Anyone looking for some awesome YA fantasy?
Despite my love of all things mysterious, many of my favorite books are young adult fantasy and I'm always on the lookout for good ones.
Here are some I've found:
This may be blasphemy, but I wasn't super taken with Ella Enchanted. It wasn't a bad book, it just didn't make me go "Wow". Fairest was much more my speed. I love retold fairy tales and Gail Carson Levine manages to be both true to the original and totally unique in this spin on "Snow White". The pacing is good throughout, and it takes place in a kingdom where everyone sings all the time. What's not to love? 4 stars
This book restored my faith well-done, shorter YA. I read it in one sitting, but the characters and the world were fleshed out enough to make me want to read more. This isn't your typical vampire-high school book.
The pyschic Giordano sisters, especially Daisy (whose powers have yet to show) have sass and humor to spare. 4 stars
This would probably come more under the heading of middle grade fiction, but I'm throwing it in anyway. I can't tell you much about it without ruining the very well-done world building, but here is the first sentence: "Darkness falls so quickly in Howland that the people there have no word for evening."
This is not just any darkness: this is can't-see-your-hand-in-front-of-your-face darkness. The only creatures out at night are the mysterious and deadly kinderstalk. Oh, and a clever run-away named Annie. 3 stars
PJ Hoover was nice enough to throw this into a package of books I won on one of her blog contests, and I was delighted. Cynthia's blog, Cynsations, has been a fixture on my Google Reader for a long time and I've been wanting to read her books. Especially Eternal.
Did it live up to my expectations? Heck YES!
Forget forbidden romance between plain-but-not-really human and good-but-tormented vampire who wants to eat her. Try a romance between a vampire princess (who regularly drinks the blood of kidnapped humans) and her disgraced guardian angel.
THAT'S a relationship with issues. And both characters are completely believable: sympethetic enough so that we root for them, but flawed enough that you wonder how they're ever going to figure it out.
5 stars
And speaking of vampires, tune in on Saturday for...
The Obligatory "Twilight" Post: Part 2!!!!!!!
(If you want to read Part 1, click here. But be warned, I liked some stuff about the books, but not everything. There are a few rants.)
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Quenntis Ashby says:
Thanks for the lowdown on the twilight
I also love YA. As for the Meyer books. To be honest, I haven't felt compelled to read any of them. I don't plan to read them in the near future either. I hate the hype around the latest fad books, the latest bestsellers. Wait a few months or a year and see then if the books still hold up. I've got a bunch of books I want to read before I go anywhere near Meyer.
Miriam Forster says:
Hooray for YA!!
Also, I understand your point. I feel that way about movies (and most TV shows)--wait and see if it's good enough to stick around before I invest the time.
I've found that as my stack of to-be-read gets longer, my patience with poor books gets very, very short. :)