Ya Conviction

September has been a good month so far, I’ve read a list of fantastic contemporary books. All of them are diverse, and written by marginalized authors. Its sad to see, they’re quite underrated and not getting enough love. Somehow I hope, this post will boost them. So if you want to diversify your reading list, you might want to add these books to your list.

YA

Conviction by Kelly Loy Gilbert. Written by Chinese American author. Conviction is an authentic, emotionally devastating story about abuse and faith. The abuse portrayal in this book is gut wrenching and spot on. Gilbert present in her plot and writing, how abuse massively affects someone in all these subtle and huge things.

The Girl from the Well by Rin Chupeco: Written by Filipino

Maetani: Written by Japanese American author, Ink and Ashes is a Mystery Thriller book. Starring by Japanese family. The story opened up when the narrator, Claire discovered his father was a member of the Yakuza (the Japanese mafia.) Like its premise, this book lived up to its title. It is heart pounding, bloody and it will keep you guessing. The Japanese culture is integrated into the plot. There is heavy emphasis on family and friendship dynamics, just how I like it. You can expect plenty of laughing and swooning. The only think I didn't liked about it is the subtle "special girl" syndrome and the influx amount of testosterone. But overall, YOU SHOULD BE READING IT. I am smitten. Head over

We have a very diverse cast, an Indian and Asian - Jew side characters, a Mexican American protagonist, Victoria Reyes, who is fluent in ASL (because her mother is deaf.) Reagan Forrester who lives in the trailer park, who wanted a way out of her town. Aside from that glaring importance of this story. Adler also brought a lot of relevant topics, we haven’t seen much in YA. I’ll try to sum it up, though I’m sure I’ll forget a handful of details. Disability, poverty, positive sex discussion about unprotected sex, oral sex, consent, feminism, abuse and more. It sounds very daunting and it's just natural to think how could a "plethora of SJ"could fit in a limited page count. But honestly speaking, Just Visiting stays very true. Its a reflection of the world we live in. There is diversity within diversity. And its a damn shame, books like these have a difficult time getting published, if not a very small amount of people pay attention to