Today's Picks Feature Elite High Schools and a Historically Black Magical College/University

 
In keeping with my back-to-school theme for September we'll be looking at two very different novels for young adults. One features a first-generation only child of immigrant parents attending an elite high school. The other a young Black man with magical abilities who discovers he's not as alone as he thought after he is accepted into a Historically Black College that is a magical HBCU. 

image copied from Goodreads

First, let's talk about Ellen Zheng's debut novel, The Art of Overthinking. It's a wonderful contemporary young adult novel about first love, finding your voice, and learning to love yourself in the midst of a mental health breakdown.

Isla Wu is a junior in high school who is under tremendous pressure to succeed in order to be able to eventually attend an elite Ivy League college. The only child of immigrant parents, she is constantly judged by both her mom and dad in different ways and made to feel she doesn’t quite measure up. Author Ellen Zheng does an amazing job of helping us connect with Isla from the very first page and immediately understand her family dynamics and why she has body image issues as well as anxiety to constantly perform at the highest level academically. Isla’s voice is real, it’s engaging, and is instantly relatable.

At the same time, these serious dramatic aspects are beautifully balanced against the humorous and awkward moments that often accompany first love. Right from the beginning, Isla has what she calls a very “not-meet-cute” moment when she spills coffee on the hot new guy at her high school, Slater Westbrook. From there a friendship blossoms and then becomes something more. I loved how the author has Isla comparing her developing relationship with Slater against the common rom-com tropes. It made for some great wry humor. The poignancy of Isla’s emotional struggles and mental health concerns paired with the romantic elements of the story made this book one I could not stop reading.

The Art of Overthinking also deals with issues such as intentional and unintentional racism, toxic friendships, and offers up some very important information about how to identify when you are not okay mentally, and how to seek help for that when needed. It does not sugarcoat how hard it can be to cope with or overcome any of these things. Each of these elements was portrayed in a touching way through Isla’s eyes so that I truly felt I was experiencing them right along with her.

This is a great young adult read for anyone who enjoys a sweet, funny contemporary romance that doesn’t shy away from the real struggles many teens face today in our fast-paced, highly competitive world. This is one of the best books I've read so far for 2025 and I urge you to grab a copy for yourself.

image copied from Goodreads

Blood at the Root (BATR) by LaDarrion Williams is the first in a series and is also the author's debut novel. It is one of the first fantasy books that I've read that featured a young Black male protagonist. I have read fantasies that featured young Black or BIPOC female protagonists as main characters. But very few with young men as the main characters. I hope that this trend changes with the success of BATR. 

Malik Baron's life started off pretty normal in his small Alabama home town. But at the age of seven his childhood ends when he comes into magical powers he didn't know he possessed and is orphaned at the same time. Ten years later, Malik has managed to emancipate himself early from the foster care system and is intent on getting his foster brother, Taye, back so they can both start over. However, things do not go as planned and Malik is forced to use his magic to try and save them both. An action that draws the notice of family he never knew he had and that winds up with him getting the opportunity to attend Caiman University, a magical all-Black college. I loved this premise and was eager to see how things would transpire.

At first, Malik agrees to go there because he hopes it will help him discover what happened to his mama on the night she disappeared. The longer he's there though, the more Malik finds he loves attending college and learning to master his abilities. For the first time since he was "baptized in his magic," Malik feels that his abilities aren't a curse like he's always believed. They can be used for good and are a gift passed down from his ancestors. The way that magical abilities are portrayed as Malik gets a tour of Caiman's campus was amazing and instantly immersive. It was very reminiscent in some ways of Camp Half-Blood from the Percy Jackson series. However, this magical community is more diverse and expansive, I would say, than that series. We have conjurers, shape-shifters, people who can seem to fly, all mixed together. Each dorm even has its own tribe or part of this Black magic culture that it is tied to. It was easy to get lost in this story and in Malik's journey.

Williams does an amazing job with both the world-building and character development this story. Malik is a very angry and distrustful character at the start. His rage leaps off the page, but it is understandable considering all that he has lost and suffered through. The author balances that angst with the love that Malik feels for his younger foster brother, the only real family he feels he has in the world. Malik is willing to put a small measure of trust in his grandmother, who he rightly feels abandoned him, if it means providing care and a safe space for Taye to do so. One of the other things that I loved about this novel was the way that Williams portrays Malik as he explores this world and is reacquainted with an old childhood crush from his days in the group home Malik is placed in after his mother vanishes. Malik not only gets to come into his own power in the magical sense, but he's given a love interest in Alexis, his former crush, when he finds she attends Caiman U as well. 

Another interesting aspect of this novel is the way that the main conflict in the story is developed. As Malik comes to know more about Black magical society, he comes to realize just how diverse it is and also how divided it has become. One tribe controls and sets the rules for the Black magical community. But many are starting to question if that is for the best as more young Black kids from both the magical and nonmagical community start to disappear, only to be found dead, later. Malik feels that something should be done and the Black magical community should be using their powers to put a stop to this in the outside world. However, there are also some lines that Malik is unwilling to cross to help when Alexis introduces him to uses for their magic that he just can't condone. Williams also doesn't shy away from the idea that parents are flawed. As Malik delves more into the mystery of his mama and who she really was, he learns some very troubling things about her. Things that led to him never knowing his grandma or his mama's extended family at all. The stakes continue to grow and the pace of the story remains fast, but well developed as all the threads for the novel weave together to a breathtaking climax. And oh my, those last lines of that epilogue! Those are some of the best closing lines for a fantasy novel I've read in a long time. If you want a great fantasy read geared toward a young adult male audience, I highly recommend Blood at the Root by LaDarrion Williams. Even better, the second book in the series Bones at the Crossroads is available to read now too, which I fully intend to do!

Up next for review will be books that feature vampires, witches and ghosts for October and spooky season. Some up for consideration are: 

  Running an allegedly haunted bed & breakfast sounds a lot more fun to Hazel than  her current dead end job, but a trip to inspect a property with her three best friends has unearthed way more ghosts than she was willing to deal with...and only some of them are hers.

Hazel is surprised but pleased when her high school sweetheart Finn suggests they and their significant others go in together on purchasing a B&B, but their weekend trip to visit a potential property has a rocky start. The current elderly (and bizarre) owners seem to take issue with their presence. Dizzy spells plague her and...was that a person she just saw in the mirror?

Both her boyfriend and Finn's wife are also having a hard time coping with the creepiness of the place. They'd all assumed "haunted" was only a marketing strategy. Perhaps not. Finn, though, is resolute they're overreacting, and insists on moving forward with the purchase, despite their misgivings. The expansive property might not be big enough to house both Finn and Hazel's clashing personalities, or the secrets they've been keeping from each other.

They'll have to put those issues aside though, when both of their partners suddenly start behaving erratically. Are they sick? Are they just tired of Finn and Hazel's bickering? Or is something more sinister going on?

Riding to the rescue with quick wits and snappy one-liners.

Tobias Halson, a young paranormal hunter, is charged with protecting the city of Philadelphia from the undead creatures of the night. A corporate board member is thrown out of an office building showing signs of vampire attack, and Tobias is called in to investigate. But he soon realizes he's out of his element, lost in a world of white collar politics and water cooler plots. With the innocence of a young woman in danger, it's a race against time to find the killer, preferably before Tobias ends up the next victim.

Fans of Ilona Andrews, Jim Butcher, Patricia Briggs, Nalini Singh, Faith Hunter, and Nalo Hopkinson will enjoy John Evans's Urban Fantasy books.

I'm also considering reviewing:

A bewitching novel of a New England history professor who must race against time to free her family from a curse by Katherine Howe, New York Times bestselling author of The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane.

A magical bloodline. A family curse. Can Connie Goodwin break the spell before it shatters her future?

Connie Goodwin is an expert on America’s fractured past with witchcraft. A young, tenure-track professor in Boston, she’s earned career success by studying the history of magic in colonial America—especially women’s home recipes and medicines—and by exposing society's threats against women fluent in those skills. But beyond her studies, Connie harbors a secret: She is the direct descendant of a woman tried as a witch in Salem, an ancestor whose abilities were far more magical than the historical record shows.

When a hint from her mother and clues from her research lead Connie to the shocking realization that her partner’s life is in danger, she must race to solve the mystery behind a hundreds’-years-long deadly curse.

Flashing back through American history to the lives of certain supernaturally gifted women, The Daughters of Temperance Hobbs affectingly reveals not only the special bond that unites one particular matriarchal line, but also explores the many challenges to women’s survival across the decades—and the risks some women are forced to take to protect what they love most.

All the above images and blurbs were copied from Bookshop.org. I'm excited to delve into each of these novels and the works of these new-to-me authors. But I'm also happy to take any recommendations for other spooky season reads, provided that they aren't too terrifying.