Katie Ward Beim-Esche

Raise your hand if you felt personally victimized by the cliffhanger ending of Neal Shusterman’s 2018 novel “Thunderhead,” as (spoiler alert!) protagonists Citra and Rowan froze to death in a vault of diamonds at the bottom of the sea. Yep, me too. I’ve spent the last year and a half wondering just how Shusterman planned to fix that. Having now read “The Toll,” the hotly anticipated conclusion to his bestselling “Arc of a Scythe” series, I can report: All my hypotheses were wrong.

If macabre supernatural mysteries give you the good kind of goosebumps, you'll want to pick up Renée Ahdieh’s “The Beautiful,” a dark young adult tale set in 1870s New Orleans. As with 2015’s “The Wrath and the Dawn,” Ahdieh has created a sensory feast. Watery silks, rough planks. Powdered beignets and rich crème pâtissière. Young men who smell of bergamot and leather. Bells tolling across midnight plazas. Whirling waltzes at a masquerade ball.

I really wanted to like “The Downstairs Girl,” the young adult novel by Stacey Lee. I loved "Outrun the Moon," her 2016 book, and had pleasant expectations for a follow-up with similar elements: YA, historical fiction, a plucky Chinese protagonist, and an emphasis on social justice. Unfortunately, “The Downstairs Girl” lacks the grace and confidence of “Outrun the Moon.” Lee adds so many powerful flavors to her writerly stew that readers may struggle to taste the important ones.