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14 must read YA book releases to kick off summer right this June

By Lacy Baugher

Lucky List by Rachel Lippincott. Image courtesy Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing
Lucky List by Rachel Lippincott. Image courtesy Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing /
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Trouble Girls by Julia Lynn Rubin. Image courtesy St. Martin’s Publishing Group
Trouble Girls by Julia Lynn Rubin. Image courtesy St. Martin’s Publishing Group /

June 2021 release: Trouble Girls – Julia Lynn Rubin

A queer YA #MeToo reimagining of Thelma & Louise with the aesthetic of Riverdale, for fans of Mindy McGinnis, Courtney Summers, and Rory Power.

Seventeen-year-old Trixie is a waitress in small-town Blue Bottle, West Virginia, and wants nothing more than a weekend escape with her best friend Lux to forget the difficulties of her daily life. (Dead end job, ailing mother, dying Rust Belt town.)

But when their Appalachian getaway turns into a nightmare after an altercation at a bar turns into a deadly stabbing, the girls fear that the police won’t believe their story and flee the scene. On the run with dwindling options, the girls’ case lands national attention and Trixie and Luxe become the centerpiece of a larger discussion surrounding sexual assault, justice, and revenge.

The official synopsis describes the story as follows.

"When Trixie picks up her best friend Lux for their weekend getaway, she’s looking to escape for a little while, to forget the despair of being trapped in their dead-end Rust Belt town and the daunting responsibility of caring for her ailing mother. The girls are packing light: a supply of Diet Coke for Lux and her ‘89 Canon to help her frame the world in a sunnier light; half a pack of cigarettes for Trixie that she doesn’t really smoke, and a knife—one she’s just hanging on to for a friend—that she’s never used before. But a single night of violence derails their trip and will forever change the course of the girls’ lives, as they go from ordinary high schoolers to wanted fugitives. Trying to stay ahead of the cops and a hellscape of media attention, the girls grapple with an unforgiving landscape, rapidly diminishing supplies, and disastrous decisions at every turn. As they are transformed by the media into the face of a #MeToo movement they didn’t ask to lead and the road before them begins to run out, Trixie and Lux realize that they can only rely on each other, and that the love they find together is the one thing that truly makes them free."

Trouble Girls is available on June 1.

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