The Deep Dark by Molly Knox Ostertag. Scholastic Graphix, 2024. 9781338839999. 480pp. including a graphic afterward that’s really cool. Magdalena (Mags) Herrera works at a diner and takes care of her Abuela so she can stay in her house. In her grandma’s basement, Mags has a secret. It’s something she has to tend to, and it’s dangerous. She’s only ever told her friend Nessa about it, back when they were little. Now Nessa is back visiting the desert town where they both grew up (and where Mags still lives). She’s taking pinhole photos, and talking about a romance that ended badly. And she sees that Mags frequently hooks up with Ava, whose boyfriend doesn’t know. I couldn’t see where this story was going, and it worked better that way so I’m not giving much of a pitch for it; it’s spooky and the characters felt real and it became something I didn’t expect at all but really, really loved. I had an advanced review copy that’s mostly black and white and had to go out and buy the book as soon as it was published to read it again with Ostertag’s sparing, effective use of color. In so many ways, I’ve never seen another book like this.

  The Night Mother Volume 1 written by Jeremy Lambert, illustrated by Alexa Sharpe. Oni Press, 2024. 9781637154946. 88pp. The moon is frozen both in the sky and in Barnabus Tock’s clock. It hasn’t moved in a long time, and it’s been night since it happened. The current Night Mother, the ruler of the moon and those who live there, is using her power to prolong her life instead of doing her duty. The solution to that problem has something to do with Tock’s adopted daughter, Madeline, who’s having nightmares and hearing voices. The story is, like the best fairytales, a little spooky. Its structure, length, and art remind me of a few of my favorite European graphic novels. I can’t wait for the next volume.    

The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson. Orbit, 2021. 9780316300148. 576pp. I’ve listened to a lot of economics podcasts over the last few years, so the bits of this book that fascinated me the most were the parts where the Ministry for the Future tries to get the world to fund and adopt a carbon coin, which gives ongoing value to sequestering carbon vs. putting it into the atmosphere where it will contribute to climate change. Lots of fascinating meetings in the book, plus politics. There’s also a bit of terrorism and many, many climate refugees that need a place to live. At the center of it all is the head of the Ministry for the Future, who comes much more into focus as a character at the end of the book as she tours the world and considers it in light of how it is changing. It’s a novel with some hope for the short-term future of our planet if humanity is willing to come together to do the necessary work around removing carbon from the atmosphere. It offers no simple solutions, but it does show a few possible places to start. I was daunted by the size of this book but I shouldn’t have been; once I started it I didn’t want to put it down.

How It All Ends by Emma Hunsinger. Greenwillow Books, 2024. 9780063158146. 298pp. plus the best “Thank You” page ever at the end of the book. Tara is thirteen, and she’s about to start high school with her older sister (Isla) because she skipped the eighth grade. To say Tara is nervous would be an understatement. (She has an active imagination we get to see on the page — the color of what goes on in her head is red, as opposed to the way the rest of the book is colored.) High school feels like complete chaos. One of the two other kids who skipped a grade with her, Jessup, already has a beard, so he kind of fits in. Tara does not and is freaked out. Then she goes into Mr. Tims’s class for the first time and witnesses his “white-hot love of literature.” He’s amazing (to me at least), most of his students are dreadful, and his announcement of a group project brings forth apocalyptic imagery in Tara’s mind…but it does lead to her making a friend, and one of the funniest presentations ever. That’s about half the book — the rest is great, too, but no spoilers. This is one of my favorite depictions of family and sisterhood — Isla and Tara are best friends in addition to being sisters — plus figuring out what’s going on in your own head and heart and then dealing with it. The depictions of high school misbehavior are hilarious and felt super real. Plus the art and especially the coloring is so good I had to stop several times to admire it. Great book.

The EXPETS Book 1 by Mark Tatulli. Caitlyn Dlouhy, 2024. 9781665914871. 304pp. When two thieves break into the house where Bosco lives, they are less than intimidated by the dog’s looks. But they soon find out he has superpowers, which leads to him being recruited (somewhat against his will) by the EXpets and taken to their secret fortress. (Luckily he’s allowed to bring his cat toy.) There he’s put to the test after meeting the other team members: Laser-Eye Kitty, Wonder Guppy, and Ginormous Gerbil (that’s them on the cover). (Bosco doesn’t seem to think much of his code name, Stanky Dog, but it clearly fits.) In the rest of the graphic noel, the team saves a lot of kittens as they face their evil nemesis. The end of the book sets up the first of what I assume will be many sequels. Mark Tatulli makes the whole thing enormously fun.  

Stumpkin by Lucy Ruth Cummins. Little Simon, 2024. 9781665959551. (board book) Pumpkins in a store in a big city wait to be chosen and made into jack-o’lanterns for Halloween. One of them realizes there’s a problem., and it’s not the gourd — it’s the pumpkin without a stem on top. I loved the gourd, the black cat, and the happy ending.         Pizza Shark: A Fin-Tastic Feast by Mike Lowery. Orchard Books, 2024. 9781339045832. Edgar (a shark) invites his friends over for a pizza party. Lotta (a crab) arrives first, asks where the pizza is, and then tries to teach Edgar how to make pizza. (The problem is they don’t have any toppings. But not to worry, there’s a solution for that, too.) Lowery’s art can make any idea fun, including shark-friendly pizza. Bonus: this one has a few fishy puns for adults.       The Quacken written by Justin Colón, illustrated by Pablo Pino. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2024. 9781665922487. There’s a fearsome creature at Cucumonga Campground. The most important rule is “Do Not Feed The Ducks.” But they look hungry, and after Hector breaks that rule nowhere is safe. This book seems destined to create a fear of ducks, though Pino’s drawings make it all crazy fun, especially the vomiting scene.        

Catchpenny by Charlie Huston. Vintage, 2024. 978059385082. 401pp. “…If Elmore Leonard had ever written a fantasy novel, this would be it.” – Stephen King (in the cover blurb) That blurb convinced me to buy this book, and the Gaimanesque “hidden” magical world in and around Los Angeles kept me reading it. Sid Catchpenny is a thief who can use mojo to travel through the nothing of mirrors. He’s not doing well, though; he’s obsessed with getting revenge on his wife’s murderer, and he’s given up everything in pursuit of that goal. An acquaintance comes to him for help anyway, to ask him to investigate the disappearance of a young girl. Mojo is involved, as is a bunch of creepy, cruel folks with different magical talents. There’s a lot of violence, the threat of more (not least of all from a suicide cult and its followers), and a cast of characters that I felt like I met on my last trip to L.A. If you ever enjoyed Sinead O’Conner’s music, loved Gaiman’s Neverwhere, or even once felt like the reflection looking back at you in a mirror had its own thoughts, this book is for you.