#something kindred

Something Kindred by Ciera Burch (YA) Summer Sons by Lee Mandelo Cicadas Sing of Summer Graves and The Pecan Children by Quinn Connor Catfish Lullaby by AC Wise Such Pretty Flowers by K.L. Cerra

The Reappearance of Rachel Price by Holly Jackson

YA Thriller

Author of A Good Girl's Guide to Murder

true crime, missing persons, memory loss

Fate Be Changed by Farrah Rochon

YA Fantasy

Twisted Tales series

princess, disney, curses

Your Blood, My Bones by Kelly Andrew

YA Fantasy

Author of The Whispering Dark

dark magic, gothic, lgbt

The Black Girl Survives in This One: Horror Stories by Desiree S. Evans and Saraceia J. Fennell

YA Horror

Author of Cool. Awkward. Black.

anthology, ghosts, zombies

Something Kindred by Ciera Burch

YA Contemporary

Author of Finch House

lgbt, coming of age, photography

Something Kindred by Ciera Burch

i went into this book not knowing what to expect, just because i requested the galley so long ago and had forgotten what it was about, which made everything a delightful surprise! it's queer, it's spooky, it's honest and frank, and it's so satisfyingly put together. a compelling read!

one of the highlights for me was how real and deep each character felt, even the ones who didn't actually have much time on the page--and at the same time, Jericka's limited POV was so precisely written that i shared her sense of outsider-ness. the tension between her present, moving back to a tiny town she doesn't remember, and her past there that she's just discovering, was perfectly balanced for me. and what a great combo of deeply reality-based interpersonal problems within Jericka's family, and sad and creepy emotionally-based supernatural happenings introduced by her new friend/crush Kat! i was so delighted when both of these elements started to connect, pulling together throughlines of home versus freedom, and processing trauma and grief through art.

also?? it's very hard to write honest and difficult conversations between people who have deeply hurt each other. i often find them too perfect and astute, or too trite and stereotypical. Burch has found the sweet spot, for me anyway, where each difficult conversation feels real and emotionally charged but also doesn't drag on. characters are honest about their complicated feelings, and nothing is solved perfectly, but it gets better.

(also also...i love ghost stories. i love photography in stories. i love these things together SO MUCH!)

the deets

how i read it: an e-galley from NetGalley, i am racing just ahead of all the pub dates, so many books in the spring!! also this was a fast (but satisfying) read, so i zoomed through it in an evening. looking forward to picking up a physical copy of this one!

try this if you: need more gentle queer Black girl romantic storylines (who doesn't), love multigenerational family stuff, dig haunted small towns, or are into books about loss.

some bits i really liked: so much beautiful imagery!

There are hundreds of thousands of stars in the sky, and it looks like a few dozen have fallen to earth. It takes me a moment to realize they haven't. That these are the lightning bugs she was talking about. They move in unison, flitting this way and that, forming circles of light around each other and around me and Kat. It's the most magical thing I've ever seen. Beyond them is real night. Even with the stars and the lightning bugs glowing their brightest, a person could lose themselves in this darkness. We lie down, facing the sky.

---

A picture of Gram on the couch layered over a shot of a close-up of the schoolhouse. A dull yellow flower exposed over the shadows of the woods. Mom covering up her childhood self, somehow midlaugh in both pictures, years and years apart.

Welcome to Coldwater. Come for the ghosts, stay for the drama. Jericka Walker had planned to spend the summer before senior year soaking up the sun with her best friend on the Jersey Shore. Instead she finds herself in Coldwater, Maryland, a small town with a dark and complicated past where her estranged grandmother lives—someone she knows only two things her name and the fact that she left Jericka’s mother and uncle when they were children. But now Jericka's grandmother is dying, and her mother has dragged Jericka along to say goodbye. As Jericka attempts to form a connection with a woman she's never known, and adjusts to life in a town where everything closes before dinner, she meets “ghost girl” Kat, a girl eager to leave Coldwater and more exciting than a person has any right to be. But Coldwater has a few unsettling secrets of its own. The more you try to leave, the stronger the town’s hold. As Jericka feels the chilling pull of her family’s past, she begins to question everything she thought she knew about her mother, her childhood, and the lines between the living and the dead.

Middle Grade Winnie Nash is Not Your Sunshine by Nicole Melleby Winnifred “Winnie” Nash is not a senior citizen, despite what anyone thinks of her name. And she is definitely not excited to live with her grandma in New Jersey for the summer. Not only are they basically strangers, but Winnie—who’s always known she’s gay—has been pushed into the metaphorical closet by her parents, who worry what…

Something Kindred

Something Kindred is a new coming-of-age story of a young Black girl returning to her roots, to a town filled with ghosts. Echoes. Synopsis Magical realism meets Southern Gothic in this commanding young adult debut from Ciera Burch about true love, the meaning of home, and the choices that haunt us.Welcome to Coldwater. Come for the ghosts, stay for the drama.Jericka Walker had planned to spend…