Summer Reads 2020 from Publishers Weekly Publishers Weekly

Again Again

E. Lockhart (Delacorte)

Adrift in the summer between her junior and senior years, Adelaide Buchwald navigates the aftermath of an unexpected breakup and a wrenching family situation while working to fend off academic probation. Lockhart takes her penchant for plot twists to a new level with a narrative that explores the idea of the multiverse through scenes imagined and reimagined in an iterative style.

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Burn Our Bodies Down

Rory Power (Delacorte)

Power, whose debut novel, Wilder Girls, was a bestseller last year, returns with a creeping thriller about a girl without a history returning to her mother’s hometown, her roots, and her poisonous family tree.

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Clap When You Land

Elizabeth Acevedo (Quill Tree)

Two sisters, one in the Dominican Republic, one in New York City, discover their sisterhood—and their father’s double life—when his plane crashes, leaving no survivors. In a verse narrative, Acevedo subtly, skillfully uses language and rhythm to pack an effective double punch, unraveling the aftermath of losing a parent alongside the realities of familial inheritance.

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Felix Ever After

Kacen Callender (HarperCollins/Balzer + Bray)

Featuring a realistic and relatable cast of queer characters and a whodunit that will keep readers guessing to the last twist, Callender’s story of a black trans artist navigating the bumpy road to self-love and self-determination sticks its landing at every turn.

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A Peculiar Peril (The Misadventures of Jonathan Lambshead #1)

Jeff VanderMeer (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

Adult author VanderMeer offers his first in a sprawling YA fantasy duology about an orphaned teen who, upon inheriting the family manor, discovers portals in the basement, one of which leads to an alternate version of Earth where a magical dictator, Aleister Crowley, is on a rampage.

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Parachutes

Kelly Yang (HarperCollins/Tegen)

When Filipina American Dani’s mom rents out their spare room to an international student from Shanghai who is used to a life of luxury, the girls’ lives become twined, even as they chafe at the other’s socioeconomic misunderstandings. In her YA debut, Yang draws from headlines and personal experience to tell a contemporary story of class discrepancy, the pervasiveness of rape culture, and the Asian diaspora.

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