The Queen of Junk Island by Alexandra Mae Jones was an interesting story of teenagers and different sexualities. At first I thought the author had included every combination of these there was but, why not? The more people learn the better the world will be. Dell and Ivy have a good story to tell and it was not done in a heavy handed way.

I was really interested in the first few chapters of this book, but when they got out to the lake house, it lost me. I circled back a few times to try to reinvest in the book and just could not.

I will avoid reviewing this book publicly as I cannot recommend it.

If there was ever a book that could have benefited from a trigger/content warning as a preface, this is it. A strong debut that takes on some very tough topics, and that will certainly resonate with many young-adult readers. However, some of the language and content may set readers back a bit. The homophobia and biphobia in this story is reflected accurately, but I truly wasn't expecting the depth of it when I picked this one up. Please proceed with caution for this book.

Thanks as always to NetGalley and Annick Press Ltd. for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

3.50 Stars. This was a good debut, and I think the author should be proud, but I personally didn’t connect like I hoped to. I think part of the problem was with the cover, title, and blurb, I was expecting something that dealt with some tough topics, but that did it in a quirky and uplifting way. Instead, the book ended up being more depressing and even grittier than I expected. I don’t consider that a bad thing, I like emotional YA books, but in that case I need to connect to the characters more than I was able to here.

In my review copy, the author’s note is at the end. I don’t know if this was changed and put at the beginning before release, but I would urge people to read it first. I read it first since other reviews mentioned that you should, and I was glad that I did. Otherwise, I would not have realized that this book actually takes place 20 years ago and contains some difficult subjects. This book has biphobia, homophobia, sex shaming, sexism, and more. When you put the book in context of taking place in the early 2000’s, these isms and triggers make a lot more sense. I did find some of the sex shaming and biphobia especially hard to read about, but I graduated high school in 2000 so I know it was realistic.

I’ve mentioned before –in other reviews- that I love YA that has lots of teenage angst, emotions, and drama, so while this wasn’t the quirky book I was expecting, it still should have worked a bit better for me than it did. As I said, I’m one of the target audiences for this since I would have been around the same age as the characters, but I still had issues connecting to them. The main character, Dell, is depressed and angry so I understood why she would attack people but it still made her hard to like. Another main character, Ivy, while not depressed, was definitely angry and self-destructive so she would lash out to hurt people before they could hurt her. Again, I completely understood her character but I still struggled to like her too.

I don’t know if you can call what Dell and Ivy had a romance, as it was not very romantic, but they did have a relationship. This was tough for me as there were masturbation scenes and angry make-out scenes that felt dark and maybe ‘unsettling’ is the better word. While their relationship changed and evolved, it sure started off by making me quite uncomfortable.

It is not like the book is all doom and gloom, it’s just pretty serious, but the book did have a good ending. It couldn’t wrap up everything in a big bow, but it did cover some of the really important issues and made me feel better as a reader. In the end, I think the book was well written besides a few newbie bumps that were mostly dialogue based. The story was different and interesting, it just didn’t all come together for me. It was heavier and more serious than I expected, which would have been fine except that I could never fully connect to the important characters. This is a book that won’t be everyone’s cup of tea. If you are looking for a darker and more serious YA book, or one that has a main character struggling with her bisexuality in the early 2000’s, than this might be a fit for you.

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.

After several attempts just couldn't get into this. It wasn't a bad story but just wasn't for me. I only got about 25% in.

It’s the beginning of summer, and Dell is still dealing with trauma from a recent ex-boyfriend when her mother gets a call that their country property has been used as a dumping ground. With nowhere else to go, Dell’s mother brings her along, suggesting that a stay at the family cottage will be a nice break. But it goes from bad to worse when Dell meets her mother’s boyfriend’s daughter, the confidant and slightly pushy Ivy. Together, they uncover the secrets that Dell’s mother left buried, along with a past that neither of them could ever dream of.

I found The Queen of Junk Island very interesting. It has a mystery inducing premise, but in terms of uncovering the mystery, it was lacking. The characters felt slightly unfinished, as if this was just a rough draft, and there were parts that repeated or left holes.

In terms of content, I wish that the author’s note was put in the front. I had no idea that it was set in the 2000’s until I read the author’s note, and had I realized the context for exploring sexuality, I would have been much more prepared. There were also a few scenes between Ivy and Dell that felt very weird and could’ve been written better.

Thank you to NetGalley, Annick Press and the author for an advanced copy of the book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
All together, I liked this book! It was good for a first novel. Really. I also loved the representation of the queer community. That is always nice to see! As much as my negative thoughts were there in this (look below for those), there were times when I just couldn't make myself stop rooting for the characters.

I had a hard time getting into this, The main character, Dell, was a mess. I honestly DNF this for months for some of the language in it. I do think that the author's note should have been at the FRONT of the book to help the reader understand more about what I was about to embark on. It was a decent book! I wont be purchasing this one for myself but I would recommend it as long as the reader is aware of the TW before they read.

The Queen of Junk Island is a story of self-discovery. Dell is kind of a disaster at this point in her teenage life, and slowly begins to figure things out as the story unfolds.

The first half of the story moved very slowly for me, but around the 60% mark it picked up and the last 1/3 was much more engaging. I don't really feel that this book is necessarily for me, but I'm sure that there are many people out there that this book may speak to. It would have been much better going into it knowing that it takes place in the early 2000's. I didn't realize this, and was confused by several things (like why she had a flip phone - I did not think Canada was that behind the times...). Having the author's note in the beginning would be helpful, but it would also give away some important plot points and discoveries. Just know that it is important to view the story through the lens of the early 2000's, and not today, because the bi-phobic thoughts and several other things make much more sense.

I enjoyed watching Dell and Ivy's relationship unfold, although I can't say I was necessarily rooting for them. I really liked Dell's relationship with her best friend Paul, and appreciated how his personal experience was also very different from those around him and what was "expected" at the time.

I think a lot of Dell's thoughts may be relatable to many women, especially those who were teens at the same time, but some of it was just awkward and uncomfortable to read about. I did appreciate the honesty, and also reading about the experience of someone going through this type of identity crisis. Reading about the experiences of others, even fiction, can help us all to be more knowledgeable, understanding, and empathetic.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a digital advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

A delightful book full of adventure, action, and thrills. Fun to read, engrossing world building, and very descriptive imagery made it feel like it was cinematic. It's hard to resist the story as it drives forward. Would recommend.

The premise of this book is really interesting, though I must admit it was the comp to Nina LaCour that really drew me in. As for the execution, it didn't always work for me (and it was certainly a bit darker and more focused on overcoming homophobia and biphobia than I was initially expecting), though it's a very solid debut.

I was endlessly charmed by THE QUEEN OF JUNK ISLAND, whose premise is that Dell and her mother (still on uneasy terms after a recent trauma) are spending the weekend at her grandparents' lakeside cottage, where the previous tenant has been using the private lake as a dumping ground (such that there is now a legitimate 'island of trash' in the middle). Oh, and her mom's boyfriend's daughter (Dell's soon-to-be-semi-step-sister? Maybe?) is coming, too. Dell is prickly and anxious and sad and prone to run headlong into bad choices--in other words, she's very much a teen girl in the '00s. Having been a teen at the same time, I found Dell's thought patterns to be very familiar, particularly representative of an era of deep unevenness: while some teens had found feminism and sex positivity through the internet, others were clouded by conservative 'don't ask don't tell' models of sex ed and the specter of the internet as a forum for bullying and permanent records of your biggest mistakes. This novel would've rocked the worlds of me & my classmates had it been available to us in 2006 or so! While some plot threads felt a bit rushed (or, in some cases, unfinished), the characters themselves were charming and fully realized. The exploration of sexuality (and, to a lesser extent, class and race) is handled quite well and provides useful footholds for teens just learning about the wide world of adult identities and relationships. Definitely a great read!

Thank you to the publisher for an eARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I wish the author's note had been in the beginning of this one. I was not prepared for how biphobic and sexist/misogynistic was. Also didn't know it was set in the early 2000s until I was almost done. I feel like had I known the tone and time frame this was set in, things would've made a lot more sense sooner.

The Queen of Junk Island revolves around teenage Dell. She's recently been through a traumatic event at school and to deal, her mother suggests they go up to the family cabin. But then invites her boyfriends' daughter, Ivy, to stay with them while they clean out the trash from the previous tenant. Ivy presses all of Dell's buttons, but Dell also can't help but feel drawn in by her. The two deal with questions of family, identity, secrets and more during this humid summer in rural Canada.

This book was weird. I think I would've liked this more had I read the author's note first. However there was this really weird dynamic between Ivy and Dell and even knowing when this is set, I don't think it would've changed my dynamic about their relationship. This was a very weird relationship. Dell was constantly a jerk to Ivy, and Ivy could banter right back, but almost always Dell would cross the line and I just think Ivy deserves better. Tho Ivy had some not so great moments too, like when she insinuates that being bi is a stop to coming out as a lesbian.

There was also a whole weird sex vibe. Dell likes to masturbate, which is fine, but she has this whole shaming internal monologue and it was just so awful. It wasn't helped either by Dell's mom slut shaming her at times. Then there was the whole public masturbating scenes between Dell and Ivy and like it was too weird for me. Especially because it wasn't like a thing they agreed to do together. No they didn't even know each other at that point. Dell was caught watching and then they both refused to back down even though they knew the other was watching/listening/awake. I just could not with that scene. Too weird, I'm too ace for that.

Overall, this was not for me. The writing and general plot was fine. But I did not vibe with these characters like I wanted to.

Rep: Questioning bisexual white female MC, biracial (Indigenous & white) lesbian female love interest, BIPOC questioning asexual male side character, white sapphic female side characters, Indigenous (no tribe specified as he was adopted out by the government) heterosexual male side character.

CWs: Acephobia/acemisia, alcohol consumption, biphobia/bimisia, body shaming/policing, bullying, homophobia/homomisia, lesbophobia/lesbomisia, misogyny, outing, racism, sexism, sexual harassment, slut shaming. Moderate: blood, colonisation, death, genocide (mention of Sixties Scoop & residential schools), injury/injury detail, mentions of past pregnancy, suicidal thoughts, suicide attempt, toxic relationship, sexual content.

I have received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Queen of Junk Island sounded like it was going to be a pretty good book. It definitely had potential to be one but fell flat. At least for me it did. In it, you will meet Dell and she's 16 years old. You also meet her mom, her mom's boyfriend's daughter Ivy. They are currently going on a trip to a lake cabin to help clean it up. Or course, there's an ulterior motive here but that's because Dell needs to figure out a bunch of stuff.

I'm just going to keep it plain and simple: Dell was a hot ass mess. I'll admit that I didn't really find anyone likable throughout the book. Yeah, at times they could be but then something would ruin it. I also wasn't a huge fan of what was going on in Dell's head all the time. It did seem realistic - especially with the confusion one tends to go through - I just didn't like how it all played out.

Other than that, it was a quick but super confusing book for me to read. I'm talking about the lack of spacing on my edition. It was hard for me to figure out where the chapters started/ended after the first one. Maybe it's just me though?

In the end, I'm glad that I got the chance to jump into this book. I just feel like it had potential to be better.

I really felt for Dell, even while I cringed at so, so many of her choices in this book. Ah, to be young and a complete disaster! This novel takes place in an earlier, harder time for LGBTQIA people—when answers and community felt much futher away for many. I got the feeling we were supposed to be able to see all sides in the book, but while Dell's mother definitely has been through a lot and has her own stuff to deal with, there are so many ways she drops the ball, or does exactly the wrong thing, or treats situations completely inappropriately, and I just wanted to shake her as she was so constantly failing her daughter.

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!

The Queen of Junk Island is an extremely well-written YA novel. The premise is really interesting and the cover is beautiful.

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.