I was intrigued by the haunted house premise and also I’m sucker for stories centering friendship. Saint Juniper’s Folly is a great story of finding your own strength and courage, and how much the people in your corner can have an impact. I also really enjoyed the family secrets element, and honestly wish we’d gotten more exploration of those themes and the cyclical nature of history. I really enjoyed this and Jaime, Theo, and Taylor are all such amazing, good characters.

Incredibly scary and gothic and perfect! This book blew me away it was everything i hoped for, expected and more.
I truly loved the characters arc and the setting it is the perfect read to re read for october

Cemetery Boys meets Haunting of Bly Manor. Yes please.

If you’ve been following my reviews for a while you’ll know that my favourite niche genre is YA queer horror. I’ve been truly blessed with the new releases this year and Saint Juniper’s Folly is another new favourite.

The novel is a multi-POV that follows three main characters. Jaime returns to his hometown after years in the foster system, immediately feeling overwhelmed he heads to the forest to clear his head but doesn’t return. Theo, a Saint Juniper local follows the sound of screaming into the woods and stumbles upon an abandoned haunted house with Jaime stuck inside. Taylor, an amateur witch grieving the loss of her mother, suddenly starts feeling drawn to Saint Juniper’s Folly, so when a boy enters her apothecary looking for help with a supernatural situation in the woods, she cant say no.

I really loved the pacing of this one, it had the fast pace for the thrill/mystery aspects of the novel but still allowed plenty of slow points for the friendships and relationship to develop. The three characters and multiple POV’s really added to the story development and background. I felt so invested in each one of them and their stories. The horror aspects of the novel itself were quite mild and overall it felt quite cozy and light.

An incredible debut by Alex Crespo. I’d recommend this to anyone loves spooky queers, found family and an incredibly sweet romance. If you’re looking for your next rainy afternoon read, this is it.

Thank you so much to Peachtree Teen and NetGalley for providing me with an e-ARC of this novel which was released on the 6th of June!!

Rep: Achillean, BIPOC & Queer main characters

Content Warnings: blood, ghosts, magic/witchcraft, child abandonment, parental death, foster care system, death of animals, hospital, murder/hanging (mentioned)

The premise of Saint Juniper's Folly drew me in right away and while I loved the premise and enjoyed the overall story, I had a few issues that made this a promising but not well-rounded debut.
The three main characters had very distinct voices but also fell a bit flat since we never really look behind the curtains of what's going on. Sure, they all have something to deal with (grief, expectations, fear of not being enough) but it was all a bit on a surface level for me and could have been explored more.
The secondary characters, however, especially the adults, were all caricatures. Everyone was quite one-dimensional, whether it was Michelle whose motives for taking in Jaime are never explored, Taylor's father or Theo's dad who is almost a villain for not wanting Theo to do anything that would tarnish his reputation. There was a lot of potential in including them in the narrative more or make Jaime being stuck more of an issue. There was quite too much tell and not enough show to make it clear to readers why these secondary characters mattered.
What I will also say is that I was missing a bit of urgency in this novel. This partly pertains to the pacing of the novel but also to the story itself. I kept waiting for the immediacy of Jaime's situation to hit for him, Theo and Taylor, but it was always something that "needed" to happen in the span of two months, or then in the span of a week. You'd think they'd do everything in their power to get Jaime out of there (or, well, figure out why he is stuck in the first place and they aren't) instead of weeks passing with them researching and getting to know each other. That didn't quite work for me.
Overall though, I really enjoyed Crespo's prose and was drawn in by the atmosphere of the story and really enjoyed the slow exploration of friendship and a tad of romance between Jaime and Theo. Promising debut!

I loved this story's characters and their relationships with each other but what I wished was that it was faster paced and that the story was creepier than it actually was.

Thank you to NetGalley and Peachtree Teen for access to an ARC in exchange for my honest review!!

Feeling lost and more than a little alienated returning to his home town after years spent in the foster care system, Jaime finds himself called into the wooded outside of town known as Saint Juniper's Folly and to an old house situated in the center of the mass of trees. But when the call turns out to be a trick and Jaime finds himself trapped inside the old house, he has no way of calling for help or escaping. Until, that is, he's stumbled upon by Theo, a local boy desperate for a change and feeling stifled by the small town he grew up in. Tensions are high between them at first when they learn that Theo can't enter the house any more than Jaime can leave it, and despite their less than stellar first meeting, Theo promises to help Jaime escape and eventually enlists the help of Taylor, an amateur witch from a town over with a mystery of her own hanging over her head and a yearning to learn more about her magic. They form an unlikely team, the three of them, and along the way, they learn more about the town of Saint Juniper's dark, mysterious past, more about their own pasts or those of their families, and perhaps most importantly, more about themselves. But can they save Jaime from the house in the Folly before it's too late?

This book was mystifying from page one. I loved everything about the spooky, stifling little town and how you could feel how smothered someone might feel living there, how stuck in their ways the people there are, and the struggles with acceptance that all three characters face--Jaime and Theo with their sexuality and Taylor and Jaime with their race and backgrounds--added so much depth and realism to the story that my heart was aching for them. I mean, getting to watch Jaime and Taylor talk about their different levels of understand of their heritage, seeing Theo struggle with realizing and then accepting his attraction to Jaime, and even the inclusion of Jaime's choice to pronounce is name JAY-mee instead of high-may--seriously, this scene between Taylor and Jaime was spectacular and I think about it often--gave the story so much depth and heart. I don't think I could possibly say enough nice things about this book, but as a debut, it's spectacular, and I can't recommend it highly enough to anyone looking for a mysterious, queer, inclusive, witchy, slightly spooky, super fun time.

This was cute! I liked the relationships between the three main characters, but I found myself wanting this to be a bit scarier and for the magic to be a bit more weaved into the story.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the e-ARC!

Content Warning: Parental death, parental abandonment, body horror, being trapped, animal death

OK, so how bad is it that despite everything these three teens experience, there is a part of me that is jealous I didn't get a chance to explore the abandoned house in Saint Juniper’s Folly? Because I am SUPER jealous.

Crespo gives readers a paranormal haunted house story... with a twist. I won't go into detail because finding out is half the fun of reading a book like this. Jaime, Theo, and Taylor are messy teens that are working out what their life post high school is supposed to be like. Each has their own anxiety and hangups and if you take the supernatural elements out, their experiences and worries are common with so many people as they age out of their teenage years.

This is more an unsettling read than a creepy one, there aren't any jump scares, but you will have a feeling of unease as Jamie runs out of time and the big moment is intense. I thought that Crespo ended on a good note even though I still wanted to stay on this ride to see where it goes next. Overall this is a strong debut and I look forward to what Crespo writes next. I'm excited to talk to my teen patrons about SAINT JUNIPER'S FOLLY, I think they're really going to enjoy this one.

Side note: how GORGEOUS is this cover art?!

Advanced Reader’s Copy provided by NetGalley, Holiday House / Peachtree / Pixel+Ink, and Peachtree Teen in exchange for an honest review.

If you're looking for a trans debut author to support during Pride Month, I'd definitely recommend preordering Saint Juniper's Folly, especially if you loved Cemetery Boys!

One day when Theo is driving through the woods of Saint Juniper's Folly, he hears screams. When he ventures into the woods, he finds a handsome and acerbic boy named Jaime physically trapped inside a haunted house. Theo seeks help from a local witch named Taylor, and the trio try to free Jaime before his disappearance has serious consequences.

I loved the found family aspect of Saint Juniper's Folly and the way Jaime, Theo, and Taylor's friendship develops. I adored all three main characters; they felt so real and relatable! Jaime's story is the darkest. He's been abandoned by his parents and shuffled through the foster system for years. Theo and Taylor have their own difficulties too though. Theo feels suffocated by his parents' expectations and the claustrophobia of a small town. Taylor just wants to keep practicing magic, a way of connecting with her recently deceased mother, but her controlling father has forbidden it. I think most readers will find something to relate to in at least one of the main characters.

The romance between Jaime and Theo was also really cute and heartwarming! This is definitely a grumpy/sunshine pairing in the best way. I inhaled Saint Juniper's Folly, and I'll be keeping an eye out for Alex Crespo's future work!

Saint Juniper's Folly comes out on June 6th!

This is a really cute YA queer supernatural/spooky romance focusing on three characters with all of their POV. I feel like it fits solidly in the YA category versus other novels being borderline. We follow Jaime, a teen in foster care, who gets locked inside an abandoned magical home. He is assisted by Theo, a teen who never makes mistakes and has his life planned out for him, and Taylor, a budding witch whose mother passed away.

The only complaint that I had was the formatting for Kindle on my phone made it difficult for me to understand whose POV it was, lines were the authors name was placed but I assume isn't intentional for being there, and things like "oce" or "ocer" which I assume means "office/officer". This didn't appear to happen on my physical kindle, but I probably read eighty percent of the novel on my phone.

What do you get when you mix ONE LAST STOP with a haunted house and a witch? You get SAINT JUNIPER’S FOLLY by Alex Crespo, that’s what.

It was a really sweet story about how damaging repressing major parts of you can be, and how freeing it can be to find people who let you feel comfortable sharing those parts of yourself.

This was a great little palate cleanser from all the fantasy and thrillers I tend to read, full of lovable characters and dual POVs.

Thank you to NetGalley for the advance copy of this book in exchange for my review 🫶

4.25. First of all, happy publication day to this book! I received an ARC through NetGalley and am so happy I managed to finish it up by today.

Saint Juniper's Folly is fun, mysterious, and overall I had a really good time with it. The author introduces us to a lovable trio of small town troubled teens that embark on a mission to save one of them from being trapped in an old house in the woods. Each character has their own set of baggage, which we get to see explored in more detail as Jaime, Theo, and Taylor get to know each other. I loved the budding romance between Jaime and Theo, but I think I loved the friendship of all three of the kids way more. Chance encounters that bring people together are my favorite, especially young queer characters.

The pacing throughout was a bit fast, however, and I do wish we got to see more of the legal guardians of the characters (most of the focus lands on Elias, Taylor's dad, for plot reasons). I think it would have been interesting and cathartic for Jaime to reconnect with Michelle, for example, or for Theo to hash it out more with his parents in regards to his reputation and future. That being said, these things do get addressed in a roundabout way so we aren't completely left hanging, wondering about the fallout.

I think Alex Crespo has a lot of great potential, and that this is a wonderful debut. I've been a follower of his on TikTok for awhile now and eagerly await whatever comes next! Many thanks to NetGalley and Peachtree Teen for the opportunity to read and review this story.

I thank Netgalley for an ARC copy of this book.

Saint Juniper's Folly. follows three characters Jaime, Theo, and Taylor. Jaime is a foster teenager who is coming back to his home town in the hopes of getting a fresh start. Theo is entering his senior year of high school worried about his future and trying to live up to his expectations of his parents. Taylor is a witch mourning the recent loss of her mother and unable to train as a witch because of the fear of her father. One night Theo is driving and almost hits a tree and is drawn into the forest to a gothic mansion where Jaime is stuck inside. Jaime is being haunted in the abandoned house and is unable to leave. Theo wanting to help Jaime finds Taylor for her knowledge of the supernatural.

I loved this book. It was such a delight to read. Each character is unique with their own personalities and problems. This is a great Debut for Alex.

The interaction between all the characters is great. Jaime and Theo are absolutely adorable. I couldn't stop smiling when the two finally admitted they had feelings for each other. I felt sorry for Taylor when she had to interact with her father. Elias made Taylor stop practicing being a witch and even hid her mother's books from her. I understand why he was afraid for her but he never told Taylor why he didn't want her being herself. Jaime has been sent to several foster homes after his own mother abandoned him in a shopping mall. He covers up with sarcasm and jokes not wanting others in because of his past. Theo tries to be perfect to please his parents and is worried about what to do with his future and if he will be stuck in his hometown.

The atmosphere is nice and spooky. It is advertised as Cemetery Boys meets Haunting of Bly Manor and that is a perfect description. When the ghost that is haunting Jaime first appears it was startling. And poor Jaime can't even get a good night sleep because the ghost even haunts his dreams. The ending is a little rushed where they have to do the spell to help free Jaime. Many things happened all at once and I would have liked a little more detail for the big finale.

The only complaint I have is really how Jaime came to be at the mansion. It goes straight from him entering the the town, to Taylor's introduction, to Theo's intro and finding Jaime already stuck at the mansion. There really is no explanation on how he arrived there. But that is really the only thing I didn't like about the book.

I give this 5 out of 5 stars, This was such a good book to read. If you like a spooky atmospheric queer romance then this book is for you.

I really wanted to like this book, but I spent a lot of time confused by the stakes and the timeline, and the emotional reactions of the characters to certain events. A big part of the story involves keeping secrets around the house itself, and I wasn’t clear why… I spent so much time trying to make sense of the story’s internal logic that I didn’t fully get invested in the characters, who felt flat to me. I know that this is a debut, and I would definitely read this author’s work in the future in the hopes of liking it more, but I spent most of this book scratching my head over the internal logic and wanting to know more about the characters. The metaphor of what was going on with the haunted house (in terms of Jaime’s psyche) got a little lost for me.

I was pleasantly surprised by this book! A YA novel told in three clearly developed voices by three different yet uniquely endearing characters. If this book has a flaw, it’s that the emotional resolutions of the characters are a bit rushed (Theo, in particular, doesn’t get to have all his loose threads tied up). But the plot clips along, there’s plenty of magic and supernatural to go around, and there are moments of lovely imagery that evoke the wonder and the miracle of finding first love. I recommend this book to fans of YA, light fantasy, and coming of age stories.

I hate to say it but I DNFed this book. I got to about the 70% mark and just couldn’t do it anymore because it just wasn’t for me.

I really wanted to like this concept. A boy trapped in a haunted house with two unlikely friends trying to get him out. I really wanted more spooky stuff but the ghost aspect was way more tame and honestly kinda boring. The magic that the character, Taylor supposedly had never really manifested and I was holding out to try and see it happen and it never did.

The character development and their connection to each other was really surface level and honestly not that believable. We’re supposed to think that Jamie and Theo are suddenly friends after one single interaction where Jamie is prickly towards Theo during their first meeting only for Theo to come back and bring reinforcements and is suddenly in love with him? I wanted their relationship to work but there was absolutely no depth there. The time jumps could have been drawn out more to show that character development but instead we’re just told that they both have feelings for each other.

Overall it kind of read like a middle grade novel instead of a young adult. Not for me at all.

I have just started reading this book yesterday, and so far, it’s interesting me. We’ll see if this will get me hooked.

Wow, this book, for lack of any more coherent words, was *stunning*. Saint Juniper’s Folly was a rare book that consumed my thoughts even when I wasn’t reading it — it took me almost a week to read it, and I found myself annoyed at life for not granting me unencumbered time to devour this book. The writing was gorgeous, the vibes were immaculate, and the characters were so wonderful. I loved the friendship between Taylor, Jaime, and Theo, and the way Theo and Jaime’s relationship slowly blossomed as they grew closer. The banter — between all three of them, but especially Theo and Jaime, was so enjoyable and consistent and good-natured. Sometimes, banter and teasing can err too close to mean-spirited or hurtful, but that was never the case with these characters. I’ll admit I had a real moment of fear near the end of the book that we wouldn’t get a happy ending, and to prospective readers I’ll say this: trust the author, trust the story, it’ll be fine and everyone will be happy. It’s rare that I finish an arc and desperately want to order my own physical copy, not just to proudly display on my bookcase, but to immediately reread.

Release June 6
SAINT JUNIPER'S FOLLY is a REMARKABLY feel-good YA Queer Supernatural-Paranormal-Generational Witchcraft Coming-of-Age Romance and Discovery! Whoa, that's a combination! But it's a champion combo, so much so I'm ready to reread! Sure, there's lots of heartbreak and heartache, grief, Bigotry (practically institutionalized in Saint Juniper's (sufficient blindness to be stomach-churning), and as it turns out, it's nothing new there either. You know, this is Vermont: I wouldn't have expected it, but that'd be giving too much credit to humans.

The trio of protagonists: Gay Hispanic adolescent in foster care Jaime [I could really write a fiery rail about his folks and about the social workers and system], Theo--uncertain of himself, compassionate, trapped in a "what will people think?" family, who's not certain of himself or his stance; and half-Puerto Rican Taylor, daughter of a deceased generational Witch who has inherited the lineage and a Puerto Rican dad who represses any hint of Magic, though he continues to operate his late wife's apothecary, are a set of characters with whom I immediately identified and empathized! ANY Reader who has ever experienced being or perceiving the outlier, or miscast, or misfit; who has ever felt, "I really don't belong here," is going to find fellow feeling in this gorgeous tour de force. You're going to feel right at Home. And really, isn't that what we want to discover--our Home??

“Saint Juniper’s Folly” is the debut YA novel by Alex Crespo, whose online biography states the author is a “queer + trans Mexican-American” who writes about “queer love, magic, and all the ways they intersect.”
The book weaves the tale of three teenagers (Taylor, Jaime, and Theo).

Taylor secretly practices magic her Puerto Rican dad banned from the house after her mom, an accomplished witch, suddenly dies.

For Jaime, whose Mexican heritage has been erased in foster care, returning to the Vermont town of Saint Juniper means returning to a past he’s spent years trying to forget. Attempting to hide from small-town prejudice, he escapes into the forest valley, where the folly will test him and his friends.

Theo’s outwardly perfect adherence to familial and societal expectations masks existential angst. One of the best moments in the book comes after Jaime and Theo finally admit their feelings for each other and before the ultimate paranormal confrontation; Theo reflects: “Something about that moment stuck with me long after the amber light faded from the room . . . It’s impossible to know which memories will be lost forever to the nagging pull of time. Or maybe worse, painted over in retrospect by counterfeit emotions and twisted into some cheap copy...”

Chapters are narrated by each of the three teen characters and Crespo deftly weaves their secrets, their fears, and their friendship together in a way that is meaningful but not heavy.

There were some twists and turns along the way, some plot developments that surprised me, and a few tense moments.

This a teenage (13+) coming-of-age ghost story filled with magic realism. It would be a great recommendation for young readers looking for characters struggling with loss, facing the precipice of adulthood, coming of age and coming out.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley but the review is my own.