Here are two moving stories of middle school girls blindsided by betrayals from friends and sometimes family, each with a slight speculative twist – just enough to add interest, but not so much that it would turn off readers who don’t think they like fantasy.

Evie Steinberg has been moving her whole life as her mother chases a career in broadcast journalism. Evie is the mature older child, never putting up a fuss, helping with the packing and with soothing her more volatile younger sister, Talia. All this moving means that her only long-term friend has been Dara, whom she sees every summer at camp, and who aids her in her hunt for any cryptids that might be hiding in the woods near the camp. Then the family moves to California for her mom’s dream job – with Dad staying behind in Boise for another chance at spotting the famous lake cryptid there, a cryptid he and Evie saw together but weren’t able to photograph. Evie promises her dad that she’ll make sure everything is perfect, and she means it. If this is a place they’re going to stay for good, Evie is determined that seventh grade will be the year where she makes real friends.

When she spots Dara in her first class, Evie is elated – until Dara denies knowing her and makes fun of her Bigfoot t-shirt. The dream turns into a nightmare as the popular and polished Dara convinces what seems to be the whole school into shunning Evie. Evie had also been excited to be in an area with a large Jewish population for the first time ever, but this also turns painful as kids show up every Monday with swag from B’nai Mitzvot parties that Evie is never invited to. The only kids who will hang out with Evie, Hannah and Charlie, also used to be friends with Dara until she changed. But Evie’s background in cryptozoology leads her to a new theory – one that might explain what happened to the Dara who was her best friend. With Hannah and Charlie’s help, a real discovery seems possible – one that would bring back both Dara and her dad.

Evie’s struggles living up to her family’s and her own very high expectations are very real and heartfelt, and spoke to my own responsible oldest child heart. I cried more than once while reading this. As a mostly fantasy reader, I was really hoping for real cryptids, but while Evie definitely believes in them, we as readers never see any of them. So, this is a great choice for kids who want stories of changing middle school friendships and family relationships, with just a hint of the fantastical. For those who want more about cryptids, try It Came from the Trees by Ally Russell or, for slightly younger readers, The Unicorn Rescue Society series by Adam Gidwitz and Hatem Aly, the first book of which opens, as this one does, with a search for the Jersey Devil.

Newly 12-year-old Elise is having the birthday of her life – fall carnival and then a sleepover with her two best friends, Melinda and Ivy. Friendship has been tough since Covid – her friendship with her first best friend, Cora, faded during Covid. Her post-Covid best friend was Amelia, who moved away at the end of last school year. Melinda and Ivy are newer friends, but they are having a great time together, and Elise is happy. At the party, her mother brings her a tiny gift bag that was left on the porch with a locket inside but no clue as to who it was from. And when Elise wakes up in the morning, it’s a Monday in April. She has no memory of the past six months, and neither Melinda nor Ivy will talk to her anymore. She doesn’t know what has happened – but Cora seems happy to rekindle their friendship and offers to help Elise figure out what’s going on. Together, they research in the library and also work on the photo essays for photography club that the Elise she can’t remember worked on during the six months she skipped.

This is an odd kind of time travel book, in that the time travel definitely happens, but Elise apparently lived through the skipped time, just with no memories of it. Even this jump – short by most time travel standards – is quite disorienting, as Elise not only has to puzzle out why her friendship triad fell apart, but also do homework she doesn’t have the background for and finds herself in a club she wasn’t part of before the skip. Still, the heart of the story is Elise figuring out how to deal with her suddenly rearranged friendship scene – who she is without Melinda and Ivy and what it’s worth giving up to get back in their good graces. Cora is keeping her own secrets, which are explored in the second half of the book. Along the way, there are multiple trips to the local book and magic stores and learning about Elise’s interest in books and Cora’s many crafty interests, from crochet to making book nooks. There’s also a sneaky shout-out to Zoe’s signature cupcake from From the Desk of Zoe Washington. This is good twist on the perenially popular middle school friendship story.

Interestingly, the other short-term time travel middle grade novel that comes to mind is Leah Stecher’s debut novel, The Things We Miss. I also reviewed a trio of middle grade time travel books back in 2023.