An interesting exploration of female teenage sexuality. Thanks for the review copy, very intense and personal book

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me free access to the digital advanced copy of this book.

I thought this book was well-written and quite interesting. The plot was good and the characters were good as well. This is a rough book to read at times because it talks about difficult topics, but it seems to do it well. I don't know why I didn't feel connected to this story and these characters though. I am willing to give this author another chance and I'm even willing to reread this book to see whether I might have been the problem.

This is the book you need for your mom trauma, your identity issues, your coming of age around generational trauma. It's that Rory Power novel from last year (burn our bodies down) with less horror elements. It's like reading your own journal written by someone else. It's incredible, It's affective (and also effective). It takes place before 2015 probably which is NOT clear anywhere in the marketing but Whatever (some things feel dated or weird). If you like the cover, the description, or my review, you should pick it up.

I really enjoyed Dell's journey of self discovery and her coming to terms with her sexuality. It was complex and well written and really drove the story. I also found Ivy to be well written and the twists of their relationship as they spend the summer together was so well written. I thought the adults were not as well written particularly Dell's mother some of her actions were so awful it made the book hard to read and really took me out of the story. The generational trauma makes this realistic in someways but it also felt over the top and not as well written as other aspects of the story. The plot was interesting and the mystery elements really drew me in as well. Overall it's an interesting journey.

DNF @ 45% - I just really couldn’t get into this one. I wanted to love it so much, but the storyline just kept going in circles. I loved the concept so I’m thinking I may not have been in the right mindset for it right now. I’ll definitely pick it up again at a later date and try again.

Thank you for this eARC!

Firstly, for this book cover to be hopeful, this book is very gritty and raw. I think this is the first book where I walked away feeling all kinds of emotions—all positive. I would definitely recommend this book to people that I know. For any one struggling with body image or find yourself asking questions about your identity—this is your story.

The author does a wonderful job with the character development. I feel like I saw myself in Dell, and as a male that is huge. Oh! The writing was amazing, I felt like all the emotions the author wanted us to know about Dell, she expressed those wondrously.

The only thing that really got to me was not knowing the setting or time of the book at certain times, I would have reread certain pages just to give myself a better understanding of where we were in the story. As a LGBT person, that would definitely help explain some of the points made about certain queer terms.

All in all, this book deserves to sit on the shelves as other books. Warning: I can be slow at times. But, it's a great read.

Thank you for this eARC! I really appreciated getting to read this book before publication.

I am excited to recommend this book to my students, especially my students who are struggling with body image or are questioning their identity. The book does a wonderful job discussing both of these things throughout, and I do think some students could see themselves in Dell's character. I LOVED Dell's character and getting to be inside her head with the author's writing style. Her emotions were conveyed viscerally, and I appreciated the author's decision to keep the book as realistic as possible.

I struggled at times with this book as the setting was unclear--I learned that it was before the age of Instagram after I had finished! I think knowing the time the book took place would have helped me to realize why LGBTQIA+ terminology was not somewhat common knowledge.

I think this book would be great for high school readers who are on grade level/advanced--as the book was slow at times, I would be reluctant to recommend this book to slow/reluctant readers. While the book was not my favorite, I do think it deserves a place in school libraries/classroom libraries as a choice book. I think the inner thinking & self actualization will be great for students to read about!

For having such an adorable cover, The Queen of Junk Island is a really gritty book.

Sixteen-year-old Dell and her mom are spending the summer at the family cabin after discovering the previous renter dumped garbage all over the property. Dell is relieved to be getting out of the city because much like the cabin, her life is in need of a refresh. That is until she realizes her mom's boyfriend's daughter Ivy is staying with them too. The girls clash with each other from the very first day, but with Ivy's help, Dell learns about herself and her family's secrets.

If you look up "Hot Mess" in a dictionary, you will find a picture of Dell. Her internal monologue can be difficult to read, at times. She's abrasive, self-deprecating, and constantly overwhelmed. There are plenty of times where she, alongside many of the other main characters, are straight-up unlikable. But I still found myself rooting for them. They're what I like to think of as "authentically terrible." Messed up as she is, Dell's journey of self-discovery and figuring out the world is a relatable one. (And even when Dell or Ivy or their parents pissed me off, I couldn't stop reading because I had to know what was going to happen!!)

I found the author's note to be really valuable to this story, and wish I had read it at the beginning rather than the end. It really sets the scene so I'd definitely suggest you read it first even though it's at the end of the book. (Or if it's in the beginning in the final print even better!)

Fair warning on this one: The Queen of Junk Island has a lot of great rep, but with great rep comes a long list of content warnings, including acephobia, biphobia, homophobia, body/slut shaming, racism, sexism, sexual harassment, negative body image, and suicidal thoughts.

Many many thanks to Netgalley and Annick Press for the free review copy. This is one of those very special arcs where I will probably buy myself a physical copy so I can read it again.

The Queen of Junk Island took forever for me to get through. Mostly because every time I read it, the content just made me sad and affected my mood for the rest of the day. I had to force myself to finish it. I try to finish all the NetGalleys I'm chosen for even when I have a hard time doing so.

It would have helped my reading experience if I had been warned in the beginning. If there was a content/trigger warning or author's note with these warnings right as you start reading because it was heavily biphobic with misogynistic & body shame/sex shame themes.

The plot, plot points, and settings were interesting but the characters, character interactions, and depressing to read internal dialogue is what killed it for me beginning to end.

16-year-old Dell and her Mom, along with her mom's boyfriend's 17-year-old daughter Ivy, head out to her mother's lake cabin that's been overrun with trash. The goal is to clean up the old family home and take Dell's mind off a recent betrayal, but Dell ends up finding out so much about herself and her family.

Dell was a hot mess and full of emotions, which is one of the best things about this book. The author did a great job at being inside Dell's head and expressing the feelings of confusion, disgust, anger, and longing. This book was very open about sex and sexuality, and while most of the characters aren't really sex-positive, it's presented as quite realistic. (I didn't know that this is supposedly set in the early 2000s until I read the author's note at the end. It would've helped to know that while reading because it was hard to comprehend that these teens hadn't heard of bisexuality or asexuality. Knowing that this was set 15-20 years ago would've really made more sense while I was reading. They mention cell phones and internet, but no other references to the current time.)

I loved that Dell expressed so many feelings about feeling "gross". It's not often that girls and women are able to share these feelings about our bodies, so that was refreshing to read. I do think that this should be geared towards older teens, as the mentions of porn were somewhat disturbing in how they were described. I felt a lot of conflicting feelings about teenage sexuality while reading this book; on one hand it's good to read about realistic feelings, but with the benefit of hindsight, I can see how this may be a little scary to some younger teens.

Dell's mother was really frustrating. I understood her a bit more by the end of the book, but she made so many obvious mistakes with how she dealt with Dell's betrayal. Like, your daughter is the victim here! The slut-shaming was horrible, but I appreciate that her mom apologized. Parents apologizing to their kids is great to read.

Overall a great story and quite thought-provoking!

Dell is running from something bad her past, when we first meet her. Her mother doesn't want to talk about it, and the only friend who does want to be there for her, Jason, is working in the city, and her mother has taken her to their house on the lake to get away from it all. It being whatever happened.

The only problem is, the lake of the lake house, has been filled with trash, as have the woods near by., by the tenant, who has disappeared. So, the summer become a summer of cleaning up. Oh, and Dell's mother's boyfriend has sent his daughter to stay with them, as well.

The slow reveal of what happened to Dell with the boy who showed her affection, is leaked out bit by bit in the story. Also leaked out, bit by bit, is Ivy, her soon to be step sister, who she keeps looking at and wondering if she hates her or wants to bang her.

There is a lot of painful inner thinking, and feelings, and all the things that young adult literature is known for. The author said she wrote it for all the girls who were going through something similar, or might even be going through it now, not being to name what their sexuality is, because no one ever talks about anything but heterosexual sex.

I felt it was a little slow in bits, but I could see where the author was going with it, leading us, as the main characters moved through their own hurt and pain.

Not quite for me, but that doesn't mean it isn't for others, and it may give validity to youth that are trying to figure out who and what they are.

<em>Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.</em>

I found this to be an enjoyable read, keeping me on my toes throughout. The storyline was written well and flowed seamlessly. I look forward to reading more by this author!

Thanks to the publisher for providing an eARC of The Queen of Junk Island in exchange for an honest review.

I think this was really well done, especially for a debut! It's always great to see more queer women in YA fiction and I think this was a pretty nuanced depiction in that reguard. I do think the way the characters talk to each other was occasionally clunky and felt debut-y (though maybe it was perfectly fine and I just went in with way too high expectations because of the Nina LeCour comparison) but all in all, I enjoyed this.

I thought this was a very well written YA novel of a girl who needed a summer to move on from past mistakes and find herself.

Dell is 16 years old and ends the school year with photos of herself being put online by a boy she thought she liked. Her mom takes her to their family cottage after getting a call that the renter has been dumping garbage on the property.
Dell is joined by Ivy, the 17 year old daughter of her mothers boyfriend. The girls do not get along at first, but then something not quite like friendship begins.
Can Dell move past the situation which nearly broke her? Can Ivy help her discover herself and maybe even answer questions about her past that her mother has kept hidden.

Thank you to Netgalley for an advanced copy to review.