On Resistance, Romance, and Building Fantastic Worlds

In Darcie Little Badger’s A Snake Falls to Earth (Levine Querido), we meet Nina, a 16-year-old Lipan Apache girl from Texas. She’s always felt there was something more out there. She still believes in the old stories. When she was 9, her great-great-grandmother Rosita told her a story in Spanish and Lipan, a mysterious story about a fish girl. Oli is a cottonmouth kid from the land of spirits and monsters. Like all cottonmouths, he’s been cast from home, but he’s found a new one on the banks of the bottomless lake. Nina and Oli have no idea the other exists. But a catastrophic event on Earth, and a strange sickness that befalls Oli’s best friend, will bring their worlds together in ways they haven’t been in centuries. And some will kill to keep them apart. Kirkus celebrated how the “story leads readers through two richly constructed worlds using a style that evokes the timeless feeling of listening to traditional oral storytelling. A coming-of-age story that beautifully combines tradition and technology for modern audiences.”

Jordan Ifueko is the Nebula Finalist and New York Times bestselling author of the Raybearer series and other stories, including short fiction in the Hugo-nominated magazine Strange Horizons. She’s been featured on NPR Best Books and NPR Pop Culture Hour, and in the ALA Top Ten, Buzzfeed, and other publications. In Redemptor (Raybearer Book 2) (Amulet Books), the sequel and conclusion to the Raybearer duology, Tarisai sits on Aritsar’s throne – the very first time Empress Redemptor. To appease the spirits of the dead, Tarisai must now anoint a council of her own, coming into her full power as a Raybearer. But just months into her shaky reign, the lives of her loved ones are on the line, there are assassination attempts from unknown enemies, and there’s the handsome new stranger she can’t quite trust. NPR called it “Breathtakingly beautiful. … Impossible to put down. … Enthralling.”

Romina Garber is the pen name of Romina Russell, a New York Times and international bestselling author. Originally from Argentina, as a teenager she wrote a weekly column for the Miami Herald that was later nationally syndicated. Her books include Lobizona and, as Romina Russell, the Zodiac quartet. Cazadora: A Novel (Wolves of No World #2) (Wednesday Books), follows the events of Lobizona, featuring protagonist Manu as she discovered her true identity and family legacy. In Cazadora, Manu and her friends cross the mystical border into Kerana – a cursed realm in Argentina – searching for allies and a hiding place. As they chase down leads about a resistance pack, the Cazadores chase down leads about Manu, setting up traps to capture and arrest her. Just when it seems the Cazadores have Manu and her friends cornered, the resistance answers their call for help. As it turns out, they need a revolution as much as she does. Kirkus called it an “inspiring, powerful tale of belonging.”

Melissa Albert is the author of the Hazel Wood series and a former bookseller and young adult lit blogger. The series follows 17-year-old Alice Proserpine as she journeys into the world of her grandmother’s fairy tales. Deliciously dark and mesmerizing, the Hazel Wood is just the beginning of the worlds beyond. Its fourth installment, Tales from the Hinterland (The Hazel Wood) (Flatiron Books), recounts 12 sinister fairy tales from a brutal and beautiful world, including stories of a young woman who spends a night with Death, brides wed to a mysterious house in the trees, and a twice-killed enchantress who still lives. This mashup of fantasy and mystery features full-page illustrations by Jim Tierney, foil stamping, two-color interior printing, and printed endpapers.

Aurora Dominguez is a high school English teacher, college professor and journalist in South Florida. Her work has appeared in The Miami Herald, Where Magazine and J-14 Magazine, all places where she worked as a writer and editor before going from the newsroom to the classroom. She teaches at Boca Raton Community High School and writes about young adult books for Frolic Media. Her work has been featured in the book compilation Saved by the Page.