Setting: New Jersey

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

Hush Harbor / Anise Vance

/ Alisha Helms / Leave a comment 
Hush Harbor
By: Anise Vance
Genre: Fiction
Number of Pages: 288
Published: September 5, 2023
Publisher: Hanover Square Press
Dates Read: September 22, 2023 - September 26, 2023
Format: ARC / Paperback

After a young, black, unarmed teen is shot and killed by police, a revolution is formed in an abandoned housing project called Hush Harbor, in honor of the secret spaces their enslaved ancestors would gather. Jeremiah Prince and his sister, Nova, are the leaders, but their ideological differences regarding how the movement should proceed differ. When a new mayor with ties to white supremacists threatens the group and locks the city down, they collectively must come up with a plan of survival.

As much as I thought this novel would be about the revolution and protests and marching – this was mostly about an already established, what felt more like a commune, movement. This also focused on the personal experience of the members, especially Malik, who, at the beginning of the novel, was getting recruited right in the middle of it all.

The story was still good and I enjoyed it, but it wasn’t what I was expecting going into it. Of course the issues with racism and white supremacy are the main focus of this book and the author did a wonderful job at writing those. I think I may have struggled with the writing style a bit. It would go from super formalic and dense to a whole page full of dialogue with no movement indication. It didn’t catch my emotions and though I was interested in the story, I didn’t care too much for the characters, minus Jeremiah’s story.

Overall, this was still a good story and an important one at that. The debut writings of this author still intrigue me to read more of his when the next release comes.

*Thank you Hanover Square Press and NetGalley for a digital advance copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review

In Limbo / Deb JJ Lee

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In Limbo
By: Deb JJ Lee
Genre: Graphic Novel, Memoir, Nonfiction
Number of Pages: 348
Published: March 7, 2023
Publisher: First Second
Dates Read: August 27, 2023
Format: Library Book / Hardcover

Trigger Warning: suicide attempt(s), child abuse by parent

In Limbo is a graphic novel memoir about a Korean-American teenager, Deborah (Jung-Ji) Lee, as she navigates the struggles of high school while still feeling like an outsider. As the pressures of high school and the ever growing changing in her personal life, Deb doesn’t have anywhere to turn to – even home isn’t a safe place as the fights with her mom continue to worsen as time goes on. Her mental health falls fast.

But Deb’s a fighter. She soon discovers her real love is art. With that, along with self-care, Deb gradually begins her road to recovery. During a trip to South Korea, she realizes something that changes her perspective on everything.

The artwork in this graphic novel is beautiful. The topics and themes are hard. Being an immigrant is no doubt hard enough – but being an immigrant as a kid or teenager that’s stuck between two worlds is probably even harder. There are a lot of themes of not belonging and not being enough of one thing or the other. What was really hard for me was the abuse at the hands of her mother. The graphic novel made it very real for me as he captured the anger of her mother’s face.

I think the author’s note at the end of this is important – especially because the ending is almost kind of abrupt, but it works. Not everything is tied up in a nice bow and understood. It is a memoir afterall, but it does show the author and her journey through pain, anger, resentment (of herself and others), and forgiveness (both of herself and others).

Overall, I think a lot of people will be able to see themselves and possibly their experiences in this graphic novel memoir. For others, it will shine a light on someone else’s experiences growing up as an immigrant.