We Set the Dark on Fire by Tehlor Kay Mejia 

New York, NY : Katherine Tegen Books, an imprint of Harpercollins Publishers, [2019]

363 p. ; 22 cm.      

To say that Mejia's debut YA novel has gotten good reviews would be an understatement. Booklist gave it a starred review, it snagged an excellent write up on NPR, and other less notable reviews also highly recommended it. 

I think the praise is well deserved for the premise and set-up of the book; the patriarchal world it creates has it's own origin religion story which underlies it's elite family set-up where husbands have two wives: a Primera who is hard-core business, brains, and no-nonsense, and a Segunda who must be gorgeous, entertaining, and ready to bear children.  The elite - a minority in this fictional world - rely on the exploitation of everyone else, an exploitation enforced by police, violence and legal privilege.  Sounds familiar, doesn't it? Which is exactly what makes it a powerful novel.  I also liked the main characters and the first part of the book's world building.  

My only issues with the book are with the plotting of the resistance and with the rushed descriptions of the rebellion.  I just never believed the main character's acts of joining the rebellion. And the major conflicts of violence seemed a bit rushed and confused to me.  

That being said, it's still an enjoyable read and one that should appeal to a lot of different readers.  It's also got an unexpected lesbian romance simmering away at the center which - though rushed to me - is sweet and unexpected.  

Finally the book is written by a Latinx woman and is touches on issues of xenophobia, border violence, resistance, dangers of patriarchy and economic exploitation - so it is very relevant to the times we are experiencing now in the US. Would I recommend it. You bet.

Sawkill Girls by Claire Legrand

New York, NY : Katherine Tegen Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, 2018.

1st ed.

447 p. ; 22 cm. 

A mother and her two teen daughters relocate to the wrong island to move past the grief of the father's recent death. It's the wrong island because it has a history of being a place where every ten years or so a girl goes missing - and one more has just disappeared before they arrive.  And the pace of these crimes is picking up fast.

This is not a novel about any ordinary human serial killer.  The villain is a supernatural monster whose feasting on its victims is pretty gruesome stuff!  I won't give a ton of spoilers, except to note that the newly arrived family is soon right at the center of the action,  along with two other teen females who live on the island.  Though most on the island have no clue about the monster, it does have allies and enemies among humans - both on the island and back on the mainland.  

A lot of the "fun" of this novel is learning bit by bit what's happening and who's involved - and with the way the plot picks up its pace so that by the end you are turning pages to see just what's going to happen.  Along the way there are deaths, betrayals, love, romance and danger (of course).

For me, I didn't care so much for the supernatural elements of the novel - the natural world is tied up in the paranormal events in which horses, moths, the sea and even the rocks all get involved.  But there is a strong gothic-horror atmospherism to this tale, along with interesting characters, and a strong underlying feminism that keeps it all moving. So if you are into thrilling horror with a strong infusion of action and paranormal energies and monsters then this novel will keep you satisfied right to its last page.