This Week at Book Riot

March 18, 2016 |

Because I was out of town last weekend for an event — which I’ll write a bit about next week (spoiler alert!) — I didn’t get a chance to do my normal Book Riot post round-up. This week you get two of my “3 On A YA Theme” posts to make up for it.

A look at 3 YA memoirs

And three great YA books set in different places around the world.

As has been the tradition now for three years, next week we’re bringing back the “About The Girls” series. It’s a little shorter than past series because my time has been a little tight with anthology edits, but that in no way means it’s not as great as usual! Three great guest posts are coming about girls and girls reading, and I’m so excited to share these posts, as well as the books these incredible authors have written that have just hit shelves or will be hitting them soon.

Like in years past, too, if you choose to write anything relating to girls, girls reading, or feminism this coming week, feel free to link me to your post and I’ll build a nice round-up to share. I love hearing your voices and perspectives as much as the ones I have the pleasure of sharing here. In addition, I’ll be talking about the event I attended last week and I’ll also highlight some of the previous guest posts in this series because they’re all so wonderful.

Did I mention I’m in the midst of edits for Feminism for the Real World? It’s true. We’re almost completely on to copyedits now, and I cannot even express how excited I am for this collection. The pieces are all spectacular and I cannot wait for this to be a real thing. I’ll be sharing more in the coming months as the pieces come even more tightly together.

Princeless: Raven the Pirate Princess Book 1: Captain Raven and the All-Girl Pirate Crew by Jeremy Whitley, Ted Brandt, and Rosy Higgins

March 16, 2016 |

I wrote about how much I loved Princeless before. I didn’t think it would be possible to love its spin-off more, but I think I do. Raven the Pirate Princess follows Raven, a pirate princess who was due to inherit her father’s ship – until her brothers betrayed her, locking her in a tower to be “rescued.” The girls in Princeless don’t wait around for a rescuer, though, and when Raven escapes, she sets about hiring her own pirate crew to get revenge. This first volume chronicles her attempts to do this, and it’s funny and exciting and entertaining the whole way through.

The cast is diverse (at most, three out of the five main crew are white, with varying body types and sexual orientations, and Raven herself is Asian) and the social commentary is pure genius. I literally laughed out loud during the interview process in the bar, where man after man walks up to Raven, hoping to be hired with pitches like “I’ve always been really into Eastern Pirate culture” and “I always thought it would be cool to work for a female captain…you know, she could be all stern but sexy” and “You’re probably not even a real pirate girl. I bet you don’t even know what Captain Fraction’s name was before he changed it!” And more. It’s like a bingo card of every tired, offensive, “innocuous” thing ever said to nerd girls, Asian girls, powerful girls…girls in general. Oh god, I love this whole scene so much, I want to hug it. Whitley manages to give each of the five main characters distinct personalities in a limited number of pages, and the art by Brandt and Higgins is expressive and builds these characters just as much as the writing does. Flashbacks are at times a little hard to pick up on right away – I didn’t notice anything artistically that marked a flashback, and there are no dates or “three years earlier” or anything like that. Still, context eventually got me there. For well-read comics fans, there are a few cameos, too, which are unnecessary to understand the story, but are nice little Easter eggs for those who notice them.

I’d say this book is for an audience a bit older than that of Princeless proper. I opted to place it in our teen section in the library, whereas Princeless is in our juvenile section. There’s nothing hugely objectionable, but a lot of the jokes would go over the heads of tweens and younger kids, and they’d likely not understand much of anything that happens in the bar scene, which takes up a big chunk of the book. There’s a bit more violence, too, and the characters are all 16 and up. Highly recommended.

Book Covers That Shatter

March 14, 2016 |

It’s been noted before, but it’s becoming more and more obvious that book covers with something shattering or exploding have become legion. You see them in YA as much as you see them in adult fiction — and maybe most interesting to me is that these book covers tend to favor “women’s fiction” in the adult category.

Shattering/exploding roses are a thing. The backstory here is wonderfully interesting; to make these images, roses are dipped in liquid nitrogen, which freezes them immediately, then slammed against glass.

Let’s take a look at the recent growth of “things exploding” on book covers. Since the YA books and the adult books look like they would have some solid crossover appeal among them, this could make a really striking (heh) display at the library, don’t you think?

All descriptions are from WorldCat. If you can think of other exploding covers that have hit shelves in the last couple of years or that will be coming soon, let me know in the comments!

And I Darken by Kiersten White (June 28): In this first book in a trilogy a girl child is born to Vlad Dracula, in Transylvania, in 1435–at first rejected by her father and always ignored by her mother, she will grow up to be Lada Dragwlya, a vicious and brutal princess, destined to rule and destroy her enemies.

Before We Met by Lucie Whitehouse: When her husband disappears during a business trip to the U.S., Hannah, who believes she has married the perfect man, begins to have doubts when his co-workers tell a different story, prompting her to dig into his life, which unexpectedly leads her to a place of violence and fear.

Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty: A murder … a tragic accident … or just parents behaving badly? What’s indisputable is that someone is dead. But who did what? Big Little Lies follows three women, each at a crossroads: Madeline is a force to be reckoned with. She’s funny and biting, passionate, she remembers everything and forgives no one. Her ex-husband and his yogi new wife have moved into her beloved beachside community, and their daughter isin the same kindergarten class as Madeline’s youngest (how is this possible?). And to top it all off, Madeline’s teenage daughter seems to be choosing Madeline’s ex-husband over her. (How. Is. This. Possible?). Celeste is the kind of beautiful woman who makes the world stop and stare. While she may seem a bit flustered at times, who wouldn’t be, with those rambunctious twin boys? Now that the boys are starting school, Celeste and her husband look set to become the king and queen of the school parent body. But royalty often comes at a price, and Celeste is grappling with how much more she is willing to pay. New to town, single mom Jane is so young that another mother mistakes her for the nanny. Jane is sad beyond her years and harbors secret doubts about her son. But why? While Madeline and Celeste soon take Jane under their wing, none of them realizes how the arrival of Jane and her inscrutable little boy will affect them all.

Black City by Elizabeth Richards: Ash, a sixteen-year-old twin-blood who sells his addictive venom, “Haze,” to support his dying mother, and Natalie, the daughter of a diplomat, discover their mysterious–and forbidden–connection in the Black City, where humans and Darklings struggle to rebuild after a brutal war.

Hold Me Like A Breath by Tiffany Schmidt: Penelope Landlow has grown up with the knowledge that almost anything can be bought or sold — including body parts. She’s the daughter of one of the three crime families that control the black market for organ transplants. Penelope’s surrounded by all the suffocating privilege and protection her family can provide, but they can’t protect her from the autoimmune disorder that causes her to bruise so easily. Penny is considered too “delicate” to handle the family business, or even to step foot outside their estate. All Penelope has ever wanted is independence — until she’s suddenly thrust into the dangerous world all alone, forced to stay one step ahead of her family’s enemies. As she struggles to survive the power plays of rival crime families, she learns dreams come with casualties, betrayal hurts worse than bruises, and there’s nothing she won’t risk for the people she loves.

Break Me Like A Promise by Tiffany Schmidt (June 7): When new legislation threatens to destroy her family’s operations in the black-market organ trade, Maggie finds herself falling in love with Alex, a computer whiz who makes a shocking revelation.

Perfect Ruin/Burning Kingdoms/Broken Crowns by Lauren DeStefano (description for first book): Sixteen-year-old Morgan Stockhour lives in Internment, a floating city utopia. But when a murder occurs, everything she knows starts to unravel.

Charlie, Presumed Dead by Anne Heltzel: Told in separate voices, Lena and Aubrey, each hiding her own secrets, set off in search of the truth about Charlie, including if he is really dead, after meeting at his funeral and learning that he was dating both of them.

The Husband’s Secret by Liane Moriarty: Imagine that your husband wrote you a letter, to be opened after his death. Imagine, too, that the letter contains his deepest, darkest secret, something with the potential to destroy not just the life you built together, but the lives of others as well. Imagine, then, that you stumble across that letter while your husband is still very much alive. Cecilia Fitzpatrick has achieved it all; she is an incredibly successful businesswoman, a pillar of her small community, and a devoted wife and mother. Her life is as orderly and spotless as her home. But that letter is about to change everything, and not just for her: Rachel and Tess barely know Cecilia or each other, but they too are about to feel the earth-shattering repercussions of her husband’s secret.

Discovering a tattered letter that says she is to open it only in the event of her husband’s death, Cecelia, a successful family woman, is unable to resist reading the letter and discovers a secret that shatters her life and the lives of two other women.

It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover (August 2): No description yet!

Perfect by Rachel Joyce: In the aftermath of a life-shattering accident in the English countryside in 1972, twelve-year-old Byron Hemming struggles with events that his mother does not seem to remember and embarks on a journey to discover what really did or did not happen.

The Way I Used To Be by Amber Smith (March 22): After fourteen-year-old Eden is raped by her brother’s best friend, she knows she’ll never be the way she used to be.

This is Where it Ends by Marieke Nijkamp: Minutes after the principal of Opportunity High School in Alabama finishes her speech welcoming the student body to a new semester, they discover that the auditorium doors will not open and someone starts shooting as four teens, each with a personal reason to fear the shooter, tell the tale from separate perspectives.

Historical Fiction Roundup

March 9, 2016 |

The Diviners by Libba Bray

Libba Bray’s books are really hit and miss for me. I liked the Great and Terrible Beauty series at first and then lost interest. I loathed the Printz-winning Going Bovine; it’s probably the worst book I ever finished (I really should have given up on it but I persevered, to my misery). But many acquaintances loved The Diviners and I myself love some historical fiction, so I gave this a try, with the promise to myself that I’d give up on it if it was more Going Bovine than Great and Terrible Beauty. To my delight, it wasn’t either. The main character is Evie O’Neill, a spoiled and headstrong teen who embraces the flapper life of 1920s New York, where she’s sent from Ohio after accidentally-on-purpose (alcohol was involved) revealing that she has the ability to learn things about people by holding objects that belong to them. Of course, people think it was just a party trick, but Evie knows better. She’s sent to live with her uncle, who runs an occult museum and who is soon tasked by the police to help solve murders that have occult overtones. Evie becomes involved, naturally, as she’s not about to let her uncle have all the “fun.”

I loved Evie a lot as a character, though I’m not sure I could handle being her friend. She’s outspoken and stands up for herself and her friends. She’s energetic and embraces life, but she uses a lot of that energy to hide significant unhappiness. The story is told in third person and occasionally switches perspectives to other “diviners” like Evie who have supernatural powers and are connected to the murders in some way. It also occasionally switches to the murderer, and these sections are truly creepy (the murders themselves are paranormal in nature as well). Whereas in Going Bovine, I felt like Bray just threw a bunch of things together and hoped it would stick (it didn’t), The Diviners was planned and executed so well, with sophisticated writing, multiple interesting subplots, layered characters, and extraordinary period detail, plus a good dose of humor. The 1920s aren’t my favorite years to read about, but I was fascinated with the New York Bray portrayed. This is a winner and the first book by Libba Bray that I truly loved.

A Madness so Discreet by Mindy McGinnis

I usually avoid stories about insane asylums since I find them really depressing (yet I still love reading dystopias, go figure). But I’m working my way through all of my library’s YA audiobooks rather quickly and this one at least involved historical crime-fighting and, more to the point, was currently available, so I checked it out. I’m glad I did – it was excellent, though certainly not a happy read. It’s the late 19th century and Grace’s family has put her in the “care” of an insane asylum because she’s pregnant – by her own father. The asylum is a miserable place that regularly abuses its patients, dispensing dubious “treatment” that’s more like torture. Such treatment was common at the time, though as McGinnis writes in her author’s note at the end, better asylums did exist. Such an asylum is where Grace lands after she’s rescued by a doctor – a psychologist – who is pioneering what we now regard as criminal profiling. He noticed Grace’s sharp observational skills and that she does not belong in an asylum and takes her on as an apprentice. In order to keep her away from her sociopathic father, they fake her death. Of course, she’s still living in an asylum, since it’s where Dr. Thornhollow practices, but she has a purpose to her life and a reason to live, something she thought she’d never have – she would have been handed right back to her father after giving birth.

There’s a lot going on in this book, but it’s all tied together so well. There’s the historical aspects: the infancy of criminal profiling, treatment for the insane, how asylums were often used as a way of disposing of “inconvenient” women (pregnant, outspoken, or odd). There’s a central murder mystery which Grace and Dr. Thornhollow work together to solve. And there’s Grace’s personal story, which comes to a head at the end and combines elements of the murder mystery and criminal profiling, pulling everything together. It’s a dark book with a dark ending, though ultimately hopeful as well. It’s feminist throughout, marked by deep and meaningful female friendships, unconventional justice, and a feminist man in Dr. Thornhollow, who doesn’t demand recognition for simply being decent. Not gory, but also not for the faint of heart due to its disturbing subject matter, this is well-written historical fiction, a stellar example of its genre.

The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi

This was a re-read from my childhood. I remember being delighted by the mystery when I was a kid (sometime in late elementary school, probably); it was likely one of the first mysteries I ever read aside from Nancy Drew, and it was a much more dangerous one with much more risk than Nancy ever encountered. This time around, I was curious to see if the story as a whole held up (it did) and I was fascinated much more by the historical aspects and Charlotte’s character arc. Charlotte is not particularly likable at first. She’s naive and snobbish and buys completely into the worldview she’s been taught, even when it goes against her own instincts. But she changes, she grows, and by the end of the story, she’s taken her life entirely into her own hands, not to mention made amends for her previous actions. This is perfectly written for its target age group of late elementary/middle school kids, with plenty of twists and turns and enough clues for a savvy kid to pick up on what’s going on – just before Charlotte does. Still a winner.

The Fandom Flurry: A YA Reading List

March 7, 2016 |

I haven’t talked a whole lot about trends in YA this year. I talked about the dream trend last fall, which is still holding strong this year thanks to books like the upcoming Dreamology by Lucy Keating and Places No One Knows by Brenna Yovanoff. I’ve also talked about how one of this year’s cover trends is teenagers falling, which has seen more books added to the collection since I wrote the post.

But there’s been a big trend this year that’s been impossible not to notice: fandom.

We’re talking books where the feels are unashamed, where the fandom lingo is loud and proud, and where fangirls get to be unabashedly fannish. I thought I’d do a round-up of the recent and forthcoming YA fandom titles. I’ve only read one of these so far, so I cannot vouch for how well they do many things in them, but for readers who want to indulge in fandom and fan culture, these are books to keep an eye out for, for sure.

Know others hitting shelves in 2016? Leave the title in the comments, since I’d love to make this a nice, big trend resource. All descriptions are from Goodreads, as some of these titles didn’t yet have WorldCat entries.

Kill The Boy Band by Goldy Moldavsky (Point, available now)

Okay, so just know from the start that it wasn’t supposed to go like this. All we wanted was to get near The Ruperts, our favorite boy band.

We didn’t mean to kidnap one of the guys. It kind of, sort of happened that way. But now he’s tied up in our hotel room. And the worst part of all, it’s Rupert P. All four members of The Ruperts might have the same first name, but they couldn’t be more different. And Rupert P. is the biggest flop out of the whole group.

We didn’t mean to hold hostage a member of The Ruperts, I swear. At least, I didn’t. We are fans. Okay, superfans who spend all of our free time tweeting about the boys and updating our fan tumblrs. But so what, that’s what you do when you love a group so much it hurts.

How did it get this far? Who knows. I mean midterms are coming up. I really do not have time to go to hell.

Scarlett Epstein Hates It Here by Anna Breslaw (Razorbill, April 19)

Meet Scarlett Epstein, BNF (Big Name Fan) in her online community of fanfiction writers, world-class nobody at Melville High. Her best (read: only) IRL friends are Avery, a painfully shy and annoyingly attractive bookworm, and Ruth, her pot-smoking, possibly insane seventy-three-year-old neighbor.

When Scarlett’s beloved TV show is canceled and her longtime crush, Gideon, is sucked out of her orbit and into the dark and distant world of Populars, Scarlett turns to the fanfic message boards for comfort. This time, though, her subjects aren’t the swoon-worthy stars of her fave series—they’re the real-life kids from her high school. Scarlett never considers what might happen if they were to find out what she truly thinks about them…until a dramatic series of events exposes a very different reality than Scarlett’s stories, forever transforming her approach to relationships—both online and off.

Gena/Finn by Hannah Moskowitz and Kat Helgeson (Chronicle, May 17)

Gena (short for Genevieve) and Finn (short for Stephanie) have little in common. Book-smart Gena is preparing to leave her posh boarding school for college; down-to-earth Finn is a twenty-something struggling to make ends meet in the big city. Gena’s romantic life is a series of reluctant one-night-stands; Finn is making a go of it with long-term boyfriend Charlie. But they share a passion for Up Below, a buddy cop TV show with a cult fan following. Gena is a darling of the fangirl scene, keeping a popular blog and writing fan fiction. Finn’s online life is a secret, even from Charlie. The pair spark an unlikely online friendship that deepens quickly (so quickly it scares them both), and as their individual “real” lives begin to fall apart, they increasingly seek shelter online, and with each other.

All The Feels by Danika Stone (Swoon Reads, June 7)

College freshman Liv is more than just a fangirl: The Starveil movies are her life… So, when her favorite character, Captain Matt Spartan, is killed off at the end of the last movie, Liv Just. Can’t. Deal.

Tired of sitting in her room sobbing, Liv decides to launch an online campaign to bring her beloved hero back to life. With the help of her best friend, Xander, actor and steampunk cosplayer extraordinaire, she creates #SpartanSurvived, a campaign to ignite the fandom. But as her online life succeeds beyond her wildest dreams, Liv is forced to balance that with the pressures of school, her mother’s disapproval, and her (mostly nonexistent and entirely traumatic) romantic life. A trip to DragonCon with Xander might be exactly what she needs to figure out what she really wants.

Girls Like Me by Lola St.Vil (HMH Books, October 4 — there’s a fat girl on this cover!)

Fifteen-year-old Shay Summers is trying to cope with the death of her father, being overweight, and threats from a girl bully in schooll. When she falls in love with Blake, a mysterious boy online, insecure Shay doesn’t want to tell him who she is. But with the help of her two best friends, as well as an assist by Kermit and Miss Piggy, ultimately Shay and Blake’s love prevails.