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The Empress of All Seasons by Emiko Jean

Each generation, a competition is held to find the next empress of Honoku. The rules are simple. Survive the palace's enchanted seasonal rooms. Conquer Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall. Marry the prince. All are eligible to compete--all except yokai, supernatural monsters and spirits whom the human emperor is determined to enslave and destroy. Mari has spent a lifetime training to become empress. Winning should be easy. And it would be, if she weren't hiding a dangerous secret. Mari is a yokai with the ability to transform into a terrifying monster. If discovered, her life will be forfeit. As she struggles to keep her true identity hidden, Mari's fate collides with that of Taro, the prince who has no desire to inherit the imperial throne, and Akira, a half-human, half-yokai outcast. Torn between duty and love, loyalty and betrayal, vengeance and forgiveness, the choices of Mari, Taro, and Akira will decide the fate of Honoku in this beautifully written, edge-of-your-seat YA...

Animorphs Book 38: The Arrival by K. A. Applegate

This series established several generalizations about alien species early on and then has spent the last ~15-20 books dismantling those assumptions. No group is a monolith, and here Ax encounters more of his people, not all at their best.

The levels of narration in this book are so good! I don't want to spoil anything, but the way Ax's internal monologue is handled is masterful. I hadn't remembered this one very well, it just hadn't stayed with me. Ax's description of humans for Andalites and of Andalites for humans are really funny. This book is about despair and desperation, it also shows how much Ax has changed since he first met the Animorphs.

A blue alien (Aximili) turns into a hawk

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