On my YA picks

Today’s genre is young adult! I realize this is a fairly broad genre, but this isn’t something that I read too much of, so this is a fun post for me to write! Here are a few YA books that you might not have read already:

• Traitor’s Blade by Sebastian de Castell - This Three Muskateers-esque fantasy tale is full of fun, snark, heartbreak, and magic. A great read for older YA readers with an interest in fantasy (especially as a move into more epic fantasy).

• The Authentics by Abdi Nazemian - The Authentics is an adorable and touching contemporary YA story about adoption, family, young love, and being true to yourself. I loved this story and the young heroine - she was so relateable and imperfect and I loved her for it.

• Love and Other Alien Experiences by Kerry Winfrey - This book is a contemporary YA tale dealing with anxiety, family, loss, and getting through tough times. It’s full of quirks and has a very John Green feel to it.

• Etiquette and Espionage by Gail Carringer - Finishing school doesn’t have to be boring. This book is all about a finishing school for spies - complete with cool gadgets and strange missions. I loved this book - and middle grade readers transitioning to YA books will thoroughly enjoy this story.

• K My Name is Kendra by Kamichi Jackson - Save this book for more mature YA readers who can handle difficult material. Kendra is a girl in a difficult situation that becomes more awful when she becomes a survivor of sexual abuse. It’s ultimately full of hope and the importance of family, but there are some difficult parts before the end.

• The Thin Executioner by Darren Shan - If you liked Huck Finn, this is a good next step. Shan’s dark fantasy take on the classic story is delightful and fascinating - and full of interesting world-building.

• Strands of Bronze and Gold by Jane Nickerson - If you like fractured fairy tales, this is the book for you. The Bluebeard story is retold in the Southern US around the time of the civil war - it’s an interesting mix of American culture and classic fairy tale elements.

For more YA book suggestions, check out Hey Teen Books Hey.

What YA books would you add to this list? What are your opinions on the books I have listed? What do you look for in a good YA read?

On gritty middle grade/YA novels

As middle grade readers begin checking out YA books, the transition can be tough. To begin with, YA books deal with much different issues than your typical middle grade novel. YA books also tend to be trendier, grittier, and have very upfront and in-your-face love stories (or bizarre love triangles). Writing for middle grade and for YA is SO DIFFERENT as well - most middle grade is much fluffier and fun, while many YA books use more difficult words and are written in more real voices. For a middle grade reader who doesn’t quite know how to deal with these changes, I have a few suggestions. These are also for anyone who wants a bit of easy, but gritty, reading:

• Montmorency: Thief, Liar, Gentleman? by Eleanor Updale - While this novel isn’t entirely dark, it has several dark aspects to it. Montmorency makes a Valjean-esque change from rags to riches and spends plenty of time being confronted with his past - while still trying to provide for his future.
• Among the Hidden by Margaret Peterson Haddix - In a dystopian future not to far from our own world, families are only allowed to have two children. Haddix explores the stories of secret third children - and the terrible danger posed with their continued existence. My mum read these books before I did and highly recommended them when I was young. It was one of the darker books I read at a young age and I remember being somewhat
• The Last Book in the Universe by Rodman Philbrick - In this Lord of the Flies-esque book, Philbrick shows a dystopian future where children run their own dark society and where some children cannot let go of their traumatic pasts.
• Lord Loss by Darren Shan - This series is one of the bloodiest I have ever read. For many children, the themes (and bloodshed) in this book may be too intense. The writing is very middle grade and incredibly easy to read. Parents may want to read this book before offering it to their children.
• The White Mountains by John Christopher - This classic science fiction novel was one of the first chapter books I remember reading. At age 8, it both intrigued and disturbed me. Reviewing it later in life made me realize it wasn’t nearly as dark as it seemed to me when I was young, but for a kid, this book packs a punch. While being easy to read, it can be a lot of very young readers to swallow. Highly recommended for introducing your child to science fiction.

Series Review: The Demonata by Darren Shan

There is so much blood in this series.

Like, SOOOOOO much blood. The Demonata is, without a doubt, the bloodiest series I have ever read (and I like horror novels!).

And yet, I really really enjoyed this series - even though I’m not at all the intended demographic and it definitely wasn’t my first choice of book and I probably won’t read other series by Darren Shan.

You see, I mostly read The Demonata because all my younger siblings went through a Darren Shan phase and I felt like I should keep up with their interests somewhat (though, honestly, reading Darren Shan hasn’t suddenly brought us insanely close or influenced my siblings to read anything I’ve recommended ever). So over the course of a year, I dutifully read the series and, at the end, I was actually kind of happy that I had.

There are a lot of good things about The Demonata:

• STRANGE AND BIZARRE PLOT ELEMENTS GALORE - So Grubbs Grady lives with his uncle and along the way there’s a lot of demons and plenty of magic and some life-or-death chess matches and colorful blobs and werewolves and bullying and famous filmmakers and family drama and motorcycles and medieval times and just a lot of everything. Grubbs spends most of his time hunting/fighting demons and the rest of his time being an average teenage boy, but all the fun fantasy elements and plot twists make the story much more fun.
• GOOD BALANCE OF HUMOR AND HORROR - Overall, I’d classify these books as YA fantastical horror (or maybe YA horrific fantasy?), but it’s not all dark and bleak. Shan does an excellent job of making our characters funny and likeable and able to see the good in their terrible situations. They’re frequently joking around and having fun, in spite of their circumstances and that makes them very fun characters to read.
• UNPREDICTABLE - I’ve read a LOT of YA books and I feel like I have a pretty good idea what’s coming most of the time. But Shan kept me in the dark frequently. He took the story in ways I never imagined, he started telling the story from a different point of view, or gave the reader more background (which completely changed my ideas of what was going to happen). It’s really fun to read books when you legitimately don’t know what will happen.
• UNIQUE CHARACTERS - While a few of the characters in this series fit stereotypes (i.e. Grubbs Grady as the tortured teen hero), most of them are interesting and unique. Having the story told from different viewpoints also helps the reader to appreciate each character, their background, their place in Shan’s world, and their contribution to the story.

And even though I really enjoyed this series, it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows (in fact, I don’t think there was any sunshine and there were definitely no rainbows in the entire series). There were some parts that I didn’t appreciate:

• MEH WRITING - I wasn’t expecting too much out of these books, but I was still a bit disappointed. The writing is passable at best and doesn’t really suck the reader in at all. Shan writes best when he’s writing about really bloody and graphic scenes (and there are a lot of those), but being a good writer is being able to write the whole story well, not just the gory parts. Shan’s The Thin Executioner is written much MUCH better (and is somewhat less bloody), so it may be a better place to start.
• UNREALISTIC - I know, I know - it’s partly a fantasy series, but STILL. Sometimes, the plot would go to extremes that were just too much for me to believe. Things would either work out far too well for our heroes or everything would suddenly come up to stop them and it was just too much for the sake of a dramatic ending (since this usually happened at the end of one of the books).

My favorite book in the series is Bec - the fourth book. We've spent most of the series up until now hanging out with Grubbs Grady and hearing his sad tales and seeing things from the point of views of Grubbs and the people he hangs around with. But we begin Bec by being transported into another time and seeing the history of a lot of the problems that Grubbs is facing and that changes everything. Also, Bec is a fantastic female character (in a series with mostly tough men and a few hardcore women) and her influence throughout the rest of the series is huge.

If you don’t like blood and guts, don’t read this series. However, if you can tolerate some of that and some mediocre writing for a fun and absolutely ridiculous story about good vs. evil and teenage angst, then this is a good series for you.