This week’s diverse new releases are:
The Wrath and the Dawn by Renée Ahdieh (Putnam Juvenile)
“A reimagined tale based on One Thousand and One Nights and The Arabian Nights. In this version, the brave Shahrzad volunteers to marry the Caliph of Khorasan after her best friend is chosen as one of his virgin brides and is summarily murdered the next morning. She uses her storytelling skills, along with well-placed cliff-hangers, to keep herself alive while trying to discover a way to exact revenge on the Caliph. … A quick moving plot and sassy, believable dialogue make this a compelling and enjoyable mystery, with just the right amount of romance and magic. … The rich, Middle Eastern cultural context adds to the author’s adept worldbuilding.” — School Library Journal, starred review
Cut Off by Jamie Bastedo (Red Deer Press)
Book Description: A topical tale of one teen’s addiction to the Cyber World – and the Northern adventure that saved his life. Born into a Guatemalan-Canadian family, Indio McCracken enjoys sudden stardom as a classical guitar prodigy after his father posts a video of his playing “Flight of the Bumblebee” in record time. But Dad has a dream of raising the world’s next Segovia and locks the boy in his room to practice his art. Indio is now literally held captive by his musical gift. But here in his home prison Indio attempts escape into the cyber world, where he creates his own magnetic virtual identity and in the process develops a digital obsession that almost kills him. Facing school expulsion, or worse, unless he kicks his Internet habit, Indio is shipped off to an addictions rehab center in northern Canada where the adventure of a lifetime awaits him.
5 to 1 by Holly Bodger (Knopf)
Book Description: Part Homeless Bird and part Matched, this is a dark look at the near future told through the alternating perspectives of two teens who dare to challenge the system.
In the year 2054, after decades of gender selection, India now has a ratio of five boys for every girl, making women an incredibly valuable commodity. Tired of marrying off their daughters to the highest bidder and determined to finally make marriage fair, the women who form the country of Koyanagar have instituted a series of tests so that every boy has the chance to win a wife.
Sudasa, though, doesn’t want to be a wife, and Kiran, a boy forced to compete in the test to become her husband, has other plans as well. As the tests advance, Sudasa and Kiran thwart each other at every turn until they slowly realize that they just might want the same thing.
This beautiful, unique novel is told from alternating points of view—Sudasa’s in verse and Kiran’s in prose—allowing readers to experience both characters’ pain and their brave struggle for hope.
The Hunted by Matt de la Peña (Delacorte)
“Previously, in The Living (Delacorte, 2013), Shy Espinoza’s cushy summer job aboard a cruise ship was short-lived. A tsunami sunk the luxury liner, and Shy survived harrowing moments at sea, after learning that some of the passengers were working for Laso Tech, an evil biotech company responsible for Romero’s Disease, a deadly contagion ravaging Southern California. In this episode, Shy and three friends survive in a dinghy for a month with some stolen vials of the precious Romero’s vaccine, only to wash ashore and see the California coast devastated. … Readers will be drawn to the raw and gritty setting, fast-moving plot, and diverse characters worth rooting for, such as Carmen, Shy’s feisty Mexican coworker and romantic interest, and the philosophical Shoeshine, an older black man who sees Shy as more than just a resilient and steadfast kid, but a larger-than-life hero.” — School Library Journal
Fell of Dark by Patrick Downes (Philomel)
“Teenagers Erik and Thorn are descending into madness on converging paths, heading toward a ruinous first encounter with each other. Both highly intelligent boys, their lives are filled with tragedy and abuse—real, imagined, or exaggerated. … Downes brilliantly plays with language and metaphor, and he explores the dualities of sanity/insanity, beauty/ugliness, voice/voicelessness in a chilling echo of real incidents of school violence. A stunning debut novel that offers sophisticated readers a glimpse into the psychological disintegrations of two distinct characters.” — Kirkus, starred review