Needy Little Things had A LOT of things going on and honestly I felt like it did the majority of them extremely well. The characters were complex, the emotions were coming through and the story had me on the edge of my seat from the minute it started. I absolutely loved the look at mental health, grief, family dynamics and the focus that missing white girls get as opposed to girls of color. Sariyah is a character that will stay with me for a long time. I did wish there was a little more exploration of the big reveal for the mystery. It was certainly a surprise and the red herrings peppered throughout the story were done SO WELL, but I just needed maybe a page or two more to really flesh it out. That ending though! My goodness, it was abrupt which I normally dislike, but the way it was done here, i physically GASPED at the last line. I highly recommend this book for fans of Tiffany D. Jackson’s novels and a little magical realism in your YA thrillers.
CW: confinement, grief, illness, mental illness, death, kidnapping

Thank you to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for an advanced digital reader’s copy in exchange for an honest review.

In her debut speculative YA mystery, Channelle Desamours introduces readers to Sariyah Lee Bryant, a Black teen with a unique gift—or a curse. Sariyah can sense what people need—small, tangible things like a pencil or phone charger. But when fulfilling a need for her friend Deja coincides with Deja’s sudden disappearance, Sariyah is thrust into a heart-pounding race to uncover the truth.

This isn’t the first time someone close to her has gone missing, and Sariyah is determined not to let Deja become another forgotten Black girl. With the police and media falling short, Sariyah and her friends take matters into their own hands. But as her mother’s job loss and her little brother’s health challenges pile on the pressure, Sariyah makes the risky decision to use her ability for cash—an act that could lead her to Deja but also put her in grave danger.

Set against the vibrant backdrop of Atlanta, Needy Little Things excels in delivering both mystery and heartfelt emotion. As someone who lived in Atlanta for eight years, I adored the shoutouts to the city’s landmarks and culture, which brought the story to life and gave it an authentic, rooted feel.

Desamours has crafted a gripping narrative that skillfully blends suspense, social commentary, and speculative elements. Sariyah is a fiercely relatable protagonist, navigating the complexities of family, friendship, and systemic injustice, all while grappling with her own identity and powers.

If you’re looking for a book with high stakes, sharp twists, and a heartfelt exploration of resilience and community, Needy Little Things is a must-read. I can’t wait to see what Channelle Desamours writes next!

I orginal wanted to read this based on the gorgeous cover but wow this book was amazing I loved the story, the world building and meeting the different characters. I felt completely immersed in the story and couldn't stop reading it.

Thank you NetGalley for the arc.
4.75 stars
Needy Little Things is a fun, magical, and thrilling read. Sariyah may seem like an everyday teen juggling school, friends, and responsibilities, but she's not. Sariyah has the gift of premonition - she knows what people need before they need it. However, her ability does not work on close family and friends, leaving her perplexed when it comes to understanding Deja's needs one final time. When the same friend Deja goes missing, Sariyah will do anything to find her even if it means putting her own life in jeopardy.
I really enjoyed this book. I found Sariyah to be a fascinating character- a typical teen navigating her place in the world while also grappling with how her gift fits into it. I loved the mystery aspect of the novel and how it sheds light on what it means to be Black and missing in America.

Thank you Wednesday Books and Netgalley for this eARC, these opinions are my own. So interesting! Sariyah has a talent to be able to hear what people need. Little things like gum or pepper spray. She has difficulty sensing her friends needs though. So she’s surprised when she senses Deja’s need. Then Deja disappears. Refusing to let Deja become another missing black girl statistic she is determined to find out what happened to her. But with her mother’s worsening depression and her brothers sickle cell she’ll have trouble balancing everything. Can she figure out what happened to Deja? Or will she end up putting herself in danger? I loved the mystery and how I didn’t see things coming! I loved all of the characters, they were all really likeable! An important read that highlights the lack of resources, awareness, and racism when it comes to missing black girls. Absolutely one to add to your TBR’s! Excited to read more from Channelle Desamours!

This book has a little bit of everything, and I loved it!

Sariyah has the ability to sense people's needs (except those she's closest to). So when she and her friends head to a music festival and Sariyah hears Deja's need for pepper spray, she's a little worried. Then Deja disappears, like Malcolm's sister did five years prior. Sariyah juggles her need fulfillment compulsion, her brother's sickle cell, her mother's depression, her best friend feeling some type of way because of Deja's disappearance, and a possible budding romance all on top of searching for clues to what happened to Deja.

Although there are a LOT of elements going on here, they're all balanced pretty well. The mystery part was twisty without being obvious. Ri was an incredibly relatable character, and I really liked the way the author handled how depression was portrayed. Most importantly, this book highlights the disparity in the way white missing kids are treated versus BIPOC kids. This is definitely going to be one of my go-to recommendations for YA thrillers, and I hope Desamours writes more!

Thank you to NetGalley and publisher for the opportunity to read and review.

I believe it has a slow start but I love that it touched on subjects such as the way black/browns missing children are treated. It’s something that needs to be spoken on more and fixed. It was definitely a plot twist I was not expecting and a great ending. Love that Tessa was able to give Sariyah a way to find her and give Malcolm and his family peace!

Needy Little Things is an engaging and relevant YA read about seventeen year old Sariyah who possesses a special "gift." The book deals with a variety of themes that makes it applicable to any reader. While this book is considered a thriller, I like that it also tackles social issues. I would recommend this book to any age.

Thank you Negalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really love the magical realism/mystery genre. This had a lot of twists and turns and it kept my attention. Overall I really enjoyed!

This story gave you all the things. All the twists, turns, laughs, and emotions! It was a great thriller. I’m 29, and I love a good YA book and this thriller was no different!

I loved speculative mysteries and so was really interested in the book. I liked the MC and lot. I did like her friends, but I had issue with Malcolm and Deja by the end and wasn't sure she should have forgiven them (or at least not so easily). Jude was a bit bland but fine. I enjoyed the story and how the MC used her ability, but I actually was a little unsatisfied by the resolution of the mystery (although I got why the characters did what they did, I was still annoyed). I also thought--similar to a few other YA books I've read--the writing tried to hard too sound cool and like teens but instead comes off as artifical. Maybe it's because I'm around young adults too much, but a lot of YA reads like adults writing how they want or think teens should be than how they are. Still, it's a really good story!

Sariyah's psychic talent is unprecedented. She continually "hears" people's trivial "needs" for hair gel, nail files, or chewing gum when she's among casual acquaintances or strangers, but she's not so good at sensing the deeper needs of close friends and family.

One of her close friends had become one of Atlanta's many missing young people. The city's high incidence of missing persons was a news item in the 1970s but soon became Old News outside of the city where it's still a close-range, personal problem. When a second friend of Sariyah's goes missing, Sariyah's psychic "gift" doesn't help in any direct way; she has to use more mundane abilities, but she uses her gift along the way.

What's not to love: You may or may not find a character's sudden psychotic break believable.

What's to love: The other characters are believable, and likable. A lively adventure story calls attention to an ongoing social problem. There's a realistic portrayal of the kind of teenaged girl who is likely to become an interesting woman, noticing an attraction to a teenage boy and telling herself that she doesn't need a silly crush right now. (Girls like that always existed; publishers used to reject any suggestion that teenagers had higher priorities than their hormones.) The book is more intense than a "feel-good" story, but love of friends and family gets its reward n the end.

This books was "Available to Read Now for 48 Hours" on NetGalley. Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read. The first couple chapters of the book started off slow. I had kind of started losing interest. But once I got to the main plot of the story I couldn’t put the book down. It wrapped in a direction I was not expecting and made me think “why?” and “how did we get here?”. I think the ending was nice. If you like suspense, magical fantasy, and twists, then I recommend this book. It was almost giving a 'Monday's Not Coming' type of vibe. Overall, I think this was a great debut by Ms. Desamours.

A unique magical concept of telepathically hearing people's needs and fulfilling them drives this twisty, fast-paced mystery that keeps you guessing until the end. The story tackles triggering subjects like racism, missing persons, parental abandonment, drug addiction, mental illness, and dysfunctional family issues with great sensitivity. This book perfectly blends important social commentary with fiction, creating an unputdownable mystery with magical realism that keeps you glued to the pages and delivers a five-star reading experience.

The story follows seventeen-year-old Sariyah Lee Bryant, who has a special gift: she can hear people's needs in her head, from simple things like pencils, hair ties, gum, and phone chargers, to more crucial items like pepper spray! She was best friends with twins Malcolm and Tessa since childhood until Tessa vanished without a trace.

History repeats itself when Sariyah attends a music festival with her friends Deja, Malcolm, and her new crush Jude. While waiting in the restroom line, Sariyah zones out, only to realize Deja is no longer standing beside her.

Determined to find her friend, Sariyah uses all social media platforms to raise awareness. Meanwhile, she deals with her mother's depression, who rarely leaves her bedroom except for work, and her nine-year-old brother who suffers from sickle cell disease. Adding to her struggles, she begins fighting with Malcolm during their search, questions her romantic feelings for Jude, misses her father who remains in Chefley (their former home), and longs for her summer friends.

Questions multiply: What happened to Deja? Why was she acting strange and secretly texting someone? Why does her mother's tears seem fake, as if hiding guilt? Why does Deja's stepdad give off unsettling vibes, and what's the story behind the lock on Deja's room? Was she running from someone? Could Tessa and Deja's disappearances be connected?

The secrets her friends harbor may lead Sariyah down a dangerous path she never intended to take.

Overall: This is a twisty, dark, engaging, and thought-provoking read that I thoroughly enjoyed and highly recommend!

Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press/Wednesday Books for sharing this unputdownable thriller's digital review copy with me in exchange for my honest thoughts.

Sayriah is a teen with ADHD and special abilities. She is able to sense the needs of others around her and provide them with the items that they need. Although her abilities don’t work on the people she cares about. Over a span of 2-3 weeks, we follow Sayriah as she navigates the needs of others and trying to find her friend Deja. In the end, Deja is found, her and her father are recovering from the incident that happened, and she received a clue to find one of her best friends that has been missing for years.

4.5 stars. LISTEN. This was so good! I ate it up. Couldn’t put it down. It shed light on so many different topics in the Black community and snuck in a thrilling/mystery vibe to it with an ending that left me SHOOK. My gawd. I mean we covered grief and loss, job challenges, outrage between missing girls and how much coverage they get based on the color of their skin. AND I absolutely loved all the characters! JoJo being one of my favs. I went in to this book blind and it gave me everything that I didn’t know I needed.

I really enjoyed the first two-thirds of this book—it was engaging, and I was having a great time. But the last third felt chaotic and confusing, almost as if it came out of nowhere. While I appreciated the author’s intention to tackle Missing White Women Syndrome, it sometimes felt overdone and heavy-handed. That said, I loved the thoughtful portrayal of health issues, both mental and physical, which added depth to the story. The representation was also a highlight, with nearly every character being a person of color, giving the narrative authenticity.


Overall, this book offers an intriguing mix of mystery and social commentary. Although the ending felt a bit messy, the emotional weight and character development make it a memorable read. If you enjoy speculative fiction with heart and purpose, this is worth adding to your list.

I rate it 3.75, rounding up to 4.

“Needy Little Things” is a YA book by Channelle Desamours. This book wasn’t quite what I expected, but I’m not displeased. This book is about a high school senior (Sariyah) who has a “gift” of knowing what people need (for instance a napkin, a nail file, a toothbrush). Her best friends are Malcolm (who’s sister disappeared a number of years ago) and Deja. At an outdoor music event, Deja disappears and Sariyah and Malcolm are determinded to find their friend. That’s one storyline - the other is things happening in society (why is Deja’s disappearance not being picked up by major news outlets?) and in the families (Sariyah’s brother has sickle cell disease, Sariyah’s mother is battling depression). This book touches on a number of social topics. I found Sariyah’s relationship with her brother to be a very well written one - sibling relationships are so complex - capturing both the love and the moments your sibling drives you nuts. I wasn’t as thrilled by some of the choices Sariyah and her friends make - but being a teen, sometimes bad decisions are made, though you don’t realize it at the time.

I didn't know what to expect when i started to read this, but I'm glad it turned out quite good!

Despite the consistent fantasy element throughout the store (i.e., Sariyah's need detector), it is very much rooted in reality through its themes of mental health and social justice, specifically the invisibility of missing Black girls and how the urgency to find them isn't as visible on social media. It tackles these topics hard and with such sincerity and heart, but the book is also very short. I feel like there were a lot of things that were being jumbled. Between Sariah's struggles, her mom's depression, her bro's sickle cell disease, her best friend and his missing twin sister, and so much more, there was a lot to go through in so many pages. Desamours balanced as well as she could of; I just personally wish these issues were paced more evenly, that's all.

Sariyah, this poor girl. I just wanted to give this girl a hug so badly. She directs every bad thing happening as her fault, which fuels her to seek out needs to fulfill only for her to inevitably become devastated once more if another thing happens to go wrong. She constantly directs all these feelings, especially the anger she has towards others, at herself, because she doesn't believe she's allowed to be upset at people when she believes they're suffering more than her. It makes her seem self-centered, but all she does throughout the book is do everything in her power to help, even if she's juggling between helps all at once. As you probably guessed by now, I really loved this girl. Sariyah has become one of my favorite protagonists.

Additionally, the relationships and other characters are done so well. The ones she shared with her mom and brother, particularly, felt so real and relatable, and her little romance with Jude was cute (Side note: Is Sariyah bi/pan? She mentions having a crush on a friend's sister early in the book, but the words are never used on page, nor does she go into further detail on her sexuality later on. I hesitate to label this lgbtq+, so I'll wait until I get official confirmation from the author via post or something). Her best friend Malcolm could have been a protagonist in his own right, with the complexities he displays in the story.

(There's a HUGE cliffhanger at the very end of the story involving his missing sister, and I'm predicting that it will be the subject of Desamours next book, if she writes it. I think that's where Malcolm would become the protagonist, with Sariyah being the major supporting cast, but nothing is confirmed at the time I'm writing this. If I'm right, I'll be SO happy.)

All in all, this is such a great book, and I hope it gets the attention it deserves when it officially releases next February!

Channelle Desamours' debut novel NEEDY LITTLE THINGS is a wow!

Main character Sariyah is juggling so much: a mother struggling with severe depressions; a little brother who needs her care; her missing friend Deja; and the fact that she can hear the needs of people. These "needs" are usually small, like a nail file or pencil or comb, but they are loud enough that Sariyah wears headphones in public to help quiet the voices. One detail that feels especially relevant in this novel is that Sariyah pays for these things herself. It's one of those things that might not be addressed in other books, but in NEED LITTLE THINGS the cost of meeting these "needs" has a big impact on Sariyah, especially when the ice cream store where she works closes for the summer. The attention she receives from some people regarding these needs also provides some great surprises that really work--and that's all I will say to avoid spoilers.

Author Desamours brilliantly weaves in the devastation of another missing Black girl with the sister of her best friend Malcolm. This wound, created years before the book starts, also complicates Deja's disappearance and the lengths everyone in their circle will go to ensure Deja's case gets covered by the media.

I couldn't read NEEDY LITTLE THINGS fast enough; I was desperate to know what was going to happen. However, I also did not want the book, and my time with these characters, to end.

What a debut! I can't wait to read more fiction by Channelle Desamours.