Rabbit & Juliet | LGBTQ Reads

Middle Grade

Alex Wise vs. the Cosmic Shift by Terry J. Benton-Walker

This is the sequel to Alex Wise vs. the End of the World

Alex Wise is no superhero. Or at least, he doesn’t feel like one. Sure, he vanquished Death and saved his sister Mags—with the help of some new magic powers, his best friend Loren and demi-god Liam. But the apocalypse shows no signs of slowing down. Now, Alex and his friends will have to find new allies and face new dangers—from battling a giant snake in a literal ghost town and infiltrating the Horsemen’s new home base on the Vegas Strip…on the back of a dragon.

With everyone looking to him for answers, Alex isn’t sure he’s cut out for this world saving thing. And the closer he gets to Liam, the farther away he feels from Loren and from Mags, who hasn’t been the same since she was possessed by Death. How can Alex lead a team if he doesn’t even feel like he deserves to be a part of it?

Buy it: Bookshop | Amazon

Continue reading New Releases: September 24, 2024 →

Today on the site, I’m delighted to host the cover reveal for Rabbit & Juliet by Rebecca Stafford, a queer YA Thelma & Louis-esque contemporary releasing September 24, 2024 from Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins! Here’s the story:

Seventeen-year-old Rabbit has been struggling to stay above water since her mom died. In the span of a year and a half, her small Georgia town has become unbearably hellish: her ex-boyfriend, resident golden boy Richard, turned into an unrelenting stalker; her friends are nonexistent; and her dad is campaigning hard for Functioning Alcoholic of the Year.

But all that changes when the sarcastic, gorgeous, and frustratingly impenetrable Juliet Bergman walks into Rabbit’s weekly support group. All hard angles and James Dean bravado, Juliet throws Rabbit a life preserver just as depression threatens to sink her.

Then one morning, Rabbit’s ex–best friend, Sarah—Richard’s current girlfriend—shares a horrific discovery about Richard and his crew that pitches Rabbit back into darkness. The three girls vow to enact revenge on the boys for what they’ve been doing to unsuspecting girls at parties. With Juliet leading the charge and demanding blind loyalty from the girls, Rabbit falls harder for her than she thought possible. It isn’t until Rabbit is faced with a startling act of violence that she must decide how far she’s willing to go—for herself, for Juliet, and for justice—when love and grief threaten to topple everything.

And here’s the striking cover, illustrated by Mariia Menshikova and designed by Kathy Lam!

Buy it: B&N | Amazon

Rebecca Stafford is a Pushcart Prize award–winning poet, writer, critic, and editor whose work has been published in the New Yorker and reviewed in the New York Times. Rabbit and Juliet is her debut young adult novel. To learn more about Rebecca’s distinguished body of work, visit her online at rebeccastaffordauthor.com.

Queering up your shelf, one rec at a time!