One of the best parts of my job is ordering new books for the Edge–reading the reviews, seeing what popular authors come up with next, or finding out about an upcoming sequel to an old favorite. Read on to find out about some of the new YA fiction titles coming to our shelves this month.

Vanishing Station by Ana Ellickson
Grades 9 and up
Library Catalog

“Ellickson delivers an ambitious, fast-paced fantasy crackling with complicated family dynamics and forbidden love in this simmering debut. Since her mother’s death, 18-year-old Ruby Santos and her father have been forced to rent out their beloved San Francisco home to pay off lingering medical debt. Ruby’s plans for art school are a distant memory, replaced by low-paying work and taking care of her alcohol dependent father, who experiences chronic pain. After receiving an ominous invitation to the wealthiest part of the city, she discovers that her father had been working as a magical courier for the Bartholomew family, an organized crime group that controls the enchanted portals on San Francisco’s BART line. To clear her father’s debts, Ruby takes over his contracted service to the Bartholomews, and scrambles to find footing in a dangerous underworld where subway knife fights span continents.” –Publisher's Weekly

Dragonfruit by Makiia Lucier
Grades 7 and up
Library Catalog

“With interest in dragon fantasy novels on the rise, Lucier's new adventure has exquisite worldbuilding inspired by Pacific Island mythos and a comfortable, slow-building romance. Lady Hanalei and Prince Samahtitamahenele grew up together on the matriarchal island of Tamarind, until the day their mother is poisoned, falling into a magical, unending sleep. Tamarind uses all of its resources to find the only possible cure: a rare seadragon egg called dragonfruit, which legend says can grant wishes to those who eat it. But those wishes come at a terrible cost, which Hana's father learns when he steals the dragonfruit, flees Tamarind, and saves his daughter. Hana, now 18, has lived as an exile, tracking and studying seadragons in the Nominomi Sea. She discovers one of her subjects is pregnant—the dragonfruit could be her way back home if she's willing to pay the price.” –School Library Journal

Dear Wendy by Ann Zhao
Grades 9 and up
Library Catalog

“Two aromantic asexual college students face off online while bonding IRL. Chinese American first-year college student Sophie Chi (she/her) runs Dear Wendy, a popular anonymous Instagram account, where she provides relationship advice to her fellow Wellesley College students. She feels like she’s hitting her stride when a new anonymous Instagram account pops up, seemingly parodying her account. Fellow Wellesley student Jo Ephron (she/they), who’s white and has two moms, started Dear Wanda as a one-off joke for her friends. But as the account gains popularity, Wendy and Wanda begin to spar, creating a rivalry that wavers between playful and hostile. Meanwhile, Sophie and Jo meet as classmates and immediately strike up a friendship over their shared aroace identities, unaware of each other’s Instagram identities. As their friendship deepens and their online rivalry grows, the duo’s story hits all the beats and thrills of a will-they-won’t-they romance without compromising the deep satisfaction of an aroace love story.” –Kirkus Reviews

Breakup Lists by Adib Khorram
Grades 10 and up
Library Catalog

“Jackson's junior year is going as planned. He's stage manager for the theatre club, he has a trusted friend in Bowie, and his latest breakup list for his sister Jasmine is soothing her heartbreak. However, things go off script when the captain of the swim team, Liam, lands a lead in the musical, and both Jackson and Jasmine begin crushing on him. But Liam is straight and would never go for Jackson, right? Khorram nails it once again with this page-turning romance about giving oneself a chance to celebrate one's true identity.” –School Library Journal

What’s Eating Jackie Oh? by Patricia Park
Grades 7 and up
Library Catalog

“An aspiring teen chef breaks from stereotype to create her unique version of the American dream. Jackie, a sophomore at competitive Bronx Science in New York City, would rather cook than study, much to the chagrin of her Korean American parents, for whom success is defined by entrance into the Ivy League. Happiness for Jackie is Fridays with her grandparents in Bayside. Together they watch Burn Off!, their favorite cooking show, and she works in their deli, Melty’s, on Saturdays, where she enjoys inventing new dishes. (Fans of Park’s previous outing, 2023’s Imposter Syndrome and Other Confessions of Alejandra Kim, may recognize the diner.) It’s at Melty’s that Jackie is scouted to audition for a new teen version of Burn Off!. She makes it onto the show, but the judges pigeonhole her, expecting her to cook Asian offerings, not the classical French cuisine she excels at. Can she convince them that she’s more than an ambassador for Korean food and assemble a winning meal representing the real, complicated Jackie Oh?” –Kirkus Reviews

The Reappearance of Rachel Price by Holly Jackson
Grades 9 and up
Library Catalog

“Prickly 18-year-old Annabelle ‘Bel' Price has lived almost her whole life in the shadow of the disappearance of her mother, Rachel, 16 years before. Only one person was with Rachel when she disappeared, and that was Bel, but since she was a toddler, she remembers nothing. Since her disappearance, Rachel's case has spawned numerous true crime podcasts and conspiracy theories, and now Bel's father Charlie—who was initially arrested for having a hand in Rachel's disappearance—has agreed to allow a documentary crew to interview the Price family: Bel's Aunt Sherry and Uncle Jeff and her best friend/cousin Carter, Grandpa Pat who is suffering from dementia, and Rachel's spiteful mother. When Rachel dramatically appears on the Price family's front doorstep in the middle of filming, Bel's world explodes.” –School Library Journal

Your Blood, My Bones by Kelly Andrew
Grades 8 and up
Library Catalog

“Wyatt Westlock spent every summer growing up at Willow Heath, her father’s rural estate, with her friends James and Peter. When her mother leaves her father—and takes Wyatt with her—she never hears from either boy again. Now 18, Wyatt inherits Willow Heath following her father’s death. She’s determined to burn it all down, until she finds Peter chained in the basement of her former home. She learns that her father had been the steward of an organization that prevents an encroaching evil from seeping into the world, a task accomplished by sinister magic—and by continuously murdering and harvesting Peter’s immortal body. Forced to take her father’s place, Wyatt struggles with her burden; Peter, meanwhile, plots her murder to be free of his own curse.” –Publisher's Weekly

Sequels:

A Whisper in the Walls by Scott Reintgen
Grades 8 and up
Library Catalog

“A brilliant magician who seeks to destroy the system of inequality propping up her world is aided by new allies and feels the complications of romance in this middle entry in the Waxways trilogy. As expected, Landwin Brood doesn’t appreciate Theo’s new bond to Ren Monroe; despite her brilliance and magical prowess, Landwin won’t look past her Lower Quarter origins. Although Landwin attempts to separate them, Ren maintains her single-minded focus on revenge.” –Kirkus Reviews 

The first book in the series, A Door in the Dark, can be found here.

Sound the Gong by Joan He
Grades 8 and up
Library Catalog

“Unwilling to abandon Xin Ren in the war against the ambitious prime ministress Miasma, Zephyr puts her own existence on the line in this sequel to Strike the Zither (2022). Zephyr, god of weather, was once banished from the heavens and forced to live the life of a human girl as punishment. She rose to prominence as strategist to the lordess Xin Ren, only to be killed in battle by Ren’s Southern allies, along with Ren’s general and swornsister, Lotus. Death frees Zephyr’s spirit from its mortal form, but she returns to Ren’s side by inhabiting Lotus’ body, and in the process, she inadvertently dilutes her divine qi.” –Kirkus Reviews

The first book in the series, Strike the Zither, can be found here.