I realized recently while going through a list of the books I read in 2011 that I read a YA at the end of the year that I neglected to review here. Ally Condie's Crossed is the second in the trilogy that began with Matched. The series is set in a dystopian world, one in which the Society chooses everything for all its citizens (jobs, clothing, what people can read and do, even who one is to marry aka their match). The Society does this in exchange for safety. But the question central to this trilogy is whether guaranteed safety is worth giving up one's ability to choose. The books' central character, Cassia, has come to believe that choice is more important, including her choice to love Ky instead of Xander, the boy the Society has chosen for her who also happens to be her best friend.
Pardon me for a bit of self-promo. I just wanted to announce that my new paranormal YA novel, White Witch, is now available from Bell Bridge Books. It's the first in the Coven trilogy about Jax Pherson, who flees her dark witch coven in pursuit of a normal teenage life. This book, originally titled Coven, won RWA's Golden Heart award in the Young Adult category in 2007.
Welcome to 2012, otherwise known as the year The Hunger Games hits theaters! (Yes, I'm anxiously awaiting March.) I'm sure it's going to be another wonderful year here on The Romance Dish. I know we're going to have lots of great YA news and book reviews in my monthly Teen Menu posts. So let's get started.
This past month, I managed to read a very enjoyable YA book during all the holiday craziness. Ashfall by Mike Mullin is the first in a post-apocalyptic series about Alex, a teenage boy from Iowa, and what he endures after the supervolcano under Yellowstone National Park explodes, sending the planet into a prolonged winter with no sunlight. I've always loved stories of survival and that's what Ashfall is at its core. Alex, who was home alone when the volcano erupted, sets off on a journey to Illinois to find his parents and younger sister, who had gone to visit Alex's uncle. Along the way, he meets people who help him and others who are a threat to his very life.
This month I read the final installment in Scott Westerfeld's Leviathan trilogy. Goliath lived up to its name at 543 pages. I was already a fan of Westerfeld's work, particularly his Midnighters series, before starting this trilogy. So the fact that I enjoy his stories added to the fact that I've liked every steampunk story I've read led me to the Leviathan series, which began with Leviathan and was followed by Behemoth and finally Goliath.
This month I finished reading Fury of the Phoenix, the sequel to Cindy Pon's wonderful Silver Phoenix: Beyond the Kingdom of Xia, which I reviewed here previously. In Fury, the heroine, Ai Ling, leaves Xia (based on ancient China) and stows away on a ship bound for the faraway land of Jiang Dao because she believes the boy she cares deeply about, Chen Yong, who is on board, is in serious danger. When Chen Yong and the ship's crew discover her, she and Chen Yong have to pose as brother and sister. Though that allows her to be close to Chen Yong, it's difficult to hide her true feelings from those around them.
This month I read Where I Belong by Gwendolyn Heasley, a book I spotted while at a book signing for a friend earlier this year. It's the story of Corrinne Corcoran, a rich girl living in New York City until the recession puts her father out of job. Suddenly, her dad has to take a job in Dubai, she has her credit cards taken way (no shopping at Barney's!), and has to move, along with her mom and little brother, in with her grandparents in Broken Spoke, Texas (aka the middle of nowhere).
I've always been a fan of survival stories, whether it's The Swiss Family Robinson or The Day After Tomorrow. Trapped by Michael Northrop is more like the latter than the former. Narrated by a 15-year-old boy, it's the story of how he and five of his classmates survive (or don't) when they are trapped in their rural New England high school by the biggest Nor'easter blizzard to ever hit the region. We know from the beginning of the book that not everyone comes out of the experience alive, so this gives the book an edge-of-your-seat quality. I read each page wondering if it held clues to who would perish.
This is a bit of older news, but I've been out of the loop and just saw it a few days ago. Jamie Campbell-Bower, who plays Volturi member Caius in the Twilight movies and had the lead role of Arthur in the one-season series Camelot, has been cast as Jace in the upcoming The Mortal Instruments movie. The funny thing about this is I found out literally minutes after I saw a picture of Jamie and his fiance, Bonnie Wright (Ginny Weasley in the Harry Potter movies), together and thought they'd make a great Clary and Jace. The role of Clary has already gone to Lily Collins, however. See author Cassandra Clare's blog post on the casting choice for more information and her take on Jamie.
The City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare is the fourth in her popular The Mortal Instruments series. The first three books in the series had the arc of a trilogy, leading up to the confrontation with the big baddie in the third, City of Glass. But just because that particular battle is over, don't think things are going to go swimmingly for Clary and Jace, the main focus of the series, and their friends, Alec, Isabelle, Simon, Maia and Magnus. There are still battles to be fought, foes to face, and complicated feelings to work through.
It's been a crazy month. I had three different deadlines on June 1, so I haven't had much time to read. I didn't finish reading any YA books this month, but I am reading Fury of the Phoenix by Cindy Pon. It's the sequel to Silver Phoenix, which I've reviewed here on the Teen Menu and which I really enjoyed. Again, it's set in ancient China and has paranormal elements. I hope to have the review for you next month.
Cleopatra's Daughter by Michelle Moran
After reading The Maze Runner, I went right out and got the sequel, The Scorch Trials. This second in the trilogy picks up where The Maze Runner leaves off, after main character Thomas and the rest of the Gladers (the boys and one girl who survived the trial in the Maze) have escaped the Maze. But their relief is short-lived when they realize they've just been thrust into another trial by WICKED, the group that thrust them into their first trial in the Maze. And this trial makes their life in the Glade and Maze look easy by comparison.
The Maze Runner by James Dashner was one of those books I'd heard a lot of buzz about but hadn't gotten around to reading. So recently I took the audio version of the book on a road trip to Texas, and it helped pass the long miles of interstate. Before listening to this book, I didn't know it was the first book in a series. I'd gone into it thinking it was a standalone, but as I got closer to the end it became obvious there was no way everything could be tied up in the short amount of space. As it turns out, the second book in this dystopian trilogy, The Scorch Trials, is already out too. Yes, call me clueless. :)
Across the Universe by Beth Revis has nothing to do with the 2007 film of the same name. Instead, it is a wonderful YA tale set against the backdrop of space. Seventeen-year-old Amy leaves Earth with her parents, her scientist mother and military father, bound for a new planet dubbed Centauri-Earth. Since it's a 300-year voyage, they are cryogenically frozen. The ship, Godspeed, is an enormous vessel, a city in and of itself. It's a generational vessel, meaning that generations of descendants from the original crew will be at the helm until the arrival on Centauri-Earth.
I picked up Beastly by Alex Flinn after I heard about the movie adaptation coming out. And I'm glad I did. While the movie version was entertaining, though by no means a great movie, the book is really good. It has the detail and gradual story development that the movie lacked. I honestly think the movie could have been improved by the addition of 30 minutes.
Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi was this year's winner of the prestigious Printz Award given by the American Library Association for excellence in young adult literature. This is another in the popular sub-genre of dystopian/post-apocalyptic YA fiction, a type of book I particularly like. Ship Breaker, however, feels more real than some. It takes place in some future time in which humankind's decisions and global warming (though that term is never used in the book) have taken their toll. Coastal cities have been inundated by the sea and are not livable. Even when those cities started over further inland, they present a very different picture than what we're used to today. The gap between haves and have-nots is even wider.
I listened to Bras and Broomsticks by Sarah Mlynowski on audio last month though it's a few years old now. It's a lot lighter than the YA I normally read, but I thought I'd give it a whirl for a change of pace and because the readers here might start to think that all I read is heavy/dark stuff. :) Bras and Broomsticks is the first in the Magic in Manhattan series which also includes Frogs and French Kisses, Spells and Sleeping Bags, and Parties and Potions.
I'm in the midst of judging for RWA's RITA contest, so I wasn't able to read any YA in January. I knew that would likely happen, so I read extra in December. This month, I'd like to talk about two connected books, Leviathan and Behemoth by Scott Westerfeld. I first read Westerfeld's work when I read his Midnighters series, which I really enjoyed. I've also read Uglies, the first in that series of YA novels. Leviathan and Behemoth are the first two in another series, this time steampunk.
I've read a lot of good YA in the past month, and in this edition of The Teen Menu, I'm going to talk about a couple of them. First up we have a new release, Matched by Ally Condie. I listened to this title and really enjoyed it. It's set in a future "perfect" world called the Society in which long, healthy, safe lives are assured to citizens. But the trade-off, which becomes more and more clear to the heroine, Cassia Reyes, is an existence without choice. Every citizen is told by the Society officials what to wear, what and when to eat, what job they will have, even who to marry. All of these decisions are evidently made based solely on statistics. For instance, as the title of the book indicates, each teen is matched with the member of the opposite sex with whom they are statistically most likely to have healthy children. Cassia, who has been up until now an obedient member of the Society, starts having questions when she looks at her hand-held port (a piece of technology with a video screen) the day after her match banquet and sees not her match but another boy, one she knows. With each question and each layer of the Society Cassia peels back, the less she likes what she sees. And she faces the question of whether she's truly meant to be with her match or with the boy with whom she's falling in love.
According to Cassandra Clare's site, actress Lily Collins (at right), who was in The Blind Side, has been cast to play Clary in the upcoming City of Bones movie. I think she looks great for the part. She has a very ethereal look about her and embodies what one could imagine angelic qualities would look like.
It's December, the time of year when days are short, nights are long and cold, and the perfect time to make hot chocolate and curl up with a good book. So I feel it's my duty to share with you some good books with which you can do that curling up. :)
The other book I listened to was Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson. This story is set during the yellow fever epidemic that claimed 5,000 lives in Philadelphia in 1793. At the time, that was 10 percent of the city's population. The central character is a teenage girl named Mattie Cook, who lives with her mother and grandfather above their coffeehouse. When the fever starts making news, her grandfather, who fought alongside Washington, thinks people are making too much of it, that there are fevers every summer. But as the epidemic grows and Mattie's mother falls ill, Mattie and her grandfather flee the city along with thousands of other residents.
I love the movie Ella Enchanted, though I've never read the book on which it's based. But I did buy a book called Ever by Gail Carson Levine, who wrote Ella Enchanted. Its suggested audience (10 and up) skews a bit younger than what I normally read, but the characters are in their mid teens. The heroine, Kezi, lives in a city called Hyte, which Levine modeled on the ancient Mesopotamian city-states. She loves to dance and is an excellent weaver of rugs. Olus, the hero, is the Akkan god of the winds who, despite being a god, is lonely. He's 17, by far the youngest god, and is fascinated by the mortals who worship him and the other Akkan gods.
The second YA I read this month was Silver Phoenix: Beyond the Kingdom of Xia by Cindy Pon. I love the Chinese wuxia movies I've seen (Think Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and House of Flying Daggers). After reading the Harlequin Historical romance Butterfly Swords by Jeannie Lin, I was on her website looking around and saw her mention Silver Phoenix. It sounded like it had so many things I like in a read -- YA, fantasy, a touch of at least a potential romance and Chinese culture. I was not disappointed. This is a classic adventure/fantasy/quest novel where the protagonist just happens to be a girl with some powers she doesn't quite understand.
Welcome to the September edition of the Teen Menu. I hope everyone has had a fun summer full of wonderful summer reading. I know I've had some late nights trying to read just one...more...chapter.
The Hunger Games covered what happened to Katniss during those games, and Catching Fire detailed the aftermath and how she's now made an enemy of the Capitol and President Snow. Mockingjay is the final chapter of her story, the darkest one yet, in which we find out if she survives the rebellion of which she has now become the rallying symbol. Be forewarned -- this book does not pull any punches, and shows the horrors and devastation war can bring.
When she arrives at Sword & Cross, it seems a dismal, disconnected place. She gradually makes a couple of friends, and then there's a boy who seems so familiar, even though she's sure they've never met. Or have they? The more she's around Daniel Grigori, the more she feels inexplicably drawn to him -- and the more he tries to steer clear of her. The gradual revelation of the cause behind her attraction and his avoidance keeps the reader turning pages. This book is the first in a series. The second, Torment, is out Sept. 28, and it has a beautiful cover as well. And like so many popular series, it also has a love triangle that is spawning a new Team Daniel vs. Team Cam debate. (I'm Team Daniel, by the way.)
