The Cost of Knowing (2021)

A list of cages

Robin Roe

2017 · 310 pages · 8 reviews

Others: Overwhelmingly positive

"Adam, a high school senior, rescues Julian, a freshman, from an abusive situation"--

Alex, approximately

Jenn Bennett

2017 · 390 pages · 12 reviews

Others: Overwhelmingly positive

Seventeen-year-old Bailey moves to California to live with her father and, perhaps, finally meet an online friend and fellow film buff, but soon finds herself attracted to an annoying co-worker.

All My Rage

Sabaa Tahir

2022 · 384 pages · 1 review

Others: Positive

Lahore, Pakistan. Then. Misbah is a dreamer and storyteller, newly married to Toufiq in an arranged match. After their young life is shaken by tragedy, they come to the United States and open the Cloud’s Rest Inn Motel, hoping for a new start. Juniper, California. Now. Salahudin and Noor are more than best friends; they are family. Growing up as outcasts in the small desert town of Juniper, California, they understand each other the way no one else does. Until The Fight, which destroys their bond with the swift fury of a star exploding. Now, Sal scrambles to run the family motel as his mother Misbah’s health fails and his grieving father loses himself to alcoholism. Noor, meanwhile, walks a harrowing tightrope: working at her wrathful uncle’s liquor store while hiding the fact that she’s applying to college so she can escape him—and Juniper—forever. When Sal’s attempts to save the motel spiral out of control, he and Noor must ask themselves what friendship is worth—and what it takes to defeat the monsters in their pasts and the ones in their midst.

As Long As the Lemon Trees Grow

Zoulfa Katouh

2022 · 417 pages · 3 reviews

Others: Overwhelmingly positive

Beauty Queens

Libba Bray

2011 · 400 pages · 4 reviews

Others: Mostly positive

The contestants of the Miss Teen Dream pageant are only concerned with practicing their circle turns, dance numbers, and benign answers to interview questions until their plane crashes on a tropical island. Now, with sequins and hair dryers scattered everywhere, the survivors face a huge dilemma: should they search for food and water or continue diligently preparing to appear on national television? The Corporation is counting on them to uphold standards of beauty and behavior, but can the girls count on The Corporation?

Clap When You Land

Elizabeth Acevedo

2020 · 432 pages · 19 reviews

Others: Overwhelmingly positive

In a novel-in-verse that brims with grief and love, National Book Award-winning and New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth Acevedo writes about the devastation of loss, the difficulty of forgiveness, and the bittersweet bonds that shape our lives. Camino Rios lives for the summers when her father visits her in the Dominican Republic. But this time, on the day when his plane is supposed to land, Camino arrives at the airport to see crowds of crying people… In New York City, Yahaira Rios is called to the principal’s office, where her mother is waiting to tell her that her father, her hero, has died in a plane crash. Separated by distance—and Papi’s secrets—the two girls are forced to face a new reality in which their father is dead and their lives are forever altered. And then, when it seems like they’ve lost everything of their father, they learn of each other.