Beastly Bones is a sequel to last year’s Jackaby, which I did enjoy. Abigail Rook, Jackaby, and Charlie return for this one, which features a mystery surrounding a recently discovered skeleton. I think I actually liked this one better than the first, as I felt that Abigail’s talents  and personality were a little more foregrounded. Jackaby certainly dominates the story, but I got more of a sense of who Abigail is and why she finds the work she does with Jackaby rewarding. I also liked the relationship between Abigail and Jenny. While these aren’t books of my heart, they are smart and engaging, and I’ll likely be back for the rest in the series.

Duplicity by N.K. Traver: Sci-fi ish, with a heavy emphasis on the -ish. I struggled with the beginning of this one as Brandon is such a deeply awful person to pretty much everyone around him. (Also calling your creepy mirror double Obran, for Other Brandon, severely tests my suspension of disbelief.) As the story unfolded, I did get drawn in a bit more, although I feel that the narrative lets Brandon off pretty easily and I had issues with one of the big plot points and how it unfolded. If you have a reader who wants a creepy book about hackers, this might be one to hand them.

Only Ever Yours by Louise O’Neill: I’m still mulling over my exact reaction to this book. It has more than a bit of a Handmaid’s Tale feel to it (I don’t think the fact that the main character’s name is freida is a coincidence), but here’s where I admit to bouncing pretty hard off Handmaid’s Tale. I know. At any rate, I think this is an important book, and that it’s showing very clearly the destructive effects of a certain kind of gendered thinking. At the same time, I struggled with how bleak it is, how little hope it gives its female characters–and I know that’s the point, and yet. And yet. I worry that this narrative reinforces the idea that this societal setup is inevitable, and that girls will always destroy each other. And I’m not sure the degree to which this is personal preference vs. a flaw in the book (I do, more objectively, think the ending is a little too abrupt, diminishing the power of what happens.) As I said, I’m still mulling over my reaction, which I think boils down to: I get it, but I don’t like it. Your thoughts welcome!

Cybils book. A collection of short horror stories, which draw on a reference of film or book. As is usually the case with short story collections, I REALLY liked some stories and REALLY disliked others. Nova Ren Suma’s “The Birds of Azalea Street” opens the collection and absolutely blew me away; I also found Leigh Bardugo’s “Verse Chorus Verse” genuinely unsettling.

Cybils book. It’s another circus story! I actually was reminded quite a bit at the beginning of Gwenda Bond’s Girl on a Wire, but they stories go very different places. I liked the writing, which had a great sense of magical wonder, and the characters; I’m not quite as sold on the plot but overall this one worked pretty well for me.

Cybils book, that I was planning to read already. So, I really love Sarah Prineas’s books, and I was looking forward to this one a lot. I did find that I liked it a little less than I was expecting; I’m not sure if it was just me & the mood I was in, but I wanted just a little more depth. It’s an interesting dark fairytale mashup, and I suppose that part of the issue is just that I’m not a huge fan of fairy tale mashups (as opposed to retellings). All in all, I think I need to consider whether there’s an actual issue with the book, or whether it’s just not quite for me.

Cybils book. Almond is a wonderful writer–great at magical descriptions and dreamy, eerie stories. I do wonder who this short story collection is FOR; the stories themselves are mg/YA, but the framing distances the narrator from that age and for me set up an unnecessary barrier between reader and story.