Spin With Me by Ami Polonsky

23 Jun 2026 Leave a comment

by Amy in 3 Stars, Audiobook, LGBTQIA, Young Adult Tags: , , , , ,

Published: 16 February 2021 (print)/16 Feb 2021 (audio) Goodreads badge
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Byr)/Tantor Audio
Pages: 224/5 hrs and 6 mins
Narrator: Amanda Dolan
Format: Audiobook
Genre: Young Adult
★   ★   ★ – 3 Stars

In this elegant dual narrative, Essie is a thirteen-year-old girl feeling glum about starting a new school after her professor dad takes a temporary teaching position in a different town. She has 110 days here and can’t wait for them to end. Then she meets Ollie: delicate, blue eyes, short hair, easy smile. At first, Essie thinks she has a typical crush on a beautiful boy. But as her crush blossoms, she soon realizes that Ollie is not a boy or a girl, but gender non-binary.

Meanwhile, Ollie is experiencing a crush of their own . . . on Essie. As Ollie struggles to balance their passion for queer advocacy with their other interests, they slowly find themselves falling for a girl whose stay is about to come to an end. Can the two unwind their merry-go-round of feelings before it’s too late?

As much as I love the range YA offers, it’s important to remember this ranges characters from 13 to 17 or 18 at times. This is one of those times a character is 13 and I think that’s important in how you view the story. There’s nothing bad, but you can definitely attribute the naivety and the newness of puberty and feelings being worked out in a clumsy way that feels right for a thirteen year old. Polonsky does a great job of pointing out that it is a weird thing Essie does and in a gentle way pulls her up on how she treats Ollie and their identity. On the flip side, the circumstances of being more mature than a parent would think but also needing the guidance one can give is explored wonderfully.

I like that it isn’t normalised to start asking private questions, even if it is innocent curiosity and trying to understand. Sometimes you have to leave it alone. But it’s also great as Essie suddenly realising she might have to look at her own identity, while still lamenting why anyone needs a label and what that means.

It is a fast read, one clearly directed but it’s a good exploration of family, friends old and new, growing up and new beginnings. It’s not quite an introduction to gender –  Polonsky doesn’t go that deep. But it is a personal reflection about what it means when these feelings come up and how to navigate them. As one character says the kids are far more ok with it than the adults so it isn’t a big deal, but it still is something that requires understanding and as a gentle introduction this is a good start.

I loved that this story makes a point to constantly remove itself from being a book About Gender. As Ollie gets to narrate we see the struggle to be themselves instead of their sole identity being their identity. There’s more to being a person than their gender and it’s a fight Ollie has and the balance to be seen as other than the non-binary kid is real.

The story is told from 110 days down to the final days from Essie’s perspective then it switches to the same 110 day countdown from Ollie’s. I knew it was a duel narrative but I thought it was alternating simultaneous, but I didn’t mind, especially cause we get a speed run of Ollie’s since their side is less detailed than Essie’s while still getting their story in their own words.

This is a great book to bridge the gap between primary school read and early high school. It’s about starting a new school, finding friends, growing up, and it still reads like a YA novel. There’s gripes with parents, trying to grow up and be cool but still dealing with being children and discovering their footing in a changing world.

You can purchase Spin With Me via the following

QBD |  Dymocks | Booktopia

 Blackwell’s | Angus & Robertson

Fishpond | Amazon | Amazon Aust

I Kissed Shara Wheeler by Casey McQuiston

18 Jun 2026 Leave a comment

by Amy in 2 Stars, Audiobook, LGBTQIA, Young Adult Tags: , , , , , , ,

Published: 3 May 2022 (print)/14 October 2024 (audio) Goodreads badge
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press/Macmillan Digital Audio
Pages: 356/9 hrs and 24 mins
Narrator: Natalie Naudus
Format: Audiobook
Genre: Contemporary Young Adult
★   ★ – 2 Stars

Chloe Green is so close to winning. After her mums moved her from SoCal to Alabama for high school, she’s spent the past four years dodging gossipy classmates and a puritanical administration at Willowgrove Christian Academy. The thing that’s kept her going: winning valedictorian. Her only rival: prom queen Shara Wheeler, the principal’s perfect progeny.

But a month before graduation, Shara kisses Chloe and vanishes.

On a furious hunt for answers, Chloe discovers she’s not the only one Shara kissed. There’s also Smith, Shara’s longtime quarterback sweetheart, and Rory, Shara’s bad boy neighbour with a crush. The three have nothing in common except Shara and the annoyingly cryptic notes she left behind, but together they must untangle Shara’s trail of clues and find her. It’ll be worth it, if Chloe can drag Shara back before graduation to beat her fair-and-square.

Thrown into an unlikely alliance, chasing a ghost through parties, break-ins, puzzles, and secrets revealed on monogrammed stationery, Chloe starts to suspect there might be more to this small town than she thought. And maybe—probably not, but maybe—more to Shara, too.

After seeing this book for months I finally caved and read it. At least now I know what it’s about and can stop thinking about it. The downside is I now know it wasn’t that good. This is a story I think may have worked well in a movie but in a book it sounds stupid played out.

Once you tolerate the Annoyingly American High School shoved in your face, the story is ok. I kept going for the mystery and the scavenger hunt but you suffer some annoying plot and dialogue decisions in the process. I wasn’t even a fan of the narrator, her voices are grating but the narration voice outside dialogue is good.

It is like a worse version of Paper Towns, and at least McQuinston acknowledges the similarities. But the fact that Paper Towns was pointedly not about tracking someone down, Margot was not someone who needed saving, just goes to prove this is a terrible way to bring it to a new audience because that misses the point of Paper Towns entirely.

I enjoyed the familiar scepticism that “cool” people only talk to you when they are lining you up for a trick or to humiliate you. I also enjoyed the real time evolution of the rumour mill and how even those who witness something with their own eyes start to believe what they hear about an event and try and spread it around. There was some self-awareness as other characters shoot that down. It was a new approach and I liked the pushback.

There is no satisfactory conclusion to this and it should have ended a lot sooner. Even with the “revolution” it felt tacked on at the end, even the few comeuppances weren’t that satisfying. If you wanted a grand reveal have it all happen and then throw in an epilogue, but the fact we have to endure the messed up life of a character, not even the main character, who helps her undo all her BS and her manipulation because she’s a lost fawn, was unnecessary. I’d rather sit through a wrap up epilogue that tells us this instead of having Chloe do all the work to save Shara, even if she does at least point out her crappy behaviour and manipulative tendencies in lieu of an actual conversation.

Yes, there is the whole suppressed high school, Alabama town thing going on which is supposed to be a justification, but it doesn’t make for an enjoyable read. Shara is not a character worth investing in, her manipulation despite how misguided it was isn’t worth the effort afterwards. Chloe goes through a whole thing tracking her down and it’s a lot of effort for no satisfactory ending.

The scavenger hunt part was intriguing, but when that fell apart the book wasn’t as enjoyable. The writing wasn’t pulling its weight and I don’t know whether it was the narrator or not, but the dialogue and story weren’t good. The first half was good then promptly drops off a cliff into the sea by the end. Four hours too long which at a nine hour book is just plainly a bad second half.

I am now unsure whether McQuinston is an author for me. It happens unfortunately and it’s happened before. I stop reading One Last Stop, and while I assumed Red, White, and Royal Blue was not great was because it was so about US politics, but it might just be this isn’t my kind of writer. But hopefully this queer, Sapphic romance is right up someone’s alley and maybe even the fact that Chloe does call Shara out on her nonsense is a small saving grace for the story. No one entirely gets away unaccountable despite their sob story.

You can purchase I Kissed Shara Wheeler via the following

QBD |  Dymocks | Booktopia

Wordery |  Blackwell’s | Angus & Robertson

Fishpond | Amazon | Amazon Aust | Audible

The Dos and Donuts of Love by Adiba Jaigirdar

09 Jun 2026 Leave a comment

by Amy in 2 Stars, Audiobook, LGBTQIA, Romance, Young Adult Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Published: 8 June 2023 (print)/8 June 2023 (audio) Goodreads badge
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends/Hodder Children’s Books
Pages: 336/8 hrs and 27 mins
Narrator: Priya Ayyar
Format: Audiobook
Genre: Contemporary YA Romance
★   ★ – 2.5 Stars

“Welcome to the first ever Junior Irish Baking Show!”

Shireen Malik is still reeling from the breakup with her ex-girlfriend, Chris, when she receives news that she’s been accepted as a contestant on a new televised baking competition show. This is Shireen’s dream come true! Because winning will not only mean prize money, but it will also bring some much-needed attention to You Drive Me Glazy, her parents’ beloved doughnut shop.

Things get complicated, though, because Chris is also a contestant on the show. Then there’s the very outgoing Niamh, a fellow contestant who is becoming fast friends with Shireen. Things are heating up between them, and not just in the kitchen.

As the competition intensifies, Shireen will have to ignore all these factors and more— including potential sabotage—if she wants a sweet victory!

This is a hard one to review because so many issue I had with it are specific plot points but being vague about the problems is doing it a disservice as well. I’ll try my best to be vague but spoiler free. It begins with an established Romeo and Juliet (or Juliet and Juliet) type situation that’s already transpired, but that isn’t the focus as the post break-up of Shireen and Chris is where we come in.

We learn a lot about Shireen early on, her love of baking shows and baking, her friendship with Fatima and her recent break up. Her parents run a doughnut shop which has a rivalry with the one across the street which is where her relationship with Chris comes from. I enjoyed getting to know about Shireen’s life and it was great to have everything be established without chunks of exposition, Jaigirdar reveals things seamlessly as the story goes on.

I was curious about the format of the Junior Irish Baking Show. The filming and show structure decisions go against what I know from the baking and reality TV world but it worked for the plot and when you create your own made up show you can do what you like. One peculiar aspect was the fact the judges would have more sway than producers, and that the producers would hide cheating, despite the truth being they would jump on that drama and get views out of it or at best be accused of favouritism and unfair conditions for everyone else in the competition if they didn’t act.

There are a lot of confusing elements of this story which, as I said, if I start to unpack I’ll be breaking down the plot points, but Shireen’s relationship with her parents swung between being supportive, to indifferent, to contradictory. They were unsure about her being on the show which was understandable, but then they became supportive, but also never minded Shireen never stayed and watched the show with them or seemed invested to talk to her about it. It may be a cultural thing, Shireen mentions how they display affection a few times, this might be the way it goes in her Bangladeshi house.

The less confusing aspects were just plain potholes. As the story went on the basic structure from the start started to fall apart and things just didn’t make realistic sense. It was already hard to believe that the judges are in charge, but to believe there is no security in the studio, and what security there is so is unfathomably unrealistic. It takes you away from the story because it just would not happen. It’s one thing to put your disbelief aside if the characters and the story is compelling enough, but since the characters were slightly flat and underdeveloped, and the storyline was a little outlandish, there is a point where you can’t drive around a plot hole anymore and you have to fall into them.

Shireen’s selfish and judgemental attitude is easy to pin on her being a teenager, as well as being hurt and lashing out when she is upset. By the end there is an attempt at character development but unfortunately it felt rushed and shallow and didn’t feel much more than her apologising for her behaviour without actually changing it. To her credit she is flawed without becoming unlikable, there is a good balance there.

Chris was a confusing character. She is on the baking show, but has been established as not being much of a baker, but she needs to win, but also doesn’t think she’s good enough to and doesn’t really like to bake. Shireen isn’t her only competition so it was a weird reason to have this cause conflict between them. If we’re supposed to be invested in Chris and Shireen patching up their friendship/relationship Jaigirdar doesn’t give you much to work with. We got so little from Chris on the page it was hard to understand her character at all aside from the few points Shireen mentions on the page.

The love triangle or potential love interest angle was also barely addressed. It hovered in the corner but I never felt it became really viable. The past drama over Chris was more of a focus than diving into anything with Niamh who was also underdeveloped.

There were positives to admire. The representation of Asian cultures was strong and the celebration of their cuisine was positive. The exploration of online bullying, racism, and fatphobia are addressed naturally and with respect. That was one part of the story that felt real. Of course the adults would reach out to make sure the kids were ok it was strange again that it was the judges taking the lead and not an on set counsellor or producer but I understand the connection Jaigirdar was trying to make with Shireen.

Ayyar does a good job at narrating. The accent switches were good and helped establish characters though it was an interesting choice to have an Irish/Bangladeshi be narrated as American when everyone else got their own character’s accent.

There are puns a plenty if that’s your thing and you have to admire Jaigirdar for creating a set of judges who are the unsubtle off brand versions of real celebrity judges. Padma Bollywood is the Paul Hollywood you can put in a book without it being Paul Hollywood. Mary Berry and Gordon Ramsey also get their own alternate selves. Overall, it’s light hearted full of baking and culture so if you are after an easy read this would be perfect, but even light reads shouldn’t throw some parts of reality out the window.

You can purchase The Dos and Donuts of Love via the following

QBD |  Dymocks | Booktopia

Wordery |  Blackwell’s | Angus & Robertson

Fishpond | Amazon | Amazon Aust | Audible

My Family and Other Suspects by Kate Emery

21 May 2026 Leave a comment

by Amy in 5 Stars, Audiobook, Aussie YA Challenge, Australian Women Writers, Young Adult Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Published: 1 February 2025 (print)/5 December 2024 (audio) Goodreads badge
Publisher: W. F. Howes Ltd/Wavesound
Pages: 229/7 hrs and 1 mins
Narrator: Lola Bond
Format: Audiobook
Genre: Young Adult Mystery
★   ★   ★   ★   ★ – 5 Stars

‘Do you want to talk about a fictional murder in a book or do you want to talk about the actual murder that happened under our roof?’

Ruth is less-than-thrilled to be spending the weekend at the family farm visiting the ancient GG, her coolly distant step-grandmother. With no internet or phone coverage, she occupies herself by re-reading old Agatha Christie novels, eavesdropping on the adults and definitely not daydreaming about her sort-of-cousin Dylan.

But when GG dies under suspicious circumstances, Ruth’s dull weekend turns into an enforced-family-holiday-slash-possible-murder-investigation – and she’s not about to let the police get in the way of her chance to solve a real-life murder mystery. With Dylan as the Watson to her Holmes, Ruth soon discovers that plenty of people had reasons to be rid of GG, and her list of suspects grows to comprise everyone in the house, including, in the interests of fairness, herself.

The thing about family holidays is that you’ve got to be prepared for fights.

What grabbed me first about this was the great narrative voice. Emery brings our teen narrator to life so well and engages you early on with this fun mystery. I’ve read a lot of YA where there’s 19, 17,16 year old narrators but 14 years old gives the casual narration style an appropriate age and it feels less restrictive to what voice is meant to be.

I love how Ruth breaks the wall and addresses the reader. It’s funny and plays with your mind as you piece together clues and try to guess the direction of the story. When your narrator can chime in and critique your thoughts or counteract your assumptions it’s a delightful and refreshing experience. Especially since it’s done so skilfully.

Emery brings a wonderful Australian feel to the language and story without pushing too far into cringy. It was natural and good humoured, and coupled with Ruth’s voice it was fantastic to read.

I did pick the murderer, but I was hoping to be proven wrong because there wasn’t enough information revealed until later, but I am glad I was proven right. However it doesn’t take away from the fact that the story is brilliantly told, not to mention the narration and the way Ruth tells us the story is engaging and captivating that it really could go in any direction. I would happily have been proven wrong but I am glad I pegged it.

Bond’s narration in the audio was fantastic, Ruth’s voice and Emery’s writing shining through and I lost nothing on the fun experience by listening to it. In a way it works as it felt like Ruth was telling me the story herself, such is Emery’s writing style.

Overall Emery has written a fantastic book. It was one of the top books I read in 2024 and it is funny, openly addresses the reader in a unique way while never taking you out of the story, and the mystery element is creative and keeps you guessing. It is a book that look deceptively light hearted but manages to still be an amazing read.

You can purchase My Family and Other Suspects via the following

QBD |  Dymocks | Booktopia

  Blackwell’s | Angus & Robertson

Fishpond | Amazon | Amazon Aust | Audible

The Ballard of Songbirds and Snakes (#0) by Suzanne Collins

26 Mar 2026 Leave a comment

by Amy in 4 Stars, Audiobook, Young Adult Tags: , , , ,

Published: 19 May 2020 (print)/19 May 2020 (audio) Goodreads badge
Publisher: Scholastic Press/Scholastic Audio
Pages: 528/16 hrs and 16 mins
Narrator: Santino Fontana
Format: Audiobook
Genre: Young Adult
★   ★   ★   ★ – 4.5 Stars

Ambition will fuel him.

Competition will drive him.

But power has its price.

It is the morning of the reaping that will kick off the tenth annual Hunger Games. In the Capitol, eighteen-year-old Coriolanus Snow is preparing for his one shot at glory as a mentor in the Games. The once-mighty house of Snow has fallen on hard times, its fate hanging on the slender chance that Coriolanus will be able to outcharm, outwit, and outmaneuver his fellow students to mentor the winning tribute.

The odds are against him. He’s been given the humiliating assignment of mentoring the female tribute from District 12, the lowest of the low. Their fates are now completely intertwined — every choice Coriolanus makes could lead to favor or failure, triumph or ruin. Inside the arena, it will be a fight to the death. Outside the arena, Coriolanus starts to feel for his doomed tribute… and must weigh his need to follow the rules against his desire to survive no matter what it takes.

I loved seeing the Hunger Games from the outside perspective, especially these early days before the main arena, the cameras everywhere, and the full control of the game makers to make sure there was always action for the audience.

Fighting to get the capital to care about the games ten years in is a great look at how these early years started what we know the Hunger Games to be. It could have all faded away. It could easily have been a short lived endeavour but the hate of those in power felt orchestrated something that continues for another 65 years.

Mentors, tributes, rewards, interviews are all in their infancy and having the games play out from an outside perspective instead of the players is interesting, especially in terms of emotional attachment. We aren’t there to feel the fear of the tributes, of their actions against one another or how the game makers influence things from omnipotent and mysterious places. We have no internal thoughts of tributes, only the apathetic, coerced, and invested mentors. There is only what is shown on screen and what Snow is privy to which adds a different kind of tension and uncertainty.

I love that there is no future books, only to fill in history we already know about. While it can be argued we didn’t need to have these prequels, there is something powerful in showing how something like the Hunger Games started. What political and social situations come from those in power having control and hate towards those around them.

There are references to the future and what we know from other characters. And while it can be a pointed reference for the readers I think it goes a way to explain why Snow acts the way he does towards people in the original as well. His own history getting in the way and mocking him even before he knows why.

Collins is wonderful because you never get to sympathise with Snow like you’d think with a prequel. There are times when you have moments thinking he is a poor and suffering but then it’s like Collins instinctively knows your thoughts and descends from on high and says stop that by showing Snow to be just as much as a horrible person as you think and know him to be.

It’s easy to see how Snow becomes who he becomes, even 65 years later. He is already a bad person, but you can see him becoming vindictive and controlling. How he thinks he’s betrayed and how that shapes his actions then and in the future. He is entitled, thinks he is owed things, and as the book goes on you see how possessive he is. Everything we know him to be.

I love how Collins dropped The Hunger Games and disappeared only to re-emerge ten years later and drop another banger on us. This prequel doesn’t take anything from the power of the original trilogy and only makes it more impactful – a benefit I think from having the large gap between years. I am so keyed up to read Sunrise on the Reaping I know she is going to have done another amazing job.

You can purchase The Ballard of Songbirds and Snakes via the following

QBD |  Dymocks | Booktopia

Wordery |  Blackwell’s | Angus & Robertson

Fishpond | Amazon | Amazon Aust | Audible

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