New YA Books Hitting Shelves This Week, August 19, 2024

Set in Sài Gòn in Vietnam, the book follows Lan, who tries to be everything to everyone, including her widowed mother and their bánh mì stall. The problem is this is not Lan’s passion–she much preferred writing in her food blog that she shared with her dad before he died.

Vivi is a Vietnamese American. Her parents immigrated to the U.S., and they never talk about their lives in their birth country. Vivi really wants to experience her roots, so she secretly signs up to study abroad after her freshman year of college. Yes, it’ll make her parents mad, but it’ll also give her the chance to see if she can meet her favorite food blogger.

Vivi and Lan meet by chance and make a deal with each other: Lan is going to help Vivi find out about her family’s history, and Vivi is going to help Lan revive her blog. 

This book comes out both in hardcover and paperback simultaneously, so if you prefer one format over the other, you can grab either one at the same time.

Lia and her family fled their ancestral home, Brier Hall, five years ago. The place was haunted, and worse, on the night they left, Lia’s older sister went missing and has yet to be found.

The family has struggled since, and both Lia and her younger sister Ali have been deeply impacted by the huge changes in their lives. Ali has become the kind of girl who says yes to bad ideas. Lia has stepped in to become the perfect daughter.

Coming up on five years since leaving, Lia cannot stop seeing her missing sister everywhere and Brier Hall keeps flooding her memories. So when Ali disappears upon following a strange phone call, Lia is convinced that Ali’s gone back to Brier. Now Lia is going to go back and find her.

This one’s pitched as a modern gothic novel with the flavor of Shirley Jackson’s classic The Haunting of Hill House.

If you loved the adaptation of My Lady Jane, you’ll be excited to know there is a new book in the series hitting shelves this week. This is not the kind of series where you need to read everything in order. You can begin here if you’ve never picked other entries up before.

This is a historical fantasy about pirates that’s a little bit The Little Mermaid and a little bit (a lot bit) inspired by the infamous lady pirate Mary Read.

Mary is experiencing unrequited love. Could be a typical thing, but because Mary is a mermaid, heartbreak means that she’s going to be turned into sea foam.

But she’s not. Instead, she’s lifted from the sea and dropped onto a pirate ship. She joins them, but not because she simply wants to keep living her life. She’s destined to become captain, and when Blackbeard dies, that dream might take her even higher up the pirate ranks.

Will she be able to show her mettle even as a girl? Even with the crush she’s got on Blackbeard’s son? Even with her friend who won’t leave her alone? Mary is sure going to try.

Salem Amani lives with his mom and sister in a haunted house. Really. But Sal is desperate to live a normal life, despite the ghosts. So when Pax shows up at his door and begins asking a lot of questions, Sal is put off and worried that there will be no way he can appear normal.

Then Pax tells Sal that he’s good with ghosts. Despite his hesitation, Sal trusts Pax. But the closer they grow, the more Sal is worried that the truth about him and his family (and those hauntings) will scare Pax away.

Violetta made a mistake driving drunk and causing a crash that killed her sister. It’s not just grief she’s dealing with; she’s incarcerated, and now, her future lies in the hands of her family. If they forgive her, she can get out of the system.

But they won’t forgive her.

Now she has two options: she can remain in the juvenile justice system for some untold amount of time or she can participate in the Trials, which would help her get out again. The Trials are a challenge, but she knows that enduring them will allow her to see her family again and seek their forgiveness.

In the end, though, Violetta has to decide whether their grief and forgiveness are more important than honoring and coping with her own grief…and forgiving herself.