New Adult

I Feel Awful, Thanks / Lara Pickle

/ Alisha Helms / Leave a comment 
I Feel Awful, Thanks
By: Lara Pickle
Genre: Graphic Novel, New Adult
Number of Pages: 216
Published: March 5, 2024
Publisher: Oni Press
Dates Read: January 31, 2025 - February 1, 2025
Format: Library Book / Paperback

Trigger Warnings: Mental Health issues, anxiety, depression, toxic workplace, 

Joana is a young witch who just secured her dream job creating potions with a coven in London. But Joana will soon discover the reality of her new city life is not as she thought. Finding a flat is hard, her dream job is actually quite stressful, and she’s all alone. Little by little, she carves her place, but sadness, fatigue, and doubts create dragons that threaten to burst her hard-earned success… until she starts talking to a professional who helps her realize that in order to take care of herself, she must know herself.

I loved that this graphic novel tackled what it can feel like to have anxiety and crafted it in a way that also made it magical as well corporate. It’s okay not to be okay – a saying that everyone needs to be told every once in a while. Joana’s therapist, or Dragon Trainer, as she’s called in the book, gives really good advice on how Joana can help tackle her dragons, aka her anxieties.

Joana’s friends were also a breath of fresh air that were extremely supportive in both pushing Joana to get the extra help she needed and helping in her journey all around. Even her relationship with James and his own journey of self awareness and growth was nice to see.

Oh – before I forget, the art of this is beautiful and so very captivating, it’s one of the reasons I first picked up this book. The panels are brightly colored and there is quite a bit of text on some pages, but nothing I felt took away from the overall art.

Overall, this was a beautiful, fantastic graphic novel that dives into taking care of yourself as you battle anxiety, depression, and the everyday stressors of life – but add a magical twist.

Wild About You / Kaitlyn Hill

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Wild About You
By: Kaitlyn Hill, Amanda Stribling (Narrator)
Genre: New Adult, Romance
Number of Pages: 384
Published: May 21, 2024
Publisher: Delacorte Romance
Dates Read: December 13, 2024 - December 16, 2024
Format: Library Book / Audiobook

Trigger Warnings: Anxiety, grief

After losing her scholarship and gaining an anxiety diagnosis, Natalie Hart applied to Wild Adventures, a popular outdoorsy reality show. Sure, she is someone who would be defined as the opposite of outdoorsy, but that scholarship prize money is too much to pass up.

Enter Finn Markum, her randomly assigned Outdoorsy teammate who grunts and growls responses. The duo bicker more than siblings – or is it flirtation?

Turns out, falling in love may be the wildest adventure yet.

I’m not one for romance – or at least not it being the main focus of the story, but Natalie intrigued me. I’m not one for make-up or a twelve step skin care routine (I don’t think I’ve put any makeup on in over a decade), but I understood her anxiety, and her desire to be friends with everyone – especially someone you’re working with. With Finn, I knew there was more to him than meets the eye and that Natalie just needed to pull back the layers, which she did.

My only thing would be that I would not put this book into the YA category, it should be under New Adult since Natalie is in her summer between freshman and sophomore year in college. I know it’s a “newer” category/genre but I honestly would not have read it if it was a YA romance.

If you’re looking for a cute New Adult romance read with a grump and sunshine camping, this is a good book for you.

Thirsty / Jas Hammonds

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Thirsty
By: Jas Hammonds
Genre: New Adult
Number of Pages: 336
Published: May 14, 2024
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Dates Read: May 19, 2024 - May 21, 2024
Format: ARC / Paperback

Trigger Warnings: (as per beginning of novel) alcohol addiction, self-hatred, suicidal ideation, racial microaggressions, transphobic thetoric, and non-consensual outing

During the summer before college, Blake, her girlfriend, Ella, and their best friend, Annetta have one goal: join the exclusive Serena Society at their college. The sorority promises status and lifelong connections to a network of powerful, trailblazing women of color. Ella’s acceptance is a certainty – so is Annetta really – both of their mothers are Serena’s alum. However, Blake has a lot more to prove.

Blake comes from a working-class background and lacks confidence, nothing like Ella. Luckily, she finds courage with drops of liquor because when she drinks, she becomes Big Bad Bee – funny, bold, and unstoppable. But, as Serena pledging intensifies, so does Blake’s drinking, but it doesn’t stop at just partying. Ella assures Blake that she’s fine; nothing she’s doing isn’t what needs to be done to make the cut.

But the closer she gets to success, the more Blake’s drowning. With her future so bright ahead, Blake must decide how far she’s willing to go and to lose to step into the bright light of her dreams.

I absolutely adored Jas Hammond’s debut novel, We Deserve Monuments, so I’ve been highly anticipating their second novel since they announced it on their Instagram. Goodness, this doesn’t disappoint.

Blake was such a complex character – one that made it so hard to keep rooting for her as she continuously turned to alcohol, but I wanted her happy ending and was proud of her when she really tried. On top of trying to get into the Serena Society, Blake is not only navigating the transition between high school life and college but also her identity, her past, and what that means for her future and her place in the world.

I also love the relationship we see between both Blake and Ella and Blake and Annetta and how both characters interact with her. We see the type of support (or lack of support) that they give Blake and how she responds to it and it gives the characters more depth and realistic interactions.

Overall, this is a wonderful coming of age novel about an 18-year-old and her relationship with both drinking and those around her. I would somewhat argue that this novel could fall under the New Adult genre and not YA, but could see it being either.

*Thank you Roaring Brook Press and NetGalley for an advance digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

Roaming / Jillian Tamaki, Mariko Tamaki

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Roaming
By: Jillian Tamaki, Mariko Tamaki
Genre: Graphic Novel, New Adult
Number of Pages: 444
Published: September 1, 2023
Publisher: Drawn and Quarterly
Dates Read: March 25, 2024
Format: Library Book / Paperback

It’s Spring Break 2009 and three friends have five days in New York City. Over the course of their time there a fling blossoms between two of them, which causes the long-term friendship to be thrown off-balance. 

Don’t know why I’ve found myself in books running around New York City with young adults, but I’m okay with it. It was actually kind of nice reading the graphic novel since it had a few places that were mentioned in my first book so I got to see them that way.

Everybody knows a Fiona – who is literally the worst and sucks the fun out of everything. Which is what drove me nuts about her and Dani’s fling. But, I will give the authors the credit in truly capturing the annoyance of Fiona as a whole.

On top of hating Fiona, I did find the ending just as unsatisfying. I was expecting maybe Fiona acknowledging how shitty she was – or at least giving a thank you for Dani and Zoe helping her out, or more of the group separating at the airport and going their separate ways. I get the symbolism of the ending – but I just wish there had been more.

Overall, it’s a good story about a group of friends on a trip one of them always dreamed of and it is not going exactly as planned. Wonderful depiction of that difference you have with your high school friends after going away to different colleges/universities.

Island Witch / Amanda Jayatissa

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I wanted to start this review off by sharing something exciting.

This is my 500th book review since I started reviewing every book I read beginning in 2020! I know all my reviews are not on this website, since I only started it last year in 2023, but they are all on my Goodreads if you’d really like to check them all out.

My goal is to review everything I read for at least a decade. And seeing myself hit 500 is a bit surreal. Only 700 more reviews to go 🙂

Island Witch
By: Amanda Jayatissa
Genre: Horror, New Adult
Number of Pages: 384
Published: February 20, 2024
Publisher: Berkley
Dates Read: February 18, 2024 - February 22, 2024
Format: ARC / eBook

In nineteenth century Sri Lanka, daughter of the village Capuwa (demon priest), Amara, tries to solve the mysterious attacks that have been happening around her village. Most of the villagers around the island have been influenced by the new religious practices brought in by the British Colonizers, but that doesn’t stop them from still calling on Amara’s dad whenever supernatural occurrences happen. But now, someone (or something), is viciously attacking the men and instead of asking for Amara’s father’s help, the villagers begin accusing him for it.

Amma is used to keeping to herself – the relentless bullying and accusations of witchcraft are never ending. She sets out to try and clear her father’s name herself, but begins being haunted by dreams that predict dark forces, that also leave her waking up in random places throughout the island as she sleepwalks. She can’t shake the feeling that all of this is connected to the night weeks ago – when she was recovering from a strange illness and woke up scared and confused, to her mother frantically saying, “No one can find out what happened”.

I don’t read horror that often, but after reading the marketing promos for it and seeing it was both based on Sri Lankan folklore and had “female rage finally being unleashed” as a highlight point, I was sold. And this didn’t disappoint.

The storyline of watching Amara from an innocent young girl turned to a rage filled woman was impressive and believable. It made the ending of the story a bit complicated because you both saw where she was coming from and kind of had to take a step back and go, “Whoa”. I haven’t read anything from Amanda Jayatissa before, but I will be adding her other two to my ever growing TBR list.

As I said before, horror isn’t my forte, but I think those who are looking for a unique and page turning, historical Sri Lanka horror, will greatly appreciate this one. There are some gory moments, but nothing that I thought was super crazy or intense, especially for a horror novel.

*Thank you Berkley and NetGalley for an advance digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review