When the King of Cadria fell ill, it seemed that the once-vanquished and cruel Old God was returning, so champions were ­assembled three knights, an apprentice, a mage, and one thief to find the famous godsgem and destroy the Old God forever. Winning the battle, they returned to living their lives, and the thief went back to her trade, little realizing she was the key to the final fight. This is a female-driven high-fantasy adventure, and the lesbian love story between thief Olsa and apprentice knight Kalanthe is as much the point as the good-versus-evil trope that packages it. There is an understated yet intimate (not explicit) bed scene well integrated into the plot and not at all sensationalized. Johnston's (Exit, Pursued by a Bear, 2016) latest boasts a diverse cast of characters (in terms of ethnicity and sexual orientation), where five of the six champions are young women. Told in chapters that move between the past and present, this is a positive story about friendships, loyalty, and achievement.--Cindy Welch Copyright 2019 Booklist

An emotionless world where feelings are a commodity. A murderer pursuing a homecoming queen. These suspenseful novels showcase teenage ingenuity. WITH THRILLERS ON THE RISE 1? young adult literature, novelists are asking a question that adult authors and filmmakers have posed for years: "Who can you really trust?" The difference is that with Y.A., the answer generally isn't nobody. It's not that the stakes aren't high for teenagers. In four new novels, love, friendship and identity prove to be fraught - even deadly - propositions. Still, at some point in their struggle, the main characters decide to trust someone. And that, as the poet says, makes all the difference. s. E. grove's provocative new novel, the WANING AGE (Viking, 273 pp., $18.99; ages 12 and up), isn't overtly political, but it extrapolates from what might gently be called the downward trend in empathy in some pockets of America. Natalie Peña is an 18-yearold hotel maid living in San Francisco in a dystopian near-future. In her desensitized world, people lose all capacity for emotion at about 10, psychotic gangs called Fish ravage the city, and hateful 1-percenters buy "synaffs" from a pharmaceutical behemoth named RealCorp just so they can feel. Love, fury and agony have become playthings and status symbols - Botox for the heart. This being a dystopian novel, the folks at RealCorp clearly aren't the good guys. Early on, Natalie discovers that they've kidnapped her precious 11-year-old brother, Calvino, for testing. Calvino has never "waned," possibly because of the trauma surrounding his mom's death. He is a true empath and hence an invaluable lab rat. Grove, author of the "Mapmakers" trilogy, mixes action, noir, bram science and moral philosophy here. The book has its shaggy moments, as when it bogs down by distinguishing emotions from instincts. But at its best, "The Waning Age" is visceral and disarmingly smart. Natalie's quest to free Cal - and Cal's increasingly desperate loneliness at RealCorp - becomes gripping. And Grove refuses to write down to her audience, which makes her kin to her main character. Natalie may just barely remember what it means to feel, but she's as defiant and loyal a big sister as anyone could ask for. IT'S been said that there are only seven plots in existence: the slaying of a monster, the rise from rags to riches and so on. Karen M. McManus's debut smash, "One of Us Is Lying," a crackling murder mystery about high school detention, reminded us to add an eighth to the list: "The Breakfast Club." Her new novel, two can keep a secret (IF ONE IS DEAD) (Delacorte, 352 pp., $19.99; ages 12 and up), may be titled and packaged to look as much like a sequel as the law will allow, but it's actually a different beast - unfortunately, a tamer one. The new novel is set in Echo Ridge, Vt., that "Echo" being a wink from the author: It seems that whoever killed the homecoming queen five years ago has either returned or inspired a gloating copycat now targeting this year's festivities. "Two" unspools more slowly than "One," and the mystery doesn't deepen as the townspeople gossip - it just gets more convoluted. We warm to the alternating narrators as they warm to each other: Malcolm, "the band nerd with the disreputable family," and Ellery, the true-crime buff whose mom is in rehab. But there's a solar system of others meant to distract us from the true killer and, honestly, they're just kind of distracting. McManus is a gifted writer with a devious mind for crime. She could have done more to transform these scary-movie tropes, just as she jolted "The Breakfast Club." Both her novels trade on the idea that even teenagers have secrets worth lying and possibly dying for - which is empowering, in an odd way. But "Two Can Keep a Secret" is a holding gesture rather than an advance. Read it, but know that McManus has more electrifying novels to come. WHAT ARE HEROIC KNIGHTS supposed to do once they've finished saving the kingdom and it's time to break up the band? Open a theme restaurant? Release solo albums? E. K. Johnston's sly, funny, foamy adventure THE AFTERWARD (Dutton, 337 pp., $17.99; ages 12 and up) intertwines a quest to vanquish an evil old god with the aftermath of the expedition, in which our heroes try to establish a new normal in a world where people sing ballads about their awesomeness. "The Afterward" is written as Arthurian high fantasy and takes place in a land called Cadrium, which, appealingly, doesn't have our dogmatic notions of gender and sexuality. Virtually everyone in the brave cast of characters is a young woman or identifies as such. What pulls you along, more than the scuffling over an all-powerful "godsgem," is the love story between the thrill-seeking thief named Olsa and the stouthearted apprentice Kalanthe, whom she sweetly refers to as "my brave nearlya-knight." The structure of "The Afterward" is trickier than it needs to be. It not only moves back and forth through time but also alternates between first and third person. (Whoever decided that the book could forgo the convention of putting characters' names at the beginning of each chapter they narrated was ... incorrect.) But the gender flip is effortless and enlivening: "I leaned into her, and she looked down at me. Then, because I was a thief, I stole a kiss." Even the less vivid chapters have rousing set pieces, and Johnston's love for storytelling is catching. Here's hoping "The Afterward" becomes the first m a series. Kalanthe and Olsa's happily ever after will be like no one else's. the first test of a whodunit is how heartstopping and strange a thing has actually been dun. In SPIN (Scholastic, 400 pp., $17.99; ages 12 and up) Lamar Giles (no relation) nails the murder: An up-and-coming young D. J. named Paris Secord is found in an "almost religious" tableau, slumped over her turntables and bleeding from the head. Giles also puts a pair of memorable "detectives" on the case: two of Paris's sharp-elbowed high school friends, Kya and Fuse, who formerly vied for her attention. The girls try to set aside their mutual distrust and team up to solve their friend's killing, partly to exonerate themselves but mostly because they don't trust the police to understand how deeply Paris's life mattered. "Spin" has jolts and misdirection. It has duplicitous bloggers, avaricious music executives and sadistic fans in white masks. But what's even more impressive is the subtle stuff you almost don't notice because Giles wears his intellect so lightly: the masterly knowledge of hip-hop and R&B; the command of technology's uses and abuses; the discerning ear for the way high schoolers talk, both to one another and to grown-ups. Giles understands the complex force field between generations. He knows that when parents and grandparents say they "expect more" from teenagers, it's often because they haven't bothered to figure out who the teenagers actually are. A two-time nominee for an Edgar (as in Allan Poe) award, Giles is also a terrific plotter. Yes, there's a character who so obviously might be the murderer that he/she can't possibly be the murderer. But evaluating suspects is part of the ritual and the fun, and everyone here feels palpably real. At one point, someone compares Kya and Fuse to Veronica Mars. He may not know what a compliment that is. "Spin" champions the resourcefulness of teenagers and pities the grown-ups - villainous or just clueless - who underestimate them. JEFF GILES is a contributing editor at Vanity Fair and the author of the series "The Edge of Everything."

Lady knights return to town as heroesand struggle with life after fame.Sir Erris Quicksword returns victorious to the city of Cadria with her six faithful companions, having managed to find the magical godsgem and destroy the evil Old God. Welcomed home with great rewards and acclaim, Sir Erris marries the king, and peace returns to the kingdom. Bisexual Olsa Rhetsdaughter, the one lowborn member, feels utterly abandoned and falls back into a life of struggle and thievery. Meanwhile, apprentice knight Kalanthe Ironheart, who is lesbian, returns from her first mission only to prepare apprehensively for marriagelikely to a wealthy man hoping for heirs and willing to pay off her family's debt. Johnston (That Inevitable Victorian Thing, 2017, etc.) weaves a compelling fantasy world in which meticulously crafted female characters slip easily between chain mail and dresses, enjoying many freedoms and yet facing economic and biological pressures to marry men. The narrative flits between the great quest and "the afterward," revealing the romantic love between dutiful Kalanthe and defiant Olsa. The characters are diverseincluding trans and asexual representationand many are portrayed as beautifully dark-skinned with natural hair. Impatient readers will note that there's an awful lot of armor and weaponry with very little questing. It's with some relief that there's trouble in the realm once again.Fascinating female characters in a richly built fantasy world that delivers slowly on adventure. (Fantasy. 13-16) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Gr 8 Up-A year has passed since Sir Erris and her band of lady knights (and one male mage) found and used the Godsgem to get rid of Old God and free the king of Cadrium from his enchantment. While they all basked in glory and fame, the two youngest members of the group, Olsa and Kalanthe, find their lives very difficult. Olsa, a thief who is now too-easily recognized, keeps being arrested and only kept from prison through the intervention of her knightly friends. Apprentice Knight Kalanthe must find a husband to marry and to pay her debt from her training. Despite their close and romantic relationship, Olsa finds that Kalanthe has grown impatient with having to rescue her from prison and after her latest caper, she remains imprisoned. When Mage Ladros discovers that the Godsgem's hiding place is not as secure as first thought, he frees Olsa from prison and gathers the rest of the lady knights to unite one more time to save the kingdom. Both the world-building and the LGBTQ romance are well done and appealing. Kalanthe and Olsa have strong characterization. The other knights, while not as well drawn, add depth to the action. Plot action, divided into "Before" and "After," could initially make readers wonder if the book is a sequel, but the structure becomes clear after a few chapters. VERDICT A delightful tale that should appeal to fans of the author's work and Malinda Lo's fantasies.-Janet Hilbun, University of North Texas, Denton © Copyright 2019. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.