Meet Me at Blue Hour

Ever since her Korean Canadian BFF Lucas Pak ghosted her at 14 after she confessed her feelings to him, Yena Bae, also Korean Canadian, hasn’t stuck with “anything or anyone for very long.” With no post–high school plans, Yena takes a summer job at her mother’s memory-erasing clinic in Busan, South Korea. Lucas, meanwhile, travels to Busan on a desperate quest to admit his grandfather, who has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, into a memory-restoring trial spearheaded by Yena’s mother. Though Yena is shocked to find archival evidence indicating that Lucas erased her from his memory, she nevertheless feels compelled to help him after they reconnect in Busan. But with the long-term effects of memory erasure undetermined, could her presence jeopardize Lucas’s health? Via Lucas and Yena’s alternating perspectives, interspersed with sections narrated by anthropomorphized objects (including a movie reel and a lawn mower), Suk (The Space Between Here & Now) highlights the intimate connections between senses and memory. As the teens unspool secrets and awaken old affections, this uniquely structured, memory-bending speculative romance and love letter to Busan raises meaty questions about scientific morality. Ages 13–up. Agent: Linda Epstein, Emerald City Literary. (Apr.)