Candy Bunny Reader

TW: mentions of trauma from foster care, and of being hurt by law enforcement.  Bitter by Akwaeke Emezi is the prequel to Pet , which I read and reviewed earlier this year. You can read that review here .  The story is about Jam's mother (from the first book) back when she was a teenager and an art student. She lives in a boarding school called Eucalyptus which is a safe haven from the rest of Lucille--which has recently been having a political uprising. Bitter wants to make Lucille a better place for her and her new social circle (consisting of her friend Blessing, Blessings girlfriend Alex, and Bitter's new boyfriend Aloe), but she finds it hard when she has her own trauma from being in different foster homes. She would rather paint and stay in Eucalyptus than go to protests with Assata. Assata is the movement of people overthrowing the corrupt people in power, which some people Bitter knows are a part of. Bitter eventually learns that she can make her own change through he...

Whoa! Where do I begin with this one? The Witch Who Chases the Sun by Dawn Chen is a high fantasy book set mostly in the country of Inabri (inspired by Great Britain) and partially in another country called Aixauh (inspired by China). The story follows two witches (well, one oracle and one alchemist) named Anne and Chely (real name Cai-Li). Chely has returned to her old lover Anne after finding out that people from the town nearby Anne's castle are starting to disappear. Chely tries to find out what the whole deal is while trying to rekindle her relationship with Anne. We find out that Inabri (where Anne is from) and Aixauh (where Chely is originally from) have had two wars back to back with each other, and both girls appear to have trauma from it all. The story also has a ton of other flashbacks to times before, during, and after the girls were with each other. Other people from their pasts also come into the picture: a close friend of theirs named Cole, a notorious pirate named ...

Wow! Where I do I begin? When It All Syncs Up by Maya Ameyaw is a YA novel set in Canada. The MC, Aisha, loves ballet and is trying to get recognized by any prestigious ballet academy, but things weren't working out at her elite ballet academy. She decides to move in with her childhood friend Neil (after Neil himself has a huge health scare) and transfer to his public arts high school.  Unfortunately, things don't change a lot right away, but now Aisha has a new circle of support with Neil, Neil's best friend (and later Aisha's boyfriend) Ollie, a guy named Ebi, and another girl named Khadija. Aisha also learns in her new environment what does she really want to do, and try not to live up to other people's expectations (mostly her mother's).  On the surface it looks like another work-really-hard-for-your-dreams book with ballet as the center, but this story ended up being a lot deeper than that! It dealt with racism, sexism, eating disorders, alcoholism, strain...

Please read the full list of trigger warnings for this book here: https://booktriggerwarnings.com/Pet_by_Akwaeke_Emezi  Pet by Akwaeke Emezi is a young adult dystopian (although set in a utopia), speculative, and urban fantasy book. It is set in a utopian community called Lucille that has is run by Angels (people considered good) and has (supposedly) eliminated all of the Monsters (people considered bad) after a revolution a long time ago.  The main character is a trans girl named Jam who has selective mutism. One day she accidentally brings to life one of her mother's paintings, and a creature emerges from it named Pet. Pet is there to search for and destroy a Monster that still exists in Lucille. It needs Jam's help because the Monster is at Redemption's (Jam's best friend) house.  The whole situation is shocking and confusing, but Jam will do anything to help and protect her best friend and his family.  This book wasn't very long (only 12 chapters), but it reall...

 TW: Bullying, predatory relationships, terminal illnesses are all mentioned here.  This book had been on my TBR forever, and I am happy to report that this book was a great one! Lonely Castle in the Mirror by   Mizuki Tsujimura follows Kokoro, a 7th grader who's been avoiding going to school after getting bullied. One day she discovers the mirror in her room is glowing! She then finds herself on the opposite side of the mirror in a castle run by the mysterious Wolf Queen. Several other kids her age are there, too, and they've all been skipping school for similar reasons. They are tasked with finding the Wishing Key, which will grant them a single wish, and they must complete the task by March 30th before the castle vanishes. However, if any of them choose to make a wish, all their memories of each other and being in the castle will be erased.  Kokoro ends up forming close bonds with each of the other kids there while dealing with her own problems back home (mostly w...

TW: Acephobia, harassment, toxic friendship all are mentioned. You can see a full list of trigger warnings here: https://booktriggerwarnings.com/Let%27s_Talk_About_Love_by_Claire_Kann   My second Claire Kann book!  Let's Talk About Love is about the biromantic asexual college student Alice, who just broke up with her girlfriend and (now also ex) roommate Margot. She tries to forget about the breakup by moving in with her now engaged childhood friends Feenie and Ryan, bingewatch her favorite shows and write essays on them, and chow down on her favorite foods. She is also trying to find out what to major in at college. Her family wants her to go into law because that's what they all do, but Alice's interests lie somewhere else. One day at her part-time job at a local library, they get a new employee named Takumi. The second Alice sees him, she's head over heels! They start hanging out as friends a lot outside of work, but Alice is afraid to come out to Takumi as asexual...

TW: Family member dying mentioned. The book itself has a lot more trigger warnings not discussed here. You can read the full list on this website here: https://booktriggerwarnings.com/Elatsoe_by_Darcie_Little_Badger    This was on my TBR forever, and I am glad to report that this book did not disappoint. Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger is set in a world like ours--but have been shaped by magic and legends of different groups of people. The story is about a Lipan Apache girl named Elatsoe (or Ellie as she is usually called), her ghost dog Kirby, and her best friend Jay. They get thrown into solving a murder mystery case of Ellie's cousin, Trevor. When Ellie and her parents visit her cousin in law Lenore (Trevor's widow) and baby second cousin Gregory to keep them company, they find out the town they live in is rather...odd. It seems to center heavily around an eccentric doctor named Abe Allerton, who might have had something to do with Trevor dying. The task is dangerous...

TW: Kidnapping mentioned.  My first two-star book review of the year?!   Firefly Wedding by Oreco Tachibana is set in the Meiji era of Japan. Our MC Satoko is living with a heart condition, and hopes to secure a good marriage. But one day while she is out in town she gets kidnapped, and in order to save her life, she proposes to marry the assassin holding her hostage, named Shinpei. They escape together, travel from place to place, meet unusual people, and even watch fireflies.  It sounds like an okay story on the surface but...ugh! There were a lot of things happening in the story that made me really uncomfortable. I especially did not like love interest Shinpei--he was so creepy and psychotic! Well, I am not sure what I expected from a character who was an assassin.  Yeah, this was disappointing. I won't be reading the rest of the series.  

  TW: Loss of a parent How to Talk to Your Succulent by Zoe Presico is about Adara--a plant-loving preteen girl who just lost her mother. She and her father move from California to Michigan to live with her grandma. Adara is unhappy about the sudden move and she feels distant from her father. Luckily, she does manage to make one friend--a girl her age named Winnie who loves to draw. Winnie has been having problems with her family at home, too.  One day Adara's father tries to cheer her up by buying her a new plant. She ends up buying a succulent--which was her mother's favorite plant. She names the succulent Perle. From there she discovers she can actually talk to plants, just like her mom! Adara's new plant friends help her navigate this new chapter in her life, and it isn't always easy.  Even if you've never experienced what Adara experienced, I think everyone can relate in some way to this book. Growing pains, feeling alone, etc. are all present in this book. U...

Trigger Warnings: child dying, family members dying, toxic relationships, body horror The Deep Dark by Lee Ostertag  is a YA graphic novel set in southern California. It is a mixture of different genres: urban fantasy, mystery, and horror. The story follows Magdelena (or "Mags" for short) as she struggles dealing with her mental health after an incident that ended with a childhood friend dying. Mags felt that it was all her fault. She also is trying to rekindle her friendship with her other childhood friend, Nessa. Nessa also seems to be harboring some struggles of her own. The characters' struggles seem to mostly come from an unusual creature that lives in Mags's basement... I gave this book 4 stars . It was a great book, but surprisingly darker than the previous books of the author's that I have read before. All of the trigger warnings are listed above. I think the mental health rep, Latine rep, and queer rep were done really well!

 TW: Mentioning of predatory relationships I think I expected too much from this one... Mall Goth by Kate Leth is set in the 2000s and follows a bisexual teenage goth girl named Liv. She has just moved with her mother to a new town with a giant mall. Liv starts spending most of her free time at the mall, and ends up getting a job at Create-a-Critter (like Build a Bear Workshop) through the mall's security guard, Alice. Alice is also one of her mom's friends.  At Liv's new school, she becomes acquainted with two other goths named Jake and Aaron. They really like gaming, and invite Liv to join their server to play a popular MMORPG. The guy named Jake also has an on-again off-again relationship with another girl in their English class named Layla. Liv also becomes friends with Layla, but their friendship is put to the test when it comes to Jake's behavior.  Unfortunately, as all of this is happening, Liv's English teacher Mr. Trent seems to have a thing for her, and w...

Trigger warning: mentioning of miscarriages     Ugh, the book was good until it got to the end... You Were There Too by Colleen Oakley is an adult contemporary romance novel with a dash of magical realism. Mia and her husband Harrison have just moved from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to a small town called Hope Springs, thinking life would be easier for them. Instead, Mia has trouble finding a job that she can do with an art degree, and Harrison seems to be hiding something related to his job (he works as a surgeon in a small hospital) from Mia. Even worse, they have been struggling to have children as Mia has already had two miscarriages.  While all of this is going on, Mia keeps having recurring dreams of her encountering a stranger. Well, she's actually been dreaming of this mysterious guy for years. Most of the dreams usually takes place in a carnival, and most of the dreams involve something tragic. Freakier still, Mia ends up finding the guy in real life! His name i...

 TW: mentions of a sibling dying young Another new favorite from Kasie West ! The Care Bear figurines were very fitting for this book. Moment of Truth is about Hadley, a girl who is very passionate about swimming and plans to get a swimming scholarship to get into the college of her dreams. But one day, a guy who is dressed like popular movie character Heath Hall crashes her swim meet, and Hadley loses the competition. Annoyed with this fake Heath Hall, she and her best friend Amelia try to figure out who this Heath Hall wannabe is. It turns out he goes to their school, and he runs an Instagram page where is showcases wherever he will strike next. Hadley and Amelia go through every boy they think he could be. One of the suspects is Hadley's ex-boyfriend Robert, awkwardly enough. Another suspect is a guy named Jackson that Hadley frequently butts heads with.  But while the Heath Hall mystery is going on, things start to change between Jackson and Hadley. Especially when Jackso...

 TW: D3ath My second book from Colleen Oakley ! The first book I read from her was Close Enough to Touch back in 2019.  The Invisible Husband of Frick Island  is an adult romance novel that follows two characters: Piper and Anders. Piper is a woman living on the eccentric Frick Island, which is a small island community in the Chesapeake Bay. Anders is a reporter working for a small newspaper and on the side, has his own podcast where he talks about random weird stuff, but he is struggling to get any listeners.  Piper recently lost her husband Tom, in a boating accident, but she continues to live on as if Tom were still there. In fact, sometimes she talks to him as if he was still there. The rest of the Frick Island community goes along with it so they don't hurt her feelings. When Anders arrives at the island to do a report on a Cake Walk Festival held there, he finds out all sorts of things about Frick Island: how the island is a victim of climate change, a new ce...

 TW: The disease that shares its name with a zodiac sign, some ableism Stars in their Eyes by Jessica Walton and Aska is about Maisie, an amputee who goes to her first ever fan convention with her mother. She and her mother love to geek out on all sorts of shows, and Maisie is excited to see an actress from one of her favorite shows, Midnight Girls, who is an amputee just like her. While there Maisie and her mother meet Ollie and their dad, who are volunteers and the convention, and they immediately become friends. Ollie and Maisie find out they love a lot of the same things, especially when they see shows that have people who are like them (nonbinary, bi, and/or disabled).  Unfortunately, the panel Maisie wanted to go to gets cancelled because her favorite actress gets really sick. So she spends more time with Ollie, and they get really close. Maisie wonders how they will stay close when each one of them lives so far away. Everything I that I like in storytelling was presen...

 TW: D3ath of a parent and Latin for crab disease mentioned.  My second Jen Wang book for this year! Stargazing is about a girl named Moon who moves in next door to a girl named Christine, and they become friends and bond over their love of the arts, especially K Pop.  Moon is a social outcast due to her strange behavior and her and single mom not having a lot of money.  Christine has her own problems of feeling pressure to be perfect and she sometimes gets jealous of Moon.  But they both really want to dance to K pop songs in school's talent show.  Unfortunately, an emergency happens that changes everything.  This was a very relatable and emotional story. It had great Chinese representation and there are characters who are vegetarian and vegan. I gave it 4.5 stars. There is a d3ath of a parent mentioned in a flashback and another character gets the disease that shares its name with a zodiac sign. Luckily they are treated for it and they live at the ...

Note: Please read the full list of trigger warnings at this link before proceeding:  https://booktriggerwarnings.com/Felix_Ever_After_by_Kacen_Callender Another popular book I was pleasantly surprised that I ended up liking! Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender is about Felix Love--a transgender teenage guy who's never fallen in love, but really wants to. He also is stressed out about putting together a good art portfolio in order to get a scholarship into the prestigious art program at Brown University. He believes if he gets into the program, it will be a ticket for a better future for him and his struggling single father.  Unfortunately, Felix is competing for the position with Declan Keene--who just so happens to be the rather toxic ex-boyfriend of his best friend, Ezra Patel.  But one day, somebody in Felix's school finds pictures of Felix before he transitioned--and they put them up all over the school where everyone can see them. Whoever did it also deadnamed him. ...

 TW: Mentions of death and injuries Do you have a favorite stand-alone book about pirates? The Pirate Captain's Daughter by Eve Bunting follows Catherine, the daughter of a notorious pirate captain. After her mother dies, Catherine decides to join her father's pirate crew as a musician, all while disguised as a boy named Charlie. Unfortunately, being a pirate isn't as romantic as she thought it was! Most of the crew is pretty aggressive or dismissive, the conditions on the ship aren't very sanitary, nor is the food any good. Aside from her father and another member named Mr. Trimble, she does find companionship in the cabin boy around her age named William, and (kind of) Red, one of the other musicians. There is the constant worry that everyone will find out she is a girl. Additionally, one particular pirate, named Herc, really wants to steal a jewel that Catherine's father stole a long time ago, and he and his little friend Hopper really don't make things easy...

  TW: Mentioning of toxic relations, cyberbullying, underage drinking, and mild discussions of sex Man, I have some really mixed feelings about this one. Radio Silence by Alice Oseman is a YA contemporary book about Frances Janvier. It is her last year of high school and she is aiming to go to Cambridge University. She doesn't seem to care about anything else except being top of the class and Universe City, a podcast series. Frances considers herself a shy geeky girl and doesn't let anyone see the real her at school. As a result, she has a lot of "fake" friends. As in friends who only like her studious side. One day the creator of Universe City reaches out to her on social media and asks her to do official art for the podcast after seeing her fanart of the series on Tumblr. At first she is reluctant, but then she eventually finds out the creator of Universe City is a student at her school, a guy named Aled Last (if you read Heartstopper, this is the same guy!). They ...

TW: Mentioning of suicide and toxic relationships Pictured above are just the first 6 volumes! As of writing this I have not yet found and read volumes 7 and 8 (there are 8 volumes total), but I will eventually! Fun fact: I watched the anime for Given back in 2018 when it came out, but the anime does not cover the whole story. I decided to read the manga to get the rest of the story, but since it was a while since I watched the anime, I started to read the manga from volume 1. So far me revisiting Given has been wonderful! Given by Natsuki Kizu  is a manga series about a teenage boy named Uenoyama who is part of a new and upcoming band with two college students named Akihiko and Haruki. One day while at school he finds another student named Mafuyu hanging out at his secret location on the stairs, holding a guitar. Mafuyu asks Uenoyama to fix his guitar and teach him how to play. Uenoyama initally finds Mafuyu to be odd and frustrating, but after hearing him sing a song he wrote in ...