Rutabaga's Reads 2026: Part 4

Here I am with the first young-adult (YA) compilation post for 2026. If you read YA fiction, what do you like about it that has you reading it? What can get on your nerves when it comes to YA?

And the River Drags Her Down (Oct. 7, 2025) by Jihyun Yun.

<This is a standalone novel.>

Ancestral magic follows the female line, but there is a strict rule that one will never resurrect departed humans. Soojin Han and her older sister, Mirae, followed that to the letter, even after their mom died when her car went down an embankment. It’s six years since that accident and now one year since Mirae drowned in the local river that runs through Jade Acre, a [fictional] California town along its coast. Soojin and her dad have only grown apart since they became a two-person household. She doesn’t know how to lift others up like Mirae did and so, in desperation and with Mirae’s milk tooth, she resurrects her sister. She is overjoyed to have her big sister back, but their good friend, Mark Moon, doesn’t share her joy. As Mirae claws her way out from the earth, he sees rot where Soojin only sees vitality. And for a brief while, Mirae seems content. When their dad’s away for work during the week, Mirae cooks with Soojin and prepares her lunches to take to school. The sisters and Mark get up to tame shenanigans in the middle of the night. But Mirae grows tired of hiding. She’s restless and hungry. She needs retribution. In a town that becomes afflicted with a deluge of heavy rain, watch out. “It listens through the water. It comes through the water!” The sister Soojin brought back isn’t, perhaps, the sister she knew, but one she still loves.

            In this YA paranormal fantasy and horror novel, ancient, ancestral magic and desperate loneliness weave together to create an unraveling that is devastating and poignant. The story is grief-filled and sometimes horrible, creepy and disquieting. The plot is propulsive, the horror is mature, and the value of being well-loved is sown throughout. It’s a story of sisterhood but also of selfishness and the desperate, dangerous choices one might make to retrieve what one lost. The narrative is water-stained with darkness and decay, which makes it all the more compelling to read. This haunting isn’t for the faint-hearted, but the strong-willed, even if they come with broken hearts.

Eliza, from Scratch (May 13, 2025) by Sophia Lee.

<This is a standalone novel.>

The one thing standing between Eliza Park (Korean American) and clinching salutatorian is a scheduling conflict that lands her in Culinary Arts – a regular course – instead of AP Physics. Not only is the class unweighted, non-Honors and non-AP, Eliza can’t cook. At all. She can’t fry an egg and only knows the mandolin to be a musical instrument, clearly not knowing that a mandoline is a culinary utensil. She planned for a perfect, flawless senior year with her best friends Kareena and Meredith, but secrets kept and an academic rival disrupting the friend group has Eliza feeling unbalanced. Culinary Arts classmate Wesley Ruengsomboon (Thai American) has her feeling unbalanced, too. She’s also incredibly annoyed with his ease, skill and know-all in the kitchen. In the final period of the day, Eliza goes from star student to mortifying mess. Eliza’s high expectations push her to believe she can win the midterm cooking contest. She’ll learn from Wesley, whom their teacher infuriatingly paired her with, and from her mom. Her mom doesn’t know that Eliza’s learning how to cook Korean food for school and instead thinks she’s learning in order to become closer to the late grandmother she never put in effort to truly understand and know. This overachiever is about to learn some lessons – about life and cooking – from scratch.

            To Wesley, Eliza looks like a cookie cutter cutout of overachieving perfectionism, and she is. Anyone who’s vied for the top spot in their class understands Eliza. It’s eye-opening and frustrating in equal measure and might have some racing to convince themselves that they were never as bad as Eliza. This YA contemporary romance features an enemies-to-lovers, AAPI couple with a sweet/salty plot and a zesty cast of characters. Lee’s debut is here to appease clean romance appetites and make readers hungry for all manner of cultural cuisine. There’s a main character who doesn’t take it in stride or handle it with grace. There’s toughness and vulnerability, hidden feelings and emotions spilling over. The story is well-balanced with freshness and high school drama. For this reader who’s very nitpicky about the YA she can stomach, this one hits the spot.

The Encanto’s Curse (Mar. 4, 2025) by Melissa de la Cruz.

<This is the second novel in a duology.>

<Alert: Potential spoilers ahead.>

A creature stalks the night. It is a manananggal – a mythical creature of the Philippines that separates its upper torso from its legs when hunting – and MJ Robertson-Rodriguez must protect her kingdom as she’s also learning how to be the newly crowned queen of Biringan. She has a vivid dream in which she attacks a young couple in love. The very next day, the couple is there. Injured, but alive. They’re reporting a manananggal attack on one of their goats. MJ comes to the mortifying conclusion that she is the monster. She has no idea how this curse came upon her, and she flees to Mount Makiling with select members of her court, including Sir Lucas Invierno; Grand Duchess Amador Oscura, Sir Lucas’ promised bride; and Nix Xing, a princess of Jade Mountain. Also with their group is the delegation from Jade Mountain, led by Prince Qian, a half-brother to Nix, after he initially tries to get Nix to return to Jade Mountain by force. Prince Qian is a handsome, famed monster hunter. MJ is charmed by him and thinks she could love him someday, but her heart still beats for Lucas just as it also fills with bloodthirst. The young queen must gain control of herself lest she lose her kingdom, her crown and herself, to the viciously hungry ways of the manananggal.

            The concluding novel in The Encanto’s Daughter duology is a YA fantasy that is steeped in Filipino mythology and paranormal romance. I don’t consider it romantasy, for while it does contain kissing, there’s nothing particularly steamy about any of the scenes. I did prefer this story to its predecessor. Where MJ came across as often petulant in that story, I did not get that here, as she races to lift her curse and hide the changes happening to her. The pace is fast, the plot is tense and the tone is dark with notes of hopefulness. Aswang queen though she may be, she’s still a queen and an encanto. And unlike Yara Liliana, practically erased from the history books, MJ has friends who care for and support her. Time isn’t on her side, but her friends are.

            Book One: The Encanto’s Daughter

Rutabaga's Reads 2023: Part 16

I have surprised myself by having a second adult fiction compilation post for 2023. Sure, the year’s almost over, but it’s still 2023, so I feel victorious!

The Midnight Library (Sept. 29, 2020) by Matt Haig.

<This is a standalone novel.>

On the day she decides to die, Nora Seed doesn’t quite die. Maybe she’s comatose, maybe her subconscious is undecided and is in stasis, maybe she’s turned herself into a Schrödinger’s cat. That point doesn’t matter, because between life and death there is a library. Nora’s led a life of depression and disappointment, misery and regret. Her only living relative is her brother, Joe, but they appear estranged since she quit their band, The Labyrinths, years ago. Nora’s been stuck in Bedford, England. When Nora’s in the Midnight Library, she can choose a book, each book representing a life she could’ve lived if she’d made different choices: become an Olympic swimmer, stayed in The Labyrinths, married Dan (her former fiancé whose engagement she broke off last-minute), or married Ash (a surgeon who sometimes runs through her neighborhood) and had a child and a dog. It’s as though she’s trying on these lives. Some last mere seconds, others may last a few days, but as soon as she feels disappointed in that life, she returns to the Midnight Library. Her librarian is Mrs. (Louise Isabel) Elm, her childhood librarian when she was at Hazeldene School. Where is Nora’s perfect life? Will visiting all of these other lives erase all of her regrets? Time is fleeting, even in the library, and she’ll need to make a choice.

            If you need a new perspective on your own life, read this, but also read this if you don’t. Read it because it’s thought-provoking, hopeful and weighty. Who knew that a story featuring a main character with such severe depression would be such a charming, brainy fable? One can tell that Haig is a champion for mental health, and that’s inspirational. Nora’s lives are mostly ordinary, as most of ours are, but the roads she can travel are limitless. I mostly read fiction, and it’s a rare novel that makes me stop and think like this one did. It’s philosophical and contemporary, and I rejoiced when Nora decided that being alive was “a former curse and a present blessing.”

Mister Magic (Aug. 8, 2023) by Kiersten White.

<This is a standalone novel.>

Thirty years have passed since Val left the longest-running children’s TV program. Trouble is, she doesn’t remember leaving it or even recall ever being on the show. But she was. The six Circle of Friends were: Val, Isaac, Javi, Marcus, Jenny and Kitty. Marcus was the dreamer. Javi was the instigator. Isaac was the protector. Jenny was the friend. Val was the leader. But now, there’s no Kitty. Where is Kitty? They all assure Val that she was already gone when Kitty disappeared (did she die?), but Val can’t remember anything, not even her own little sister. The guys are thrilled to find Val, and she tags along to the reunion. Although she can’t remember them, Val can feel that she knows these people. The belonging is strong. But who’s Mister Magic? How can there be no surviving recordings of the show? “Take my hand / Stand on your mark / Make a circle / In the dark ...”

            Before I read White’s Acknowledgments section, I kept thinking the children’s program felt more like a cult than a children’s program with a fanbase that happened to be cultishly devoted. After I read the Acknowledgments and read of the inspiration behind the story, it made sense. This adult fiction novel is considered paranormal horror, but it’s not gory, graphic horror. The horror is more in the untrustworthiness of memory and The Stepford Wives vibe it gives off pertaining to the females in the cast (Jenny is the epitome of this, while Val, with no memory of before and being cut off from the world for 30 years, is definitely not). “Mister Magic” is propulsive, more eerie than frightfully scary, and unexpectedly moving. This piece of the desert with its pocket universe, its “sentient nightmare,” is a conflagration of secrets, rocky human dynamics and untreated trauma, but, for those of a certain age, it also feels nostalgic and the reader can tell it’s a deeply personal story to the author. Val’s preparing to open the doors. Are you ready?

            More adult fiction by White: Hide

Yellowface (May 16, 2023) by R.F. Kuang.

<This is a standalone novel.*

What would you do if your famous author friend choked on a pancake globule and died right in front of you? Snatch her latest work-in-progress (WIP) and polish it so you could pass it off as your own solo work with a sort-of clear conscience? Because that’s what Juniper (June/Junie) Song Hayward does when she witnesses Athena Liu choke to death. Athena’s the literary world’s darling where Junie’s published one novel, and it flopped. Athena’s WIP was a raw manuscript, but it’s clearly a masterpiece about the unsung contributions of Chinese laborers during WWI. Junie receives a staggering six-figure advance and earns out in good time (once an author’s earned out, that means said author’s sold enough copies to cover one’s advance and will then get to keep a percentage of all future sales). June Hayward rebrands herself as Juniper Song, Song being her middle name, and not an indication of any Asian heritage (of which she has none). When June skyrockets onto the New York Times bestseller list, she’s truly living her best life, except that she can’t get away from Athena’s shadow. It isn’t only that backlash is imminent because of her Caucasian self or that discrepancies are noticed by discerning readers (especially when the story says that she “double-dipped”), but that she sees Athena. Her clothes, her boots, her specific shade of red lipstick. What lengths will June go to safeguard her secret?

            Wow. This adult fiction novel is a first-person narrative that is as horrifying as it is entertaining. It’s a novel that brings questions of cultural appropriation, diversity, bigotry and authenticity under the harshest of judges (that which is social media) and lays out what a monster the publishing industry can be. It’s a biting critique and a smashing success. It’s a show of social media likes and the nasty flip side, when someone is cancelled. It is psychological and transfixing, thought-provoking, bold, snarky and smart. At one point, June wonders if another character is unwell, because, “She sounds unhinged. Dangerous.” June needs to take a long, honest look in the mirror, because she comes across as something of a paranoid, desperate madwoman, seeing ghosts and convincing herself that she’s in the right. In fact, she’s practically a victim. As far as I know, this is a standalone novel, but maybe there will be more social media storms in Junie’s future.

"Hide" by Kiersten White

Hide (May 24, 2022) by Kiersten White.

All Mackenzie (Mack) Black has to do is hide, and she is an expert at hiding. The prize for winning the hide-and-seek competition is $50,000, which is a lot of money, especially for Mack, who’s been living in a homeless shelter and can fit her life in one bag. After a family massacre committed by her father years back, Mack is alone, and endures much guilt over remaining alive. When she meets the 13 other competitors, she plans to stay invisible, because that’s what Mack is good at. They’re deposited at an abandoned amusement park (the Amazement Park). Nights are safe, but they must hide during daylight hours. They figure out that two players will be “out” each day, but discovering what it means to be out takes on new meaning soon enough. Mack is with an eclectic group that  includes the kindliest gas station attendant in Idaho, a lesbian veteran and a young man banished from his father’s religious sect, though all 14 are similar in their financial struggles. Who or what are they hiding from? What does Linda know? Is it coincidence that last names are shared with names found throughout the park like Callas, Nicely and Stratton?

            “Hide” is White’s first foray into adult fiction, and it positively pulses with dread. And death. In this paranormal horror novel, no one’s a teenager, but they all read somewhat younger, perhaps due to the emotional trauma each has experienced on some level or because the author has written many young-adult novels. The setting and the atmosphere of the book give the feeling that it’s a struggle to exist in a merciless world where thorns don’t only prick, they cause torrents of blood. Although classified as horror, I did not find it to be scary. That said, I wouldn’t recommend this story to younger YA readers, as there are occasional expletives that parents may not want in their children’s literature, nor would I recommend this to adults who want big-time horror feels. But the prose is simple, making for a quick read that is fast-paced. Life is not fair, and this story makes that abundantly clear. You’ve got those at the top and those that are treated as disposable. While the millennial horror is at a minimum in this story, it doesn’t stop the story from reeking of rotting things and death.

            Come out, come out, wherever you are …