Scout is absolutely not a band kid, until--several months, hours of practice, one disastrous concert, and a new friendship later--being a band kid doesn't seem so bad. A fun and sweet middle grade story that explores growing and changing friendships, responsibility and commitment, and what it means to work towards something you are passionate about. Love the art style and the little notes from the author throughout.

Come for the epic necromancer sci-fi drama, stay for all the bone puns. Skeletons, secrets, conspiracies, and more skeletons abound, with a collection of main characters full of snark, skill, and feelings bigger than they know how to express. Gideon and Harrow broke my heart and patched it right back up with whatever scraps were laying around.

How well do you really know someone you've known your whole life, inside and out? How do relationships grow in the spheres tangential to romantic- platonic love, work partners, creative partners, life equals? Absolutely adored this book from start to finish. Zevin's writing is electric and style so fluid. Could not put it down. The non-linear flow was so intriguing, giving the whole book a documentary-esque feel that I really enjoyed. The interspersed POV swaps were also creatively used and added another layer of genius.

Past, present, and future collide in Scott Alexander Howard's debut, "The Other Valley." A brain-spinning, heart-pounding tale of love and loss, grief and growing, grounded in a philosophical examination of fate and free will. Howard's protagonist is vivid and alive, his valley-worlds intriguing, and the ending will stay with long after you read the last page (personally it made me want to punch something, but in a good way?). A must read for fans of Erin Morgenstern and Emily St John Mandel.

Never thought I'd read the word "chumbis" and "chonk" so many times in a novel, but Jane's thorough adoration of cats did not disappoint. Absolutely adored the style and wit of Jane's debut novel and her ability to take both a classic UFO premise and a weirdly topical issue and create something new and beautiful. At times deep and poignant and at other times deeply absurd, this story of cats, bacon, plastic, and humanity had me hooked all the way through.

A love letter to both storytelling and the arts community, "One Woman Show" is a cubist masterpiece in itself. Coulson's sharp vignettes give the perfect impression of a slow meander through a museum, visual details reading like oil paintings. If you are drawn to writing that explores the form and function of narrative while also delivering deep, thoughtful prose, don't miss this one.

In a near-near-future on the precipice of impending ecological collapse, a motivated and resourceful group of tech-billionaire-adjacents ask the question: would you lose three people to save the whole world? Would you lose four? Alderman approaches an ethical debate with her signature creativity and poise, leaving behind a novel that is part warning, part roadmap, and part meditation on the history of human nature. The entire Future is at stake.