10 must-read new YA book releases to make your December merry

Black Canary: Breaking Silence –  Alexandra Monir

This latest installment in the DC Icons series of young adult novels that have previously featured books about the youthful origins of Catwoman, Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman, will offer a new origin story for Dinah Lance, also known as the Black Canary.

(Fun fact: This will be the first novel ever based on the iconic comics character.)

The events of this book take place in a world where the Court of Owls has transformed Gotham City into a dystopian, Gilead-esque nightmare, one which strips women of their rights. Young Dinah Lance is furious at their continued oppression, which has forbidden women from working, learning, and even singing.

But as seventeen-year-old Dinah follows in the footsteps of her mother – the original Black Canary – she discovers that her voice is a weapon, one that she can use to help push back against the Court of Owls’ regime. But it might make her public enemy number one in the process.

The official synopsis describes the story as follows.

"Dinah Lance was seven years old when she overheard the impossible: the sound of a girl singing. It was something she was never meant to hear—not in her lifetime, and not in Gotham City, taken over by the Court of Owls. The sinister organization rules Gotham as a patriarchal dictatorship, all the while spreading their influence like a virus across the globe. Now seventeen, Dinah can’t forget that haunting sound, and she’s beginning to discover that her own voice is just as powerful. But singing is forbidden—a one-way stop to a certain death sentence. Can she balance her father’s desire to keep her safe, a blossoming romance with mysterious new student Oliver Queen, and her own desire to help other women and girls rise up and finally be heard? And will her voice be powerful enough to destroy the Court of Owls once and for all?"

Black Canary: Breaking Silence is available on December 29.

Which December YA releases are you adding to your TBR piles? Tell us your reading plans in the comments below!