By Madeline Bitter

Reference Department

“My Heart is a Chainsaw” by Stephen Graham Jones: I love emo kids. As a former emo kid myself, I felt an affinity to the main character Jade in Stephan Graham Jones’ new horror novel. Jade is a high school student trapped by her spooky Idaho town that is quickly being run amok by investors looking to make it into a vacation spot for rich and famous. Jade, a Blackfeet girl living with her abusive father and abandoned by her mom, is obsessed with slasher movies and her town’s dark history. Slasher movies make up Jade’s view of the world, informing her beliefs in the fallibility of the adults around her and the likeliness of her own survival. The best graduation present she can think of is an axe murderer coming to town ready to take revenge for every unjust thing that has happened to Jade and people like her. Jade, who is so angry and dark and hell-bent on revenge for all the people that have wronged her, comes to believe that after a series of mysterious deaths related to the new houses being built by millionaires, that the slasher movie formula is coming alive before her very eyes. Little does she know that she has more final girl potential then she thinks. The parallels between classic slasher films and the horror of being a teenage outcast show up frequently in the story. What Jade really wants is someone to protect her, instead of always having to fight for her own survival. I think readers will enjoy seeing the world through the eyes of this protagonist.

“The Five Wounds” by Kirstin Valdez Quade: Families are rarely functional in books. What’s so interesting about a group of people that communicate openly and hug a lot? In “The Five Wounds,” the Valdez’s are trying. Amedeo is stuck. He is stuck in the same small New Mexican town, stuck in his mom’s house even though he’s in his thirties. He is stuck in the cycle of lazy alcoholism and joblessness. When his 15-year-old daughter shows up on his and his mother’s doorstep, pregnant and freshly kicked to the curb by her mom, suddenly he has to try to hold it together for someone other than himself. I didn’t think I would like the book at first because I couldn’t stand how wimpy Amedeo was. I was happy to read Angel and Yolanda’s perspectives because their situations felt more sympathetic. Thankfully, when Angel gives birth to her baby everyone seems to try to do better for themselves and each other. I came to love the characters each in their own way- they felt so real and tender. They try and succeed to love each other out loud, and sometimes they fail miserably. “The Five Wounds” is a realistic view into how people show up for each other.

“One Last Stop” by Casey McQuiston: Have you ever fallen in love with a stranger on public transportation? If so, then this book is for you. Casey McQuiston does it again in her second novel about a lost twenty-something named August who settles in New York City to try her hand at her third college degree. August lives in her uncle Augie’s shadow, who disappeared long before she was born and who continues to haunt her family with his absence. August is an expert in hiding her feelings and pulling away from other people, until she starts renting a room in an apartment full of folks who want to crack her icy exterior. She meets Jane on the subway, who is always riding in the same car as August. She never sees Jane leave but has regular charming encounters with her on the Q line. Turns out that Jane has managed to jump timelines- she’s frozen in time in the 1970’s, and she can’t leave the subway. August puts her detective skills to work to unravel Jane’s live and how to get her unstuck from the present day. I loved this adorable sci-fi romance with its cast of unique characters and sparkling dialogue. Jane and August fall in love (duh), and have to work around the awkward situation of being stuck on a New York subway to be together. “One Last Stop” is for sci-fi fans, romance gluttons and folks who enjoy the found family troupe.

“The Paper Palace” by Miranda Cowley Heller: “The Paper Palace” feels like you have finally arrived at your camp or cottage for the summer season. The relief of being away from a stressful day to day routine sloughs off into something more comfortable and animal. Eating, sleeping, swimming, seeing friends after a long time apart, a summer getaway that you return to time after time serves as a touch stone to mark the passage of time. “The Paper Palace” is the Cape Cod retreat for the protagonist’s family for generations. Since she was a child she’s spent summers here roaming the woods and swimming in the ponds dodging snapping turtles.

We are introduced to Elle Bishop as she begins an affair with her childhood best friend and longtime crush, Jonas. Elle is happily married and has three children that she adores. It seems like she has it all, but the book slowly reveals to us a childhood of trauma and secrets, making the promises kept between Elle and Jonas, Elle and Peter, and Elle and her sister all the more complicated. I loved the descriptions of the Palace and the Cape Cod landscape. It reminded me so much of the cabin that I spent almost every weekend in as a kid in Wisconsin. I think people who have cottages and camps will strongly relate to the magic of those places that is highlighted in the novel.