What YA book are you reading RIGHT NOW?

LadyA said:

I finished PRETTY GIRL-13 by Liz Coley. Overall, I really enjoyed it, and I loved how Coley put a new and interesting spin on the kidnapped-teen-returns book, with the MC's Disassociative Identity Disorder (sp?) and amnesia. Additionally, the LI was lovely, and a real change from reading too many YAs where the MC is madly in love with the hot, muscly, jock.
However, the twists were totally obvious, which kind of annoyed me - I guessed (spoilers in white) snip (end spoilers) It wasn't so much foreshadowing as just dropping in these huge, obvious clues.
But I still really liked it, and would recommend it to fans of kidnap stories or dark contemporary YA.(Well, dark-ish, her lack of memory meant practically no angst or struggling with her issues, like in a normal kidnap book).

Click to expand...

You sold me on it, LadyA - I checked it out of the library yesterday.

HOW TO LOVE by Katie Cotugno.

The writing is enviable, but the plot is ho-hum. Every time I think I should move on to something else, the writing pulls me back in...

Yeasayer said:

HOW TO LOVE by Katie Cotugno.

The writing is enviable, but the plot is ho-hum. Every time I think I should move on to something else, the writing pulls me back in...

Click to expand...

Ooops. I was thinking of another book. Ellaroni's post below (The Slurpee thing) made me remember that I actually checked this off my to-read list last year. I found the alternating timelines interesting, and I think that was really what drove me through the book.

I think my next read is going to be THE IMPOSSIBLE KNIFE OF MEMORY.

Yeasayer said:

HOW TO LOVE by Katie Cotugno.

The writing is enviable, but the plot is ho-hum. Every time I think I should move on to something else, the writing pulls me back in...

Click to expand...

Agree. The plot was... strange, often unrealistic and awkward (the way he waltzed back into her/their lives - hello? That was an almost stop-reading-moment.)
I guess it was something in the writing, as you say.

Do I remember this correctly - there was always a Slurpee in his hand?

Started SPEECHLESS by Hannah Harrington yesterday. I couldn't get into her debut, SAVING JUNE, but this one sounded less depressing and more my cup of tea. I'm liking it so far, more than I thought I would - it's not the sort of book where I can't stop thinking about it, but so far it's a nice, solid YA contemp.

"My Most Excellent Year" by Steve Kluger.
Really funny.

wampuscat said:

I think my next read is going to be THE IMPOSSIBLE KNIFE OF MEMORY.

Click to expand...

I'm really looking forward to this one.

Just finished CHAMPION and will be starting THE BOYFRIEND LIST by E. Lockhart.

yayeahyeah said:

Fab book! I love dual narratives and this is up with Katie McGarry's books and Laura Jarratt's SKIN DEEP as one of my very favourite contemporaries of recent years. Such brilliant chemistry between the characters!

Click to expand...

Yeah, I really REALLY loved "Graffiti Moon". Will look into the ones you've mentioned!

Periwinkle said:

Just finished CHAMPION and will be starting THE BOYFRIEND LIST by E. Lockhart.

Click to expand...

Ooh, "The Boyfriend List", been a while since I read it, but I loved that one! I think the whole series is great. Hope you enjoy it!

I gave up on THE ADORATION OF JENNA FOX. It was just 'meh' and I couldn't get into it.

I recently re-read UNDER THE NEVER SKY & THROUGH THE EVERNIGHT in anticipation of INTO THE STILL BLUE and I loved them just as much this time around as I loved them the first time I read them! I adore Veronica Rossi's writing!

I just finished reading THE DARKEST MINDS by Alexandra Bracken. It was good enough to make me want to read the sequel, which I currently have waiting for me, but not good enough that I was texting my book reading BFF telling her about a new series that I needed her to read! LOL .. AB's writing was good, but for some reason, I never really felt emotionally attached to any of her characters.

Currently I am reading ALL OUR YESTERDAYS by Cristin Terrill and I am loving it! I've been feeling just slightly over dystopian lately, so I am loving the different feel of time travel!

bethany said:

I'm reading All Our Yesterdays. It's really good!

Click to expand...

What did you end up thinking? I can't put it down!

DonnaDuck said:

I'm about to start reading Divergent. Finally.

Click to expand...

I've been on a sci-fi kick since I finished Proxy, which I loved. I'm on the last of the non-YA-series Alex Verus book (I read the 4th one first... because I'm sometimes really not clever), and Divergent is on the top of my unread YA list. I've heard mixed, so hopefully it's great.

Finished Fangirl and ended up liking the last half more than the first. Still not a convert to contemp, but I did enjoy the love story.

Now reading Deathless by Catherynne Valente, which is not YA, but would probably appeal to lots of you - a fairy tale retelling with a teen protagonist (at least at first). It is a sort of Soviet Pan's Labyrinth and I'm loving it.

I just finished STORMDANCER by AW's own Jay Kristoff. It's YA Japanese-style steampunk set in an alternate world. There's a lot of set-up (and the story takes a long time to get going), the prose trends to purple and the ending is rushed but I loved the imagination at work in the worldbuilding and will definitely read the next book.

Also finished TROUBLE by Non Pratt, which is a fresh take on teen pregnancy with some great dialogue and fully rounded characters. Particularly refreshing to have teenage girls who like sex without being judgemental about them.

I'm about to start ULTRAVIOLET by R J Anderson, which has been on my To Read Pile for a while.

MM

I finished Cat Clarke's Entangled and enjoyed it. I didn't see the ending coming, which takes the story into An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge territory (spoiler in white) - pretty dark. Given the talk in another thread on how UK publishers are tightening up on overly "mature" content in YA, this is a recent (2011) debut novel which is out and proud 14+.

Onto some adult books for a while, and after the end of next month I will be on BFS Award jury duty, but I will try to get some YA in there, especially when the Carnegie Medal shortlist is announced in March.

Just finished ALLEGIANT and... meh. I just shrugged at the ending. I guess it was still a ballsy way to end the series (and for that I give Roth SOME credit), but it had no emotional effect on me whatsoever.

Finally got around to open Gavin Extence's THE UNIVERSE VERSUS ALEX WOODS - I'm 3/4 in and it's great. Like, brilliant great. Have marked off several chapters I'd like to use with my students in English. Will recommend to anyone, really - it's not just a YA this one.

CoffeeBeans said:

I've been on a sci-fi kick since I finished Proxy, which I loved. I'm on the last of the non-YA-series Alex Verus book (I read the 4th one first... because I'm sometimes really not clever), and Divergent is on the top of my unread YA list. I've heard mixed, so hopefully it's great.

Click to expand...

Well . . . it's nominally entertaining but it's not at all sci-fi.

Tris reads a bit sterile so making an attachment is difficult and it really waters down some of the greater action/high stress scenes. There are some major elements to the story that have me questioning their existence and relevance to the plot and all around I'm about meh on this one. It's bloody and gruesome at times which I like but the plot and world development are kind of thin.

Momento Mori said:

I'm about to start ULTRAVIOLET by R J Anderson, which has been on my To Read Pile for a while.

Click to expand...

This one was pretty great. The writing was phenomenal and really immerses you into Allison's POV. I hope you enjoy it!

Just finished "My Most Excellent Year" by Steve Kluger. LOVED IT. Very original and with lots of humor, reminded me a bit of Jaclyn Moriarty (Australian YA writer with a unique voice).

Before this, I started in "Finding Delilah" by Sarah Ockler. Ugh, I couldn't even get halfway through, it was so self-absorbed. The descriptions where great, but endless, and distracted from the (unfortunately uninteresting) plot line.

I am reading "Time after time", the second book in
the Time Between Us series. It's good so far.

I'm reading THE OUTSIDERS for the very first time. It's for my YALit class, but also one I've been meaning to read for a really long time.

Also reading THE MADMAN'S DAUGHTER. I'm enjoying it for the most part.

Just finished "Wintergirls" by Laurie Halse Anderson.
It just blew me away.

Judy Koot said:

Just finished "Wintergirls" by Laurie Halse Anderson.
It just blew me away.

Click to expand...

I just finished reading "Wintergirls", too. It was so, so, SOOO good! Now I'm about to start her new one: "The Impossible Knife of Memory". LOVE Laurie Halse Anderson! I own all of her YA novels. Her writing style rocks.

Danalynn said:

I just finished reading "Wintergirls", too. It was so, so, SOOO good! Now I'm about to start her new one: "The Impossible Knife of Memory". LOVE Laurie Halse Anderson! I own all of her YA novels. Her writing style rocks.

Click to expand...

"Wintergirls" was my first Laurie Halse Anderson book. I'm so gonna read the rest!

So, I took a slight detour and read PLEASE IGNORE VERA DIETZ because I was told it was a travesty that I'd never read an A.S. King book. My friend was right. It was. Now, I really want to binge-read all her books.

I finished FANGIRL last night. Ahhhh. So good. There are so many parts of the book where I feel like Rainbow Rowell spied on me and wrote about my life.

Now I'm digging deep into my TBR pile and pulling out THE PROBABILITY OF MIRACLES by Wendy Wunder.