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Morbid Curiosities

S. Hati

An ambitious teen enrolls at an elite science institute in Morbid Curiosities, a young adult thriller from author S. Hati. When the Institute’s invitation arrived at my doorstep, it felt like it had been inked in my blood, sweat, and tears. Aarya’s life plan has been set for as long as she can remember: finish high school with a bang, attend the best college she can get into, then land a prestigious biology research job. Her ticket to this dream is a one-year program at the Elizabethan Institute, the preeminent organization for life sciences in the United States, currently on the cusp of revealing a major project that could transform the worlds of biology and medicine.

But as Aarya tries to settle into a school with sky-high academic expectations and research cloaked in mystery, it becomes clear that someone doesn’t want her there. As the scholarship student surrounded by rich, cutthroat peers who seem all too willing to torment her, she never expected to make friends, but the notes warning her to run rattle her to her core. She finds an ally in Sofia, a mysterious girl who claims to be the subject of closed-door Institute experiments and begs for Aarya’s help in discovering the Institute's true goal.

As rumors of mutated flora and fauna in the nearby city circulate and a murder investigation rocks the Institute, Aarya must navigate Sofia’s growing paranoia and her own increasingly unreliable memory to determine which classmates she can trust―and which would rather see her dead.

"A sharply intelligent, darkly fascinating academic thriller about unraveling the hard truths of who you are and who you want to be - and the final twist made me gasp out loud." — Andrew Joseph White, New York Times-bestselling and award-winning author of Compound Fracture

Posts about this title from ofpagesandprint

Dahlia • May 31

With a day left in AANHPI Heritage Month, I wanted to share some more of my favorite AANHPI reads to continue the celebration all year long! 🫶🏼

• The Missing Magic of Sparrow Xia by Leia Ham - A captivating, witty, and magical middle-grade fantasy with stunning illustrations that explores family, friendship, and the weight of expectations. (Leia will join me for an Instagram live on June 12th to discuss and celebrate TMMoSX! We hope you join us. 🥳)
• The Ex-Boyfriend's Favorite Recipe Funeral Committee by Saki Kawashiro (translated by Yuka Maeno) - A hopeful, entertaining, and cozy novel of food, love, and the power of friendship inspired by the author’s own breakup story.
• Saltcrop by Yume Kitasei - An emotional, sea-swept SFF novel of sisterhood and salvation set in Earth’s future after an ecological disaster.
• Prodigal Tiger by Samantha Chong - A cinematic, sweeping YA contemporary fantasy with ghosts, Malaysian folklore, and friends-to-lovers romance.
• Shim Jung Takes the Dive by Julia Riew - A whimsical, heartfelt middle-grade fantasy with Korean folklore and captivating adventure set in an underwater kingdom.
• Midnight, at the War by Devi S. Laskar - An emotional, thought-provoking novel following a journalist set soon after 9/11.
• Dinner with an Astronaut by Leroy Chiao with Victoria Bruce - An entertaining and informative memoir of Leroy Chiao, one of the first Asian American astronauts, filled with witty anecdotes and thoughtful insight into space exploration.
• Morbid Curiosities by S. Hati - An addictive, creative, and emotional YA thriller set in San Francisco with a haunting STEM dark academia atmosphere.

Happy AANHPI Heritage Month! Thank you to HTP Books, Fierce Reads, Mariner Books, Epic Reads, Macmillan Audio, Crown Publishing, and Scholastic Press for the free review copies!