What YA book are you reading RIGHT NOW?

LIFE IS BUT A DREAM by Brian James. Strong contender for my "best of 2012" list.

Love Sucks -- it's great so far! (Hope I'm not embarrassing you, Sage.)

I'm reading WE WERE HERE by Matt de la Pena. I think it may be the best YA I have ever read. So in love with this book. Great guy read too.

Re-reading Veronica Roth's DIVERGENT, in anticipation of going straight to Chapters after work on Friday and reading INSURGENT straight through in one sitting...

Starting WILL GRAYSON, WILL GRAYSON by John Green and David Levithan.

Reading The Vanishing Game, and wow, I wish I wrote this book. It combines some of my most favorite things: secrets, more secrets, codes, games, what-is-going-on-here, an active heroine, a romantic subplot and a creepy foster home right out of El Orfanato.

Graffiti Moon by Cath Crowley. Heard a lot of things about this book and I'm liking it a lot so far.

Momento Mori said:

Have started an ARC of EARTH GIRL by Janet Edwards, which is a YA SF set in the far future where those humans who lack the immune systems to travel to other planets are confined to Earth and regarded as throw-backs and apes. Love the voice so far and she's deftly set up the world in only a couple of pages so I've got high hopes. It isn't released in the UK until August.

MM

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I read that recently and really enjoyed it. Met Janet Edwards at Eastercon as well, and she's such a sweetie.

ShaylaElla said:

Re-reading Veronica Roth's DIVERGENT, in anticipation of going straight to Chapters after work on Friday and reading INSURGENT straight through in one sitting...

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INSURGENT is a 525 page behemoth, which is loooong even though it reads just as fast (faster in some places, actually) as DIVERGENT. So be prepared to stay up late.

I won't be reading Roth's 2nd book. Turns out I didn't dig the first.

Momento Mori said:

Finished BLACK HEART by Holly Black and it left me underwhelmed. There are a lot of great ideas and the world has so much potential but the plot strands didn't gel for me and the unreliable narrator schtick (which basically relied on Cass not telling you what he'd planned) got really old across the three books. The ending has a really rushed feel to it as well. It's actually one of those books I'd point to as needing to be twice the length it is to do the ideas justice.

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I felt exactly the same way; it wasn't my favorite of the series (although I did love the last line). I agree, it definitely needed to be a bit more fleshed out. But then, I tend to think that about most of Holly Black's books. She has amazing ideas but tends to under-write them.

Now on to DROWNING INSTINCT. I've heard a lot of good things and I'm hoping this will break the streak of underwhelming (The Nightmare Garden) and borderline bad YA (Ultraviolet and Cinder, both of which telegraphed like crazy and Cinder read like an MG book -- I'm genuinely surprised by the love for this book) I've read lately. *fingers crossed*

cherita said:

Now on to DROWNING INSTINCT. I've heard a lot of good things and I'm hoping this will break the streak of underwhelming (The Nightmare Garden) and borderline bad YA (Ultraviolet and Cinder, both of which telegraphed like crazy and Cinder read like an MG book -- I'm genuinely surprised by the love for this book) I've read lately. *fingers crossed*

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Ooh, I want to read that one - teacher/pupil relationships are so interesting.

onto KILLING MR GRIFFIN by Lois Duncan. Good so far, and yayay edgy + 3rd person POV. LOVE a bit of 3rd person, considering it's what I usually write and yet I rarely find it to read.

Finished Across the Universe. I got bored, then got excited about it again, then got annoyed by the ending twists. I don't like it when an author has a character hide something from us in first person.

I do like that it was more about power than about romance, and that much thought-provoking stuff was broached. This was one of those YA books where I wished I could be reading the POV of the adult characters, because they seemed more interesting than the protagonists. But maybe that's just me showing my age!

KateSmash said:

INSURGENT is a 525 page behemoth, which is loooong even though it reads just as fast (faster in some places, actually) as DIVERGENT. So be prepared to stay up late.

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Have stocked up on coffee and red bull...

Not sure if I want to read Insurgent. I liked Divergent okay, but I read it a year ago and I can't for the life of me remember much of it... it didn't leave much of a mark on me I guess. I'll have to hear really amazing, outstanding things about Insurgent before I decide to read it.

lauralam:
I read that recently and really enjoyed it.

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I really love the world building and the main character's voice but it's fallen apart in the final third for me after the Major Plot Development. I would love to read her next book though.

MM

The Savage Grace by Bree Despain. My gosh is it depressing. It's all doom and gloom and it's seriously bumming me out. Kinda want it to lighten up a bit. There's not even a tiny bit of humour or anything to break up the angst and pouting.

Fuchsia Groan said:

Finished Across the Universe. I got bored, then got excited about it again, then got annoyed by the ending twists. I don't like it when an author has a character hide something from us in first person.

I do like that it was more about power than about romance, and that much thought-provoking stuff was broached. This was one of those YA books where I wished I could be reading the POV of the adult characters, because they seemed more interesting than the protagonists. But maybe that's just me showing my age!

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I know. I wasn't crazy about this book either. I'd hoped the romance would've been just a tad more there, but I was bored with a lot of it. The main characters were dull to me, especially Elder.

A Girl In A Dress said:

Shiver, by Maggie Stiefvater.


... anyone else in LOVE with her writing?

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Yeah, I like her. I've read Shiver and need to read the sequels. I liked Lament a lot, which was her first book.

I am trudging through Generation Dead by Daniel Waters. Has anyone else read it who wasn't excited by the narration?

Just finished reading 13 Little Blue Envelopes and am about to start on Nothing Like You.

Reading Matched by Ally Condie. I just finished Cinder (which was good), Goddess Interrupted (which was better than the first of the series), and Gossip Girl 1 (which I have absolutely nothing nice to say about).

I just finished Beastly by Alex Flinn, which was interesting. (I'm very touchy about certain things, Beauty & The Beast retellings being one of them. I liked the POV being from the Beast of the story. I felt that the situation with him and Lindy could have been better done, though.)

Now I'm reading The Fault In Our Stars by John Green, which I am loving. Sometimes I'm laughing out loud, at others my heart hurts for these characters. I'm definitely reading something lighter, or at least not so "real" next, though.

Or I might break down and read Insurgent. I've been dying to get my hands on it, but my Google Reader is getting a ton of review posts for it and I don't overly want to be cast adrift among them. Tough call. I also have Thumped by Megan McCafferty and The Selection by Kiera Cass sitting here. It's anyone's guess which book will wind up in my hands. But at least I'm finally getting some reading in.

I finished THE VAN!SH!NG GAME. Wow, it must have been the twistiest book I've read in 2012. I didn't care too much for one of the two big final twists, though--it was too much of a good thing, in my opinion, crossing the line between complicated and convoluted. The one dealing with knives under the pillow, for those who have read it. Still, if you like mysterious and creepy YA stories, read it. Read it now. It was delightfully unpredictable, even though I'm usually good at predicting such things.

I finished KILLING MR GRIFFIN. Blimey, it was good. Creepy, suspenseful, and awesome. Lois Duncan was sometimes unintentionally funny, too - it was written in the 70s but she's updated it, so I'd be reading this bit where they would be in an old chevy, or an old-school TV program would be on, and someone would mention an iPod. Jerked me right out of the story.

Her villain was also well-written. And if anyone else has read KMG, is it me or do you feel sorry for David? I know LD didn't seem to want her readers to like him, but I felt genuinely upset for the way it ended for him.

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And now I'm starting THE CREW by Bali Rai. An oldie from 2003, but hey, it's looking good so far.