Grades 9 – 12
Moderated by Aurora Dominguez, YA book reviewer at Frolic Media.
In Cinderella Is Dead, Kalynn Bayron takes us 200 years past the day that Cinderella found her prince, but the fairy tale is over, and we learn that there’s more to Cinderella’s story than we ever knew. Filled with mystery and a rich magic system, Tracy Deonn’s Legendborn offers dark allure with a modern-day twist on a classic legend and a lot of Southern Black Girl Magic. Chloe Gong‘s These Violent Delights is an imaginative retelling of Romeo and Juliet set in 1920s Shanghai, with rival gangs and a monster in the depths of the Huangpu River. Updating a Greek myth in an Afro-Latinx setting, Lilliam Rivera‘s Never Look Back blends a touch of magical realism into a timely story about cultural identity, overcoming trauma, and the power of first love.