YA Fiction

The Last Resort : The Claiming Review

Book: The Last Resort : The Claiming
Author: Jasmine Warga
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Year: 2026
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Synopsis : “For the first time, Teddy is actually excited for the school year to start. His new neighbors, Lila and Caleb, are transferring to his school, which means he’ll finally have real friends! But Teddy has a secret he’s desperate to protect – one that explains why none of his classmates have spoken to him in years…
And that’s not all. Despite having sent the Fire Maiden back through the portal, strange things keep happening at the Castle Hill Inn. Teddy’s nightmares are back in a big way, and after getting stuck in the portal herself, Lila seems to be…flickering?! Almost as if something, or someone, is trying to summon her from our world to the next.
Teddy will do anything to protect his friends, but he’s terrified of repeating the worst mistake of his life. Yet Teddy might be the key to uncovering the Fire Maiden’s evil plans, and in order to stop her, he’ll have to face his greatest fears – the ones he’s spent his whole life running from.”

Review : I only just reviewed book one in this series a few months ago (here), so I was pleasantly surprised to see book 2 following so quickly behind. You may remember that I speculated there might be a second book based on the way book 1 wrapped up and here it is! There will most certainly be a book 3, given The Claiming did not completely conclude – though, there wasn’t a cliffhanger, so it’s still easy to read without moving on to book 3 if you don’t want to wait. This book was written by a different author than the first and honestly? It shows. Book 1 was so cute, a little scary, and perfectly spooky and while this book certainly did it’s best, it brought glaring differences and more than one problematic storyline to the table. I’m not sure why the authors changed and I don’t currently see a point to doing that beyond changing the entire tone of the book, which I’m positive was not intentional.

Caleb, Lila’s brother, who we were introduced to in Book 1, has an entirely new personality and tone of voice in this book, so much so that I wondered about the change before I realized the author was different. It’s a strange choice to make such a broad change between two books, particularly when they’ve only released within a few months of each other. If I’d have had time to forget the tone, perhaps it wouldn’t have been such a glaring difference or made such an impact on me, but a 4th grader going from a typical scared younger brother to someone who says phrases like “statistical anomaly” is a bizarre shift.

The storyline picks up where book 1 left off, with ghostly mysteries happening in the Castle Hill Inn, Lila and Caleb’s new home now that their Grandpa Clem has died. Unlike the first book, though, The Claiming features Lila’s next-door neighbor, Teddy, as the main character and narrator. I enjoyed this perspective shift and feel it helped round the story out in a way that has kept things from getting stale or too much the same from book 1. Ultimately, the plot was enjoyable and quick moving and left me flipping pages to see what would happen next.

Unfortunately, however, this book does not seem suitable for kids and I’m actually shocked that Scholastic felt okay with the content of two problematic scenes. If I were a parent, I would be keeping this book out of the hands of my kids for two reasons : First, a scene where Teddy and Lila meet up with a complete and total stranger, a person they met on an online message board who now just so happens to live in the same town they live in (though Teddy has been messaging with this person for a few years and had no idea). This feels deeply problematic and upsetting, especially given the way that particular storyline played out. **Spoilers Ahead** Rather than having any kind of parental guidance, Teddy and Lila actually do choose to meet up with their “friend” from an online message board, a complete stranger who’s spent years messaging with Teddy without letting him know they live in the same small town. Second, the same online “friend” encourages Teddy to sneak out of his house at 1am…and Teddy goes along with what he suggests, sneaking out and facing no consequences for his actions. In fact, the storyline doesn’t even pick back up after Teddy sneaks out and meets up with this person, it jumps straight into the next scene. This book is geared toward kids, at least as young as 4th grade and as old as middle school and is actively encouraging kids to meet up with strangers from the internet and sneak out of the house by way of example. How is this okay??

While I enjoyed book 1, book 2 took a staggering and dramatic turn for the worse and I’m disappointed to see the change. I can only assume it happened because of the author swap and while I left book 1 hopeful for a followup, I’m leaving book 2 hoping parents find this review and opt out of this book for their kids.

Advice : As an adult, I enjoyed the story, the ghosts, and the little twists and turns throughout. I would never, however, allow a kid to read this book and I hope you do your due diligence before checking this out from the library or purchasing it for your kids.

I Am Made of Death Review

Book: I Am Made of Death
Author: Kelly Andrew
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Year: 2025
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Synopsis : “Following the death of his father, Thomas Walsh had to grow up quickly, taking on odd jobs to help pay his gravely ill mother’s medical bills. When he’s offered a highly paid position as an interpreter for an heiress who exclusively signs, Thomas – the hearing child of a Deaf adult – jumps at the opportunity.
But the job is not without its challenges.
A selective-mute, Vivienne Farrow hasn’t said a word in years – not since going missing in Red Rock Canyon when she was four years old. No one knows quite what happened to her out in the dark. They only know that the sound of her voice is now as deadly as a poison. Anyone who hears her speak suffers a horrible death.
Vivienne is desperate for a way to regain control of bother her voice and her body. Because the face staring out of the mirror isn’t hers. It’s something with teeth.
Thankfully, she’s finally found someone who claims to be able to perform a surgical exorcism. She just needs to find a way to get rid of Thomas first. But Thomas can’t afford to walk away, nor is he willing to abandon the mysterious girl he’s falling for, no matter what dark powers threaten to swallow them both whole.”

Review : I Am Made of Death was the perfect antidote for both the book hole I found myself in after finishing The Devils and the disgust I felt over my last unfortunate one star review copy, Anji Kills a King. I needed something to grip me, and I Am Made of Death (IAMOD) did just that. I started and finished IAMOD in just under 48 hours, and had I just a tiny bit more free time available, I would have cut that time way down. Andrew created an absolute page turning, unputdownable read and I am eternally grateful for that.

As a child, Andrew lost her hearing at just 4 years old and it becomes evident throughout this book that Andrew has woven her own story into this dark fantasy, frankly, the personal connection, both to her own hearing loss and to her marriage with a Hearing individual, makes for a super compelling read. Told from the alternating perspectives of both Thomas, 18 year old interpreter for Vivienne Farrow, paid in unspeakably large sums of money by her step-father, Philip, and Vivienne, Thomas’ peer and wealthy heiress to Philip’s fortune who has remained largely unspeaking for most of her adult life. Following a tragic accident in the desert while a toddler, Vivienne has had the uncanny ability to kill with just the sound of her voice, no words necessary. Because of this unfortunate ability, Vivienne has mostly locked herself away, ashamed, afraid of her own voice, and more than anything, afraid of the monster she sees in the mirror. Both metaphor and reality, Vivienne is not merely the body from which a killer voice emerges, but the host to a parasitic demon; a demon who saved her life as a toddler, who continues to save her life as an adult, but for whom the price of existence is murder.

We enter IAMOD to find Vivienne mid-way into the process of entrapping a medical student into performing a highly risky procedure in which he will attempt to surgically remove the supernatural parasite from her body. Unfortunately, Thomas’ ever present self, and how little he knows or understands about the situation, stands between Vivienne and release from the creature who plagues her body and soul. *Spoilers Ahead!* Through the course of the book, told in three parts, we see an ever-diminishing gap between Vivienne’s hatred of Thomas and Thomas’ confusion over Vivienne’s situation. Andrew has written such a perfect foray into the sweetness of first love, it felt both intense and silly all at the same time, I found their quasi-friendship turned love so palpable and enjoyable. Beyond the slow growing love between Thomas and Vivienne, we also find a whole world of occult and magic intermingled with the world of high-stakes finance, law, and even medicine – it makes the somewhat dizzying world Andrew has created feel like maybe, just maybe, it could be part of our world.

Where things took a stumble, however, is in the telling. I can’t get a grasp on whether IAMOD is going to be the first in a series or whether it’s a planned stand-alone novel and that determines how I feel things were wrapped up and explained. If, as I hope, IAMOD is the first in a series, I think Andrew left plenty of room for questions to eventually be resolved and cleared up in a second, or even third, book. There were messy threads left incomplete by the time it was all said and done and as I closed the book I found I had more questions than answers. If this is to be a stand-alone novel, Andrew could have done a much neater job of tying up loose ends and that’s where I struggle with the final rating – there are too many things that went unsaid and too much that needed to be addressed for this to be the end. It’s possible this will be a one-off, but I think that would do a disservice to the characters Andrew has begun to built and a disservice to the broader aspects of the story that were never fully resolved. While IAMOD doesn’t end on a cliffhanger, it almost might as well with how many loose threads Andrew left behind and that’s why I feel this must be the introduction to a bigger world yet to be revealed through a sequel. I guess it’s yet to be seen! Either way, the loose ends as they were, this book was still so compelling, so well written, and so enjoyable that I had no choice but to give it 4 out of 5 stars. I think you’ll understand why when you read it.

Advice : If you enjoy a nail biter, enemies to lovers, dark fantasy, or a sweet first love story, this will definitely be for you!

Five Midnights Review

Book: Five Midnights
Author: Ann Dávila Cardinal
Publisher: Tor Teen
Year: 2019
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Synopsis: “Five friends cursed. Five deadly fates. Five nights of retribución.
If Lupe Dávila and Javier Utierre can survive each other’s company, together they can solve a series of grisly murders sweeping through Puerto Rico. But the clues lead them out of the real world and into the realm of myths and legends. And if they want to catch the killer, they’ll have to step into the shadows to see what’s lurking there — murderer, or monster?”

Review: Five Midnights is the forthcoming debut YA novel from Dávila Cardinal, a Puerto Rican who currently lives in Vermont. What Dávila Cardinal has created is a riveting story of a 16-year-old girl, Lupe, coming of age while visiting a country she has allegiance to, being half Puerto Rican by descent. Over the backdrop of a YA fantasy novel, Lupe struggles with her own heritage as a half Puerto Rican, half Irish girl hailing from the mainland United States (Dávila Cardinal’s own Vermont) who doesn’t feel that either location is quite “home”. As she struggles with the idea of being light skinned and light haired, a trait she inherited from a mother who left several years ago, she tries to move into her role as a Puerto Rican but finds to her dismay that she is identified as “other” to native Puerto Ricans.
Dávila Cardinal’s novel is an engrossing tale of cultural heritage, Island myths, and young teenage love. Lupe, spending the summer in PR with her extended family, shares a love for true crime with her Tío who happens to be the local police chief. When she arrives on the island she quickly finds her way into the middle of his investigation into the strange deaths of two young men who died on the eve of their 18th birthdays. The following story is quick moving, enjoyable, and peppered with just enough mythology to spark interest without overwhelming the story with fantastic beasts or creatures.
As someone who has a vague knowledge of the Spanish language, I found this book to be fun to read as it’s filled with Puerto Rican jargon and often challenged my understanding of the context in which it was written. The dialogue is quick and believable, the characters are relatable, and while the story errs on the fantasy side, it is grounded in reality. I had a hard time putting the book down and ended up plowing through it in just under 48 hours – the mark of a quality novel.

My Advice: Do you enjoy the YA genre? If you said yes, this is the book for you. It’s a quick read, perfect for summer with a release date in early June of 2019, and it introduces the reader to an interesting Latin American myth that proves just spooky enough without giving nightmares. Other reviews call this novel “unputdownable” (Paul Tremblay) and they’re correct. It’s a great dive back into YA fiction and with the personal and profession knowledge possessed by Dávila Cardinal being both Puerto Rican and VCFA’s leader of a Puerto Rican residency, it reads with an air of authenticity that can’t be beat.