Needy Little Things coming February 4th, 2025 from Wednesday Books; 320 pages
Content Warning: Death, violence, kidnapping
About the Author: “Channelle Desamours is an author and high school science teacher. When she’s not napping to recover from her five a.m. writing sessions, Channelle can be found building tiny homes on The Sims 4 or cheering for Atlanta United at soccer matches. She is represented by Molly Ker Hawn at The Bent Agency. Her debut novel NEEDY LITTLE THINGS will be published by Wednesday Books/Macmillan in the US and Bloomsbury in the UK. It will be available in stores on February 4, 2025” (Bio from author’s website).
Find Channelle Desamours on the following platforms:
Sariyah has what many deem an incredible gift, but what to her feels like an incredible burden: she can hear the needs of the people around her, save for a select few of her closest friends and family, like her mother and her best friend, Malcolm. Sariyah’s thoughts become crowded with the demands of others, and only satisfying their needs can help her clear her head. So, when Sariyah hears that her friend Deja needs pepper spray at a music festival they are attending, she hesitantly supplies it, concerned over the implications of this request. This concern is amplified when Deja disappears that same night. Sariyah can’t help but feel partially responsible, like she ignored an important sign. Sariyah’s guilt is compounded by the fact that Malcolm’s twin sister disappeared in a similar manner years ago, and Malcolm has never quite recovered. Navigating her wearisome “gift,” family struggles, a relationship with a new boy whose needs she also cannot hear, and intense differences of opinion with Malcolm, Sariyah becomes determined to find out what happened to Deja before it’s too late.
There was no point in my reading of this book that I could have predicted how it would end, an indication of Desamours’ ability to construct a suspenseful and engaging narrative. Desamour managed to beautifully bring together a captivating mystery, accurate representations of teenage angst, and complex social and political commentary in Needy Little Things, a feat I found quite impressive. This wasn’t just a story about a missing girl; it was a nuanced discussion of the way in which Black and Brown people are treated and spoken about differently in situations both tragic—like Deja’s disappearance—and common—like a trip to the doctor’s office, or a day at school. While there were a few moments in which I felt like certain characters and their respective arcs could have been better developed within the larger story, as many motives and relationships were left unclear at the end, I still genuinely enjoyed every page. This captivating magical realism story is at separate times thought-provoking, dark, mysterious, and hopeful. Desamours does an incredible job bringing all of these elements into a cohesive narrative that will keep readers engaged.
Needy Little Things releases on February 4th, 2025
Pine Reads Review would like to thank NetGalley and Wednesday Books for sending us an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Any quotes are taken from an advanced copy and may be subject to change before final publication.
Sam Parker, Pine Reads Review Social Media Manager