The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert
This book reminded me again how fun it can be to get lost in another world. In this world, 17-year-old Alice Crewe's Grandmother has written a series of dark fairy tales with a cult following. When she dies and a creature from that world appears to kidnap her mother, it's up to Alice to enter the Hazel Wood and confront her fears, both imagined and all too real.
With whip-smart prose and a cast of characters you'll not soon forget, this is dark YA fantasy turned on its head and it's wonderful.
How To Stop Time by Matt Haig
If you were born in 1581, you'd be tired too. Tom Hazard certainly is and he'd like to settle down with a nice girl. That's the most simplistic way of explaining a much deeper story that will keep you turning pages through the centuries of Tom's life and well into your own evenings.
I knew before reading this that the movie is already in production with Benedict Cumberbatch signed on to play Tom—and there couldn't be a more perfect actor to play the part.
Dreadful Young Ladies and Other Stories by Kelly Barnhill
Better known for her 2017 Newberry Award-winning YA novel, "The Girl Who Drank The Moon," Barnhill's latest collection of eight short stories and a novella is very much more for adults. A woman with a Sasquatch for a lover, witches, pirates and a professor who also happens to be an insect populate these poignant and poetic stories. Fans of Neil Gaiman and Kelly Link will be right at home in Barnhill's world of magical realism.
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