, a reclusive noble family living on a wave-battered island, she thinks her hard work has paid off. Until she discovers that their previous Floodmouth—Corith’s closest friend—mysteriously died in their service. And Corith is her replacement.

To learn the truth of her best friend’s accident, Corith must unravel the dark conspiracies at the heart of Bower Island. Yet doing so will require contending with the island’s deadly tides and her enigmatic new employers—including the family’s brooding youngest son, Llir, who she finds herself equally drawn to and repelled by. With her loyalties pushed to breaking point, these treacherous waters may well pull Corith under…

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Whatcha Reading Wednesday - A Stage Set for Villains

A Stage Set for Villains

by Shannon J. Spann

What they say: The performers of the Playhouse are as worshipped as they are feared, their enchanting shows bending hearts, minds, and even reality itself. Vicious, godlike, lethal. Eighteen-year-old Riven Hesper knows the dangers better than anyone, after her own encounter with a Player resulted in a curse that is slowly killing her.

When the Playhouse announces the spectacle of a lifetime—a chance for one mortal to steal a Player’s immortality—Riven sees her last chance to live. Desperate for answers, she infiltrates the competition. There, she finds Jude, the Playhouse’s brilliant, merciless Lead Player, whose charm is as dangerous as his Craft, and strikes a deadly bargain to save her life.

But with time running out and the Playhouse’s secrets unraveling into a disturbing picture, Riven faces a grim possibility: she might not be the hero of her story after all. In fact, she may be the villain.

Because the Playhouse doesn’t just tell stories. It rewrites them.

And Riven’s might end in blood.

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