STACKED

books

Microtrends in YA Fiction

|

I’ve written a couple times about “microtrends” in YA fiction (here and here). What’s a microtrend? It’s an element that has popped up in more than one novel in recent memory that is strange enough to stand out but not a big enough component of multiple stories to be a proper trend. They’re interesting coincidences that stand out because they’re just odd enough to be memorable. 

Here’s a look at a few microtrends I’ve noticed recently. Some of them have made me scratch my head and others aren’t necessarily weird but interesting commonalities. I’m only looking at books published in 2014, and I’m positive I might miss additional titles that could fall into any of these mini trends, so if you can think of others published or publishing this year that fit, I’d love to know. All descriptions are from WorldCat unless otherwise noted.

Interestingly, some of these novels fit more than one microtrend. 

Stuck In An Elevator

Elevator romances seem to be popping up. It’s a trend I’m surprised hasn’t been seen more frequently. In each of these books, it’s a chance meeting in an elevator that allows a pair of characters to develop a relationship that may have otherwise never happened.

Elevated by Elana Johnson: The last person seventeen-year-old Eleanor Livingston wants to see on the elevator—let alone get stuck with—is her ex-boyfriend Travis, the guy she’s been avoiding for five months. Plagued with the belief that when she speaks the truth, bad things happen, Elly hasn’t told Trav anything. Not why she broke up with him and cut off all contact. Not what happened the day her father returned from his deployment to Afghanistan. And certainly not that she misses him and still thinks about him everyday. But with nowhere to hide and Travis so close it hurts, Elly’s worried she won’t be able to contain her secrets for long. She’s terrified of finally revealing the truth, because she can’t bear to watch a tragedy befall the boy she still loves. (Description via Goodreads). 

The Geography of You and Me by Jennifer E. Smith: Sparks fly when sixteen-year-old Lucy Patterson and seventeen-year-old Owen Buckley meet on an elevator rendered useless by a New York City blackout. Soon after, the two teenagers leave the city, but as they travel farther away from each other geographically, they stay connected emotionally, in this story set over the course of one year. 

Like No Other by Una LaMarche (July 24): Devorah is a consummate good girl who has never challenged the ways of her strict Hasidic upbringing. Jaxon is a fun-loving, book-smart nerd who has never been comfortable around girls (unless you count his four younger sisters). They’ve spent their entire lives in Brooklyn, on opposite sides of the same street. Their paths never crossed . . . until one day, they did. When a hurricane strikes the Northeast, the pair becomes stranded in an elevator together, where fate leaves them no choice but to make an otherwise risky connection. Though their relation is strictly forbidden, Devorah and Jax arrange secret meetings and risk everything to be together. But how far can they go? Just how much are they willing to give up? (Description via Goodreads). 

The Name Lucy

I think I’ve only ever known one person in my life named Lucy. But it appears Lucy is quite the name in YA this year. And it’s not like it’s only been this year, either — Sara Zarr’s The Lucy Variations, published in 2012, also featured a main character named Lucy. 

#Scandal by Sarah Ockler (June 17): When pictures of Lucy kissing her best friend’s boyfriend emerge on the world of social media, she becomes a social pariah after the scandal rocks the school.

The Geography of You and Me by Jennifer E. Smith: Sparks fly when sixteen-year-old Lucy Patterson and seventeen-year-old Owen Buckley meet on an elevator rendered useless by a New York City blackout. Soon after, the two teenagers leave the city, but as they travel farther away from each other geographically, they stay connected emotionally, in this story set over the course of one year. 

Love, Lucy by April Lindner (January 2015): While backpacking through Florence, Italy, during the summer before she heads off to college, 17-year-old Lucy Sommersworth finds herself falling in love with the culture, the architecture, the food…and Jesse Palladino, a handsome street musician. After a whirlwind romance, Lucy returns home, determined to move on from her “vacation flirtation.” But just because summer is over doesn’t mean Lucy and Jesse are over, too. Inspired by E.M. Forster’s A Room with a View. (Description via Goodreads). 

Chantress Alchemy by Amy Butler Greenfield (sequel to Chantress): Lucy, a chantress who works magic by singing, is called to court to find a lost instrument of Alchemy. But her magic isn’t working properly. 

In A Handful of Dust by Mindy McGinnis (September 23): In a barren land, teenage Lucy is taken away from the community she has grown up in and searches the vast countryside for a new home. 

Sublime by Christina Lauren (October 14): Lucy and Colin discover they have a connection on the grounds of the private school they attend, but Lucy has a startling secret. 

How to Meet Boys by Catherine Clark: Best friends Lucy and Mikayla are ready for the best summer of their lives, but when Mikayla falls for a boy from Lucy’s past they realize their perfect summer might be over before it starts. 

Quarantine: The Burnoutsby Lex Thomas (third in the “Quarantine” series): In this final installment of the Quarantine trilogy, David and Will are alive, but on the outside of McKinley High, while Lucy is the last of the trinity left inside to deal with Hilary, who will exact revenge before taking over McKinley High

The Nickname Noodle/s


It’s been a slower reading year for me, but this one caught me because it’s been in two books I’ve read this year: a character who has been nicknamed Noodle or Noodles. 

When I Was The Greatest by Jason Reynolds: Ali lives in Bed-Stuy, a Brooklyn neighborhood known for guns and drugs, but he and his sister, Jazz, and their neighbors, Needles and Noodles, stay out of trouble until they go to the wrong party, where one gets badly hurt and another leaves with a target on his back.

How It Went Down by Kekla Magoon (October 21): When sixteen-year-old Tariq Johnson dies from two gunshot wounds, his community is thrown into an uproar. Tariq was black. The shooter, Jack Franklin, is white. In the aftermath of Tariq’s death, everyone has something to say, but no two accounts of the events line up. By the day, new twists and turns further obscure the truth. Tariq’s friends, family, and community struggle to make sense of the tragedy, and of the hole left behind when a life is cut short. In their own words, they grapple for a way to say with certainty: This is how it went down. (Description via Goodreads). 

Audrey Hepburn


A pair of books are coming out this year that are inspired by or feature Audrey Hepburn. Maybe she’s this year’s Jane Austen? Both titles are fiction. 

Being Audrey Hepburn by Mitchell Kriegman (September 16): Lisbeth comes from a broken home in the land of tube tops, heavy eyeliner, frosted lip-gloss, juiceheads, hoop earrings and “the shore.” She has a circle of friends who have dedicated their teenage lives to relieve the world of all its alcohol one drink at a time. Obsessed with everything Audrey Hepburn, Lisbeth is transformed when she secretly tries on Audrey’s iconic Givenchy. She becomes who she wants to be by pretending to be somebody she’s not and living among the young and privileged Manhattan elite. Soon she’s faced with choices that she would never imagine making – between who she’s become and who she once was.

Oh Yeah, Audrey! by Tucker Shaw (October 14): Months after the death of her mother, sixteen-year-old Gemma Beasley and friends she met through her Tumblr page meet in New York City to celebrate the life and style of Audrey Hepburn and her famous character, Holly Go Lightly. 

Genies


The magical/mythical element of choice this year is the genie. I know very little about genies nor their historical and cultural contexts, so I can’t say much to what it might mean, if anything. I just know it’s an element of at least three books this year. 

Exquisite Captive by Heather Demetrios (October 14): Nalia, a gorgeous, fierce eighteen-year-old jinni, is pitted against two magnetic adversaries, both of whom want her–and need her–to make a their wishes come true. 

The Fire Artist by Daisy Whitney (October 14): As an elemental artist, Aria can create fire from her hands, stealing her power from lightning–which is dangerous and illegal in her world–but as her power begins to fade faster than she can steal it she must turn to a modern-day genie, a Granter, who offers one wish with an extremely high price.

The Fire Wish by Amber Lough (July 22): When a princess captures a jinn and makes a wish, she is transported to the fiery world of the jinn, while the jinn must take her place in the royal court of Baghdad. 

Estate Sales


I can say I never knew anyone as a teen who went to estate sales. I also lived in the suburbs where there were no such things as estates to go to sales at. Garage sales? Sure. Rummaging? Sure. But estate sales? Not so much. But this year at least two YA novels feature the estate sale. 

Everything Leads To You by Nina LaCour: While working as a film production designer in Los Angeles, Emi Price finds a mysterious letter from a silver screen legend which leads her to Ava, who is about to expand Emi’s understanding of family, acceptance, and true romance.

To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han: Lara Jean writes love letters to all the boys she has loved and then hides them in a hatbox until one day those letters are accidentally sent. 

Perks of Being A Wallflower Comparisons

I’ll do another round up of “meets” pitches in a future post, but I mentioned to a friend recently that I think comparisons to Stephen Chbosky’s The Perks of Being A Wallflower will be the next trend after the comparisons to TFIOS and Eleanor & Park. 

The comparisons or the note that the book would be ideal for fans of Perks come from Edelweiss descriptions. This is a small sampling of the titles I’ve seen with this comparison. I know there are others. 

The Anatomy of a Misfit by Andrea Portes (September 2): Outside, Anika Dragomir is all lip gloss and blond hair—the third most popular girl in school. Inside, she’s a freak: a mix of dark thoughts, diabolical plots, and, if local chatter is to be believed, vampire DNA (after all, her father is Romanian). But she keeps it under wraps to maintain her social position. One step out of line and Becky Vilhauer, first most popular girl in school, will make her life hell. So when former loner Logan McDonough shows up one September hotter, smarter, and more mysterious than ever, Anika knows she can’t get involved. It would be insane to throw away her social safety for a nerd. So what if that nerd is now a black-leather-jacket-wearing dreamboat, and his loner status is clearly the result of his troubled home life? Who cares if the right girl could help him with all that, maybe even save him from it? Who needs him when Jared Kline, the bad boy every girl dreams of, is asking her on dates? Who? (Description via Goodreads).  

Play Me Backwards by Adam Selzner (August 26): A promising and popular student in middle school, Leon Harris has become a committed “slacker” but with graduation approaching and his middle school girlfriend possibly returning to town, Leon’s best friend Stan, who claims to be Satan, helps him get back on the right track–for a price.

Twerp by Mark Goldblatt (which is, interestingly, a middle grade book, not young adult): In Queens, New York, in 1969, twelve-year-old Julian Twerski writes a journal for his English teacher in which he explores his friendships and how they are affected by girls, a new student who may be as fast as Julian, and especially an incident of bullying.

Love Letters to the Dead by Ava Dellaira: When Laurel starts writing letters to dead people for a school assignment, she begins to spill about her sister’s mysterious death, her mother’s departure from the family, her new friends, and her first love.

Are there other microtrends you’ve noticed this year worth noting? 

What I’m Reading Now

|


Belzhar by Meg Wolitzer
This one could easily be added to our magical realism genre guide. Jam’s boyfriend Reeve died, and she’s been sent to a boarding school for “fragile and intelligent” teenagers because she’s having trouble dealing with the trauma. (Essentially, she’s depressed.) She’s assigned to a Special Topics in English class where the students read Sylvia Plath exclusively, including her semi-autobiographical novel The Bell Jar. Twice a week, they’re required to write in a journal about anything they like. When they do, they discover the journal takes them to a place in their lives prior to the trauma they’ve experienced. This is Wolitzer’s first YA novel, and it’s smoothly written, mostly avoiding the writing-down-to-its-audience plague that afflicts a lot of adult writers. It’s not my usual cup of tea, but I liked it a lot. I’ll have a fuller review closer to the publication date.

Conversion by Katherine Howe
This is a stunner. I’m only halfway through and I’m pretty impressed by almost everything about this book. Howe has taken the case of the high school girls and one boy in Le Roy, NY, who were diagnosed with conversion disorder in 2011-2012 and set it in a private girls’ school in Massachusetts. She has then drawn a parallel between this case and that of the Salem witch hysteria in the 17th century, coincidentally set in the same physical location. The book alternates between Colleen Rowley’s story in 2012 and Ann Putnam’s confession in the early 1700s (the only participant to confess, incidentally), though the bulk of the book focuses on Colleen. Interwoven through both stories are themes of academic and societal pressure on teen girls, the close policing of teen girls’ sexuality, and what it takes for teen girls to be seen for their authentic selves and heard in their own voices. This is the second novel (that I know of) to use the Le Roy case as inspiration – Kelly wrote about the other, Megan Abbott’s The Fever, on Tuesday – though Howe’s book is marketed specifically for teens. This is a well-crafted novel that juggles many different parts successfully.
 

Sunrise by Mike Mullin
I started this a few weeks ago and it’s been a bit of a struggle for me. It’s the conclusion to a trilogy that began with Ashfall and continued with Ashen Winter. This volume focuses, at least initially, on a war of sorts between two communities post-supervolcano. One of them is the community Alex lives in, and the other is a community that attacked them and stole most of their food and supplies. Alex grows into his role as a leader by organizing a raid/attack on the town to regain their food, essential to their continued survival. I think I’m having a hard time getting into it because it’s so bleak. Right off the bat, there’s a large amount of violence and loss, and I’m in the mood for something a little lighter, perhaps.

Across a Star-Swept Sea by Diana Peterfreund
I loved For Darkness Shows the Stars, the first book set in this universe, so this was a natural pick for me. Where the first was a re-telling of Persuasion, this one is a re-telling of the Scarlet Pimpernel, set on two islands in the Pacific Ocean post-Reduction. I’m not as familiar with the Scarlet Pimpernel as I am with Persuasion, but so far it hasn’t infringed upon my enjoyment. These books aren’t fast reads for me; they’re books to fall into and savor slowly. Part of what I loved so much about FDStS was the yearning between the two leads. In Across a Star-Swept Sea, we trade in the intense romance for espionage and derring-do. Not a bad trade, but it does mean the book doesn’t feel as emotionally resonant (at least so far).

Unfinished Books, Part Two

|

A few more books I couldn’t finish. Read part one here.

The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan
I started listening to the audio and got to disc seven before I gave up. I found the writing to be very sloppy – repetitive with unnecessary dialogue. There were a lot of moments where the characters recapped what just happened (in a super! excited! voice!) and it made the story drag. I remembered, I didn’t need the refresher. Katherine Kellgren’s normally excellent narration actually made it worse for me, since it heightened the repetitive nature of the text.

Tyger Tyger by Kersten Hamilton
I think the only reason I brought this book home from the library was because of its pretty green cover. Turns out paranormal stories about goblins aren’t really my thing. I never thought they were, but hey. It was worth a shot.

The Water Wars by Cameron Stracher
This is a dystopia about a future where water is scarce and strictly regulated. It practically had my name written all over it, but I found it boring. I gave it 50 pages or so and then gave up.

Dark Mirror by M. J. Putney
This is a historical fantasy (set in two time periods!) that sounds really cool and like it would be right up my alley. Alas, it never grabbed me. Perhaps things didn’t move quickly enough for me.

Above by Leah Bobet
This is a weird book, and weird books are very hit and miss for me. Ultimately, I didn’t have the patience to learn the jargon and the specifics of the world-building, despite the intriguing premise (a group of humans with special powers/mutations live underground, survivors of some sort of apocalyptic event above).

Impossible by Nancy Werlin
I had strong, very negative feelings about this book, which many of my acquaintances rather enjoyed. There was a lot wrong with it, to the point where I wasn’t just bored, I was kind of upset by it. Ultimately, I didn’t believe in the characters’ actions and most of the good stuff happened off the page.

The Great Fables Crossover by Bill Willingham
This is a crossover with Fables and Jack of Fables. It’s also where I learned I loathed Jack of Fables.

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
The problem with this wasn’t that it wasn’t any good – it was actually too good. Flynn did such a great job of portraying a toxic marriage that it left a bad taste in my mouth and I couldn’t continue after I read the first big twist.

Circulating Ideas Interview & Excerpt from “It Happens”

|

I’m excited to share the podcast I did with Steve Thomas at Circulating Ideas, which is up now for you to enjoy. We talk about my book, about contemporary realistic fiction, about diversity, and about what makes for good book talking. You can hear it here.

Until the book is up at Amazon/B&N (and I noted yesterday, for people who buy through library vendors like Baker & Taylor and Ingram, you can preorder it now), I won’t talk much more about it. But because I have been talking around the book and have shared the cover, I thought maybe it would be worthwhile to put together a small excerpt from the book to show what it looks like inside.

This excerpt is from the unedited proof, so there may be some minor errors in it. I’ve pulled a passage from Part 1, a section of Part 2, and a section of Part 3, to give a taste of what the entire thing looks like.

If you can’t read the embedded file, you can access it here.

The Fever by Megan Abbott

|

It opens with girls going behind a screen.

A quick prick.

Then they’re done.

A few minutes of discomfort for the injection and a lifetime of sound minds about the chances of ever getting HPV. It’s a new requirement now for girls to be vaccinated. To be protected. “Just in cast,” of course. It’s a safe thing and it’s the right thing to do.

Deenie, Lise, and Gabby have been friends for a long time. High school hasn’t changed their friendship, though they’ve all developed other friendships along the way. They’ve shared secrets and crushes and moments doing things that perhaps they shouldn’t. Like visiting the local lake, closed to visitors because of the mysterious fungus pooling atop of it.

All three got the vaccine, of course.

It’s when Lise’s body begins to contort and she experiences something like a grand mal seizure in the middle of class that the limits of their friendship are tested. The people in class — including Deenie — are horrified by what they’re witnessing. Even when she’s taken out of the classroom, to the nurse, then on to the hospital later in the day, everyone is rattled. Deenie wants to get away, to go see her best friend. Deenie’s brother, keen on what happened, wants to get out of school too. And their father Tom, a teacher at the high school, knows that this is the moment when everything changes. Again.

But Megan Abbott’s The Fever doesn’t stop there. This isn’t only about Lise’s seizure. Or her time in the hospital. Or the fact no one can get answers about what happened to her.

It spreads.

Before long, more girls are having ticks. They’re having seizures or blacking out or acting in ways that are anything but ordinary. Gabby experiences it, as do a number of other girls. All girls. Deenie never does, though. But Deenie did see what Lise looked like when she was in that coma unconscious. It’s an image forever burned in her brain.

When the school loses its mind over the unexplained madness, it only gets worse when adults in this town get involved.

First the fingers are pointed at the vaccine. The vaccine meant to protect their little girls has turned on those very same girls. Their bodies too young, too inexperienced, too virginal to respond appropriately to such a grown up thing. To even think about such a grown up thing.

One girl who gets the fever, though, never got the vaccine. Busted theory? Not so much. The lengths some adults want to go to convince everyone it’s the vaccine, regardless, are impressive and frightening.

Deenie is convinced it must be the lake, though. The lake that’s off limits. The lake that, just days before, she and Lise and Gabby and Gabby’s tight friend Skye all dipped into. But why isn’t she sick then? Why isn’t Skye sick? How come Gabby’s illness was only short lived, not as debilitating as Lise’s? Deenie’s terrified she’s going to have to speak up about it, which will also mean potentially fessing up to the other thing that happened recently: she lost her virginity to one of her coworkers. She doesn’t want people to know, but she wants everyone to know. Just not this way. Because the thing is, Deenie’s first time wasn’t planned, but done after she learned about Lise’s experience with….well, let’s just say they shared a lot of things as best friends.

The pieces aren’t connecting. The stories aren’t adding up.

If Megan Abbott’s book sounds like it was ripped from the headlines of a story making waves in Le Roy, New York, you’d be right. She as much as notes that as one of her inspirations on her website. But The Fever isn’t about the headlines. It’s about what happens beneath the headlines, what it is that people won’t talk about because those things they won’t talk about are the very things they should be talking about.

The Fever is a story about the fear people have about teen girls. About the mythologies adults build about girls who are emerging: in their friendships, in their relationships with people outside their families, in their sexuality. Of course the cause of the illness going around has to do with a vaccine which rips away the innocence of little girls when they’re too young. Of course there’s something noteworthy in the fact it is only girls who experienced this strangeness.

There’s more to that though. Abbott weaves in really fascinating threads about girls finding their first boyfriends. About admitting to their long-time crushes. About what happens when girls go to desperate lengths to be noticed and when they get the help of other girls to do those very things. About why it is boys are never to blame, never the ones who should be questioned or educated about what roles they play in anything. About how boys get off the hook so easily.

Girl friendships are at the forefront of this story, and those girl friendships are what ties so many of the threads together. Those friendships are part of a mythology, and those girls as group are rarely seen as individuals.

Because when it comes to what caused Lise’s coma being unconscious, when the truth unravels, one girl is put to blame. But it’s another girl who will suffer for it. Rather than this being a crime with a criminal to point to, though, the story is about “the girls” collective. About girls who get together and do bad things as a unit. Who are scheming, desirous. Who tempt boys with things — and who are desperate enough to garner the attention of boys that they’ll go to lengths at the end of the world to do so.

There is a boy at the center of this. And he’s a boy who is likable, well-depicted, even, perhaps, all-American. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with him at all, and in fact, he’s the one who figures out the secrets behind a lot of what was happening with the girls. He doesn’t come forward, though, and no one asks him to put himself out there in the same way that these girls are spotlighted, hounded, and made to look a million different shades of bad by those around them. He’s not blameworthy — he’s a good character and he’s been put in a terrible position. But the point Abbott raises here is precisely that: why is an innocent boy let off the hook when a number of innocent girls are instead shamed and embarrassed in front of their community? Because it’s the innocence of girls that needs to be protected and discussed. The innocence of boys, though.

That isn’t the same thing.

The explanation for what’s going on is primarily conversion disorder, and I don’t think that’s a spoiler. What set off the disorder was Lise’s seizure in class, which had a very root cause. And that cause lays at the hands of one of the girls who went to the lake. Who felt like Lise was a threat and a bit of a braggart about what happened to her recently.

Though the primary focus of gender and gender politics lies in the teen girls, there is much to be dug out about those same discussions when it comes to adults, too. The community makes an accusation at one point that part of what was causing a problem in the town was that there weren’t enough good men around to be guideposts for these girls. That the girls who suffered from the fever were also girls who didn’t have good fathers or whose parents had very messed up relationships.

Which explained why Deenie did not experience any symptoms — dad is in her life.

The Fever is a complex, compelling thriller for adult readers which immense appeal for teen readers. It’s written in third person, and it alternates viewpoints between Deenie, her father, and her brother. There’s a fascinating family dynamic among them, particularly when it comes to their mother. The writing itself is tight and pretty sparse. This one doesn’t linger; it pulses forward. The energy and intensity are palpable, and because each word matters, within each word is something deeper to mine. The Fever is less about the answer to what is happening and more about questioning why things are happening. It’s unflinching and at times tough to read, particularly as we watch the actual innocence of teen girls ram up against what adults consider the innocence of teen girls. When we hear Lise talk about the first time a boy goes down on her and how it felt to her and what she experienced then we hear adults talk about how girls shouldn’t be vaccinated because no way, no how would their girls ever be sexual beings. It’s uncomfortable and unsettling, and being able to see the story from all angles is what makes those powerful messages about girls and girlhood stand out.

This was my second Abbott book, after Dare Me, and I think I liked this one even more.

Pass The Fever off to readers who love stories that are playing out in the world right now. Pass it off to readers — teens or adults — who want a fast-paced thriller that’s got a literary bent. There’s so much to parse out in this read that it’s easily one readers will finish and want to flip back and revisit to tease out even more. This is an excellent crossover read.

Review copy received from the publisher. The Fever will be available from Little, Brown June 17.