Rating: 1/5 Stars
Pub Day: 8/27
•
Woooooofff.. Alright, I tried to be nice while writing this, but I don’t think its going to be that nice. Also this entire review is basically going to be a spoiler, if you plan to read it, you can move on, otherwise enjoy my ranting??
•
This story sounded unique, I was intrigued. Thought it would be like a cozy YA mystery of sorts with magical realism since the girl could know everything about a person…. WRONG… Right from the start until I finished (why do I refuse to DNF…) I felt like I was in a lecture… by a teen… who was really a boomer…. And lets not even get started on the dialogue…. it’s just got to goooo.
•
The main character, Mara is the definition of insufferable. Majority of the characters are if im being honest… And this book is the definition of all of the biggest social / news issues. Climate change, Rublicans vs Democrats, damn the patriarchy, feminism, religion.. If its something that could be considered a touchy subject, dont worry its in there. For me personally this is all a hard no, I read to escape, not to hear someone else’s POV on these matters. If you want to do it and make it funny - absolutely I’m game, but not in such a serious tone.
•
Also does NO ONE want to address the fact this child has a severe supiorority complex that not a single one of the adults address? I mean come on the kid clearly states NUMEROUS times that she believes she’s God…. (insert the 1 million eye roll emojis)
•
The entire story is just one big stereotype and there were way too attempts at referencing different things that this entire story became a jumbled mess. I am not even sure what the point of the story was. There were so many different flight of ideas that this was just so disjointed.
•
I listened to this one on audiobook.. Georgina Sadler narrated this one and she did fine, I just really didn’t like to story so I cant say much about the audio…
•
I can honestly say that I 100% was not the targeted audience for this book. Some people, will love it, and good for them, this was just not for me and unfortunately I cannot recommend it. I’m mad I wasted my time. Thanks to NetGalley, MacMillan Audio and Went Wunder for the ALC in exchange for my honest review.

Maya has been thinking of what to be when she grows up. She’s only 17, so she still has some time before she has to have it all figured out. But she has a very specific skill that could come in handy as, say, a bartender. Or an acrobat in the circus. Or as a god. Because when she meets people, she can read their minds. She knows what they’re thinking in the present moment, but she also knows their past. When she is in public, she is constantly hearing the voices of other people, which is how she ended up in the Whispering Pines Psychiatric Facility.

She’s not really crazy. She just knows things. She doesn’t know where the gift came from. And she doesn’t know how to get rid of it. But after taking a break from the public at large (her Grippy Sock Vacation, as she calls is), Maya is ready to go back home. And she’s ready for a new school. She had a bit of a meltdown at her old school, jumping into the pool fully clothed at a swim meet, just to get a moment of silence from all the other voices in her head. So she needs a new school. And Bobby will be there, at New Town High. She can keep an eye on him. He had been at Whispering Pines too, crying for a week, as they tried to regulate his meds.

At her new school. Maya was introduced to room 143, a place where kids could hang out when they’re feeling overwhelmed. And that is where she meets Tyler. Tyler is a Buddhist and known at the school as something of a slut, but he knows how to meditate. He teaches Maya how to meditate, and she tries to use it when the noise of the world gets too much for her. At school, Maya makes friends. She tries to fit in. And when she meets with her therapist Amy, Maya decides it’s finally time to let someone in on how she can read minds. And she finds her purpose.

Well, she’s not entirely certain that it’s her purpose. But it’s something that can help her. She’s going to save the bobcats. There are some wild bobcats around town that the local hunters want permission to kill. Maya is going to start a club to save the bobcats. But she’s also going to use the club as a way to save the Bobcats, the students of New Town High, whose mascot is, obvs, a bobcat. Now Maya can take her ability t read minds and put it to use helping people. Some tasks are easy, like getting the shy girl who just wants to be kissed into a room with the boy who has a crush on her. Some take some more work, like helping her friend acquire thousands of dollars to create a pop-up store for her sneaker designs.

But fixing everyone else takes a lot out of her, and one rescue attempt goes horribly wrong, with Maya breaking her arm, ending up in the hospital, and then back to Whispering Pines. She feels like everything she had learned, everything she had put her energy into, had all gone wrong. She had failed. She’s not a god after all. But she may find out that there are others in her world who care for her and will go to bat for her when she can’t do it for herself.

Mysterious Ways is a stunning book about the ways we come together and hold each other up in difficult times. It’s a coming-of-age story that is studded with sparks of pop culture, music, and Gen Z rage. Author Wendy Wunder brings together fears of climate change, rage at the patriarchy, pop music, first love, bullying, friendship, mental health, and umami to create this story of healing and hope. Maya is a genuinely unique character who struggles not with wondering what others are thinking about her, but of knowing exactly what they think of her. She has wisdom and naivete, maturity and youth, and a the weight of finding balance in a life no one else can completely understand. She is funny and smart and caring, and listening to her monologue throughout this book is an inspiring experience.

I listened to the audio book for Mysterious Ways, narrated by Georgina Sadler, and I thought she had the perfect voice for Maya. The way she dramatized Maya’s story was perfection. I couldn’t imagine a better narrator for Maya’s story, and that made an interesting book a phenomenal listen.

Egalleys for Mysterious Ways were provided by Wednesday Books, and an early copy of the audio book was provided by Macmillan Audio, both through NetGalley, with many thanks.

In Mysterious Ways, a teenage girl with mental health struggles has such a power and learns how to use it for good. This book was oozing GenZ angst and how the teens today are overwhelmed with anxiety over climate change, gun violence, the political environment, all of it, and they cannot quiet their minds. While I didn’t like the attack on GenX (!!) - blaming us for so much when we are the generation just putting our heads down and cranking out those 14 hour work days - I appreciated seeing the work through a teen’s eyes and I liked all of the political commentary. It all felt very timely.

Seventeen-year-old Maya can hear everyone else’s thoughts. Which can be, as I’m sure you can imagine, exhausting. Which is how she ends up in a psychiatric hospital at the beginning of the book and why she has to start at a whole new school. There she meets Tyler, the first boy she’s every really been interested in and begins to wonder if maybe her “powers” might actually be a good thing.

That’s kind of the synopsis, and for some reason when I read it, I thought it was going to be a light, airy, funny romcom. It absolutely is not. Which is not to say that the book isn’t funny, because it is, but it was actually a lot harder to read than I expected, which in retrospect seems a little obtuse.
I should have known it would be hard hearing the self-hatred girls have about themselves, and the depression and self-doubt most teens deal with at some point. The sexual thoughts of the boys were equally excruciating. But this book is so well written and thought provoking. Maya assesses how the patriarchy has led us to our current way of thinking frequently and she’s trying so hard to figure out how to use her “powers” for good. I absolutely loved her character and loved seeing her build relationships with people despite being terrified—for good reason.

This book explores so many interesting themes including the noise that we live with in our heads all the time, what our responsibility is to other people, sex, mental health, and kids’ relationship to their parents and how sometimes we don’t see the whole there.

The audio for this one was great. I loved the narrator and thought she did a fabulous job bringing the character of Maya to life, but this might not be a starter audiobook. It might be overwhelming to parse all the voices Maya’s hears. But I would definitely recommend picking up this book in one format or another.

🎧Mysterious Ways -a standalone

✍️ By: Wendy Wunder-new to me author

🗣️ Narrator: Georgina Sadler voices all characters. The narrator's voice fit the characters with standouts from Maya and Lucy. The reading style brought the text to life, and the author and narrator worked together perfectly. The pacing and flow allowed me to get lost in the story. The narrator paused and announced new chapters and there was a table of contents which helped me follow along with the E-book and audiobook.

📃 Page Count: 332

🏃🏾‍♀️Run Time: 8:45

🗓️ Publication Date: 8-27-24 | Read: 8-27-24

🙏🏾Thanks to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press| Wednesday Books, and Macmillan Audio for this ARC and ALC ❤️! I voluntarily give my honest review, and all opinions expressed are my own.

Genre: YA, Romance

Tropes:
❤️Mental Health/Illness
❤️coming of age
❤️friendship
❤️mental health
❤️LGBTQIA+ rep
❤️magical realism
❤️Gen Z culture

⚠️ TW: h is a virgin, bullying, suicide-just mentioned

POV: multiple characters, 3rd person

💭 Summary 💭: Maya Storm-16 has a gift to read everyone's thoughts and know their darkest secrets. She has been in the psychiatric facility Whispering Pines for 6 weeks along with Bobby trying to help him. When she comes home, she starts a new school, tries to make friends, understand her gift, and get rid it. She also experiences a crush and intimacy for the first time.

Side cast: Stacy and Glenn-Maya's parents; Lucy-Maya's project partner turned friend; Bobby-goes to Maya's school and was in the mental hospital with her; Scott-Maya's old man friend, a recluse in town; Tyler-Maya's 1st crush


My Thoughts: This was a rollercoaster ride with Maya. She was smart girl who analyzed everything (sometimes ad nauseam) and tried to help people when she could. This was a lot of responsibility for her, but Maya had a good heart and didn't let the darkness take her. I worried for her attempting to help Bobby would bring her down, but that fall at the end became a catalyst for both of them to come out into the light.

Range of emotions: 😬🤔🙄
🌶️: Spice 1/5
🎧: Narration 3/5
😭: Emotion 4/5
❤️: Couple 3/5
⭐️: Rating 3.5/5

I liked the narrator of this one. She captured this character wonderfully in her performance and was a big reason I finished the book. I was into this at first because of the magical mind reading and wondered how it would be tackled. The struggle I had with this book was the generalizations about people and the packing of just so many topics into this book. The main character struggled with anxiety it seemed, yet this wasn't addressed deeply. I felt like there was a lot of surface level stream of consciousness happening here, and it made it hard to be invested in this story. It was not my favorite, unfortunately.

I was really looking forward to listening to this book but sadly I couldn’t finish it. Finally at 18% and I just stopped. I couldn’t connect with the MC. Some parts were funny. Especially with the mom having no filter at times. But the MC for some reason I couldn’t connect with. The narrator, Georgina Sadler does an incredible job portraying the MC and many voices very well but sadly I just couldn’t connect.

Listened to the audiobook and the narrator did a great job but the overall story was just meh. It was hard to connect the characters and while the premise was good and I did finish it and probably the last third of the book I enjoyed the most it just was okay, It was extremely slow and I had a really hard time getting into it. The synopsis sounded super promising, so I'm a bit disappointed that Mysterious Ways didn't work out for me, but it's okay, I think some readers might really like it.
Thank you to NetGalley for the arc to preview.

I liked the premise of this book, I feel like we all know someone that has skills in one area of life, but not in other parts. I admit fault in this book that I didn't realize it was YA, and the main character did come across very young. Some of her choices frustrated me and I just wasn't in the best spot to connect to those choices. This book has lots of positives to it and I loved the humor. I know this book will be well received by many and I will look for future books from this author! The narration is fantastic on the audiobook!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for gifting me this book for free in exchange for my review! All opinions are my own.

I was super excited to read this book but unfortunately, this was a letdown for me. Perhaps I am too old to read YA (I'm 26), perhaps I just read this when I had a bad day. Hypothetically, I liked the idea of this book that is a coming-of-age story about a teenager in a mental hospital because she can know everything about a person the second she looks at them. I also thought this book had too many cliches about Gen X and Gen Z, (and while I do agree that Gen X and Gen Z may meet some of the stereotypes, I thought the book focused too much on them which made the book slightly annoying).

I also read the audiobook by Georgina Sadler and while I thought she was a great narrator, I was still bored by this story unfortunately.


I may try this book again at a later date and see if I have a new opinion but for now, this was a huge disappointment for me.

Many Thanks again to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with this book in exchange for my honest review.

********


If you are interested in seeing more of my reviews and other content feel free to connect with me here <3:

https://linktr.ee/bookreviewsbyjules (links to my Instagram, Goodreads, TikTok, Storygraph, My blog and Substack newsletter, etc)

If you are a publisher or author who has questions about my reviews (as well as questions about my stats, reach or engagement), please free to email me. I am also open to requests for book reviews from authors or publishers. Thank you again for taking time to read my review, and I hope you have a wonderful day!

A moving YA coming of age story with great mental health rep that has a young teen girl able to hear other people's thoughts and suffering from her own form of depression and anxiety. This was good on audio and very relatable but didn't have as much depth as I hoped for. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital and audio copy in exchange for my honest thoughts. Recommended for fans of authors like Rebekah Crane.

This was a book that had all the makings of a hit for me based on the synopsis. Unfortunately, I felt that the execution fell flat. I still feel like the overall premise is good as it examines the mind and psyche of those around us and reveals you can never really know what someone is going through (both good and bad). I think the issue I had with this is that it felt repetitive after a while, so for me, it either needed to be shorter or start examining different facets of the challenges with knowing what everyone around you is thinking. This story also has a slower plot pace I felt throughout the entire story rather than just at certain points. This may have been a case of a good book at the wrong time. I read this via audiobook. I do feel that Georgina Sadler did well with the narration and capturing the various emotions that the FMC went through.

I got a little ways into this book but won’t be going further. I realized it is a little too dark for me and also there is blatant disrespect for Christianity and other mono-theistic religions within the first chapter. That was an automatic turn off for me.

DNFed this one. I got about half way and it just felt like it pushed everything and used every trigger word they could. I support and respect the opinions I read in this book but instead of it being part of the story it felt like they were forced in there to meet some agenda.

Mysterious Ways is an insightful coming of age YA novel featuring Maya, a clairvoyant 17 year old. Maya struggles with the weight of hearing everyone’s inner thoughts, but it makes her empathic. She looks for the “why” behind people’s actions. This struck me, as I’ve found it’s important be kind, since no one knows what anyone else is going through.

As the mother of 2 teenagers, I thought the author was able to accurately capture this “anxiety generation”, with references to The Common App, grade inflation, always knowing the nearest exit in case of an active shooter, the mental health room at school, and “fighting the patriarchy”. The book was slow for me at times, not being the target audience, with an occasional over abundance of ancillary characters and subplots. I listened to the audio version and thought the single female narrator did a good job overall. I would recommend this to YA fans looking for a realistic teenage coming of age story. 3.5/5 ⭐️

Favorite quote: “Having hope is more important than getting what you hope for”

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for an advanced copy. All opinions are my own.

This one hit for me more than I was anticipating. It’s solidly YA following a high school student who hears the thoughts of everyone around her. It dives in head first to the psyche of high school students and adults who may interact with them. I would have eaten this up in high school. As an adult, I still enjoyed it - maybe because I don’t feel like my core self is all that different from when I was 17. Idk what that says about me, but there you go. I do think parts of it are largely not relatable, and I don’t think I’ll be alone in that thought. However the good outshines the meh.

The narration of the audiobook was solid. I enjoyed the performance and didn’t have any complaints.

Thank you NetGalley, Wendy Wunder, and Macmillian audio for this audiobook ARC.

An emotional YA book about serious topics. Unfortunately it was not for me and I lost interest while reading it,

Thank you to MacMillan Audio and Wednesday Books for the review copies of Mysterious Ways by Wendy Wunder. The cover immediately brought me back to a childhood favorite, Harriet the Spy, and I did appreciate the voice acting and production of the audiobook.

Unfortunately, the book didn't quite click for me early on. I’m not a fan of stories that mock or alienate other generations, leaning heavily into broad stereotypes—even if the intention is to provide insight into the mindset of the 17-year-old protagonist. As a disgruntled GenXer, I found the narrative more annoying and alienating than engaging. It’s rare for me to encounter a young person who makes such broad and pervasive statements, and I felt that this book didn’t provide a fair insight into GenZ either. The first third of the book was particularly cumbersome, and I found myself skipping to the middle to see if the story would pick up. While it did to some extent, the writing continued to alienate me as a reader, and I ultimately lost interest in seeing how the story progressed.

I teach GenZ students and classes on individual and family development, where I emphasize the importance of breaking free from generalized stereotypes—a concept wonderfully addressed in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s TED Talk on “The Danger of a Single Story.” I felt that Maya, the protagonist, really needed someone to guide her away from this tendency. While I hoped that her ability to read minds would lead to self-growth, I was too disconnected from the plot to appreciate any notable character development.

Mysterious Ways is a genre that I like to call "philosophical young adult". I think people who like John Green or Jennifer Niven (like Turtles All the Way Down or All the Bright Places) would like this book too.

I think this book wasn't really my vibe BUT it was a very interesting listen and I really thought the concept was so interesting! I do think that my like for this book definitely grew throughout the book which I would say counts for something! It's like a philosophical YA book + a lil theological addition👀

Thank you so much to Macmillan Audio for an early copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review!💖

This one was quite intriguing! I was taken on an emotional journey of self discovery, comedic relief and a little bit of WTF? If I’d have had the time, I’d have devoured it in one sitting! The narration was spot on! I will definitely recommend!