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Get (sub)Genrefied: Dystopia

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Every month, we’re highlighting one genre within YA fiction as part of Angela’s reader’s advisory challenge. So far, we’ve discussed horror, science fiction, high fantasy, mysteries and thrillers, verse novels, contemporary realistic fiction, historical fiction, graphic novels, and romances. October’s focus is actually a subgenre: dystopias.

Oh readers. I (Kimberly) have been waiting all year for this genre guide. I know so many people are tired of dystopias, but I am not (and neither are a lot of teens). I love them, and I love that there are so many to choose from! Like any other genre, you have to dig through some bad or mediocre stuff to get to the gems – but it is so worth it.

So, what exactly is a dystopia, other than a subgenre of science fiction? I’ve written about this a little bit before, but clearly, there are many who take a much broader view of the subgenre. At its most basic, a dystopia posits a future world whose people exist in a repressed, controlling society, usually watched over by a “Big Brother” type character, organization, or political unit. Often, this political unit will proclaim that their people live in a utopian society, or at least a better one than what came before. The Hunger Games is an example that falls very neatly into this definition.

What this means is that it’s not enough for a future world to simply suck. It has to suck in a particular way.

I understand why a lot of people would broaden the definition to simply mean “an unpleasant future world.” If you do a simple Google search for “dystopia definition,” you’ll find many definitions that state this precise thing. But here’s the thing: such a basic definition doesn’t say much about appeal factors, doesn’t say much about the severity or kind of conflict in the book, and, most importantly, it lumps almost all science fiction (most of which is set in the future) into one subgenre, when SF is endlessly varied and imaginative. Think about it: all novels have conflict, and the conflict will make things unpleasant for the characters involved. Future + conflict doesn’t automatically equal dystopia. It just equals SF.

That said, some dystopian appeal factors overlap with other genres or subgenres. I find this most apparent with post-apocalyptic books (these subgenres actually share a shelf in my Goodreads account). Often, an apocalyptic event will cause a dystopian society to form (such as in Ilsa Bick’s Ashes), and you’ll find both subgenres in one book. Both subgenres are also usually high-concept, full of greater-than-average danger, and involve people who have used cataclysmic events as an opportunity to seize power.

I promise Kelly and I are actually going to discuss more than just defnitions. So let’s move on.

Because dystopia is a subgenre of science fiction, the resources we discussed in our science fiction genre guide are applicable here as well. You’ll find dystopias honored with the SF awards, discussed on the SF blogs, and written by authors at the SF imprints we listed there.

We also encourage you to check out Presenting Lenore’s archive of dystopian fiction. For the past few years, Lenore has dedicated one (or two!) months per year to reading and writing about dystopias, featuring her own reviews, guest posts, and author interviews.

A few other resources:

  • Stacey at Pretty Books has a pretty extensive list of recent YA dystopias, including some forthcoming titles, and she reviews them on her blog.
  • Since dystopias are so popular, a lot of book blogs will tag them all for handy reference. These include the Book Smugglers, Forever Young Adult, and of course, us here at Stacked.
  • Goodreads lists are selectively useful. Here’s a collection of them, but you’ll need to dig deep and skip past the first several pages to get to ones you may not already know.
  • A lot of people like to write about what makes dystopias so popular with teens. I endorse none of these viewpoints, but present them here for your perusal: University of Alberta, The Guardian, Wired, YALSA’s The Hub.
  • The representation of people of color in science fiction is a continuing problem the SF community struggles with, and the dystopian subgenre is not immune. Victoria Law at Bitch Magazine discusses this issue in a blog series called Girls of Color in Dystopia. It’s definitely worth a read, and terrific for brushing up on some standout YA SF featuring people of color.

Below are some recent YA dystopias published within the last year or so. Descriptions come from Worldcat or Goodreads.

Crewel by Gennifer Albin: Gifted with the unusual ability to embroider the very fabric of life,
sixteen-year-old Adelice is summoned by Manipulation Services to become a
Spinster, a move that will separate her from her beloved family and
home forever. Kimberly’s review

Override by Heather Anastasiu: Having escaped the enslavement of the Community and the Chancellor, Zoe
is finally free but far from safe as she and Adrien hide at the
Foundation, an academy that trains teen glitchers to fight in the
Resistance movement. Sequel to Glitch.

The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken: Sixteen-year-old Ruby breaks out of a government-run ‘rehabilitation
camp’ for teens who acquired dangerous powers after surviving a virus
that wiped out most American children.

The Testing by Joelle Charbonneau: Sixteen-year-old Malencia (Cia) Vale is chosen to participate in The
Testing to attend the University; however, Cia is fearful when she
figures out her friends who do not pass The Testing are disappearing. Kimberly’s review

Beta by Rachel Cohn: On a futuristic island paradise where humans are served by enslaved
clones, a sixteen-year-old clone named Elysia seeks her own freedom.

Reached by Ally Condie: In search of a better life, Cassia joins a widespread rebellion against
Society, where she is tasked with finding a cure to the threat of
survival and must choose between Xander and Ky. Conclusion to Matched trilogy.

The Culling by Steven dos Santos: In a futuristic world ruled by a totalitarian government called the
Establishment, Lucian “Lucky” Spark and four other teenagers are
recruited for the Trials. They must compete not only for survival but to
save the lives of their Incentives, family members whose lives depend
on how well they play the game.

Proxy by Alex London: Privileged Knox and and his proxy, Syd, are thrown together to overthrow the system.

Thumped by Megan McCafferty: Melody and Harmony are without a doubt two of the most powerful pregnant
teens on the planet, and there’s only one thing they could do that
would make them more famous than they already are: tell the truth. Sequel to Bumped.

Not a Drop to Drink by Mindy McGinnis: Sixteen-year-old Lynn will do anything to protect her valuable water
source, but the arrival of new neighbors forces her to reconsider her
attitudes.

Promised by Caragh O’Brien: Gaia succeeds in leading her people to Wharfton and the Enclave, but
rebellion there threatens them all just when everything they have
dreamed of seems to be at hand. Conclusion to Promised trilogy.

Requiem by Lauren Oliver: While Lena navigates the increasingly dangerous Wilds, her best friend, Hana, lives a safe, loveless life in Portland. Conclusion to Delirium trilogy.

 Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi: Aria and Perry, two teens from radically different societies–one highly
advanced, the other primitive–hate being dependent on one another
until they overcome their prejudices and fall in love, knowing they
can’t stay together. Kimberly’s review 

Breaking Point by Kristen Simmons: After escaping prison, Ember Miller and Chase Jennings are taken in by
the Resistance but when Ember tops the government’s most-wanted list,
Chase urges her to run and Ember must decide whether to hide again or
fight back. Sequel to Article 5.

Once We Were by Kat Zhang: After the destruction of the Graveyard, Connor and Lev are on the run,
seeking a woman who may be the key to bringing down unwinding forever
while Cam, the rewound boy, tries to prove his love for Risa by bringing
Proactive Citizenry to its knees. Sequel to What’s Left of Me. 

Below are a few upcoming YA dystopias to look forward to.

Altered by Gennifer Albin (October 2013): Sixteen-year-old Adelice Lewys is called upon to harness her power in a
battle for control of Earth, but as she uncovers the truth about her own
history she learns that everyone holds secrets, some of which may drive
her from her love, Jost, into his brother Erik’s arms. Sequel to Crewel.

UnSouled by Neal Shusterman (October 2013): After the destruction of the Graveyard, Connor and Lev are on the run,
seeking a woman who may be the key to bringing down unwinding forever
while Cam, the rewound boy, tries to prove his love for Risa by bringing
Proactive Citizenry to its knees. Sequel to Unwind.

Relic by Heather Terrell (October 2013): Searching icy wastelands for Relics, artifacts of the corrupt
civilization that existed before The Healing drowned the world, Eva
unleashes a great danger when she unearths a Relic that gives voice to
the unspeakable.

Champion by Marie Lu (November 2013): June and Day have sacrificed so much for the people of the Republic–and
each other–and now their country is on the brink of a new existence.
Just when a peace treaty is imminent, a plague outbreak causes panic in
the Colonies, and war threatens the Republic’s border cities. Conclusion to Legend trilogy.

Control by Lydia Kang (December 2013): In 2150, when genetic manipulation has been outlawed, seventeen-year-old
Zelia must rescue her kidnapped sister with the help of a band of
outcasts with mutated genes.

Independent Study by Joelle Charbonneau (January 2014): Now a freshman at the University in Tosu City with her hometown
sweetheart, Tomas, Cia Vale attempts to expose the ugly truth behind the
government’s grueling and deadly Testing put her and her loved ones in
great danger. Sequel to The Testing.

The Offering by Kimberly Derting (January 2014): True love—and world war—is at stake in the conclusion to The Pledge trilogy, a dark and romantic blend of dystopia and fantasy.

Into the Still Blue by Veronica Rossi (January 2014): Their love and their
leadership have been tested. Now it’s time for Perry and Aria to unite
the Dwellers and the Outsiders in one last desperate attempt to bring
balance to their world. Conclusion to Under the Never Sky trilogy.

Landry Park by Bethany Hagen (February 2014): In a futuristic, fractured United States where the oppressed Rootless
handle the raw nuclear material that powers the Gentry’s lavish
lifestyle, seventeen-year-old Madeline Landry must choose between taking
over her father’s vast estate or rebelling against everything she has
ever known, in the name of justice. 

Ignite Me by Tahereh Mafi (February 2014): Juliette now knows she
may be the only one who can stop the Reestablishment. But to take them
down, she’ll need the help of the one person she never thought she could
trust: Warner. And as they work together, Juliette will discover that
everything she thought she knew-about Warner, her abilities, and even
Adam-was wrong. Conclusion to the Shatter Me series. 

ACID by Emma Pass (March 2014): 2113. In Jenna Strong’s world, ACID – the most brutal, controlling
police force in history – rule supreme. No throwaway comment or muttered
dissent goes unnoticed – or unpunished. And it was ACID agents who locked Jenna away for life, for a bloody crime she struggles to remember.

The Haven by Carol Lynch Williams (March 2014): For the teens at The
Haven, the outside world, just beyond the towering stone wall that
surrounds the premises, is a dangerous unknown. It has always been this
way, ever since the hospital was established in the year 2020. But The
Haven is more than just a hospital; it is their home. 

Twitterview: Jason Vanhee (author of Engines of the Broken World)

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We’re really excited to have debut author of Engines of the Broken World here at STACKED as part of our monthly Twitterview series. Bot Kimberly and I dug this book, and so we were excited to collaborate on interview questions for Jason — who offered some excellent answers. 
We’re also offering up a finished copy of Engines for one reader at the end. 


Without further ado, Jason:




What inspired Engines of the Broken World?
The image: a snowbound house, a dead mother, a young girl;came to me all at once at the start of Nanowrimo ’09 and went from there 

Talk a little bit about the Minister. What inspired him/her/it?
It grew in the telling. Started as a homey sort of helper, but depth came very quickly. Didn’t know what it really was till near the end.

We imagine the religious plot elements may be touchy for some readers. What feedback have you gotten about these aspects in particular? 
That it’s too religious, which is funny, as I’m an atheist. But religion is very important to very many people, so one should write well.
The story is ambitious, but is told on a smaller scale than most YA fantasy (few characters, single setting). Was this a conscious decision?

Absolutely. I wanted claustrophobic. I wanted intimate. I wanted an intensely enclosed narrative.
The ending is ambiguous (which we love). In your own mind, do you know Merciful’s fate? 
I know what the story tells me her fate is, and I know what I personally would hope her fate is, and the two aren’t the same.
There’s a lot of genre-blending going on in the book. How would you describe its genre to readers?
That’s a really hard one. Apocalyptic dark fantasy pastoral horror with a religious bent? 
What, if anything, should readers walk away with from Engines of the Broken World?
Oddly, I would say hope. That it’s possible for one very ordinary, not special person to change the world. 

If you had to give a “______” meets “_________” pitch for your book, what would you say are the 2, 3, or 4 titles it’s a combination of?

The Shining meets Evil Dead meets Little House on the Prairie, I guess?
Engines is pretty classic horror. What sort of horror inspires your writing? 
I like horror that sets a mood, lets your own mind craft the terror. Don’t show me the monster, let me think its worse than you can describe
Favorite horror novel and favorite horror movies?
Lovecraft’s stories; early Stephen King; John Carpenter’s The Thing; Alien; The Ring; last three minutes of Blair Witch Project.

What gets you jazzed to write?
 A new idea; finding something from years before I never finished; reading a book I know I could do better than.

Who or what do you write for?
My dad was a writer and that started it; now it’s for my own satisfaction; for the joy of finishing; and for my husband who loves my books.
Why YA? Was it your intended readership?
I intended YA with this, yes, because that fit with the book. Right from the start, even as grim as it gets, Engines was going to be YA
What scares you the most about writing or the writing process?

Rejection and failure, which are common fears for writers. It’s tough because every book could fail. Could be terrible. You never know.
This is your first novel — talk about what this experience has been like? Best part? Toughest Part?
Best: selling it. Seeing the cover. Knowing the release date. Worst: Waiting. It’s a two year process, roughly. But it’s almost done.
Who are your top three writing influences?
Tough one. So many. Maybe Stephen King, his books and his writing guide. My dad, as inspiration only. I read so much I take from everyone.

What was your most influential read as a teenager?
LotR. I read it once or twice a year for a decade or so. There’s a whole lot to learn there even with shallow characters and slow pace.
Who do you believe is breaking ground in YA right now?
On the diversity front: Alaya Dawn Johnson, The Summer Prince. Represents everyone, and also a good read.
What’s the best writing advice you ever received?
To never believe it’s as polished as I imagine it is. But also, from me: never think it’s as bad as you dread either.

What’s your best writing advice to give?
Always be reading. Everything. YA, mysteries, magazines, blogs, everything. And always be writing, at least a little. It takes practice.
Do you have a writing soundtrack? Care to share some of it?

I get too distracted by music. General noise or talking isn’t a problem, but music and I can’t write.
What’s next for you?
Working on a YA trilogy about powers dark and divine, beings made of words, and a boy with headaches he can’t get rid of.
Favorite ice cream?

In Seattle there’s a big ice cream boom here right now, all sorts of great interesting stuff, but I like a rich French Vanilla best. 

Help me get on the Printz ballot?

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If you’re a YALSA member, you may or may not be aware of how the different committee processes work — how do you get on a selection or process committee? What are the differences between a committee like BFYA and Printz in terms of how you go about getting your name out there?

I know I’ve had a lot of questions, and over the course of being involved with YALSA, I’ve figured some out, but I’m learning more every day. One of the biggest ones I learned came this week, and I wanted to share it with other readers who are YALSA members both to inform and in hopes of asking for a little help.

Anyone who wants to be involved in the Printz committee, the Excellence in Non-Fiction committee, or the Edwards committee needs to be voted on by the YALSA membership. But to get on the ballot, one must apply first.

I put in my application for the ballot this year but was not selected to be a part of it.

But this is where I learned something really neat: you can petition to get on the ballot if you’re not selected initially. All it takes is 25 signatures from YALSA members to get on it. That means if you want to get on the ballot for the 2016 (yes, 2016) Printz, Edwards, or Non-fiction committees, you need to have 25 people sign this petition for you, and you deliver it back to YALSA.

This is, of course, where I am asking anyone who reads STACKED and is a member of YALSA to help me out a bit!

I’m in the process of securing 25 signatures, and if you’d be willing to help me out in the process, I’d be so grateful. I would need to be able to email you to pass along my personal information, as well as be able to collect the signature from you. If you’re a YALSA member in good standing (in other words, your dues are paid), would you let me know if you can help me in the form below? I’ll be in touch this week with more information. As of now, the forms are only print, meaning I’d either need them scanned back to me or mailed. YALSA says they’re working toward a digital petition in the future.

So you’re probably wondering why me? I like to think I have the ability to critically assess YA books, but beyond that, I’ve served both as an administrative assistant on YALSA’s Alex committee and I’m currently serving on YALSA’s Outstanding Books for the College Bound committee. I also volunteered three years as a judge for CYBILs. And if you’d like more on the “why me,” I’d be happy to provide that privately.

Thanks to everyone who is willing to help me out — and of course, I hope this information is valuable to other readers curious about this particular process.

Dual Review: Engines of the Broken World by Jason Vanhee

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Though we don’t have a formal horror series planned for October, Kimberly and I will be featuring a number of reviews and other fun features highlighting horror this month. We’re going to kick it all off with a dual review of a horror novel that generated a ton of discussion between the two of us because it does precisely what a good horror novel should do: it leaves you with a lot more questions than answers, and those questions beg to be talked about. The two of us enjoyed Engines of the Broken World so much that we invited the author to participate in an interview. So whet your appetite on the review, and then we’ll bring you an interview with Jason Vanhee tomorrow.

Kimberly Says . . .












Merciful and Gospel Truth’s mother has just died. They live on a farm in the country, and it’s been cold – and getting colder – for a long time. This means they can’t bury their mother in the hard ground. Instead, they put her beneath the kitchen table, which they know is wrong.

The Minister, the talking cat who lives with them, guiding their actions on the path of righteousness, tells them this is wrong. They must bury their mother, even if it means venturing out into the encroaching fog, the fog which eats away at their neighbors’ bodies, leaving nothingness behind.

But they don’t listen to the Minister. They leave their mother’s body unburied, and Merciful realizes what a mistake they’ve made when she hears her dead mother’s voice speaking to her. Her mother – or whatever is inhabiting her mother’s body – has something to do with the fog closing in on the farmhouse, closing out the rest of the world. The Minister is also involved somehow, and one of the greatest joys of watching this story unfold are the ways Vanhee leads the reader down so many different paths. What is the true nature of the Minister, of the fog, of Merciful’s mother? You’ll change your mind several times over the course of the story, and you may still feel like you don’t have all the answers at the end.

I like it when authors take risks with their content. There’s quite a lot of religion in this book, but it doesn’t come close to resembling what most would consider “Christian fiction.” Because Vanhee plays with Christianity in the way he does, twisting it into something one might call horrifying, I expect a great many readers would find his book offensive.

I love that. I don’t love it just because people are offended; I love that these kinds of stories are not off-limits despite that. I’ve written about this a little bit when I discussed Misfit and The Obsidian Blade. By experimenting with a religion so many of us subscribe to, Vanhee makes his story all the more terrifying, I think, and more personal as well.   

Engines is an apocalyptic story, but it’s markedly different from any other apocalyptic story you’ve read recently, I assure you. For one thing, it’s a small, intimate story. The cast of characters numbers six, and it diminishes quickly. The setting consists of the Truth home and a neighbor’s home, plus the land between them. This, too, diminishes quickly. The book gives off a very claustrophobic feel. Its huge idea – the end of the world – may seem at odds with the smallness of its cast and setting, but that’s what makes it stand out, and it’s a large part of what makes it so effective.



It’s also incredibly disturbing. One of my favorite moments is actually something I feared was an ARC mistake at first, involving the deliciously creepy and ambiguous Minister. (The Minister may be the most brilliant thing about the entire book.) If you choose to pick up this book after reading our review (and I hope you do), look for a moment where the Minister’s true nature becomes even more ambiguous than before – and then let me know if you were as creeped out by it as I was.

I loved this book for its creativity, for its daring, and for its writing – which is concise, atmospheric, and doesn’t waste a single word. This is an excellent choice for readers looking for something that will stretch them a little, something that’s different from anything they’ve read lately. I also think it would be a great pick to re-energize anyone going through a reading slump.





Kelly Says . . . 


A good scary novel in my mind leaves you wondering at the end, and I find it particularly enjoyable to wonder whether or not the ending is hopeful or hopeless. Vanhee captures this perfectly in Engines of the Broken World, as we’re left with a world that’s been literally shattered and destroyed. But Merciful Truth is such a trouper throughout the story, making some gut-wrenching decisions, and at the end, I couldn’t help wonder if the world has hardened her enough to make her actually feel hope or if she’s finally succumbed to the truth of the world in which she lives: it’s hopeless. Period. Because even though she has the chance to live now, the chance to get out and do things on her own terms, there are lingering forces in the world around her which she has no control over.

The fog isn’t going away. If anything, it continues to grow closer. The ending of Vanhee’s novel was absolutely perfect and just the way I prefer my scary stories because of this. I don’t want a cut and dry answer. I want to leave wondering. But I want to be left wondering enough that I also don’t want to reenter that world and discover an ending. I like that discomfort. I like there to not be a pretty bow at the end.

Kim and I talked a long time about the role of The Minister in this book when we both finished, and we’ve each our own take on it. I believe The Minister’s role was as the false prophet in the story: it’s a role he (it?) sort of takes on himself and yet it’s a role that both Merciful and Gospel choose to believe in when the times become exceedingly difficult for them. And it’s through their belief and worship of The Minister that their world becomes more confusing and challenging, rather than one in which they can believe stronger. For me, the role of The Minister as false idol/prophet came to a head when Merciful has to make a huge choice about taking control of the situation within the house and spirits haunting it — spoiler here — she has to kill The Minister. And with that comes the freedom to move on with her life and make her own choices without his guidance and his judgment of them. This act of agency was empowering for her, rather than one done out of desperation, though desperation certainly aided in her choice.

Overall, Vanhee’s novel is a lot of fun. Yes, I said fun. There’s definitely a body count, and there’s definitely a lot of scary stuff that happens within it, but what makes it fun is that it’s ballsy. Engines plays upon a lot of taboo topics and does so without backing off them. And there’s a cat who talks and is (in my mind) a jerk. It’s satisfying and rewarding as a reader since there are no cheap ways out. There’s bloodshed, there’s murder of family, and there’s possession, parallel worlds, and as a reader, you’ll find yourself feeling a bit paranoid.

I think this book will make some people angry because it does these things. But I think the real element of horror in this book comes because of that: if we strip away the sanctity of things in our world — death, religion, family, pets — and we instead look at them in another way, of course we’re going to be scared. And we should be.

Pass Engines of the Broken World off to your mature YA readers who want a challenging but satisfying scary book. This one should work well for those who love Stephen King, as well as those who love a story about other worldly spirits.

Friday Never Leaving by Vikki Wakefield

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Friday Never Leaving by Vikki Wakefield came out in the US September 10, but it came out last year in Australia as Friday Brown. While I read the Australian version, from what I’ve figured out, little about the book has changed in the process — except the title, some of the words (I’m assuming words like “pram” were Americanized), and the cover. While it looks like a drowning girl on the cover of the US version on the left, it’s actually a perfectly fitting cover to some of the content in the story. But I think I do have a slight preference for the Australian cover, shown below. It, too, is a moment from the book and perhaps sums up the feeling of the story in a way that the US one doesn’t quite capture. 

Friday Brown has always lived her life moving from place to place. Her and mother Vivienne didn’t stay long anywhere. They ran from their pasts, from the family curse of death by water, to new places with new hopes. But when Vivienne dies — the first woman in the family to not be taken out by the curse, not quite — Friday is living with her grandfather and she feels unsettled. Being in one place, that stasis, doesn’t fit with her soul. And she certainly can’t wrap her mind around her losses. 

So she leaves.

Friday takes up residence with a group of other homeless teenagers after running into a homeless boy named Silence at the train station. He saved her and brought her back to the squatter house, where she quickly finds herself entranced with Arden. Arden entranced me too; she was powerful, she had a mystique about her, and she was captivating. She’s the kind of girl who catches and captures attention. 

And Arden knows this. She abuses it. 

She is a woman with power.

When the squatters move on to the Outback, to a place where no one else is around them, Arden truly asserts her power and dominance. It doesn’t sit well with Friday nor most of the others in the crew, but it is Friday who challenges her. And it is Friday who pays the consequences for it. 


But when Friday sees her life nearing an end, after losing a friend, can she figure out how to find the place she truly needs to be? Is there such thing as stability? How do you pick yourself up again when everything you once knew is turned on its head? When the mother you thought you knew wasn’t truly the person you thought she was? When moving doesn’t mean freedom but instead means imprisonment? When finally you allow yourself the opportunity to grieve your losses and pick up the pieces for yourself? 

Is it possible to be whole again and what does that look like? 

Wakefield does an incredible job of exploring at the complexities of people. While the relationships she creates between these people is equally complex, they never quite got to the level I’d hoped for. Arden is intriguing, but we never see her power exerted until the very end. We know of it — Friday tells us about it — but I wanted more. In ways it’s that not seeing which makes it scary, but to experience the full intensity, I wanted to see the full Arden. 

I loved the relationship that emerged between Friday and Silence, though; she listened to him and she GOT him. She got his insistence that love and memory mattered, that someone is never really gone, ever, if you keep them in your mind and your heart. That learning people aren’t always what they seem on the surface is hard, but it doesn’t change the fact that love is something you have the right to choose to give; it’s not automatic. 

Wakefield’s writing in Friday Never Leaving is exquisite and literary. Friday is quiet and she’s observant about the world around her, particularly when it comes to Silence. The way she lovingly describes and engages in her world is easy to fall into, even if it’s not pretty — and it’s not. The losses she’s suffered in her life, and the life she led with mom that was never about stability or ease are not pretty things. The curse in her family, which almost gets her as well, doesn’t offer us a reason for Friday to maintain the sort of optimism about her future and the world around her, and yet she does. 

I think there is serious potential for this to be talked about for the Printz this year. It’s challenging, multi-layered, and the writing is just damn good. I wanted to mark page after page for some of the thoughts that Friday shared and the truths she discovered. It’s an achey read, not a feel-good read, and I suspect that even though I liked-not-loved it, the story and Friday’s voice will remain with me for quite a while.



It’s hard to put a finger on exactly what this book reads like, but I think it’s a bit of a combination of Kirsten Hubbard’s Like Mandarin in terms of relationships and power wielding within them, with a bit of Holly Cupala’s Don’t Breathe a Word, when it comes to choosing life as a homeless teen. Pass this one along to readers who want a contemporary title that’s literary, that explores relationships, and that really tackles more questions than it offers answers — and perhaps that’s why this is a book that lingers and has a slower burn. There’s more to wonder than there is to know. 

Friday Never Leaving is an excellent title, too, for those readers who want books set abroad. Perhaps pair this one with Simmone Howell’s Everything Beautiful or Melina Marchetta’s realistic novels.  I’m really eager to dive into some more Australian contemporary. While I’ve read a little bit, I think Wakefield’s novel might be the one that encourages me to wade even deeper into these waters. 

Friday Never Leaving is available now from Simon and Schuster. My copy was sent to me from Adele, along with a pile of other Aussie novels I am eager to read.