book reviews

Snow Globe / Soyoung Park, Joungmin Lee Comfort (Translator)

/ Alisha Helms / Leave a comment 
Snow Globe
By: Soyoung Park, Joungmin Lee Comfort (Translator)
Genre: YA, Dystopia
Number of Pages: 384
Published: February 27, 2024 (1st Published October 23, 2020)
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Dates Read: April 17, 2025 - April 18, 2025
Format: Library Book / Audiobook

In a world of constant winter, only the citizens of the climate-controlled city of Snowglobe can escape the breath snatching cold. Outside Snowglobe, citizens must face the icy wasteland to get to their jobs at the power plant to produce the energy Snowglobe needs – in return, they have twenty-four hour reality television programming streamed directly from the domed city.

Chobahm lives for the time she gets to watch her favorite shows – especially Goh Around, starring Goh Haeri, Snowglobe’s star and future weather girl. It turns out, her favorite star is the key to getting Chobahm out of her frozen life and into the warmth of Snowglobe. Because Haeri is dead, and Chobahm looks exactly like her.

But life inside Snowglobe is nothing like Chobahm has thought it was – reality is a lie, and it seems like it take forever to reach any truth.

There were some crazy plot twists in this novel that kept me interested. I’m pretty sure it would be a spectacular K-Drama, because it totally reads like one, but some of the plot twists were way out there.

I’m not sure where I saw the comparison, but I originally picked this up because it said The Hunger Games meets The Squid Games. I do not agree with that comparison after reading this though. If the argument of the televised portion would be the connection to The Hunger Games – it’s just reality TV? And as for Squid Games it’s not a game of  life, death, or money.

Overall, this is a fast pace, twist and turn filled young adult read. There’s a second book coming out soon that I’m sure I will also read.

*Thank you Delacorte Press and NetGalley for a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

Hey Mary! / Andrew Wheeler, Rye Hickman (Illustrator)

/ Alisha Helms / Leave a comment 
Hey, Mary!
By: Andrew Wheeler, Rye Hickman (Illustrator)
Genre: Graphic Novel, YA
Number of Pages: 128
Published: April 15, 2025
Publisher: Oni Press
Dates Read: April 17, 2025
Format: eBook / ARC

Mark is a good Catholic boy – he goes to church, says his prayers, and spends a lot of time worrying about damnation. When Mark realizes he has a crush on another boy in his school, he struggles with the mix of his feelings, his faith, and the weight of centuries of shame and judgement. He seeks advice from one of his priests, as well as a local drag performer, but he also had conversations with key figures in Catholic history and lore. Ultimately though, only Mark can answer his question of if he can be both Catholic and gay.

I felt like this was a wonderful, compassionate graphic novel about a young man learning his balance between his sexuality and his faith. I’m no longer religious, but as a Pansexual 30+ year old, I could see my younger self in Mark as he questioned his faith. This book doesn’t condemn religion, but presents the philosophy that someone can be gay and religious.

I greatly appreciated the examples of key figures in Catholic history and lore – I grew up Baptist, but I had a lot of family who were Catholic, so I know a bit about the Saints and the Catholic church. Histories, of all types really, are always more gay than what’s usually taught. “They were roommates”, “his best friend who’s buried next to him”, “her hair was short and she preferred to wear pants”.

Overall, this is an appealingly drawn graphic novel about a young man figuring out his placement in his world. I believe this book could be for everyone, especially those who may be struggling with their sexuality and their religion. Though you may need a bit of knowledge on Catholicism and their saints, even if you don’t know a ton, this book is still informal. 

*Thank you Oni Press and Edelweiss+ for a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

Safe Harbor / Padma Venkatraman

/ Alisha Helms / Leave a comment 
Safe Harbor
By: Padma Venkatraman
Genre: Middle Grade, Novel in Verse
Number of Pages: 176
Published: January 21, 2025
Publisher: Nancy Paulsen Books
Dates Read: March 14, 2025
Format: Library Book / Hardcover

When Geetha and her mom move from India to Rhode Island after her parents’ divorce, they leave behind everything Geetha loves. As if leaving behind everything wasn’t already tough enough, Geetha gets bullied at school for her clothes, her food, and her English (who knew there were two different English ways of spelling things!). Geetha finds solace in playing her flute and writing poetry, and even more when she meets Miguel and the two of them help rescue an injured harp seal pup stranded on the beach.

As time moves on, Geetha feels her anger growing; she’s never been so sad or angry – anger at those who pollute the sea and sadness over the animals who get hurt from it, anger at her mom for moving her halfway across the world… but then Miguel and her start up a beach cleanup she’s surprised by how many kind kids are out there who want to help. When it’s time to let the baby seal go, Geetha has mixed feelings, knowing she’ll miss him, but also wanting what’s best for him. As she’s learning to live with mixed emotions and feelings, she also comes to understand that even though there will be rough waters, there are plenty of safe harbors out there too.

Over these last few years, I’ve really come to love novels in verse, especially when it’s aimed at the younger crowd of middle grade readers because it almost forces the author to be more particular on their word choices. This novel didn’t disappoint at all and it was simple, but still powerful.

I love how opening a book is like opening a door,

taking me to a different time and place,

Into someone else’s head and heart.

This novel not only focuses on climate change and beach cleaning, but also has to do with mental health a lot. Geetha is growing up and having to deal with a lot of change all at once and that can take a toll on anybody. She knows she has anger and resentment, but she doesn’t know how to handle that – this book talks you through her journey.

Overall, this is a simple but powerful novel in verse that will show young readers to be the change they want to see in the world.

*Thank you Nancy Paulsen Books and NetGalley for a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

Lunar Boy / Jes and Cin Wibowo

/ Alisha Helms / Leave a comment 
Lunar Boy
By: Jes and Cin Wibowo
Genre: Graphic Novel, Science Fiction, Middle Grade
Number of Pages: 240
Published: May 14, 2025
Publisher: HarperAlley
Dates Read: March 4, 2025 - March 5, 2025
Format: Library Book / Hardcover

Indu, a boy from the moon, has felt like he doesn’t belong ever since he and his adoptive mother disembarked from their spacecraft to live on New Earth with their new family. The kids at school think he’s weird and he’s not fluent in their language, he has a crush on his pen pal, and his stepfamily doesn’t seem to know how to connect with him. Worst of all, his mom’s so busy that Indu can’t even tell her what’s wrong.

In a low moment, Indo calls out to the moon, begging to take him back. Surprisedly, the moon answers and agrees to bring him home on the first day of the New Year. As the days pass, Indu finds friendship in unlikely places and discovers the connections to his new family that were lost before. When the moon finally calls him home, Indu must decide if he’s willing to give up what he’s just found.

I was first interested in this graphic novel because of the artwork / color palette (sunset blue and pink are my all time favorite colors), but secondly because it just won the Stonewall Book Award for Children – and boy did it do an amazing job at representation! Trans, Bi, Pan, not to mention different body sizes, shapes, and ethnicities.

This graphic novel is great for the discussion of changing family dynamics, starting over in a new place, navigating identity and friendships, and trans identity. This is aimed at middle grade readers, but I feel like those of middle grade and older would enjoy it.

Stonewall Book Award for Children 2025

The Face on the Milk Carton (Janie Johnson #1) / Caroline B. Cooney

/ Alisha Helms / Leave a comment 
The Face on the Milk Carton (Janie Johnson #1)
By: Caroline B. Cooney
Genre: YA
Number of Pages: 208
Published: May 22, 2012 (1st Published February 1, 1990)
Publisher: Ember
Dates Read: February 22, 2025
Format: Library Book / eBook

When Janie sees the girl on the back of her friend’s milk carton at lunch, she instantly remembers wearing that dress in the photo, she remembers the itchiness of the fabric against her skin. That little girl with pigtails is her! But how could that be?

As Janie starts to piece together everything, nothing makes sense. Are Mr. and Mrs. Johnson really her parents? Why does she remember other children? Who exactly is she?

I honestly don’t remember why this basically lived in my checkout shelf on Libby for nearly 6 months (yea, I just kept renewing it/putting a hold on it). I think it had to do with it being a banned book for sexual content, challenging authority, and inappropriate for age group. Janie is fifteen and she found out her parents aren’t her biological parents and has been not only lied to, but kidnapped… I think she’s gained the right to be “challenging authority”. 

Now, all that being said, did I find this book to be the best written novel in literature? No. Would I have probably enjoyed it a lot more if I read it younger? Yes. By the end of the book, Janie was slightly getting on my nerves and I was also annoyed that I didn’t know if I could trust what the parents said, cause it all sounded CRAZY! Oh, and then I found out this series has FIVE more books?!

Overall, I think young adults would still enjoy reading this. I especially think they would enjoy seeing how kids did their research “back in the day” as Janie tries to find out the truth.

Continental Drifter / Kathy MacLeod

/ Alisha Helms / Leave a comment 
Continental Drifter
By: Kathy MacLeod
Genre: Graphic Novel, Middle Grade, Memoir
Number of Pages: 224
Published: April 2, 2024
Publisher: First Second
Dates Read: February 18, 2025 - February 20, 2025
Format: Library Book / Hardcover

With a Thai mother and an American father, Kathy lives in two different worlds. Most of the year she lives in Bangkok and goes to the International School. But then, during the summer, her family travels twenty-four hours straight to get to a tiny seaside town in Maine. Even though she looks forward to eating all the food she can’t get back home, Kathy doesn’t feel like she belongs with the New England kids either. Kathy just wants to find a place where she belongs.

This graphic memoir not only captures the uneasiness of being eleven, but also being a biracial/bicultural preteen at a summer camp. Kathy struggled with fitting in both in Bangkok, where she was too American and in Maine, where no one looked like her and she didn’t always understand the pop culture references. 

The art of this novel fit well for the audience as it was but simple but beautiful.

Overall, this graphic novel is perfect for those who may also feel like they just can’t fit in and those who set expectations high for an event (ex. Summer camp) and it falls short of what they thought.

Winner of Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature for Children’s Literature (2025)

The Last Bookstore on Earth / Lily Braun-Arnold

/ Alisha Helms / Leave a comment 
The Last Bookstore on Earth
By: Lily Braun-Arnold
Genre: YA
Number of Pages: 320
Published: January 7, 2025
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Dates Read: February 16, 2025 - February 18, 2025
Format: Library Book / Hardcover

Trigger Warnings: body horror

Ever since the first storm wreaked havoc and changed the world as we know it, seventeen-year-old Liz Flannery has been surviving in her old job, the bookstore in the New Jersey suburb she grew up in, trading books and letters for supplies. It’s her safe space. Until she heard about the next storm coming soon.

Then she meets Maeve, someone who breaks into the bookstore one night looking for shelter. Maeve and Liz butt heads, but Maeve has the skills Liz lacks that are needed to fix the dilapidated store before the next storm hits. Liz agrees to let her stay.

As the girls grow closer and feelings start to appear, they realize there are more threats than just the storm and they find themselves fighting to stay alive.

Though this book is post-apocalyptic, I will say it does focus more on Liz and Maeve’s relationship than it does the world around them. Which ended up being a little disappointing to me because I would have loved to read more about it – especially how Liz handled the days following the event and making it into the bookstore. 

I didn’t think realistically that Liz would have even lasted the amount of time that she did last before Maeve showed up. Maeve came in and showed a lot more of what it was like in the “new world”, but we never got into detail about Liz’s. <spoiler> and then what she did with her hand and the generator as a whole was crazy </spoiler>.

Overall, this was a cute sapphic post-apocalyptic young adult novel set in a bookstore where people still exchanged goods for a book.

*Thank you Delacorte Press and NetGalley for a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

Wild Chorus: Finding Harmony with Whales, Wolves, and Other Animals / Brenda Peterson

/ Alisha Helms / Leave a comment 
Wild Chorus: Finding Harmony with Whales, Wolves, and Other Animals
By: Brenda Peterson
Genre: Nonfiction, Animals
Number of Pages: 240
Published: April 1, 2024
Publisher: Mountaineers Books
Dates Read: February 1, 2025 - February 16, 2025
Format: Library Book / Hardcover

In Wild Chorus, author Brenda Peterson talks about her lifelong relationship with animals and how humans can learn from beluga whales, wolves, raccoons, bears, elk, herons, and many more.

This book is filled with personal essays, which I enjoyed because I could kind of go back and forth on reading it and reading a fiction book. Some nonfiction books take me a long time to get into, and others I just can read information after information without needing a break.

I definitely took a lot of photos of passages in the book to go back and read later, or to share with my friends.

Brenda Peterson’s writing is very chill and friendly, it just felt like I was reading a letter a buddy wrote me about their latest outdoorsy adventure.

*Thank you Mountaineers Books and NetGalley for a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

Feral (Volume 1) / Tony Fleecs, Trish Forstner (Illustrator), Tone Rodriguez (Illustrator), Brad Simpson (Colorist)

/ Alisha Helms / Leave a comment 
Feral
By: Tony Fleecs, Trish Forstner (Illustrator), Tone Rodriguez (Illustrator), Brad Simpson (Colorist)
Genre: Graphic Novel, Horror
Number of Pages: 136
Published: September 17, 2024
Publisher: Image Comics
Dates Read: February 16, 2025
Format: Library Book / eBook

Trigger Warnings: blood, gore, death, outbreak

Elsie, Lord Fluffy Britches, and Patch are three indoor cats now lost in the outdoors during an outbreak of rabies. Without their humans, the trio must do their best to get home without getting bit, scratched, or eaten.

I really enjoyed Stray Dogs when it came out, so when I saw this team had a new release, I immediately checked it out from my library. I did just find out that the art itself is inspired by Don Bluth, who animated children’s classic movies like All Dogs Go to Heaven, The Land Before Time, and many others, but those two movies were favorites of mine as a kid, so that’s probably why I was so drawn to this.

Also, I loved that this novel was basically zombies but with cats. 

I’m still not 100% sold on the dynamic of the trio cats. I understood the backstory that was given, but I don’t know exactly why I wasn’t fully satisfied with it. It’s weird, I know, but I am still excited to continue this story in the next volume.

No Rules Tonight / Kim Hyun Sook, Ryan Estrada (Illustrator)

/ Alisha Helms / Leave a comment 
No Rules Tonight
By: Kim Hyun Sook, Ryan Estrada (Illustrator)
Genre: Graphic Novel, Historical Fiction
Number of Pages: 208
Published: October 1, 2024
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Dates Read: February 15, 2025 - February 16, 2025
Format: Library Book / Hardcover

It’s 1980s South Korea, where political tensions are high and curfew is strict. Luckily it’s time for the annual winter camp at Anjeon University – a full weekend, deep in the mountains, with no supervision.

In the snowy mountains, everyone has different plans for their one night of freedom but of course, everything doesn’t always go as planned. Hyun Sook is dying to figure out how to get her banned book club back up and running, Taehee and Kiwoo are trying to build up their nerve to confess their feelings for one another, while Sujji pines after her crush, ready to risk it all and finally tell someone her biggest secret she’s been keeping secret her whole life.

How will this weekend of freedom end for these university students?

I immediately picked this graphic novel up when I saw it was from the same creators of Banned Book Club and I’m glad I did – learned even more about 1980s South Korea than before. It’s kind of crazy the desire everyone has for freedom, even in the smallest ways. I can’t imagine really having restrictions on something like when I’m allowed to be out and about from my house (even if I don’t usually leave after I get home from work), or what music I can listen to or books I’m allowed to read. Some of these freedoms weren’t given to South Koreans until as recently as just forty-five years ago.

Overall, this is a cutely drawn historical graphic novel that still brings up the timely issues around censorship, regime, and even labor rights. This is bound to bring up a look into the history of South Korea and politics and policies that are trying to be formed today.

*Thank you Penguin Workshop and NetGalley for a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review