I think I'll feel better if I give away some books I love. So. Let's do it.

Believe it or not I have actually been able to get in SOME reading during this, the worst of times. And one book I absolutely couldn't stop reading, literally was up until 4 AM when my husband rolled over and muttered "go bed" is out today. THE FASCINATORS by @andrewasalways

where to begin - WHERE TO BEGIN.

set in a universe where magic is real, but not always trusted by everyone, it takes place in a small town in Georgia with a group of three friends who have always been everything to each other. But it is senior year and that's about to change.

everything is changing because, whether we like it or not, that's what life is: change. And that's very much what this book is about, the inexorable, scary movement of change. And how that change, those things you learn about yourself in that change, is always a little bit magic.

also: this book is gay. And filled with lots of gay longing. But not in a "woe is me, the suffering and pain of being a gay" kind of way. In an ethereal, lovely, almost ephemeral way. That is tied to magic. REAL, ACTUAL MAGIC. Gay longing, wishing, dreaming...and MAGIC. I mean

I absolutely loved THE FASCINATORS. I love that it's about things that don't work out. I love that it's about how real magic would have weight & consequence. I love that characters make bad decisions and then just have to live with them. I love that there are costs and losses.

And I especially love that the gay love story didn't go quite the way the narrator planned ... but that was still OK. Good. Sweet. Because there are moments that are real even if they're not everything. Brilliant, lovely, exactly what teens need to hear about life.