Winter 2020 Seasonal TBR Jar — Late, But Looking Ahead!

releasing: april 21, 2020 — avon

This is the second book in the Modern Love series and it follows a former model who has gone unexpectedly viral when the internet becomes convinced she’s got a new bae. I liked the first book in this series — didn’t love it, sadly — but this one sounds a little more up my alley and very cute.

releasing: april 28, 2020 — henry holt & co.

TW: suicide
This is an epistolary novel told from the POV of a teen girl who’s just committed suicide and now needs to revisit her final days to determine why. I think this book is going to be soundly Not for Everyone™, but I get a lump in my throat every time I read the synopsis or other people’s reviews of this because it feels like a book that, as long as it was done well, really needed to be written — for me and so many other people. Definitely putting this one back in the jar if I pull it on a bad mental health day, though!

releasing: may 12, 2020 — flatiron

While this author’s debut a few years back wasn’t my fave of the year or anything, it did make me excited to see what she would create next, and I jumped at the chance to read this when it was offered to me. I’m told it’s lightly Persian-inspired and it features a bi heroine, who happens to be a princess with poison in her touch. I’m a sucker for plots that feature main characters who have to be secluded or hidden away for whatever reason, plus apparently, there’s a demon and we all know how I feel about demon side characters. ? *pats Silas*

releasing: may 19, 2020 — gallery/saga press

It’s 2020, and somehow, this is going to be my first full-length SGJ story, and frankly I just don’t know what I’m doing with my life these days because I love this man’s short stories to bit and definitely need more of his unique brand of eerie horror — plus, it features own-voices Native American rep. It follows a group of Native boys as they grow into men, having done something awful (but necessary, it sounds like?) in their childhood and now being forced to fight for their lives as someone or something seeks revenge.

releasing: june 9, 2020 — swoon reads

First of all, THIS COVER, RIGHT? *wistful sigh* Okay, with that out of the way, this is a paranormal fantasy about a trans Latinx boy who wants to prove himself as a brujo. He tries to summon his murdered cousin but accidentally brings back the wrong guy, and I’m pretty sure they fall in love as they try to solve the mystery of the ghost’s death? Let’s see here: own-voice trans rep, Latinx rep, and one of my favorite romantic tropes of all time (living/dead ships)? SIGN. ME. UP.

releasing: june 23, 2020 — wednesday books

TW: assault, trafficking
Lex is a trafficking survivor who’s been rescued and brought home, but she still doesn’t feel safe. When her boyfriend and his friends add to the weight by assaulting her, she realizes she’s going to have to face down her past and learn to heal and love herself again. This sounds so freaking sad but important and it’s another one I’ll be allowing myself to put back in the jar if the timing is wrong!

releasing: june 23, 2020 — harperteen

In this fantasy world, seasons are embodied by people, and those people are forced to kill the season who came before them in order to live their own times out. What happens when Winter and Spring fall in love? This cover and plot are just honestly giving me the best fantasy romance vibes and I am SO excited.

releasing: july 21, 2020 — harperteen

2020 miiiight just be the year that redeems YA fantasy for me from all of the sadly disappointing releases I read last year, because these just keep on comin’. Shady has inherited her father’s ability to summon ghosts with a fiddle, and she has to use that ability to get ghosts to help clear her brother’s name when he’s accused of murder. It features a bunch of my favorite things: it’s a creepy dark fantasy, it has a queer love triangle(!), and I just really love ghost-summoning subplots. ?

releasing: august 25, 2020 — kathy dawson books

A YA horror/thriller about the daughter of a famous horror director who’s abruptly sent to live in the town where her father’s most famous movie was filmed. When she gets there, the people seem strange, citizens keep disappearing, and she’s convinced someone or something is stalking her. Lemme tell you all right now, if this book does not legitimately bring the creep factor, I’m gonna be so disappointed, but I have high hopes!

releasing: august 25, 2020 — harpercollins

And finally, another YA horror release — which I honestly feel 100% confident will be super creepy, having read previous work from this author — features a homicidal clown who’s decided to teach the teens of Kettle Springs a very violent and permanent lesson. Clowns creep me out to begin with, and cornfields are inherently terrifying — *gestures to Children of the Corn, Signs, and a million other movies/books* — so I’m low-key hoping this is the first one I pull!