Synopsis: Aya’s city runs on fame, and she’s desperate to find a story to send out over her personal feed in order to crack the top 1,000 and get all her heart desires. Review: Extras is a follow up to Scott Westerfeld’s acclaimed trilogy: Uglies, Pretties, and Specials, which follow Tally Youngblood through a series of escalating body and mind modifications that basically turn her into a superhero.
Synopsis: A dissection of hook-up culture on college campuses and in high schools, including anecdotal accounts. Review: More hand-wringing than Last Night in Paradise, less high-minded than Unprotected, Unhooked is more likely than either to provoke fear and consternation in the hearts of parents of teenagers across America–particularly if they’ve read I Am Charlotte Simmons and their daughter is looking at Duke University.
Sucks is the word for today. This piece by me ran on the now-defunct Regeneration Quarterly website right in the aftermath. The rest of it goes like this:
Synopsis: In a world where color has been banished, a young woman defies the king with a cloak woven from all the hues of nature, throwing the fabric of society into chaos and turmoil. Review: I became a fan of Jeffrey Overstreet after reading his book on film, Through a Screen Darkly, and subsequently become a reader of his blog, Looking Closer. Auralia’s Colors is the first in a proposed series of four, to which I say, “Bring it.”
I tried really, really hard to finish this book but halfway through it got deemed “life’s too short.” Winterbirth is epic fantasy of the George RR Martin variety–lots of loyalty oaths, warring kinsmen, and creeping winter. But the emphasis is on war, not on character adventure, and I find it hard to get into war stories under the best of circumstances.
Synopsis: Life inside a 1970s TB ward from the point of view of a teenage girl who won’t take her treatment lying down. Review: A View from a Kite is a superlative young adult book, featuring a fresh, likable protagonist in an utterly fascinating setting. Gwen is 17 and has tuberculosis, so she lives in a sanatarium where her only responsibilities are to rest, eat, and heal. She lives amongst patients of all ages, and one of the great treats of this book comes from…
Synopsis: The orphaned daughter of Henry VII’s widow Katherine Parr finds herself at court, ostensibly as a lady-in-waiting but in reality to serve Queen Elizabeth as a white magician. Review: The Red Queen’s Daughter is one of the last of the galleys I picked up at Book Expo this year. I don’t read a lot of historical fiction but I was intrigued by the magical aspect to the story. The book has a good balance of historical detail (divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived–anybody remember…
Synopsis: When her magazine is taken over by a bullheaded celebrity, editor-in-chief Magnolia Gold tries to go along to get along–until she gets handed a pink slip. Review: I am not ashamed to admit that I love a good ‘n’ dishy roman a clef. But Little Pink Slips was a HUGE disappointment. I felt like author Sally Koslow was simply recycling material from other, better books, and none of her satire was particularly fresh. Her worse sin of all? Squandering her source material.
Synopsis: On the eve of the sale of the family’s multimillion dollar business, black sheep Alban makes his way home where he will have to confront the truth about his mother’s death and the love that lingers for his cousin Sophie. Review: I was intrigued by the plot of The Steep Approach to Garbadale, hinging as it does around a family that built its fortune on a successful Risk-type game. That kind of staggering wealth and the ramifications on relationships sounds fascinating to me, particularly…
Synopsis: After a teenage girl’s abusive father is released early from prison, she fears that she will be victimized again. Review: I hold Laurie Halse Anderson’s Speak to be the perfect YA “problem novel.” These novels take a teen in jeopardy facing off against a social issue, and show how the protagonist overcomes the situation. In the case of Speak, the protagonist has gone mute after calling the cops on a summer party, and can’t tell anybody what happened to her that night. Halse Anderson…