Cutaway Covers

October 6, 2015 |

I touched on this sort of cover design a few years ago, and I always enjoy seeing it pop up again. Often, the finished hardback book will have portions of the dust jacket actually cut away, revealing the characters or the action or a cityscape or some other hint at the plot underneath. It adds a lot of interest to the cover, often making two distinct covers for the reader to discover (one on the dust jacket, the other on the hardback underneath). Textured covers always helped sell books to me when I was a teen – and let’s be honest, they help sell books to me as an adult, too. What do you think of this design choice? I don’t think it’s used enough to be overdone yet, but I have seen it more frequently within the past year or so; almost all of the titles below have 2014 or later publication dates.

The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh (2015)

In this reimagining of The Arabian Nights, Shahrzad plans to avenge the death of her dearest friend by volunteering to marry the murderous boy-king of Khorasan but discovers not all is as it seems within the palace. [description via WorldCat]

The Rose and the Dagger by Renee Ahdieh (2016)

In a land on the brink of war, Shahrzad has been torn from the love of her husband Khalid, the Caliph of Khorasan. She once believed him a monster, but his secrets revealed a man tormented by guilt and a powerful curse—one that might keep them apart forever. Reunited with her family, who have taken refuge with enemies of Khalid, and Tariq, her childhood sweetheart, she should be happy. But Tariq now commands forces set on destroying Khalid’s empire. Shahrzad is almost a prisoner caught between loyalties to people she loves. But she refuses to be a pawn and devises a plan. [description via Goodreads]

Some of the Parts by Hannah Barnaby (2016)

A devastated teenaged girl sets out on a quest to track down transplant recipients after she discovers that her older brother was an organ donor. [description via WorldCat]

Killer Instinct by S. E. Green (2014)

When seventeen-year-old Lane becomes involved in the search for a serial killer active in the Washington, D.C. area, she worries that her life-long fascination with such murderers has a very real and terrible cause.

Now That You’re Here by Amy K. Nichols (2014)

When street smart graffiti artist Danny is jolted into a parallel world, only Eevee, an alluring science geek, has the know-how to get him home, but as he falls for her, his motives grow foggy. [description via WorldCat]

While You Were Gone by Amy K. Nichols (2015)

Eevee, an aspiring artist and daughter of Arizona’s governor, and Danny, a reformed troublemaker who lives in foster care in his own world, join forces to correct a breach between parallel universes. [description via WorldCat]

The Book of Ivy by Amy Engel (2014)

In an apocalyptic future where girls from the losing faction are forcibly married to boys of the winning faction, sixteen-year-old Ivy is tasked to kill her fiancé Bishop, although when she finally meets him, he is not the monster she has been led to believe. [description via WorldCat]

The Revolution of Ivy by Amy Engel (2015)

Ivy Westfall is beyond the fence and she is alone. Abandoned by her family and separated from Bishop Lattimer, Ivy must find a way to survive on her own in a land filled with countless dangers, both human and natural. She has traded a more civilized type of cruelty-forced marriages and murder plots-for the bare-knuckled brutality required to survive outside Westfall’s borders. But there is hope beyond the fence, as well. And when Bishop reappears in Ivy’s life, she must decide if returning to Westfall to take a final stand for what she believes is right is worth losing everything she’s fought for. [description via WorldCat]

The 100 by Kass Morgan (2013)

When 100 juvenile delinquents are sent on a mission to recolonize Earth, they get a second chance at freedom, friendship, and love, as they fight to survive in a dangerous new world. [description via WorldCat]

Dead to Me by Mary McCoy (2015)

In 1948 Hollywood, a treacherous world of tough-talking private eyes, psychopathic movie stars, and troubled starlets, sixteen-year-old Alice tries to find a young runaway who is the sole witness to a beating that put her sister, Annie, in a coma. [description via WorldCat]

The Notorious Pagan Jones by Nina Berry (2015)

Pagan Jones went from America’s sweetheart to fallen angel in one fateful night in 1960: the night a car accident killed her whole family. Pagan was behind the wheel and driving drunk. Nine months later, she’s stuck in the Lighthouse Reformatory for Wayward Girls and tortured by her guilt–not to mention the sadistic Miss Edwards, who takes special delight in humiliating the once-great Pagan Jones. But all of that is about to change. Pagan’s old agent shows up with a mysterious studio executive, Devin Black, and an offer. [description via WorldCat]

There Will Be Lies by Nick Lake (2015)

Shelby Cooper, nearly eighteen, has been overprotected by her single mother all her life but after a car accident, Shelby’s life is transformed not only by the discovery of secrets about herself, but also by trips into “The Dreaming,” where she is sent on a heroic quest wrapped in Native American mythology. [description via WorldCat]

Skip This Book: Future Perfect by Jen Larsen

October 5, 2015 |

via http://www.stylehasnosize.com/2013/home/healthy-doesnt-come-dress-size/

Take a minute to look at the image above. It’ll be useful for how I’m about to talk about Future Perfect by Jen Larsen. My body falls somewhere right between the first two women — I’m about 5’3 and somewhere between a 14 or 16, depending on the way the moon is that particular day. You would be right to call me fat because I am, but I am also muscular and toned. Because bodies are awesome and allow you to be both of those things simultaneously.

What’s worth thinking about isn’t where you fit into the picture or where I do. What’s worth thinking about is how, when you look at these women’s bodies, they are all “average.” Some carry more fat, but not one of these women are particularly obese as we consider it socially. Medically, their BMIs may categorize them as obese or extremely obese, but anyone who knows anything understands that BMIs mean absolutely nothing about your health nor about the shape your body makes. My body is “extremely obese” according to BMI, despite the fact I am healthy, active, and have no medical concerns relating to diseases like diabetes, high blood pressure, or other “fat people” concerns.

Likewise, only one size separates the woman on the far left with the woman who is second from the right. But they have 8 inches of height difference and their body proportions are very different.

With me here? Now let’s talk about why you need to skip Jen Larsen’s disappointing and disingenuous take on the empowered fat girl story with her novel Future Perfect.

Ashley Perkins is a senior in high school. She lives in a small town in California, not too far from San Francisco, with her two brothers, her father, and her grandmother. She is, it seems, poor, but that’s never made quite clear enough in the story. And neither does telling the reader a town is a small town does a small town make.

Those two criticisms are the start of the flaws with Future Perfect. There’s not a clear delineation of how economics work in this town, nor is there any sort of world-building to suggest this is a small town, other than a few people in the town seem to be busybodies who “know a lot of things.” It’s interesting what those folks do and don’t know and what secrets can and do end up making a big splash through the story. Why, for example, does the principal of the school Ashley attends know about and encourage her to follow through with her grandmother’s offer (I’m getting there!) but no one in town seems to know the true story of her mother’s disappearance or history?

But like I said, I’m getting ahead of myself.

The entire premise of the book is this: Ashley’s controlling, apparently rich, grandmother has been offering her something every year on her birthday in exchange for her losing weight. A shopping trip for dropping x-number of pounds. A car on her sixteenth birthday if she lost x-amount of weight.

This year’s offer, though, is the thing making Ashley most nervous: what will her grandmother offer this year, knowing that this is the last year she could be living at home? That this year is one of the most important toward her future? Surely grandma’s going to make this one the big one. And she does.

Grandmother is willing to pay for four years of Harvard tuition for Ashley — Harvard being her dream school — in exchange for Ashley getting “weight loss surgery” so that her future is bright, she’s fit for it, and she finally meets socially approved body standards.

At this point, I’ve not yet mentioned Ashley’s size. Clearly, she must be huge if grandma is so fixated on her losing weight. Perhaps her weight has been keeping her back. Though, we can guess, if someone has a shot at getting into Harvard when she’s poor and from a small town, she’s probably not being held back achievement-wise.

Ashley is described as “tall.” She is described as part Latina — a fact that gets completely forgotten and overlooked through the book. And she’s described as “size 18, sometimes 20.”

Is she overweight? Maybe. Is she fat? Maybe.

We never know.

Larsen allows readers to draw conclusions about the size of her main character, but she offers up a numeric size to correspond to her. The problem being that, when Ashley is described as “tall,” we don’t know what that means. When she’s described as “size 18, sometimes 20,” we don’t know what that means, either. Ashley offers very little insight into her own relationship with her body until near the end of the book, but by then, it’s too little, too late. Ashley is confident, and she’s driven, but we don’t ever get to see this through the text. We’re told these things.

There is little to no internal life to this character, and she reads flat through and through. This is, of course, because her entire story is hinged upon her grandmother. Grandmother’s offer renders her as the evil, controlling force in Ashley’s life.

Let’s go back a second. The offer grandma offers Ashley is about “weight loss surgery.” I put that in quotes because that’s what the offer is. We’re never told what kind of weight loss surgery and the details of it, again shoved into the narrative far too late, are left to the reader to imagine. And let me tell you — there’s no need to actually imagine what this means because nearly immediately, readers know this entire set-up is for naught. We know Ashley’s going to walk out on the other side not having had the surgery and overcoming grandma’s insistence.

But more importantly, we know that because we know nothing about Ashley other than a vague description of her height and size and the fact she’s 17-years-old, no doctor in their right mind would consider giving Ashley “weight loss surgery.” (And this makes me wonder, since I cannot recall, if we ever learned how this surgery was going to be paid for — was grandma footing the entire bill, too?).

What could have made me buy this element of the story would be any work on the part of grandma or Ashley in any sort of pre-operative consultation. Things like dieting, meeting with a nutritionist, meeting with any type of medical processional or psych specialist, are completely not in this book. We don’t know anything at all about Ashley’s body composition, and we also don’t know at all what her eating or health habits might be, aside from the fact she’s active.

Anyone with any experience losing weight or, really, having a body, knows that there’s not a straight line from choosing to have “weight loss surgery” to having it done. There are steps to be taken, and you have to meet certain, specific criteria to qualify. Many of those criteria involve making efforts to lose weight on one’s own first — you have to prove that you’re willing to do this. Most medical professionals worth their mettle wouldn’t consider doing something like this on such a young patient, and that goes even more so when the patient is, for all intents and purposes, living a healthy life. Who is only slightly larger than the average American woman in the worse case scenario and perfectly appropriate size-wise in the best case.

The fact nothing is addressed in the interim, that there are no moments when Ashley meets with any sort of professional about her body and “weight loss surgery” is not only problematic, it’s exceptionally dangerous. This is not an okay message for a book to have, even if the outcome of the story is that Ashley chooses not to have the surgery.

I bold this because once grandma’s voice is in Ashley’s head about this, suddenly, everyone has an opinion and is an expert. This is not unrealistic. What IS unrealistic is that Ashley’s principal would tell her this was a good idea. That she would meet someone on the streets of San Francisco who calls her a “land cow.” That she would fact real, true vitriol day in and day out for being “size 18, sometimes 20.”

The fact there’s no discussion of what “weight loss surgery” means is damaging.

This goes back to the danger in no discussion about what happens in the time between choosing to do something about one’s weight surgically and having it happen immediately. There is no such thing as “weight loss surgery.” There are different types of medical procedures to remove fat from one’s body, and they are all different, they all have risks, and they are all exceptionally tough decisions for any individual to make. “Weight loss surgery,” defined that way for the bulk of the book, sends the false message that there is a surgery to remove fat from an individual’s body. There are procedures, but there are multiple procedures and they all have very different methods.

Aside from how disturbingly poor this entire thread of the book is — and it is the bulk of the book and what the entire story hinges upon — this is not the only problem with Future Perfect. It’s not well-written, and some of the situations that emerge outside of the big issue make little to no sense at all, and this is because there is no character development or realistic world-building. The inconsistencies in the story, as well as the telling-not-showing, hinder any sort of reader connection with these characters.

There’s a scene in the book that stood out as really disturbing to me on so many levels: Ashley, as well as her friends Laura and Jolene (who is a transgender girl), skip school one day to meet with Laura’s boyfriend who has an “art show” in San Francisco. We learn the show is in the Tenderloin, and the girls find themselves mingling with a lot of transients, as well as those who appear to have some real substance addiction problems. But rather than have any empathy for the people here, the girls choose to make light of it, and this is, unfortunately, one of the only parts of the books where the girls get to show the readers who they are outside of school/outside of the bounds of Ashley’s grandma’s offer. For characters who live in a “small town” where there are “poor people,” there was zero recognition that these individuals may be struggling.

I also found it bizarre one of those transient individuals would call tall, “size 18, sometimes 20” Ashley a “land cow.” This would be weird in any situation, but it’s weirder given her description and the fact this happens in one of the most liberal areas of one of the most liberal cities in America. It doesn’t make sense.

The scene only gets more outlandish when the girls fall asleep on the BART and are accosted and handled roughly by the police. It was completely unrealistic and ridiculous and made me uncomfortable given that we know these girls are (mostly) not white, upper middle class, straight, and cisgendered. There’s no commentary, no depth. It’s superficial and problematic.

One more thing worth pointing out as a big question mark to this book is in the character and story of Jolene. As mentioned, she’s transgender. We understand that causes some issues at home, but again, Larsen renders is very superficially throughout, until there’s a sudden need for Jolene to leave her home. She’s going to live with Ashley for the time being, and Jolene is welcomed and accepted warmly — including by Ashley’s grandmother. This is surprising not because Jolene is transgender and welcome in the home, but it’s surprising because it tells us a lot about how inconsistent and poorly developed Ashley’s grandmother is. She is merely the evil force in Ashley’s life and she’s absolutely nothing more. It’s convenient how frequently grandma is out of the house when Ashley needs time to think about anything.

Future Perfect tries to do a lot but it ultimately fails to do anything. It feels like a checklist: an “empowered” fat girl, a best friend who is transgender, a romance (I haven’t even touched on how superficial the romance here is — both the one that lasts and the one that buds later on), an evil family member, a deep family secret, a “small town” setting, a part-Latina main character. Not one of these things transcends beyond being a checkmark in a box, and indeed, it makes this book one problem after another, stuffed with underwhelming characters, scenes, and writing. It’s really surprising to me this book got through the editing and fact-checking stage at all.

Though I don’t think this reflects upon the story as told, it was impossible for me not to think about the fact this author wrote a memoir before this book about her own “weight loss surgery.” I don’t have anything to elaborate upon that except to say that it makes me wonder about how message comes out here, rather than story. And I can’t help wonder how much her own experience did or didn’t shade the way this shakes out.

I’m not going to spend words talking about how no other alternatives for paying Harvard tuition were offered, nor the fact that Harvard is free to attend for students coming from families earning under $65,000 a year (a very easily researched fact). We’d have to know anything more about Ashley than her grandma’s offer to understand anything about her financial situation, her real passion for attending the school (and to be fair, we get a LITTLE of this), or, like, any initiative to find a way to pay for education like other students do. There’s a clear lack of research or understanding of how the college admissions and financial aid system works.

Bypass this book. There are so many better ones out there, even in a field where there are virtually no good stories featuring fat main characters in YA. This book may cause damage to young readers — and I don’t say that lightly.

If anything, I hope this review sheds light into why talking about numbers does matter in YA. And I hope it’s clear that choosing sizes, over numbers, in choosing vague descriptions over solid ones, causes more problems than it solves. As someone who was Ashley’s size in high school and as someone who grew much larger in college — up to a size 24 or so — I cannot imagine this book offering me any comfort. It would have further screwed with my ideas of what normal was, of what acceptable was, and about how people view my body. Thinking about how today’s teens, already warped by social norms of body size (the push for “ending obesity” today is much different than when I was younger), would react to this book makes my heart heavy.

We can offer much better.

We can offer actual education.

Fall into YA Horror

September 3, 2015 |

It’s getting closer and closer to one of the best times of year: fall. Technically, fall doesn’t kick off until September 23, but at least here in Wisconsin, the weather is already starting to make a little bit of a turn. Don’t get me wrong, I love summer fiercely. But there’s something about fall that really sits well with me, and I love how I feel like I’m allowed to stay in and ready scary books just because it’s the “right time” to do that.

I’ve written extensively about YA horror before, here and at School Library Journal, but I haven’t talked about what’s been hitting shelves in horror lately. It’s a big season of solid horror reads, too — I’ve been tearing through them and think that even though horror is and always has been a staple of YA, it’s getting a little more of the spotlight now. This isn’t a bad thing.

Here’s a big round-up of recent and upcoming YA horror novels. All descriptions come from WorldCat, and for the books I’ve read, I’ve added a bit of my thoughts about the title. Consider this your fall reading list.

The Accident Season by Moira Fowley-Doyle: Every October Cara and her family become mysteriously and dangerously accident-prone, but this year, the year Cara, her ex-stepbrother, and her best friend are 17, is when Cara will begin to unravel the accident season’s dark origins.

The Bargaining by Carly Anne West: Grieving and guilty over a friend’s death, Penny is not surprised when her mother sends her to live with her father and stepmother, April, but when April takes her to help restore an old house in a dense forest, weird occurences connected to missing children threaten Penny’s safety and fragile mental health.

Bits & Pieces by Jonathan Maberry: Twenty-two short stories, eleven of which were previously published, based on the Rot & Ruin series in which fifteen-year-old Benny Imura and his friends fight a zombie plague in a post-apocalyptic America. Includes a related comic book script.

Blood and Salt by Kim Liggett: Seventeen-year-old Ash Larkin finds out her family is involved in a centuries-old saga of love and murder, alchemy and immortality when she follows her mother to an isolated settlement in the cornfields of Kansas.

The Creeping by Alexandra Sirowy: Seventeen-year-old Stella has no recollection of the day her best friend disappeared while the two, then six, were picking strawberries, until the corpse of a similar girl turns up and Stella not only begins to remember, she learns that something dark has been at work in their little town for generations.

The Crimson Gate by Whitney A. Miller: Harlow Wintergreen, now the new Matriarch of VisionCrest, the powerful religious organization previously led by her father, is trapped inside a Cambodian temple, but she must escape and thwart her double, the evil Isiris, who is masquerading as Harlow in order to bring disease and destruction to the world.

The Dead Girls of Hysteria Hall by Kate Alender: Sixteen-year-old Cordelia and her family move into the house they just inherited in Pennsylvania, a former insane asylum the locals call Hysteria Hall–unfortunately the house does not want defiant girls like Delia, so it kills her, and as she wanders the house, meeting the other ghosts and learning the dark secrets of the Hall, she realizes that she has to find a way to save her sister, parents, and perhaps herself.

Verdict: I loved this, and it’s hands-down one of the best books I read this year. It’s a fast-paced, extremely intelligent, and feminist horror story with a lead character who is smart. I find myself getting frustrated with leads in horror frequently, but Delia doesn’t disappoint. Alender writes suspense so well — this was my first book by her and it won’t be my last. I’m eager to dive into her backlist. This one is more gothic than gore.

The Dead House by Dawn Kurtagich: Told through journal entries, a psychotherapist’s notes, court records, and more, relates the tale of Carly, a teen who was institutionalized after her parents’ death but released to Elmbrige High School, where she is believed to have a second personality or soul named Kaitlyn, and/or be possessed by a demon.

Dead Investigation by Charlie Price: Since the affair of the murdered cheerleader, seventeen-year-old Murray has moved into the lawnmower shed at the town cemetery, where he is close to the dead that he talks to and considers friends–but the caretaker’s daughter, Pearl, wants him to use his gift to find a homeless man who seems to have disappeared, and may have been murdered by someone who is hunting the homeless.

Daughters Unto Devils by Amy Lukavics: When sixteen-year-old Amanda Verner’s family decides to move from their small mountain cabin to the vast prairie, she hopes it is her chance for a fresh start. She can leave behind the memory of the past winter; of her sickly Ma giving birth to a baby sister who cries endlessly; of the terrifying visions she saw as her sanity began to slip, the victim of cabin fever; and most of all, the memories of the boy she has been secretly meeting with as a distraction from her pain. The boy whose baby she now carries.

When the Verners arrive at their new home, a large cabin abandoned by its previous owners, they discover the inside covered in blood. And as the days pass, it is obvious to Amanda that something isn’t right on the prairie. She’s heard stories of lands being tainted by evil, of men losing their minds and killing their families, and there is something strange about the doctor and his son who live in the woods on the edge of the prairie. But with the guilt and shame of her sins weighing on her, Amanda can’t be sure if the true evil lies in the land, or deep within her soul.

Verdict: I read a review calling this “Children of the Corn” meets “Little House on the Prairie” and that’s perfect. This is classic horror set in the 1800s — but that’s not actually stated in text. It’s inferred by the way the story is written, which is old time-y. But readers who see this as current times could be believed too, as Lukavics builds a story that isn’t about setting but about voice, about tension, and about delivering real deal chills. Horror fans who are genre fiends will dig this, and it could be a solid introduction to those who want to be horror readers and are ready for an all-out horror fest. More gore than gothic. Remember, it’s the prairie.

The Devil and Winnie Flynn by Micol Ostow and David Ostow: While working as a production assistant on her aunt’s television show about the paranormal, a seventeen-year-old girl discovers a psychic ability of her own, which may provide clues to her mother’s death.

Verdict: I called this my favorite book of June for a reason. This is a fun read that plays on tropes through the lens of reality television. It toys with so many of the things I love — format is unique, it explores the “other side” of “reality” TV, and it digs into the urban legend of the Jersey Devil. This one is light on scares and more about exploring the backside of horror, so it’s one you could hand to your more easily scared readers. Diehard genre fans, though, will find a lot to enjoy here BECAUSE they’ll pick up on the tropes. It’s smart.

The Dogs by Alan Stratton: Set in a remote part of the Canadian countryside, THE DOGS is a first person narration by 15 year old Cameron. He and his mother have just moved yet again to keep out of the way of Cameron’s violent father. This time their new ‘home’ is a deserted old farmhouse with a disturbing history.

The Diary of a Haunting by M. Verano: After her parents’ high-profile divorce, sixteen-year-old Paige is forced to leave Los Angeles for a rambling Victorian mansion in small-town Idaho where she soon notices strange occurrences that seem to be building toward some unspeakable horror.

Nightfall by Jake Halpern and Peter Kujawinsa: On a distant island where day and night exist on fourteen-year cycles, and the islanders migrate south each sunset, three children get left behind and must find a way off the island before the Night finds them.

Return to the Dark House by Laurie Faria Stolarz: Ivy Jensen escaped the Dark House–but the haunting memories of the friends she left behind remain. As the trail for the killer grows cold, it’s up to Ivy to end the nightmare. Forever.

Sanctuary by Jennifer McKissack: After the sudden death of her aunt, Cecilia Cross is forced to return to the old mansion on a remote island off the coast of Maine, ironically named Sanctuary, the place where her father and sister died, and from which her mother was committed to an insane asylum soon after–and it is also a place of dark secrets, haunted by the ghosts of its original owners, and inhabited by her vicious uncle.

Slasher Girls & Monster Boys edited by April Genevieve Tucholke: Inspired by classic tales and films, a collection of fourteen short stories ranging from bloody horror, to psychological thrillers, to supernatural creatures, to unsettling, all-too-possible realism, by acclaimed YA authors of every genre.

Verdict: I’m about half-way through this collection as I write this, and I’ve been really impressed with the stories so far. There is something for every kind of horror fan and it’s a good anthology of stories, as they all feel different and lend themselves to reading in one big gulp or in small spurts (like I prefer).

The Suffering by Rin Chupeco: When an old friend disappears in Aokigahara, Japan’s infamous ‘suicide forest,’ Tark and the ghostly Okiku must resolve their differences and return to find her. In a strange village inside Aokigahara, old ghosts and an ancient evil lie waiting.

Thirteen Chairs by David Shelton: When Jack enters the deserted house in his neighborhood, he finds a group of people who invite him to take the thirteenth chair in the room and share a story–in the house where the ghosts meet.

Took by Mary Downing Hahn: A witch called Old Auntie is lurking near Dan’s family’s new home. He doesn’t believe in her at first, but is forced to accept that she is real and take action when his little sister, Erica, is ‘took’ to become Auntie’s slave for the next fifty years.

The Unquiet Past by Kelley Armstrong: Tess has always been tormented by waking visions that make her question her sanity. When the orphanage she lives in burns down, she decides to face her fears and find out once and for all what is wrong with her. She believes the truth must lie with her parents, and so, armed with only an address and phone number, Tess travels to a crumbling mansion in rural Quebec, where she discovers evidence of mistreatment of mental patients. She also makes an unlikely ally and gradually unearths her family’s sad history—and finally accepts the truth about her paranormal powers.

What We Knew by Barbara Stewart: When Tracy and her best friend, Lisa, were kids, stories about a man — a creep who exposes himself to little girls — kept them out of the woods and in their own backyards. But Tracy and Lisa aren’t so little anymore, and the man in the woods is nothing but a stupid legend. Right? But someone is in the woods. Someone is watching. And he knows all their secrets, secrets they can’t tell anyone — not even each other. Lisa’s just being paranoid. At least that’s what Tracy thinks. But when a disturbing “gift” confirms her worst fears, it sets the girls on a dangerous journey that takes them beyond the edge of the woods. But reality is more terrifying than the most chilling myth, and what they find will test the bonds of friendship, loyalty, and love. Tracy and Lisa can’t destroy the evil they’ll face, but can they stop it from destroying each other?

We’ll Never Be Apart by Emiko Jane: Haunted by memories of the fire that killed her boyfriend, seventeen-year-old Alice Monroe is in a mental ward when, with support from fellow patient Chase, she begins to confront hidden truths in a journal, including that the only person she trusts may be telling her only half of the story.

Verdict: Well, I’ll be honest — I guessed this one from about page 5. I could have figured it out by the description alone what was going to happen. But I’m also fairly comfortable with horror tropes, and this didn’t stray from a familiar one. That’s not a bad thing for those who aren’t so well versed, but the downfall is that with horror, as opposed to some other genres, I find reading the story becomes less about enjoying the story as it’s written and more about guessing whether or not my hunch is correct. This isn’t a bad book, and it’s certainly worth reading. It’s much more on the psychological side of horror than on the gore or gothic side. I believe, but am not 100% certain, that the author may be a woman of color, which is absolutely worth noting because diversity in horror (in YA and in adult) is sorely lacking. I sound wishy-washy on this title because I can’t fairly evaluate the horror element of it, but I can say the writing was solid and I would absolutely pick up another book by Jean.

Guess The YA Book By Its Subject Headings

August 24, 2015 |

Library catalog subject headings are amazing to me. For the most part, they are useful to librarians who are trying to locate books for patrons. Out of context, though, they can make little or no sense. Because their purpose is to organize information contained within a book (or movie or tv show or anything else being cataloged), they distill something complex into something much more simplistic. They’re also constrained — there are designated subject headings, meaning that cataloging is consistent across libraries, rather than tagged by individuals who may choose to describe the contents of an item in a different way. There are other tools within individual catalogs to do that.

I used to play a game on Twitter periodically, where I’d share a handful of a television show’s subject headings from WorldCat and ask people to guess what it was. It’s not as easy as it sounds, since it requires thinking about a piece of art differently than you normally would. I thought I’d try doing this game on STACKED, but with YA. So without further ado, how good are you at identifying a YA book from its library subject headings? I’ll copy and paste the screen shot of the catalog headings from WorldCat and you’ll try your best at guessing what book is being described. I’m sticking with more well-known books, since even those aren’t easily recognized by their headings only. Answers are at the bottom of the post, so don’t scroll down unless you’re ready to get your answers.

I’d love to know how you do, too, so feel free to share in the comments which ones you got right away and which ones were challenging.

10.

1. Forever . . . by Judy Blume, 2. The Perks of Being A Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky, 3. Feed by M. T. Anderson, 4. The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han, 5. Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo, 6. Legend by Marie Lu, 7. Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs, 8. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, 9. The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater, 10. Monster by Walter Dean Myers

On The Radar: 10 Books for August

August 3, 2015 |

One of the most popular posts I do over at Book Riot is the round-up of upcoming YA fiction titles, and one of the most popular questions I seem to get on Twitter and in my inboxes is “what should I be looking out for in YA?” For a lot of readers, especially those who work with teens either in classrooms or in libraries, knowing what’s coming out ahead of time is valuable to get those books into readers’ hands before they even ask.

Each month, I’ll call out between 8 and 12 books coming out that should be on your radar. These include books by high-demand, well-known authors, as well as some up-and-coming and debut authors. They’ll be across a variety of genres, including diverse titles and writers. Not all of the books will be ones that Kimberly or I have read, nor will all of them be titles that we’re going to read and review. Rather, these are books that readers will be looking for and that have popped up regularly on social media, in advertising, in book mail, and so forth. It’s part science and part arbitrary and a way to keep the answer to “what should I know about for this month?” quick, easy, and under $300 (doable for smaller library budgets especially).

For August, here are 10 titles to have on your radar. All descriptions are from WorldCat, and I’ve noted why it should be included.

A History of Glitter and Blood by Hannah Moskowitz: Beckan, an immortal teenage fairy, and Tier, a young activist, are on opposite sides of a war, but strike up an unlikely friendship anyway.

Why: I have read nothing but positive reviews of this title, and Moskowitz continues to emerge in the YA world as an author to watch. This is her second release this year, and it’s in a completely different genre than Not Otherwise Specifed.

Why: This one has had a ton of publicity and press, and it sounds like a fun, different supernatural tale.

Bright Lights, Dark Nights by Stephen Emond: Walter Wilcox’s first love, Naomi, happens to be African American, so when Walter’s policeman father is caught in a racial profiling scandal, the teens’ bond and mutual love of the Foo Fighters may not be enough to keep them together through the pressures they face at school, at home, and online.

Why: I read this one, and while it’s imperfect, it’s timely and should evoke some great discussion. The romance here is well-drawn and through the perspective of Walter, which makes it stand out in the current YA world. This is also a hybrid novel with illustrations, so it has tremendous appeal.

Court of Fives by Kate Elliott: When a scheming lord tears Jess’s family apart, she must rely on her unlikely friendship with Kal, a high-ranking Patron boy, and her skill at Fives, an intricate, multi-level athletic competition that offers a chance for glory, to protect her Commoner mother and mixed-race sisters and save her father’s reputation.

Why: I’ve read nothing but great reviews of this one, and it’s had some good publicity. Elliott is no novice in the SFF world, but this is her first foray into YA.

Why: Again, really positive reviews of this one have piqued my own curiosity, as well as a stellar lineup of writers with short horror stories. There’s always room for more horror in YA, and in this instance, a collection of short stories is a unique way to offer it. With the names included, an awesome opportunity for new readers to discover the longer works by authors’ stories they enjoy, too.

Legacy of Kings by Eleanor Herman: Katerina, on a mission to kill the queen, falls in love with Alexander, Prince of Macedonia. Jacob will go to unthinkable lengths to win Katerina, even if it means having to compete with Hephaestion, a murderer sheltered by the prince. And far across the sea, Zofia, a Persian princess and Alexander’s unmet betrothed, wants to alter her destiny by seeking the famed and deadly Spirit Eaters.

Why: Aside from the big push this one has gotten from the publisher, adults might be familiar with the author, who has written the adult non-fiction titles Sex With Kings and Sex With The Queen. She knows her stuff, and I suspect it’ll be interesting to see her take that knowledge and apply it into a YA novel.

Why: Again, this is a solid horror novel, and Alender has sort of carved a niche for herself here, too. She’s an excellent writer of suspense and tension, and this particular novel features a smart main character who knows how horror works, so there’s an extra layer of tension added therein. It plays with the tropes horror readers love in unexpected ways.

Reawakened by Colleen Houck: A visit to an Egyptian exhibit brings teen Lilliana Young face to face with a recently awakened mummy-turned-handsome-sun-god as she gets caught up in an adventure with more twists and turns than the Nile itself

Why: Houck has written a series before that did quite well, and this is the first entry into a new one. A mythology-based fantasy sounds fun and different.

After The Red Rain by Barry Lyga, Peter Facinelli, and Robert DeFranco: Set in a future world of environmental collapse and mass poverty, where a mysterious boy named Rose discovers he possesses inhuman powers that can irrevocably change the lives of everyone on the planet.

Why: While the description really doesn’t make this one sound particularly unique, look at the names on this book. They’re huge and this collaborative effort has seen some good reviews.

Most Likely To Succeed by Jennifer Echols: Sawyer and Kaye fall in love despite hating each other.

Why: Weak description from WorldCat, but Echols continues to produce well-written romance-driven YA novels, and this entire series has been solid. Bonus: look at that black girl on the cover, right in the center.