Trilogies. How many of us shudder at the thought? How many of us miss those great standalone novels? A whole story arc in one book – imagine! On the other hand, many readers enjoy knowing that there is more to come. In a student bookgroup meeting last week, as we discussed what to read next, [...]
Simon Lelic‘s latest thriller presents readers with a near future Britain in which the government has gained too much power in the name of national security. (I reviewed Lelic’s first book, A Thousand Cuts, back in 2010. Quite a powerful novel about bullying.) Read an extract from The Facility here. LELIC, Simon. The Facility. 341p. [...]
Today I am pleased to review a dystopian novel that seems to be flying under the radar in this country, even though it was longlisted for England’s 2011 Man Booker Prize (along with a couple of our favorite AB4T books from last year, Jamrach’s Menagerie by Carol Birch and Pigeon English by Stephen Kelman) and [...]
Pure is the first in a new dystopian trilogy that seems made for teen readers; film rights have already been sold. Julianna Baggott has written a few books for young readers, but is best known for adult literary fiction and poetry. I had a chance to hear her speak at ALA Midwinter in January. She has [...]
“When she woke, she was red.” From the very first sentence, Hillary Jordan’s sophomore effort starts off strong and never lets up. Jordan debuted with Mudbound (Algonquin, 2008), winner of a 2009 Alex Award. When She Woke has even more teen appeal. In this case the protagonist, Hannah Payne, is barely past her teen years, [...]
In Thomas Mullen’s new thought-provoking novel of speculative fiction the government is trying to preserve a Perfect Present by going back in time to make sure the disasters of the past are not altered. But is the present really so perfect? The publisher description calls it “A fast-paced literary thriller that recalls dystopian classics such [...]
John Joseph Adams is the editor of several excellent anthologies for Night Shade Books. For example, I have enjoyed The Improbable Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (2009), and Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse (2008), and there is no reason why teens would not enjoy them too. He has also put together two popular collections of zombie [...]
One of the programs I attended at Midwinter last weekend was the ALA/ERT Booklist Author Forum Literary Fiction Panel, moderated by Brad Hooper of Booklist, featuring authors Susan Vreeland, David Levithan, Stewart O’Nan, and Armistead Maupin. I always enjoy the Friday Booklist Forums at ALA Conferences. This time I was particularly interested because Susan Vreeland’s [...]
Crossover is quite the hot topic, whether it’s the popularity of young adult literature with adult readers, adult books with teen appeal, or the many bestselling adult authors who have published YA titles recently. Today’s book is the first adult novel from Darren Shan, whose Cirque du Freak and Demonata series are terribly popular with young horror [...]
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