This book is a charming meditation on mental health, parents and dreams, and the inherent complexities of adolescence—featuring one very special teen. The author is deeply respectful of the several generations depicted, capturing their voices and points of view, often with humor but never veering into parody. The narrator is youthful and compassionate.

This book came out of the gate saying some really negative things about God and his deity. While I really enjoyed the writing style and the concept of the story, I just couldn't get over those comments, even as I continued reading.

Overall I found it hard to get invested in the story. The concept of a girl who can hear everyone's thoughts was intriguing, but for me the story fell flat. The constant mentioning of Gen X and Millennials and Gen Z was a little much and became annoying very quickly. This one is a pass for me.

I was actually surprised how much I liked this book considering I’m not usually into things like mind reading or super powers. But I really liked all the characters in the book and I got sucked in fast. The narrator was very good and the author wrote the mind reading part so well that I didn’t mind it at all. I’d listen to a sequel to this just to spend more time with the characters!

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC audiobook in exchange for this review.

I…didn’t get it?

Here’s what I understood from this YA in which our heroine, Maya can read minds. Like, she looks at you and knows what you’re thinking.

The book begins with Maya as a patient in Whispering Pines, a mental health facility in rural Pennsylvania. It’s not clear why she’s there (I mean the mind reading thing seems like a ringer, but she hasn’t told anyone yet). She’s made friends with Bobby, another in-patient, and football star outside those four walls.

Then Maya rejoins the world: Her parents, two hippies who own a record store. Her school, where she has no friends because she’s the weird one. Her neighborhood, where most of her friends are accepting adults. And the last character, I think, which is causing her undue stress is the state of the world and climate change?

Anyway, she makes a friend, she likes a boy, she tries to use her mind reading to save people and things.

I think?

The first 60% is absolutely meandering, building nothing resembling a plot. And the writing definitely feels like an adult trying to sound like a teenager, so that didn’t help. The last 40% kind of has a vague “save the bobcats” plot, but honestly you guys, I have only one takeaway from this book: I have moved my comfortable audio speed from 1.7 to 2.0.

I hope someone else can explain this one to me. I really need to reconsider my DNF policy.

Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the audio ARC. This one is out August 27, 2024.

I was so exctied for this read but unfortunately just ended up being confused and annoyed at Maya, the main character. There were so many topics and stereotypes touched on it made it feel chaotic and overwhelming. I was unable to latch on to a narrative that felt cohesive and ended up annoyed with the characters.

It feels like the book was trying to be relatable to "gen z" but comes off as feeling more like a "boomer" had a couple of conversations with a "gen z" teen and wrote a book.

I did like the narrator for the audio.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an Audio ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

After starting this audiobook, it quickly became apparent that I was not the target audience and due to my core beliefs, I would have a hard time listening objectively. I expected a fun YA book but it was heavy with religious references and also heavy political stances. I decided to not finish the book and will not be rating it on other sites. For a YA read, I did think that the narrator was a good choice and appreciated the trigger warning at the beginning.

𝐀𝐮𝐝𝐢𝐨𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤 &| 𝐀𝐫𝐜 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰
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Gosh, I am a SUCKER for books with title chapters (name of chapters), I just get so excited to see that lol I know lame!

The premise and the cover art are what caught my attention to this story, but unfortunately, the story itself wasn't keeping my attention. I was just confused.

The audiobook was good! The narrator did a good job. The audiobook rating itself would be a 4 🌟

𝙳𝙽𝙵 @ 50%
𝙽𝚘𝚝 𝚁𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚐
𝙱 𝚄 𝚃 𝚒𝚏 𝙸 𝚠𝚊𝚜 𝚝𝚘 𝚛𝚊𝚝𝚎 𝚋𝚊𝚜𝚎𝚍 𝚘𝚏𝚏 𝚘𝚏 𝚠𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝙸 𝚊𝚕𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚍𝚢 𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚍 𝚒𝚝 𝚠𝚘𝚞𝚕𝚍 𝚋𝚎 . . . 2.5 🌟
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𝐑𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞 Aug.27
Thank you, Netgalley, macmillanAudio for the audiobook, and St. Martin Press for the eBook for my honest review.

I was intrigued when I read the synopsis. Felt like it could be a really good book. I think it was just fine. A lot of boring teen lives. Nothing extraordinary. Interesting take on mental health.

Mysterious Ways was a good YA listen. This was a coming of each story that will leave you wondering what you would do if you had an omniscient power.

Mysterious Ways is a rather unique read, especially in YA. Diving into the mind of Maya, it’s an exploration of our modern world and Maya’s life in her small town as she deals with reading the minds of everyone and dealing with “only evil continually”, feeling herself as a godlike being here to take on the weight of the world.

The concept of Maya being able to read minds because women have to be likable was really interesting, and made for a good setup. What goes on in people’s minds can be quite interesting and sometimes disturbing. And through these thoughts, she’s grown pessimistic of humanity, and believes that soon, the world will be flooded again to erase evil and wickedness, much like in the story of Noah’s Arc. This ability also leads her to landing in the psychiatric hospital when the story begins. After the first 10% of the story, things pick up for me. Most of the story is told in Maya’s POV as she’s trying to live a normal teen life, but we do get small bits from others in the community, giving us a greater scope of what’s going on. However, through her life experiences, Maya does change and grow, and it’s fitting to the tone of the story.

The book has a “hippie” energy, but it fits the story, as Maya’s parents own a record store and the worldview and narration of the story leans very progressive (at least in terms of US politics).

The humor was well placed and the mostly lighthearted tone to the prose helped the story from getting too dark. This book deals with just about all the dark/triggering topics you can in YA, including (but not limited to) mental health, self harm, suicide, sexual content (the chapter “Maximumlism” deals with a slightly spicy scene), and naming specific news/current events from the 1950’s to now (mostly the tragic kind). Then again, it’s about “only evil continually” for Maya. There’s plenty of profanity as well.

The narration by Georgina Sadler was perfect for the tone of the story and did an excellent job.

If you’re looking for something that might give you a little levity in a world that seems hopelessly dark, this might be for you.

The protagonist of this story can read other people's thoughts, as if being a teenager isn't confusing enough already. It's otherwise a straightforward coming of age story with a likable voice, healthy depictions of friendship and first sex, and a slightly uneven tone

1 Star ⭐️

YA Contemporary

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and author for granting me an audio ARC in return for my honest review.

Audio 🎧
Narrator 3/5

DNF @ 10%
Mysterious ways sounded pretty good given its description. It was supposed to be a book with a little magical realism and I wanted to see where the author would go with it. The main character has a power and can hear everyone’s thoughts, but it becomes too much and she ends up getting put in a psychiatric facility to help her balance her thoughts.

I read YA books because sometimes you can find a hidden gem. Also, I read them to find books to recommend to my kids. But this was absolutely awful - and I only made it 10% in, I can’t even imagine the rest of it. The first 10% felt like literal hell. It seemed like the author took all the talking points from the news and just slammed them into to this book. It started off with a trigger warning for suicide then straight into a girl reading the Bible and basically explaining how God makes all these mistakes and lies. Next, the feminist agenda was thrust upon the reader. Then, all the thoughts of the teenagers were just absolutely awful. Race, gender, religion, shaming- I could go on and on but I’m just disgusted with some YA writers feeling they need to make books like this. People wonder why the majority of our youth today act the way they do, with this type of garbage indoctrination, it is no wonder. I really don’t like DNF a book but I personally just could not keep going.

I couldn't get into this book. I couldn't connect with Maya. And the writing felt like it was written as if an adult were trying to sound like a teenager.

I did read the entire book, which I often will not do if I can't get into it. But this held my interest just enough. But overall, I wanted to like this book more than I did. It was ok.

3.25 ⭐️ rounded down

I am thankful to have gotten the audio ARC for free from Netgalley and Macmillan Audio so I can leave my voluntary and honest review.

This book was cute. I feel that it’s younger YA in its feel and it goes overboard on the social justice speak. Not that a person shouldn’t be engaging in all the aspects of social justice in their personal lives! It’s just that it throws it in your face and it seems like the author is trying to win the social justice writing Olympics.

I listened to the audio book so the narration is the focus of what I should be reviewing! The narration was great. She had a young voice that kept you engaged in the story. The only thing I had to do was speed it up to the 1.25x rate as it was a bit slow for me. Had I been listening to it on a different platform I probably would have done 1.15x but that’s not an option on the NetGalley Shelf.

This book would be good for the young reader who would benefit from a teen that doesn’t fill the stereotypical mold that some strive for. I think some will be able to connect with Maya in some way. Although I never want to hear the word “hashtag” again. It’s way over used by the author. That’s one of several eye rolling things about this book.

My rating system since GoodReads doesn’t have partial stars and I rarely round up.

⭐️ Hated it
⭐️⭐️ Had a lot of trouble, prose issues, really not my cup of tea (potentially DNF’d or thought about it)
⭐️⭐️⭐️ Meh, it was an ok read but nothing special
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Really enjoyed it! Would recommend to others
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Outstanding! Will circle back and read again

I know I'm not the target audience for this book as it's a young adult and I'm well past my teen years, but I always enjoy reading young adult books and even better when I can recommend young adult books to teen readers, adults who enjoy YA or give recs for teachers wanting to fill up their classrooms with good books. I think the premise of this one was so intriguing and I was very interested in seeing how the author would spin this magical realism into the story, but unfortunately, I don't think it was done very smoothly. I liked that it was written differently, and it made it seem like it would be unique. However, all the different point of views from characters in Maya's life took me a bit out of the story. I appreciate that the author was trying to get into some heavier themes while trying to keep it light, but I just think had it be done a little differently that it would have been a hit!