Double Fall Middle Grade & YA Book Spotlights: The Restless Dark by Erica Waters & Monster Club by Darren Aronofsky & Ari Handel

Today I wanted to make a special post to highlight two fall releases that I'm really excited about: The Restless Dark by Erica Waters and Monster Club by Darrren Aronofsky (yes, that Darren Aronofsky of Requiem for a Dream, one of my favorite movies!) and Ari Handel! I've just finished Monster Club and thought it was such a fun read, overflowing with imagination really great storytelling. It's an amazing Halloween for middle grade readers and adult readers alike. I'll definitely be recommending it to some middle grade readers that I know. :) The Restless Dark is up next!

I'll be sharing some general information about the books below, so be sure to check them out if you're looking for an MG and/or YA spooky fall read! Huge thanks to Leilani Fitzpatrick for sending me copies of these to read! 

THE RESTLESS DARK:

Author:  Erica Waters
Pub. Date: October 4th, 2022
Publisher: HarperTeen
Pages: 400
Find it: Amazon | Bookshop.org  

SYNOPSIS:

“Enter Cloudkiss Canyon at your own risk. 

The Cloudkiss Killer is dead. Now a true-crime podcast is hosting a contest to find his bones. 

Lucy was almost the serial killer’s final victim. Carolina is a true-crime fan who fears her own rage. Maggie is a psychology student with a little too much to hide. 

All of them are looking for answers, for a new identity, for a place to bury their secrets. 

But there are more than bones hiding in the shadows…sometimes the darkness inside is more frightening than anything the dead leave behind. 

Perfect for fans of Sadie and Wilder Girls, this newest novel from Erica Waters follows three girls at a true-crime contest to find the bones of a lost killer—even as a mysterious force pulls at the contestants’ darkest desires."

MONSTER CLUB:

Author:  Darren Aronofsky & Ari Handel
Pub. Date: September 13th, 2022
Publisher: HarperCollins
Pages: 352
Find it: Amazon | Bookshop.org  

SYNOPSIS:

“From the award-winning screenwriter-director Darren Aronofsky and his screenwriting partner, Ari Handel, comes Monster Club. Their debut novel is the first book in a thrilling, new adventure series about growing up, letting go, and facing down your monsters. 

Like almost everything in eleven-year-old Eric "Doodles" King's life, King's Wonderland--the amusement park his great-great grandfather founded--was seriously damaged when a hurricane hit his beloved Coney Island neighborhood. Now hungry property developers are circling the wreckage of the once-awesome King's Wonderland, and Eric's family is falling apart from the threat of losing it all. 

If it weren't for Monster Club--the epic roleplaying game that Eric and his friends created--Eric's life would be pretty terrible. Drawing his favorite monster battling with his best friends' creations is the one thing that still gets Eric excited. So when his friends start to think of Monster Club as a kid's game and get more interested in other things, Eric just can't deal. But then Eric happens across a long-lost vial of magic ink that brings their monster drawings to life, and suddenly, Monster Club isn't just for fun anymore. 

The monsters Eric and his friends created are wreaking havoc across Coney, and it's on the Monster Club to save their city, the amusement park, and maybe, just maybe, Eric's family, too. It's a hilarious, heartfelt adventure from the creative minds of Darren Aronofsky and Ari Handel that fans of Last Kids on Earth and Spy School are sure to love."

Can't-Wait Wednesday: She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan, The Past is Red by Catherynne M. Valente, The River has Teeth by Erica Waters

Can't-Wait is a weekly meme hosted by Wishful Endings that spotlights exciting upcoming releases that we can't wait to be released! This meme is based off of Jill @ Breaking the Spine's Waiting on Wednesday meme.

 

This week's upcoming book spotlights are: 

She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan
Publication: July 20th, 2021

Tor Books

Hardcover. 416 pages.

Pre-order: Amazon | IndieBound

From Goodreads:

"In a famine-stricken village on a dusty yellow plain, two children are given two fates. A boy, greatness. A girl, nothingness…

 

In 1345, China lies under harsh Mongol rule. For the starving peasants of the Central Plains, greatness is something found only in stories. When the Zhu family’s eighth-born son, Zhu Chongba, is given a fate of greatness, everyone is mystified as to how it will come to pass. The fate of nothingness received by the family’s clever and capable second daughter, on the other hand, is only as expected.

 

When a bandit attack orphans the two children, though, it is Zhu Chongba who succumbs to despair and dies. Desperate to escape her own fated death, the girl uses her brother's identity to enter a monastery as a young male novice. There, propelled by her burning desire to survive, Zhu learns she is capable of doing whatever it takes, no matter how callous, to stay hidden from her fate.

 

After her sanctuary is destroyed for supporting the rebellion against Mongol rule, Zhu uses takes the chance to claim another future altogether: her brother's abandoned greatness."

 

and...

The Past is Red by Catherynne M. Valente

Publication: July 20th, 2021

Tordotcom

Hardcover. 160 pages.

Pre-order: Amazon | IndieBound

From Goodreads:

"The future is blue. Endless blue...except for a few small places that float across the hot, drowned world left behind by long-gone fossil fuel-guzzlers. One of those patches is a magical place called Garbagetown.

 

Tetley Abednego is the most beloved girl in Garbagetown, but she's the only one who knows it. She's the only one who knows a lot of things: that Garbagetown is the most wonderful place in the world, that it's full of hope, that you can love someone and 66% hate them all at the same time.

 

But Earth is a terrible mess, hope is a fragile thing, and a lot of people are very angry with her. Then Tetley discovers a new friend, a terrible secret, and more to her world than she ever expected."

I'm really excited for new Catherynne M. Valente, and frankly it doesn't even matter what this book is about! That being said, I do still think this sounds like a great synopsis that I'm excited to check out. I assume the title is similar to her The Future is Blue on purpose, also...

and...

The River Has Teeth by Erica Waters

Publication: July 20th, 2021

HarperTeen

Hardcover. 400 pages.

Pre-order: Amazon | IndieBound

From Goodreads:

"Lush and chilling, with razor-sharp edges and an iron core of hope, this bewitching, powerhouse novel of two girls fighting back against the violence the world visits on them will stun and enchant readers.

 

Girls have been going missing in the woods…

 

When Natasha’s sister disappears, Natasha desperately turns to Della, a local girl rumored to be a witch, in the hopes that magic will bring her sister home.

 

But Della has her own secrets to hide. She thinks the beast who’s responsible for the disappearances is her own mother—who was turned into a terrible monster by magic gone wrong.

 

Natasha is angry. Della has little to lose. Both are each other’s only hope."

This isn't a premise that I typically am drawn to, but I definitely think it has promise and I was enticed by some of the many ways it's been described by early readers as "eerie" and "haunting" and so on. Also, I love that cover quite a bit.

What do you think about these upcoming releases? What are your anticipated upcoming releases?

Can't-Wait Wednesday: Unravel the Dusk by Elizabeth Lim, The Cold Vanish by Jon Billman, & Ghost Wood Song by Erica Waters

Can't-Wait is a weekly meme hosted by Wishful Endings that spotlights exciting upcoming releases that we can't wait to be released! This meme is based off of Jill @ Breaking the Spine's Waiting on Wednesday meme.

There continues to be a lot of books coming out in July, so I'm sharing three picks again this week! This week's upcoming book spotlights are: 

Unravel the Dusk (The Blood of Stars #2) by Elizabeth Lim
Publication: July 7th, 2020

Knopf

Hardcover. 368 pages.

Pre-order: Amazon | Book Depository | IndieBound

From Goodreads:

"Maia Tamarin’s journey to sew the dresses of the sun, the moon and the stars has taken a grievous toll. She returns to a kingdom on the brink of war. The boy she loves is gone, and she is forced to don the dress of the sun and assume the place of the emperor’s bride-to-be to keep the peace. 

But the war raging around Maia is nothing compared to the battle within. Ever since she was touched by the demon Bandur, she has been changing . . . glancing in the mirror to see her own eyes glowing red, losing control of her magic, her body, her mind. It’s only a matter of time before Maia loses herself completely, but she will stop at nothing to find Edan, protect her family, and bring lasting peace to her country."

I really enjoyed the first book, Spin the Dawn, and have been eagerly awaiting the next installment. Really can't wait to see what will be brought into this world and story next! I requested a copy on NetGalley months ago and it's just been in NetGalley purgatory with no approval or denial so I'm not expecting to get it, but the hope is still there with fingers crossed!

and...

The Cold Vanish: Seeking the Missing in North America's Wildlands by Jon Billman

Publication: July 7th, 2020

Grand Central Publishing

Hardcover. 368 pages.

Pre-order: Amazon | Book Depository | IndieBound

From Goodreads:

"These are the stories that defy conventional logic. The proverbial vanished without a trace incidences, which happen a lot more (and a lot closer to your backyard) than almost anyone thinks. These are the missing whose situations are the hardest on loved ones left behind. The cases that are an embarrassment for park superintendents, rangers and law enforcement charged with Search & Rescue. The ones that baffle the volunteers who comb the mountains, woods and badlands. The stories that should give you pause every time you venture outdoors. 

Through Jacob Gray's disappearance in Olympic National Park, and his father Randy Gray who left his life to search for him, we will learn about what happens when someone goes missing. Braided around the core will be the stories of the characters who fill the vacuum created by a vanished human being. We'll meet eccentric bloodhound-handler Duff and R.C., his flagship purebred, who began trailing with the family dog after his brother vanished in the San Gabriel Mountains. And there's Michael Neiger North America's foremost backcountry Search & Rescue expert and self-described "bushman" obsessed with missing persons. And top researcher of persons missing on public wildlands Ex-San Jose, California detective David Paulides who is also one of the world's foremost Bigfoot researchers. 

It's a tricky thing to write about missing persons because the story is the absence of someone. A void. The person at the heart of the story is thinner than a smoke ring, invisible as someone else's memory. The bones you dig up are most often metaphorical. While much of the book will embrace memory and faulty memory -- history -- The Cold Vanish is at its core a story of now and tomorrow. Someone will vanish in the wild tomorrow. These are the people who will go looking."

This book sounds fascinating--a little haunting and serious, but also a topic that I think would make for some really interesting discussion and investigation.

and...

Ghost Wood Song by Erica Waters

Publication: July 21st, 2020

HarperTeen

Hardcover. 368 pages.

Pre-order: Amazon | Book Depository | IndieBound

From Goodreads:

"If I could have a fiddle made of Daddy’s bones, I’d play it. I’d learn all the secrets he kept.

Shady Grove inherited her father’s ability to call ghosts from the grave with his fiddle, but she also knows the fiddle’s tunes bring nothing but trouble and darkness. 

But when her brother is accused of murder, she can’t let the dead keep their secrets. 

In order to clear his name, she’s going to have to make those ghosts sing. 

Family secrets, a gorgeously resonant LGBTQ love triangle, and just the right amount of creepiness make this young adult debut a haunting and hopeful story about facing everything that haunts us in the dark."

Necromancy seems to be a bit of a trend lately, but I'm always eager to see how each author portrays this idea. I think this sounds like it could be pretty unique, so I'm excited to check it out.

What do you think about these upcoming releases? What are your anticipated upcoming releases?