Mysterious Ways is a YA/coming-of-age novel by Wendy Wunder (yes, that is apparently her real name). Released 27th Aug 2024 by Macmillan on their Wednesday Books imprint, it's 336 pages and is available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout.
This is aimed at the younger end of YA (circa 13-18 years), although there's some relatively explicit (consensual) sexual content, frank discussion on mental health and healthcare, and suicide and self harm ideation which might not be appropriate for some readers. There's also a strong element of magical realism (MC Maya is more or less perfectly telepathic and has other supernatural abilities (thought control, healing, etc)). It seemed to be along the lines of "whatever the author needed to advance the scene at the time".
The pacing is quite choppy and hops around a lot and the secondary characters are mostly sketched in and then dropped. Ostensibly set in Pennsylvania, the scenery is 100% generic "American" and could have just as easily been set in Colorado, Maine, or Maryland.
Three stars. Oddly written, with glimmers of charm/whimsy which never fully materialize.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
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