Thank you St Martin’s Press @stmartinspress , Netgalley @netgalley ,and Channell Desamours @elledesamours for this free ebook.
“Needy Little Things ” by Channelle Desamours ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Genre: BIPOC Speculative YA Thriller. Location: Atlanta, Georgia, USA. Time: present.

High school senior Sariyah Lee Bryant lives with her mother and younger brother Josiah. Her mother battles depression, and Josiah battles sickle cell disease. Sariah’s ADHD and migraines aren’t her worst problems- her personal battle is different, and overwhelming: She hears the small things people need—like a pencil, a hair tie, a phone charger—an ability only her family and her best friends know about. She’s celebrating best friend Malcolm’s birthday at a music festival when their friend Deja disappears. The authorities are no help-just like when Malcolm's twin sister Tessa (also a young woman of color), went missing 5 years earlier. Sariyah with her odd ability and her friends work together to find Deja. But the more clues she finds, the closer she gets to home. Meanwhile, her mom loses her job. Desperate, Sariyah decides to hustle her ESP ability for cash—a choice that may lead her to Deja, but also puts her in danger.


Author Desamours has written a very original speculative thriller full of interesting characters, and very bipoc-centric in a lovely way. In addition to the plot, she makes us aware (or reminds us) how race, sex, and economics affect how missing persons are handled by the police and media. Desamours adds twists, subplots, and a final big twist. If you liked One of Us is Lying or A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, this book is right up your alley! In any case, read this book for its incisive commentary on who society cares about. It’s 5 stars from me🌵📚💁🏼‍♀️.
#NeedyLittleThingsbook #NetGalley #channelledesamoursauthor

I really enjoyed this book. Sariyah was such a great FMC. I related to how she tried to so hard to do things for others even while forgetting her own needs. I can’t imagine what it would be like to have all these needs from others going off in your head. The situation with her two best friends while understandable was heartbreaking for all those that were affected by it. Also, the twist about who the true “villain” was surprising. I definitely recommend this book!

Thanks to Net Galley and Wednesday Books for the advanced e-arc!!

“I spend an unhealthy amount of time thinking about brains. ”
Here are reasons to read the YA Mystery book:

Skill - Sariyah has a special skill : She is able to hear what other people need
Music Festival - For her friend Malcolm’s birthday she scores tickets to a music festival
Missing Friend - Where her friend Deja goes missing
Investigation - this prompts an investigation on her part, diving into the familiar world of missing girls in her life

I really enjoyed the mechanic of Sariyah’s skill in this. She basically has to fulfill the need for each person or else it continues to reverberate in her head. She wears headphones to block out noise when in large crowds, because as you can imagine, that’s a lot of needy voices. What is very cool is she carries around a bag full of random items to help fulfill people’s needs, and it’s almost like these items finding to be given out is also part of her skill. This is a debut novel and I will definitely be reading more from this author.

Uhm, what was that ending?! Is there going to be more?? Ahh!!

I could not put this book down! I was immediately hooked on Sariyah and how her gift(?) for giving people what they need played out in so many different ways. I loved the ways sometimes needs were straightforward, but often things worked out in unexpected ways. I also loved Sariyah’s friendships with Malcolm and Jude, and her dynamic with her younger brother, Josiah. This book also has really great commentary on how missing persons cases are handled differently by police, social media, and general public depending on the race and socioeconomic status of the person who’s gone missing. I also really appreciated how different perspectives were presented because while Sariyah and Malcolm both lost Tess when she went missing five years ago, their relationship to Tess and therefore her disappearance are different and cause different reactions. This is a really great, emotional read and I really hope to read more from Channelle Desamours!

I went into this thinking it was your average teen contemporary novel, a genre I rarely read, and instead I have been humbled by this being one of my absolute favourite reads of the year. Sariyah has a peculiar ability where Sariyah can hear the needs of other people, and it unfolded into an addictive and highly compelling mystery. The seeds are planted so well in this to bloom into a tense and completely unpredictable story that I could not put down. Wednesday Books is promoting this one hard and they are so right to. It deserves all the attention available to it.

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martins Press, and Wednesday Books for this advanced copy! You can pick up Needy Little Things on February 4, 2025.

This was a really cool magical realism/YA thriller! Channelle Desamours did a fantastic job integrating a mysterious disappearance, superpowers, and current events into this story. The emphasis on the difference when Black and brown girls go missing vs. white girls was poignant and all too real, and I love how our main character, Sariyah, took it into her own hands to track down her missing friend.

Given how strong the beginning was, I was a little sad that the actual mystery-solving fell a bit flat in the middle. It wasn't quite as action-packed and suspenseful as the beginning was, though the ending had a ton happening. I would've liked a bit better pacing throughout the middle, but overall, it was still a fantastic story,

Needy Little things captures you from beginning to end, a wonderfully written YA Thriller. Sariyah is a teen with special foresight to people's needs that can be both a help and hinderance. Grieving the disappearance of her best friend another goes missing. It's not lost on the group of friends that there are racial disparities in media coverage and that to get the attention for their missing friend they need to do more and involve themselves into the case. Along with the search for her missing friend, Sariyah must juggle the health of family members, a young relationship, a strained friendship, high school and her gift. This book is a quick and fast paced read with never a dull moment.

wow this was an awesome speculative fiction. some very unique themes and vibes. 5 stars. tysm for the arc. would recommend.

4 stars

This is a strong YA debut with a compelling m.c. and an intriguing mystery. I enjoyed it and will definitely recommend it to my students.

Sariyah, the m.c., has an interesting skill: "hearing" the needs of those around her. She can stand in a crowd and know exactly who needs ear plugs, who needs a snack, and even who needs a pillowcase. This comes in handy in some cases, but like any unusual powers/skills/difference, there's another side to this uniqueness, too. While sometimes Sariyah feels powerful in her ability to support her younger brother who has a long-term physical ailment, she feels equally powerless when she is not around to anticipate his needs. This situation hits a new high against a troubling backdrop: missing Black girls and young women.

I really like the spin on telepathy here along with the approach to this major social issue. The coverage feels effectively targeted to the audience (discussions about the role of social media, for example), and the characters have varied, complex relationships to the issue and to each other.

I will be on the lookout for more from this author and will definitely look forward to sharing this recent effort with my students. And when and where accessible, I'll be recommending the audiobook specifically since it features stellar narration.

3.5/5 stars: Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing a copy of this book. I was very excited based off the premise. I do think the book had pacing issues and had a somewhat underwhelming reveal but overall the story was cool.

4. Primarily this book is getting four star rating because the author has come up with a character who has a power I’ve never seen before. Finally, something new! Creativity at its finest. Sensing people’s needs is both a gift and an absolute curse for our young hero. There are a lot of YA mystery tropes here- missing girls, social media drama, a parent who is absent for much of the adventure, a plucky, handsome sidekick. However, this story is saved by the main character, her powers, and the struggle to decide how to use them. This universal search for identity is one students will understand. I’d describe this as Kara Thomas meets Karen McManus. There will be plenty of fans.

I did NOT know what to expect what I started this book. But OMG was it amazing. I honestly what never had guessed the outcome of it at all. This was an amazing debut. The mystery. The topic of missing Black girls and the coverage the news gives it.

I enjoyed so much of it. Sariyah’s mama going through what she went through. How imperfect and realistic it was. My heart broke for Malcolm but he pissed me off so bad!! You really read this book and trust NO ONE.

Book: Needy Little Things
Author: Channelle Desamours
Rating: 4 Out of 5 Stars

I want to thank the publisher, Wednesday Books, for sending me an ARC. I know this one hasn’t come out for a few more months, but I don’t get why more people are not talking about it. This is a great YA thriller/mystery. I have seen this compared to A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder and this is a fair comparison.

Sariyah Lee Bryant, a Black teenager with an uncanny ability to sense what people need—like a hair tie or phone charger—must use her gift to uncover the truth behind her friend Deja’s sudden disappearance. For Sariyah, it feels like history repeating itself; she’s already lost another friend to the void of missing persons, and she refuses to let Deja become another overlooked Black girl. With little faith in the police or media to take the case seriously, Sariyah teams up with her friends to piece together what happened. Life doesn’t pause for tragedy—her mother’s job loss and her little brother’s sickle cell complications weigh heavily on her, stretching her emotionally and financially. To keep everything afloat, Sariyah begins monetizing her unique ability, a risky move that might just bring her closer to finding Deja—or land her in the same peril her friend faced.

This book has a lot of suspense and it is well done. Not only does it have a great mystery element, but it also brings to light social justice issues. Deja is a Black girl, who has gone missing. Yet, her case does not get the same attention and amount of time in the spotlight as it would had had she been white. The author does this to bring light to how this happens in real life. If you stop and think about it, this happens in our real-world lives. How many times do you see a pretty white girl who has gone missing on the nightly news and the exhaustive efforts to find her? A lot, but you never see the same thing if that person is not pretty or white. Having this issue brought up in a young adult book will hopefully get more teens and people talking about this. That is the power of books. It makes people aware of issues that they may not be aware of or things that slip under the radar.

The suspense is there. Everything on the premises happens very early in the book. It’s spring break and a group of friends go to a music concert, then Deja disappears. While we are given a little bit of time to get to know our characters before all of this happens, it happens pretty quickly. I will say that the first half of the book is slower than the second half, but that is okay. It uses this time to build up the suspense and build the situation up. I think this was a great move. It allows us to become fully invested in the case before everything is revealed.

What I liked about the characters in this book is how much of an emphasis there was put on both friendship and family. We get to follow the characters through their day-to-day lives and see the role that family plays in their actions. We see how little details that did not mean much before all this unfolded are brought to life and how when something bad happens it shifts peoples’ views of one another. We see mental health, family issues, and people who are just trying to survive in this world. We also see how judgment can impact people. We see the loyalty come to life too.

Sariyah will stop at nothing to make sure that Deja comes home. She refuses to believe the worst. She does everything in her power to see her best friend come home. She turns to social media, takes the streets, and does her digging. She believes that people are not doing enough to see that her friend comes home. This loyalty is just not limited to Deja. Her family also gets this same treatment. Her little brother has sickle cell and Sariyah does everything and anything for him. Her mother has depression and it leaves her greatly hindered. Sariyah is a teen dealing with adult problems. However, she feels that she has to keep it together or it will all fall apart. She is the soul of her family and the caregiver. I liked seeing this. This is something that many teens are growing up with and this allows them to be seen. So many times in YA books, everything is great when it comes to home life. To see a different side makes this book all that much more realistic.

This was a great YA book. While not a five-star for me, I did enjoy it a lot. Fans of Holly Jackson and Karen M. McManus will devour this one.

This book comes out on February 4, 2025.

Youtube: https://youtu.be/uKJFUe5pBYw

I enjoyed this book way more than I expected. Initially picked it up because of this gorgeous cover and the story did not disappoint. I'm not a big fantasy reader yet the novel's added element of MC Sariyah having a gift of hearing people's needs made it so much more compelling. Honestly, I think the name of the book is also very clever and catchy.

The writing is gripping and kept me turning the pages. I'll admit that the first half was slow, but I genuinely could not put down my phone with the increased drama and pace of the second half. The characters and fleshed out very well and that makes for interesting relationships and banter that I enjoyed. As a POC, I could relate to many heavy conversations in the book, particularly because they were written in such a mature way that still makes sense from a teenager's perspective. The conclusion was not what I had seen coming so I loved it and I'm hopeful that there's more books to come in this series, fingers crossed. Needless to say, I will be reading anything written by this author.

A captivating YA mystery with a dash of fantasy and surprising twists! I loved this book for many reasons, especially how it shows the lengths people will go to prove their point. The ending was a real surprise and I appreciated that.

Channelle Desamours’ Needy Little Things is a bold and emotionally raw exploration of desire, vulnerability, and the complexities of human relationships. Desamours’ writing is sharp, compelling, and unflinchingly honest, capturing the messy, beautiful aspects of love and longing. With its gripping storyline and complex characters, this novel will leave you reflecting long after the final page. A must-read for fans of deep, provocative fiction.

I’m interested to see if there will be a follow-up to this novel based on the slight cliffhanger ending. At the same time I thought there was a previous novel that explained some of Sabriyah’s background. There were some references such as “gnats” and the Irvine brothers that I felt like I needed better reference to. Plus the side references that ended up being important seemed tacked on. I think the concept of a thriller with a missing girl whose disappearance doesn’t get the news it deserves due to her being a black girl was an important theme, and the idea that Sabriyah is kind of a medium but only for minor things seemed interesting. Overall I think it was a good story but could have been spread over two novels in a series as there was a lot of information covered.

I love love loved this book so much! I loved how Sariyah's power had realistic drawbacks (ADHD, her being a chronic people pleaser) because it fleshed out her character so much more and made her so relatable. I like how the side characters like Jude, Malcom, and even Deja all had their own "dark" pasts/desires. it's very rare when I can read a book and say that all the side characters have so much depth to them.

I also love how Sariyah was finally able to see the good in her gift by the end of the novel. Words can't even describe how incredible this book was, and how much it meant to me! Thank you to NetGalley and the Publishers for granting me with this ARC!

This book was so well done and had me hooked right from the start. I loved the premise of it and was so excited to see how this one worked out. It ended up being such an enjoyable read, and I had so much fun with it. Sariyah was such a great character. Her curse, or gift depending on who you ask, was well laid out and easily believable. Her struggles as a character were easily relatable, not only is she working through her gift, but she is a college student as well. As the story goes on she deals with so many tough things, and she does it remarkably well. She truly is a well thought out and developed young adult character. The pacing of the book is one that slowly builds as the book goes on. It doesn’t start slow slow, but it is on the more leisurely side, then as we move along, the pacing picks up and really gets going towards a nice ending. I was in disbelief with how this ended, it was just so good! I couldn’t believe it. It was well done and fit the story nicely.

If you’re looking for a YA Thriller featuring young adults, with a wonderful ending, then you need to check this one out.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Marten’s Press for this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

I thought this story was unique. Sariyah is a girl who has been gifted (or cursed) with the ability to know what people’s needs are. Whether it’s a breath mint or a weapon, she knows and will develop headaches without those needs being fulfilled. Sariyah is also a girl whose best friend went missing a few years ago and when it seems like history is repeating itself she’s very determined to find another missing girl. There are a few character flaws and plot holes that had me second guessing my rating but I’m at odds with if it’s because I found it interesting or if I am lacking the empathy for these characters. When you read this book and get to that twist you’ll understand. There were more characters than I thought necessary and I didn’t LOVE that twist but overall I enjoyed this book.