Elizabeth Acevedo announced her return to YA with her most personal novel yet, ANGER IS ONLY A SHADOW, on sale September 15, 2026.
Elizabeth Acevedo’s voice resonated with readers since her National Book Award-winning debut, The Poet X, in 2018. She has written bestselling, generation-defining books for adults and teens.
Told in poetry and prose, Acevedo’s gripping new novel follows Lil, a big-hearted Afro-Dominican and Indigenous-Salvadoran girl on a journey to self-understanding and doing the right thing. She navigates the criminal justice system, a budding romance complicated by her ankle monitor, and a growing concern for her brother, who shows early signs of schizophrenia. The book explores how to support loved ones with untreated illnesses.
Inspired by Acevedo’s experience leading poetry workshops for girls awaiting adjudication and caring for someone with schizophrenia, ANGER IS ONLY A SHADOW comes straight from the heart and will surely make a mark on readers.
Elizabeth Acevedo is the New York Times-bestselling author of The Poet X, which won the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature, the Michael L. Printz Award, the Pura Belpré Award, the Carnegie Medal, the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award, and the Walter Award. She is also the author of With the Fire on High—which was named a best book of the year by the New York Public Library, NPR, Publishers Weekly, and School Library Journal—and Clap When You Land, which was a Boston Globe–Horn Book Honor book and a Kirkus Prize finalist. She holds a BA in Performing Arts from The George Washington University and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Maryland. Acevedo has been a fellow of Cave Canem and Cantomundo and a participant in the Callaloo Writer’s Workshops. She is a National Poetry Slam Champion and resides in Washington, DC, with her family.
ABOUT THE BOOK
From National Book Award-winning, New York Times-bestselling author and renowned poet Elizabeth Acevedo comes a white-knuckle journey to self-understanding and doing the right thing, no matter the cost. Lil is anything but small. She’s rebellious; she’s loyal; she’s figuring out what kind of good person she wants to be, or if she wants to be a good person at all. But more than anything? Lil wants to be free.
When her instinct for freedom leads to another stay in D.C. juvenile detention, Lil knows she’s lucky to just be on probation. But judgment, guilt, and an ankle monitor weigh heavily on her, and she can’t shake that pinned-down feeling. The only person who might understand is her big brother, Aldwin. Except he’s more distant now than just the hundred miles where he’s away at college. Something’s been off with him for a couple of months, but only Lil seems to realize how important it is to get to him.
As her court hearing ticks closer, a question looms over Lil as the missed phone calls and strange texts from her brother pile up: will she follow the rules until her sentencing, or put her future freedom on the line?
**4 STARRED REVIEWS**
★ “An irresistible story of family connection, resilience, and loyalty.” –KIRKUS, starred review
★ “…a striking and nuanced portrait of the realities of juvenile detention and mental illness.” –PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, starred review
★ “…readers will be pleased with Acevedo’s return to YA fiction with the perfectly imperfect Lil, who carries the weight of the world on her shoulders, but whose family works to unburden her in the only ways they know how.”–BULLETIN CENTER FOR CHILDREN’S BOOKS, starred review
★ “A gorgeous story that navigates trust, identity and the power of community, Anger Is Only a Shadow recognizes the reality of darkness and pain while throwing open the curtains to let in the light.” – BOOKPAGE, starred review
Media release and photographs courtesy of HarperCollins
