For the rest of the week, we're taking a break to give thanks for many things, so this is our last issue until Monday, December 2. Enjoy the holidays, and may all booksellers have excellent Black Friday, Plaid Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Indies First celebrations! (On Sunday, we encourage all booksellers to send reports about Small Business Saturday and Indies First, with pictures if possible, to news@shelf-awareness.com.)
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With the start of the holiday shopping season only a few days away, independent booksellers around the country are ready to kick things off with Indies First/Small Business Saturday.
Libro.fm is running a Shop Small Sale from November 26 to December 2. Many bestselling audiobooks will be available for $5 or less, and bookstores can share special offers for customers starting new monthly memberships. Booksellers can find Libro.fm assets for Plaid Friday, Small Business Saturday/Indies First, and Cider Monday here.
In Los Angeles, Calif., Chevalier's Books is celebrating Small Business Saturday with its first ever Boozy Book Fair. The event will run after hours, 7-10 p.m., and the $15 ticket will include admission, free drinks and refreshments, free gift wrapping, a free reusable Chevalier's tote bag, and a copy of the bookstore's holiday catalog, which goes live November 30.
RJ Julia Booksellers in Madison, Conn., will be serving hot cocoa in the bookstore's kids' room while children write letters to Santa. Afterward, the bookstore will take part in the Madison Chamber of Commerce Holiday Celebration Parade, which will start at 11 a.m. at the Scranton Library and follow Boston Post Road. Following the end of the parade, there will be a special visit from Santa in front of Cafe Allegre.
At the Raven Book Store in Lawrence, Kan., SBS festivities will include a prize wheel, new T-shirts, the return of an old sweatshirt favorite, and a slate of local author signings. Appearances will include Robert Dinsdale (Massachusetts Street), Dustin Stumblingbear (I Am Kiowa), Sarah Henning (The Lies We Conjure), Nicole Evans (Blood Price), and Curtis Marsh (KU-phoria).
In Evanston, Ill., Bookends & Beginnings will celebrate the opening of Middles Used Books, a new sister store focused on used titles. There will be a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 5 p.m. with Mayor Daniel Biss, and following the ceremony, there will be cake and champagne back at the MiniBar at the store's flagship location. Afterward, Bookends staff members will present their holiday picks. The day will also include free stickers with all purchases, complimentary tote bags with purchases over $100, and free stickers for the first 50 children under 10 who arrive for the store's morning storytime session.
Brazos Bookstore in Houston, Tex., will stay open late on Saturday for Brazos After Dark, a shopping experience featuring an assortment of snacks and drinks as a thank you to customers for a great 2024.
And at Papercuts Bookshop in Boston, Mass., the bookstore will be celebrating its 10th anniversary. Owner Kate Layte and her team will thank customers and community members for their support with homemade baked goods, guest appearances from local authors, and more.
Last Tuesday's bomb cyclone storm in the Seattle, Wash., area caused widespread damage and power outages for many thousands, including the Third Place Books store in Lake Forest, where power was finally restored Saturday afternoon. Third Place also operates stores in Seward and Ravenna.
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| Powerless booksellers at Third Place: "No phone, no Internet, but thousands of books." | |
In response to requests from customers asking how they might help, Third Place owner Robert Sindelar posted his reaction on the bookstore's social media sites yesterday, writing: "Like many of us in the greater Seattle area, our Lake Forest Park store lost power last week after the powerful bomb cyclone that swept through Western Washington. We had to close for almost four days during a critical season for retailers-bookstores in particular. Those lost sales are always tough. But at this time of year, when holiday shopping is kicking into gear, losing those four days is devastating to a local business. Some customers and friends of the store have asked if there are ways to help. Here's what you can do."
Sindelar's suggestions included buying a gift card, making a donation to the store's Books to Students Fund, or simply coming to the store to shop. "Also, if there are other local stores that you love and care about that lost power for days this past week, please consider supporting them with gift card purchases as well," he added. "Restaurants that closed were hit particularly hard. Their employees lost days of tips. Many lost all their inventory and are still struggling to recover....
"As we all reflect on things we are thankful for this week, I will be thinking about how lucky I am to work and live with such an amazing community of readers. All the best to our Third Place Community."
Black Garnet Books in St. Paul, Minn., which was put up for sale last summer by owner and founder Dionne Sims, has a new owner. MPR News reported that Terresa Moses has purchased the business that was originally launched by Sims in 2020 as a pop-up and online shop before transitioning to a bricks-and-mortar model in 2022.
Sims said that selling the store was not a hard decision, especially with the buyer being a friend. "I'm someone that when I start to feel content, I feel like I am ready to grow in a different area," Sims said. "Terresa was actually the first person that I reached out to because we've worked together so often. I was so shy about it, how can you ask someone to buy a bookstore?"
Moses noted: "It really universally felt like this was meant to be. It's something that really opened up to me the idea that we can actually exchange Black wealth and that was something really strange to be physically doing."
Sims said that Moses, who is a professor at the University of Minnesota, published author and co-founder of Blackbird Revolt, already understood the store's vision and plans to continue Sims's work while expanding and hosting more community events. She also wants to have a pop-up Black Garnet location at the Blackbird Revolt studio space in Minneapolis.
"Black Garnet Books is an abolitionist bookstore that focuses and centers the narrative of Black and brown writers," Moses said. "It's still queer-owned, it's still woman-owned, it's still abolitionist, period."
Noting that she plans to focus on her writing, Sims said, "This decision has been made easier by the fact that there is someone who gets it that is taking over. I've always just been someone who's really open to change and really open to, like rearranging my life in a way that either serves the people around me or serves my dreams for the future. I'm kind of open to listening to the universe and hearing what it says I should do next."
Left on Read, a bookstore highlighting Black authors and diverse voices, will open on Saturday in Wichita, Kan., KAKE.com reported.
Store owner Latasha Kelly, a professor at George Mason University and the University of Maryland Global Campus, and founder of media company TMBP Media, has found a space at 612 E. Douglas Ave., Suite 200, in downtown Wichita. The bookstore will carry a wide assortment of titles from Black authors, and Kelly plans to host community events centered on representation and empowerment.
Kelly told KAKE that she chose to open her own bookstore due to the lack of Black authors she's observed in other bookstores. And the name, she added, comes from the fact that historically, authors of color have been "left on read."
She also emphasized that while everyone will be welcome at Left on Read, it will be "a space that is unapologetically promoting and supporting and amplifying Black voices."
Kelly plans to be open for business on November 30.
Total net book sales in September in the U.S. rose 2.4%, to $1.5 billion, compared to September 2023, representing sales of 1,278 publishers and distributed clients as reported to the Association of American Publishers. For January through September, net book sales rose 7%, to $10.8 billion.
Net trade sales slipped 0.9% in September. In trade formats, digital audio was again the biggest gainer, up 28.1%, while e-books rose 4% and hardcovers were up 3.2%. Other trade formats all had sales drops, including paperbacks, down 12.6%; special bindings, down 1%; mass market down 22.1%; and physical audio, down 51.1%. The strongest trade categories were adult e-books, up 6.2%; children's/YA hardcovers, up 4.9%; and adult hardcovers, up 3.4%. The other adult and children/YA categories had sales declines (see below).
Within adult trade, net sales of fiction rose 9% while nonfiction fell 7.7%. In children's/YA books, net sales of fiction fell 3.3% and nonfiction net sales fell 6.6%.
Sales by category for September 2024:
Andy Rubin, bookseller and arts and music promoter, died on November 22 at age 59.
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| Andy Rubin | |
As his family noted, "He lived in Baltimore, New York and on Amtrak. Andy was a television producer for ABC and NBC news, a bookstore/coffee shop owner, and music manager. He was a free spirit who loved life, baseball, books, music, photography, the arts, animals, bourbon, politics, traveling and his family."
He learned about bookselling at Coliseum Books in New York City, where his late father, Sy Rubin, had been a founder. In 2007, he opened the Baltimore Chop bookstore, a general-interest store that emphasized many of his interests: sports books, live music, and art glass. (See our profile here.) That store morphed into Cyclops Books & Music, which eventually closed its doors.
As a friend wrote: "One thing I think everyone would say about Andy was that he was supportive and accepting. He treated the literati and down on their luck poets with the same grace. He helped writers and musicians like it was his mission in life."
The funeral service will be held Friday, November 29, at noon at the Plaza Jewish Community Chapel, 630 Amsterdam Ave., New York City, and burial is at 2 p.m. at Old Montefiore Cemetery in Saint Albans.
Donations can be made in Rubin's memory to the Noble Heart Sanctuary or the New York Choral Society.
Andy Weinberger, owner of Readers' Books, Sonoma, Calif., read from his new novel, The Gonif (Turner Publishing), the fifth installment of the Amos Parisman Mystery series. Weinberger is framed by the Wall of Generosity--stars that hold names of people who have donated books to the store's Book Stars program, which connects Sonoma Valley kids with free new books.
Quail Ridge Books, Raleigh, N.C., kicked off the holiday season on Saturday, November 23, with a sold-out storytime (nearly 200 parents and kids) led by Mac Barnett in celebration of his latest picture book, Santa's First Christmas (Viking), illustrated by Sydney Smith. Barnett walked through the store to chants of "Mac! Mac! Mac!", read two books to the crowd, took questions, and signed his books for more than an hour while booksellers led the crowd in singing carols. Barnett, "Santa's friend," created this TikTok for Quail Ridge.
"Don't be a turkey. Read a book!" That was the pre-Thanksgiving suggestion on the sidewalk chalkboard in front of Barrier Island Books & Art, Stone Harbor, N.J.
"This cutie-pie bride-to-be was recently treated to a timed shopping spree by her bookish friends. Can you imagine? What would you grab?" the Bookshop, East Nashville, Tenn., posted on Instagram.
Today:
Fresh Air: Michael Owen, author of Ira Gershwin: A Life in Words (Liveright, $37.99, 9781324091813).
Friday:
CBS Mornings Plus: Katherine Carver, author of Abandoned: Chronicling the Journeys of Once-Forsaken Dogs (Lantern Publishing & Media, $39.95, 9781590567302).
Book TV airs on C-Span 2 this weekend from 8 a.m. Saturday to 8 a.m. Monday and focuses on political and historical books as well as the book industry. The following are highlights for this coming weekend. For more information, go to Book TV's website.
Saturday, November 30
10:40 a.m. John Frece, author of Self-Destruction: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of U.S. Senator Daniel B. Brewster (Loyola College/Apprentice House, $37.99, 9781627204682).
12:50 p.m. David S. Brown, author of A Hell of a Storm: The Battle for Kansas, the End of Compromise, and the Coming of the Civil War (Scribner, $32, 9781668022818).
Sunday, December 1
8:31 a.m. Christopher Cox, author of Woodrow Wilson: The Light Withdrawn (Simon & Schuster, $34.99, 9781668010785).
2 to 6:10 p.m. Coverage of the 2024 Litquake Festival at the San Francisco Public Library. Highlights include:
6:10 p.m. Craig Mundie, co-author of Genesis: Artificial Intelligence, Hope, and the Human Spirit (Little, Brown, $30, 9780316581295).
Eighteen by Alice Loxton was named Blackwell's Book of the Year 2024, the Bookseller reported. Zool Verjee, Blackwell's commercial manager, said, "We are extremely proud to present Eighteen by Alice Loxton as our Blackwell's Book of the Year for 2024.In a year of exceptional and vibrant publishing, Eighteen stands out for the range of subjects covered, and for Alice Loxton's lively and engaging writing style."
Matthew Land of Blackwell's Edinburgh added: "Playful but authoritative history is a genre which Alice Loxton is speedily making her own. The premise of this book--the tale of 18 people though history and what their life was like at 18 years of age (and what that reveals to us about that historical period and setting)--is a unique lens through which to present a version of British history."
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Intermezzo by Sally Rooney was crowned Foyles Book of the Year for 2024, besting a shortlist that included Gillian Anderson's Want, Percival Everett's James, Asako Yuzuki's Butter, and Olga Tokarczuk's The Empusium, among others, the Bookseller reported.
One Foyles bookseller noted that the "themes of brotherhood, grief and loneliness are written so masterfully, proving that Rooney is a once-in-a-generation talent"; another praised "the characters, and found their complex vulnerabilities incredibly moving," while a third described Intermezzo as a "great novel from a master storyteller."
Selected new titles appearing next Tuesday, December 3:
Bellevue by Robin Cook (Putnam, $30, 9780593718834) is a medical thriller set in New York's Bellevue Hospital.
The Last Tsar: The Abdication of Nicholas II and the Fall of the Romanovs by Tsuyoshi Hasegawa (Basic Books, $35, 9781541606166) explores the end of the Romanov dynasty.
A Town Without Time: Gay Talese's New York by Gay Talese (Mariner, $29.99, 9780063392182) collects 14 pieces of reporting spanning six decades.
Why So Serious?: The Untold Story of NBA Champion Nikola Jokic by Mike Singer (Harper, $29.99, 9780063396807) is the biography of the basketball player.
Tom Clancy Defense Protocol by Brian Andrews and Jeffrey Wilson (Putnam, $32, 9780593717974) posthumously continues Clancy's Jack Ryan thriller series.
Locked In: A Department Q Novel by Jussi Adler-Olsen, trans. by Caroline Waight (Dutton, $30, 9780593475690) is the 10th and final Department Q Danish police procedural.
The Shadowed Land: A Novel by Signe Pike (Atria, $28.99, 9781501191480) continues the Arthurian folklore Lost Queen series.
Rental House: A Novel by Weike Wang (Riverhead, $28, 9780593545546) is a family drama about spouses with different backgrounds.
The Party by Natasha Preston (Delacorte, $14.99, 9780593704080) features a group of high school friends whose castle party is crashed by a murderer.
The Scarlet Veil Deluxe Limited Edition by Shelby Mahurin (HarperCollins, $16.99, 9780063419391) is a limited run paperback edition of the 2023 title set in the world of the Serpent & Dove series.
Bake With Brooki by Brooke Bellamy (Penguin, $34.99, 9781761346330) is a cookbook by an internet baking star.
The Mindful Mocktail: Delicious, Nutritious Non-Alcoholic Drinks to Make at Home by Natalie Battaglia (Page Street, $22.99, 9781645679394) includes 60 drink recipes.
Paperbacks:
Keep Me by Sara Cate (Sourcebooks Casablanca, $17.99, 9781728282190).
Under Loch and Key by Lana Ferguson (Berkley, $19, 9780593816851).
PS: I Hate You by Lauren Connolly (Berkley, $19, 9780593815663).
The Power of Bridging: How to Build a World Where We All Belong by john a. powell (Sounds True, $19.99, 9781649631657).
From last week's Indie bestseller lists, available at IndieBound.org, here are the recommended titles, which are also Indie Next Great Reads:
Hardcover
Pony Confidential: A Novel by Christina Lynch (Berkley, $28, 9780593640364). "A talking horse? Not only that, a talking horse with some real powers of deduction and a thirst for revenge! This mystery gallops along from one end of the U.S. to the other; you'll be bouncing in your seat until the very satisfying conclusion." --Anne Holman, The King's English Bookshop, Salt Lake City, Utah
How Does That Make You Feel, Magda Eklund?: A Novel by Anna Montague (Ecco, $28, 9780063353640). "This novel follows a 70-year-old woman on a road trip with her best friend's ashes. Along the way, she confronts her grief and her sexuality, showing that honesty and connection are there if we are brave enough to reach for them." --Colleen Schneider Cameron, Read Between the Lynes, Woodstock, Ill.
Paperback
An Image of My Name Enters America: Essays by Lucy Ives (Graywolf Press, $20, 9781644453117). "Lucy Ives is a brilliant, singular, and encyclopedic thinker, and this collection of essays--spanning topics as wide-reaching as My Little Pony, the Assyrian Genocide, and the troubled history of romantic love--is astonishing." --Scott Broker, Vroman's Bookstore, Pasadena, Calif.
Ages 5-7
Open Me... I'm a Dog! by Art Spiegelman (TOON Books, $18.99, 9781662665486,). "Open Me... I'm a Dog! uses clever word play and mixed media to encourage kids to have a hands-on experience. Spiegelman uses a combination of artistic styles to illustrate the story. This is a great book to introduce to a toddler and bring out for story time." --Lea Bickerton, The Tiny Bookstore, Pittsburgh, Pa.
Ages 8-12
The Graveyard Gift by Fern Forgettable, as told by Piper CJ (Random House Books for Young Readers, $14.99, 9780593810477). "This book gave me all the Wednesday Addams vibes. Young Rosemary can see how people die. She's a student at Fern's school for other demi-fae. When classmate goes missing, she'll have to use her gifts to find him. Mystery, friendship and so much more!" --Morgan DePerno, Bookmarks, Winston-Salem, N.C.
Teen Readers
Don't Let the Forest In by CG Drews (Feiwel & Friends, $19.99, 9781250895660). "Beautifully cutting and achingly full of writhing love, painful loss, and horrors beyond imagination. Love is a weapon full of cutting ribs and thorns in this gut-wrenching story by CG Drews." --Kaitlyn Mahoney, Under the Umbrella Bookstore, Salt Lake City, Utah
[Many thanks to IndieBound and the ABA!]
Richard Smith is a marine biologist and conservationist, an award-winning underwater photographer and videographer, a public speaker, and the leader of diving expeditions around the world. In 2018, he identified a new species of pygmy seahorse, having first photographed it five years previously. His book, The World Beneath (Apollo Publishers, November 19, 2024), is a richly informative volume introducing the world's most fascinating sea creatures.
Handsell readers your book in 25 words or less:
The World Beneath takes you on an underwater adventure, where quirky sea creatures and colorful reefs around the world's oceans share their secrets and stories.
On your nightstand now:
I feel like I have quite an eclectic collection of nightstand books. I recently picked up Bill Bryson's Notes from a Small Island from a charity shop. It's probably long overdue a read, so it's at the top of the pile to remind me to read it. Next, I have Parrot Conservation: From Kakapo to Lear's Macaw. Tales of Hope from Around the World by Rosemary Low, who has been a great force for parrot conservation and education around the world. I had the chance to meet her a couple years ago and could have listened to her stories all day. I also have The Genus Salamandra by Uwe Seidel and Philip Gerhardt. I'm randomly obsessed with fire salamanders, which are amazing amphibians that are found across Europe, but are severely at risk from climate change and disease. Finally, The Resilient Garden and Allotment Handbook by Sally Morgan, which I bought at a local literary event. I am trying to grow organic produce in my garden and at the same time encourage wildlife, so this has been really insightful. It just needs a chapter on how to stop my wily but adorable chickens from dust bathing in the middle of the veggie patch and flattening everything!
Favorite book when you were a child:
Since I was five years old, I wanted to be a zoologist. I have a very tatty copy of Snakes: The Evolution of Mystery in Nature by Harry W. Greene that I schlepped around for quite a while. It was definitely not intended for little people, but I loved it. I inhaled the information from every page.
I was involved in a serious car accident as a child and had to undergo years of very painful procedures, and a great escape from that was listening to the audiobook (on cassette) of Gerald Durrell's My Family and Other Animals. I would put it on when I went to bed and listen for hours. It's full of humor and animal antics. Right up my street and a book that I love to this day.
Your top five authors:
I have always loved Gerald Durrell, the eccentric British naturalist. As well as his often autobiographical books, his biography by Douglas Botting was fascinating. Since Jurassic Park, which was one of the first novels that I read, I've loved Michael Crichton's work. I enjoy his fantastical tales with the scientific background to make things seem somewhat believable. David Attenborough is obviously most well-known for his natural history documentaries, but I have always loved his writing too. Life on Earth is a classic and some of those early natural history observations were certainly formative for me. A friend of mine has filmed with Sir David for years and kindly passed on a copy of my book to him. One of my most treasured possessions is the handwritten note I received by post, where Sir David exclaimed, "Why haven't I seen the display of the Galapagos Pike Blenny, I've dived around the Galapagos!" A fiction book that I loved was The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy. I appreciated the richness of writing and the location being in India really took me on a journey. For holiday reading, I do enjoy a murder mystery and have really relished the Britishness of Richard Osman's Thursday Murder Club series.
Book you've faked reading:
For my master's degree I studied Marine Ecology and Evolution, during which I was meant to have read Darwin's On the Origin of Species. Needless to say, I didn't; however, Darwin's work was of course fascinating, and I should read the book... one day!
Book you're an evangelist for:
I read Parasite Rex by Carl Zimmer whilst I was doing a parasitology unit for my undergraduate degree and became slightly obsessed with the amazing world of parasites. They are creepy but biologically fascinating. There hasn't been too much work on underwater parasites, so on my travels I have found quite a few that appear to be new species. I included a chapter on marine parasites in my own book. I'll talk to anyone who will listen about parasites. Just the other day I was recommending this book to my hairdresser after a discussion about the new Alien movie!
Book you've bought for the cover:
I just picked up The Golden Mole and Other Vanishing Treasure by Katherine Rundell as an impulse buy. I suppose it was more the title, than the cover per se, but I am always drawn to little-known creatures and want to learn more about them. The golden mole checked that box, and the book had great reviews. My Ph.D. research was the first study on the biology of pygmy seahorses, so you can see the theme.
Book you hid from your parents:
I was raised by my father, who wasn't an avid reader. He would always fall asleep during story time. As a small child I would have to shake him awake if he fell asleep mid-sentence. To be honest, it would be more likely that he hid books from me, so I wouldn't badger him at bedtime to read to me.
Book that changed your life:
After learning to scuba dive at age 16, I carried around the physical book of Reef Fish Identification: Tropical Pacific by Gerald R. Allen, Roger Steene, Paul Humann, and Ned DeLoach, etching every detail of the fishes in my brain. I imagined how marvelous it would be to see some of the amazing rarities that it highlights, but the life-changing moment came when I met one of the authors, Ned, and his wife, Anna. We immediately bonded over weird and wonderful fishes, which over the years has led to us making elaborate expeditions to southern Australia and Tasmania plus several off-the-beaten-path locations in Japan. Without that initial literary link, we may never have connected and discovered our kindred spirits.
Favorite line from a book:
When it comes to anything aside from fishes I have a terrible memory. I could take you to the last place I saw a pygmy seahorse on a remote reef in the Solomon Islands, but I'm afraid lines from books escape me however moved I may be by them at the time.
Two books you'll never part with:
I would never be without my Nature Quiz Book by Michael Chinery. It has made many a long torturous road trip fly by. My close buddies and I now even have spin-off games. My dear friend Ida Kaller-Vincent is an absolute inspiration. She is a marine conservationist but is equally content climbing some of the world's most challenging mountains such as Ama Dablam in Nepal and Denali in Alaska. Her climbing inspired her first novel, Mountain Murder, which I absolutely adore, and I have a beloved signed copy of.
Book you most want to read again for the first time:
When I was in my early teens, my father and I went on a grand adventure to Chile. We were great travel buddies until he passed a few years ago. I would love to read Jurassic Park again, as I vividly remember reading as we drove through the foothills of the Andes in Chile together. It was a wonderful trip, and I'd love to step back into those memories.
What the Woods Took by Courtney Gould (Wednesday Books, $20 hardcover, 336p., ages 12-up, 9781250340672, December 10, 2024)
A group of teens forced into wilderness therapy must try to escape a sinister wood after their counselors disappear in What the Woods Took by Courtney Gould, an eerie supernatural YA thriller in which lurking monsters know everyone's most traumatic memories.
Five unacquainted teens have been thrust into REVIVE, a wilderness therapy program led by two young coaches. They will, over 50 days of hiking and survival work, "cope with some pretty tricky turns" their lives have taken--such as violence or drug and alcohol use--and be "rebuilt and renewed" via "deeply disquiet[ing]" situations. When their coaches disappear, which clearly isn't part of the program, the group concocts a plan to flee before whatever lies in wait attacks them, too. But their supernatural foes can call forth their fears and mimic people they know--even each other. If the teens can't put paranoia aside and get out together, they might not get out at all.
Gould (Where Echoes Die) lays bare the abuses of the "Troubled Teen Industry" and wilderness therapy by paralleling it with the disturbing "mimics," creatures that take the shape of what most triggers each teen then pry their anxieties from their minds and use the details against them. Gould brilliantly reveals how these "troubled delinquent[s]" have each suffered nightmarish emotional pain, including bad dads, child sexual abuse, and the death of a loved one. The third-person close perspective alternates between Ollie's and Devin's stunningly candid voices. Devin, who has been in dozens of foster homes, describes making "herself into a primal, untethered thing" to survive, while Ollie thinks "it would be easier to just vanish" than to "fix" himself for his dad.
The transformation that each member of the group undertakes once they are forced to rely on each other, not the counselors, speaks to the importance of actual support for youth showing signs of mental distress. Their harrowing ordeal has an ominous and foreboding setting--a "too soundless" wood of groaning trees and the darkness between them that seems to expand--that still boasts breathtaking vistas, such as a verdant mountain forest "like a blanket pulled over the cliff's shoulders" and the sun "the color of grapefruit bleeding down the horizon." A slow-burn, enemies-to-lovers queer romance also steals the breath in this macabre tale sure to frighten even as it celebrates healing. --Samantha Zaboski, freelance editor and reviewer
Shelf Talker: Teens must escape a sinister wood when their camp counselors disappear in this eerie supernatural YA that pits wilderness therapy against the supportive power of friendship.
