Bookcase Bizarro: MG/YA Book Reviews, April 2025

MG/YA Book Reviews by a MG/YA Writer

Welcome to the April edition of Bookcase Bizarro!

I have little writing news to report, since I’m still drafting my novel, a process only exciting to the writer. (Trust me on this.)

In Instagram news… there is none. (Ha!) I’m enjoying commenting on blogs so much, I don’t think I’ll be going back to being active on social media. I’m keeping my account and am using it as a placeholder to announce writing-related events and Bookcase Bizarro posts. I use Canva to design a monthly blog post carousel, then schedule it to release later in the month to help create an even flow of blog traffic. I posted last month’s book review on Goodreads, and I’m going to post on Library Thing this month, as well.

Reading Joanna Penn’s How to Market a Book has been a great help as I figure out my goals and where to direct my efforts. I’m thinking of using AI to help me write my next dust jacket blurb and other marketing materials. Joanna Penn’s podcast, The Creative Penn, is a great resource, as is the podcast, Brave New Bookshelf. I’m far more critical of AI than any of these podcasters, which is why I’m so interested in what they have to say. The pace at which AI is disrupting whole industries is alarming to me, as is the siren-like call to embrace this new technology before I get left behind… forever. (Cue grim and regretful music.)

Thanks, no. My curiosity is more of the cautious type. I’m going to explore this new technology slowly and critically, then decide when and how to use it. I think it’s going to fundamentally change the way I (and other writers) do business. However, just like I refuse to work as an unpaid employee for Meta, churning out ‘content’ to their specifications, I won’t let myself get pushed into using AI out of the fear of losing out on the early adopter’s edge. I definitely want to keep on working with human editors and designers. I know that a machine could never replicate their creativity, or the back and forth flow of human-to-human connection.

This month, we accompany three teen boys accused of murdering their high school principal, and walk through the systemic injustice of the thin blue line and the too-quick judgements of the social media mob.

A quick note to new readers: books that are available from the Toronto Public Library will be marked #TPL, because books don’t have to be new or owned in order to be loved.

YA Novel

This is going to be a long review, so I’m going to cheat this month and paste in the publisher’s description:

The prestigious Urban Promise Prep school might look pristine on the outside, but deadly secrets lurk within. When the principal ends up murdered on school premises and the cops come sniffing around, a trio of students―J.B., Ramón, and Trey―emerge as the prime suspects. They had the means, they had the motive . . . and they may have had the murder weapon. But with all three maintaining their innocence, they must band together to track down the real killer before they are arrested. Or is the true culprit hiding among them?

Nick Brooks’ Promise Boys will appeal to teen readers who like snappy reads on both the younger and older ends of the YA spectrum (even with the inclusion of a very short sex scene). How the book gets readers to continually question their assumptions is especially valuable in the current climate, and middle schoolers are more than capable of handling it.

The premise of telling the story from the different points of view of the three accused boys, their friends, family members, teachers, coaches, police officers and other students at the school is a great structural device. I felt bombarded by multiple points of view, as if I was in the middle of the crisis myself, and was just as prone to being swayed by the other people’s opinions, as well as my own biases. I think this was Brook’s intention.

Finally, we get to hear from the three accused boys themselves. We get to know what’s at stake for each of them before the murder. On the day of the murder, we learn exactly why each boy hates Principal Moore. Facts I had taken at face value began to unravel as I understood the many perfectly innocent reasons behind the boys’ behavior, and the extent to which they had been preemptively criminalized by the police and their own community.

However, with all the flipping back and forth between various viewpoints, there isn’t enough time or space for Brooks to fully develop each boy’s story.

The strongest story belongs to Ramón, a budding chef. His cousin, César, is the leader of a local gang, the Dioses del Humo. It’s clear that César truly cares for Ramón and expresses his love by urging him to accept the protection he thinks only the gang can offer. But Ramón finds a different kind of refuge cooking with his Abuelita. He’s set up a culinary arts program at Urban Promise Preparatory School, and runs a side business hustling the homemade pupusas they make. César tells him that his dreams of becoming a chef are only that, dreams. When Principal Moore calls the cops on César for trespassing on school grounds, Ramón thinks he may be involved in the murder. His suspicions are confirmed when he witnesses a pay-off to a known Dioses del Humo associate, but in a story that always twists assumptions, can Ramón really trust what he sees? Ramón’s story felt the most complete and satisfying to me, so much so that I wanted a whole book about him.

Trey, the smart, wisecracking rebel, hides his vulnerability beneath a self-protective armor of braggadocio. This only works because Trey’s self-aware enough to admit to his fears and self-doubts. Brooks cleverly uses inner dialogue to allow readers to get to know and understand Trey. It’s pretty hard to judge someone when you understand where they’re coming from, and Trey’s coming from a pretty hard place. He lives with his uncle, who abuses him. Trey suffers through this horrific trauma quietly, until his uncle learns that his own gun was the murder weapon. He fears that the toxic masculinity that has made Trey too afraid to confide in him may have cost Trey his freedom. It’s a beautiful realization, but it reads more like what the author wanted for Trey rather than what an abusive man like his uncle would do. (Or maybe that’s just my assumption!) Trey’s absent mother comes back on the scene when Trey’s accused of murder, and her gestures of support convince Trey that a reconciliation might be possible, even while he suspects that she’s still untrustworthy. I can’t imagine him going to live with her, and I certainly can’t see him staying with his uncle. So where does he go? We never find out.

J.B., to my mind, was the weakest character of the three and his story revolves around navigating first love while he and his girlfriend, Keyana, try to prove his innocence. Keyana, who wants to be a lawyer, is perfectly positioned to lead the charge, and she brings all the boys together to work on the mystery, but who is J.B.? A big guy with a temper that gets him into trouble, a budding musician. But mostly, a boyfriend. This was problematic for me, since I always want more than a relationship to be at the center of a character’s story. For teens, this may not matter. First love is all-consuming, and J.B.’s story certainly speaks to this experience.

The disparate voices of the boys and their allies draw closer the more they learn to trust each other and work together to solve the mystery. The climax reflects this sense of cohesion perfectly, but it’s unfortunately undercut by a tacked-on wrap-up in the form of a school newspaper column that updates us on the boys’ successes. I would have preferred a final meetup at the local park where they’ve been congregating to solve the murder, with each boy voicing his own hopes for the future along with the challenges that still stand in their way, whether it’s a complicated relationship with gang members, a bad temper, a violent uncle or unreliable mother. They’ve learned to stand up for each other. Now it’s time for them to acknowledge exactly what they mean to each other.

Brooks has a rare gift for creating wonderful, fully rounded characters almost entirely through voice and action—characters which are differentiated even while using the first person. The danger is that using a multiple POV narrative in a short(ish) book like Promise Boys doesn’t showcase this talent to its full potential.

The story is also a cautionary tale about private, independent preparatory schools, how a militaristic focus on discipline can be psychologically abusive and how school finances can be manipulated, especially when wealthy donors are involved. It certainly makes me curious about how such schools are viewed by the communities they serve, especially by the kids who go to them.

Recommended for teen readers who like realistic, fast-paced mysteries, told through a mixture of first person dialogue and texts. (#TPL)

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Thirteen-year-old Ermin is a gifted mechanic and the worst student at St. Anselm’s Training School for Orphans. She’s just failed her exams for the third time—something nobody’s ever done. Worse, Ermin’s been running her own repair business for money—something that’s expressly forbidden. If the headmistress finds out, Ermin will go to prison. Her future will be over before it’s even begun.

But that’s not her only secret.

Her best friends, Colin and Georgie, are wizards in a world where magic is strictly controlled. Ermin worries that her friends will be captured, drained of their power, then banished. When Georgie’s caught aiding the Wizard’s Resistance, Ermin repairs a broken flying carpet so all three of them can escape.

Hesitant to join the Resistance because of her lack of magical power, Ermin steals an experimental device from a wizard hunter that could destroy every wizard in the Creek. She’s faced with a choice: either smash the device or convert it into a different kind of weapon—one that not only helps wizards but just might get her an apprenticeship at the prestigious Guild Academy.

Ermin’s got one chance to get it right. If she fails, she risks losing her two best friends… and her dreams.

Find Shadow Apprentice at your local library through Hoopla or buy from online retailers:

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Thanks for being a Bookcase Bizarro reader! I’ll be back next month with more author news, and more MG and YA book reviews. See you then!

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