Staff Picks

If you like found family, a touch (ok, more than a touch) of weapons, crime, and drama, this is the book for you. While it’s the first of a stunning duology, it has so much packed into it and has really interesting world building based loosely on the real world AND LANGUAGES!!! There’s also a show based on it and another series (same universe, the Grishaverse) that’s really cool and the fandom is very nice. I’ve still yet to find a series or book similar to this but OML, it’s so much fun -- I highly recommend reading it!!

 

Publisher's Description:

Ketterdam: a bustling hub of international trade where anything can be had for the right pric©♭€”and no one knows that better than criminal prodigy Kaz Brekker. Kaz is offered a chance at a deadly heist that could make him rich beyond his wildest dreams. But he can't pull it off alone. . . . A convict with a thirst for revenge. A sharpshooter who can't walk away from a wager. A runaway with a privileged past. A spy known as the Wraith. A Heartrender using her magic to survive the slums. A thief with a gift for unlikely escapes. Six dangerous outcasts. One impossible heist. Kaz's crew is the only thing that might stand between the world and destruction--if they don't kill each other first.

 

Cemetery Boys is such an amazing read, this stand-alone book is queer and trans but also has magic and Latinx culture that combined into an incredible book. I’ve read it at least three times and every time it hits me hard and it isn’t even that sad. There’s cute pets, interesting culture and references, and a coming of age aspect that didn’t feel super cringy and awkward. I’d say They Both Die in the End is kind of similar but also not really, it’s such a unique book to me, however The Sunbearer Trials, also by Aiden Thomas is really good and is kind of a mix of Percy Jackson and The Hunger Games while also being trans and Latinx.

 

Publisher's Description:

Yadriel, a trans boy, summons the angry spirit of his high school's bad boy, and agrees to help him learn how he died, thereby proving himself a brujo, not a bruja, to his conservative family.