Sep 09
Americus by M. K. Reed and Jonathan Hill First Second, 2011 Dragons make an appearance in this graphic novel about the dangers of censorship in that the book-in-a-book under fire features a “wytch” protagonist who is half-dragon… leading to cries of bestiality from the Christian far right! Americus is based on a controversy of some …
Aug 05
Exo by Fonda Lee Scholastic, 2017 Of all the YA science fiction I’ve read so far (and keep in mind it hasn’t been a lot) Fonda Lee’s Exo is the only one I’d call true SF. That is, an out-there premise is given and the author extrapolates from it, showing us the effects it has …
Jun 26
Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell St. Martin’s Press, 2013 I had high hopes for Rainbow Rowell’s Fangirl when I bought it, but because of disappointments with other YA books, I tempered my expectations. But it turns out I didn’t need to. I enjoyed Fangirl every bit as much as I’d hoped I would, and then some. …
Jun 11
Twilight by Stephenie Meyer Little, Brown, and Company, 2005 [Challenge # 29: A book by someone everyone else seems to have read but you have not.] Well, well. What to say about Stephenie Myer’s YA vampire romance Twilight that hasn’t been said before? This book was bad. Execrably, horrifyingly, stultifyingly, bad. It was so dull …
May 29
Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi Balzer + Bray, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, 2015 Tomi Adeyemi’s West African fantasy Children of Blood and Bone is one of the most talked-about YA releases of 2018, scoring the author a seven figure movie deal. Reviews have been gushing, but is it worth all the …
May 03
Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli Balzer + Bray, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, 2015 Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda was one of the happiest books I’ve read this year. Recently released as a movie, it originally came out in 2015, earning a well-deserved place on YA must-read lists for its …
Apr 18
Now where were we? Ah yes, superhero comics and dystopias. No one expects a lot of logic from these. For example, Wolverine’s claws magically suck up into his forearms when they are not needed, somehow without damaging the muscles in his wrists. That’s cool, and it’s a comic book where graphic departures from reality are …
Apr 14
I am fascinated by YA Dystopias, even though a lot of them are execrably written. Somehow, though, they always manage to sucker me in, giving me the come-on with cryptic, pretty covers and high what-if concepts: What if all young people had a disease that caused them to die before age 25? What if society …
