Category Archives: 2025 Releases

How to Say Goodbye in Cuban by Daniel Miyares

The year is 1957. Carlos lives with his family in Ceiba Mocha, a small town in the Cuban countryside. He loves to play baseball with his best friend, Alvaro, and to shoot home-made slingshots with his abuelo. One day, a miracle Carlos’ father, his papi, wins the lottery! He uses the money to launch his growing furniture business and to move the family to a big house in the city. Carlos hates having to move – hates leaving Abuelo and Alvaro behind – and hates being called country kid at his new school. But the pains of moving and middle school turn out to be the least of his… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Gun violence
  • Cuban Revolution (theme)
  • Bullying

The Incredibly Human Henson Blayze by Derrick Barnes

In the small town of Great Mountain, Mississippi, all eyes are on Henson Blayze, a thirteen-year-old football phenom who many have wondered if he was super-human. The predominately white townsfolk have been waiting for Henson to play high-school ball, and now they’re overjoyed to finally possess an elite Black athlete of their own. Until a horrifying incident forces Henson to speak out about injustice. Until he says that he might not play football anymore. Until he quickly learns he isn’t as loved by the people as he thought. In that moment, Henson’s town is divided in… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Hospitalisation & medical content
  • Police brutality & lynching

Truth Is by Hannah V. Sawyerr

Seventeen-year-old poet Truth Bangura begins senior year unsure of life after graduation, but when she learns she’s pregnant by her ex-boyfriend, she makes one decision she is sure about—an abortion. When Truth performs a poem about her decision and her emotionally turbulent home life, the performance is recorded and posted online for everyone to see—including her mother.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Emotional child abuse
  • Familial estrangement
  • Teen pregnancy & abortion
  • Emesis

Kirby’s Lessons for Falling [in Love] by Laura Gao

Once dubbed the Queen of Balance as her school’s top rock climber, Kirby Tan suffers an injury that sidelines her for the rest of the season. Now she’s forced to join the newspaper club for some desperately needed extra credit. Worse, she’s recruited by crystal-wearing, tarot-reading Bex Santos for her astrology-based love advice column. As Kirby reluctantly agrees to orchestrate “matches made in heaven” with Bex, she begins to wonder if their own stars could be aligned. But loving who she wants isn’t so easy when her family and church community are on the line. Can Kirby pull off her greatest balancing act yet?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Sexual harassment
  • Emesis
  • Death of a parent

Tall Water by S.J. Sindu and Dion MBD

Ever since she turned sixteen, Nimmi has wanted to see her mother. Though she has a loving but overprotective father and a budding relationship, she yearns to travel to Sri Lanka to confront the mother who refused to leave the island during a war, not even for Nimmi’s sake. Her father is going back for the first time as a reporter on assignment, but he refuses to take her, deeming Sri Lanka too dangerous. But then Nimmi’s mother appears to her in a dream, asking her to come find her, and Nimmi knows she must go. Her father is livid when he sees her at baggage claim, but by then… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Parental abandonment
  • Tsunami (on-page)

Song of a Blackbird by Maria van Lieshout

In the present day, teenage Annick is desperate to find a bone marrow donor that could save the life of her grandmother, Johanna. She turns to her family history and discovers a photograph taken by Emma Bergsma. Decades earlier, Emma is a young art student about to be drawn into what will become the biggest bank heist in European history: swapping 50 Million Guilders’ worth of forged bank notes for real ones―right under the noses of the Nazis! Emma’s life―and the lives of thousands, including a young woman named Johanna―hangs in the balance. In this… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Period-typical antisemitism
  • Chronic illness
  • Death of a grandparent from cancer
  • Gun violence & explosions
  • World War Two & genocide

This Place Kills Me by Mariko Tamaki & Nicole Goux

At Wilberton Academy, few students are more revered than the members of the elite Wilberton Theatrical Society—a.k.a. the WTS—and no one represents that exclusive club better than Elizabeth Woodward. Breathtakingly beautiful, beloved by all, and a talented thespian, it’s no surprise she’s starring as Juliet in the WTS’s performance of Shakespeare’s classic tragedy. But when she’s found dead the morning after opening night, the whole school is thrown into chaos. Transfer student Abby Kita was one of the last people to see Elizabeth alive, and when local authorities… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Homophobia
  • Sexual assault of a minor & grooming
  • Suicide
  • Bullying

The History of Everything by Victoria Evans

Daisy and Agnes have always had each other. And that’s all they’ve ever needed—or wanted, at least. So when Agnes’s mom drops the bombshell that she and Agnes are moving at the end of the summer, the girls are crushed. All seems lost until the pair unearth “The History of Everything,” an old friendship scrapbook with the ultimate bucket list to make their last summer together unforgettable. But when Daisy starts dating a charming drummer, her social calendar suddenly has less room for her best friend. Insecurities bubble to the surface, and Daisy and Agnes begin to… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Bullying

You and Me on Repeat by Mary Shyne

Chris O’Brien has a genius plan: If he can share the perfect first kiss with his crush, Andy, then of course he’ll break free from the time loop that has him repeating graduation day over and over…and over. Alicia Ochoa thinks Chris’s plan is doomed. Valedictorian and a total nerd, she knows it’ll take more than a kiss to escape the loop they’re trapped in together. Besides, Chris may be a hopeless romantic, but Alicia doesn’t think he has a real shot with Andy. Once close friends, Alicia and Chris have history—lots of it. As they got older, the pair fell out after… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Death of a friend

When She’s Gone by Sara Sligar

Cora Valentine has her whole life—and a shot at the Olympics—ahead of her. But when she’s kidnapped on Halloween, her name is splashed across headlines not as an athlete but as a victim. Not even her safe return changes that, especially since no one is caught for the crime. Hounded by the public, Cora’s time as a missing girl and member of the Magnificent Eight has its consequences. Years later, when Cora has her own daughter, she’s determined to leave the past behind for a better life. Her daughter will never face those fears. And Cora will never face them again… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Anxiety
  • Kidnapping & mentions of stalking
  • Gun violence