New Reviews: Young Adult

Stevie Henry, a Cherokee teen, is running out of time to survive impending world disasters unless she takes up the offer of a mysterious stranger from the future. DeLanna Studi's narration carries a quiet gravity that immediately sets the dark tone of this dystopian novel. Her nuanced performance captures the weight of Stevie's struggle as she is drawn into a secret mission to... Read More

Based on Hough's YouTube text-based horror series, this production is one wild ride as performed by the full cast. When Chloe, voiced by Mecca Rogers, misses her school bus because her math teacher, Miss Langley, voiced by Christina Hendricks, held her for detention after school, she hops on the "backup bus" and soon realizes she's been kidnapped. Classmates Kaitlin (Dacey... Read More

With his versatile voice, narrator Paul Van Dyck takes listeners to the magical world of Lake Mallion. The second book in the Brindlewatch Quintet explores the world of 15-year-old Dunstan Cord. Dunstan has just been diagnosed with macular degeneration. Determined not to let his diagnosis quash his dreams, he decides to run away to become a singing sensation in the theater.... Read More

Em Grosland voices trans con artist Phyllis as he uses his magic to steal people's body parts and hold them for ransom--all to satisfy his partner in crime, Lucent. But when one target, Wycliff, can't pay for his stolen nose due to his sister, Adeline's, disappearance, Phyllis disguises himself as a duke and infiltrates the nobility to find her. Grosland smoothly portrays a... Read More

This audiobook is set in a dystopian future in which a powerful megacorporation enforces debt repayment through a brutal death match known as the Lamb's Gauntlet. The story revolves around Inesa, who is unwillingly offered as a sacrifice by her mother, and Melinoë, a cybernetically altered assassin who is sent to kill Inesa. As the two journey across a wasteland, something... Read More

Mia Hutchinson-Shaw and André Santana deliver alternating narratives of two unique teens--Viv, who fights for the environment, and Dex, who struggles with poverty. Hutchinson-Shaw's narration is tense and energetic as Viv confronts the people who support her town's economic base: fracking and its associated pipeline. She also captures Viv's quick mood changes and sensitive... Read More

Author and activist George M. Johnson skillfully narrates their audiobook about several Black queer artists and performers from the Harlem Renaissance. Their lively delivery keeps listeners interested as they share brief biographies of Langston Hughes, Josephine Baker, and other greats of the era. Each chapter is delightfully introduced with music from the period that... Read More

Diana Bustelo and Krysta Gonzales narrate this YA story of two friends, each of whom is hoping to fulfill her deepest desire. Bustelo embodies Mayte, who is threatened by debt collectors because her father has lost the family fortune. Her best friend, Lo, portrayed by Gonzales, lives with her abusive father. The girls decide to visit Fortune's Kiss, a magical gambling den that... Read More

Sara Matsui Colby is the main narrator of this audio adaptation of a graphic novel, and various narrators chime in as minor characters. Japanese-American author Christine Mari recounts her study abroad experience as a time of culture shock, depression, a feeling of lack of belonging, microaggressions, and, eventually, self-discovery. To supplement the lack of visuals, various... Read More

In Nell's family young women receive magic at the age of 15. Hayley Chewins narrates her novel in verse in quiet tones that make this remarkable story seem perfectly normal. Chewins's native South African accent helps listeners imagine the Cape Town setting where Nell's mother shifts her age from one day to the next and her sister is institutionalized for self-harm as she tries... Read More

Tony Keith, Jr.--poet, rapper, and hip-hop educator--uses his cultural observations, edgy politics, and sharp ear for concise wordplay and fast rhymes to get the attention of the audience that needs him most: disenfranchised Black school kids he affectionately calls "knuckleheads." With brash and evocative poem titles like "If You Fail to Plan, Then Plan to Fail," "Because When... Read More

Henrietta Meire shows remarkable vocal range in this audiobook featuring multiple human and dragon languages and accents. Vivian aims for an internship studying dragon languages, but when her parents are arrested as rebels, she sets free a dragon that starts a civil war. Desperate, she accepts a job as a code breaker to help the war effort and is tasked with deciphering the one... Read More

Ivan Mok, Quyen Ngo, and a full cast narrate this award-winning 2020 graphic novel. Mok portrays 13-year-old English-speaking Tien, and Ngo portrays his mother, Helen, a Vietnamese refugee. Mok shows Tien's confusion as he crushes on a male classmate. Ngo conveys Helen's despair at losing her own mother and her longing for the past. Mother and son have always bridged language... Read More

Ariana Delawari reflects the uncomfortable mix of feelings of Cassie Perera, which began with her betrayal of her best friend, Ben, in sixth grade, when the two were caught swapping outfits. She denies her friendship to avoid revealing her same-sex attractions, hiding behind being perfect at school, church, and home. Delawari carries listeners forward into Cassie's junior... Read More

How can we let go of the one we loved and lost? That's the central question that Frankie Corzo so expertly poses in her enthralling narration of this YA fantasy-romance. By day, Estrella "Noche" Villanueva is a 17-year-old who is mourning the death of her first love, Dante. But by night, Noche transforms into a Lechuza, a beautiful black owl who guides spirits to the sky.... Read More

Atkins's historical audiobook novel-in-verse shines a light on an important chapter of American history, beginning with the 1913 Women's March and ending with the 1920 ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment. Chanté McCormick gives the historical, mostly forgotten, Matilda Young a compelling voice. Matilda's voice gains confidence and strength as she grows from a shy... Read More

Gary Tiedemann gives voice to "Rhino" Rhinehart, the featured character in Lipsyte's timely, troubling coming-of-age novel. Because of an impulsive punch, the junior captain of the football team finds himself keeping a journal as part of a school therapy group. Tiedemann delivers Rhino's words in the voice of a teen who is attempting honesty and beginning to question who he... Read More

Róisín Rankin narrates this action-packed story set at an elite Dublin school. Listeners meet a group of 16-year-olds who are hospitalized after a bomb blast in their chemistry lab. Was it an accident or a deliberate act? Each chapter presents a different viewpoint, as well as a mysterious countdown hinting at a more sinister event to come. Focusing on classmates Jess and... Read More

Jefferson White shows remarkable skill balancing a youthful cast with the sobering reality they must face. Twenty-four years before Katniss's games, Haymitch, from District 12, must compete in the Hunger Games--with twice the tributes (competitors). White's perfect pacing adds intensity to the brutality of the games and lingering melancholy as Haymitch struggles to maintain his... Read More

Narrator Maggie Thompson immediately captures the difficult relationship that resentful Noni Reid has with her forceful mother, Dr. Radiance Castine. When her mother is appointed president of a Virginia college, she insists that Noni give up a coveted summer internship in costume design in Boston to move to Tangleroot, the plantation built by her ancestor. Thompson's use of... Read More

Narrator Kevin R. Free's emotional connection to the dark, romantic audiobook tugs at listeners' heartstrings. Teenaged George, a vampire, is about to lose his life partner, James, to old age. Free's tone projects George's slowly breaking heart, even as a new opportunity for romance appears. Howard can't wait to finish high school, where he feels frustrated at the lack of... Read More

Brittany Pressley portrays a character who, at first, seems like an over-the-top heroine. Eleanor, a senior in high school, was abandoned by her father, Hugo, when she was born. Emotionally abused by her mother, she dreams of living with her father and his family. In response to a job ad, she does just that, hiding her identity and becoming a nanny for her toddler half-brother... Read More

Golden Voice Ramón de Ocampo, who narrated each of the author's memoirs, delivers this hard-hitting YA novel in verse. De Ocampo guides listeners on its emotional journey, using the genre's rhythms to illuminate the relationship between high school seniors Diego and his best friend, Lawson. De Ocampo's poignant delivery highlights the contrast between anxious, rule-following,... Read More

Sophie Jo Wasson transports listeners to Ireland in 1847 with her poignant performance. Like many throughout the country, Nell's family's potato crop is infected with a black rot that makes the potatoes inedible. Farmers are forced to choose between paying their rent from the sale of their oat crops, or feeding their families and facing eviction. Amid those tragedies, Nell and... Read More