Tag Archives: Young Adult

XVI by Julia Karr

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Synopsis:
Nina Oberon doesn’t want to turn 16, when she’ll be tattooed and expected to become sexually active, but a family tragedy puts her in touch with an underground movement to reform society at any cost.

Review:
XVI raises a lot of really fascinating issues with identity, coming of age, the exploitation of women, gender roles, and power. Unfortunately, the plotting really faltered near the end. I gave the sequel, Truth, a try but the plotting in that one was even less inspiring and I gave up.

Boot Camp by Todd Strasser

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Synopsis:
Sent to a teen boot camp for falling in love with his teacher, Garrett fights to keep his integrity through beatings and psychological torture, while planning his escape.

Review:
Boot Camp was titillating and highly readable, but I don’t know that I’d recommend it. It just felt so extreme, not just in its depiction of the boot camp but in the characterizations and plot. It definitely kept me hooked in, but when it was over I didn’t feel like it rocked my world.

Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver

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Synopsis:
After dying in a car crash, popular high school senior Samantha has to re-live Cupid day, facing up to her own weaknesses and those of her best friends, and finding a hope that fuels her will to find out how she can avert her own inevitable fate.

Review:
Before I Fall was recommended to me by YA book reviewer extraordinaire Renee Fountain, whose site Book Fetish is chock-a-block with a wonderfully diverse assortment of reviews. I had a lovely breakfast with Renee and enjoyed getting to talk books with a fellow YA-aficionado. She told me I had to read this book, and she was absolutely right.

The story follows a popular high school girl who lives an unexamined life of keg parties, teasing the less fortunate, and basking the reflected glow of her popular best friends. Samantha has never stopped to wonder if she’s cut out for anything more until the night when she is killed in a car accident. The next morning she wakes up on the day she died, and it seems like she’s being given a chance to make things right. Only Sam can’t figure out what she’s supposed to do, and makes some hideous mistakes before finally figuring out what it is she’s supposed to live for. I was tremendously moved by Sam’s journey and loved the way Lauren Oliver made me care about the kinds of girls I tend to hate, the popular, beautiful, lucky ones who don’t care who they hurt as long as they remain on top. The story is fearlessly told with ruthless honesty and no fear of the darker side of life. I loved it!

Imaginary Girls by Nova Ren Suma

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Synopsis:
Chloe’s always admired her older sister, but when Ruby shows up with a girl who was dead the last time Chloe saw her, Chloe starts to fear that her sister can do anything–absolutely anything–she wants, no matter what Chloe or anybody else thinks about it.

Review:
Both Ruby and Chloe are compelling characters, for completely different reasons, and that’s what makes Imaginary Girls so successful. Ruby is obsessed with Olive, a town buried under a reservoir thanks to some eminent domain shenanigans in the early 20th Century. Chloe fears Olive, because she almost died in the reservoir, saved only by the timely appearance of a rowboat containing the dead body of London, a girl in Chloe’s class. Chloe left town, but when Ruby summons her back for the summer, Chloe is excited–until Ruby shows her London, who isn’t dead. She’s alive–and she shouldn’t be.

This is a wonderfully creepy premise, reminiscent of my favorite author Shirley Jackson, only with a YA touch. Ruby is so alive, such a vibrant and exciting character and it’s easy to see why the world seems to revolve around her. It’s impossible to imagine her as anything other than a beautiful teenager, at the peak of her life and beauty and power. She’s everything every girl wants to be, and Chloe loves that there’s no one on the planet whom Ruby loves the way she loves Chloe. The sisters build a world together, and it’s just about perfect, except for London, whose very existent freaks Chloe out and threatens the world that Ruby has created for them. Even though this is a contemporary story, set in summer sunshine among partying teens, this book is a classic Gothic story that hits all the right notes.

Reason to Breathe by Rebecca Donovan

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Synopsis:
Emma has everything going for her–success in the classroom and on the soccer field–but her home life is a nightmare of epic proportions, and she’s just trying to get by until she meets Evan and decides she deserves more out of life.

Review:
The love story in Reason to Breathe just blew me away. I really felt like I was falling in love myself–and I never get that feeling when I’m reading books. Romance just doesn’t do it for me in general–I’m not inclined to let myself get swept up in it. The last time I was this taken in by the power of the dynamic between two people was when I read Outlander by Diana Gabaldon–and if you’ve read that book and are shaking your head in disbelief, yes, I am comparing Emma and Evan to Claire and Jamie.

What kills me the most about the book is that Rebecca Donovan didn’t publish her book through traditional means. She e-published. I chose the book because it’s part of Amazon Prime’s Kindle library program, where you can get 1 free book a month (but can’t keep it). It’s really incredible to me how far e-publishing has come.

Bitter End by Jennifer Brown

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Synopsis:
A teen girl’s new boyfriend isn’t the gentleman he seems to be, but she alienates her two best friends when they try to intervene, with violent results.

Review:
Bitter End is an insightful look at the psychology of a teen girl in love with an abusive boy. I thought that Jennifer Brown‘s execution was perceptive, risky, and emotionally honest. It was hard to watch Alex push her friends away, hard to see her put up with excuses and apologies, but I understood every choice she made from the inside out.

Hate List by Jennifer Brown

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Synopsis:
Her boyfriend shot up the school then shot himself, and now Val has to make it through senior year.

Review:
Wow. I am so impressed with the execution in Hate List, a book that could’ve gone wrong in so many ways, but ended up getting everything right. Val’s predicament as the girlfriend of a school shooter tore me to pieces. I could see her point of view and wished I could send her in a better direction, even though I knew she had to learn her lessons the hard way. And I cried at the end!

Leftovers by Laura Wiess

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Synopsis:
The daughter of an aspiring judge and her best friend, a loner whose parents and brother party all the time, find themselves contemplating a devastating and dangerous course of action when confronted with a very personal injustice.

Review:
The friendship between Ardith and Blair in Leftovers is somewhat reminiscent of the movie Heavenly Creatures, one of my all-time favorites. Alienated from their parents and desperate for a connection, the relationship between the girls blurs boundaries and takes on life-saving properties for both of them. And when rupture occurs, violence follows.

I loved these girls even as they scared me to death. I really impressed with the layered, complicated story that Laura Wiess created for them. I think this book is heads and shoulders above most issue-driven YA and I think it’s a must-read for any fan of the genre.

Ascent by Amy Kinzer (The Party Series, Book 1)

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Synopsis:
Three teens are recruited for an elite leadership training program that will allow them to go back in time and change the moments they regret the most.

Review:
Wow, Ascent is a fantastic deal–only 99 cents for Kindle! You’d think that such a low price would indicate low quality, but that’s hardly the case. Amy Kinzer‘s writing can certainly compete with traditionally published authors of YA dystopian fiction. I hope she’s working on the next book, because I am a big fan!