Yesterday, I talked about the “x-meets-y” pitch style for a pile of YA books. Since there were so many interesting ones I came across, I thought I’d round up another set of those pitches in a second post. As you might notice, there is one particular publisher who really likes this method of describing what a book is.
All descriptions are from Edelweiss, and all of the books are either published in the last year or are coming out this year.
If you’ve seen a particularly noteworthy x-meets-y recently that I didn’t catch in either this post or yesterday’s, I’d love to hear it in the comments. Likewise, I’d be interested in knowing what you think of this pitch style and whether you think they’re effective in terms of explaining the book.
Kippy Bushman, Ruth’s best friend, knows that Friendship’s small-time cops are hopelessly unprepared for the investigation. And Kippy just won’t stand for that, don’tcha know. Armed with only her tenacious Midwestern spirit and Ruth’s secret diary, Kippy decides to look for the murderer on her own. But in a small town like Friendship-where no one is a suspect-anyone could be the killer.
Kathleen Hale’s gripping debut novel is an intricate, ingenious murder mystery that perfectly blends horror with humor. It will keep readers guessing, laughing, and cringing-not necessarily all at the same time-from the very first page until its dramatic final chapter.
With the help of her old boyfriend’s annoying little brother, Tyler-who is now a handsome teenager-she begins to uncover what happened to her that fateful night five years ago. They discover strange facts and phenomenon no one can explain, and other people who have been “taken,” just like Kyra. With a determined, secret government unit after her, Kyra desperately races to find an explanation and reclaim the life she once had…but what if the life she wants back is not her own?
When the Branch decides it’s time to take the boys, Sam stages an escape. Anna’s father pushes her to go with them, making Sam promise to keep her away from the Branch, at all costs.
A stolen book. A deadly plan. A destiny discovered.
If high school is all about social status, Indigo Blackwood has it made. Sure, her quirky mom owns an occult shop, and a nerd just won’t stop trying to be her friend, but Indie is a popular cheerleader with a football-star boyfriend and a social circle powerful enough to ruin everyone at school. Who wouldn’t want to be her?
Then a guy dies right before her eyes. And the dusty old family Bible her mom is freakishly possessive of is stolen. But when a frustratingly sexy stranger named Bishop enters Indie’s world, she learns that her destiny involves a lot more than pom-poms and parties. If she doesn’t get the Bible back, every witch on the planet will die. And that’s seriously bad news for Indie, because according to Bishop, she’s a witch too.
Suddenly forced into a centuries-old war between witches and sorcerers, Indie is about to uncover the many dark truths about her life-and a future unlike any she ever imagined on top of the cheer pyramid.
When Davy Hamilton’s tests come back positive for Homicidal Tendency Syndrome (HTS)-aka the kill gene-she loses everything. Her boyfriend ditches her, her parents are scared of her, and she can forget about her bright future at Juilliard. Davy doesn’t feel any different, but genes don’t lie. One day she will kill someone.
Only Sean, a fellow HTS carrier, can relate to her new life. Davy wants to trust him; maybe he’s not as dangerous as he seems. Or maybe Davy is just as deadly.
Uninvited by Sophie Jordan will be available January 28 from HarperTeen.
This one might win for the least helpful but most head-scratching “meets.”
La Femme Nikita meets Maximum Ride in this action-packed debut novel about seventeen-year-old Wren, who rose from the dead as a Reboot and is now the government’s top soldier-until she is given an order she refuses to obey.
Wren Connolly died when she was twelve years old. She woke up 178 minutes later as a Reboot. The longer a Reboot is dead, the stronger and less human she becomes when she returns-making Wren 178 the perfect weapon.
Callum 22, on the other hand, is practically still human. He’s the worst trainee Wren has ever had, yet there is something about him that makes her feel alive. When Callum refuses to follow a direct order, Wren is commanded to eliminate him. She has never disobeyed before, but now she’ll do whatever it takes to save Callum’s life.
Reboot by Amy Tintera is available now.
The Raven Boys meets TV’s Charmed in this spellbinding paperback original about a seventeen-year-old girl who finds her normal life colliding with her secret magical one.
They say a witch lives in the old house under the bridge. Always in the shadows, draped in ivy and sorrow…. Some people think it’s only a silly tale to scare children, but it’s true. Every word.
Josephine Hemlock knows that the rumors of a witch living in Willow’s End, Nebraska, are true-after all, she’s the witch in question. Jo has always managed to keep her magical life separate from her normal one. But now the mysterious Curse that killed her mother-and so many Hemlock witches before her-has returned. Soon Jo realizes that the life she’s fought to keep hidden could destroy the one she’s worked so hard to protect.
House of Ivy & Sorrow by Natalie Whipple will be available April 15 from HarperTeen.
M. Night Shyamalan’s The Village meets Michael Grant’s Gone series in this riveting new adventure from Amy Plum, internationally bestselling author of the Die For Me series.
Juneau has grown up knowing that she and the rest of the people in her village are some of the only survivors of World War III. But when Juneau returns from a hunting trip one day and discovers that everyone in her village has disappeared, she sets off to find them. Leaving the boundaries in remote Alaska for the very first time, she learns a horrifying truth: There never was a war. Everything was a lie.
Juneau must now make her way in a modern world she never knew existed. But while she’s struggling to rescue her friends and family, someone else is looking for her. Someone who knows the extraordinary truth about the secrets of her past.
After the End by Amy Plum will be available May 6 from HarperTeen.
The Fault in Our Stars meets Eleanor & Park in this beautifully written, clever, and emotionally poignant novel.
Born with cerebral palsy, Amy can’t walk without a walker, talk without a voice box, or even fully control her facial expressions.
Plagued by an obsessive-compulsive disorder, Matthew is consumed with repeated thoughts, obsessive rituals, and crippling fear.
Both are in desperate need of a friend to help them reach out to the world. When Amy decides to hire student aides to help her at school, Amy and Matthew are thrust into each other’s lives. As they begin to spend time with each other, what started as a blossoming friendship eventually grows into something neither expected.
Say What You Will by Cammie McGovern will be available June 3 from HarperTeen.
Stephen King meets Tuck Everlasting in this riveting, emotionally complex story about a teenage girl haunted by the loss of her sister-and trapped by the strange power that fuels her small town.
Gardnerville is a paradise.
A place where no one gets sick, and almost no one ever dies.
A place built on secrets and lies.
A place that will creep into your heart, keep you guessing-and never let you go.
From the author of Another Little Piece comes a spellbindingly unique tale of a town trapped in a cycle of madness, and a teenage girl haunted by the loss of her sister. Four years ago, Skylar’s sister, Piper, led her classmates on a midnight death march into a watery grave. Now Piper is gone. But the secrets she left behind keep taunting Skylar-whispering that if she wants her sister back, she must find a way to stop Gardnerville’s murderous cycle once and for all.
Don’t You Forget About Me by Katie Karyus Quinn will be available June 10 from HarperTeen.
John Green meets Stephen King in this original take on the zombie apocalypse, about a teen boy protecting his fragile younger brother from the horrors around them. With great plot twists, nonstop action, and profound commentary on environmental devastation, human nature, and identity, this is a striking debut novel by a promising young author.
It happened on Halloween.
The world ended.
And a dangerous Game brought it back to life.
Seventeen-year-old Michael and his five-year-old brother, Patrick, have been battling monsters in The Game for weeks.
In the rural mountains of West Virginia-armed with only their rifle and their love for each other-the brothers follow Instructions from the mysterious Game Master. They spend their days searching for survivors, their nights fighting endless hordes of “Bellows”-creatures that roam the dark, roaring for flesh. And at this Game, Michael and Patrick are very good.
But The Game is changing.
The Bellows are evolving.
The Game Master is leading Michael and Patrick to other survivors-survivors who don’t play by the rules.
And the brothers will never be the same.
The End Games by T. Michael Martin is available now.
Game of Thrones meets the Grimm’s fairy tales in this twisted, fast-paced romantic fantasy-adventure about Sleeping Beauty’s daughter, a warrior princess who must fight to reclaim her throne.
Though she looks like a mere mortal, Princess Aurora is a fairy blessed with enhanced strength, bravery, and mercy yet cursed to destroy the free will of any male who kisses her. Disguised as a boy, she enlists the help of the handsome but also cursed Prince Niklaas to fight legions of evil and free her brother from the ogre queen who stole Aurora’s throne ten years ago.
Will Aurora triumph over evil and reach her brother before it’s too late? Can Aurora and Niklaas break the curses that will otherwise forever keep them from finding their one true love?
Princess of Thorns by Stacey Jay will be available December 9 from Delacorte.
Graceling meets Beauty and the Beast in this sweeping fantasy about one girl’s journey to fulfill her destiny and the monster who gets in her way-by stealing her heart.
Based on the classic fairy tale Beauty and the Beast, Cruel Beauty is a dazzling love story about our deepest desires and their power to change our destiny.
Since birth, Nyx has been betrothed to the evil ruler of her kingdom-all because of a foolish bargain struck by her father. And since birth, she has been in training to kill him.
With no choice but to fulfill her duty, Nyx resents her family for never trying to save her and hates herself for wanting to escape her fate. Still, on her seventeenth birthday, Nyx abandons everything she’s ever known to marry the all-powerful, immortal Ignifex. Her plan? Seduce him, destroy his enchanted castle, and break the nine-hundred-year-old curse he put on her people.
But Ignifex is not at all what Nyx expected. The strangely charming lord beguiles her, and his castle-a shifting maze of magical rooms-enthralls her.
As Nyx searches for a way to free her homeland by uncovering Ignifex’s secrets, she finds herself unwillingly drawn to him. Even if she could bring herself to love her sworn enemy, how can she refuse her duty to kill him? With time running out, Nyx must decide what is more important: the future of her kingdom, or the man she was never supposed to love.
Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge will be available January 28 from Balzer and Bray.
The Fault in Our Stars meets Sarah Dessen in this lyrical novel where sixteen-year-old Alice is diagnosed with leukemia and creates a take-no-prisoners bucket list that sets off a war at school…only to find out she’s gone into remission.
What if you’d been living your life as if you were dying-only to find out that you had your whole future ahead of you?
When sixteen-year-old Alice is diagnosed with leukemia, her prognosis is grim. To maximize the time she does have, she vows to spend her final months righting wrongs-however she sees fit. She convinces her friend Harvey, who she knows has always had feelings for her, to help her with a crazy bucket list that’s as much about revenge (humiliating her ex-boyfriend and getting back at her archnemesis) as it is about hope (doing something unexpectedly kind for a stranger). But just when Alice’s scores are settled, she goes into remission.
Now Alice is forced to face the consequences of all that she’s said and done, as well as her true feelings for Harvey. But has she done irreparable damage to the people around her, and to the one person who matters most?
Side Effects May Vary by Julie Murphy will be available March 18 from Balzer and Bray.
Gone Girl meets Pretty Little Liars in this romantic and suspenseful teen murder mystery about a girl’s quest to uncover the hidden secrets in her town before it’s too late.
Growing up in a house of female morticians, Lily Graves knows all about buried secrets. She knows that perfect senior-class president Erin Donohue isn’t what she seems. She knows why Erin’s ex-boyfriend, hot football player Matt Houser, broke up with her. And she also knows that, even though she says she and Matt are just friends, there is something brewing between them-something Erin definitely did not like.
But secrets, even ones that are long buried, have a way of returning to haunt their keeper.
So when Erin is found dead the day after attacking Lily in a jealous rage, Lily’s and Matt’s safe little lives, and the lives of everyone in their town of Potsdam, begin to unravel. And their relationship-which grew from innocent after-school tutoring sessions to late-night clandestine rendezvous-makes them both suspects.
As her world crumbles around her, Lily must figure out the difference between truth and deception, genuine love and a web of lies. And she must do it quickly, before the killer claims another victim.
The Secrets of Lily Graves by Sarah Strohmeyer will be available May 13 from Balzer and Bray.
The Diviners meets The Luxe in this thrilling Jazz Age suspense novel about a budding magician who has spent her whole life trying to hide her very real-and very dangerous-powers.
Born of Illusion is the story of gifted illusionist Anna Van Housen, who assists her mother, the renowned medium Marguerite Van Housen, in her stage show and séances, easily navigating the underground world of magicians, mediums, and mentalists in 1920s New York.
As the illegitimate daughter of Harry Houdini-or so Marguerite claims-sleight-of-hand illusions have never been much of a challenge for Anna. The real trick is keeping her true gifts a secret: because while Marguerite’s own powers may be a sham, Anna actually can sense people’s feelings and foretell the future.
But as Anna’s powers intensify, she experiences frightening visions that lead her to explore the abilities she’s tried so long to hide. And when a mysterious young man moves into the flat downstairs, introducing Anna to a society that studies people with gifts like hers, she begins to wonder if there’s more to life than keeping secrets.
Born of Illusion by Teri Brown is available now.
The Hunger Games meets Matched in this high-concept thriller where citizens must prove their worth by defeating the other version of themselves-their twin.
Two of you exist. Only one will survive.
West Grayer is ready. She’s trained for years to confront her Alternate, a twin raised by another family. Survival means a good job, marriage-life.
But then a tragic misstep leaves West questioning: Is she the best version of herself, the version worthy of a future?
If she is to have any chance of winning, she must stop running not only from herself, but also from love…though both have the power to destroy her.
Dualed by Elsie Chapman is available now.
Any favorite “x-meets-y” pitches in this batch? Any confusing ones? Do any of these pique your interest in a way that you might not have otherwise even paid attention?
I've read The End Games and think John Green meets Stephen King is a terrible way to describe it.
These have been fascinating posts — thank you! It is quite stunning the way you could actually guess the "x meets y" pitch based on the cover design on some of them. Namely, I took one look at Say What You Will and couldn't help but think, "ELEANOR & PARK." Not sure if this is ultimately a good or a bad thing… but obviously the marketing folks like it.
Ok, TFIOS + Eleanor and Park DEFINITELY caught my attention. The cover is absolutely gorgeous and the story sounds amazing. I'm not crazy about the pairings that involve TV shows (mainly because I haven't seen most of the shows they reference, maybe).