OLDER FICTION
Gerlach, Oliver

Off Menu

(4) YA Illustrated by Kelsi Jo Silva. Soup works in a kitchen under a horrible boss in this world inhabited by fantasy creatures. When she learns that the boss has also been stealing ideas from the other food vendors in the market in town, she challenges him to a cook-off for the restaurant. Though some of the illustrations are a bit lackluster, they are sprinkled with inventive details (a cute “dishwasher elemental” sidekick; creative interpretations of fae). A low stakes cozy fantasy read with welcome queer representation (e.g., Soup’s best friend, Clarion, is nonbinary and Soup imagines falling in love with “some beautiful boy or...a breathtaking girl”).

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