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Whether you love contemporary, sci-fi, light fantasy, realistic, historical, or horror YA fiction, you'll hear about it here. Check out our latest reviews, interviews, commentaries, and giveaways, and be sure to comment about what you love best.

From the Blog

You Have a Match

You Have a Match by Emma Lord

While You Have a Match is cute, it wasn’t quite as cute and fluffy as Tweet Cute was. It’s a lot more angsty and drama-filled, which makes sense for the circumstances of the novel, but it definitely wasn’t the kind of book I was expecting because the romance definitely takes a backseat to the family drama. Lord does a good job of exploring the complications and questions that come up from finding full, and presumably half, siblings or other family members via a DNA test. Moreover, it’s a timely book because this kind of thing is happening more and more often as DNA testing becomes ubiquitous in society. Read more →

Into the Heartless Wood

Into the Heartless Wood by Joanna Ruth Meyer

Monstrosity becomes something that you choose to be, not something that you are innately. And it’s not something that correlates to one’s physical appearance—even human beings can be monsters if they have an evil intention or actions. That said, it’s not as simple as Owen changing his perspective. In addition, Meyer uses Mary Shelley’s trick from Frankenstein by allowing Seren to tell part of the story through her own POV. By giving Seren a voice and an internal monologue, Meyer ensures that the audience will develop sympathy for the tree siren at the same time that Owen begins to sympathize with her. Read more →

Interview with Monica Rodden

Interview with Monica Rodden, Author of Monsters Among Us

I reviewed Monsters Among Us by debut author, Monica Rodden. Today, this debut author is on YA Book Shelf to participate in an in-depth interview about her novel. We discuss everything from the marketing of her debut novel and what drew her to writing thrillers to the theme of sexual assault, her favourite Christmas bread recipe, publishing in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, and more. As I mentioned in the review, Monsters Among Us is a tough book to read, but it handles dark themes in a sensitive way, so if you love my interview with the author, I hope you pick up the novel as well. Read more →