The Disability Book Archive

[ID: A book cover. The side profile of a feminine face against a twilight sky, above a city scape. A flock of several birds are flying over the face, with a set of wings appearing behind it. The persons hair is long, dark and tied back in a high pony tail, with faint stars dotted over it. Below the face, in the lower half of the image, text reads:
“Bianca Torre” in large, black cursive italics
“Is Afraid Of” in slightly smaller, black capitals
“Everything” in large, red, italicised capitals
The authors name “Justine Pucella Winans” in small, white capitals. /end]

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Content Warning*:

*According to Storygraph, these are author approved:

• Murder
• Panic Attacks
• Violence and Threat
• Animal Death
• (Body) Dysphoria
• Kidnapping
• Cults
• Drug Use (Marijuana)
• Suicide

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Summary:

Murder most fowl? In this sardonic and campy YA thriller, an anxious, introverted nonbinary teen birder somehow finds themself solving a murder mystery with their neighbor/fellow anime lover, all while falling for a cute girl from their birding group . . . and trying not to get murdered.

Sixteen-year-old Bianca Torre is an avid birder undergoing a gender identity crisis and grappling with an ever-growing list of fears. Some, like Fear #6: Initiating Conversation, keep them constrained, forcing them to watch birds from the telescope in their bedroom. And, occasionally, their neighbors. When their gaze wanders from the birds to one particular window across the street, Bianca witnesses a creepy plague-masked murderer take their neighbor’s life. Worse, the death is ruled a suicide, forcing Bianca to make a choice—succumb to their long list of fears (including #3: Murder and #55: Breaking into a Dead Guy’s Apartment) or investigate what happened.

Bianca enlists the help of their friend Anderson Coleman, but the two have more knowledge of anime than true crime. As Bianca and Anderson dig deeper into the murder with a little help from Bianca’s crush and fellow birding aficionado, Elaine Yee (#13: Beautiful People, #11: Parents Discovering They’re A Raging Lesbian), the trio uncovers a conspiracy much larger—and weirder—than imagined. But when the killer catches wind of the investigation, Bianca’s #1 fear of public speaking doesn’t sound so bad compared to the threat of being silenced for good.

In this absurdist, bizarrely comical YA thriller that is at turns a deceptively deep exploration of anxiety and identity, perhaps the real murder investigation is the friends we make along the way.

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Notes:

This is Winans debut novel.

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Archivist Comments:

It’s giving extra campy Scooby Gang vibes and I love it.

I love the book cover for this one. The colours are just so pleasing to look at.

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