This is Ink & Myths, a newsletter about all things YA from recommendations to news + 24hr.YABookBlog updates―
Welcome to my little newsletter whether you’ve followed my content for a while or somehow happened to stumble upon this introductory email. I’m 24hr.YABookBlog, a Young Adult Book Blogger who reviews, promotes & writes about YA Books.
From a blog to a Medium page, podcast, small booktube channel, news blog and now a newsletter, clearly I have too much creative time on my hands (but also not really*). What inspired this newsletter with a plethora of other platforms and projects waiting in the wings? Well ever since hitting a bit of a blogging slump on 24hr.YABookBlog a couple months ago I took time to reflect on a myriad of things in my life which led me to get a job as a bookseller not to long ago and made me realize there’s a lot of other creative writing projects I’d love to work on!
Hence this newsletter. So what can you expect on Ink & Myths? Well of course whenever one of these reaches your inbox you’ll be updated on the latest YA Book recommendations & current news from the month. You’ll also receive updates on my latest blog posts and exclusive notes on long-form discussions + reviews I don’t find time to share on the blog (my journalism brain loves these types of notes and writings about books and hope you do to! (ღ˘⌣˘ღ))…among updates on other projects I’m working on!
YA Book News:
On April 27, it came as a complete surprise to me when of course on that day of all days I was not logged into booktwt…it was announced through NetflixFilm that Love & Gelato (yes!! THAT YA Contemporary novel from 2016) would be getting a movie on Netflix!! WHAT?? I just could not believe it…so it already has a release date for June of this year and that’s incredibly exciting!
Just to plug it in here: as always if your ever interested in reading more long-form posts on all the latest Young Adult news from cover reveals to adaptations & more, you can follow my YA news blog The Booked Shelf.
Book Recommendations:
Whenever I’m not reading, naturally, I’m looking for even more books to read, which inspired this dedicated section of my newsletter to update you on some upcoming or new YA releases I’ve discovered:
1) The King Is Dead by Benjamin Dean
I’m always looking to expand my reading to outside of just US/Mainstream publishing and while browsing twt, I discovered this forthcoming #UKYA release which was pitched by Publishers’ Weekly as:
“a gay YA romantic thriller set against the backdrop of a reimagined Royal Family, about a newly crowned young Black king facing media scrutiny and blackmail…”
Despite not reading enough of these, I’ve realized that I really enjoy royal contemporary stories & this one sounded quite fantastic.
2) Lightlark by Alex Aster (2022)
Love seeing more Latine/Latina-authored YA Fantasy (it makes my heart so happy)! So when after seeing the cover for Alex Aster’s fantasy debut, I added it to my tbr right away. I also enjoyed how Aster pitched it, it was simple yet left me so intrigued:
"island that appears every 100 years - to host a game where 6 rulers right to break their deadly curses - love complicates everything"
On The Blog:
In anticipation for Netflix’s Heartstopper, I of course got drawn in by the hype and had to finish up the graphic novel to see what it was all about. Now it wasn’t necessarily bad (I rated it 3 stars 🌟)…however, the artwork left me feeling rather underwhelmed & found it negatively impacted the storytelling from my reading experience.
This of course, left me to craft a long-form discussion critiquing the artwork (referencing 3 elements of comics) and how it could have been executed differently.
What made me most proud of this discussion was that firstly, it was interesting to delve into what I believe is a pretty unpopular opinion about Oseman’s comic but secondly, it left me feeling so inspired to write on my blog again because the research, writing, and time it took to bring this together reminded me why book blogging is such a passion (tbh I also feel like the artwork isn’t discussed in this way, so that made my deep dive even more interesting to explore as well).
You can read the full blog post here― Blog Essay: ‘Heartstopper’ by Alice Oseman // Examining Artwork and Impact of Visual Storytelling
I LOVE writing book reviews & one of my more recent ones is about Nina Moreno’s ‘Our Way Back To Always.’ Returning to Port Coral in a way, felt like home. Told from dual POV’s we follow introverted romantic Lou and golden boy Sam during their senior year as they reconnect & complete a bucket list! As always Moreno’s books delve into community, family among other topics in such a deeply personal way that shines through her characters and the cozy Port Coral town. Sam’s chapters really hit home for me in regards to how Moreno tackles grief and they helped me during some difficult moments of my own.
You can read the full review here― Our Way Back To Always by Nina Moreno Review
On Journalism Readings:
So a few weeks ago, I’d seen fanart for ‘Our Flag Means Death’ I wasn’t entirely sure what it was about but all I knew was that it was about pirates and maybe Queer romance? Fast forward to this weekend where I needed a break from a long day at work and found the show on HBO Max. I’m already halfway through the 1st season and deeply resonated with Stede’s mindset and feelings of un-accomplishment leading him to be daring in diving into something new & exciting to bring that joy into his life (like embarking on the high seas as a pirate!). This led to me consuming pieces on the series and reading up on what people were saying about it, here were a couple I enjoyed:
Act of Grace: Masculinity, Monstrosity, and Queer Catharsis in Our Flag Means Death ― Tor.com (Apr. 25, 2022), Maya Gittelman
Our Flag Means Death Is The Perfect Response To Toxic Masculinity ― CBR (May 1, 2022), Renaldo Matadeen
I hope to expand on this section in future newsletters to share my thoughts on writings & journalism pieces that I discover during the month 🗞✨
On Writing:
For such a long time, I’ve considered myself more of a reader than a writer. However, I’ve been delving back into a couple fantasy ideas that truly started cementing themselves this year & I just couldn’t let them go. So hopefully, I’ll be sharing more on that soon…👀✨