Dave Grohl, frontman and lead singer for The Foo Fighters, announced Tuesday on social media that he has fathered a child out of wedlock and intends to remain in his current marriage while still being involved in the new baby’s life.  “I’ve recently become the father of a new baby daughter, born outside of my marriage,” the 55-year-old musician shared on Instagram. “I plan to be a loving and supportive parent to her. I love my wife and my children, and I am doing everything I can to regain their trust and earn their forgiveness.” “We’re grateful for your consideration toward all the children involved, as we move forward together,” the post concluded. Comments on the post were turned off.   View this post on Instagram   A post shared by Dave Grohl (@davestruestories)   This admission comes just after The Foo Fighters spoke out against the Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump using their song “My Hero” at an August rally in Arizona, per Forbes. A rep for the band said, “Foo Fighters were not asked permission and if they were, they would have not granted it.” Trump’s rep Steven Cheung hit back on X, using Foo Fighters song titles while composing a message that said, “It’s Times Like These facts matter, don’t be a Pretender.” Cheung also said they had gone through the proper channels to obtain rights to the music, the outlet noted. The former Nirvana drummer met his wife, Jordyn Blum, at the Sunset Marquis Whiskey Bar in West Hollywood in 2001, per the New York Post. Grohl said he didn’t think he had a shot the first time he met the former model and MTV producer. Tickets for “Am I Racist?” are on sale NOW! Buy here for a theater near you. “I met Jordyn one night in 2001,” Grohl told Q Magazine in 2007. “[Fellow bandmate Taylor Hawkins] and I were hanging out at the Sunset Marquis whiskey bar. Taylor was the looker. I mean, girls would send him drinks. Some bombshell comes up and starts talking to Taylor. I was just out of a Tenacious D session. I’ve got Vans trainers on, no socks, dirty shorts and a dirty T-shirt, surrounded by beautiful Hollywood. She waved her friend Jordyn over.” He continued, “I was like, ‘Oh my God. Not a chance!’ So I’m just having some drinks and acting like a jackass. And by the end of the night I was pissed and I’m staring at her going, ‘You’re my future ex-wife.’ So she gave me her number: ‘Jordyn, your future ex-wife.’ We saw each other a few times. But I realized that this was the flag, the finish line and I’m like, ‘Oh, wait a minute.’ So I backed out.” He admitted to ignoring his future wife for a while. “When I first met my wife, we went out on a few dates and I decided that I wasn’t ready for a serious relationship, so I just stopped calling,” he said during a 2007 interview with ELLE. “After three months, I had a revelation and called her back,” Grohl said, recalling how Blum replied by saying, “’Oh, I never thought I’d hear from you again.’” The pair married in August 2003 and have three daughters, who were born in 2006, 2009, and 2014. Grohl was previously married to photographer Jennifer Youngblood, divorcing her in 1997.

It was just a few months ago that police in Chicago attempted to pull over a man named Dexter Reed for driving with illegally tinted windows. I talked about this incident on the show at the time, when the media was trying to turn Reed into the next George Floyd. As soon as the traffic stop began, Reed began acting suspiciously. He repeatedly refused officers’ commands to lower his window so they could see what was going on inside his car. Then he raised the tinted window to completely obstruct the officers’ view of the inside of the vehicle. And then, within seconds, Dexter Reed opened fire. Police officers train on footage like this all the time. There are hundreds of videos like it all over the internet. And they all tell the same story, which is this: When the police pull someone over, and that person attempts to hide what he’s doing, then the situation has just become extremely dangerous. All traffic stops involve some level of risk. But when someone rolls up a tinted window instead of complying, that risk gets exponentially higher. That’s especially true when the suspect has a criminal history. So police have no choice but to respond quickly and decisively, and potentially with force, because they’re in a life-threatening situation. Otherwise, they might get shot and killed before they can even see what’s coming. As I said at the time, there was an attempt to portray Dexter Reed as some kind of BLM martyr. But it fell apart the moment this footage was released. Everyone understood why the officers drew their weapons. Everyone understood that Reed had put the officers in fear for their lives, even before he started shooting. The entire media-driven narrative — that Dexter Reed was an oppressed victim of police brutality — fell apart. And no one spoke of it again. WATCH: THE MATT WALSH SHOW But there’s always someone waiting in the wings to claim that mantle of oppression, especially in an election year. And this week, Miami Dolphins wide receiver Tyreek Hill is going for it — even though his traffic stop, in many ways, has a lot of similarities to Dexter Reed’s. Tyreek Hill, like Dexter Reed, was pulled over for a lawful reason. In Tyreek Hill’s case, he was speeding near the Hard Rock Stadium, where the Dolphins play. That’s all caught on camera. And like Dexter Reed, Tyreek Hill also had an existing criminal record at the time of his stop, although the officers probably weren’t aware of that. In Hill’s case, that record included a prior guilty plea for serious offenses — including domestic assault and battery by strangulation. And then, when he was pulled over, Tyreek Hill, like Dexter Reed, refused lawful orders to lower his tinted window. Instead, he started raising the window in clear defiance of the officers. Watch: Tyreek Hill ARREST body cam FOOTAGE released.. ?‼️ Did the cops have a power trip, or were they just doing their job? ? pic.twitter.com/MUrSiffh2u — DramaAlert (@DramaAlert) September 9, 2024 Instead of complying, Tyreek Hill rolled up a tinted window while the police were trying to talk to him. They responded aggressively to his belligerence. Then, Tyreek Hill refused to sit on the curb as instructed, saying he had just had surgery, so he can’t sit down. He can play in a professional football game a few hours later and score a touchdown, but he can’t possibly sit down. That’s just asking too much. So the officer again used some force, this time to put him on the curb. The officers also detained one of Hill’s teammates, Calais Campbell, after he approached the scene in the middle of the road. Ultimately the authorities cited Hill for reckless driving but didn’t arrest him. They also didn’t charge him for obstructing an officer, which is a misdemeanor in Florida punishable by up to a year in prison. Speaking to reporters, Hill claimed he had “no idea” why he was placed in handcuffs. “No idea. It’s crazy. No idea. I wasn’t disrespectful because my mom didn’t raise me that way. Didn’t cuss. Did none of that. I’m still trying to figure it out… Don’t be disrespectful.” Of course, the truth is that Hill could have avoided all of this by acting like an adult rather than a spoiled toddler. He knows that. Everyone watching the video knows that. But the media and the Left are pretending otherwise. They’re completely ignoring the evidence and running with the same narrative we’ve seen a million times before, even if the facts don’t remotely fit. Over on ESPN for example, they’re acting as if Tyreek Hill was just killed. They’re mourning him as if he died, by comparing him to a bunch of other BLM martyrs. Watch: When Tyreek Hill says “What if I wasn’t Tyreek Hill..” he’s absolutely right. – @ChrisCanty99 on the detainment of Tyreek Hill pic.twitter.com/JKCafYSwdm — UNSPORTSMANLIKE Radio (@UnSportsESPN) September 10, 2024 Just to be clear about this: Sandra Bland, Walter Scott, and Philando Castile are all dead. That’s not to relitigate all of those cases — all of which the media lied about to one degree or another. It’s just a fact. This guy is comparing several dead people to Tyreek Hill, who in fact is not dead. Tyreek Hill is very much alive. He’s still earning $30 million a year. He’s still a famous celebrity. What happened to Hill is that on Sunday, he endured a minor inconvenience that was entirely attributable to his own actions. This was such a minor inconvenience that he was able to play in a football game afterwards and mock the whole situation with a celebration after he scored a touchdown. All of this fake hysteria is intended to obscure an obvious point, which is that Hill — like so many other BLM heroes — didn’t comply with lawful orders that were given by police officers. He put them in a dangerous situation as a result. And he suffered the predictable consequences of that decision. When the outraged ESPN personality says he’s “frustrated” that the country hasn’t “reckoned with race,” what he’s really saying is that black people should be able to do whatever they want when the police pull them over. They should be able to put the police in danger, apparently. Or maybe that’s only the case if they’re driving expensive cars, like Tyreek Hill was. Maybe the law just doesn’t apply to football players. That’s the position of Tyreek Hill’s team, the Miami Dolphins. In a statement, the team said they “urge” the police department “to take swift and strong action against the officers who engaged in such despicable behavior.” The team didn’t even mention Tyreek Hill’s decision to put people in danger by driving recklessly on the way to the stadium. They didn’t mention that he disobeyed the officers’ commands. They pretend as if the officers had no reason whatsoever to treat Hill like a potential threat to their lives. This is the lose-lose situation that cops are in. They’re being told that they have to ignore suspects who roll up their tinted windows, and just hope that it doesn’t turn out to be another Dexter Reed situation. If they do anything to protect themselves, those cops are “despicable.” Meanwhile, the brain trust of former athletes over on FS1 took the melodrama up ten more notches. Here’s former NFL star LeSean McCoy in a conversation with former NFL player Emmanuel Acho. These are some of the most oppressed people in America. They were paid millions to play a game. Now they’re paid millions to talk about playing a game. But that doesn’t make them any less oppressed. Watch: The most vulnerable, heartfelt and gut wrenching conversation I’ve ever been a part of on live television. “We do not feel safe around cops and that’s crazy… Black people do not feel safe around cops.” #TyreekHill #FinsUppic.twitter.com/jJ24MNiX5Y — Emmanuel Acho (@EmmanuelAcho) September 10, 2024 Oh is that what you tell your kids? You tell them if the cops are there, get to some light? Have you considered telling them to comply with lawful commands? Have you thought about that? Why don’t you tell your kids to simply comply with lawful orders given by officers of the law? If they do that, then everything will be fine. We’re told that black men are afraid of the cops. They’re terrified that they’re going to be executed on the spot. Tyreek Hill was afraid, allegedly. Well if that’s the case, why are you going out of your way to antagonize them? Why are you doing everything in your power to make your interactions with the police as stressful and contentious as possible? When I see videos like the one with Tyreek Hill — or any of the footage of any BLM martyr — I do not see black men who are afraid of the cops. I see black men who completely disregard the cops and act as though they are above the law and impervious to the basic rules and standards of conduct that govern the rest of us. If you’re afraid for your life while dealing with the cops, why would you roll up a tinted window? How is that going to make you safer? How is that going to make the situation LESS volatile? You are making it more volatile. You are directly, actively, making it into a more volatile situation. But this does not occur to these kind of commentators. We can’t blame them for that. They’re emotional. In fact, these guys were so emotional that when they came back from commercial break, they were still comforting each other: Moments after a sad, infuriating, tear evoking conversation on Tyreek Hill, I attempted to continue the show as if all was normal. It wasn’t. I’m grateful for James Jones, who did not allow us to rush by our humanity. On @TheFacilityFS1, we’re not doing TV, we’re doing life. pic.twitter.com/zU6d5yghG9 — Emmanuel Acho (@EmmanuelAcho) September 10, 2024 What brave warriors. What heroes. My God. They had to overcome the trauma of talking about a football player’s briefly unpleasant interaction with the police. They somehow had to soldier through and find a way to keep talking about football. It’s painful, you see. It’s painful to think about the minor inconvenience that a millionaire football player experienced. A minor inconvenience of his own making. They are shaken up. They are barely able to hold it together. For his part, the head coach of the Miami Dolphins, Mike McDaniel, was even more hysterical than the sports commentators. He appeared to be choking back tears as he said he couldn’t imagine what it’s like to be as oppressed as Tyreek Hill is. Watch: #Dolphins HC Mike McDaniel got very emotional and choked up talking about Tyreek Hill getting detained on Sunday. “The thing that f***** me up honestly, to be quite frank, is knowing that I don’t know exactly. I don’t know what that feels like.” Full answer via @MiamiDolphins: pic.twitter.com/Pwrlr3XZ5t — Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) September 9, 2024 Fifty years ago a guy this weepy and emasculated would never be the head coach of a football team. It just wouldn’t have been possible for a theater kid to get a job like this. But here we are. Mike McDaniel is “triggered.” It really messes him up, to not know “what it feels like” to be Tyreek Hill. He’ll never be able to experience that level of oppression. But the coach could find out pretty easily. He could start driving his sports car, as recklessly as possible, around slow-moving traffic. And when he gets pulled over, he can roll up his tinted windows and dare the cops to do something about it. Very quickly, Mike McDaniel will experience something similar to what Tyreek Hill experienced on Sunday. And if that happens, Mike McDaniel would deserve to be forcibly removed from his car and treated like a threat, just like Tyreek Hill was. Predictably, no one in the corporate press wants to point this out. Instead, they’re affirming Tyreek Hill’s story of racial grievance at every opportunity. Here’s CNN for example. Watch as they allow Tyreek Hill to claim — without any pushback — that, if he weren’t a football player, the police officers would have executed him on the side of the road. Watch: Tyreek was on CNN last night playing the victim and claiming if he wasn’t Tyreek Hill then in the worst-case scenario he could have been mu*dered. What a joke. Hill is a horrible human being who beat up his pregnant girlfriend several years ago. pic.twitter.com/aowlTV2L5E — RedWave Press (@RedWave_Press) September 10, 2024 Try to follow the logic here. According to Hill, the police knew he was a famous NFL player, with a very high profile. So they knew they had to be on their best behavior. That’s why they decided not to just shoot him outside the stadium. That’s what the police supposedly do to every other black person, but they don’t do it to NFL players. At the same time, according to Tyreek Hill, these same police officers didn’t have any problem risking their entire career just to rough him up on camera for no reason. So they’re cautious police officers, but they’re also extremely reckless at the same time. Tickets for “Am I Racist?” are on sale NOW! Buy here for a theater near you. That’s the explanation that flies on CNN, apparently. But it doesn’t make any sense. What makes more sense is that the police did exactly what they were trained to do, which is to treat everyone who behaves like Hill did — regardless of how much money they have — as a potential threat. That’s especially true when, like Dexter Reed, they have a criminal record and start rolling up their tinted window instead of complying. The only way to explain the reaction from the corporate press, and the Miami Dolphins, is that these people really believe that a black man should be able to do or say literally anything he wants when confronted by police. Whatever happens will always be the cop’s fault, no matter what. The point is to absolve “people of color” of any blame. But the effect is that they’re infantilized. They’re treated like children incapable of controlling themselves. They’re given no incentive to improve their own behavior. Instead, they’re given more incentive to act like Tyreek Hill — with all the entitlement and hysteria that entails. We saw where that approach leads in 2020. It leads to police pulling out of black neighborhoods, and fewer people choosing to become police officers. And that, in turn, leads to a lot more black people dying. Narcissists like Tyreek Hill claim they’re afraid of that outcome. In reality, they’re doing everything they can to ensure it keeps happening.

NBC has officially cut back The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon from five nights a week to four, starting in the fall of 2024. The long-running talk show, which originally aired new episodes Monday through Friday, will now feature new episodes only Monday through Thursday, with reruns filling the Friday slot. This marks a significant shift for the program, which has been a staple of late-night television since its inception in 1954. The decision comes amid declining viewership for late-night TV in general, a trend seen across the industry as audiences increasingly migrate to streaming platforms. Other major late-night shows, including The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel Live!, have also reduced their schedules to four nights a week in response to changing viewer habits. Fallon's Tonight Show was one of the last to air five nights a week. Not Funny: NBC Cuts Jimmy Fallon’s ‘Tonight Show’ to Four Nights a Week I miss Johnny Carson!!!! https://t.co/7eNMOslL7Z — Hawaii 5-0 (@hawaii_js) September 10, 2024 While budget cuts have impacted NBC's late-night programming, including the elimination of the live band from Late Night with Seth Meyers, Fallon's contract has been extended through 2028. NBC executives emphasize that the reduction in weekly episodes is part of broader cost-saving measures and does not reflect on Fallon’s popularity or the show's long-term prospects. Despite the changes, Fallon, 49, will continue his hosting duties and remains committed to delivering fresh content for the show's loyal fanbase. I unplugged years ago but saw this article & laughed. commercials that pretend to be tv shows continue their slide into obscurity. WHO watches this crap? Not Funny: NBC Cuts Jimmy Fallon’s ‘Tonight Show’ to Four Nights a Week https://t.co/KRkqVR35ml via @BreitbartNews — Rebecca Pickens (@rebepick) September 10, 2024 The shift to four nights a week also aligns The Tonight Show with its competitors, as networks grapple with shrinking traditional TV audiences. NBC's decision underscores the challenges facing broadcast networks as they try to navigate the evolving media landscape, where streaming services like Netflix and YouTube dominate viewership. As more audiences opt for on-demand content, traditional TV ratings have plummeted, putting pressure on shows that rely on live viewership. Despite these industry-wide changes, Fallon's Tonight Show continues to attract significant viewership, especially in the 18-49 demographic. NBC reports that the show remains second in this key demographic and third overall among late-night programs, with an average of 1.4 million total viewers per episode. This latest move comes after a difficult year for Fallon, who faced accusations of fostering a toxic workplace environment at The Tonight Show. In a report published earlier in 2024, current and former employees accused Fallon of erratic behavior behind the scenes, claims that the comedian later addressed with an apology to his staff. However, these controversies have done little to shake NBC's confidence in Fallon as the face of its flagship late-night program​. As the landscape of late-night television continues to evolve, NBC’s decision signals that even its most iconic shows are not immune to the pressures of modern media consumption. However, with Fallon's contract secured for several more years, it appears the network is committed to keeping the show—and its host—in the late-night lineup for the foreseeable future. The post NBC Reduces Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight Show to Four Nights a Week appeared first on The Conservative Brief.

For those old enough to remember September 11, 2001, we can likely tell you exactly where we were when we heard the horrific news that terrorists had attacked the United States. Once the tallest buildings in the world, the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center were struck by two separate airplanes and later crumbled to the ground. Two additional hijacked planes crashed, one into the Pentagon and another into a field in Pennsylvania. No one on board any of the flights survived. On Sept. 11, 2001 at 8:46 a.m, Flight 11 struck the North Tower of the World Trade Center. #momentofsilence https://t.co/p0lb8cn5tB pic.twitter.com/hQBmAMNQf6— ABC News (@ABC) September 11, 2024 On that fateful morning, thousands of men and women went to work with no indication it was the last time they would ever see their families again. Today, 23 years after life as we knew it changed, we remember those who died. On Sept. 11, 2001 at 9:03 a.m., Flight 175 struck the South Tower of the World Trade Center. https://t.co/12HBkYMRtK#momentofsilence pic.twitter.com/NMIeL14Uxf— ABC News (@ABC) September 11, 2024 New York City Officials Held A Moment Of Silence To Remember Those Who Died On 9/11 Crowds gathered in the city streets in silence as a bell tolled at 8:46 a.m., recalling when Flight 11 stuck the North Tower. The bell rang again at 9:03 a.m., the moment Flight 175 struck the South Tower on 9/11. At 9:37 a.m., the bell rang to symbolize Flight 77 crashing into the Pentagon. At 9:37 a.m. on Sept. 11, 2001, Flight 77, which had been headed to Los Angeles, crashed into the Pentagon near Washington, D.C. https://t.co/12HBkYMRtK#momentofsilence pic.twitter.com/iFbkyHugdI— ABC News (@ABC) September 11, 2024 The bell rang a fourth time at 9:59 a.m., in remembrance of the moment 2 World Trade Center collapsed on 9/11. At 10:03 a.m., the bell tolled in memory of Flight 93 crashing in Shanksville, Pennsylvania after passengers launched a counterattack against the terrorist. The final bell rang out at 10:28 a.m. to signify the North Tower’s collapse. On Sept. 11, 2001 at 9:59 a.m., millions watched on TV as 2 World Trade Center collapsed. https://t.co/12HBkYMRtK#momentofsilence pic.twitter.com/rPtTtwCQ9j— ABC News (@ABC) September 11, 2024 In total, 2,977 people died during the terrorist attacks on September 11, not including the hijackers. It is sobering to recall that day and how innocence and evil collided in such a profound way. At 10:03 a.m. on Sept. 11, 2001, Flight 93 crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania after passengers launched a counterattack against the hijackers. https://t.co/12HBkYMRtK#momentofsilence pic.twitter.com/DgRdjurBnP— ABC News (@ABC) September 11, 2024 We will never forget the victims and their families and will forever be grateful to the first responders who helped save thousands of lives. At 10:28 a.m. on Sept. 11, 2001, the North Tower collapsed. The World Trade Center, with the tallest buildings in New York City, and for a brief period upon their completion, the tallest buildings in the world, was gone. https://t.co/12HBkYMRtK#momentofsilence pic.twitter.com/LB9r3MfUHW— ABC News (@ABC) September 11, 2024 You can find the source of this story’s featured image here. The post Watch As Bells Ring For Those Lost During 9/11 Attack appeared first on InspireMore.

'This ain't C-SPAN, Bryan'

'We cried a lot, this music is meaningful for us'

'Allowing these immigrants to come in'

Every year, 300 million tennis balls are manufactured for the beloved sport, and almost all are throw out. A Belgian eco-designer has begun to repurpose some of these into bespoke furniture in a circular way that ensures the rubber and felt balls don’t end up in landfills. Mathilde Wittock and her team can hand carve […] The post Artist Makes Furniture Out of Tennis Balls That Otherwise Would Take 400 Years to Decompose in Landfills appeared first on Good News Network.

Books new releases All the New Young Adult SFF Books Arriving in September 2024 An orphaned heiress, a witch, and a teenage clairvoyant all appear in September’s new young adult SFF titles! By Reactor | Published on September 11, 2024 Comment 0 Share New Share Here’s the full list of young adult SFF titles heading your way in September! Keep track of all the new SFF releases here. All title summaries are taken and/or summarized from copy provided by the publisher. Release dates are subject to change. September 3 Songlight — Moira Buffini (HarperCollins)Elsa is used to hiding the most important parts of herself—her feelings for Rye, her distaste for a world ruled by men, and, most crucially, her gift of songlight. She buries that secret deep inside. In Brightland, those with songlight are called Unhumans and are abhorred. Rye is the only other person Elsa has known with songlight, and their shared bond has brought them together. Elsa’s world begins to fall apart one desperate, heart-wrenching day and she doesn’t know where to turn until a girl appears before her. But the girl isn’t really there—her songlight has been drawn to Elsa’s frantic grief. Elsa lives in a remote seaside village; Nightingale, her new friend, lives in a city hundreds of miles away with her father, a government official responsible for rooting out Unhumans. The two never expected to connect via songlight. But when they do, and when they realize the extent of their power, they’ll be thrust in the middle of a war that threatens their very existence. Fairy Godmother: An Enchanters Tale (Enchanters #1) — Jen Calonita (Disney Hyperion)A young governess with a tragic past, Renée is determined to prove that fairies are real. Yet when her young cousin follows her into the woods one night and is caught in mortal peril, Renée has no choice but to offer herself in his place. Just when she thinks this is the end, she’s saved by a mysterious duo who take Renée under their wings, and she is brought into the world of the Fée. So begins a life Renée hadn’t dared to dream of. Studying magic, forging friendships, and stumbling upon an unlikely romance, Renée is on an exciting path. But this new path is not without its own challenges. Renée longs to return to the mortal realm with the coveted title of godmother, a dream that seems just out of reach. And her tireless empathy, as well as her boundless determination might be just what she needs to become the Fairy Godmother the world will come to know. The Loss of the Burying Ground — J. Anderson Coats (Candlewick)When the Burying Ground goes down in neutral waters, it sends the delegations from two warring nations—and the peace treaty they were about to sign—to the bottom of the ocean. The only survivors are a pair of teen girls: Cora, daughter of a Duran newspaper man, and Vivienne, lady’s maid to an Ariminthian princess. Neither has known a time when war between their two countries did not rage, but now they must learn to trust each other if they are to find sustenance, avoid dangerous pirates, and have any hope of rescue from the remote island they washed up on. However, in the midst of a conflict steeped in fierce national identity, propaganda, disinformation, and radicalization, finding a common path forward seems nearly impossible, for both Cora and Vivienne and their respective countries. But when the teens’ politically charged rescue seems likely to extend the war, Cora and Vivienne realize they do have a shared purpose: peace. If only it isn’t too late. Welcome to Fear City — Sarah Dvojack (Union Square & Co)Seventeen-year-old Sylvie Stroud can see the past of any building just by touching it. Her powers have always been reliable, until one day she sees the memory of a teenage girl’s murder without touching anything at all. There’s a lot of violence in New York City, especially in 1977, but this is different. When the vision keeps repeating, Sylvie begins to investigate. But doing so accidentally awakens an old, parasitic magic lurking just beneath the surface of her beleaguered city. Now all it wants is Sylvie, and it will go through everyone Sylvie loves to have her. Shadows of Perl (House of Marionne #2) — J. Elle (Razorbill)Quell Marionne’s explosive final Rite of Induction to House Marionne sent shockwaves through the magical world, unearthing long buried secrets and her own deadly power. But she paid a steep price: her family and her love. Fleeing Chateau Soleil for House of Perl, for once Quell is celebrated instead of shunned. She has finally found somewhere to belong. But secrets lurk in every House, and Quell’s quest to find her mom threatens to lead her deeper into the shadows. Assassin Jordan Wexton, second-in command of the Dragun brotherhood, must protect the source of all magic, the Sphere. Yet the biggest threat to the Sphere is Quell Marionne—the girl he loved, until she claimed the deadly, outlawed toushana. As the Sphere cracks and war brews among the Houses, can the only way to save the world be to kill his own heart? Now, these two lovers-turned enemies must confront their competing ambitions and conflicting loyalties. Or die. The future of magic hangs on their decision. Immortal Dark (Immortal Dark #1) — Tigest Girma (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)Orphaned heiress Kidan Adane grew up far from the arcane society she was born into, where human bloodlines gain power through vampire companionship. When her sister, June, disappears, Kidan is convinced a vampire stole her—the very vampire bound to their family, the cruel yet captivating Susenyos Sagad. To find June, Kidan must infiltrate the elite Uxlay University—where students study to ensure peaceful coexistence between humans and vampires and inherit their family legacies. Kidan must survive living with Susenyos—even as he does everything he can to drive her away. It doesn’t matter that Susenyos’s wickedness speaks to Kidan’s own violent nature and tempts her to surrender to a life of darkness. She must find her sister and kill Susenyos at all costs. When a murder mirroring June’s disappearance shakes Uxlay, Kidan sinks further into the ruthless underworld of vampires, risking her very soul. There she discovers a centuries-old threat—and June could be at the center of it. To save her sister, Kidan must bring Uxlay to its knees and either break free from the horrors of her own actions or embrace the dark entanglements of love—and the blood it requires. The Monstrous Kind — Lydia Gregovic (Delacorte)Merrick Darling’s life as daughter of the Manor Lord of Sussex is better than most. Unlike the commoners, she is immune to the toxic fog that encroached on England generations earlier. She will never become a Phantom—one of the monstrous creatures that stalk her province’s borders—and as long as the fires burn to hold them back, her safety is ensured. She wants for nothing, yet she will never inherit her family’s Manor. She must marry smartly or live at the kindness of her elder sister, Essie. Everything is turned on its head, though, when Merrick’s father dies suddenly. Torn from her New London society life of ball gowns and parties, Merrick must travel back to her childhood home, the Darling estate of Norland House, and what she finds there is bewildering. Once strong and capable, Essie is withdrawn and frightened—and with good cause. A recent string of attacks along the province’s borders has turned their formerly bucolic countryside into a terrifying and unpredictable landscape. The fog is closing in and the fires aren’t holding, which makes Merrick and Essie vulnerable in more ways than one. Because the Phantoms are far from the only monsters in Merrick’s world, and the other eleven Manor Lords are always watching for weakness. Revealing her and her sister’s current state to the rest of the Manors is out of the question, but when Essie goes missing, it’s clear that Merrick needs help. Only, who can she trust when everyone seems to be scheming, and when all she holds true feels like it’s slipping right out of her grasp? Rebel Fire (Rebel Skies #2) — Ann Sei Lin (Tundra Books)Kurara has barely escaped the grasp of Princess Tsukimi. Reeling from her Crafter mentor’s grim betrayal, Kurara and her friends are desperate to catch up with their old airship, even if it means they have to do it on foot. But after everything she’s been through, Kurara refuses to give up on understanding and freeing the shikigami, origami creatures enchanted to life, nor will she stop at anything to understand her mysterious past, no matter who tries to interfere… or what dark truths about her role in the war may surface, the farther south she goes. Her goal is the Grand Stream, where Suzaku, the greatest shikigami of all, likes in furious wait. But Kurara isn’t the only one searching for Suzaku. Traveling through forests, seas and the ruins of an underground Crafter city, there is no shortage of enemies who wish to control Kurara and the shikigami of the world for their own ends. When a bloody confrontation leads to horrifying revelations about the true nature of shikigami and Kurara’s past, Kurara will need all the support she can muster just to carry on. A Sword In Slumber (Queen’s Council #4) — Sara Raasch (Disney Hyperion)Briar Rose loves her life in the small Austrian town of Hausach, where she sings, dances, and runs wild through the woods with her best friend Frieda. But with her curse broken and Maleficent slain, Briar must leave her happy enclave to take her rightful place as Aurora, princess of Austria and betrothed of Prince Phillip of Lorraine. She’s doing her best to come to terms with her new identity when the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire dies, and her father announces he will put his name forward for the position. While her days are a whirlwind of seismic change, her nights offer little respite. Mysterious dreams keep her tossing and turning, visions of queens throughout the ages, facing down conflict in their own nations. Then Bavaria launches an attack on Austria, killing King Stefan and setting up Matilda of Bavaria to become empress. To save the empire from a warmonger’s rule, Aurora pledges to take the throne herself. She’ll have to compete against the top rulers from across the empire and learn to play their political games. But there’s one more surprise in store. Hausach was home to more than one hidden princess, and Aurora must go head to head against her best friend to win the title of emperor, not just for herself but for all of Austria. Celestial Monsters (Sunbearer #2) — Aiden Thomas (Feiwel & Friends)Teo never thought he could be a Hero. Now, he doesn’t have a choice. The sun is gone, the Obsidian gods have been released from their prison, and chaos and destruction are wreaking havoc on Reino del Sol. All because Teo refused to sacrifice a fellow semidiós during the Sunbearer Trials. With the world plunged into perpetual night, Teo, his crush Aurelio, and his best friend Niya must journey to the dark wilderness of Los Restos, battling vicious monsters while dealing with guilt, trauma, and a (very distracting) burgeoning romance between Teo and Aurelio. Determined to rescue the captured semidioses and retrieve the Sol Stone, the trio races against the clock to return Sol and their protective light. With it, order can be restored. The future of the whole world is in their hands. Repeat After Me — Jessica Warman (Entangled Teen)In retrospect, I probably should have passed on the ceviche. It was already a weird Friday. My class is stuck on an eerily remote island for our senior trip, I’m pretty sure Mr. D (“call me Max”) is hiding something from us, my ex–best friend turned nemesis keeps stealing my candy, and tonight’s plan for my boyfriend and me to finally lose our virginity to each other is going hellishly. I mean, ceviche is delicious, don’t get me wrong. But a dish made from a supposedly immortal octopus should really come with a warning label.Caution: consuming a telepathic sea creature of unknown origin may result in immortality, no consequences to any actions, and getting stuck in a time loop for all of eternity. Now every morning I wake up, and it’s the same Friday all over again. Same annoying classmates. Same island suspended in time by an evil oyster farmer with a God complex. Same outrageous candy theft. The only person I can count on to keep me from losing my grip on this new reality is Louis, my best friend who knows me better than anyone else in this world. This should be a cephalopod-induced nightmare but somehow—in some ridiculous way—I feel like I’m experiencing the extraordinary, the gift of endless opportunities to get things right. But when I wake up every morning and it’s Friday again, sometimes it feels more like a never-ending prison sentence. They say some things are worse than death… guess I’m about to find out. September 10 Till the Last Beat of My Heart — Louangie Bou-Montes (HarperCollins)When you grow up in a funeral home, death is just another part of life. But for sixteen-year-old Jaxon Santiago-Noble, it’s also part of his family’s legacy. Most dead bodies in the town of Jacob’s Barrow wind up at Jaxon’s house; his mom is the local mortician, after all. He doesn’t usually pay them much mind, but when Christian Reyes is brought in after a car accident, Jaxon’s world is turned upside down. There are a lot of things Jaxon wishes he could have said to his once best friend and first crush. When he accidentally resurrects Christian, Jaxon might finally have that chance. But the more he learns about his newfound necromancy, the more he grasps that Christian’s running on borrowed time—and it’s almost out. As he navigates dark, mysterious magics and family secrets, Jaxon realizes that stepping into an inherited power may also mean opening up old family wounds if he wants to keep the boy he may be falling for alive for good. Tiger’s Tale (Tiger’s Curse #1) — Colleen Houck (Blackstone)Anastasia and Verusha Stepanov are the tsar’s only children, heirs to the prosperous and sprawling Kievian Empire. Headstrong and fierce, the twins have long scorned their father’s opulent palace and the diplomatic obligations that come with it, preferring to train with the Royal Guard and dream of a soldier’s life beyond the palace walls. But with their father lost in the recent war and their once indomitable mother succumbing to illness, the young women know that one of them must soon ascend the throne, make a politically advantageous marriage, and begin producing heirs. Yet, the succession is far from clear as both would prefer the path of the second born: head the Royal Guard, travel the far reaches of the empire, and seek out a destiny of her own making. As their beloved mother’s condition worsens, the sisters grow more desperate, seeking any healer who might give her more time. But when a stranger arrives offering another option, the sisters refuse his proposal and banish the strange man. As he departs, the stranger unleashes a devastating curse that sends Veru and Stacia fleeing their home on an adventure beyond anything they ever imagined. The Unfinished — Cheryl Isaacs (Heartdrum)When small-town athlete Avery’s morning run leads her to a strange pond in the middle of the forest, she awakens a horror the townspeople of Crook’s Falls have long forgotten. The black water has been waiting. Watching. Hungry for the souls it needs to survive.  Avery can smell the water, see it flooding everywhere; she thinks she’s losing her mind. And as the black water haunts Avery—taking a new form each time—people in town begin to go missing. Though Avery had heard whispers of monsters from her Kanien’kéha:ka (Mohawk) relatives, she has never really connected to her Indigenous culture or understood the stories. But the Elders she has distanced herself from now may have the answers she needs. When Key, her best friend and longtime crush, is the next to disappear, Avery is faced with a choice: listen to the Kanien’kéha:ka and save the town but lose her friend forever…or listen to her heart and risk everything to get Key back. Old Wounds — Logan-Ashley Kisner (Delacorte)Erin and Max are two transgender teens trying to get to California. Max is desperate to finally transition, and Erin is longing to understand why she’s on this trip to begin with. The last she spoke to Max was when he suddenly broke up with her two years ago. But when they find themselves stranded in the middle of the woods in a small Kentucky town, they realize they have much bigger problems. The locals need a female sacrifice for the monster that lives in the woods—according to them, the sun won’t come up again until the monster eats a girl… and it only eats what it kills. Fighting back is futile; no one selected as the offering has ever survived the night. When the two strangers show up, the locals believe they have the perfect candidate. The irony of the situation is almost too much to fathom. The thing is, the locals don’t know who they just trapped as their sacrifice. They don’t know Erin’s and Max’s secrets, which could be a death sentence on a good day. And the monster that lives in their woods has never faced prey who have already fought so hard to live. September 17 Spells to Forget Us — Aislinn Brophy (G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers)Luna is a powerful witch. Known for her skills and feared for her temper, she’s set to preserve her family’s legacy by becoming the head of Boston’s Witch Council—a job she does not want. Aoife is a non-magical girl. Raised under the lens of her influencer family, she’s grown up in the public eye. Now she yearns for privacy—but knows her parents won’t oblige. Just when they are at their lowest, Aoife and Luna find each other and start dating. As decreed by magic law, Luna casts a spell that will erase Aoife’s memories of their history together if they ever break up. But when Aoife and Luna end things, it’s both of them who forget… that is, until they meet again, fall for each other, and recover all the memories of their last attempt at dating. So begins the story of two star-crossed lovers who keep finding their way into each other’s orbits, even as the universe pulls them apart. When they set out to break the cycle, will they be strangers forever or together at last? Warrior of Legend (Heromaker #2) — Kendare Blake(Quill Tree Books)The cost was steep, but Reed is officially an Aristene. And not just any Aristene, but a Glorious Death, guiding only those heroes whose glory costs them their lives. It is a heavy burden, but to forget the prince she left behind, Reed throws herself into it, harvesting heroes at what some say is a reckless pace. So when Lyonene is summoned to guide a princess to a glorious marriage, Reed sees an opportunity—a hero who isn’t fated to die—and they secretly arrange for Reed to go in her place. But instead of an easy mission, she arrives to find chaos: an old enemy is rising to threaten the Aristene, and one of the princess’s suitors is Hestion, whom Reed still loves, and who may yet love her. Reed has already given everything to the order. As oaths are broken and lives are lost, what more must she give to save her sisters, and herself? Fear the Flames (Fear the Flames #1) — Olivia Rose Darling (Delacorte)As a child, Elowen Atarah was ripped away from her dragons and imprisoned by her father, King Garrick of Imirath. Years later, Elowen is now a woman determined to free her dragons. Having established a secret kingdom of her own called Aestilian, she’s ready to do what’s necessary to save her people and seek vengeance. Even if that means having to align herself with the Commander of Vareveth, Cayden Veles, the most feared and dangerous man in all the kingdoms of Ravaryn. Cayden is ruthless, lethal, and secretive, promising to help Elowen if she will stand with him and all of Vareveth in the pending war against Imirath. Despite their contrasting motives, Elowen can’t ignore their undeniable attraction as they combine their efforts and plot to infiltrate the impenetrable castle of Imirath to steal back her dragons and seek revenge on their common enemy. As the world tries to keep them apart, the pull between Elowen and Cayden becomes impossible to resist. Working together with their crew over clandestine schemes, the threat of war looms, making the imminent heist to free her dragons their most dangerous adventure yet. But for Elowen, her vengeance is a promise signed in blood, and she’ll stop at nothing to see that promise through. Ruin Road — Lamar Giles (Scholastic)Cade Webster lives between worlds. He’s a standout football star at the right school but lives in the wrong neighborhood—if you let his classmates tell it. Everywhere but home, people are afraid of him for one reason or another. Afraid he’s too big, too fast, too ambitious, too Black. Then one fateful night, to avoid a dangerous encounter with the police, he ducks into a pawn shop. An impulse purchase and misspoken desire change everything when Cade tells the shopkeeper he wishes people would stop acting so scared around him, and the wish is granted… At first, it feels like things have taken a turn for the better. But it’s not just Cade that people no longer fear—it’s everything. With Cade spreading this newfound “courage” wherever he goes, anything can happen. Fearless acts of violence begin to escalate in both his neighborhood and at school. With the right moves, and brave friends, Cade might have one—and only one—chance to save all he loves. But at what cost? After all, the devil’s in the details. The Lies We Conjure — Sarah Henning (Tor Teen)Ruby and her sister, Wren, are normal, middle-class Colorado high school students working a summer job at the local Renaissance Fest to supplement their meager college savings. So when an eccentric old lady asks them to impersonate her long-absent grandchildren at a fancy dinner party at the jaw-dropping rate of two grand—each—for a single night… Wren insists it’s a no-brainer. Make some cash, have some fun, do a good deed.But less than an hour into the evening at the mysterious Hegemony Manor, Ruby is sure she must have lost her mind to have agreed to this. The hostess is dead, the gates are locked, and a magical curse ensures no one can leave until they solve both her murder and the riddles she left behind—in just three days. Because everyone else at this party is a powerful witch. And if the witches realize Ruby and Wren are imposters? The sisters won’t make it out of Hegemony Manor alive. Seasons of Flesh and Flame (Shades of Rust and Ruin #2) — A. G. Howard (Bloomsbury YA)Nix Loring stepped into Mystiquel to face the Goblin King and break her family’s curse. When she found her twin, Lark, held captive for three years and forced to power the magical realm with her imagination, Nix offered herself up in her sister’s place. Now, Nix wants nothing more than to be home with the people she loves. Instead, she’s tasked to create beauty from a world fallen to desolation. She finds herself drawn to the faerie creatures under her care-and even reluctantly drawn to the Goblin King himself. But how can she rebuild the very realm that tore her family apart? Back home, her uncle and boyfriend desperately plan a rescue. But Lark, having learned Nix was meant to be the Goblin King’s captive in the first place, resents how her twin stole everything belonging to her during her absence. Worse yet, Lark harbors an unspeakable secret that could destroy what little she has left. As time draws closer to the rescue, Lark grapples with the darkness growing inside: should she help save her sister, or finally get her revenge? Serpent Sea (Spice Road #2) — Maiya Ibrahim (Delacorte)Imani is a magic-wielding warrior sworn to protect her land from the monsters that roam the desert. But an even worse enemy now threatens the Sahir. As the powerful Harrowlanders march south with their greatest weapon—spice magic—Imani knows it’s only a matter of time before their invasion of her land begins… and it will be a losing battle for her people. But Imani also knows that one way to fight magic is with monsters. If she can restore Qayn’s stolen powers, together they can summon a supernatural army to defend the Sahir from the Harrowlanders. Forming an alliance with a djinni king is risky, but Imani will do anything to save her people, even embarking on a dangerous quest beyond the sands to find the magical jewels of Qayn’s lost crown. As Imani journeys far from home, she will discover monsters that warriors have only heard about in myths… monsters that can strike at any moment. Meanwhile, her rival, Taha, has been captured and is on a dangerous mission of his own. One wrong move could cost them their lives—and everyone they love. But they may find that there is more than meets the eye crossing the Serpent Sea… and betrayal cuts deeper than any dagger. Forget Me Not (Rosenholm #2) — Gry Kappel Jensen, tr. Jennifer Alexander (Arctis)Chamomile, Kirstine, Victoria and Malou are back at Rosenholm Academy to start a new school year. But in addition to the lessons in runic magic, clairvoyance and Norse mythology, the girls also have something completely different to worry about. A crime from the past draws threads to the present, and the girls have committed themselves to solving the murder mystery that casts a shadow over Rosenholm. An ominous prediction causes the seriousness to dawn on them, while the questions loom large. And each of them harbors deep secrets that threaten to tear them apart before they can fulfill the promise they made. Time is running out and it could end up being fatal. The Heart of the World (Isles of the Gods #2) — Amie Kaufman (Knopf Books for Young Readers)When Selly and Leander began their treacherous voyage to the Isles of the Gods, the captain’s daughter and the playboy prince were strangers. But amid talk of war and a deadly attack on their ship, the unthinkable happened. They fell in love. Leander’s ritual at the island temple was meant to prevent a war between the gods. Instead, it nearly cost him his life, and drew the goddess Barrica back from exile. Now, as her Messenger, Leander is imbued with her deadly magic, and only Selly’s presence can stop it from consuming him. But Barrica wasn’t the only immortal roused from sleep. The God of Risk, Macean, was awakened by an enemy all thought dead, and across the sea he’s calling for war. The fight to save their world will take Selly and Leander from the gilded ballroom of the royal palace to the hallowed halls of an ancient library. Battle lines will be drawn, and bonds will break. With the wrath of gods and the machinations of power-hungry rulers straining their loyalties, can their love withstand the trials that await them? Touch of Death — Taylor Munsell (CamCat)With just a touch, George experiences a person’s future death. High school is hard enough, but sixteen-year-old death witch Georgiana “George” Colburn can’t seem to catch a break. Even Jen’s ghost, the recently deceased popular girl who ignored George in life, won’t leave her alone. George is convinced her life can’t get any worse. That is until she bumps into the new student and experiences his death at her hand. When a coven mate, Trixie, offers to help her with her magic, George finds herself with a new friend and crush, but she knows even if she found the courage to ask her out, a relationship is impossible: she’d never be able to touch her. With the help of her friends, George must face her fears and learn to embrace her powers to unlock the secrets of her magic before blood stains her hands. We Are Hunted — Tomi Oyemakinde (Feiwel & Friends)When 17-year-old Femi Fatona and his older brother are forced to accompany their dad to an island resort, Femi is not looking forward to it. After all, he hasn’t exactly been getting along with either of them lately. At least the resort promises to be full of all the extravagant luxuries they’re used to. Yet not much is actually known about it, as it’s on a recently-discovered island and shrouded in nondisclosure agreements. Once they arrive, Femi is thrilled to find that the island is bursting with new and spectacular species of plants and animals. But he soon realizes that sometimes pretty exteriors hide ugly truths—truths that are begging to come to light. When the animals suddenly become feral and the island is thrown into chaos, what was meant to be a peaceful bonding experience quickly becomes the stuff of nightmares. Femi will have to put aside tension with his family and work with other guests in order to escape the animals, the island… and his own guilt at the part he may have played in all of it. Such Lovely Skin — Tatiana Schlote-Bonne (Page Street Kids)After spending the summer wracked with guilt about causing the accident that killed her little sister, ambitious gamer and chronic liar Viv returns to Twitch streaming. She never told her parents the truth about the accident, but she hopes that maybe making it big in streaming and giving the money to them is penance enough for her mistakes. The weekend before school starts, Viv finds the perfect horror game to make her Twitch comeback, and during an offline practice run, an NPC asks Viv for a secret. She decides to tell them the truth about her sister’s death since a game could never share her secret—in doing so, she accidentally welcomes a demonic mimic into her life. No one believes Viv when she tells them about her evil doppelganger. Viv has lied to get her best friend’s sympathy and has spread rumors for attention, so why should anyone trust her now? The only person who believes her is Ash, a cute social outcast whom Viv once bullied. In trying to clear her name and kill the mimic, Viv discovers that her lies have hurt people who never deserved it, herself included. Night Owls — A. R. Vishny (HarperCollins)Clara loves rules. Rules are what have kept her and her sister, Molly, alive—or, rather, undead—for over a century. Work their historic movie theater by day. Shift into an owl under the cover of night. Feed on men in secret. And never fall in love. Molly is in love. And she’s tired of keeping her girlfriend, Anat, a secret. If Clara won’t agree to bend their rules a little, then she will bend them herself. Boaz is cursed. He can’t walk two city blocks without being cornered by something undead. At least at work at the theater, he gets to flirt with Clara, wishing she would like him back. When Anat vanishes and New York’s monstrous underworld emerges from the shadows, Clara suspects Boaz, their annoyingly cute box office attendant, might be behind it all. But if they are to find Anat, they will need to work together to face demons and the hungers they would sooner bury. Clara will have to break all her rules—of love, of life, and of death itself—before her rules break everyone she loves. September 24 The Hysterical Girls of St. Bernadette’s — Hanna Alkaf (Salaam Reads)For over a hundred years, girls have fought to attend St. Bernadette’s, with its reputation for shaping only the best and brightest young women. Unfortunately, there is also the screaming. When a student begins to scream in the middle of class, a chain reaction starts that impacts the entire school. By the end of the day, seventeen girls are affected—along with St. Bernadette’s stellar reputation. Khadijah’s got her own scars to tend to, and watching her friends succumb to hysteria only rips apart wounds she’d rather keep closed. But when her sister falls to the screams, Khad knows she’s the only one who can save her. Rachel has always been far too occupied trying to reconcile her overbearing mother’s expectations with her own secret ambitions to pay attention to school antics. But just as Rachel finds her voice, it turns into screams. Together, the two girls find themselves digging deeper into the school’s dark history, hunting for the truth. Little do they know that a specter lurks in the darkness, watching, waiting, and hungry for its next victim Hunterlore (Hunterland #2) — Dana Claire (CamCat)For Liam Hunter, monster hunting is a way of life—a family tradition passed down for generations. But when campers are murdered in the woods, their hearts ripped from their chests, Liam finds himself facing his most terrifying adversary yet—his own mother turned monster. Her pack of werewolves will test Liam’s limits, and his connection with the girl who still has too large a claim on his heart. Olivia Davis is determined to uncover her own place in Hunterland and hone her newfound abilities. But when Olivia has a terrifying vision, she’s faced with a much larger uncertainty: her feelings for the boy she let slip through her fingers. Together, Olivia and Liam must survive the deadly game of cat and mouse, or else risk becoming victims in a world where the monsters are the hunters. The clock is ticking. The game is on. And the price of failure may be their humanity. The Thirteenth Child — Erin A. Craig (Delacorte)Hazel Trépas has always known she wasn’t like the rest of her siblings. A thirteenth child, promised away to one of the gods, she spends her childhood waiting for her godfather—Merrick, the Dreaded End—to arrive. When he does, he lays out exactly how he’s planned Hazel’s future. She will become a great healer, known throughout the kingdom for her precision and skill. To aid her endeavors, Merrick blesses Hazel with a gift, the ability to instantly deduce the exact cure needed to treat the sick. But all gifts come with a price. Hazel can see when Death has claimed a patient—when all hope is gone—and is tasked to end their suffering, permanently. Haunted by the ghosts of those she’s killed, Hazel longs to run. But destiny brings her to the royal court, where she meets Leo, a rakish prince with a disdain for everything and everyone. And it’s where Hazel faces her biggest dilemma yet—to save the life of a king marked to die. Hazel knows what she is meant to do and knows what her heart is urging her toward, but what will happen if she goes against the will of Death? Michael Vey: The Colony (Michael Vey #10) — Richard Paul Evans (Simon Pulse)After saving Tara and Jack—and losing a few of their own—in a dramatic battle in the Peruvian jungle against the Elgen offshoot the Chasqui, the Electroclan has returned to the US to regroup. But their downtime is brief, as Abi—who was abducted from outside her college dorm—is still missing. Piecing together what few clues they have from video footage of the abduction as well as some additional information from Grace, whose consciousness has broken free of her physical body and connected with worldwide intelligence, they determine that she is being held somewhere in Peru by the leader of a group of other electrics known as the Colony. And so—once again joining forced with Alpha Team for a dual-pronged attack—they return to South America for a rescue mission. They’ve fought—and won—against incredible odds before. But they’ve never had to face off against others with powers similar to—and potentially stronger—than their own. Still, with the life of one of the Electroclan members at stake, failure is simply not an option as they take on their final mission. This Fatal Kiss — Alicia Jasinska (Holiday House)Cursed to haunt the river running through the magical spa town where she drowned, Gisela is a water nymph who dreams of returning to the living world and the family she left behind. All it takes to regain her humanity is a kiss from a mortal…but everyone sees her as a monster. And then there’s Kazik, the brooding, interfering, spirit-hunting grandson of a local witch. He’s determined to rid the world of unholy creatures like Gisela. After Kazik botches Gisela’s exorcism, she strikes up a deal. She won’t tell the other spirits that he’s losing his magic, if he agrees to play matchmaker and helps her get a kiss. But Gisela’s plan goes awry when Kazik also falls for the devilishly handsome young man that she sets her heart on—someone who could be linked to Gisela’s troubled past. Sweetest Darkness — Leslie Lutz (Holiday House)Everyone in Gypsum, Texas knows the Hotel Alvarado changes at night—especially Quinn. A teenage clairvoyant, he’s been having dreams about it… dreams that call him to its dark, abandoned halls. The hotel is a monument to the town’s more prosperous past, when celebrities flocked to the mineral spas and films were shot in the desert. The Great Depression killed all of that, it killed the Alvarado, and frankly it killed Gypsum, too. Now, when the sun goes down, things no longer living stir deep within its creaking depths. But the dreams are relentless. When Quinn braves the hotel’s darkness with his best friend June and unrequited love Selena, looking for answers, he gets only one: ghosts aren’t the scariest thing lurking inside the Alvarado (although they’re there, cold and restless and angry). No. He’s been called by something worse: a predatory, inhuman entity that threatens to wipe Gypsum off the map, along with everyone in it. And wrongly—accidentally—he’s let it out. It takes the shape of a handsome young man. It walks. It talks. It laughs. It can even make you laugh. But its appetite for death can never be sated. Quinn has always had the power to see the future… can he find the power to change it? The High Republic: Tears of the Nameless (Star Wars) — George Mann (Disney Lucasfilm Press)It’s been over a year since the fall of the Starlight Beacon space station, and both heroes and villains alike must face the consequences of their decisions. When Jedi Knight Reath and Padawan Amadeo Azzazzo are sent on a mission to test their theories about the Nameless, they’ll come face-to-face with the terrifying creatures once thought to be myth—and learn the true meaning of fear… fear that fallen Jedi Azlin Rell advised them to embrace if they have any hope of defeating the monsters When the World Tips Over — Jandy Nelson (Dial Books)The Fall siblings live in hot Northern California wine country, where the sun pours out of the sky, and the devil winds blow so hard they whip the sense right out of your head. Years ago, the Fall kids’ father mysteriously disappeared, cracking the family into pieces. Now Dizzy Fall, age twelve, bakes cakes, sees spirits, and wishes she were a heroine of a romance novel. Miles Fall, seventeen, brainiac, athlete, and dog-whisperer, is a raving beauty, but also lost, and desperate to meet the kind of guy he dreams of. And Wynton Fall, nineteen, who raises the temperature of a room just by entering it, is a virtuoso violinist set on a crash course for fame… or self-destruction. Then an enigmatic rainbow-haired girl shows up, tipping the Falls’ world over. She might be an angel. Or a saint. Or an ordinary girl. Somehow, she is vital to each of them. But before anyone can figure out who she is, catastrophe strikes, leaving the Falls more broken than ever. And more desperate to be whole. With road trips, rivalries, family curses, love stories within love stories within love stories, and sorrows and joys passed from generation to generation, this is the intricate, luminous tale of a family’s complicated past and present. And only in telling their stories can they hope to rewrite their futures. The post All the New Young Adult SFF Books Arriving in September 2024 appeared first on Reactor.

Excerpts Fantasy Read an Excerpt From Margaret Killjoy’s The Sapling Cage A tale of earth magic, power struggle, and self-invention. By Margaret Killjoy | Published on September 11, 2024 Comment 0 Share New Share We’re thrilled to share an excerpt from The Sapling Cage by Margaret Killjoy, a powerful story of trans witchcraft publishing with the Feminist Press at CUNY on September 24th. Lorel has always dreamed of becoming a witch: learning magic, fighting monsters, and exploring the world beyond the small town where she and her mother run the stables. Even though a strange plague is killing the trees in the Kingdom of Cekon and witches are being blamed for it, Lorel wants nothing more than to join them. There’s only one problem: all witches are women, and she was born a boy.When the coven comes to claim her best friend, Lorel disguises herself in a dress and joins in her friend’s place, leaving home and her old self behind. She soon discovers the dark powers threatening the kingdom: a magical blight scars the land, and the power-mad Duchess Helte is crushing everything between her and the crown. In spite of these dangers, Lorel makes friends and begins learning magic from the powerful witches in her coven. However, she fears that her new friends and mentors will find out her secret and kick her out of the coven, or worse. It wasn’t hard to figure out how The Gate got its name. The gatehouse of the old giant’s castle still stood, a stone arch braced thirty feet up between cliff walls at the entrance to the valley. The rusted remains of an ancient iron door lay against one cliff face. We went through it into the town beyond. A small market bustled just inside the gate. I tried not to let disappointment creep across my face. I wanted to see new things, amazing things. Nothing could compare to Port Cek’s market, filled to overflowing with people and goods from across the world. The Gate’s market, which was plenty big considering the small town, was full of livestock and tools and all things mundane and sundry. Nothing new. Nothing surprising. At least I’d left the barony for the first time. Plus, I was headed to the highlands, where the fields were rich and the people were rich and it was all sunshine and good crops instead of mist and rain like we had in the lowlands. The highlands were paradise, according to every highlander I’d ever met. Heads turned at our passing, which I suppose made sense enough. A coven will draw eyes anywhere, even without the spears and swords and shields we carried. It wasn’t polite for visitors to travel armed, pretty much anywhere. In Ledston, we’d let knights get away with it, or the occasional brigands or witches who were too stubborn to conceal their weapons, but we were never happy about it. Whispers surrounded us, faint shadows of words. Were people afraid of us? Were they angry? Buy the Book The Sapling Cage Margaret Killjoy Buy Book The Sapling Cage Margaret Killjoy Buy this book from: AmazonBarnes and NobleiBooksIndieBoundTarget One man came close to us, clearly curious. He was young, maybe eighteen or twenty at the most, and he wore the plain garment of a working peasant. In his hand, though, he held a basket full of egg-shaped rocks. He saw me looking and caught my eyes with a smile. He was handsome. He looked so sure of himself as he strode past us in the market. “Hold there, coven,” I heard, then turned to look for the source of the voice. “The market is closed to you.” Three tax knights barred our path. New ones that we hadn’t seen before. The witches fanned out into a line, facing off with the knights. Hands hovered uncomfortably close to weapons. “You’ll be on your way, out and through town,” one of the knights said, her voice strong and unwavering. “No tax knight will bar my passage,” Dam Alectoria said. She didn’t shout, but her voice carried unnaturally strong.“We have no quarrel with the Order of the Vine,” the knight said. “Then we’ll buy provisions.” “We have no quarrel, but I am under orders to prevent you from commerce.” She sat up straighter in her saddle and towered over the crowd. “You see how those two statements contradict one another?” “You may return the way you came or you may be on your way, but you will not linger and you will not trade.” “Great Mother, you people are insufferable.” Alectoria actually raised her voice this time, putting a hint of magic into it, and her words echoed so loud they hurt my ears. Some in the crowd cowered at the display of power, though many others seemed pleased to see Alectoria shout down the knights. To their credit, the tax knights maintained their composure. “How can a woman claim to run a town she doesn’t live in?” Dam Alectoria said, her voice returning to its regular, still remarkable volume. “Whelps, come here, it’s time for a lesson. I will teach you how to lay a curse. What would be most appropriate? Pox? Clumsiness? Maybe a slow petrification?” “I assure you, you will not survive the casting.” The knight’s two companions had crossbows leveled at Alectoria’s breast. I wanted to see Alectoria destroy them for that. I wanted to help her do it. After what I’d seen and heard the other knights of the same brotherhood do at Umbrin, I wanted revenge. “Hey! You lice! Eat Ilthurian rocks!” A voice cut through the silence. I turned—I think we all turned—just as the young man with the basket threw one of his rocks. All eyes followed the stone as it struck the lead knight square in the forehead of her helmet. She fell to the ground. With that, the peasant took off into the crowd, his basket still in hand. The two remaining knights tried to charge after him on their horses, but the gathered crowd didn’t seem fond enough of them to clear their way. “We aren’t going to help that man?” I asked Rose. “He’ll be fine,” she said, pointing. I looked, and the rock-thrower stood on top of a nearby house, making rude gestures with one hand while tossing a stone with the other before sprinting away and leaping to another roof. The fallen knight lifted her head and looked around confused, so Dam Ilma knelt down and whispered something into her ear. The tax knight moaned and closed her eyes. Her snores receded into the distance as we walked through town as quickly as Dam Lament could manage. There was no time to buy provisions. We left the market behind and traveled a narrow path between rows of shanties before reaching the edge of town, well away from the road. We walked between plowed fields to the forest beyond. We caught our breath in a small grove of fir trees alongside a wide and deep creek. Dam Alectoria set down the child’s casket from her back, then she and Dam Ilma paced a circle widdershins, chanting. I wasn’t sure what magic they worked. I wasn’t sure whether the casket was part of it, or why she carried a casket at all. “We ought to have killed them,” Araneigh whispered to me and Hex. Hex nodded. “If you meet a predator in the forest, and it decides to hunt you, you have to kill it. Otherwise it’ll hunt you every time you leave the house.” “We probably shouldn’t have confronted them at all,” Dam Alectoria said. Her hearing was uncanny. “I was just angry. I acted on that anger, which is rarely the right plan.” “Who was that man with the rocks?” I asked. “He was an Ilthurian,” Hex answered. The Ilthurians, the outlaw knights, were a strange bunch. I’d only met two the entire time I’d worked the stables, but each had left an impression. They had their own individual codes of honor, and they spent at least as much time thumbing their noses at the nobility and the other knightly brotherhoods as they did righting wrongs and defending the weak. Instead of “Sir” or “Dam,” each took the title Ilthura, regardless of their gender. I’d never been tempted by knighthood, not even when Lane had gone on and on about it, but watching that man today had been wonderful. Dam Lament was shaking, and she clutched tight to the haft of the battle-axe hidden beneath her cloak. She paced the circle, muttering, leaning heavily on her crutch. She wasn’t casting magic, it took me a moment to realize, she was just trying to release her anger and fear. “Alright, let’s not get ourselves over-worried,” Dam Alectoria said. “They didn’t try to hurt us.” “No,” Lament said, “they just want to starve us out. That’s not better. We should have killed them.” “Even if we’d managed to kill them without any of us getting hurt,” Alectoria said, “it would just make everything worse.” “If we’re to join this coven, then it’s only right that you tell us what danger we’re in,” Araneigh said with an enviable confidence in her voice. “Why are tax knights trying to starve us out? What was the bad hunt my father spoke of?” The four witches looked at one another, each in turn, silently determining who ought to speak. Then they turned to look at Rose, but she looked down, shaking her head, and Dam Lament spoke up. “No one’s quite sure,” she said. “We’re trying to figure it out. It’s never been safe to be a witch, not really. Superstition says we’re evil, and some people put their faith in superstition. But lately, it’s been more than that. Since we broke up last Endsmeet, at least three covens have been destroyed by Helte’s tax knights. Each time, the pretense was some blight on the land. Two times it was just regular dead crops, but one coven was blamed for what your father called the colddead. Like the knights at Umbrin were starting to do to us before we left.” “We’re convenient scapegoats for everything, ever, always,” Rose said. “And you’re worried that the Order will be outlawed outright?” I asked. Dam Lament nodded, and I beamed with pride about being right even as I realized the implications of what I was right about. “It’s not going to help anything that this coven stopped a company of tax knights from making us the fourth before we picked you whelps up,” Dam Alectoria said. A smile grew across Dam Lament’s wounded face. “They tried to arrest us, but we told them we wouldn’t live in chains. So they tried to kill us. We killed ten of them before they ran off.” “They’re not entirely wrong,” Dam Sorrel said. Though I hadn’t spoken much with her, she reminded me of my mother—relaxed, hardworking, and often happily staring at clouds. “The thing we’re being blamed for, it’s a real thing that’s happening. The cold blight is everywhere. You saw it. When the knights found us, we’d just stumbled upon a dead forest.” “Who would blight a forest?” Araneigh asked. “All we have to do is find the cause of the blight, and then we can clear our name before things get worse?” I asked. “It’s not as simple as that, whelp,” Dam Alectoria said. “It could be,” Rose said. “And I hope it is.” 1 We set up camp by the creek when the sun was down near the horizon. A few of the witches and both other whelps went down to the water to bathe. I couldn’t join them, of course, so I sat with my back to a tree on the bank and tried not to stare. Rose and Araneigh were beautiful, and I felt guilty for thinking so. I’d known for a long time that I was attracted to girls and boys both, but back in Ledston I’d figured out quick that I wasn’t nearly as interested in dating as most teenagers. Lane had talked about boys all the time. Myself, I just figured it would happen or not and there was no hurry. I’d wanted to kiss Lane, because I knew her so well, but she hadn’t shared my attraction so we’d just stayed good friends. There were only two other people besides her that I’d wanted to be with. One was a sailor’s son in Port Cek. He’d been a couple years older than me, and his friends had called him Honey but I never learned his real name. He’d smiled at me when he thought I was a girl. He was all business with me once he figured out I was just a boy, and nothing ever happened between us. The Great Mother approves of anyone who wants to be with anyone, but he clearly hadn’t wanted to be with me. The other was a girl who had passed through our stables and stayed a week last fall. Her name was Kenosi. Her mother was a merchant from the Kingdom of Oxley. She told me stories about half the world while we ate pears under my favorite tree, and she kissed me, then she told me to forget about her. Honestly, it had sort of worked. I’d mostly forgotten about her. Sometimes I thought that my crush on her had just been jealousy of her life—she was a girl and she was seeing the world. I tried extra hard not to watch Araneigh when she swam. I didn’t succeed. I wanted to be with her. Or maybe I wanted to look like her. Maybe both. She caught my eye as I sat on the bank, and she smiled, and my heart lifted in my chest for a moment, like I was falling. She looked away and I was myself again. I’d never felt that way before. I wasn’t sure I liked it. When Hex took off her dress, instead of an undershirt, she wore a bandage that bound her chest down. I could do that. I had no breasts to bind, but if I wore bandages like that, then people would assume I had breasts and just didn’t want them showing or getting in the way. It didn’t solve the problem of the bulge between my legs, but it was a start. “Want another chance to bring back dinner?” Lament asked me while I was watching the witches and thinking. “I don’t know that I’ll do any better this time,” I said. “We’re not going to hunt anything,” Lament said. “Just going to buy it.” “Oh,” I said. “Sure. Why me?” “Because you can pass for a boy, almost. No offense.” “None taken.” My thoughts on the matter were far too complicated to be described as simply having taken offense. “Just wear your hair different, in a topknot, maybe.That’s what boys are wearing right now?” “Yup,” I said. I’d worn a topknot every day for years, while working the fields, only taking it down at home. As Lament watched, I tied my hair up, trying my hardest to make it look like I didn’t know what I was doing. “Great,” Dam Lament said. “Who are you going to be, then? My mother?” She laughed. “I was hoping to be your older sister, but I guess, yeah, I probably look more like your mother.” She went to a nearby pine tree and picked at the air near it as if she were picking fruit in an orchard. Once she had enough of the nothing she was collecting, she rolled it between her hands and smeared at her face. When her hands came away, she was the picture of unscarred beauty. “There,” she said. “That’ll do until dawn.” “You look amazing,” I said. That was the sort of magic I was going to need. “Why don’t you…” I cut myself short. “Why don’t I do it all the time, disguise the wounds while they’re healing?” “Yeah,” I said. “Then I realized it was a stupid question.” “What’s the answer?” “You don’t do it all the time because you have no shame in your wounds?” “And no pride in a countenance unmarred by the weight of my actions, yes.” I emptied my basket of clothes and Dam Lament led us away from camp. Not ten paces away, I turned and saw no sign of the coven. More illusion. I wanted that power as badly as I’d ever wanted anything. Dam Lament walked without the crutch, once again sipping her potion for strength. We entered town on the main road, but no guard hailed us and no bell tolled our coming. A young man and his mother—or maybe older sister—drew no undue attention at all. Excerpted from The Sapling Cage, copyright © 2024 by Margaret Killjoy. 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