Over at Book Riot this week…
- I talked about 3 YA books featuring girls of color who are dancers. In the comments, a few more ideas that fit the theme, too.
|
Over at Book Riot this week…
|
Last fall, I did a really quick round-up of YA covers for books coming out this year that featured diversity right square on the front cover. It was not only great to look at them all together that way, but it was nice to find more books to add to my own to-read list.
As more covers have been revealed or re-revealed in the last few months, I thought it would be worth revisiting that topic. Here’s a look at even more fabulously diverse YA covers for books coming out this year. Some of these are less front-facing than before, but they’re worth including because you know the character is a person of color. Like last time, I’ll include descriptions for the book, pulled from Goodreads, as well as the publication dates, so you can put them on your own reading and buying lists.
If I’ve missed some, either on this post or the previous one, let me know in the comments. Let’s see more cover work like this.
Hello, I Love You by Katie M. Stout (June 9): Grace Wilde is running—from the multi-million dollar mansion her record producer father bought, the famous older brother who’s topped the country music charts five years in a row, and the mother who blames her for her brother’s breakdown. Grace escapes to the farthest place from home she can think of, a boarding school in Korea, hoping for a fresh start.
She wants nothing to do with music, but when her roommate Sophie’s twin brother Jason turns out to be the newest Korean pop music superstar, Grace is thrust back into the world of fame. She can’t stand Jason, whose celebrity status is only outmatched by his oversized ego, but they form a tenuous alliance for the sake of her friendship with Sophie. As the months go by and Grace adjusts to her new life in Korea, even she can’t deny the sparks flying between her and the KPOP idol.
Soon, Grace realizes that her feelings for Jason threaten her promise to herself that she’ll leave behind the music industry that destroyed her family. But can Grace ignore her attraction to Jason and her undeniable pull of the music she was born to write? Sweet, fun, and romantic, this young adult novel explores what it means to experience first love and discover who you really are in the process.
To his entire class, Sawyer is an irreverent bad boy. His antics on the field as school mascot and his love of partying have earned him total slacker status. But while he and Kaye appear to be opposites on every level, fate—and their friends—keep conspiring to throw them together. Perhaps the seniors see the simmering attraction Kaye and Sawyer are unwilling to acknowledge to themselves…
As the year unfolds, Kaye begins to realize her ideal life is not what she thought. And Sawyer decides it’s finally time to let down the facade and show everyone who he really is. Is a relationship between them most likely to succeed—or will it be their favorite mistake?
Amy Rush might be the only person Sonny shares everything with — secrets, clothes, even a nemesis named Ryder Cross.
Ryder’s the new kid at Hamilton High and everything Sonny and Amy can’t stand — a prep-school snob. But Ryder has a weakness: Amy. So when Ryder emails Amy asking her out, the friends see it as a prank opportunity not to be missed.
But without meaning to, Sonny ends up talking to Ryder all night online. And to her horror, she realizes that she might actually like him. Only there’s one small catch: he thinks he’s been talking to Amy. So Sonny comes up with an elaborate scheme to help Ryder realize that she’s the girl he’s really wanted all along. Can Sonny lie her way to the truth, or will all her lies end up costing her both Ryder and Amy?
|
Urban fantasy is one of the easiest (sub)genres to define: it’s fantasy in an urban setting. While it has other common features, the setting is what makes the genre what it is. Some might say that the urban setting must be one from our own world, thus distinguishing it from high fantasy, but I hesitate to even put that restriction on it. I think it’s entirely possible to write an urban fantasy novel set in a fictional city in a made-up world, and it would have a lot of the same appeal to readers as a book set in our own. That said, most urban fantasy is set in our own world in our own time in a recognizable city – just with the major addition of a little magic.
Urban fantasy has a lot of crossover with paranormal fantasy, since urban fantasy often involves magical creatures like werewolves, fairies, vampires, angels, and so on. Often, there is no distinction between urban fantasy and paranormal fantasy. Author Jeannie Holmes does make a distinction between urban fantasy and paranormal romance, however, which I think is interesting to consider. This is a bit of a hot topic among uberfans of both genres. Megan McArdle at Genrify has a fantastic chart that depicts 100 popular series (mostly adult) on a spectrum, showing the fluidity of the definitions. The two genres are not mutually exclusive, though it’s important to consider whether the reader you’re talking to will want a book heavy or light on romance (or if they don’t care!). Like many of the other genres we cover, a book can be urban fantasy and historical fiction and a mystery and a romance.
While not a requirement, urban fantasy is often grittier than other fantasy novels, much like what you’d find in general urban fiction. It features teens on their own a lot, navigating more adult situations than they would in non-urban fantasy. It can also be more accessible than other fantasy, since the setting is usually something most readers will already recognize; there won’t be a lot of world-building to absorb and get lost in.
On the Web:
Popular Authors:
Below are a few books published within the last five years, a few forthcoming titles, and a few that are a bit older but still circulate well among teens. Descriptions are from WorldCat and links lead to our reviews when applicable. Any we missed? Any diverse titles in particular to add to the list? Let us know in the comments.
The Summoning by Kelley Armstrong
After fifteen-year-old Chloe starts seeing ghosts and is sent to Lyle
House, a mysterious group home for mentally disturbed teenagers, she
soon discovers that neither Lyle House nor its inhabitants are exactly
what they seem, and that she and her new friends are in danger. | Sequels: The Awakening, The Reckoning
Manifest by Artist Arthur
Krystal Bentley is an outsider at her new high school in a small
Connecticut town since she hears the voice in her head of a dead teenage
boy who becomes her confidant, so she joins two other teens with
unusual powers to solve his killing. | Sequels: Mystify, Mutiny, Mayhem, Mesmerize
Tithe by Holly Black
After returning home from a tour with her mother’s rock band,
sixteen-year-old Kaye, who has been visited by faeries since childhood,
discovers that she herself is a magical faerie creature with a special
destiny. | Sequels: Valiant, Ironside
White Cat by Holly Black
When Cassel Sharpe discovers that his older brothers have used him to
carry out their criminal schemes and then stolen his memories, he
figures out a way to turn their evil machinations against them. | Sequels: Red Glove, Black Heart
The Demon’s Lexicon by Sarah Rees Brennan
Sixteen-year-old Nick and his family have battled magicians and demons
for most of his life, but when his brother, Alan, is marked for death
while helping new friends Jamie and Mae, Nick’s determination to save
Alan leads him to uncover a devastating secret. | Sequels: The Demon’s Covenant, The Demon’s Surrender
City of Bones by Cassandra Clare
When 15-year-old Clary Fray heads out to the Pandemonium Club in New
York City, she hardly expects to witness a murder — much less a murder
committed by three teenagers covered with strange tattoos and
brandishing bizarre weapons. Then the body disappears into thin air.
It’s hard to call the police when the murderers are invisible to
everyone else and when there is nothing — not even a smear of blood —
to show that a boy has died. Or was he a boy? | Sequels: City of Ashes, City of Glass, City of Fallen Angels, City of Lost Souls, City of Heavenly Fire
Angelfall by Susan Ee
It’s been six weeks since angels of the apocalypse descended to demolish
the modern world. Street gangs rule the day while fear and superstition
rule the night. When warrior angels fly away with a helpless little
girl, her seventeen-year-old sister Penryn will do anything to get her
back. Anything, including making a deal with an enemy angel. | Sequels: World After, End of Days (forthcoming)
Gone by Michael Grant
In the blink of an eye, everyone disappears. Gone. Except for the young.
There are teens, but not one single adult. Just as suddenly, there are
no phones, no internet, no television. No way to get help. And no way to
figure out what’s happened. Hunger threatens. Bullies rule. A sinister
creature lurks. Animals are mutating. And the teens themselves are
changing, developing new talents — unimaginable, dangerous, deadly powers — that grow stronger by the day. | Sequels: Hunger, Lies, Plague, Fear, Light
Tyger Tyger by Kersten Hamilton
Soon after the mysterious and alluring Finn arrives at her family’s
home, sixteen-year-old Teagan Wylltson and her disabled brother are
drawn into the battle Finn’s family has fought since the thirteenth
century, when Fionn MacCumhaill angered the goblin king. | Sequels: In the Forests of the Night, When the Stars Threw Down Their Spears
Guardian of the Dead by Karen Healey
Eighteen-year-old New Zealand boarding school student Ellie Spencer must
use her rusty tae kwon do skills and new-found magic to try to stop a
fairy-like race of creatures from Maori myth and legend that is plotting
to kill millions of humans in order to regain their lost immortality.
The Chaos by Nalo Hopkinson
Toronto sixteen-year-old Scotch may have to acknowledge her own
limitations and come to terms with her mixed Jamaican, white, and black
heritage if she is to stop the Chaos that has claimed her brother and
made much of the world crazy.
Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr
Seventeen-year-old Aislinn, who has the rare ability to see faeries, is
drawn against her will into a centuries-old battle between the Summer
King and the Winter Queen, and the survival of her life, her love, and
summer all hang in the balance. | Sequels:
Shadowshaper by Daniel Jose Older (June 30)
When the murals painted on the walls of her Brooklyn neighborhood start
to change and fade in front of her, Sierra Santiago realizes that
something strange is going on–then she discovers her Puerto Rican
family are shadowshapers and finds herself in a battle with an evil
anthropologist for the lives of her family and friends.
Sisters Red by Jackson Pearce
After a Fenris, or werewolf, killed their grandmother and almost killed
them, sisters Scarlett and Rosie March devote themselves to hunting and
killing the beasts that prey on teenaged girls, learning how to lure
them with red cloaks and occasionally using the help of their old
friend, Silas, the woodsman’s son.
Slice of Cherry by Dia Reeves
Portero, Texas, teens Kit and Fancy Cordelle share their infamous
father’s fascination with killing, and despite their tendency to shun
others they bring two boys with similar tendencies to a world of endless
possibilities they have discovered behind a mysterious door.
Misfit by Jon Skovron
Seattle sixteen-year-old Jael must negotiate normal life in Catholic
school while learning to control the abilities she inherited from her
mother, a demon, and protect those she loves from Belial, the Duke of
Hell.
Tantalize by Cynthia Leitich Smith
When multiple murders in Austin, Texas, threaten the grand re-opening of
her family’s vampire-themed restaurant, seventeen-year-old, orphaned
Quincie worries that her best friend-turned-love interest, Kieren, a
werewolf-in-training, may be the prime suspect. | Sequels: Eternal, Blessed, Diabolical
Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor
Seventeen-year-old Karou, a lovely, enigmatic art student in a Prague
boarding school, carries a sketchbook of hideous, frightening
monsters–the chimaerae who form the only family she has ever known. | Sequels: Days of Blood and Starlight, Dreams of Gods and Monsters
The Stars Never Rise by Rachel Vincent (June 9)
In a world ruled by the brutally puritanical Church and its army of
black-robed exorcists, sixteen-year-old Nina tries to save her pregnant
younger sister from the Church’s wrath and discovers that not only is
the Church run by demons but that Nina herself is one of the very few
who can genuinely exorcise them.
|
Right before I dug into my Cybils reading late last year, I inhaled a huge pile of historical romance novels. I had just learned about Courtney Milan and was reading everything of hers I could get my hands on, even the novellas (and I usually consider novellas a waste of my time). I like all of her books and love a good number of them, so she’s become my new go-to recommendation for someone looking for a good historical romance. They’re feminist and take the “historical” part of the genre seriously.
Sadly, my library doesn’t own her entire oeuvre, so I cannot pass judgment on everything she’s ever published. (Despite my requests, they don’t own either of the Carhart books or the novella, to my everlasting disappointment.) Still, I thought I’d give a quick run-down of the books I have read, in hopes of encouraging those of you who enjoy historical romances to give her a try (or just ask me how I’m so late to the party since you’ve been reading her for years).
(I promise this blog isn’t turning into an adult romance-only blog. I’ll be back with the regular YA programming soon.)
The Brothers Sinister Series
This is the first series of hers I read, and it’s by far my favorite. I talked a little about The Duchess War and The Heiress Effect in this previous post. The series continues with The Countess Conspiracy, which is my favorite of the bunch. It features a female scientist, Viola Waterfield, who for years has been convincing her friend Sebastian to present her findings as his to the public, since the public at this time would never take a woman seriously. Sebastian has been in love with Viola for a long time, and now that Viola has been widowed, he sees an opportunity to discover if their friendship can develop into something more.
This book combines a few things that I really love in my romance novels: a hero who has been pining for the heroine for quite some time; a super-smart heroine who does something unconventional for her time period; and a romance built upon friendship and respect. I’m not a scientist myself, but I loved reading about Viola and her discoveries – which are not historically accurate, of course, since Viola doesn’t actually exist, but the science is sound and fascinating. The dedication to the book is especially moving. This book continues Milan’s trend of blending history and romance in a natural, believable, and engrossing way.
The fourth book is The Suffragette Scandal, which features Frederica “Free” Marshall, the younger sister of the hero from the second book. She runs a newspaper by women and for women, is an outspoken suffragette, and is probably the most independent of Milan’s heroines. I read that Milan initially wanted to pair Free with a man who didn’t at first believe women should have the right to vote, but thankfully she changed her mind. This is the most politically-minded book of the series and I really loved it, though the last third dragged a little more than I would have liked. There’s a secondary romance here (as there was in The Heiress Effect) between two women, and it is equally lovely. Bonus: Check out the Tumblr account “written” by the man who contributes an advice column to Free’s newspaper (and the only man to be employed by her). It is seriously funny.
The novellas in this series are a treat. There’s a prequel, The Governess Affair, about the second book’s hero’s parents. It’s a tricky story since it involves a rape that causes a pregnancy: the heroine has been raped by the hero’s employer, and the rapist basically tells the hero to get rid of her. I was worried the hero wouldn’t be written sympathetically, but he is; the romance between the two is believable and sweet. It’s a bit heavier than normal romance fare, but certainly recommended.
A Kiss for Midwinter is about the friend of the first book’s heroine. She was seduced as a teenager by a man and became pregnant, then lost the pregnancy due to bad medical advice from a doctor. Her hero in this novella is that doctor’s assistant at the time, who said nothing about the bad advice that he knew was being given. And she remembers. This is my favorite of all her novellas. It deals with tough topics – not just the treatment of unmarried pregnant women, but also poverty and illness during this era – but manages to be sweet and optimistic. The chemistry between the two is so apparent, but there’s also a deeper connection built upon the trust that grows between them as they spend time in each other’s company. This is my favorite of all the novellas and I anticipate I’ll be re-reading it a lot.
The last novella is Talk Sweetly to Me, which my library doesn’t own. It’s notable in that it features a Black heroine, which historical romances set in England hardly ever do.
The Turner Series
These books were all published in 2011 and precede the Brothers Sinister. My library doesn’t own the first book, Unveiled, though it does own the second and third. All three books are about brothers who grew up with a mentally ill mother who abused them. They’ve had a hard life, and not just due to that. They’re some of the most tortured heroes I’ve ever read about in romance novels, and that is saying something.
Unclaimed is about Mark Turner, who has taken a vow of chastity and become quite famous for it. His love interest is a courtesan. It’s an interesting twist on the typical romance and I enjoyed it; thankfully, it’s got some humor in it. Unraveled is about Smite Turner, and you guys, I just can’t with this book. It is the most angst-ridden romance I’ve ever read. His name is Smite. He was the one who took the brunt of his mother’s abuse as a child and that’s apparent in his personality and outlook on the world (i.e. not positive). There’s very little humor in this one. I liked it, and it had some nice swoony moments, but overall this was just too much for me. I think Milan’s gotten a lot better at creating complex heroes who don’t veer into ridiculous territory with her later books.
Unlocked is the novella in this series, but I didn’t recognize the characters from the full-length books. The hero bullied the heroine a few years past, when they were both adults, in public, for months on end, and he’s returned all sorry and wanting to make amends. I might have believed it in a full-length novel, with more time for me to see his transformation, but it didn’t really work for me as a novella. (Especially when he claims he made fun of her because he liked her. Please. You are an adult.) This was another I liked but didn’t love.
Standalone Novellas
The Lady Always Wins is about a couple who were friends as children and then fell in love as they grew up. But Simon’s parents said they’d cut him off from the family money if he married her, and Ginny refused to elope with him. She knows what it’s like to be a woman in this era, married to a poor man. They meet again later and rekindle the romance. I liked this story since there wasn’t any secret reason the woman rejected the man – it really was because he would have been destitute. It can seem heartless in our modern era, but it’s a practical and real concern for Ginny, who as a woman cannot make her own money and knows that poverty can lead to hunger, illness, and a short, unhappy life. Poverty is stripped of its romanticism here.
What Happened at Midnight is probably the most traditional of Milan’s novellas. It involves rich people who lose their money and a huge misunderstanding between the leads as the primary conflict. It also has one of the most subtly awful villains ever. I got so angry reading about him, because he couched all of his awfulness in gentle words and false caring. Worth a read, but again, not a favorite.
Have you read any of Milan’s work? What’s your favorite of hers?
|
Suicide and depression are two passion topics for me. Part of it is that I’m someone who suffers from depression — something I haven’t talked openly about because it’s very hard to talk openly about — and part of it is that when I was in high school, I knew more than one person who committed suicide. Though none of the people who did were close to me, those deaths still had an impact on me. Maybe what’s most vivid about them is how much silence had to surround them; the school shut down all avenues of grieving or discussion, with the thought that keeping quiet about what happened would prevent it from happening again. Whether or not that’s true or was the right choice is hard to say.
Having worked with teens in the library, I know too well that suicide is something they experience in their lives, and it’s something that stays with them forever. Though they’re not one in the same, suicide and depression can often go hand-in-hand, so in many ways, it makes sense to talk about them in tandem.
Last fall, I put together a resource and discussion guide to suicide and depression, which included a hefty reading list. I didn’t think about forthcoming titles much when I put it together, but over the last few months, I’ve noticed a steady increase in the number of YA titles that are exploring suicide head-on.
It’s interesting to think about publishing trends in YA and what it is that might drive them. Without any research at all, I can call up 4 or 5 YA titles publishing between the start of the year and end of February where suicide is a major — if not the major — theme. While we know contemporary realistic YA has been in an upswing lately, what is it that made suicide bubble up as a common theme?
My guess, at least in part, is the perennial popularity of Jay Asher’s Thirteen Reasons Why has spurred an interest in finding similar titles. Asher’s been a marvelous advocate for teens, and his book has been a staple of bestseller lists for years.
I’m generally not someone who needs trigger warnings for reading material. Dark books work really well for me, since so often, they’re at an extreme where I don’t feel the need to ever look at my own life or experiences and try to compare. It’s easy to disconnect myself from the story and look at it as story. Other readers are far more sensitive than I am to tough topics, and for them, knowing ahead of time helps them make an informed decision about whether or not a book is the right read for them. It’s not about censorship, but about making an intelligent personal choice.
But something’s changed recently, and I find myself almost needing to know a book is tackling the topic of suicide before I go into it. Not a trigger warning, per se, but I’ve found this is a topic I’m no longer able to read as easily as I used to. Maybe it’s having seen first hand with teens today how hard it is to deal with. Maybe it’s coming to terms with my reading preferences and habits and understanding this topic isn’t one that is enjoyable to me as a reader. Part of it may also be that my own thoughts and beliefs behind suicide don’t always mirror the way it’s presented in fiction, which comes as a result of being someone who struggles with an illness that has left me with uncomfortable, complicated, and messy feelings on the topic.
In other words, it turns out this isn’t a topic I can divorce myself and my own experiences from when I’m reading.
One of the best things about reading and talking about books is being able to put up a lens to your own biases. You discover new pages in your own story and in your own thinking that you didn’t realize were there before. Sometimes, you discover that what you thought you knew about yourself and your reading habits aren’t that at all; sometimes you discover your habits and preferences simply change and evolve as you grow and evolve. Where mental health books are still a deep and heavy part of my reading life — a topic I seek out and am always eager to read, think, and talk about — suicide is my wading zone. I need to know what’s out there, I need to give some of them a chance, but I don’t need to invest all of my time and energy into them when they don’t give back to me. They are, in many ways, like cancer books for me. A good premise can and does change my mind, but ultimately as a theme, it’s one I don’t seek out even though I’m seeing it with more frequency.
While I’m no longer working in libraries with teens, thinking about how to share these titles with teens never strays from my mind. Last spring when a teen shared that her friend had committed suicide, I knew I needed to pull out books that might help those in the community grapple with their feelings. But rather than develop a “suicide books” display, I pulled together a larger display on hard topics in realistic fiction, which included mental health, sexual assault, eating disorders, suicide, and more. It felt too on-the-nose, too prying, to build around suicide specifically, even though books on suicide were — and are! — exactly what teens sometimes need and sometimes just want. It’s not that the topic is sexy to them, and in many cases it’s not something even relevant to their lives, but rather, it’s fascinating. It’s fresh to them.
I’m curious if anyone else has noticed this uptick in suicide titles and if so, what do you make of it? What sort of opportunities or challenges do these books, when presented in a trend-like wave, present? More, I’m interested in hearing about your own reading biases and experiences with them — and I’m curious how it is you’re talking with teens about them.
If you’re curious about specific titles, here are a handful of suicide-themed YA books out in the first few months of the year. Descriptions are from WorldCat, and if you know of others out early this year, feel free to leave them in the comments, too.
All The Bright Places by Jennifer Niven: Told in alternating voices, when Theodore Finch and Violet Markey meet on the ledge of the bell tower at school–both teetering on the edge–it’s the beginning of an unlikely relationship, a journey to discover the “natural wonders” of the state of Indiana, and two teens’ desperate desire to heal and save one another
The Last Time We Say Goodbye by Cynthia Hand: After her younger brother, Tyler, commits suicide, Lex struggles to work through her grief in the face of a family that has fallen apart, the sudden distance between her and her friends, and memories of Tyler that still feel all too real.
When Reason Breaks by Cindy L. Rodriguez: Elizabeth Davis and Emily Delgado seem to have little in common except Ms. Diaz’s English class and the solace they find in the words of Emily Dickinson, but both are struggling to cope with monumental secrets and tumultuous emotions that will lead one to attempt suicide.
I Was Here by Gayle Forman: In an attempt to understand why her best friend committed suicide, eighteen-year-old Cody Reynolds retraces her dead friend’s footsteps and makes some startling discoveries.
My Heart and Other Black Holes by Jasmine Warga: Seventeen-year-old Aysel’s hobby–planning her own death–take a new path when she meets a boy who has similar plan of his own.
Playlist for the Dead by Michelle Falkoff: After his best friend, Hayden, commits, suicide, fifteen-year-old Sam is determined to find out why–using the clues in the playlist Hayden left for him.
These next two books — which I just finished back to back– have been really enjoyable but both also included suicide in them. Knowing that won’t change your experience with either, since it’s not integral to the plot, but seeing it pop up in consecutive reads when this was already on my mind was jarring.
Challenger Deep by Neal Shusterman: A teenage boy struggles with schizophrenia. (I hope they end up saying more than that in later descriptions, as this one doesn’t come out until April).
I’ll Meet You There by Heather Demetrios: Skylar Evans, seventeen, yearns to escape Creek View by attending art school, but after her mother’s job loss puts her dream at risk, a rekindled friendship with Josh, who joined the Marines to get away then lost a leg in Afghanistan, and her job at the Paradise motel lead her to appreciate her home town.