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Kamikaze Girls, by Novala Takemoto
I hunted down a copy of Novala Takemoto’s 2002 novel Kamikaze Girls after I saw the film adaptation a few months ago, and—for once!—I’m not sure which I recommend picking up first. There are slig...
Karen Memory, by Elizabeth Bear
Elizabeth Bear's novel Karen Memory has all the hallmarks of a great YA novel: the plot is unabashedly romantic and imaginative, and the author is clearly determined to deliver plenty of value for your entertainment dollar. In fact, I suspect the only reason this wasn't packaged as a teen book is because the sixteen-year-old heroine is A) gay and B) a prostitute...
Kill Me Softly and Tear You Apart, by Sarah Cross
I'm picky about retold fairytales. I get mega-irritated when an author screws up a classic story—I mean, they've already had a huge chunk of the work done for them! Ensuring that their new contribution doesn't suck seems like the least they can do...
The Kill Order, by James Dashner
In 1988, John Christopher wrote When The Tripods Came, a prequel to the Tripods series, his famous 1960s science fiction trilogy. Creepy and deeply weird, When The Tripods Came simultaneously established the post-apocalyptic world featured in the main series and worked as a standalone novel. James Dashner's novel The Kill Order attempts to...
Killer Instinct, by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Before I launch into the body of my review, I'd like to commend my local chain bookstore for not displaying Jennifer Lynn Barnes's Killer Instinct in the children's section. That's where they originally stocked the first book in the series—last year's The Naturals—and it was a staggeringly inappropriate choice...
Killer Summer, by Ridley Pearson
Ridley Pearson's Killer Summer is his third book featuring Walt Fleming, the sheriff of Sun Valley, a small Idaho resort town. I'm always hesitant about starting a ser...
Killers of the Flower Moon, by David Grann
The first third of David Grann's 2017 nonfiction book Killers of the Flower Moon is structured like a mystery novel, and—trust me on this—readers are best off knowing as little about the "plot" as possible. I was unfortunately already familiar with the fates of most of the people involved, and it made for the kind of claustrophobic, creepifying reading experience that lingers...
Kiss in the Dark, by Lauren Henderson
Lauren Henderson's Kiss in the Dark is the third book in her series about Scarlett Wakefield, a wealthy, orphaned teen attending Wakefield Hall, her iron-willed grandmother's exclusive English boa...
Kiss Me Kill Me, by Lauren Henderson
While a discouraging number of C-grade Gossip Girl rip-offs cross our desks here at Wordcandy HQ, once in a while we encounter a story about rich teenagers behaving badly that stands out from the ...
Kiss of Death, by Lauren Henderson
Kiss of Death is the fourth and final book in Lauren Henderson's Scarlett Wakefield mystery series, after Kiss Me Kill Me, Kisses and Lies, and Kiss in the Dark. While the first few books focused...
The Kiss Quotient, by Helen Hoang
As I mentioned a few weeks ago, I really liked Helen Hoang's romance novel The Bride Test, but I watched it under the influence of two truly terrible Chinese dramas, which I suspected might have skewed my enthusiasm. In an effort to clarify my opinion (and read anther unconventional romance novel) I picked up her first book, The Kiss Quotient...
Kisses and Lies, by Lauren Henderson
Kiss Me Kill Me, the first book in Lauren Henderson’s series featuring 16-year-old Scarlett Wakefield, was an unexpected delight: a YA mystery that blended the guilty pleasures of the Gossip Girl series with...
The Kissing Booth, by Beth Reekles
The background story for Beth Reekles's debut novel The Kissing Booth is impressive. (The novel itself, on the other hand... um, we'll get to that in a minute.) Reekles, who is seventeen, started writing her story two years ago, and eventually self-published it on WattPad, where it became the site's most-viewed teen fiction title. Random House picked up the British rights last fall, releasing The Kissing Booth as an e-book, and now...
Kissing Snowflakes, by Abby Sher
Kissing Snowflakes, Abby Sher’s first novel, isn’t outstandingly original, but it features plausible characters and a solidly entertaining storyline. The book reads like a Molly Ringwald movie, but...
Kitchen Princess, by Miyuki Kobayashi
I've finally gotten around to reading the first few volumes of Miyuki Kobayashi and Natsumi Ando's manga Kitchen Princess, winner of the Kodansha Manga Award for children's manga in 2006.
Kitchen Princess is the story of Najika Kazami, the orphaned daughter of two world-class pastry chefs....
The Knight Life: Chivalry Ain't Dead, by Keith Knight
Keith Knight's The Knight Life: Chivalry Ain't Dead is a low-key but consistently entertaining comic strip centered around Knight, an African-American cartoonist and musician living...
Knight of Pleasure, by Margaret Mallory
One of the main reasons Nathan, Megan and I started Wordcandy was our desire to give serious (okay, semi-serious) literary consideration to genres of fiction that do not ordinarily receive their f...