#natalie c. parker

[transbookoftheday]

Come Out, Come Out by Natalie C. Parker

A spine-tingling LGBTQIA+ YA horror about queer teens who accidentally invoke a twisted spirit who promises help but delivers something sinister. Perfect for fans of Kayla Cottingham, Andrew Joseph White, and Ryan La Sala.

It's never been safe for Fern, Jaq, or Mallory to come out to their families. As kids their emerging identities drove them into friendship but also forced them into the woods to hide in an old, abandoned house when they needed safety. But one night when the girls sought refuge, Mallory never made it back home. Fern and Jaq did, but neither survivor remembered what happened or the secrets they were so desperate to keep.

Five years later, Fern and Jaq are seniors on the verge of graduation, seemingly happy in their straight, cisgender lives—until a spirit who looks like Mallory begins to appear, seeking revenge for her death, and the part Fern and Jaq played in it. As they’re haunted, something begins to shift inside them.

They remember who they are. Who they want to love. And the truth about the vicious secrets hiding in their woods.

This delightfully dark and pointed novel calls out the systems that erase gay and queer and trans identity, giving space to embrace queerness and to unleash the power of friendship and found family against the real monsters in the world.

[lgbtqreads]

Exclusive Cover Reveal: The Assassin's Guide to Babysitting by Natalie C. Parker

Today on the site, I’m delighted to reveal the cover of Natalie C. Parker’s The Assassin’s Guide to Babysitting – a YA adventure billed as John Wick meets Adventures in Babysitting with superpowers, found family, and enemies-to-lovers sapphic romance – releasing January 7, 2025 from Candlewick! (Fun fact: Adventures in Babysitting is the first movie I ever saw in theaters, and Natalie C. Parker…

[bookaddict24-7]

(New Young Adult Releases Coming Out Today! (August 27th, 2024)

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Have I missed any new Young Adult releases? Have you added any of these books to your TBR? Let me know!

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New Releases:

The Sticky Note Manifesto of Aisha Agarwal by Ambika Vohra

Sunderworld, Vol. 1 by Ransom Riggs

Don't Let it Break Your Heart by Maggie Horne

Come Out, Come Out by Natalie C. Parker

Libertad by Bessie Flores Zaldivar

Bridge Across the Sky by Freeman Ng

Sync by Ellen Hopkins

Love is in the Hair by Gemma Cary

Our Shouts Echo by Jade Adia

Jupiter Rising by Gary D. Schmidt

Practical Rules for Cursed Witches by Kayla Cottingham

With Love, Echo Park by Laura Taylor Namey

Full Shift by Jennifer Dugan & Kristen Seaton

Twin Flames by Olivia Abtahi

One House Left by Vincent Ralph

Mysterious Ways by Wendy Wunder

Everything We Never Had by Randy Ribay

The Dreamers by Ryan Elizabeth Penske

Anomaly by Emma Lord

New Sequels:

The New Camelot (Emry Merlin #3) by Robyn Schneider

Fyrebirds (Nightbirds #2) by Kate J. Armstrong

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Happy reading!

[solreads]

Come Out, Come Out - Review

Title: Come Out, Come Out

Author: Natalie C. Parker

Genre: Horror

Sub-Genre: Paranormal

Audience: Young Adult

Format: Novel

Representation: Genderfluid POV character

Summary: Fern and Jaq hardly know each other. Other than one strange night years ago when they found themselves together in the woods, they’ve only seen each other in passing in the school halls. Until they both begin to see the spirit of Mallory, a girl who vanished that same night. Then, with her cry to WAKE UP echoing in their heads, their picturesque lives begin to unravel. 

Years of lost memories well up – a friendship between the three of them built upon a shared queerness and a shared need to hide it, rage and kinship and self-discovery all erased so completely that neither Fern nor Jaq knew to question their cisgender, heterosexual lives. They are left suddenly at odds with the lives they’d built since and stuck with a secret they had good reason to hide. They neither know how to keep being versions of themselves who have become lies nor how to step back into the identities that are at once shockingly fresh and the domain of children they no longer are. 

While they struggle with their identities, they must also contend with the horrifying mystery of what happened to the three of them that night and what might still be coming for the two of them that remain. 

Reflections: The horror didn’t really come through in this. There are plenty of events and elements that could inspire horror, but for the most part, they weren’t written in a manner that particularly built dread/suspense/fear/disgust in the visceral way of the horror genre.

I was expecting the amnesia to last longer or be a bigger source of tension. There was potential for dramatic irony to put the reader on edge as well as build the nauseating horror of seeing how the characters have been rewritten and twisted to suit somebody else’s fantasies of what they should be. By bringing most of their memories back very early, it put all that out of sight in the past.

The book instead pulls some horror both from the supernatural threat and the sudden knowledge the main characters gain that they are queer in an unsafe environment. The latter is very real, I feel the fear in that situation. Still, it reads in many ways more like a contemporary coming-of-age story than horror.

I also thought the reveal that their safe space had once been the embodiment of the bigotry they needed sanctuary from didn’t have quite the emotional weight it could have had.

That said, I still enjoyed a lot of the book for what it was. It was interesting to see how the main characters reconnect with their identities, and how they didn’t exactly fall back into them in the same ways once they were older teens as they did when they were children. They were in that odd space of knowing they were queer, but not what that meant for them, how to be comfortable with it, or how to decide what parts of their identities to show the world. This discovery phase was written well; I felt for them through it all.

Warnings: Depictions of transphobia, misgendering, dysphoria, magical conversion therapy. Discussions of real conversion therapy. 

Notes on Rep: MC identifies on-page as genderfluid and nonbinary.

[the-final-sentence]

Jaq laughed, then together, they tipped their hands and let the bones fall into the sea.

Natalie C. Parker, from Come Out, Come Out

[bookcoversonly]

Title: The Nameless Witch | Author: Natalie C. Parker | Publisher: Razorbill (2023)

[the-dust-jacket]

It's too hot out and most of Tumblr is already in "how long til October" mode, but Summer can be spooky season too!

Empty Smiles by Katherine Arden: middle grade horror, fourth in chilling and intensely atmospheric Small Spaces quartet.

The Lake House by Sarah Beth Durst: creepy and suspenseful YA wilderness survival story about three girls who arrive at an off-the-grid summer camp only to find no one left alive -- except whatever is hunting them.

The Devouring Wolf, by Natalie C. Parker: coming-of-age adventure featuring terrifying legends come to life, friends, foes, and queer werewolf kids.

The Honeys, by Ryan La Sala: sun-drenched summer horror set at the elite, bucolic Aspen Summer Conservancy Academy, where Mars knows he'll never fit in -- but which may explain his sister's death. Psychological suspense, toxic traditions, complex friendships, bees.

Bone Gap, by Laura Ruby: lyrical and haunting combination of science and myth, magic and realism, beauty and rage. In a town where people sometimes slip through the gaps, no one asks too many questions when Roza disappears. Nobody except Finn, who knows she was taken -- but who can't describe the man who took her. And there are more bees.

Camp Sylvania by Julie Murphy: body shaming isn't the only horror awaiting Maggie Hagen at summer "fat camp." Spooky, hilarious, heartfelt middle grade.

[qbdatabase]

Seafire by Natalie C. Parker After her family is killed by corrupt warlord Aric Athair and his bloodthirsty army of Bullets, Caledonia Styx is left to chart her own course on the dangerous and deadly seas. She captains her ship, the Mors Navis, with a crew of girls and women just like her, who have lost their families and homes because of Aric and his men. The crew has one mission: stay alive, and take down Aric’s armed and armored fleet.

[katesharmasheart]

books i read in 2022♡ Vampires Never Get Old: Tales with Fresh Bite by Zoraida Córdova, Natalie C. Parker, Samira Ahmed, Dhonielle Clayton, Tessa Gratton, Heidi Heilig, Mark Oshiro, Julie Murphy, Rebecca Roanhorse, Laura Ruby, V.E. Schwab, Kayla Whaley

“Vampires may not be real, but the stories make them something we share.”

[brightbeautifulthings]

Come Out, Come Out by Natalie C. Parker

"'Because you don't want to? Or because someone else doesn't want you to?' 'Does it matter?' Jaq asked. 'It's the only thing that matters.'"

Year Read: 2024

Rating: 3/5

Thoughts: Queer horror is quickly becoming one of my new favorites in YA, but for whatever reason, I never quite clicked with this book. I'm not the biggest fan of strong religious themes, and had I read the description more carefully, I might have realized I wasn't the best audience for it. I really struggle with religion as a form of oppression, and quite apart from any supernatural threats, the main characters' home lives are horrorshow enough, to the point it's actually painful at times to watch their parents force them into the personalities they find pleasing. Their very real circumstances are far more frightening than the monster in the woods.

That being said, I did find the supernatural aspect a bit lacking, particularly at the end when it's all finally revealed. I think it's partly that my investment had simply checked out at that point, but the villain/confrontation is a bit lackluster. On the other hand, I very much enjoyed the gender-swapped Grease that Fern is putting on at their high school. 10/10 would go see that, where can I get tickets? Although this wasn't the right book for me, there are plenty of teenagers and young adults who face this kind of oppression and homophobia every day. I hope it finds its way into the hands of its right readers and gives them hope. I received a free e-ARC through NetGalley from the publishers at Penguin.

[coollovebibliophilethings]

A Universe of Wishes edited by Dhonielle Clayton

Title: A Universe of WishesAuthor: Dhonielle Clayton, Tara Sim, Natalie C. Parker, Libba Bray, Anna-Marie McLemore, Kwame Mbalia, V.E. Schwab, Rebecca Roanhorse, Nic Stone, Jenni Balch, Mark Oshiro, Samira Ahmed, Tessa Gratton, Zoraida Cordova & Tochi OnyebuchiIn: A Universe of Wishes (Dhonielle Clayton)Rating Out of 5: 5 (I will read this again and again and again)My Bookshelves: LGBTQI, Short…

[lgbtqreads]

Fave Five: New Queer YA Horror, 2024 Edition

Yeah, so there are eight; sue me. It’s a great year for queer YA Horror! So Witches We Became by Jill Baguchinsky Don’t Let the Forest In by CG Drews The Dark We Know by Wen-Yi Lee Come Out, Come Out by Natalie C. Parker Trespass Against Us by Leon Kemp They Thought They Buried Us by NoNieqa Ramos What the Woods Took by Courtney Gould Rest in Peaches by Alex Brown

[shadowcatgirl09]

I’m hoping the next anthology book Zoraida and Natalie work on in the Untold Legends series is about werewolves. There’s so much you can play around with using werewolves or just werebeasts in general.

[rheadionne]

Check out my review of Come Out Come Out by Natalie C Parker

[bookcoversonly]

Title: The Devouring Wolf | Author: Natalie C. Parker | Publisher: Razorbill (2022)

[haveyoureadthisscifibook2]

note: this book has been translated into at least 5 different languages, and each translated title is pretty true to the original English, although the Czech translation is titled Ohnivý květ ("Fire Flower").

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