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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...
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Punching The Air by Ibi Zoboi and Yusef Salaam

Punching The Air uses prose poetry and sparse illustrations to convey a small slice of how it feels to be accused and incarcerated. It is evocative and moving, often despairing and frequently beautiful. 

It was absorbing, sketching the edges of the broader systems of racism which funnel Black people specifically and people of color generally into prison. It delves into the details of how this could go for one person and has gone for many. It’s fiction that mirrors fact. It does something that isn’t quite world building, because it’s set now, but it’s world-illuminating, poking into the often-hidden corners of our unjust reality.

It’s filled with emotional swings, where the MC attempts to gain some stability, some moments of happiness, then something tears it down. It’s about cruelty without being a cruel book, it’s about racism and bitterness without being a bitter story. It handles a difficult story deftly and I’m in awe.

CW for imprisonment, violence, assault.

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A purple and orange butterfly turns into a swirl of matching paint which loops upwards around a Black boy and his upheld fist.


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