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books

When We Wake by Karen Healey

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It’s 2027, and Tegan Oglietti is a happy, relatively angst-free teenager. She’s just made her crush her boyfriend, and she and her group of friends spend their time doing parkour, playing guitar, and protesting the various ills of the world: environmental degradation, social injustice, and more. Her world is a little different from our own in 2013, but not so much to be unbelievable. 
Then, on the way to a protest, Tegan dies. But it’s not the end of her life. She wakes up 100 years in the future, having agreed to donate her body to science and therefore unwittingly also agreed to be a part of the government’s experimental cryonics program. She’s the first to be successfully frozen and revived, and she’s told that this procedure will be used to help other people living in the year 2127.
Anyone who has read a futuristic story like this will know that Tegan is being lied to. There’s clearly something else going on with the cryonics experiment. Tegan herself is kept on a very short leash, given just enough freedom to keep her from outright rebellion. As Tegan makes her way in this new world, learning how its changed for the better and how its changed for the worse, making a few friends along the way, she starts to unravel the truth.
Tegan is a terrific character. She’s a budding activist in her “home” time, but a bit unsure about it. She wants so desperately to make things better, and when she wakes up in the future to discover that yes, some things are better, but some are much, much worse, it’s a little heartbreaking. One of the most moving moments for me was when Tegan finally breaks down and shouts at those around her who have helped make this world the way it is, telling them to “Be better!” Her disappointment is palpable and devastating.
When We Wake is, in some ways, a bit of a throwback for a dystopia, and I mean that in a good way. It seems most of the dystopias churned out recently envision future worlds full of the most lurid, shocking, and frankly ridiculous social systems the author could think up. Healey brings us back to Earth – her future is very different from our present, but it’s also believable. For example, there’s less racial prejudice but a good deal more environmental crisis. She extrapolates a set of realistic issues for her future society to deal with from the same issues that we tackle today. More importantly, though, When We Wake brings back some actual commentary – social, political, environmental. She shows that the actions we – as humans – are taking now matter, that they impact the future, our children and grandchildren and beyond. What we do now makes a difference – both good and bad. Healey doesn’t hit you over the head with it, but it’s there, and thank goodness.
The writing is excellent, which is what I’ve come to expect from a Karen Healey book. Tegan has a great voice, and the first person perspective is completely warranted: by the end of the book, it’s clear she’s telling her story to a specific audience for a specific reason. It is, perhaps, not as emotionally resonant as The Shattering, but not much is. It packs a punch nonetheless.
Next week, we’ll be sharing a Twitterview with Healey, who gives us a little more insight into Tegan and her future world(s). We’ll also be giving away a finished copy of the book, courtesy of Little, Brown, and this is a giveaway you’ll want to enter.
Review copy provided by the publisher. When We Wake is available now.

YAlien Invasion

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With the popularity of science fiction on the rise in the YA world, Kelly and I have been on the lookout for titles featuring aliens. Since today is Alien Abduction Day, we thought we’d honor our alien soon-to-be-overlords with a booklist.
(Stumper assistance: I read a particularly memorable book as a teen that involved a teenage girl getting involved romantically with an alien boy, but he was secretly only romancing her so he could take her back to his planet where she’d be repeatedly impregnated with alien babies to help save their dwindling population. At the last moment, he decides to leave without her because you know, they are in love. What is the title of this book?!)
The titles below were all published within the last five years and all feature aliens in some way, whether it’s a starring role or an ancillary one. Did we miss any? Let us know in the comments. Descriptions come from either Worldcat or Goodreads.

The Fifth Wave by Rick Yancey (2013): Cassie Sullivan, the survivor of an alien invasion, must rescue her
young brother from the enemy with help from a boy who may be one of them.
Adaptation by Malinda Lo (2012): In the aftermath of a series of plane crashes caused by birds,
seventeen-year-old Reese and her debate-team partner, David, receive
medical treatment at a secret government facility and become tangled in a
conspiracy that is, according to Reese’s friend Julian, connected with
aliens and UFOs. Kelly’s review
I Am Number Four by Pittacus Lore (2010): In rural Ohio, friendships and a beautiful girl prove distracting to a
fifteen-year-old who has hidden on Earth for ten years waiting to
develop the Legacies, or powers, he will need to rejoin the other six
surviving Garde members and fight the Mogadorians who destroyed their
planet, Lorien. Kelly’s review

 
Stuck on Earth by David Klass (2010): On a secret mission to evaluate whether the human race should be
annihilated, a space alien inhabits the body of a bullied
fourteen-year-old boy.
First Day on Earth by Cecil Castellucci (2011): Mal lives on the fringes of high school. Angry. Misunderstood. Yet loving the world — or, at least, an idea of the world. Then he meets Hooper. Who says he’s from another planet. And may be going home very soon. Kelly’s review
Neptune’s Tears by Susan Waggoner (2013): It’s 2218 and Zee McAdams is in her second year as a healing empath
at a busy London hospital. When a mysterious young man arrives for
treatment, Zee’s hard won calm is pierced. She will need all her courage
if she’s to follow her heart, especially when David reveals a
devastating secret.
(This one is spoilery. Highlight it to read it)Ultraviolet by R. J. Anderson (2011):  Almost seventeen-year-old Alison, who has synesthesia, finds herself in a
psychiatric facility accused of killing a classmate whose body cannot
be found. Kimberly’s review

 

Obsidian by Jennifer L. Armentrout (2012): When seventeen-year-old Katy moves to West Virginia she expects to be
bored, until she meets her neighbor who just happens to be an alien.
Alien Invasion and Other Inconveniences by Brian Yansky (2010): When a race of aliens quickly takes over the earth, leaving most people
dead, high-schooler Jesse finds himself a slave to an inept alien
leader–a situation that brightens as Jesse develops telepathic powers
and attracts the attention of two beautiful girls. Kimberly’s review
The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness (2008): Pursued by power-hungry Prentiss and mad minister Aaron, young Todd and
Viola set out across New World searching for answers about his colony’s
true past and seeking a way to warn the ship bringing hopeful settlers
from Old World. Kimberly’s review
 
A Long, Long Sleep by Anna Sheehan (2011): Sixteen-year-old Rosalinda Fitzroy, heir to the multiplanetary
corporation UniCorp, is awakened after sixty years in stasis to find
that everyone she knew has died and as she tries to make a new life for
herself, learns she is the target of a robot assassin. Kelly’s review
How I Stole Johnny Depp’s Alien Girlfriend by Gary Ghislain (2011): Fourteen-year-old David, the son of a famous French psychologist, falls
in love with Zelda, a new patient who believes she is from outer space,
and soon they are tearing through Paris in search of her chosen one,
Johnny Depp, so that she can take him to her home planet, Vahalal.
Bonus Middle Grade Title
The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex (2007): In the chaotic turmoil that follows the Boov invasion of Earth,
eleven-year-old Gratuity Tucci finds herself driving her mother’s car to
Florida, where all of the humans are being relocated, with her cat and a
renegade extraterrestiral named J. Lo as her copilots. Kimberly’s review

Mind Games by Kiersten White

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There’s been a proliferation of SF-lite YA books recently, and Kiersten White’s latest, Mind Games, falls neatly into this niche. It’s accessible science fiction that isn’t hugely imaginative or thoughtful, but fun nonetheless. I enjoyed it slightly more than other recent novels of its kind (Unremembered, Erasing Time, Eve and Adam) thanks to the main character Fia’s voice, which is a bit different and gives the book that push it needs to go beyond ho-hum quality.

Annie and Fia are sisters with unique gifts. Annie is the older sister, blind since she was a small child, but able to see visions of the future. Fia is the younger sister, but she’s been told for many years that it’s her job to take care of Annie. Fia, too, has her own special power – but I’ll leave that for you to tease out as you read the book. The girls’ parents died several years ago in a car accident that Annie saw but was unable to prevent.
Annie’s and Fia’s particular abilities attract the attention of a special school for girls while they’re still pre-teens. The administrators of the school tell Annie that they’ll be able to one day repair her eyesight. They tell her they’ll take both her and Fia and educate them on a generous scholarship. Fia can feel that something is wrong, but she sees how hopeful Annie is, so they both enroll. 
It isn’t long before the school is using Fia for their own violent ends. And they hold Annie hostage, the unspoken threat of her death hanging over Fia and preventing her from just running away – or disobeying. 
The book alternates between past and present and between Fia’s and Annie’s perspectives. It’s not entirely successful, but there are parts that shine. I really dug Fia’s voice in particular. She is a seriously messed up girl, in a way that is very fun to read about (does that make me sound heartless?). I’ve read some reviews that say her perspective is full of stream of consciousness writing, but really, there’s not a lot of it. I didn’t find it overwhelming, just a good way to show how scattered her thinking is. What I really enjoyed, though, is how angry she is. She is angry at everyone – the school, her “friends” there, her sister, her parents for dying. I suppose it’s not unusual for a teen character to be angry, but White really made me feel it and understand it. Her anger informs her actions and makes her deeply flawed and human.
Plot-wise, this is nothing new, but it’s a fun ride throughout. It’s already a rather short story, and dividing it into two stories (the past and the present) makes it even shorter. It’s not dull even if it is kind of predictable. I was a bit disappointed in the ending, though. It’s ambiguous, but it also doesn’t seem to really end. I love me a good ambiguous ending on occasion, but this one didn’t satisfy me.
If you’re a fan of the books I mentioned in the first paragraph, this one will likely suit you just fine. Its topic is certainly highly appealing right now, and it goes down easy, making for a pleasant way to spend a few hours. Just don’t expect fireworks.

Shades of Earth by Beth Revis

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Beth Revis has done something truly remarkable with her Across the Universe trilogy: created a series that gets better with each book AND makes me appreciate the present tense. I’m not sure which is more remarkable, but this series is pretty special regardless.

I’ll be spoiling Across the Universe and A Million Suns completely in this review, so if you haven’t read those books and plan to, stop now. Otherwise, continue on…

Amy and Elder and the portions of the Godspeed crew who have elected to try and survive on Centauri-Earth have all gathered for liftoff, but their journey to the surface is not smooth. Before they land, their shuttle is knocked to and fro by something – perhaps the monsters Orion referred to? – and the impact is bumpy, to say the least. Not everyone survives. This happens within the first few pages, so you know Revis is not messing around.

Upon arrival, Amy is quick to thaw the frozens, including her parents. Immediately, the camp becomes divided between the shipborns, led by Elder, and the frozens, led by Amy’s father. I was curious to see where Revis would take the addition of Amy’s parents, since for so long this story has been about teens trying to figure things out on their own. She sets up an interesting dynamic between Elder and Amy’s father. At first, Elder is hesitant about his leadership role, but he really grows into it here. He sees that his people may be sacrificed for the goals of the frozens, and he’s determined not to let that happen. The addition of the adult frozens also throws into sharp relief just how young Amy and Elder are, how not-adult their decisions have been.

Immediately upon landing, the shipborns and frozens alike begin to suspect that they are not alone. Not only is the planet plagued by pterodactyl-like creatures that have a taste for human flesh, they see signs that other intelligent life exists on this planet – life that does not want them there. People – both shipborns and frozens – are being picked off daily, and it’s clear that they’ll need to make a stand in order to survive.

But the frozens have their secrets about Centauri-Earth and the FRX and the creatures that may or may not exist here. How much do they know? And is it tied up with Orion’s final clue, the solution to which Amy and Elder believe still resides on Godspeed? The final revelation – which brings us back to Orion’s idea of “soldiers or slaves” – is a good one, if not entirely unpredictable.

This is a very well-plotted story that ties up nearly every loose end Revis has dangled in front of us. It’s technically a long book, but it never felt long to me, spurred on by intense action scenes, lots of little mysteries, and some intriguing world-building. The present tense is actually an asset here, helping move the story along at a nice clip. Amy’s and Elder’s voices have become distinct, helped along by their differing desires and motivations. This is a particularly heartbreaking story for Amy, and the extent to which I hurt for her demonstrates just how well-drawn she is as a character.

I loved learning about Centauri-Earth, though I do wish I could have gotten a few more details about its flora and fauna. What we do learn about it is integral to the plot, which is good, but I’m the type that always wants to know more about an entirely new world that can support human life. I suppose it’s because there are so many amazing possibilities that I can’t even imagine, and I want to see what other people can imagine.

There’s a huge body count in this concluding volume, which may put some readers off, but I appreciated it. I think it shows that Revis is true to her characters and to her concept. If she’s created a world full of monsters so horrible that generations of people would rather live on a spaceship than try to live on the planet, well, lots of people had better die when they do try. If they don’t, the whole story is invalidated.

I’d really recommend the second and third books in this series to readers looking for some good SF, even if they didn’t particularly enjoy the first book. The second and third are sufficiently different from the first, and markedly better. And with all the Earth-based SF currently being published, it’s refreshing to read something that tries to be more, to go beyond simply modifying what we already know in our own Earth, to create something entirely new and alien and different. I really dug it, and I look forward to what Revis does next.

Get Genrefied: Science Fiction

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Last month, Angela’s reader’s advisory challenge focused on horror. This month’s genre is one that both Kimberly and myself are fans of: science fiction. We’re splitting duty on this one, since our tastes in science fiction aren’t identical, and we feel like that is one of the hallmarks of science fiction. It’s such a broad genre that it welcomes readers looking for hard and fast science to those looking for more speculative works.

First, a definition. What is science fiction? Isaac Asimov called science fiction the literature concerned with the impact of scientific advancement upon humans. I think that’s a pretty solid and easy to grasp definition, and I’d add that what separates science fiction from fantasy is that it is plausible. There is a rationale behind how things happen and how they unfold. Of course, “plausible” can run the gamut from “I can definitely see that happening someday” to “That couldn’t ever happen, but I’ll buy it for the story.” Sometimes you have to have a healthy suspension of disbelief.

Science fiction has a host of subgenres within it, including aliens, space life/ships/operas/westerns, dystopia, alternative histories, cyberpunk, time travel, robots (you DO know the three laws, right?), science fantasy, and many, many more. Take some time to read through the wikipedia article on science fiction and its wide range of subgenres because it’s very well written and offers up some great further sources on the genre. If you have access to Novelist via your library, it’s worth perusing their subgenre classifications within science fiction, as well. Some of their subgenres include classic science fiction, among the stars, Christian science fiction, and others.

With the proliferation of dystopia in YA fiction, it’s been harder to tease out other science fiction titles, but there are tons out there. This is by no means a complete list, but rather, a means of showcasing the wide range of titles that are indeed science fiction. All descriptions are from WorldCat or Goodreads, and we welcome any additions you’d like to include — just drop a comment! These titles are more recent ones, and we’ve included forthcoming 2013 titles, as well, to keep on your radar.

First, if parallel worlds are of interest, Kimberly’s already written a great post with a ton of titles — these are examples of science fiction worlds because, well, they COULD happen. 

Adaptation by Malinda Lo: In the aftermath of a series of plane crashes caused by birds, seventeen-year-old Reese and her debate-team partner, David, receive medical treatment at a secret government facility and become tangled in a conspiracy that is, according to Reese’s friend, Julian, connected with aliens and UFOs. Kelly’s review

First Day on Earth by Cecil Castellucci: A startling novel about the true meaning of being an alien in an equally alien world. Kelly’s review

Glow by Amy Kathleen Ryan: Part of the first generation to be conceived in deep space, fifteen-year-old Waverly is expected to marry young and have children to populate a new planet, but a violent betrayal by the dogmatic leader of their sister ship could have devastating consequences. Kimberly’s review

Cinder by Marissa Meyer: As plague ravages the overcrowded Earth, observed by a ruthless lunar people, Cinder, a gifted mechanic and cyborg, becomes involved with handsome Prince Kai and must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect the world in this futuristic take on the Cinderella story. Kimberly’s review

Yesterday by CK Kelly Martin: After the mysterious death of her father and a sudden move back to her native Canada in 1985, sixteen-year-old Freya feels distant and disoriented until she meets Garren and begins remembering their shared past, despite the efforts of some powerful people to keep them from learning the truth. Kelly’s review

Variant by Robison Wells: After years in foster homes, seventeen-year-old Benson Fisher applies to New Mexico’s Maxfield Academy in hopes of securing a brighter future, but instead he finds that the school is a prison and no one is what he or she seems. Kimberly’s review

172 Hours on the Moon by Johan Harstad: Three teenagers are going on the trip of a lifetime. Only one is coming back. It’s been more than forty years since NASA sent the first men to the moon, and to grab some much-needed funding and attention, they decide to launch an historic international lottery in which three lucky teenagers can win a week-long trip to moon base DARLAH 2-a place that no one but top government officials even knew existed until now. The three winners, Antoine, Midori, and Mia, come from all over the world. But just before the scheduled launch, the teenagers each experience strange, inexplicable events. Little do they know that there was a reason NASA never sent anyone back there until now-a sinister reason. But the countdown has already begun… Kelly’s review

Insignia by S. J. Kincaid: Tom, a fourteen-year-old genius at virtual reality games, is recruited by the United States Military to begin training at the Pentagon Spire as a Combatant in World War III, controlling the mechanized drones that do the actual fighting off-planet. Kimberly’s review

The Lost Code by Kevin Emerson: In a world ravaged by global warming, teenage Owen Parker discovers that he may be the descendant of a highly advanced, ancient race, with whose knowledge he may be able to save the earth from self-destruction.

Eve and Adam by Michael Grant and Katherine Applegate: While recuperating after a car accident in Spiker Biotech’s lush San Francisco facilities, sixteen-year-old Evening Spiker meets Solo Plissken, a very attractive, if off-putting boy her age who spent his life at Spiker Biotech. Like Evening, he’s never questioned anything … until now. Solo drops hints to Evening that something isn’t right, and Evening’s mother may be behind it. Evening puts this out of her mind and begins her summer internship project: To simulate the creation of the perfect boy. With the help of Solo, Evening uncovers secrets so big they could change the world completely. Kimberly’s review
 
The Obsidian Blade by Pete Hautman: After thirteen-year-old Tucker Feye’s parents disappear, he suspects that the strange disks of shimmering air that he keeps seeing are somehow involved, and when he steps inside of one he is whisked on a time-twisting journey trailed by a shadowy sect of priests and haunted by ghostlike figures. Kimberly’s review
 
Pathfinder by Orson Scott Card: Thirteen-year-old Rigg has a secret ability to see the paths of others’
pasts, but revelations after his father’s death set him on a dangerous
quest that brings new threats from those who would either control his
destiny or kill him. Kimberly’s review
 
 
Tankborn by Karen Sandler: Kayla and Mishalla, two genetically engineered non-human slaves (GENs), fall in love with higher-status boys, discover deep secrets about the creation of GENs, and find out what it means to be human. Kimberly’s review

Across the Universe by Beth Revis: Seventeen-year-old Amy joins her parents as frozen cargo aboard the vast spaceship Godspeed and expects to awaken on a new planet 300 years in the future, but 50 years before the ship’s scheduled landing, Amy is violently woken from her frozen slumber. Kimberly’s review

A Long, Long Sleep by Anna Sheehan: Sixteen-year-old Rosalinda Fitzroy, heir to the multiplanetary corporation UniCorp, is awakened after sixty years in stasis to find that everyone she knew has died and as she tries to make a new life for herself, learns she is the target of a robot assassin. Kelly’s review

 

 

Origin by Jessica Khoury: Pia has grown up in a secret laboratory hidden deep in the Amazon rain forest. She was raised by a team of scientists who have created her to be the start of a new immortal race. But on the night of her seventeenth birthday, Pia discovers a hole in the electric fence that surrounds her sterile home–and sneaks outside the compound for the first time in her life.

Erasing Time by C. J. Hill: Eighteen-year-old twins Taylor and Sheridan are pulled into the future and must find a way to stop the evil government from using the time machine again. Kimberly’s review


Black Hole Sun by David Macinnis Gill: On the planet Mars, sixteen-year-old Durango and his crew of mercenaries are hired by the settlers of a mining community to protect their most valuable resource from a feral band of marauders.

Here’s a look at some of the science fiction titles out in 2013 to give an idea of how vast the genre really is.

Half Lives by Sara Grant: Follows the lives of two unlikely teenaged heroes, mysteriously linked and living hundreds of years apart, as both struggle to survive and protect future generations from the terrible fate that awaits any who dare to climb the mountain.

Coda by Emma Trevayne: Ever since he was a young boy, music has coursed through the veins of eighteen-year-old Anthem—the Corp has certainly seen to that. By encoding music with addictive and mind-altering elements, the Corp holds control over all citizens, particularly conduits like Anthem, whose life energy feeds the main power in the Grid. Anthem finds hope and comfort in the twin siblings he cares for, even as he watches the life drain slowly and painfully from his father. Escape is found in his underground rock band, where music sounds free, clear, and unencoded deep in an abandoned basement. But when a band member dies suspiciously from a tracking overdose, Anthem knows that his time has suddenly become limited. Revolution all but sings in the air, and Anthem cannot help but answer the call with the chords of choice and free will. But will the girl he loves help or hinder him?

Homeland by Cory Doctorow (sequel to Little Brother): When Marcus, once called M1k3y, receives a thumbdrive containing evidence of corporate and governmental treachery, his job, fame, family, and well-being, as well as his reform-minded employer’s election campaign, are all endangered.

The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey: Cassie Sullivan, the survivor of an alien invasion, must rescue her young brother from the enemy with help from a boy who may be one of them.

The Mad Scientist’s Daughter by Cassandra Rose Clarke: There’s never been anyone – or anything – quite like Finn. He looks, and acts human, though he has no desire to be. He was programmed to assist his owners, and performs his duties to perfection. A billion-dollar construct, his primary task is to tutor Cat. When the government grants rights to the ever-increasing robot population, however, Finn struggles to find his place in the world.

Proxy by Alex London: Privileged Syd and and his proxy, Knox, are thrown together to overthrow the system.

Rush by Eve Silver: Rochester, New York, high schooler Miki Jones is pulled into a sort of a game in which she and other teens battle real-life aliens and the consequences of each battle could be deadly.

Revolution 19 by Gregg Rosenblum: Twenty years after robots designed to fight wars abandoned the battlefields and turned their weapons against humans, siblings Nick, Kevin, and Cass must risk everything when the wilderness community where they have spent their lives in hiding is discovered by the bots.

The Program by Suzanne Young: When suicide becomes a worldwide epidemic, the only known cure is The Program, a treatment in which painful memories are erased, a fate worse than death to seventeen-year-old Sloane who knows that The Program will steal memories of her dead brother and boyfriend.

The Different Girl by Gordon Dahlquist: Veronika. Caroline. Isobel. Eleanor. One blond, one brunette, one redhead, one with hair black as tar. Four otherwise identical girls who spend their days in sync, tasked to learn. But when May, a very different kind of girl–the lone survivor of a recent shipwreck–suddenly and mysteriously arrives on the island, an unsettling mirror is about to be held up to the life the girls have never before questioned.

Starglass by Phoebe North: For all of her sixteen years, Terra has lived on a city within a spaceship that left Earth five hundred years ago seeking refuge, but as they finally approach the chosen planet, she is drawn into a secret rebellion that could change the fate of her people.

The Testing by Joelle Charbonneau: Sixteen-year-old Malencia (Cia) Vale is chosen to participate in The Testing to attend the University; however, Cia is fearful when she figures out her friends who do not pass The Testing are disappearing.

Mila 2.0 by Debra Driza: Sixteen-year-old Mila discovers she is not who–or what–she thought she was, which causes her to run from both the CIA and a rogue intelligence group.

The Haven by Carol Lynch Williams: For the teens at The Haven, the outside world, just beyond the towering stone wall that surrounds the premises, is a dangerous unknown. It has always been this way, ever since the hospital was established in the year 2020. But The Haven is more than just a hospital; it is their home. It is all they know. Everything is strictly monitored: education, exercise, food, and rest. The rules must be followed to keep the children healthy, to help control the Disease that has cast them as Terminals, the Disease that claims limbs and lungs—and memories. But Shiloh is different; she remembers everything. Gideon is different, too. He dreams of a cure, of rebellion against the status quo. What if everything they’ve been told is a lie? What if The Haven is not the safe place it claims to be? And what will happen if Shiloh starts asking dangerous questions?

Tandem by Anna Jarzab (no cover yet): Sasha, who lives a quiet life with her grandfather in Chicago but dreams of adventure, is thrilled to be asked to prom by her long-time crush, Grant, but after the dance he abducts her to a parallel universe to impersonate a princess.

 

Mind Games by Kiersten White: Seventeen-year-old Fia and her sister, Annie, are trapped in a school
that uses young female psychics and mind readers as tools for corporate
espionage–and if Fia doesn’t play by the rules of their deadly game,
Annie will be killed.
Pivot Point by Kasie West: A girl with the power to search alternate futures lives out six weeks of two different lives in alternating chapters. Both futures hold the potential for love and loss, and ultimately she is forced to choose which fate she is willing to live through.
Fox Forever by Mary E. Pearson: Before he can start a life with Jenna, seventeen-year-old Locke, who was brought back to life in a newly bioengineered body after an accident destroyed his body 260 years ago, must do a favor for the resistance movement opposing the nightmarish medical technology. Kimberly’s review

 

The Originals by Cat Patrick: Seventeen-year-olds Lizzie, Ella, and Betsy Best are clones, raised as identical triplets by their surrogate mother but living as her one daughter, Elizabeth, until their separate abilities and a romantic relationship force a change.

Dualed by Elsie Chapman: West Grayer lives in a world where every person has a twin, or Alt. Only one can survive to adulthood, and West has just received her notice to kill her Alt.

Control by Lydia Kang: In 2150, when genetic manipulation has been outlawed, seventeen-year-old Zelia must rescue her kidnapped sister with the help of a band of outcasts with mutated genes.

Want some more resources or information about science fiction? Check out the following:

  • The SF Signal is a web-based fanzine to all things science fiction. Bookmark this and peruse it for news and information about all kinds of science fiction and all things within the science fiction world. 
  • Locus Online is the web component of Locus Magazine, which is dedicated to all things science fiction and fantasy. 
  • Who is publishing science fiction, you ask? Well, most of the publishers do, but there are imprints which focus specifically on science fiction and fantasy, such as Tor. There’s also Angry Robot and Pyr. Both of these smaller presses focus on science fiction, and they, along with Tor, do offer a number of YA titles.