12 must-read YA book releases to spring into this April

April 2021 release: Slingshot – Mercedes Helnwein

An acidly funny, contemporary debut from award-winning visual artist/illustrator Mercedes Helnwein, Slingshot is a boarding school maybe love-story about two people finding each other and then screwing it all up (see also: soulmate, stupidity, sex, friendship, bad poetry, very bad decisions, and all the indignities of being in love for the first time).

When Gracie Welles saves the new boy in class with her childhood comfort object (the slingshot of the novel’s title), her life suddenly seems about to change. No more does she need to worry about her favorite biology teacher’s impending engagement, her fantasy-prone mother, or the absentee father who still hasn’t told his new family about her existence. But as the two grow closer, Gracie inexplicably finds herself pushing Wade away – before she loses him forever, she’ll have to decide what kind of person she is, and who she wants to be.

The official synopsis describes the story as follows.

"Grace Welles had resigned herself to the particular loneliness of being fifteen and stuck at a third-tier boarding school in the swamps of Florida, when she accidentally saves the new kid in her class from being beat up. With a single aim of a slingshot, the monotonous mathematics of her life are obliterated forever…because now there is this boy she never asked for. Wade Scholfield. With Wade, Grace discovers a new way to exist. School rules are optional, life is bizarrely perfect, and conversations about wormholes can lead to make-out sessions that disrupt any logical stream of thoughts. So why does Grace crush Wade’s heart into a million tiny pieces? And what are her options when she finally realizes that 1. The universe doesn’t revolve around her, and 2. Wade has been hiding a dark secret. Is Grace the only person unhinged enough to save him?"

Slingshot is available on April 27.

What are you planning to add to your TBR list this April?