Needy Little Things by Channelle Desamours is a beautifully written novel that dives into the complexities of human relationships. The characters are well-developed and relatable, with the author skillfully exploring their psychological and emotional depths. The themes of love, loneliness, and self-discovery are central to the story, making it a thought-provoking read.

The author also delves into heavy topics, such as the differences in how law enforcement handles cases based on race and financial backgrounds, adding depth and relevance to the narrative.

The protagonist, Sariyah, has a unique talent for hearing people’s tangible needs and providing them. When her friend goes missing, the story takes a turn, focusing on how Sariyah's abilities can help her find her friend. The narrative explores what she could have done differently along the way, with the help of her abilities and friends, while handling difficult life challenges.

Overall, Needy Little Things is a captivating and introspective novel that resonates with readers on a profound level. It's a testament to Channelle Desamours' talent and a worthwhile read for those who enjoy character-driven narratives. Thank you to NetGalley and Channelle’s publication for allowing me the opportunity to read and review this ARC.

Thank you, NetGalley and the publishers, for approving me for this ARC in exchange for my honest and genuine review.

Wow, what a fantastic story! This read kept me up well into the early hours of the morning! It had me on the edge of my seat, whether I was at the chair or in bed while reading! I love a good thriller, and this book exceeded all my expectations! The main character, Sariyah, is someone everyone should have on their side. She's resilient, funny, witty, and strong!

This is an impressive debut novel! I'm excited to see more from this author!

This was a thought provoking, engaging story that tackled so many relatable issues in a thrilling way. I truly understand how Sariyah can view her gift as a curse. Loved seeing her navigate the use of her gift and the many twists and turns that came with doing that. This had such a satisfying ending! thank you for the ARC!

I saw the cover of this book and had to read it and I am glad I did! Needy Little Things discusses sensitive topics like sickle cell, depression and the lack of awareness when it comes to Black girls missing.

This thriller will have you guessing everyone Sariyah comes in contact with! The twist a the end had my jaw dropping!


Thank you netgalley for my ebook arc!

This is a debut novel I picked up because it is about a girl with a unique ability I found intriguing. It's a YA novel and the author is a high school science teacher.

Description:
Sariyah Lee Bryant can hear what people need—tangible things, like a pencil, a hair tie, a phone charger—an ability only her family and her best friend, Malcolm, know the truth about. But when she fulfills a need for her friend Deja who vanishes shortly after, Sariyah is left wondering if her ability is more curse than gift. This isn’t the first time one of her friends has landed on the missing persons list, and she’s determined not to let her become yet another forgotten Black girl.

Not trusting the police and media to do enough on their own, Sariyah and her friends work together to figure out what led to Deja’s disappearance. But when Sariyah’s mother loses her job and her little brother faces complications with his sickle cell disease, managing her time, money, and emotions seems impossible. Desperate, Sariyah decides to hustle her need-sensing ability for cash—a choice that may not only lead her to Deja, but put her in the same danger Deja found herself in.

My Thoughts:
I liked the character Sariyah, but her ability would drive me nuts if I had it. It certainly would be a tremendous distraction to focusing on anything. It was fun following the friends' investigation of what happened to their friend. The book drove home the point that police treat missing teens differently depending on the color of their skin and their family's status. The read was both engaging and thought-provoking. A really good debut Channelle Desamours!

Thanks to St. Martin's Press | Wednesday Books through Netgalley for an advance copy.

A YA novel about a girl and her fluke power to know what people need which both helps, and hurts, in solving her best friends’ disappearance. A creatively written plot, full of details and hints to guide you along, Makes this is a great read for fans of YA novels.

What do you do when life is hard every way you look? You try to do something to make it better, but does it? And what about those secrets that people are keeping from you?
Sariyah is working so hard to keep everything together with her friends, her family, her schoolwork, etc. Sometimes she is a little short sighted and a little self absorbed, but so are those around her. The portrayal of teens trying to grapple with big difficult traumatic issues while also trying to be teenagers is good. I also really liked that the parents were there are flawed. They learn things alongside the kids. I think that makes the book feel more realistic.
Sariyah's special abilities with knowing what people need is well done. We see it affecting so many parts of her life, but it doesn't take over the book. So this is a good mystery/thriller with just a bit of magical realism.
I enjoyed the characters and the investigation and the resolution.

The story focuses on Sariyah and topics that include missing kids, mental health, drug abuse, and racial equality. Sariyah has an interesting gift of knowing what people need and tends to fill the quests as best as possible. Throughout the story, it starts to take a toll on her when the things she's providing for people turn out to be the thing that harms others. One of those items became the cannon event towards her missing friend who disappeared at a music festival.

I appreciate how the author introduced each topic without forcing the issue. Desamours blended everything she wanted to make light of and made it sound natural. While the story did become slow at times, the climax and ending were all worth it.

Needy Little Things is a teen mystery with elements of fantasy. Sariyah Lee Bryant has a unique ability to know what people need. Packing her “Santa Bag”, Sariyah hands out simple items that seem to help people in someway. But sometimes things happen that seem bad after Sariyah fulfills a need like her friend disappearing from a festival. This isn’t the first of her friends that disappear, leaving Sariyah and her friends to wonder if skin color affects the coverage. Dealing with family issues, Sariyah must decide what her gift means to her and others as she tries to find her missing friend. Sariyah is a neat character and her abilities build her up to someone the reader can empathize with and want to know. The mystery threw in the little twists that keep things interesting for a storyline I would gladly revisit if it becomes a series. This is a solid and enjoyable debut novel from a new author I would read more from. My voluntary, unbiased, and non-mandatory review is based upon a review copy from NetGalley.

3.5 stars rounded up. This was a really compelling, fast-paced, timely tale. I liked the characters and the twists kept me guessing. I didn't figure out exactly where it was going until it got there. Some of the red herrings felt unnecessary, but I enjoyed the story as a whole. The ending felt like a punch to the gut - in a good way.

I read an ARC of this book from NetGalley. All comments are my own.

I loved this genre-bending debut YA! It is so well-constructed and the writing style is so good that I would never have guessed this was a debut novel. Part magical realism, part mystery, part suspense, part thriller, with a sprinkling of sweet romance, Needy Little Things is one of the best YAs I've read in the last year. I will absolutely be recommending it to my friends and followers, and look forward to following this new author's career and reading her future novels.

Needy Little Things is the story of Sariyah Lee Bryant, a senior in high school who has an inherited premonition-like sixth sense. She hears voices from every person within a certain proximity of her physical location. The voices repeat over and over a physical item the person is going to need in the future. The items are small, seemingly innocuous, things that you would often find in someone's pocket or purse, like paper clips, band aids, hair ties, chapstick, kleenex. The only thing that Sariyah doesn't know is when the item will be used or why the person will need it.

Warned by her family that her supernatural gift can be dangerous and that she shouldn't speak of it or use it, Sariyah is unable to resist the desperation of the voices in her head that are nearly torturous when she is around other people. Because the voices do not quiet until she gifts the items needed, her gift giving becomes a compulsion, and it is getting worse as she gets older. Now she is struggling to maintain her grades, relationships with her family and friends, and her own sanity.

When one of her best friends disappears without a trace from a music festival in Atlanta, Sariyah is determined to solve the mystery before it's too late, and another Black girl is lost to time and community consciousness.

This novel contemplates and explores the butterfly effect in a truly unique way and through a number of character's eyes. It also explores a number of themes including the true meaning of family, desire for independence, the power of community, and racial and social inequity.

To begin, I would like to thank St. Martin's Press|Wednesday Books and Channelle Desamours for allowing me to read this book, Needy Little Things, via #netgalley. All opinions following are my own.

This Young Adult Mystery kept me on the edge of my seat from the first page to the last, and I absolutely gobbled it up in just a few hours.

The story follows seventeen-year-old Sariyah, who has a unique gift: she can physically hear people's needs, sometimes even before the need arrives. If she doesn't fulfill the need, it gets louder until she gets a migraine. That's just one person's needs, though, and depending on where she is, she can hear up to dozens all at once. This makes all relationships she engages in on a daily basis difficult to maintain and attend to fully, but, ironically, she can't hear the needs of those she is closest with: her family and her best friend, Malcolm. She can, though, hear her closest female friend, Deja's, needs.

Before Malcolm became her number one, his twin sister, Tessa, was Sariyah's very best friend. They were inseparable until she disappeared five years prior. When the same thing happens to Deja in the present, Sariyah is unsure if her ability is a blessing or a curse. Since she and Malcolm know all too well what happens when girls of color go missing, though, she's determined to use whatever she can to find Deja before it's too late.

I easily gave this book ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️. The author finds a way to make Sariyah's uniqueness make her shine while also shedding light on a very real problem in American culture: People of Color who go missing are not as likely to be find as affluent, white people. When this book arrives on shelves on February 04, make sure not to pass it up.

#brenbreathesbooks #brenreviewsbooks #youngadult #mystery #netgalleyreviewer #ARC #readerlife #realworldproblems #channelledesamours #5starreads #bookish #bookworm #foodforthought

4.5/5 ⭐️

“…needy little things can’t be choosers.”

This was such a unique mystery, with the magical realism perfectly blended in to heighten the story.

Sariyah can hear people’s needs, which is not the blessing most think it is. Her gift didn’t work the way I expected and caused her a lot of hardship, which made it interesting to read about. And the ways it’s used to provide clues for the mystery were so clever.

The mystery itself was just complex enough, with multiple threads to pull on to keep me guessing about what was going on. I didn’t figure it out!

This book also makes important statements about how POC are at a huge disadvantage when bad things happen to them, both from the legal/police side and just getting people to care. This is a really important thing for everyone to be aware of, especially now, and we all need to keep evaluating our internal biases.

The one thing with respect to the above that I thought was missing was some discussion of the sort of “tragedy overload” that the internet can cause. We’re all exposed to terrible things happening to people all over the world and it’s impossible to care about them all. Again I know it’s important with that that we’re just evaluating our internal biases, but it’s something I would’ve been interested to see how the characters would address it.

Overall this is a fantastic mystery with a great touch of magical realism, POC characters who are really complex, and important social commentary to make.

Thanks to the publisher for the early copy.

Okay, so I don’t even know where to start. I was so excited for this book because the summary sounds so good and unique.

I liked this book. I felt like the concept was interesting enough and the way the story played out was good. I also enjoyed the family dynamics and friendship structure. I honestly felt like I was reading a book that was compatible to A Good Girls Guide to Murder. However, the point that the latter made was there was a solid ending. I feel like there was so much that was missing. For example where is Tessa? We still don’t know. We get a “hint” if you could call it that but it would’ve liked closure.

I do like how this book had my on my toes and I was honestly shocked that it turned out the way it did. However, why why why? It had so much going good. I mean the missing black teens who go unnoticed and this is how we play it out in a book. I just can’t with that part. Then all the parents pissed me off. I think as a parent, I can’t do YA books with parents that does more trauma than anything else.

It was a good read so I will rate it a 3. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the E-ARC!!

Ok, I have so many thoughts on this book! Probably a 4.25/5 star read. I really enjoyed this book and was immediately pulled into it! This is not at all what I thought it was going to be like, but it was actually better! I really enjoyed it! It definitely feels as if it is a debut novel, however, it was definitely still not a bad book! It feels YA but not childish or middle grade like a lot of YA books do. It also doesn't feel too adult. Absolutely marketed well! This book is so full of good plot twists that I never saw coming and the end had me wanting to toss my book across the room, in a good way!! I felt so many emotions reading this and would definitely recommend it! It was so good! Also, miss ma'am?? You had better be writing a second book to this because that ending was absolutely not fair!! I NEED CLOSURE! Lol, seriously though. This book is worth a read!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

*Needy Little Things* by Channelle Desamours is an incredibly captivating and thought-provoking novel that keeps you on the edge of your seat from start to finish. Desamours has an extraordinary gift for creating rich, multidimensional characters who are so raw and real that you can’t help but feel deeply connected to them. The emotional depth she brings to the story is truly remarkable.

The plot is gripping, layered with mystery and tension, and filled with twists that will leave you second-guessing everything you think you know. Desamours does a brilliant job of weaving together suspense, drama, and moments of introspection, while exploring themes of vulnerability, desire, and the complexities of human connection.

What sets *Needy Little Things* apart is how it navigates the gray areas of relationships and human nature, exposing both the light and dark sides of the characters’ personalities. The writing is sharp, evocative, and engaging—descriptive enough to paint vivid scenes but never bogging the reader down with excess.

This book is a powerful exploration of how our deepest needs, both seen and unseen, shape who we are. If you’re a fan of psychological thrillers that delve deep into the emotional psyche, *Needy Little Things* is an absolute must-read!

The quick cut: A teen girl who can sense other people's needs finds her life unbalanced when a friend disappears at a music festival.

A real review:
Thank you to Wednesday Books for providing the arc for an honest review.

Many of us can wonder and wish that we had unique or special abilities. The truth though is that it comes with a cost that can take a toll on your life. Sariyah very much knows that truth with her ability to sense people's needs.

Sariyah has the same gift that her grandmother did: she can sense other people's tangible needs. Whether it be a toothbrush or a pencil, she can detect the need and often give it to that person to fulfill it. She doesn't do it out of altruistic need, she does it to hold onto what semblance of self she has. All those needs overlapping steals her focus and gives her migraines. It's an ability that takes a toll until one of her friends disappears at a music festival. Can her ability help her find her friend again?

The magical realism in this story is the right balance of unique and believable. That small addition really helps humanize Sariyah in a different way that makes you understand how every ability has its ups and downs. However, it did feel like Sariyah's development distracted from the disappearance storyline.

Sariyah has so much responsibility thrust onto her and the talent she has only makes that harder. Her Santa bag of random items to give tells you how much her ability affects her day to day. That pressure can make it difficult to feel like you're capable of accomplishing anything. It's hard not to be impressed by her.

The disability representation in this story is so diverse and important, especially from a BIPOC perspective. Sariyah has ADHD, which makes sense given her unique talent. Her brother has sickle cell and the way his condition is portrayed not only explains it complexities, but also easily introduces the condition to anyone not familiar with it. Depression also plays a key role.

A story with plenty of disability representation, but split focus in its storylines.

My rating: 3.75 out of 5

A very interesting read. Thank you to the publisher for allowing me to read this book. It wasn't really for me, but I am sure that it will be loed by the right audience.

This is a great debut novel! From the very beginning this book draws you in. From the magical realism to the missing person’s case, this book had a steady pace that draws you in. As for the ending, I had no idea where this book was going but I definitely did not guess the ending. This is a nice suspenseful YA read.

Thank you to the publisher for the eGalley!

This was SO good! I binged read this in one day. I will posting a full review on my instagram page this upcoming week!