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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...

Dusk or Dark or Dawn or Day by Seanan McGuire

Dusk or Dark or Dawn or Day is a love letter to life through talking about death. A ghost working towards her dying day by helping others, a few minutes at a time. Full of care for people and places; calm and haunting.

It's about death and suicide from the perspective of a ghost who's slowly earning her way to passing on after dying too soon. I like this version of ghosts and witches and I appreciate the way it cares about cities and small towns in different ways. It's a pretty short book so avoiding spoilers is tricky, but it builds a really complete world with just a few locations and a minimal cast of characters. It deals heavily with themes of suicide and death, so please take care of yourselves.

CW for suicide, death, imprisonment.

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Golden cornfields superimposed over a faint city skyline

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