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books

The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert

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Fantasy is my original genre love, but I haven’t been reading nearly as much of it as I used to. Not much has been clever enough to grab me. Thankfully, Melissa Albert is here to renew my interest with her creative and beautifully written take on a modern fairy tale.

Decades ago, Alice’s grandmother wrote a book called Tales From the Hinterland, a collection of short, dark original fairy tales that became a cult classic. It’s out of print and copies are hard to find – so hard to find that copies tend to go mysteriously missing or stolen, even once they’ve been acquired. Alice wants nothing to do with the book or its fans, until her mother is kidnapped by a group referring to themselves as the Hinterland. In order to find her mother, Alice must team up with a teenage boy who’s familiar with the stories. Together, they go looking for the Hinterland.

This book starts out completely realistically, as if it could be a contemporary story of a kidnapping and the intrepid teens who set out to solve it themselves. But there are early hints that the magic might be real – three ordinary objects left behind on a table that nonetheless indicate they are much more; a sighting of a woman on the street who looks normal but also strangely out of place in a way that’s difficult to explain; a readheaded man from a decade ago who hasn’t seemed to age. Figuring out how these elements all fit together makes for an enthralling, page-turning read.

The details are what make this story stand out. Albert sprinkles small excerpts and characters’ retellings of Tales From the Hinterland throughout her book, making the Tales seem real – like we as readers could hunt down a copy for ourselves, if were so (un)lucky. The tales themselves are lovely dark stories, inspired by Grimm and Perrault but still entirely Albert’s own thing. And every detail that Albert places in her story, aside from and complementary to the Tales, is important, too. They are clues to the larger mystery, the one beyond what happened to Alice’s mother: what the Tales really are and how much Alice’s story is intertwined with them.

This is a treat for any teen who loves contemporary fantasy, dark fantasy, retold fairy tales, and surprising endings. It’s skillfully plotted, beautifully written, and shows its influences clearly but still manages to be original and fresh. Highly recommended.

Review copy provided by the publisher.

CLICK, CLICK, SEE: Revisioning the Verse Novel as a Genre, a Guest Post from Author Cordelia Jensen

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I’m really excited to share this fascinating and insightful piece from YA (and middle grade!) author Cordelia Jensen. Jensen’s debut novel, Skyscraping is one I adored, and when I heard she had another verse novel coming, I couldn’t wait to read it.

Earlier this month, you might remember poet Amanda Lovelace sharing some of her favorite YA novels in verse. This essay digs into how those verse novels are structured, and offers up a wealth of additional verse novels for your reading needs. It will also pique your interest about The Way The Light Bends, out tomorrow, March 27.

But without further ado, Cordelia!

 

 

There is a wide debate about what makes a verse novel a verse novel. Generally, verse novels incorporate some conventions of poetry while telling a story. The most common poetic conventions used are: an increased use of white space and line breaks, an emphasis on imagery and on a playfulness with words, for instance by using repetition, alliteration or rhyme. However, something freeing about the verse novel is that each author essentially gets to decide how much poetic convention they might incorporate into their book. For example, some verse novelists tell a story in individual poems like in Melanie Crowder’s Audacity, whereas others use more of a stream-of-consciousness format such as Martine Leavitt’s My Book of Life By Angel, which is broken up only with lines from Milton’s Paradise Lost. How do these poetic choices then come to inform their story construction? What do verse novels have to do to make a story work? What do they get to bypass? How do the poetry conventions actually work to reveal story and lend themselves to creating a stronger novel?

For Skyscraping’s debut I wrote a post on imagery construction for E. Kristin Anderson’s blog Write All the Words! The post outlines the way Thanhaa Lai uses the image of the papaya to reflect the emotional growth of Hà in Inside Out & Back Again. I did my graduate work at Vermont College of Fine Arts on how authors can use imagery to reflect the psychosocial developmental stage and changing identity of the main character. Verse novels, because of their hybrid nature, have the ability to do this more than poetry or story. Skyscraping uses celestial imagery throughout the book because Mira, the main character, is studying astronomy and this pursuit helps her reflect upon the changing constellation of her family. In The Way the Light Bends, Linc is a photographer and, therefore, photography is used as the lens through which she sees the world and ultimately fuels her emotional growth. When writing verse novels, it is important to ground your image system in the reality of the main character. For example, in Home of the Brave, Kek’s emotional state is reflected in the weather since there is such a stark contrast between the weather where he lived in the Sudan versus the weather in Minnesota. The imagery makes sense because it describes what is on that character’s mind. This is often not true in poetry itself—a poet may skip from image connection to image connection because poetry does not need to be grounded in context or character. In fact, it is often purposefully not. However, in verse novels, imagery construction is as much reliant on poetic convention as it is on story convention.

As a verse novelist, having the ability to play with white space freely is great fun. In The Way the Light Bends, the main character is a gifted artist and this allowed me to play more with white space—to see myself as a sculptor—more so than I ever had before. Sometimes the play was just about the word itself, such as the word “up” being up a line from the word that precedes it. But, often, the interplay with white space doubled in meaning because of the story. So, for example, in the beginning of the book Linc sees herself as alone and as the rest of the world partnered around her, therefore she describes herself this way:

 

 

Here, the white space is used in a poetic way but it is a testament again to character and context that gives the lines their emotional depth. If this poem was read without the rest of the story you may not understand why Linc is feeling isolated. Read in context, you not only understand this but there is also a story promise set up that Linc will find a sense of belonging.

There are a few aspects of verse novels that make storytelling different than writing a conventional novel. The first is less emphasis on, and more creative freedom with regards to, dialogue. For example, in Skyscraping, I used recorded conversations between the main character and her father to give readers more access to the father’s voice. But no matter what, there will be less dialogue in a verse novel than a conventional novel because of the poetic form. This often presents a challenge to the author: How do you create fully fleshed out secondary characters with minimal dialogue? Even more challenging, how do you do this without having the lengthy narrative description you might in a novel? There are a number of ways verse novelists deal with this. The first might be to use multiple points of view that are stylistically different. This is something I explored in Every Shiny Thing, the co-authored Middle Grade book I have coming out in April. In this story, my character’s point of view is in verse, whereas my co-author, Laurie Morrison’s, character is in prose. Often, she was able to round out characters in her sections—through dialogue and description—that I, writing in verse, could not. There are other verse novels that span the thoughts of many characters, such as The Last Fifth Grade at Emerson Elementary by Laura Shovan, which incorporates eighteen points of view. But what about in a singular point-of-view verse novel? Can you show a secondary character’s emotional growth without including their point of view?

The answer is yes, but it is harder. One way to do this is to go back to a poetry device—imagery. In Caminar by Skila Brown, Carlos describes animal spirits as a way for us to see people in his life. And this comparison allows for the reader to see people as “proud” roosters or “smooth and fast” jaguars, giving us a deeper vision of that character. Another way to give more information about a secondary character can be if this character takes up a lot of room in the main character’s head. If so, the character will often speak to the point of view of this character in their minds, and, if there is a great sense of longing, come back in flashbacks, as in Jacqueline Woodson’s Locomotion.

Another storytelling difference in verse novels is the fact that you don’t need to transition the reader from scene to scene as much as you might in a novel. So, for example, you might begin a poem “the next day…” without having to write a whole paragraph about what happened between one day and the next. While this can sometimes feel jarring to the reader, linking imagery from one poem to the next, or keeping the tone of the poems similar, may help build connective tissue throughout and establish a more fluid and continuous narrative. Of course, it’s all a matter of personal preference, and some readers say the white space itself makes a verse novel more readable because it offers time to breathe, time to transition.  

When I am writing verse novels, I often think of poems not as scenes but as moments or snapshots. In fact, one “scene” might be comprised of 3-4 overlapping poems or, just as often, one “scene” might be just one poem. Regardless, each of these “scenes” needs to bring your reader somewhere new. And, in addition, each scene must use white space, and incorporate some poetic language while developing character and story. That is quite a lot to do.

There are some poets and some novelists who look down on the verse novel form as something that doesn’t match the standards of their genre. I believe verse novels are their own genre and ought to be seen as both defying and incorporating the “rules” of poetry and the “rules” of storytelling. In an article for the ALAN review entitled “Verse Novels and the Question of Genre,” author Michael Cadden shows the verse novel in the center with its genre influences around it: novel, poetry and drama. He argues the drama genre is also an influence over the genre in as much as the verse itself can be seen as a sort of inner-monologue. Cadden argues that the modern verse novel is a great starting point to teach all three of these traditional genres plus teaching students about the creative strengths of the verse novel itself. Cadden says: “What the verse novel lacks in description and extended narration, it makes up for in its insistence that the reader provide those things on his or her own, both demanding and enabling the reader to imagine appropriate and personally satisfying images that match the context of the soliloquy and/or dialogue-driven narrative. By using the verse novel as touchstone text to learn more about three distinct genres, we would be learning how the verse novel itself is its own thing rather than a failed version of something else.”  

Maybe more useful than thinking about what a verse novel isn’t, we might think about what it is: a highly-readable, emotional journey of a character(s) undergoing life-changing events as shown in a series of image-driven moments.

As photographer, Linc in The Way the Light Bends would say, we might envision the experience of reading or writing a verse novel this way: “Click/Click/See.”

 

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Cordelia Jensen holds an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts and teaches creative writing in Philadelphia, where she lives with her husband and children. She is also the author of Skyscraping. Follow her on Twitter @cordeliajensen.

 

About The Way The Light Bends

 

A powerful novel in verse about fitting in, standing out, defining your own self-worth, and what it takes to keep a fracturing family whole.

Virtual twins Linc and Holly were once extremely close. But while artistic, creative Linc is her parents’ daughter biologically, it’s smart, popular Holly, adopted from Ghana as a baby, who exemplifies the family’s high-achieving model of academic success.

Linc is desperate to pursue photography, to find a place of belonging, and for her family to accept her for who she is, despite her surgeon mother’s constant disapproval and her growing distance from Holly. So when she comes up with a plan to use her photography interests and skills to do better in school–via a project based on Seneca Village, a long-gone village in the space that now holds Central Park, where all inhabitants, regardless of race, lived together harmoniously–Linc is excited and determined to prove that her differences are assets, that she has what it takes to make her mother proud. But when a long-buried family secret comes to light, Linc must decide whether her mother’s love is worth obtaining.

A novel in verse that challenges the way we think about family and belonging.

What I’m Reading Now

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Land of Permanent Goodbyes by Atia Abawi

Oof. This is a hard book to read. It’s a refugee story and follows teenage Tareq from his home in Syria eventually to Europe. It’s heartbreaking on every single page, even though Tareq himself isn’t real. His story is similar enough to so what so many real teens are going through right now. Abawi, who is a foreign correspondent, grew up and was educated in America but now lives in Jerusalem; before that, she was in Afghanistan. She herself is the child of refugees. So Abawi does have more credibility than most others would in the way she portrays Tareq’s story, which includes much of his family’s death in the bombing that also destroys his home, his journey through parts of Syria controlled variously by Assad’s forces or ISIS, and his travels to Turkey, which is where I’m currently at in the book.

Abawi handles her topic well, and she writes her characters with empathy and nuance – even one young Isis recruit. She excels at creating tense scenes, particularly on Tareq’s drive through Syria where he must pass through ISIS-controlled checkpoints. Her narrative style isn’t completely working for me, though. She’s telling the story from the point of view of Destiny, which acts as an intrusive narrator at times, but at other times seems to fade away so that the story seems much more traditionally told. When Destiny suddenly re-emerges, it’s jarring. Sometimes, too, Destiny falls back on platitudes that aren’t as deep as they’re meant to be. I can’t help but draw parallels between Destiny here and Death in The Book Thief. Unfortunately, Destiny comes up short in the contest.

The Cruel Prince by Holly Black

I love fantasy, but fairies were never a huge draw for me, even as a teenager. But I read The Darkest Part of the Forest a couple of years ago for Cybils and thought it was pretty great. Holly Black knows her way around the English language, and she’s a fantastic world-builder. So far I’m enjoying her newest, which has received tons of accolades, but I’m not loving it. The writing is good, the characters are engaging, the narrative voice is distinctive, and Black’s fairy world is both beautiful and repulsive, making it fascinating to get lost in. I think the plot, which involves a human girl named Jude who has been raised among the fairies due to the fact that her half-sister is half-fairy, is just a bit too slow-moving for my tastes. I’m about halfway through and I feel like I’ve just gotten to the good stuff: she’s taken a job as a spy and has started to get herself entangled – only partly willingly – in a political struggle between several different power players in the fairy court.

Caitlin Kelly narrates the audiobook, which is how I’m reading this one, and she does a great job, particularly at getting across the danger, and Jude’s fear, of her situation, both in her spy endeavors and simply by existing as a human among fairies, who view humans as playthings and not worth the short life given to them. I suppose given all of the acclaim, I wanted to be blown away, so while I’m enjoying the read, it’s a bit disappointing not to be in love with it all.

White Rabbit by Caleb Roehrig

I’ve been on such a mystery kick lately (for over a year now!). I just can’t get enough of them. I heard lots of good things about Roehrig’s first book, Last Seen Leaving, and I had an arc of his second one just sitting there, practically begging me to read it. Who am I to resist? I’m about 100 pages in and it’s solid so far. It focuses on a teenage boy, Rufus, who is still smarting from being dumped by his hot and closeted boyfriend Sebastian a few months ago. When Rufus’ unpredictable half-sister April calls him and asks him to come over to help with something serious, Sebastian is trying to talk Rufus; he tags along to April’s instead. And when the two boys walk into April’s house…it’s a crime scene. Literally. April is kneeling over the body of her dead boyfriend holding a knife, covered in blood. She insists she didn’t do it, but was passed out and doesn’t know who did. Do we believe April? If we do, who is the guilty party – one of April’s many obnoxious, bigoted, probably violent friends? April’s drug-dealing older brother (Rufus’ half-brother)? Someone else?

It’s a solid setup, dropping a healthy dose of coming-of-age angst into an intriguing murder mystery. Most of the characters so far are terrible people, but in interesting ways. I’m about a third of the way in and I don’t have any idea who the culprit could be at this point. I’m eager to find out!

Debut YA Novels: March 2018

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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 March.

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 March 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.

Get ready to get your read on.

 

 

The Beauty That Remains by Ashley Woodfolk (3/6)

Autumn always knew exactly who she was—a talented artist and a loyal friend. Shay was defined by two things: her bond with her twin sister, Sasha, and her love of music. And Logan always turned to writing love songs when his love life was a little less than perfect.

But when tragedy strikes each of them, somehow music is no longer enough. Now Logan can’t stop watching vlogs of his dead ex-boyfriend. Shay is a music blogger struggling to keep it together. And Autumn sends messages that she knows can never be answered.

Despite the odds, one band’s music will reunite them and prove that after grief, beauty thrives in the people left behind.

 

 

*Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi (3/6)

Zélie Adebola remembers when the soil of Orïsha hummed with magic. Burners ignited flames, Tiders beckoned waves, and Zelie’s Reaper mother summoned forth souls.

But everything changed the night magic disappeared. Under the orders of a ruthless king, maji were targeted and killed, leaving Zélie without a mother and her people without hope.

Now, Zélie has one chance to bring back magic and strike against the monarchy. With the help of a rogue princess, Zélie must outwit and outrun the crown prince, who is hell-bent on eradicating magic for good.

Danger lurks in Orïsha, where snow leoponaires prowl and vengeful spirits wait in the waters. Yet the greatest danger may be Zélie herself as she struggles to control her powers—and her growing feelings for the enemy.

 

 

The Midnights by Sarah Nicole Smetana (3/6)

Susannah Hayes has never been in the spotlight, but she dreams of following her father, a former rock star, onto the stage. As senior year begins, she’s more interested in composing impressive chord progressions than college essays, certain that if she writes the perfect song, her father might finally look up from the past long enough to see her. But when he dies unexpectedly her dreams—and her reality—shatter.

While Susannah struggles with grief, her mother uproots them to a new city. There, Susannah realizes she can reinvent herself however she wants: a confident singer-songwriter, member of a hip band, embraced by an effortlessly cool best friend. But Susannah is not the only one keeping secrets, and soon, harsh revelations threaten to unravel her life once again.

 

 

 

No Filter by Orlagh Collins (3/6)

Emerald has grown up in a privileged world – the beloved daughter of a wealthy family, friends with all the right people, social media addict. But Emerald’s family has secrets – and when Emerald finds her mum unconscious on the bathroom floor, no one can pretend any more. Now she’s being packed off to stay with her grandma in Ireland while her mum recuperates and her dad just works and works and works.

Grandma’s big, lonely house is set back from the beach, and there’s no phone signal or wifi. It’s going to be a long summer … Until she meets Liam.

When you’re falling in love, it’s hard to tell someone everything. Even if you’ve got nothing to hide any more. And when secrets and lies are all you’re used to, how do you deal with real love – brave and true – with no filter?

 

 

The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo (3/6)

Xiomara Batista feels unheard and unable to hide in her Harlem neighborhood. Ever since her body grew into curves, she has learned to let her fists and her fierceness do the talking.

But Xiomara has plenty she wants to say, and she pours all her frustration and passion onto the pages of a leather notebook, reciting the words to herself like prayers—especially after she catches feelings for a boy in her bio class named Aman, who her family can never know about. With Mami’s determination to force her daughter to obey the laws of the church, Xiomara understands that her thoughts are best kept to herself.

So when she is invited to join her school’s slam poetry club, she doesn’t know how she could ever attend without her mami finding out, much less speak her words out loud. But still, she can’t stop thinking about performing her poems.

Because in the face of a world that may not want to hear her, Xiomara refuses to be silent.

 

To Kill A Kingdom by Alexandra Christo (3/6)

Princess Lira is siren royalty and the most lethal of them all. With the hearts of seventeen princes in her collection, she is revered across the sea. Until a twist of fate forces her to kill one of her own. To punish her daughter, the Sea Queen transforms Lira into the one thing they loathe most—a human. Robbed of her song, Lira has until the winter solstice to deliver Prince Elian’s heart to the Sea Queen or remain a human forever.

The ocean is the only place Prince Elian calls home, even though he is heir to the most powerful kingdom in the world. Hunting sirens is more than an unsavory hobby—it’s his calling. When he rescues a drowning woman in the ocean, she’s more than what she appears. She promises to help him find the key to destroying all of sirenkind for good—But can he trust her? And just how many deals will Elian have to barter to eliminate mankind’s greatest enemy?

 

 

The Wicked Deep by Shea Ernshaw (3/6)

Welcome to the cursed town of Sparrow…

Where, two centuries ago, three sisters were sentenced to death for witchery. Stones were tied to their ankles and they were drowned in the deep waters surrounding the town.

Now, for a brief time each summer, the sisters return, stealing the bodies of three weak-hearted girls so that they may seek their revenge, luring boys into the harbor and pulling them under.

Like many locals, seventeen-year-old Penny Talbot has accepted the fate of the town. But this year, on the eve of the sisters’ return, a boy named Bo Carter arrives; unaware of the danger he has just stumbled into.

Mistrust and lies spread quickly through the salty, rain-soaked streets. The townspeople turn against one another. Penny and Bo suspect each other of hiding secrets. And death comes swiftly to those who cannot resist the call of the sisters.

But only Penny sees what others cannot. And she will be forced to choose: save Bo, or save herself.

 

 

12 Steps to Normal by Farrah Penn (3/13)

Kira’s Twelve Steps To A Normal Life

1. Accept Grams is gone.
2. Learn to forgive Dad.
3. Steal back ex-boyfriend from best friend…

And somewhere between 1 and 12, realize that when your parent’s an alcoholic, there’s no such thing as “normal.”
When Kira’s father enters rehab, she’s forced to leave everything behind–her home, her best friends, her boyfriend…everything she loves. Now her father’s sober (again) and Kira is returning home, determined to get her life back to normal…exactly as it was before she was sent away.

But is that what Kira really wants?

 

 

Nothing Left To Burn by Heather Ezell (3/13)

The autumn morning after sixteen-year-old Audrey Harper loses her virginity, she wakes to a loud, persistent knocking at her front door. Waiting for her are two firemen, there to let her know that the moment she’s been dreading has arrived: the enormous wildfire sweeping through Orange County, California, is now dangerously close to her idyllic gated community of Coto de Caza, and it’s time to evacuate.

Over the course of the next twenty-four hours, as Audrey wrestles with the possibility of losing her family home, she also recalls her early, easy summer days with Brooks, the charming, passionate, but troubled volunteer firefighter who enchants Audrey–and who is just as enthralled by her. But as secrets from Brooks’s dark past come to light, Audrey can’t help but wonder if there’s danger in the pull she feels–both toward this boy, and toward the fire burning in the distance.

 

 

The Astonishing Color of After by Emily X.R. Pan (3/20)

Leigh Chen Sanders is absolutely certain about one thing: When her mother died by suicide, she turned into a bird.

Leigh, who is half Asian and half white, travels to Taiwan to meet her maternal grandparents for the first time. There, she is determined to find her mother, the bird. In her search, she winds up chasing after ghosts, uncovering family secrets, and forging a new relationship with her grandparents. And as she grieves, she must try to reconcile the fact that on the same day she kissed her best friend and longtime secret crush, Axel, her mother was taking her own life.

Alternating between real and magic, past and present, friendship and romance, hope and despair, The Astonishing Color of After is a novel about finding oneself through family history, art, grief, and love.

 

 

Miles Away From You by A.B. Rutledge (3/20)

It’s been three years since Miles fell for Vivian, a talented and dazzling transgender girl. Eighteen months since a suicide attempt left Vivian on life support. Now Miles isn’t sure who he is without her, but knows it’s time to figure out how to say goodbye.

He books a solo trip to Iceland but then has a hard time leaving the refuge of his hotel room. After a little push from Oskar, a local who is equal parts endearing and aloof, Miles decides to honor Vivian’s life by photographing her treasured Doc Martens standing empty against the surreal landscapes. With each step he takes, Miles finds his heart healing–even as he must accept that Vivian, still in a coma, will never recover.

Told through a series of instant messages to Vivian, this quirky and completely fresh novel explores love, loss, and the drastic distances we sometimes have to travel in order to move on.

 

 

Tyler Johnson Was Here by Jay Coles (3/20)

When Marvin Johnson’s twin, Tyler, goes to a party, Marvin decides to tag along to keep an eye on his brother. But what starts as harmless fun turns into a shooting, followed by a police raid.

The next day, Tyler has gone missing, and it’s up to Marvin to find him. But when Tyler is found dead, a video leaked online tells an even more chilling story: Tyler has been shot and killed by a police officer. Terrified as his mother unravels and mourning a brother who is now a hashtag, Marvin must learn what justice and freedom really mean.

 

 

 

 

 

The Beloved Wild by Melissa Ostrom (3/27)

Harriet Winter is the eldest daughter in a farming family in New Hampshire, 1807. Her neighbor is Daniel Long, who runs his family’s farm on his own after the death of his parents. Harriet’s mother sees Daniel as a good match, but Harriet isn’t so sure she wants someone else to choose her path—in love and in life.

When her brother decides to strike out for the Genesee Valley in Western New York, Harriet decides to go with him—disguised as a boy. Their journey includes sickness, uninvited guests, and difficult emotional terrain as Harriet comes of age, realizes what she wants, and accepts who she’s loved all along.

 

 

 

 

Frat Girl by Kiley Roache (3/27)

For Cassandra Davis, the F-word is fraternity—specifically Delta Tau Chi, a house on probation and on the verge of being banned from campus. Accused of offensive, sexist behavior, they have one year to clean up their act. For the DTC brothers, the F-word is feminist—the type of person who writes articles in the school paper about why they should lose their home.

With one shot at a scholarship to attend the university of her dreams, Cassie pitches a research project: to pledge Delta Tau Chi and provide proof of their misogynistic behavior. They’re frat boys. She knows exactly what to expect once she gets there. Exposing them should be a piece of cake.

But the boys of Delta Tau Chi have their own agenda, and fellow pledge Jordan Louis is certainly more than the tank top wearing “bro” Cassie expected to find. With her heart and her future tangled in the web of her own making, Cassie is forced to realize that the F-word might not be as simple as she thought after all.

 

Teenagers Competing to Travel to Outer Space

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There’s been a weird sort of mini-trend among YA science fiction lately: teenagers competing to travel to outer space. I’ve noticed three that have all published within six months of each other. In each example, a shady organization run by shady people needs to send teenagers to complete a secret mission, or a mission that is not what it seems, in outer space. The only thing is, there are a limited number of spots available – not enough for the number of candidates vying for the jobs. What follows is a fierce – possibly deadly – competition as the teens strive to outfight and outwit each other for the opportunity to attain glory, wealth, and affordable health care for their families. The books focus wholly on the competition; expected sequels will likely focus on the completion of the mission itself. Each book has a different, potentially believable, reason for the need to send teenagers and not grown, trained astronauts.

I’ve read the first two out of the three below and thought both were quite good. They’re packed with action and a ton of fun details about what the future will look like (it’s not great). Despite their similarities in plot, the tone of each is different, as is the narrative voice. Each author has also devised their own set of unique tests to put their competitors through. The casts of characters are diverse and distinct from each other. Still, the competition aspect makes them seem very, very similar. I’m interested to read The Final Six to see how it deviates (or doesn’t) from the other two. To be honest, I love this trope so much I probably wouldn’t get tired of reading a dozen stories featuring it. Then again, I’m also a huge fan of space travel in general and am thrilled to see so many books featuring it hitting the shelves recently.

Synopses are from Goodreads.

Nyxia by Scott Reintgen

Emmett Atwater isn’t just leaving Detroit; he’s leaving Earth. Why the Babel Corporation recruited him is a mystery, but the number of zeroes on their contract has him boarding their lightship and hoping to return to Earth with enough money to take care of his family.

Forever.

Before long, Emmett discovers that he is one of ten recruits, all of whom have troubled pasts and are a long way from home. Now each recruit must earn the right to travel down to the planet of Eden—a planet that Babel has kept hidden—where they will mine a substance called Nyxia that has quietly become the most valuable material in the universe.

But Babel’s ship is full of secrets. And Emmett will face the ultimate choice: win the fortune at any cost, or find a way to fight that won’t forever compromise what it means to be human.

Dare Mighty Things by Heather Kaczynski

The rules are simple: You must be gifted. You must be younger than twenty-five. You must be willing to accept the dangers that you will face if you win.

Seventeen-year-old Cassandra Gupta’s entire life has been leading up to this—the opportunity to travel to space. But to secure a spot on this classified mission, she must first compete against the best and brightest people on the planet. People who are as determined as she to win a place on a journey to the farthest reaches of the universe.

Cassie is ready for the toll that the competition will take; the rigorous mental and physical tests designed to push her to the brink of her endurance. But nothing could have prepared her for the bonds she would form with the very people she hopes to beat. Or that with each passing day it would be more and more difficult to ignore the feeling that the true objective of the mission is being kept from her.

As the days until the launch tick down and the stakes rise higher than ever before, only one thing is clear to Cassie: she’ll never back down . . . even if it costs her everything.

The Final Six by Alexandra Monir

When Leo, an Italian championship swimmer, and Naomi, a science genius from California, are two of the twenty-four teens drafted into the International Space Training Camp, their lives are forever altered. After erratic climate change has made Earth a dangerous place to live, the fate of the population rests on the shoulders of the final six who will be scouting a new planet. Intense training, global scrutiny, and cutthroat opponents are only a few of the hurdles the contestants must endure in this competition.

For Leo, the prospect of traveling to Europa—Jupiter’s moon—to help resettle humankind is just the sense of purpose he’s been yearning for since losing his entire family in the flooding of Rome. Naomi, after learning of a similar space mission that mysteriously failed, suspects the ISTC isn’t being up front with them about what’s at risk.

As the race to the final six advances, the tests get more challenging—even deadly. With pressure mounting, Naomi finds an unexpected friend in Leo, and the two grow closer with each mind-boggling experience they encounter. But it’s only when the finalists become fewer and their destinies grow nearer that the two can fathom the full weight of everything at stake: the world, the stars, and their lives.