Bookcase Bizarro: MG/YA Book Reviews, January 2026

MG/YA Book Reviews by a MG/YA Writer

Table of Contents

Author News

MG/YA Book Reviews

In the Garden

Adult Recommendation

Author News

Happy New Year, and welcome to the January edition of Bookcase Bizarro!

This is a time for new plans and fresh starts. In between all the tasks involved in releasing my new novella, Rogue Wizard, I spent a fair amount of time reflecting on the past year and deciding what I wanted to do in the year ahead. In 2025, I did a TON of research on direct sales, marketing and promotion, and AI. I gradually realized that my starting point for deciding what to do was considering where I was in my author journey. That one mindset shift allowed me to prioritize. What goals and activities make the most sense for a new author with an unfinished series? Here is what I came up with:

Write More Books

For 2025, this means releasing Rogue Wizard and working on the next book in The Garrison Creek Chronicles—the sequel to Shadow Apprentice. I completed a very rough first draft of this in June 2025, and it would be great to get it revised to the point where it is ready for editing by the end of 2026.

It’s taking me 6-8 months on average to complete a first draft. Then, I usually put the manuscript away for a few months, and focus on another project. (In 2025, that project was Rogue Wizard.) I don’t give myself deadlines for the first-draft process, the resting periods or the revisions involved in getting the manuscript to an editable state. I take whatever time the manuscript needs. Since I’m not writing to market with a pre-determined launch date in mind, this approach works for me.

Editing takes the next biggest amount of time. Each manuscript goes through a developmental assessment, a beta read, three rounds of stylistic copyedits, and a final proofread. For Rogue Wizard, the entire editing process (plus revisions) took about four months (including five revisions, and the time it took my editors to work on the project). I’m an outlier in the indie author world in terms of how much time I take to write and edit. For me, the quality of the writing and finished book is my number one priority. I’ve embraced being a slow writer, and I am happiest when writing this way.

Keep Publishing Wide

My current business model is to publish with as many of the online third-party book retailers as possible (i.e. Amazon, Kobo, Draft2Digital, IngramSpark, Google Play), in both eBook and paperback formats. This is known as ‘publishing wide.’ I plan to keep using this business model exclusively until I complete The Garrison Creek Chronicles. That means no online store for the time being.

Direct sales is a lot of work. I’d have to take on responsibility for customer service and liability issues, sales tax, and driving traffic directly to my store. It’s an entirely different business model, and an advanced one at that. Most of all, I’d need a dedicated audience to make it work. I think my audience will grow over time, but right now it’s nowhere near enough to support an online store. I can scale my business in other ways by offering my books in more formats (like digitally narrated audiobooks, box sets and bundles, hardbacks, and large print editions) while still continuing to publish widely through the online retailers.

Strategic Marketing and Promotion

This year, I learned that not every marketing and promotional tactic is relevant for every author at every stage of their writing career. Besides finishing The Garrison Creek Chronicles, the best marketing move I can make right now is writing and promoting my monthly blog, and growing my email list with Rogue Wizard. I’ll also continue to make connections with writers, book bloggers, teachers and librarians through in-person or online meetups and chats, blog comments and cross-posting my book reviews to Goodreads, LibraryThing and possibly StoryGraph.

I’m also thinking of running an experiment with Substack by establishing a one-page website with a bio and monthly links to my Bookcase Bizarro posts. I’d be using Substack to drive more traffic over to lindabrowne.ca. I won’t be moving this blog over to Substack now, or ever. I like my independence too much for that. (Plus, WordPress lets me make such pretty posts!)

Break Even Finances

Indie publishing is a long, long-tail game. It takes years to build up a readership and enough books for the company to actually make money. Even then, my income will probably be sporadic and unpredictable—like it is for most writers. So, I’m focusing on a different metric for financial success: breaking even. If Crooked Mile Media can generate enough income to cover its expenses, it can be self-supporting, and my ability to go on writing and publishing books is secure. That, to me, is the most important metric for success.

This month, I tackle The Experiment, the most recent novel from the brilliant Rebecca Stead. Spoiler alert: it just didn’t work for me. (And I still love Rebecca Stead.)

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.

MG/YA Book Reviews

This is already a long post, so I’m going to use the publisher’s description here:

Nathan never understood what was “fun” about secrets, probably because he’s always had to keep a very big one.

Although he appears to be a typical sixth-grader (with parents, homework and a best friend, Victor), Nathan learned at an early age that his family is from another planet. Now, their time on Earth may be coming to an end.

Nathan, his parents and nine other families are part of an experiment that suddenly seems to be going wrong. Some of the experimenters, including Nathan’s first crush, Izzy, are disappearing without a word. After his family is called back to the mothership, Nathan begins to question everything he’s been taught to believe about who he is and why he’s on Earth.

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A quick glimpse into the online reviews for Rebecca Stead’s The Experiment is revealing: reviewers overwhelmingly raved about this book. The Experiment made NPR’s Books We Love list in 2025. Kirkus called the book’s pacing “superb,” and the School Library Journal gave it a starred review.

The only place I found any negative reviews was on Goodreads, and one of these was a thoughtful critique written by someone who’s clearly a fan of Rebecca Stead’s work. “Well, this is awkward,” the review starts.

It really is. I am also a fan of Rebecca Stead’s work, and despite NPR, The Kirkus Review and the School Library Journal’s accolades, The Experiment really didn’t land with me.

Main protag Nathan in The Experiment is a strong character, curious and rebellious. At the beginning of the story, he’s been locked inside his room by seemingly kind and sympathetic parents, which is a great hook, but the first 70 pages of the book are completely bereft of physical or sensory details. There are no descriptions of Nathan’s father when he appears in Nathan’s room, or of the room itself, which you’d think Nathan would be fixated on since he can’t get out. Nathan even peers through the crack at the bottom of the door, and while he sees the apartment clearly, we can see none of it. The apartment is so under described that the family could have been living inside a series of empty rooms. We don’t even know what Nathan’s best friend Victor looks like (besides the rather lovely fact that he wears mismatched socks). It’s like trying to watch a TV show without the screen. Everything feels half-there.

Regular Bookcase Bizarro readers will know this is a pet peeve of mine, but this case is atypical: the lack of description only lasts for the first 70 pages. When Nathan and his family return to the mothership, it’s carefully rendered in enough physical and sensory detail to make it come chillingly to life. There is a lot buried inside those descriptions, which is one of Stead’s specialties. Still, it’s plain weird not to know what Nathan’s parents and best friend look like, while Hester, the mothership’s leader—a woman Nathan’s never met before—is described as wearing lipstick, a red tracksuit, and has freshly cut short brown hair with bangs. Why the discrepancy?

Stead also shifts between a dizzying array of third-person viewpoints, often just for a single chapter. This wouldn’t have been a problem if she’d been using a third-person omniscient point of view (POV) throughout, but most of the story is told through Nathan’s POV. This combination produces a choppy, disjointed narrative that often “tells” when it should “show.” In the omniscient chapters, it felt like I was being force-fed important bits of plot instead of being allowed to experience the story for myself. Nowhere was this more true than at the end. Still, Stead wrote a very moving climax, which once again proves how highly skilled she is as a writer.

The most egregious error to me is the best-friend issue. [MILD SPOILER ALERT.] Nathan ditches Victor at a critical juncture in the story. This was so unconvincing to me that I nearly fell out of my armchair. Nathan knows how devoted a friend Victor is, so how exactly he thought Victor wouldn’t follow him is frankly unbelievable. Worse, Nathan gives an equally unbelievable-for-a-twelve-year-old boy explanation for why he did this. It seemed more like Stead was trying to advance a plot point without considering how out of character Nathan’s actions were. I would argue that sidelining Victor was only one of several plot choices she could have made to (temporarily) remove him from the scene, and the climax would have been much more powerful if Victor and Nathan had faced it together.

The plot that fuels this story is definitely twisty and interesting, but Stead’s focus is more on it than on Nathan. I have a feeling that switching between omniscient and limited third-person POVs didn’t help. Stead also poses some important questions about parents who fail to protect their children because of their own idealogical convictions or delusions. I would have liked to have seen this pushed more, as there are obvious parallels between Nathan’s parents and Hester. To explore this, the book would have needed to be longer, and Stead might have been aiming for a shorter, faster-paced book.

I usually love Rebecca Stead’s books, but to me, The Experiment ultimately reads more like a concept-in-development than a finished novel. I have to wonder if Stead was allowed the time she needed to bring this work to full fruition? (#TPL)

Adult Recommendation

I recently listened to J.F. Penn’s digitally narrated audiobook, Blood Vintage, on her YouTube channel, and was astounded at how good her digital voice clone was when compared to her human reading voice. I couldn’t tell the two apart. Penn has an evocative writing style that is occasionally a bit over the top. She manages to infuse this genuinely creepy folk horror story with empathy, which makes it even creepier for being so relatable. It’s free if you want to check it out.

In the Garden

The big post-holiday news is that I’ve taken out my herb garden. The grow light setup I use doesn’t produce enough light to support full-sun plants. Parsley and cilantro stayed stringy and small, and the mint developed rust. In fact, the only herb that thrived was basil, which I discovered does well in part-shade as well as full-sun. (Rosemary is also doing well. The oregano has gone dormant, as expected.) Lesson learned: my grow lights can only grow part-shade plants.

I’m in the process of re-planting all the former herb containers. Lettuce, spinach, chard, and green onions have all done well, so that’s what I’m sowing. I’ve also sown some coleus seeds, as I so love their brightly coloured foliage. They take 14-21 days to germinate, so pics may be a long time coming.

From L-R, T-B

Monstrueux de Viroflay spinach seedlings, Spicy Globe basil and rosemary, sad mint, Peppermint chard, Red Salad Bowl and Simpson lettuce with Red Beard onion, Peppermint chard and Bull’s Blood beets.

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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, bookstore, or favourite online retailer.

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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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