(3) YA An unfit crew answers a distress call from a drilling operation on the horrific planet Achlys and finds everyone dead--except for one boy. As the crew members uncover the history of Black Quarry, it becomes clear that one of them has a personal connection with this terrible place. Well-paced and tense, Bowman's novel is a successful mash-up of bio-horror and industrial science fiction.

Reviewer: Ariel Baker-Gibbs

(3) YA Darkest Minds series. Five years after the events of The Darkest Minds trilogy, tensions are rising around the reintegration of Psi kids into society. After a public event goes horribly wrong, Zu goes on the run with Roman and Priyanka, two mysterious Psi teens with secrets of their own. This fast-paced dystopian novel delves into very contemporary concerns of power and morality, with forthright conversations about how to effect social change.

Reviewer: Ariel Baker-Gibbs

(3) YA How will genetic modification integrate itself into society going forward? This collection of six interconnected stories, each one set slightly further into the future than the last, imagines teenagers facing different stages of technological advancement and the subsequent questions it raises regarding what it means to love, fear, learn, and be human. The stories cohere into a thoughtful dystopian novel examining technology and the human experience.

Reviewer: Ariel Baker-Gibbs

(4) YA Sky Hawkins's mother has disappeared and her fellow wyverns (were-dragons), headed by Sky's boyfriend Ryan, have shunned her once-privileged family. Sky is determined to carry out her first heist--a wyvern rite of passage--and to pursue the truth about her mother, but in the process discovers a huge secret in the wyvern community. Ebullient narration and rich world-building offset simplistic characterization in this standalone fantasy.

Reviewer: Ariel Baker-Gibbs

(4) YA When they are small, Mairwen, Rhun, and Arthur watch Rhun's cousin sacrifice himself to the Devil's Forest as a part of their village's tradition. Ten years later, things are going wrong in Three Graces, and it is Rhun's turn to be sacrificed. With a racially diverse cast and a polyamorous relationship at its core, this folkloric fantasy of forest devilry is gripping, despite a crowded plot.

Reviewer: Ariel Baker-Gibbs

(3) YA Skybound Saga series. In a quasi-medieval fantasy world of battle falconry, boy-girl twins Brysen and Kylee go on a quest to capture a ghost eagle, which forces them to confront their traumatic childhoods and diverging futures. London's series-starting fantasy is written in lush prose and boasts unflinching characterizations. The matter-of-fact incorporation of Brysen's gay romance contributes to the emotional heft of the novel.

Reviewer: Ariel Baker-Gibbs

(4) YA Caledonia Styx lost her ship-captain mother and sea-faring family to villainous Aric Athair and his army of drugged-up soldiers called Bullets. Fast-forward four years later and Caledonia captains her own ship with an all-female crew seeking revenge. Copious detail can sometimes bog down the plot in this otherwise riveting start to a projected series about these swashbuckling feminist pirates.

Reviewer: Ariel Baker-Gibbs

(3) YA The remnants of human civilization are on planet Detritus, trapped there for generations, fighting the extraterrestrial Krell. Spensa defies the stigma of her father's cowardice in battle and aspires to be a fighter pilot. In a well-paced, energetic space-action novel, Spensa learns to fly and fight and discovers that there's more to her father's death than anyone realized.

Reviewer: Ariel Baker-Gibbs

(4) YA After the kingdom of Malam's purge of Channelers (women with magical abilities), Lirra's father disappears on a clandestine mission. As teenage Channeler Lirra tracks him down, she crosses paths with Malam's newly minted king, Aodren, as he struggles to lead Malam to recovery and reparation at an international joust. Highly detailed (and laboriously paced) intrigue and some romance ensue in this fantasy set in the world of Summerill's Clash of Kingdoms series.

Reviewer: Ariel Baker-Gibbs

(3) YA Samantha is discovered wandering through the woods, amnesiac and covered in blood. When the body of her best friend Cassie is discovered, Samantha starts to worry she has gone insane. With the help of hot Carson, she begins to piece together who she was before--and who Cassie's killer may be. Strong suspense and some genuinely creepy moments distinguish this psychological mystery.

Reviewer: Ariel Baker-Gibbs

(4) YA Corinthe is a supernatural being trapped in a teenage body in Humana (Earth), assigned to carry out humans' fates until she can return to her home realm, Pyralis. Her final task is to kill Luc, but she questions everything as the two fall in love. The world-building buckles under the love story, but paranormal-romance fans may enjoy the dreamlike plot of this series-opener.

Reviewer: Ariel Baker-Gibbs

(4) YA Sterling's boyfriend Ethan is rapidly becoming a rock star. As he racks up online followers (the numbers are given at the beginning of each chapter), their ostensibly perfect relationship starts to suffer. It may be hard for some to sympathize with their too-rich-and-famous plight, but readers who do will appreciate the glitzy scenarios and Sterling's believable voice.

Reviewer: Ariel Baker-Gibbs

(4) YA This sequel to Hidden begins amidst a (confusing) whirlwind of activity concerning human Jordan; angel Nathaneal; and Ebony, whose angelic heritage remains in question. While Nathaneal, Ebony's fiancé, returns to Heaven to pay penance for past deeds, agents of evil attempt to trick Ebony into marrying dark Prince Luca. Three alternating narrators tell this story--clearly the second in a series.

Reviewer: Ariel Baker-Gibbs

(4) YA Sixteen-year-old Wen moves to the factories of Gochan and assists her father in the medical clinic he runs there. A combination of her entanglement with Melik, one of the imported Noor workers; her strange encounters with the Ghost of the slaughterhouse; and somewhat heavy-handed race and class conflicts all boil over in this mostly intriguing, quasi-futuristic take on The Phantom of the Opera.

Reviewer: Ariel Baker-Gibbs

(4) YA The sequel to The Edge of Nowhere picks up the story of psychic Becca King who has fled from her criminal stepfather and taken up a life on Whidbey Island, where a mystery develops around a seal that visits yearly. With so many subplots, the story's main thread is difficult to discern, but the large cast of characters is nicely realized.

Reviewer: Ariel Baker-Gibbs

(3) YA Jinni Wars series. Zayele, sent to Baghdad to marry Prince Kamal, catches a jinni and wishes to trade places with her. Zayele lands in their crystal subterranean world; jinni Najwa is stuck impersonating Zayele. As the girls learn about their new worlds, greater problems are afoot in the kingdom, and they must save the bond between humans and jinn. A lush and engaging fantasy series-starter.

Reviewer: Ariel Baker-Gibbs

(3) YA Lady Aileana Kameron is the Falconer, a fae-hunting warrior bent on avenging her mother's murder by a vicious faery. She struggles to balance the niceties of nineteenth-century Scottish nobility and her violent purpose as she begins a romance with the mysteriously exiled Daoine Sith, Kiaran. The flashy combination of steampunk technologies and Scottish faery lore will draw many to the new trilogy.

Reviewer: Ariel Baker-Gibbs

(3) YA Josie doesn't like change. So when her sister Kate announces she's going to marry Geoff, Josie immediately tries everything to alienate him. But she also becomes curious about the nature of love and, with the help of her friends and family, tries to understand it. The highlight of this effectively drawn, often funny novel is its smart, precocious, and irrepressibly inquisitive protagonist.

Reviewer: Ariel Baker-Gibbs

(4) YA Claire, who was the victim of a violent attack, moves with her father from Chicago to the small town of Peculiar, Missouri. Grappling with PTSD, Claire is quickly drawn into a mystery surrounding the death of a local girl. The dark story, which includes sequences from the dead girl's point of view, reaches a somewhat unsatisfying conclusion.

Reviewer: Ariel Baker-Gibbs

(4) YA After a fluke call to a wrong number, James and Lucy become phone friends. The Vermont teens have much in common, so they continue to talk and a special relationship blossoms. The secret that Lucy is hiding from James is a bit overblown, but Tracy accomplishes much with the limited format (transcribed phone calls and texts), and the characters are well drawn.

Reviewer: Ariel Baker-Gibbs