Writer’s Palette Writing Challenge: Darker Hues by Jordyn Kohr

Jordyn Kohr is a sixteen-year old writer who participated and completed the summer 2025 Writer’s Palette Writing Challenge. Her short story, ” Darker Hues,” tells of a girl named Hestia from a mysterious and powerful family who must cope with the loss of her father and the consequences of her family’s actions.

Read Jordyn’s story below:

I don’t know where to begin. Should I tell you my name? Maybe you want to know about my family? My favorite color? My beginnings? I’ll start from the beginning. 

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth… Too far? I think so. Okay how about this:

My birthday is July 27th. My birth was a normal one. My mom spent the day in the hospital and I came into this world around 5:00 pm. My older siblings were present and my younger twin came into the world 30 minutes after me. I got my ears pierced when I was 3. I developed anxiety around that age. I still struggle with that but my sixteen years of life have shown a plethora of good reasons why. I started developing a personality when I was seven. I became different around that time too. My family noticed that and may have cast me out. For nine years, I have been living at a school for people like me. Though even they don’t really know what I am. 

In everything, I have found peace among the trees, calm in the rain, quiet among the stars. I have a name among my peers at school: freak, weirdo, strange. You name any of the cruel nicknames the students at your high school have called you and I’ve probably been called it, aside from the really inappropriate ones because the school I go to has more dignity than that. The name I was given by my parents might also be considered cruel. Hestia is what they called me, namely for the glow they saw in my eyes when I opened them. I prefer my middle name, Nimue, but it isn’t much better considering both of my names have some nerdy correlation to literature. Hestia being related to Greek myth and Nimue to Arthurian legend. Of course, my names leave me as a nerd too, but of course that also makes me different. 

I guess, now is a decent time to describe my physique to you. I have white hair. Don’t ask me how, amazing genetics is my guess. My eyes are a dark green with hints of brown around my pupils. I have extremely fair skin. I always wear dresses to cover the countless scars on my leg. For that reason and because it is the dress code for the place that I live, at least for the girls. I’m rather lean. Many people would call me underweight, I’ve had my fair share of basically starving myself unintentionally, but yeah. That’s how I look. 

Nature has been my home any time I need to get out of the fortress I have to call home. The wind in my hair is my favorite feeling, that or rain on my skin. I often will race the wolves. They are my only friends. The trees often speak to me. They sing in hushed voices so as to not alert the world of their voices. They often tell me that I am one of them. Maybe that is why everything feels so harmonious within me when I am in nature or maybe that is why everything feels so off when I’m with those in the fortress or my family. No matter, I still find calm in the woods. Getting lost is the best way to live life in my opinion.

“Nimue!” the annoying boy who calls himself my friend shouts, “It’s time for dinner!”

“I’m coming, Chase!” I didn’t really want to go to dinner. I’m a freak among those people. I find my bed along with my comfort books to be a place of far more comfort than any other room or thing in the entire fortress. 

“Hurry! All the good stuff will be gone if you don’t come quick!” His voice was melodic in a rough way. He is the one human I would allow myself to find comfort in. The one person I would let myself get close to after what they did to me. 

I open my door to find his hand raised in a fist prepared to knock on my door once again. He was handsome, even with his messy curly brown hair. Many would not find him handsome with his mocha colored skin. People only thought tan skin was handsome or beautiful, so the two of us quickly bonded over our undesirable skin tones. He runs his raised hand through his hair and I felt my breathing slightly hitch as he did so. Then I curse myself for doing so. This boy means nothing to me. 

“Clearly,” he says. 

“What?” I ask him.

“Clearly, I mean nothing to you,” he said, repeating my exact thought. Sometimes I forget his difference is reading minds. 

“I thought you said you wouldn’t ever read my mind.” 

“I did, but your thoughts are so intriguing when they are about me.” 

I roll my eyes and allow him to escort me to dinner. We sit and eat. The chatter of those around us ebbs and flows like most conversations do, getting louder and softer at various points, but Chase and I remain rather quiet throughout the meal, only speaking to ask for pepper and salt or the like. I sit on the edge of my seat, the possibility of being touched is too stressful for my mind to properly comprehend it. After everyone leaves to retire to their dorm lobbies, Chase and I get up to leave. He escorts me to the library this time. We sit and I drink tea while he makes himself a mug of hot cocoa. Then we are relaxing on the sofas in the library as I pull out a book about mythology and start on a section about Hercules. He starts chuckling.

“What?” I ask.

“Oh nothing. Just the cute way you smirk to yourself as you read the myths for which you are named. You are quite beautiful.” I blush as he finishes.

“Hmm.” I hum. Then I quickly decide to retire for the night, “I shall see you in the morning, Chase.” Then I’m heading to my room before he can say good night.

I slept peacefully last night. But, of course, knowing my luck that peace lasted only through the night. When I wake up, I notice that the oranging leaves are beginning to fall off their respective trees. I went to the window to watch in awe as the seasons changed before my eyes. That awe is quickly replaced with something else. A dread I can’t quite place. 

“Hey, Hestia,” I turn in a whirl to find my older sister, Aspyn, sitting in an armchair watching me watch the leaves, “It’s been a long time.”

Of my siblings, Aspyn is the least bearable. I can’t stand her, so I don’t know why my parents sent her. I dress myself in a white button up blouse and a brown tank top style dress. I don’t worry about my hair and wrap a square cloth around it. 

“We need to talk,” Aspyn says, following desperately as I find my way to my clearing in the woods.

“Desperation is not a good look on you,” I say, not bothering to face her. Then I run into a solid body. I stumble and it, he, catches me. 

“Well well, if it isn’t the golden child, Griffin. How’s my twin doing?” I ask, as I finally look up into the eyes I looked into everyday for the first seven years of our lives. They are a fiery orange. Beautiful and perfect. They are our mother’s eyes. His raven hair hangs lazily in those eyes of his. I love my twin, but I do not love the way he treated me during our last interaction. 

“I am not your twin,” he mutters grumpily. I often forget how he disowned me.

“Griffin, step away from her,” the oldest of us says. Raven is a man of many mysteries, like I am a lady of lots of labyrinthine qualities, but he has always been the one to nurse my wounds. 

“So what is this? A sibling inter-” I begin.

“No,” Raven cuts me off, “We came to tell you that Father is dead.”

“Murdered actually,” Griffin says.

“We wanted you to hear it from us,” Aspyn speaks. It’s like they rehearsed this. Each only speaking a little before the next speaks.

“So what? Do you think I did this?” I ask. 

“Would that really be so hard to believe? After what you did?” Griffin mocks.

“Griffin!” Raven reprimands. “Tell us, did you kill our father?”

“When did he die? I have proof of an alibi.”

“He was murdered around 7 pm, last night. We found him when we got home around 9,” Aspyn says.

“I was at dinner then. You can ask Chase,” I say, feigning brushing off their words.

My father is dead? Even after all that he did to me, he is still my father and I still love him. I wouldn’t kill him.

“Chase? Has someone found a boy?” Griffin taunts me.

“Like you care.” I scoff.

“Knock it off you two,” Aspyn rolls her eyes.

“Let’s go,” Raven says.

“So all you needed was information and you decided to ruin my morning to get it?”

“Pretty much,” Aspyn says before turning back to the fortress and my brothers follow her. 

Then they are gone. And I am left thinking about what was just revealed. A wolf, the one I call Vixen, comes close to me, probably in an effort to soothe my rising panic. 

“Thanks,” I whisper to her. Then she is gone again and I am left to listen to the trees. 

My father is dead. It was a homicide. I’m the one suspected of killing him. Just because of my history of killing those around me. Completely by accident I’ll have you know, but I did enjoy it, but only a little. Ugh, I’m hopeless aren’t I?

I begin my trek back to the fortress. Classes will be starting tomorrow and I should probably organize my books. And my tea! Because you never know who will stop in for a quick drink late in the night. 

As if my thoughts beckoned him, a small bat landed gracefully on my window sill and his wing tapped gently on the glass. I opened the window knowing this bat was as friendly as they could get. Before the bat landed anywhere, it turned into a man. 

“Hello Caspian,” I state, emotionless. I am already preparing his tea. Out of the corner of my eye, he is brushing his red hair from his shimmering blue eyes. 

“Hello, Hestia,” he says, drawing near to me. Carefully and gently, he wraps his strong arms around me. He has an allure to him that all vampires possess but only those of his stature are irresistible. 

“One, you know I hate that name. Two, I will stop making you tea if you so much as think you can finally get away with having even a sip of my blood straight from the vein. And three, you were the one who killed my father weren’t you?” This man was centuries older than I, he knew how to get things done.

“Three, after all that he has done to you, it wouldn’t surprise me if I did, but it was not me. Two, you know that you pull me close to you naturally, so I am sorry that I cannot resist your pull. One, but my darling Hestia, your name speaks truth, you are as warm as the hearth for which you are named,” he mirrors my framework and it infuriates me, but I busy myself with his tea and prick my finger with a sewing needle and allow a drop of blood to fall into the mug. I practically feel his eyes glow at the sight of my blood. I wrap a bandage around my finger and hand him the mug. 

“Will you join me for tea? I believe we have some things to discuss. Considering your claim. And considering that you are invading my privacy. I told you to stay away from me.”

“I’m afraid I can no longer do that. Darkness has started to hunt you and I have reason to believe it is here in this fortress.”

The Darkness of which Caspian speaks is familiar to me. I almost embraced it once. He was the one who saved me. If I told you about it, well let’s just say that you would agree with my siblings. That moment is what got me disowned by my twin. Raven was the only one who understood me and what I did. 

Since then I have tried to be good. The word “tried” is the very key to my entire life. I have always tried to be something I am not.  

“Maybe it’s time you be the thing that you are,” Caspian says, knowing my thoughts are reeling about my past just from the look on my face, “Darling, the Darkness killed your father.”

“How do you know?” I question, because if he knows this, then maybe he is confessing to being there when my father died.

“You know I embraced the Darkness and that means I can feel when it attacks. It was trying to make itself look good for you. Trying to get you to see the goodness inside of it, but do not be fooled, Hestia, it is evil incarnate.”

“I won’t let it back in, don’t worry.” Caspian and I talked for many hours before he finally left me, promising to track down the Darkness that killed my father. 

The next morning, I wake up to a light knock on my door. I drowsily get up to see who it is. Opening the door, I find Chase’s timid smile splayed across his face. 

“Hey, Nimue,” I kind of flinch at the name because everyone from the previous day had called me by my birth name, “I was hoping I could speak to you before classes started for the day.”

“Sure,” I say, reluctantly, “What do you want to talk to me about?”

“Well, recently I have found myself desiring to spend more time with you and I have begun to not just tolerate you but to kind of like you as well.”

“Sooo you are admitting your romantic feelings for me, right now?” I ask.

“Yes?” he says it like a question. This self-conscious cute-not-cute boy is saying that he loves me. 

“Look, I like you, but I’m not sure you really want to like me, let alone love me in the way that romantically needs to be done.” I begin to close the door on him thinking that is it.

But no. He sticks his foot into the door and I have to stop closing it so that I don’t squash him. He says, “No matter what you did in your past, I think I can still love you. You are not your past. You are no longer that monster, so long as you choose to take a step forward.”

Then he disappears. He disappears into the crowd of people now milling about and heading to their first class of the semester. I lose sight of his bushy hair rather quickly, but just as quickly, I close my dorm door. Turning to my normal morning cares, I ponder this boy. This boy, if I were anyone else, that I could love. I could live happily with him. I am happier than usual when I am with him. Maybe Griffin is right, maybe I have found a boy. I shake my head a little and turn to the important matters. If I fall in love, I will have no time for my studies or avoiding my scars.

Today, I dress myself in a simple cream dress. I brush my hair and open my door with a tote bag hanging off my shoulder and head to my first class, Animal Care. They teach us how to care for basic animals like reptiles and the occasional mammal. I don’t enjoy it much considering all of the time I spend in the woods. A lot of the information is incorrect. Severely incorrect. When I get to class, though, I notice rather than the normal teacher, Mr. Conners, Caspian is standing behind the desk. 

“Attention class! Mr. Conners is on leave for this semester and for the time being I will be your teacher. You can call me Mr. Pan, as in the Greek god of the wild. Don’t get it wrong.”

I roll my eyes as he speaks. He’s just doing this to get under my skin. Of course, he chose a Greek mythological figure. I feign listening as he “teaches” us about the proper way to brush a horse. 

Then I see it. The flicker of a shadow that should not be able to move on its own. 

“Hello Darkness, my old friend,” I mutter.

I stand up and Caspian’s gaze quickly flicks to me as well as everyone else’s.

“Class dismissed!” he quickly shouts and everyone scrambles out of the room, not because they want to get out of class but because they are afraid of me, afraid of how different I am.

Caspian is beside me in an instant. No matter how much I hate him, he still will always be present for me. Chase is also beside me in an instant. 

The Darkness, seeing those who are willing to support me, vanishes, leaving me to catch my breath as I reel from seeing my pain all over again. 

“What was that?” Chase asks.

“That was what killed my father.” 

“I’m so sorry for your loss,” He’s trying to be sympathetic. I know that, but it stings. He doesn’t know what my father put me through. 

“It’s okay. Thanks,” I know what to say, even though I don’t feel it. Who cares.

Without a moments notice, guards are in the doorway. 

“Hestia Nimue, come with us,” one of them says.

“What?” Chase asks. “You aren’t taking her anywhere.” 

He does like me, I realize, perhaps he can love me. Chase positions himself between me and the guards.

“She is a danger, we must take her away,” a different one says.

“Chase, let her go. We can fix this later,” Caspian says.

Chase sighs and moves out of the way. I can protect myself; I don’t need a boy’s help.

One of the guards grabs underneath my arm and leads me out of the room, but I don’t get far with them. Instead, I am screaming and fighting against them. I wrangle myself free and run down the hallways. I find my way to the courtyard and escape to the woods. The guards are chasing after me, but I am too fast for them to catch me. As soon as I reach the woods, the wolves find me and I am running to freedom alongside them.

Voices are not necessary in the woods. Why on earth would anyone choose to disrupt the peace? The wolves lead me to a place in the woods I have never been to before. Torches that should not have been there lit up all around me. So this is what I get for running away from the school? A creepy circle with creepy torches that is not natural. Just my luck with the Darkness coming after me and all!! 

The wolves have disappeared by now, leaving me to wonder where I am.

A shiver runs down my spine when I hear it. My name. Echoing from the trees all around me, but it was not the trees that were speaking. It was the circle of stones in which I stood. The voice was neither masculine nor feminine. It carried no weight and yet felt burdensome. The stones were speaking to me. How was that even possible? It wasn’t.

“Sit,” a materialistic voice commanded. The command was irresistible. I sat down immediately. 

I saw only a sliver of the shadow magic before it hit me and I was no longer in the stone circle. 

I was in my childhood home. My mother stood at the stove-top cooking chicken noodle soup. My twin was not far from me. He wasn’t older than 5 years old. This was before it happened, before I became different. Before the Darkness. Raven sat on the couch with a book in hand. It was about dragons or something. Aspyn was outside tending to the garden. I remember this day. This was the day my heart truly understood, but my mind did not. I remember examining everyone and feeling different but nothing ever came of it.

The day after this my father begins to train me, as he calls it. This was my last normal day. I spent the evening playing with Griffin before sitting on the couch with Raven for a bit and ultimately ended up in the garden with Aspyn before going in for dinner. I did not spend my last normal day like this originally. Originally, I self-isolated. Stayed in my room all day. Separated myself from those I loved because, though, I didn’t know it, but instead felt it, they didn’t love me. I go to bed like I had originally, and when I wake up my father is standing over me. He tells me to put on some old clothes and meet him outside in the back. I’m five years old and feel every strike my father lays on me as I make mistakes in my fighting stances. He was unknowingly turning me into a weapon.

In just two years of that training, I was stronger, faster, better than all of my siblings and my father combined, but then I did it. I was out in the village, alone. Some boys cornered me. The ring leader, Soren, was taunting me. Threatening me. He tore my sleeve and I twisted his arm behind his back and put him on the ground with one clean move. I didn’t hear the sickening crunch of the skull meeting the hard ground.  I didn’t feel the warm flow of blood that was coming out of his head. I didn’t see the tears streaming down the other boys’ faces. I didn’t smell the sweat coming off my body from how hard I had hit the boy. I don’t taste the blood in my own mouth from biting my tongue as I killed the boy. When an adult finally got there, Soren was dead. The adrenaline I received from the fight had finally receded and I was left to face the gravity of what I had just done. The librarian had seen what had happened from her window across the street, so after she gave her statement and I gave mine to the police, she led me home.

I was in a stupor. I could never forget my parents’ looks when they saw me. My mother’s was of pure terror. Her youngest daughter covered in blood must have been a sight to behold. My father’s was of pride. The monster he had trained me to be was fully incarnate. That night I saw something move in the shadows of my bedroom. As I climbed out of bed, I found the thing in my mirror. It was a wolf staring back at me. I had closed my eyes fearing it was just a bad dream and when I opened them, the wolf was gone. Young me passed it off as a bad dream. It had to have just been a bad dream. Right? Another thing appeared in my room that night. The Darkness appeared to me the first time. It was so alluring, so entrancing. I reached out to it that night but a bat had seen me and landed on the window sill. He stopped me before I could really do any damage to myself or those resting peacefully within my home. The next day I was shipped off to the fortress. The last thing my twin said to me before I left was that I was no sister of his. 

I am returned to the stone circle. That was not how I remembered most of those days. I did not remember the wolf in the mirror. I must have suppressed that pain. I did not remember the full extent of the pain my father put me through. I feel a warm liquid running down my cheeks. Tears, I realize. 

“What is this place?” I ask, weakly.

“This place reveals the truth. The truth of the past and the truth of where our road crosses.”

“Our road?” The tears stop falling as a sense of dread washes over me.

“Yes, Hestia, our road,” a figure steps out, still clothed in shadows and I realize what this place is. 

I scramble to my feet, drowsy from all of the remembering I had just done. 

“Don’t worry dear girl. Our fate is a joyous one. Full of destruction and war.”

Without warning, Caspian and Chase come crashing through the trees. 

They say blue eyes are the most beautiful, but I am most partial to the brown ones that stare back at me as Chase grabs my hands, turning me away from the looming danger of the Darkness standing before me. 

“Look at me, Nimue” he commands me, but his voice is gentle, “I will protect you. You were not loved properly when you were young, so I will give you my heart.”

As if summoning the people who did not love me, my siblings stepped out of the trees. Aspyn and Griffin bore sinister looks, while Raven bore one as if he wished he didn’t have to be there. This circle, these people. I am going to die in this place. This is my grave. 

The Darkness took a step toward me, my two friends placed themselves between me and it. Except the Darkness was not an “it”. I realize that now. It is and has always been my father. 

“Well done, my daughter. You finally understand,” he says, revealing himself. My father is a stocky man, his black hair and stark blue eyes are way too familiar.  

I turn to my siblings. “You all knew. You know about the suffering he put me through?”

“Yes.” Aspyn states, her tone almost proud.

“He’s our father, Hestia,” Griffin’s voice was soft but cruel.

I wait for Raven to say something, “And what about you, Ray?” I use his childhood nickname to try to make a connection, to try to get him to look at me. When he does look up, his eyes have tears in them.

“Hes, I’m sorry, but if I didn’t he would have done the same to me and Aspyn and Griffin. It was wisest to give him one child but spare the others.”

“So you chose me? So you gave him… me?”

“Oh you poor girl. You don’t know the full story. You were cursed by a witch. It was always going to be you,” my father sneers. 

Chase slips his hand into mine and gives it a light squeeze. 

“Well, you can’t use me anymore. You’re going to have to kill me, like you did when I was young. I won’t be your monster anymore.”

“Hestia,” Raven tries to make a move toward me.

“I refuse to be used anymore! Kill me!” I scream at my father. 

Caspian moves closer to me. “You don’t have to do this,” he whispers.

“I’m already the villain in this story. I’m already a monster. The villain always loses. The monster always dies.”

My father has drawn his sword. He is making his way over to me. There is one last thing I need to do before I die. I gently remove my hand from Chase’s and turn to face him. 

“I love you, my dearest friend,” I say to him. I lightly kiss him. It was my goodbye. Then I pull away and face Caspian, the friend who had saved me once before.

“You can’t save me this time, vampire.”

My father is close now. I take a step toward him. I make it easy on him. I could just as easily face him and win, but the villain always loses and the monster always dies. I hear my heart beat one minute and then I don’t. I feel the grass as I fall to it. I see nothing. I smell nothing. I taste nothing. The heroes won. The monster is dead. 

“Hestia Nimue died on June 10th at age 16. She was a monster to many, but a friend to me. I loved her. She was not a monster. She was a girl with monsters and we failed to help her,” Chase says at my funeral. I am not there, of course, but I hear his voice as he talks about me. There were two steps to unleashing my curse. Caspian, being a vampire, had helped me to find the witch who placed it on me when I was thirteen. We knew who my father was. We knew I would not die. The first step was that I had to kill someone. After I killed Soren, I became different. I had a bestial side of me that could not be tamed. Secondly, I had to die. Only then could I become a full werewolf. Only then could my true self be revealed. 

To everyone, except for Caspian, I am dead. Slowly I fade to a memory, except to Chase. He always remembers me. For a long time, he searches for me, and for a long time, I hide from him. I was afraid he would stop loving me if he saw what I had become. During one of Caspian and I’s long conversations, he convinces me that Chase would still love me. That for as long as he had searched, there is no way he wouldn’t. Eventually, I reintroduced myself to my love. He still loves me. 

As Chase grows old, I stay young. I was still 16 when he was 60. We get married when he turns 30. We live happily and have a family, two brilliant children, a son and a daughter. They also grow old while I stay young. Caspian is the only one I have left, all my grandchildren and great-grandchildren forget about me. Caspian and I travel the world. We visit a new place everyday. We live for an eternity. No one remembers us, remembers our pains and our joys.

In our travels, after about a hundred years, we come across a young vampire, Elenor. We learn that she was turned into a vampire by the same one who turned Caspian. In our hunt for revenge against that vampire, we meet a young werewolf, Kieran. He was cursed by the same witch who cursed me. We get our revenge, eventually, but it takes us another hundred years. Then we settled down. Caspian and I get married and legally adopt Elenor and Kieran. Together, as a family, like Chase would have wanted, we live. You may see us and not even realize it, but we are here and we still live on. We are the villains. We died in the world’s eyes, so that we could still live, if only in the shadows. We are monsters. The darkness is our home. There we shall stay. We are here, and we still live on.

The End  

Last, Current, Next: Jessie’s June Reading Shelf

“Last, Current, Next” is where Jessie shares what she’s been reading and what’s next on her reading list. If you’re looking for something different to read or if you’re just curious, check out this month’s three selections.

Last: The Night Guest by Hildur Knútsdóttir 

Format: Audiobook via Libby 

Genre: Fiction, Horror, Thriller, Novella 

In three hours, you follow the main character as she seeks medical treatment for her symptoms only to be told there’s nothing wrong with her because her blood work has come back fine. But now there’s strange things being noticed when she wakes up, like injuries she didn’t have the day before. Each day brings something a little bit stranger than the last. I normally don’t like thrillers as audiobooks, I prefer them in a physical or digital format, but the narration kept me on my toes the entire time. The ending left me wanting more, and I would have loved having this as a full novel. 

Current: Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel Garcia Márquez 

 Format: Physical via Interlibrary Loan 

Genre: Classics, Spanish Literature, Fiction, Magical Realism 

I first read Gabriel Garcia Márquez’s “Of Love and Other Demons” in a college history class and it’s been one of my favorite books since. I decided I wanted to try working through all Márquez’s backlist of books and landed on this one first. In this work, a man returns to town to find the truth about a murder that happened nearly three decades ago. Everyone knew it was going to happen, but no one stopped it. The whole town is being questioned. I’m about halfway through and I’m enjoying piecing together the truth from various rumors from past and present time. 

Did you know? A book like “Chronicle of a Death Foretold” that is not in our library consortium can still be checked out from Derby Public Library by utilizing our Interlibrary Loan service. Check out our website page for more information! 

Next: M is for Monster by Talia Dutton 

Format: Physical 

Genre: Young Adult, Graphic Novel, Science Fiction, LGBTQ 

A quick glance through looking at the artwork of this graphic novel is what initially caught my attention. But also, I really love a Frankenstein-esque moment! A scientist sister brings her sister back to life, or at least she thought she did. When M starts pushing back on expectations of not only the scientist but themself, a challenge arises – whose expectations are we trying to meet? I’m looking forward to reading this as I think it hits on some great conversation and reflection points such as self-discovery, individuality and grief.   

Last, Current, Next: Jessie’s January Reading Shelf

Last :: “The Society for Soulless Girls” – Laura Steven 

Format :: Audio via Libby 

Genre :: Young Adult, Fantasy, Mystery, LGBTQ 

Fantasy is not typically a genre that I search out when I choose to read it. This dark academia meets supernatural read reminds me of “The Devil makes Three” by Tori Bovalino.  Carvell College of the Arts was once an elite school but is now known for the murders that once occurred there.  “The Society for Soulless Girls” is told in a dual point of view following Lottie and Alice as the unknown hauntings of the school library’s North Tower begins to claim students again. This read is heavy on gothic and supernatural themes, while not something I look for in my young adult reads, I did like this read. 

Current:: “Magnolia Parks” – Jessa Hastings  

Format :: E-read via Libby 

Genre :: Romance, New Adult, Fiction, Contemporary 

The first in the Magnolia Parks series, “Magnolia Parks” follows the main character Magnolia and on again, off again boyfriend BJ through the struggles of love while being the center of British socialite circles. I’m about thirty percent into this and while I can see Magnolia and BJ are incredibly toxic in their relationship and so very predictable, I can’t put the book down. From the first chapter I got “Gossip Girl” by Cecily von Ziegesar vibes, but slightly more mature main characters– heavy on the “slightly” more mature part. I can foresee myself reading the rest of this series just to see what these characters get up to. 

Next :: “Tiny Threads” – Lilliam Rivera 

Format :: Physical 

Genre :: Horror, Thriller, Fiction 

First, the cover was what drew me in. Then, the synopsis got me pulled all the way in. Just shy of 250 pages, “Tiny Threads” must pack a punch with supernatural happenings. I get the vibe that this might be a darker, full of twists and turns version of “The Devil Wears Prada” by Lauren Weisberger. It has been a while since I have read something that made me twist with anticipation to figure it out and I sense that this might be the trick and be more than a dark dive into the fashion industry. 

Last, Current, Next: Jessie’s December Reading Shelf

Last :: “What’s Eating Jackie Oh?” – Patricia Park 

Format :: Audio via Libby 

Genre :: Young Adult, Contemporary, Realistic Fiction 

I needed an audiobook, and this was one of the first ones I came across that was available on Libby. I have not read a food focused book in quite a while, and I liked the premise of a high school student figuring things out in their young life and competing on their favorite food show’s high school edition. A couple of the themes Patricia Park hits on is food insecurity, incarceration of minorities, and the familial struggles faced with immigrant families. My favorite scene of the whole book was the moment Jackie and her mom got on the same page and had a heart-to-heart talk; the audio of this scene made it feel like I was sitting in on a conversation and made the entire plot feel realistic. 

Current:: “Tooth and Claw” – Craig Johnson  

Format :: Physical 

Genre :: Mystery, Western, Fiction 

“Tooth and Claw” is the newest novella in the Walt Longmire series. I was interested in reading this because I have read the first three books in this series, and I’ve always enjoyed the flashbacks of Walt and his good friend Henry Standing Bear. This novella takes place long before the first book begins and follows the duo as they come back from serving in Vietnam and look for jobs. I’m not quite a quarter of the way through this novella, and I love to see the characters of Walt and Henry are true to themselves, but still much younger than they are in the main series. I anticipate this will be a quick and adventurous read. 

Next :: “The Anti-Social Season” – Adele Buck 

Format :: Physical 

Genre :: Romance, Holiday Fiction 

“The Anti-Social Season” is the second book in the First Responders series (which is not a holiday book series, if you were wondering). I’ve been searching for a romantic comedy with a holiday theme and I’m hopeful that this will be a great pick! Thea, firefighter turning social media manager and Simon, a librarian are the main characters of this rom-com. I decided this would be my next read because Thea doesn’t remember Simon at all from high school, but Simon had a crush on her the entire time – this is one of my favorite romance tropes to read. 

Last, Current, Next: Jessie’s October Reading Shelf

Last Read :: “Anita de Monte Laughs Last” by Xóchitl González 

Format: Audiobook via Libby 

Genre: Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction, Mystery 

Told from a split point-of-view from 1985 and 1998, Anita de Monte Laughs Last explores the desire to fit in a world that you don’t belong in with poetic writing that matches the art described. I will say, I feel that I would have enjoyed this more had I read a physical book instead of an audio, as the audio made it confusing to keep track of the split timeline. I took a lot into consideration while reading this, particularly the difficulties that minorities faced in both time periods that Gonzalez wrote with passion.  

Current Read :: “Daydream” by Hannah Grace 

Format: Physical 

Genre: Romance, Sports Romance, New Adult 

Daydream is the third and final installment in the Maple Hills series that follows a group of friends that play college hockey and their love interests. I have loved the Maple Hills series due to the large cast of characters and the witty banter between them. It feels like I’m a part of their friend group. Daydream is focused on Henry, the captain of the hockey team and Halle, the family chaos coordinator and aspiring author. So far, this book has kept me engaged and has showed great examples of mental health and neurodivergent characters in college while “figuring it out”.  

Next Read :: “She Gets the Girl” by Rachael Lippincott 

Format: Physical 

Genre: Young Adult, Romance, LGBTQ 

My next read is the October book pick for the Wine and YA book club. My first experience with Lippincott’s work was Five Feet Apart which I absolutely loved. I loved how realistic the characters were written and I’m looking forward to see how character driven She Gets the Girl is in comparison. She Gets the Girl is said to be an enemies-to-lovers, dual point-of-view, with lots of banter written by Lippincott and her wife. Online reviews are likening this read to a teenage rom-com movie with a 90’s vibe, but with LGBTQ representation. 

What books are on your Last, Current, Next?

Monica’s Musings: Death-Cast Series

They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera

“I wasted all those yesterdays and am completely out of tomorrows.”
― Adam Silvera, They Both Die at the End

Summary: On September 5, a little after midnight, Death-Cast calls Mateo and Rufus to give them some bad news: They’re going to die today.

Mateo and Rufus are total strangers, but for different reasons, they are both looking to make a new friend on their End Day. The good news: There’s an app for that. It’s called the Last Friend, and through it, Rufus and Mateo are about to meet up for one last great adventure—to live a lifetime in a single day.

My thoughts: Going into a book titled They Both Die At The End, you don’t really expect it to happen. The whole concept of this book is heartbreaking. Imagine knowing you will die within the next 24 hours. You may not even get the entire 24 hours. You just know you’ll die by the end of the day. That’s terrifying and morbid, and honestly gives me the chills.

Despite how morbid I realize it is, I am entertained by the whole idea. I couldn’t stop reading. Adam Silvera manages to craft a word I would hate to live in and a world that has made me realize we all should take more chances.

The First to Die at the End by Adam Silvera

“I would’ve loved that. I feel robbed.”
“You were robbed.”
― Adam Silvera, The First to Die at the End

Summary: In this prequel to the #1 New York Times bestselling phenomenon They Both Die at the End, two new strangers spend a life-changing day together after Death-Cast first makes their fateful calls.

It’s the night before Death-Cast goes live, and there’s one question on everyone’s mind: Can Death-Cast actually predict when someone will die, or is it just an elaborate hoax?

Orion Pagan has waited years for someone to tell him that he’s going to die. He has a serious heart condition, and he signed up for Death-Cast so he could know what’s coming.

Valentino Prince is restarting his life in New York. He has a long and promising future ahead and he only registered for Death-Cast after his twin sister nearly died in a car accident.

Orion and Valentino cross paths in Times Square and immediately feel a deep connection. But when the first round of End Day calls goes out, their lives are changed forever—one of them receives a call, and the other doesn’t. Though neither boy is certain how the day will end, they know they want to spend it together…even if that means their goodbye will be heartbreaking.

My Thoughts: What I love so much about the Death-Cast stories is that they take an idea that is so outlandish and somehow make it seem real. The world-building is amazing, and I loved seeing the differences in the world between this book and They Both Die at the End. It is well thought out, and you can see its growth as it changes, as something like this would if it existed in our world. But, amongst this dystopian-esque world are human stories. This is one of the many compelling factors in these books, we follow the human experiences of these people, the world is only their backdrop, and the focus is them.

Since this is the prequel there was a lot needed to explain the start of Death-Cast. I enjoyed each of the character’s stories, but it did feel a bit long-winded. However, I struggle to keep my focus with any books longer than 300 pages so that is probably just a me thing! Overall, this series ranked very highly for me, and I would definitely recommend this to fans of young adult dystopian novels.

Monica’s Musings: House of Hollow

House of Hollow by Krystal Sutherland

“You shouldn’t be afraid of the truth. It’ll set you free, right?”-Krystal Sutherland, House of Hollow

Summary: Seventeen-year-old Iris Hollow has always been strange. Something happened to her and her two older sisters when they were children, something they can’t quite remember but that left each of them with an identical half-moon scar at the base of their throats.

Iris has spent most of her teenage years trying to avoid the weirdness that sticks to her like tar. But when her eldest sister, Grey, goes missing under suspicious circumstances, Iris learns just how weird her life can get: horned men start shadowing her, a corpse falls out of her sister’s ceiling, and ugly, impossible memories start to twist their way to the forefront of her mind.

As Iris retraces Grey’s last known footsteps and follows the increasingly bizarre trail of breadcrumbs she left behind, it becomes apparent that the only way to save her sister is to decipher the mystery of what happened to them as children.

The closer Iris gets to the truth, the closer she comes to understanding that the answer is dark and dangerous – and that Grey has been keeping a terrible secret from her for years.

My Thoughts: Calling all fans of dark fairy tales! Right from the get-go, this story drew me in. While reading, the hairs on my arms stood up, and I lost my appetite several times at the many grotesque descriptions throughout. When I look for a creepy read, I do not aim to have the bejeezus scared out of me. Nor am I hoping to be so freaked out that I won’t sleep for a week and have to check every dark corner for fear of monsters. Rather, I want that perfect balance where a story is actually chilling, but it is also so much fun that I want more. And this book hits it right on the nose!

I loved how the story unfolded, with lots of little clues and happenings building up to a set of twists and turns. I’m not sure what I expected going in, but it sure wasn’t this. With its darkness and vivid imagery, this story feels like a fairy tale gone wrong.

Monica’s Musings: My Fine Fellow

My Fine Fellow by Jennieke Cohen

“He’d always thought that food was a great equalizer, for whatever someone’s creed or race or religion, every person had to eat to survive.”- Jennieke Cohen, My Fine Fellow

Summary:

It is 1830s England, and culinarians of utmost respect, consult with society’s elite to create gorgeous food and confections. They are the crème de la crème of high society.

Helena is top of her class at the Royal Academy and has a sharp demeanor and an even sharper palate. Penelope wants to show the value of non-European cuisine to all of England. Her peers may scorn her Filipina heritage, but with her flawless social graces and culinary talents, Penelope is set to prove them wrong. Elijah has nothing to his name but an excellent instinct for flavors. London merchants will not allow a Jewish boy to own a shop, but he knows with enough training, he can break into the highest of society.

When Penelope and Helena meet Elijah, a golden opportunity arises: to pull off a project never seen before and turn Elijah from a street vendor to a gentleman chef. But Elijah’s transformation will have a greater impact on this trio than they originally realize—and mayhem, unseemly faux pas, and a little romance will all be a part of the delicious recipe.

My Thoughts:

Food is a big part of the story, so do not read this book on an empty stomach. You will get hungry! I loved that Penelope was half Filipino, Elijah was Jewish, and that their backgrounds were a central and integral part of the story. The book explored the prejudices that both of them faced. The three main characters were all well-developed. I particularly liked seeing Helena’s character arc unfold and how her actions affected her friendships with Penelope and Elijah.

Since this is a gender-swapped retelling of the movie My Fair Lady, the story is a little predictable and straightforward. There are no big surprises. If you like reading about 1830s England, books about food or enjoyed the movie it is based on, I recommend checking this book out.

What’s Ashley Reading?: Long Live the Pumpkin Queen

Long Live the Pumpkin Queen by Shea Ernshaw

First line: At the crisp, inky hour of midnight, Jack and I are married atop Spiral Hill in the Death’s Door Cemetery.

Summary: Sally has married the skeleton of her dreams, Jack. She is now the Pumpkin Queen but she feels that maybe she is not cut out for the job. After their honeymoon, Sally decides to take some time alone where she stumbles upon a new door hidden in the tree grove. As her curiosity takes over, she discovers the door leads to Dream Town but with her actions she has let a monster loose on the other holiday towns. And now it is up to Sally to figure out how to stop the Sandman and wake the residents of Halloween Town.

My Thoughts: Only several years ago did I finally watch The Nightmare Before Christmas. It really is a fun movie. I liked the music but most of all the technique used to create the movie, stop animation. When I saw that a novelized version of what happens after was being released I thought it would be a fun read for the fall leading up to Halloween. And I did find it fun. A little more juvenile than I had originally expected but still a good little story. It brought all the characters from movie and added several new characters plus we got a peak into Sally’s background.

I enjoyed the narrator. She did a good job of mimicking the voice of Sally from the movie but also adding some the voices of other characters as well.

FYI: Definitely watch the movie, even just for the artistry of it.

What’s Ashley Reading?: Gilded

Gilded by Marissa Meyer

First line: All right. I will tell you the tale, how it happened in truth.

Summary: Years ago a miller wished to marry a beautiful maiden. He asked the old gods to grant him this wish. When it was granted they also bestowed a gift on the couple’s child. She would be able to tell stories so fantastical that fascinated and awed her audiences. But they were also not true.

Years later, Serilda, the child of the miller catches the attention of the feared Erlking and his wild hunt. She tells a story of her ability to spin straw into gold thread. Fascinated by her the king kidnaps her on the full moon and makes her spin or lose her life. Unfortunately, Serilda cannot actually spin straw into gold but as she worries for her life a ghost appears to her in the castle who claims he can do the task but for a price.

As the months progress, Serilda is sure that the king will find out. However, an unexpected twist happens when Serilda starts to fall in love with her mysterious helper but she knows that not everything in the enchanted castle is as it appears.

My Thoughts: I was really excited to see that Marissa Meyer was once again doing a fairy tale retelling. I loved her Cinder series. The premise, the cover and the setting all appealed to me. I knew that this would be a book I would love. I wish I was right. I did like it and most likely will read the next one but the middle was just too long. I loved the beginning. And the end was very dark and twisty. But the middle stretched out for far too long. It seemed rather repetitive.

I enjoyed Serilda’s character. Her stories were interesting. I would read just a bunch of her short stories. But when she starts to fall for Gild I felt that it was a little forced. I did not really feel the chemistry between them until near the end as some of the pieces started falling into place for the lead up to the sequel.

The ending was really dark. Much more so than Meyer’s other books. But this may be a homage to the original authors of the story of Rumpelstiltskin by the Brothers Grimm. I will be interested to see where Meyer goes in the next book with Serilda’s story.

FYI: Trigger warning: death of children.