Setting: California

Automatic Noodle / Annalee Newitz

/ Alisha Helms / Leave a comment 
Automatic Noodle
By: Annalee Newitz
Genre: Science Fiction, Novella
Number of Pages: 163
Published: August 5, 2025
Publisher: Tordotcom
Dates Read: September 5, 2025 - September 7, 2025
Format: Hardcover

While San Francisco rebuilds from war, a group of abandoned food service bots take over their own delivery app account and rebrand as the best hand-pulled noodle shop in the neighborhood. There’s just one little snag – someone-or something- is negative-review bombing their restaurant’s page and plummeting their ratings! Can the bots figure out who’s doing it and put a stop to the review bombing before it’s too late for the restaurant?

One of my supervisors sent me the link to this when it was first announced and I immediately put it on my TBR. Why?

  1. Look at this cover and tell me you’re not intrigued!
  2. Robots who start a noodle shop?!
  3. It’s a novella (and novella just hit different)

So, after reading it, what are my thoughts?

Did I know there was such a thing as a cozy sci-fi? Sure – but I hadn’t read one yet! Also add in some found family and challenge the norms and you’ve got yourself this novella!

It was an amazing read filled with an alternative America, commentary on identity, fear, and challenging biases. Though it was about robots, they were definitely stand-ins for how we as people can treat others based on gender, sexuality, and immigration status.

Overall, a wonderful novel, perfect for those who love sci-fi and want a cozy little read about a hand-pulled noodle shop run by robots.

Now excuse me while I go find a hand-pulled noodle shop to go try!

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

Bridge Across the Sky / Freeman Ng

/ Alisha Helms / Leave a comment 
Bridge Across the Sky
By: Freeman Ng
Genre: YA, Novel in Verse
Number of Pages: 368
Published: August 27, 2024
Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Dates Read: November 10, 2024 - November 13, 2024
Format: ARC / Paperback

Trigger Warnings: Suicide, harsh living conditions, explicit content/language

Tai Go, a Chinese teen who traveled across the ocean with his father and grandfather to start a new life are met with the Chinese Exclusion Act and forced into the detainee center on Angel Island in the San Francisco Bay. There, immigrants were stuck for an uncertain amount of time, subjected to humiliating medical exams and interrogations meant to confuse and trip them up, causing them to fail and be sent back to China.

Tai finds hope – in the poems carved into the walls of their prison-like buildings, in the friends he makes, and the actions of fellow detainees. Tai may have been unhappy at first with his father’s decision to make this trip, but as time goes on, he discovers he must forge his own path.

I love novel-in-verse books, so I’m always bound to pick up any that I see – but I will say the writing in this one is more for those who would like information, than your standard novel in verse writing. They read to me like short chapters, and not verses.

Though this may not be for everyone, I will say it’s a time in American history I don’t see (or haven’t seen) much about. I wasn’t aware of the fact that the San Francisco earthquake/fire destroyed all the records which then made it harder for Asian immigrants to land in America…

Overall, still a historical fiction, novel in verse book worth checking out to read a raw and honest portrayal of life on Angel Island.

*Thank you Atheneum Books for Young Readers and NetGalley for digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

When the World Tips Over / Jandy Nelson

/ Alisha Helms / Leave a comment 
When the World Tips Over
By: Jandy Nelson
Genre: YA
Number of Pages: 528
Published: September 24, 2024
Publisher: Dial Books
Dates Read: September 16, 2024 - October 6, 2024
Format: ARC / Paperback

The Fall siblings live in Northern California wine country where years ago, their father mysteriously disappeared. Now Dizzy, twelve, bakes cakes, sees kissing, floating spirits, and wishes she was a part of a romance novel. Miles, seventeen, is a brainiac, athlete, and telepathic dog-whisperer, but he’s desperate to step out of being perfect. Wynton, nineteen, is an amazing violinist, but is set on a path of self-destruction he can’t seem to get off of. They all seem to be spiraling.

But then a rainbow-haired girl shows up. She may be an angel. Or a saint. But her showing up tips the Falls’ world over. Before anyone can figure out who she is, catastrophe strikes, leaving the family more broken than ever.

With a story filled with road trips, rivalries, family curses, love stories (with many layers), unsent letters, and generational trauma, this young adult novel peels back the layers of a family’s complicated past and present. 

This will definitely stick with me for years to come. And, I honestly don’t know how to put into words what I thought of this, because I’m in love with the entire Fall family (okay, there are a few I don’t like…) and their many, many layers of their lives. I just tried to explain this all to my coworker and the amount of time I said, “well but you find out this…” was endless.

It absolutely gave me East of Eden by Steinbeck vibes – the length alone, but also how good and overcome evil in the end is also a running theme in this novel too. Again, this is a long read, and it’s not one you can skim over either, because you want to take your time with it and immerse yourself in with these characters and this family. As much as I love to devour book after book, this one reminded me to slow down and to enjoy it.

Overall, this book is long and is a multi-sit read, but I can guarantee you will fall in love with at least one member of the Fall family after reading this!

Ash’s Cabin / Jen Wang

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Ash’s Cabin
By: Jen Wang
Genre: Graphic Novel, YA
Number of Pages: 320
Published: August 13, 2024
Publisher: First Second
Dates Read: August 30, 2024
Format: ARC / eBook

Ash has always felt alone and the only person who ever understood them was their Grandpa Edwin. Before he died, Grandpa Edwin used to talk about the secret cabin in the woods he was building, deep in the California wilderness. Not really knowing if it was real or not, Ash decides to go find it and start fresh, completely on their own – well, with their dog, Chase.

I didn’t realize when I first asked for an ARC of this book, that it was from the same author as The Prince and the Dressmaker, so it was really fun finding that out.

I really loved the artwork in this graphic novel and the structure of it almost being like a memoir of Ash’s. I of course loved Chase and their relationship with Ash (loved that Ash called Chase their familiar, cause I say that about my oldest cat).

Was Ash really naive when it came to living on their own in the wilderness? Yes, absolutely. Did the graphic novel look at all this with rose colored glasses and kind of “fix” or “solve” everything bad that happened? Yes, but it’s also a YA graphic novel, so I’ve kind of given it the benefit of the doubt. 

Overall, I really enjoyed the story that talked about really finding your own place in the world and what it really takes to do it all on your own. Yes, there is a big focus on climate change and what one can do about it, but I didn’t feel like it was the absolute main focus of the book.

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