Wednesday: A Novelization of Season One
Hardcover | Kindle Edition | Audiobook
By Tehlor Kay Mejia
Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers
Release Date: September 3, 2024

Wednesday: A Novelization of Season One by Tehlor Kay Mejia offers a delightful retelling of the debut season of Wednesday, the 2022 Netflix streaming series directed by Tim Burton (Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands) that’s based on characters created by Charles Addams (Addams Family).

Told from the title character’s point of view, the novelization follows the show’s plotlines while adding an extra layer of introspection into the goth-presenting, death-obsessed teen as she reluctantly begins her first semester at Nevermore Academy, her eighth school in five years. Not only does she have difficulty fitting in wherever she goes, she actually has no desire to fit in. This and her compulsion to right injustices and punish bullies are what often prompt her expulsions from said schools. This time around, her parents, Morticia and Gomez Addams, are hoping that their problem child will find comfort and camaraderie at their alma mater, a private boarding school for children with supernatural abilities or proclivities. Though Wednesday prefers a solitary life, the unique school will introduce her to other “Outsiders” (or “Outcasts” as they are referred to by the “Normies” in town), whether she likes it or not.

The Conjurer’s Riddle
Hardcover | Kindle
Sequel to The Inventor’s Secret
By Andrea Cremer
Philomel Books | Penquin Random House Young Readers
Release date: November 3, 2015

What would have become of North America had the British won the Revolutionary War? That’s the premise of Andrea Cremer’s The Inventor’s Secret book series, which creates an alternate 19th-century history where the British Empire has dominion over the New World as an underground Resistance rebels against it. The exiled children of the rebellion reside in the Catacombs in the New York Wildlands, where they stay in hiding from the Empire as they grow up without their parents until they come of age and can join the fight.

In The Conjurer’s Riddle, the second book of the series, 16-year-old Charlotte returns to the Catacombs after the caverns are set ablaze, leaving the children no shelter. She has no idea what happened to cause the destruction of their home, but there’s no time to figure it out, as she now must lead the young refugees to safety. Her final destination is New Orleans, the rendezvous point for the Resistance, but first she must find a way to get there.