YA

Alanna: The First Adventure by Tamora Pierce

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Started: 12/14/19
Finished: 12/16/19

First in a series a girl who wants to be a knight.  I would have eaten this up if I’d found it when I was 10 (it was published in 1983).  I enjoyed the first book (and I’ll keep reading), but I’m having a little bit of a hard time believing that this 10-year-old girl would talk the way she does, have the power (magical) that she does, know all these things, be able to do all this stuff, etc.  She makes it to age 14 or so by the end of the book, so hopefully her ability to master EVERYTHING will get a little easier to swallow as she gets older.

Invictus by Ryan Graudin

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Started: 11/3/19
Gave up: 11/10/19

Young adult, time travel, heist/mystery.  At around 50%, I’m not sure I’m going to finish it.  I’m intrigued by the complication that arose around a quarter of the way in that has not been explained yet, but a) I feel like I can live without knowing what’s going on, and b) I’m not convinced it’s going to be explained in this book.  Is this part of a series?  I should find out.

I gave up at 70%.  That’s when they explained exactly how they were going solve their problem.  I’m sure it won’t go exactly as planned, but that’s close enough for me to know how it ends, and I put it down.  Meh.  Also, not part of a series.

The Girl From Everywhere by Heidi Heilig

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Started: 10/9/19
Gave up: 10/12/19

 

In my calendar, I wrote that I put this book “on hold”, but who are we kidding?  I gave up.  I liked the idea of it – the protagonist is the daughter of a pirate captain who, with her help, can navigate to any place, real or imaginary, in any time, as long as the map is well-drawn and the mapmaker believed in it.  That’s a cool idea.  The issue I had was with the writing.  The author kept talking about maps, but ships use charts.  I can get ignore the use of walls instead of bulkheads and floors instead of decks and doors instead of hatches, but for some reason, despite my near-total memory loss of everything I learned in the Navy, I can’t get past saying maps instead of charts.

Shadow Scale by Rachel Hartman

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Started: 9/14/19
Finished: 9/23/19

 

This is billed as a companion book to Seraphina (which I liked a lot), but it really is a sequel, and it’s just as good, if occasionally a little weirder, than the first one.  Although it is a little hard to remember that the main character is supposed to only be about 17 or 18.  She’s written older than that, I think, but as long as I didn’t focus on that, I was fine.

The Field Guide to the North American Teenager by Ben Philippe

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Started: 4/18/19
Finished: 4/19/19

This is a movie waiting to happen, and I’d happily watch it.  It’s the story of a lonely, sarcastic, black French Canadian teenager transplanted to Austin, Texas in the middle of high school. In some ways it’s predictable, in other ways it isn’t, and I flew through it.

Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli

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Started: 4/6/19
Finished: 4/7/19

The writing in this book was painful, but also felt painfully real and accurate for a coming of age/coming out story told from the perspective of a teenager.  I have diaries from around then (a little younger, but still), and MAN are they painful to read now in exactly the same way.  I got over the wincing discomfort and enjoyed this one.

Wintersong by S. Jae-Jones

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Started: 1/13/19
Finished: 1/14/19

The Goblin King in this book is SO very David Bowie, which is great.  I think the characterization of the main character shifts halfway through, and not for the better.  Her motivations aren’t consistent, and she gets all worked up about things that could be resolved if she would just TALK to the guy.  Same goes for him, of course.  On the other hand, she’s a teenager, and she’s acting like a teenager, so maybe I should be praising the author for her realism instead.

The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang

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Started: 12/27/18
Finished: 12/30/18

It got rave reviews, but now that I’ve read it, I’m not sure why.  The story jumps from section to section, there are parts that don’t fit at all, and we’re inside the main character’s head, but the character’s not fully developed.  There’s too much telling instead of showing, and at the same time not enough telling to understand her motivations.

Dread Nation by Justina Ireland

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Started: 8/7/18
Finished: 8/11/18

LOVED this.  The Civil War got interrupted by the zombie apocalypse, and while slavery technically ended (because everyone is needed to fight zombies), really all the former slaves got drafted to be the front line in the fight against the zombies.  Young adult, really strong voice, great main character.  I think (I hope) there will be a sequel.

The Art of Starving by Sam J. Miller

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Started: 7/17/18
Finished: 7/21/18

I’m really not sure if I liked this.  It was interesting, and there’s an open question about the abilities the kid had (Did he actually have them?  Did those things really happen?), but aside from that, it’s about a teenager, his relationships, and his eating disorder.

In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan

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Started: 7/1/18
Finished: 7/3/18

I loved this book.  It’s fantasy – boy finds himself in a land with elves and mermaids and so on, which is always good for me – but the characters (all teenagers, followed from age 13 to 18) are written so realistically it’s easy to forget this is fantasy.  (Fantasy novels don’t always do characters justice.)