Young Adult Books
1. The Manderfield Devil by Rachel Allen Everett is a graphic novel detective story blended with horror, as she describes it, “a one-shot noir murder mystery meets cautionary fantasy inspired by Hellboy and The Twilight Zone.” We’d add one more ingredient: religious zealotry. (Ghost Machine Publishing, 60 pp., hardcover) $25.00
2. In a memoir, Beehive Girl by Mikayla Orton Thatcher, the author retraces a mostly forgotten LDS program for “young ladies” initiated in 1915. Similar to Julie Powell’s memoir of cooking her way through Julia Child’s The French Chef, Thatcher finds a vintage copy of the defunct program (also reproduced as an appendix) and completes dozens of its 300 projects with the newfound insight of adult contemporary life. (By Common Consent Press, 374 pp., softcover) $12.95
3. As will happen, teenage Gemma rescues Beau from a boating accident, but while he is in a coma, she is mistaken for his girlfriend. Dear Evan Hansen-like, this story gets out of control until she is caught between faux devotion and the real romance she feels for Beau’s older brother. This Might Get Awkward is by Kara McDowell (Scholastic Press, 336 pp., hardcover) $17.99
4. An Improbable Season by Rosalyn Eves follows a trio of cousins over their debutante season in Regent-era London. In rule-bound society, these heroines seek success and happy endings but find social scandal instead. (Farrar Straus and Giroux, 352 pp. hardcover) $19.99