Posts tagged with teen-literature
School Spirits, by Rachel Hawkins
Slightly more than a year after releasing Spell Bound, the (totally disappointing, it must be said) conclusion to her Hex Hall series, Rachel Hawkins has returned to familiar territory in School Spirits, the first book in a Hex Hall spin-off series devoted to a different branch of the monster-hunting Brannick family...
How I Lost You, by Janet Gurtler
In a world overflowing with books about teenagers killing one another, it's always nice to discover a well-written YA novel about normal teen drama—one that limits itself to figurative (rather than literal) back-stabbing. This real-world premise wasn't the only thing we liked about Janet Gurtler's How I Lost You, but it definitely helped...
How To Lead a Life of Crime, by Kirsten Miller
Kirsten Miller's How To Lead a Life of Crime is the junior-division version of Catherine Jinks's novel Evil Genius. Both stories are about unhappy boys with a gift for criminal behavior who are approached by shady older dudes offering them a chance to attend schools for budding supervillains, but Jinks's take on the material is far weirder...
Manicpixiedreamgirl, by Tom Leveen
In addition to being saddled with a painfully quirky title that lights up my Spellcheck like a Christmas tree, Tom Leveen’s novel Manicpixiedreamgirl features one of my least favorite YA character types: the wishy-washy teenage male. Leveen’s protagonist is high school student Tyler Darcy, a kid blessed with a long-term (by high school standards) relationship, a supportive family, and a loyal circle of friends. Tyler has literary ambitions, and...
Strands of Bronze and Gold, by Jane Nickerson
In case you were wondering, we didn't actually plan on reviewing two books about twisted relationships between hyper-controlling men and vulnerable young girls this week. This pairing was pure serendipity—creepy serendipity, if that's not a contradiction in terms.
Set in the antebellum South, Jane Nickerson's Strands of Bronze and Gold...
Revolution, by Jennifer Donnelly
I avoid books about the French Revolution (angry mob stories freak me out), reading about time travel (the laws of causality!), or plots that hinge on the deaths of children (...this one is self-explanatory, right?). All three are featured in Jennifer Donnelly's YA novel Revolution, so the fact that I not only finished her book, but even found it reasonably entertaining, is a testament to the author's storytelling abilities...
Bad Taste in Boys and Bad Hair Day, by Carrie Harris
If someone set out to re-write Scooby Doo as a book series aimed at teenage girls, the result would probably look a lot like Carrie Harris's Kate Grable novels: Bad Taste in Boys and Bad Hair Day. Like Scooby Doo, Harris's stories are cheerful, ridiculous, and teaming with monsters—none of which, of course, turn out to be genuinely supernatural...
Heart of Glass, by Sasha Gould
YA author Sasha Gould recently released Heart of Glass, the sequel to last year's well-received historical novel Cross My Heart. I found this installment less interesting than Gould's first, but it was still well-written and solidly researched (and blessed with much less Vegas-y cover art)...
Banished and Unforsaken, by Sophie Littlefield
I'm sure most bookstores have filed Sophie Littlefield's novels Banished and Unforsaken with the teen paranormal romances, but that's far from accurate. These books are about a girl who discovers that she has magical healing powers, and is immediately targeted by a series of evil scientists, murderous rednecks, and zombies. She does eventually acquire a boyfriend, but their relationship is never more than a minor plot thread...
Dark Souls, by Paula Morris
Paula Morris's novel Dark Souls isn't the best YA paranormal romance I have ever read, but it boasts likeable characters, an intriguing premise, and literally dozens of ghosts, running the gamut from benign to horrifying. Fans of the genre are in for a creepy, history-infused treat...
MTV hits the books
The Hollywood Reporter informs me that MTV is attempting to turn Elizabeth Norris's young adult novel Unraveling into a TV drama. According to the article, the book is about a teenage girl "who, after being hit by a car, is convinced she died and that her sexy and mysterious classmate Ben is responsible for her miraculous resuscitation"...
The Little Woods, by McCormick Templeman
I was drawn to McCormick Templeman's debut novel The Little Woods as soon as I pulled it out of the publishers' box. The cover art and title managed to be simultaneously elegant, menacing, and teen-girl-friendly, and it appeared to be a murder mystery without a paranormal element—a rare beast, at least as far as YA books are concerned...
That's where all the fun books are.
In a not-particularly-shocking bit of news, Publishers Weekly just posted an article about a new study on so-called "Young Adult" books: according to Bowker Market Research, 55% of buyers of YA books are 18 or older...
Still terrible after all these years
The fine people at The Hairpin recently posted an interview with Ryan Nerz, a late-90s-era ghostwriter for the Sweet Valley High series. Mr. Nerz offers quite the eye-opening look behind the scenes, let me tell you...
The Master of Misrule, by Laura Powell
The Master of Misrule is the sequel to Laura Powell's novel The Game of Triumphs, which we enthusiastically recommended last October. Like The Game of Triumphs, The Master of Misrule is a fast-paced and richly imagined fantasy inspired by the rules of the Tarot...
Lies Beneath, by Anne Greenwood Brown
Before I read Anne Greenwood Brown's novel Lies Beneath, I would have assumed that any book about killer mermaids from Wisconsin had to be campy. Ms. Brown's book has proved me wrong; Lies Beneath has its faults (and plenty of 'em), but it takes itself quite seriously...
Dust Girl, by Sarah Zettel
Sarah Zettel's Dust Girl has been criticized for its cover art, which several reviewers felt failed to convey an important element of the book—that the heroine is biracial. I wasn't hugely bothered by this, as the character is supposed to be able to “pass” as white and the cover model resembles the book's description, but I do have my own objections to the cover: A) it doesn't do much to evoke the book's Dust Bowl-era setting, and B) it's ridiculously boring...
Grimness abounds
NPR has started a new blog devoted to YA literature. It's called "PG-13: Risky Reads", and while I'm not overly impressed by the books they have featured to date (On The Beach, Rubyfruit Jungle, Gone With The Wind, and I Am The Cheese), I'll definitely be checking back to see if their subject matter improves...
The Calling, by Kelley Armstrong
The Calling is the second book in Kelley Armstrong's Darkness Rising trilogy, which is in turn loosely connected to her bestselling (and ridiculously enjoyable) Darkest Powers trilogy. The Calling opens moments after the events of the earlier book: shape-shifting teenager Maya Delaney and a handful of her classmates have been bundled into a rescue helicopter after their remote Vancouver Island town is threatened by a forest fire...
The Gathering Storm, by Robin Bridges
It always feels weird to complain about a story having too much plot, but sometimes I can't help it: Robin Bridges's novel The Gathering Storm—the first book in a projected trilogy—races along at a breakneck pace, but it would have been improved by more world-building and less straight-up storytelling.
Could it really be true?
Will 2012 really bring us a Diablo Cody-penned Sweet Valley High musical? And is the world ready for that much after-school-special-influenced cheese?
The Game of Triumphs, by Laura Powell
15-year-old Cat Harper, the orphaned protagonist of Laura Powell's debut novel The Game of Triumphs, is not your typical wide-eyed fantasy heroine. After witnessing a murder, streetwise, pragmati...
Werewolves on the Titanic!
My e-mail this morning included a promotional note about Claudia Gray's recently-released novel Fateful, which I skimmed with tepid interest. The cover didn't catch my eye, and our "To Be Read" s...
The Nine Lives of Chloe King hits Hulu
The first episode of ABC Family's The Nine Lives of Chloe King (based on the YA novel by Celia Thompson) is now available on Hulu. Here's the trailer, which looks entertaining enough, if a little...
Jessica and Elizabeth ride again
This in-depth look at Francine Pascal and her Sweet Valley High books is a fascinating read. (No joke.) My parents never let me read the Sweet Valley books when I was in middle school, and I hav...
Sherlock Holmes (as portrayed by Justin Bieber)
Ever since I heard about this project, I've been keeping an eye out for the first book in a new series featuring Sherlock Holmes as a teenager. The Times liked Andrew Lane's Death Cloud, and it's...
Everybody's doing it
Huh. The Go Fug Yourself ladies have apparently written a young-adult book.
I do like her haircut, though.
I've never been particularly impressed by Emma Watson's acting, but maybe I'm alone in that: she's apparently starring in two buzzed-about YA movie adaptations: Stephen Chbosky's The Perks of Bein...
Gimme a Call, by Sarah Mlynowski
I've been following Sarah Mlynowski's career ever since the publication of her first novel: 2001's Milkrun, one of the first offerings from Red Dress Ink, the now-defunct Harlequin...