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On The Radar: December 2017 YA Book To Know

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“On The Radar” is a monthly series meant to highlight between 9 and 12 books per month to fit a budget of roughly $300 or less. These lists are curated from a larger spreadsheet I keep with a running list of titles hitting shelves and are meant to reflect not only the big books coming out from authors readers know and love, but it’s also meant to showcase some of the titles that have hit my radar through review copies, publicity blasts, or because they’re titles that might otherwise not be readily seen or picked up through those traditional avenues. It’s part science and part art.

This month’s selection reflects the slowdown in publishing after the speed of early fall. In addition to keeping this list even shorter than normal, December is a month where there are simply fewer YA books hitting shelves. With any remaining budget for your collections, I recommend filling in some of the gaps with titles from previous “On The Radar” round-ups, particularly those with a lot of titles.

Book descriptions come from Goodreads. Titles are alphabetical, with pub dates beside them. Titles with a * in front of them are books that are starting or a continuation of a series.

 

*Ever The Brave by Erin Summerill (12/5)

Ever the Divided. Ever the Feared. Ever the Brave.
After saving King Aodren with her newfound Channeler powers, Britta only wants to live a peaceful life in her childhood home. Unfortunately, saving the King has created a tether between them she cannot sever, no matter how much she’d like to, and now he’s insisting on making her a noble lady. And there are those who want to use Britta’s power for evil designs. If Britta cannot find a way to harness her new magical ability, her life—as well as her country—may be lost.

 

Why it should be on your radar: Summerill’s debut kicked off this series last December, and with the book’s significant buzz and push that time around, I suspect readers who were hooked will be excited for the second book.

 

 

Instructions for a Secondhand Heart by Tamsyn Murray (12/5)

Jonny knows better than anyone that life is full of cruel ironies. He’s spent every day in a hospital hooked up to machines to keep his heart ticking. Then when a donor match is found for Jonny’s heart, that turns out to be the cruellest irony of all. Because for Jonny’s life to finally start, someone else’s had to end.

That someone turns out to be Neve’s twin brother, Leo. When Leo was alive, all Neve wanted was for him (and all his glorious, overshadowing perfection) to leave. Now that Leo’s actually gone forever, Neve has no idea how to move forward. Then Jonny walks into her life looking for answers, her brother’s heart beating in his chest, and everything starts to change.

Together, Neve and Jonny will have to face the future, no matter how frightening it is, while also learning to heal their hearts, no matter how much it hurts.

Why it should be on your radar: A heart transplant story is a rare story in YA.

 

 

Love, Life, and The List by Kasie West (12/26)

Seventeen-year-old Abby Turner’s summer isn’t going the way she’d planned. She has a not-so-secret but definitely unrequited crush on her best friend, Cooper. She hasn’t been able to manage her mother’s growing issues with anxiety. And now she’s been rejected from an art show because her work “has no heart.” So when she gets another opportunity to show her paintings Abby isn’t going to take any chances.

Which is where the list comes in.

Abby gives herself one month to do ten things, ranging from face a fear (#3) to learn a stranger’s story (#5) to fall in love (#8). She knows that if she can complete the list she’ll become the kind of artist she’s always dreamed of being. But as the deadline approaches, Abby realizes that getting through the list isn’t as straightforward as it seems… and that maybe—just maybe—she can’t change her art if she isn’t first willing to change herself.

 

Why it should be on your radar: Kasie West writes popular YA romances. This book is the first in a series of three which will have characters who cross over among them (but won’t be necessary to read in any particular order).

 

Shadow Girl by Liana Liu (12/19)

The house on Arrow Island is full of mystery.

Yet when Mei arrives, she can’t help feeling relieved. She’s happy to spend the summer in an actual mansion tutoring a rich man’s daughter if it means a break from her normal life—her needy mother, her delinquent brother, their tiny apartment in the city. And Ella Morison seems like an easy charge, sweet and well behaved.

What Mei doesn’t know is that something is very wrong in the Morison household.

Though she tries to focus on her duties, Mei becomes increasingly distracted by the family’s problems and her own complicated feelings for Ella’s brother, Henry. But most disturbing of all are the unexplained noises she hears at night—the howling and thumping and cries.

Mei is a sensible girl. She isn’t superstitious; she doesn’t believe in ghosts. Yet she can’t shake her fear that there is danger lurking in the shadows of this beautiful house, a darkness that could destroy the family inside and out… and Mei along with them.

 

Why it should be on your radar: It features a Chinese American main character and an Asian girl on the front cover. The book sounds just as good as it looks.

 

Three Sides of a Heart: Stories About Love Triangles edited by Natalie C. Parker (12/19)

You may think you know the love triangle, but you’ve never seen love triangles like these.

These top YA authors tackle the much-debated trope of the love triangle, and the result is sixteen fresh, diverse, and romantic stories you don’t want to miss.

This collection, edited by Natalie C. Parker, contains stories written by Renee Ahdieh, Rae Carson, Brandy Colbert, Katie Cotugno, Lamar Giles, Tessa Gratton, Bethany Hagan, Justina Ireland, Alaya Dawn Johnson, EK Johnston, Julie Murphy, Garth Nix, Natalie C. Parker, Veronica Roth, Sabaa Tahir, and Brenna Yovanoff.

A teen girl who offers kissing lessons. Zombies in the Civil War South. The girl next door, the boy who loves her, and the girl who loves them both. Vampires at a boarding school. Three teens fighting monsters in an abandoned video rental store. Literally the last three people on the planet.

What do all these stories have in common?

The love triangle.

Why it should be on your radar: I think this is an anthology readers are going to love or love to hate — it’ll inspire a lot of conversation about the trope of the love triangle.

 

A Few Cybils Reads – Part II

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Mask of Shadows by Linsey Miller

This was really fun! Sal is a thief who decides to try out for a position as part of the queen’s “left hand,” a group of soldier-assassins who protect the queen and carry out her wishes (mainly orders to kill enemies of the state). Each person is named for a ring the queen wears, and the past Opal has just died, which means there’s an opening. Tryouts are brutal: candidates are given free reign to kill each other, provided they don’t get caught, and they’re put to additional tests as well, like avoiding poisons in their meals. Sal tries out for Opal in order to escape a (likely brief) life as a thief, but also to enable them to take revenge upon the people who destroyed their home and family a few years ago.

Sal is gender-fluid, and to them (Sal’s preferred pronoun according to the author), this means some days they feel more female, and some days they feel more male. Sal directs the other characters to address them as “he” when wearing typically male clothing and “she” when wearing typically female clothing (gender roles are a thing in Sal’s world). Sal’s gender fluidity is an important part of the story, but it doesn’t dominate it, and Sal experiences acceptance as well as pushback (but no outright violence) by various characters when it comes to their gender identity. The story itself is exciting, fast-paced, and bloody. There are a few really fun ancillary characters, like Sal’s assigned maidservant, and a sweet romance between Sal and a noble girl. Sal’s world has an interesting (albeit not the most original) history, which I hope is expanded upon in the sequel (this is the first book in a duology). Recommended for fans of action-heavy fantasy and those seeking a window or a mirror to a person we don’t see represented much in fiction.

The Beast is an Animal by Peternelle Van Arsdale

I’ve been wanting to read a good horror novel lately (YA horror provides just about the right amount of scares for me), and this one – about two soul eaters and the teenage girl who must fight them off, even as she feels pulled to become one of them – seemed like a good prospect. When the soul eaters kill all the adults in Alys’ town, she’s taken to the town of Dafeid, where the Beast (which the townspeople believe is connected to the soul eaters) is an ominous, unseen presence. The people of Dafeid have reacted to the news of the soul eaters in the town over by embracing a strict religion, where people are frequently killed as witches and neighbor spies on neighbor. The setting is fictional, but it resembles a vaguely historical Wales, which is not something we see in YA very often.

The writing is often lovely, but I found the plot dragged a bit. Much of Alys’ struggles are internal, and while that works for some stories, it was just never as compelling as it could have been here. The ending was a foregone conclusion, which means I never felt the urge to continue reading – that need to turn the next page to see what would happen next. Still, the atmospheric writing will appeal to some teens, and the idea of the soul eaters is intriguing. Their introduction in the beginning of the book is especially creepy. (Also that cover is beautiful.)

Fat Girls on YA Book Covers

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It seemed like it would never happen. But it is. We’re finally seeing more fat girls on YA book covers. After years of talking about fatness, about YA lit, and about the lack of working one into the other, it’s so damn refreshing to see some change happening. It’s tiny, of course, in the big scope of things, and for now, it’s primarily white. But tiny ripples grow bigger.

Let us enjoy this moment.

 

Fat Girl on a Plane by Kelly DeVos (June 5)

FAT.

High school senior Cookie Vonn’s post-graduation dreams include getting out of Phoenix, attending Parsons and becoming the next great fashion designer. But in the world of fashion, being fat is a cardinal sin. It doesn’t help that she’s constantly compared to her supermodel mother—and named after a dessert.

Thanks to her job at a fashion blog, Cookie scores a trip to New York to pitch her portfolio and appeal for a scholarship, but her plans are put on standby when she’s declared too fat too fly. Forced to turn to her BFF for cash, Cookie buys a second seat on the plane. She arrives in the city to find that she’s been replaced by the boss’s daughter, a girl who’s everything she’s not—ultrathin and superrich. Bowing to society’s pressure, she vows to lose weight, get out of the friend zone with her crush, and put her life on track.

SKINNY.

Cookie expected sunshine and rainbows, but nothing about her new life is turning out like she planned. When the fashion designer of the moment offers her what she’s always wanted—an opportunity to live and study in New York—she finds herself in a world full of people more interested in putting women down than dressing them up. Her designs make waves, but her real dream of creating great clothes for people of all sizes seems to grow more distant by the day.

Will she realize that she’s always had the power to make her own dreams come true?

 

Leah on the Offbeat by Becky Albertalli (April 24)

When it comes to drumming, Leah Burke is usually on beat—but real life isn’t always so rhythmic. An anomaly in her friend group, she’s the only child of a young, single mom, and her life is decidedly less privileged. She loves to draw but is too self-conscious to show it. And even though her mom knows she’s bisexual, she hasn’t mustered the courage to tell her friends—not even her openly gay BFF, Simon.

So Leah really doesn’t know what to do when her rock-solid friend group starts to fracture in unexpected ways. With prom and college on the horizon, tensions are running high. It’s hard for Leah to strike the right note while the people she loves are fighting—especially when she realizes she might love one of them more than she ever intended.

 

 

 

Puddin’ by Julie Murphy (May 8)

It is a companion novel to Dumplin’, which follows supporting characters from the first book in the months after Willowdean’s star turn in the Clover City pageant.

Millie Michalchuk has gone to fat camp every year since she was a girl. Not this year. This year she has new plans to chase her secret dream—and to kiss her crush. Callie Reyes is the pretty girl who is next in line for dance team captain and has the popular boyfriend. But when it comes to other girls, she’s more frenemy than friend. When circumstances bring the girls together over the course of a semester, they will surprise everyone (especially themselves) by realizing they might have more in common than they ever imagined

 

 

 

 

The Struggle Is Real by Maggie Ann Martin (August 21)

Savannah is dreading being home alone with her overbearing mother after her sister goes off to college. But if she can just get through senior year, she’ll be able to escape to college, too. What she doesn’t count on is that her mother’s obsession with weight has only grown deeper since her appearance on an extreme weight-loss show, and now Savvy’s mom is pressuring her even harder to be constantly mindful of what she eats.

Between her mom’s diet-helicoptering, missing her sister, and worrying about her collegiate future, Savvy has enough to worry about. And then she meets George, the cute new kid at school who has insecurities of his own. As Savvy and George grow closer, they help each other discover how to live in the moment and enjoy the here and now before it disappears.

November 2017 Debut YA Novels

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It’s time for another round-up of debut YA novels of the month — here’s what we’ve got for November.

This round-up includes debut novels, where “debut” is in its purest definition. These are first-time books by first-time authors. I’m not including books by authors who are using or have used a pseudonym in the past or those who have written in other categories (adult, middle grade, etc.) in the past. Authors who have self-published are not included here either.

All descriptions are from Goodreads, unless otherwise noted; I’ve found Goodreads descriptions to offer better insight to what a book is about over WorldCat. If I’m missing any debuts out in November from traditional publishers — and I should clarify that indie/small presses are okay — let me know in the comments.

As always, not all noted titles included here are necessarily endorsements for those titles. List is arranged alphabetically by title, with pub dates beside them. Starred titles are the beginning of a new series.

 

 

 

Being Fishkill by Ruth Lehrer

Born in the backseat of a moving car, Carmel Fishkill was unceremoniously pushed into a world that refuses to offer her security, stability, love. At age thirteen, she begins to fight back. Carmel Fishkill becomes Fishkill Carmel, who deflects her tormenters with a strong left hook and conceals her secrets from teachers and social workers. But Fishkill’s fierce defenses falter when she meets eccentric optimist Duck-Duck Farina, and soon they, along with Duck-Duck’s mother, Molly, form a tentative family, even as Fishkill struggles to understand her place in it. This fragile new beginning is threatened by the reappearance of Fishkill’s unstable mother — and by unfathomable tragedy.

 

 

 

The Closest I’ve Come by Fred Aceves

Marcos Rivas wants to find love.

He’s sure as hell not getting it at home, where his mom’s racist boyfriend beats him up. Or from his boys, who aren’t exactly the “hug it out” type. Marcos yearns for love, a working cell phone, and maybe a pair of sneakers that aren’t falling apart. But more than anything, Marcos wants to get out of Maesta, his hood—which seems impossible.

When Marcos is placed in a new after-school program for troubled teens with potential, he meets Zach, a theater geek whose life seems great on the surface, and Amy, a punk girl who doesn’t care what anyone thinks of her. These new friendships inspire Marcos to open up to his Maesta crew, too, and along the way, Marcos starts to think more about his future and what he has to fight for. Marcos ultimately learns that bravery isn’t about acting tough and being macho; it’s about being true to yourself.

 

 

Devil in Ohio by Daria Polatin

When fifteen-year-old Jules Mathis comes home from school to find a strange girl, her mother explains that Mae is one of her patients at the hospital and will be staying with their family for a few days. But shortly after, Mae is wearing Jules’ clothes, sleeping in her bedroom, edging her out of her position on the school paper, and kissing Jules’s crush. Then things get weird.

Jules walks in on a half-dressed Mae, she’s startled to see a pentagram carved into her back. Soon white roses start turning up on the front porch, a rabid dog bites one of Jules’ sisters, and Jules’ parents, who never fight, start arguing behind closed doors.

Jules pieces clues together and discovers that Mae may be a survivor of the strange cult that has taken over a nearby town. And they will stop at nothing to get Mae back.

 

 

I Never by Laura Hopper

Janey King’s priorities used to be clear: track, school, friends, and family. But when seventeen-year-old Janey learns that her seemingly happy parents are getting divorced, her world starts to shift. Back at school, Luke Hallstrom, an adorable senior, pursues Janey, and she realizes that she has two new priorities to consider: love and sex.

Inspired by Judy Blume’s classic Forever, I Never features a perfect, delicious, almost-to-good-to-be-true high school relationship . . . and it doesn’t shy away from the details.

 

 

 

Kat and Meg Conquer The World by Anna Priemaza

Kat and Meg couldn’t be more different. Kat’s anxiety makes it hard for her to talk to people. Meg hates being alone, but her ADHD keeps pushing people away. But when the two girls are thrown together for a year-long science project, they discover they do have one thing in common: They’re both obsessed with the same online gaming star and his hilarious videos.

It might be the beginning of a beautiful friendship—if they don’t kill each other first.

 

 

 

 

 

* This Mortal Coil by Emily Suvada

Catarina Agatta is a hacker. She can cripple mainframes and crash through firewalls, but that’s not what makes her special. In Cat’s world, people are implanted with technology to recode their DNA, allowing them to change their bodies in any way they want. And Cat happens to be a gene-hacking genius.

That’s no surprise, since Cat’s father is Dr. Lachlan Agatta, a legendary geneticist who may be the last hope for defeating a plague that has brought humanity to the brink of extinction. But during the outbreak, Lachlan was kidnapped by a shadowy organization called Cartaxus, leaving Cat to survive the last two years on her own.

When a Cartaxus soldier, Cole, arrives with news that her father has been killed, Cat’s instincts tell her it’s just another Cartaxus lie. But Cole also brings a message: before Lachlan died, he managed to create a vaccine, and Cole needs Cat’s help to release it and save the human race.

Now Cat must decide who she can trust: The soldier with secrets of his own? The father who made her promise to hide from Cartaxus at all costs? In a world where nature itself can be rewritten, how much can she even trust herself?

 

No Saints in Kansas by Amy Brashear

November is usually quiet in Holcomb, Kansas, but in 1959, the town is shattered by the quadruple murder of the Clutter family. Suspicion falls on Nancy Clutter’s boyfriend, Bobby Rupp, the last one to see them alive.

New Yorker Carly Fleming, new to the small Midwestern town, is an outsider. She tutored Nancy, and (in private, at least) they were close. Carly and Bobby were the only ones who saw that Nancy was always performing, and that she was cracking under the pressure of being Holcomb’s golden girl. The secret connected Carly and Bobby. Now that Bobby is an outsider, too, they’re bound closer than ever.

Determined to clear Bobby’s name, Carly dives into the murder investigation and ends up in trouble with the local authorities. But that’s nothing compared to the wrath she faces from Holcomb once the real perpetrators are caught. When her father is appointed to defend the killers of the Clutter family, the entire town labels the Flemings as traitors. Now Carly must fight for what she knows is right.

 

Now Is Everything by Amy Giles

The McCauleys look perfect on the outside. But nothing is ever as it seems, and this family is hiding a dark secret.

Hadley McCauley will do anything to keep her sister safe from their father. But when Hadley’s forbidden relationship with Charlie Simmons deepens, the violence at home escalates, culminating in an explosive accident that will leave everyone changed.

When Hadley attempts to take her own life at the hospital post-accident, her friends, doctors, family, and the investigator on the case want to know why. Only Hadley knows what really happened that day, and she’s not talking.

 

 

The Temptation of Adam by Dave Connis

Adam Hawthorne is fine.

Yeah, his mother left, his older sister went with her, and his dad would rather read Nicholas Sparks novels than talk to him. And yeah, he spends his nights watching self-curated porn video playlists.

But Adam is fine.

When a family friend discovers Adam’s porn addiction, he’s forced to join an addiction support group: the self-proclaimed Knights of Vice. He goes because he has to, but the honesty of the Knights starts to slip past his defenses. Combine that with his sister’s out-of-the-blue return and the attention of a girl he meets in an AA meeting, and all the work Adam has put into being fine begins to unravel.

Now Adam has to face the causes and effects of his addiction, before he loses his new friends, his prodigal sister, and his almost semi-sort-of girlfriend.

Light Novels

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Light novels have been growing steadily in popularity at my library. Light novels are prose novels from Japan that are often spinoffs or adaptations of already popular manga series (though sometimes the light novel comes first). They’re illustrated in manga style, but they’re not comics. They’re short and fast-paced and usually targeted at teenagers. They can sometimes be tricky to collect and catalog accurately because the vendor websites don’t always distinguish between the light novel and the manga (and I’ve yet to come across a series that has one and not the other).

This is a brief list of the light novels that have been popular at my library. What titles do well at yours? Descriptions are for the first volume from Goodreads, and links lead to the entire series listing.

Konosuba: God’s Blessing on This Wonderful World! by Natsume Akatsuki

The life of game-loving shut-in Kazuma Satou abruptly comes to an early end … or at least, it was supposed to. When he opens his eyes, he sees a beautiful goddess who offers him a once in an after-lifetime chance to start over in a parallel world. The catch is that the world is threatened by a growing evil. Fortunately, he can bring along a power-up of his choice. So he chooses the goddess Aqua. And thus his adventures with his gorgeous companion begin–if he can just get enough money and food to survive, keep his goddess out of trouble, and avoid grabbing the attention of the Demon King’s army!

A Certain Magical Index by Kazuma Kamachi

In Academy City, magic and science coexist in an unwavering power struggle. Toma Kamijo, an academically-challenged student in Academy City, wields the power of the Imagine Breaker in his right hand, which allows him to completely negate all supernatural powers – as well as his own luck. When he happens upon a mysterious nun named Index, whose mind has been implanted with the Index Librorum Prohibitorum – 103,000 ancient texts banned by the Church – Toma’s luck is about to be pushed to its limits when he finds himself in the middle of a war he never expected!

No Game No Life by Yuu Kamiya

Meet Sora and Shiro, a brother and sister who are loser shut-ins by normal standards. But these siblings don’t play by the rules of the “crappy game” that is average society. In the world of gaming, this genius pair reigns supreme, their invincible avatar so famous that it’s the stuff of urban legend. So when a young boy calling himself God summons the siblings to a fantastic alternate world where war is forbidden and all conflicts–even those involving national borders–are decided by the outcome of games, Sora and Shiro have pretty much hit the jackpot. But they soon learn that in this world, humanity, cornered and outnumbered by other species, survives within the confines of one city. Will Sora and Shiro, two failures at life, turn out to be the saviors of mankind? Let the games begin…

Is it Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? by Fujino Omori

n Orario, fearless adventurers band together in search of fame and fortune within the monstrous underground labyrinth known as Dungeon. But while riches and renown are incentive enough for most, Bell Cranel, would-be hero extraordinaire, has bigger plans. He wants to pick up girls.

Is it wrong to face the perils of Dungeon alone, in a single-member guild blessed by a failed goddess? Maybe. Is it wrong to dream of playing hero to hapless maidens in Dungeon? Maybe not. After one misguided adventure, Bell quickly discovers that anything can happen in the labyrinth–even chance encounters with beautiful women. The only problem? He’s the one who winds up the damsel in distress!

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya by Nagaru Tanigawa

Meet Haruhi – a cute, determined girl, starting high school in a city where nothing exciting happens and absolutely no one understands her.

Meet Kyon ­­- the sarcastic guy who sits behind Haruhi in homeroom and the only boy Haruhi has ever opened up to. His fate is now tied to hers.

Meet the S.O.S. Brigade – an after-school club organized by Haruhi with a mission to seek out the extraordinary. Oh, and their second mission? Keeping Haruhi happy . . . because even though she doesn’t know it, Haruhi has the power to destroy the universe. Seriously.

The Devil is a Part-Timer! by Satoshi Wagahara

After being soundly thrashed by the hero Emilia, the Devil King and his general beat a hasty retreat to a parallel universe…only to land plop in the middle of bustling, modern-day Tokyo! Lacking the magic necessary to return home, the two are forced to assume human identities and live average human lives until they can find a better solution. And to make ends meet, Satan finds gainful employment at a nearby fast food joint! With his devilish mind set on working his way up the management food chain, what will become of his thirst for conquest?!

My Youth Romantic Comedy is Wrong, as I Expected by Wataru Watari

Hachiman Hikigaya is a cynic. “Youth” is a crock, he believes–a sucker’s game, an illusion woven from failure and hypocrisy. But when he turns in an essay for a school assignment espousing this view, he’s sentenced to work in the Service Club, an organization dedicated to helping students with problems in their lives! How will Hachiman the Cynic cope with a job that requires–gasp!–optimism?