What YA book are you reading RIGHT NOW?

Just finished Cracked Up To Be by Courtney Summers. It was brilliant!

Slowly working on Beautiful Creatures

I'm starting The Miles Between by Mary E. Pearson. Is it any good?

The Vampire Kisses Series
I'm in the middle of the fifth THE COFFIN CLUB

I've finished 13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher, which I thought was a v. powerful book. The only thing I'm not sure about is the ending, which seemed a little abrupt.

I've seen a couple of posters here talk about Graceling by Kristin Cashore. Is that marketed as a YA in the US, because over here in the UK it's on the 'grown-up' fantasy and SF shelves?

MM

I'm reading Shiver.

Momento Mori said:

I've finished 13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher, which I thought was a v. powerful book. The only thing I'm not sure about is the ending, which seemed a little abrupt.

I've seen a couple of posters here talk about Graceling by Kristin Cashore. Is that marketed as a YA in the US, because over here in the UK it's on the 'grown-up' fantasy and SF shelves?

MM

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Yes, the Graceling series is sitting nicely in the YA shelves here. I've itched to pick it up but I've heard mixed feelings on it so I'm holding off.

Graceling is in the YA section here in Australia.

I read it a few weeks ago. I really liked it. BUT the beginning is very slow to get going - I pretty much persevered because I had heard it was going to be GOOD. And it was. I'd recommend it.

An Abundance of Katherines, by John Green

Momento Mori said:

I've finished 13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher, which I thought was a v. powerful book. The only thing I'm not sure about is the ending, which seemed a little abrupt.

I've seen a couple of posters here talk about Graceling by Kristin Cashore. Is that marketed as a YA in the US, because over here in the UK it's on the 'grown-up' fantasy and SF shelves?

MM

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I recently heard Gollancz editor Gillian Redfearn talk, and I asked her about this. They made a conscious decision to publish Graceling as an adult book, because the upper-end YA audience (14 upwards) is less in evidence in the UK and they thought the book would sell to adult fantasy readers.

On the other hand, Gollancz published The Forest of Hands and Teeth as a YA book. I guess that's because it's horror rather than fantasy, and horror has been much bigger in YA than adult for about a decade and a half - apart from half a dozen big names, adult horror hasn't existed as a commercial genre in the UK, though there are signs of a comeback.

I'm reading Unwind by Neal Shusterman.

It's quite gripping and I like the characters & the unusual twists and turns.

I'm finding it a bit difficult to relate to the world it's set in, where unwanted teens are salvaged for their body parts due to a war between pro-lifers and pro-choicers, because I don't believe it's realistic at all.

But other than that I'd recommend it.

eyeblink:
They made a conscious decision to publish Graceling as an adult book, because the upper-end YA audience (14 upwards) is less in evidence in the UK and they thought the book would sell to adult fantasy readers.

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Interesting. I've heard from a couple of editors about how the YA market is less sophisticated than the YA market in the US (in the UK, YA is treated as anything for readers over the age of 12), but the lines get blurred when publishers decide to release YA covers for classics like Pride and Prejudice or Wuthering Heights and more recently, YA covers for fantasy novels such as The Black Magician trilogy by Trudy Canavan and David Eddings's Belgariad series.

MM

Just started Some Girls Are by Courtney Summers. Only one chapter in, but just like Cracked Up To Be, I'm hooked!

I've just finished Catching Fire and agree with the comment that it's to a great extent a reprise of The Hunger Games. It has the same structure - slow-burning build-up before the action starts somewhere around the half-way mark. (Come to think of it, The Forest of Hands and Teeth, which I read immediately beforehand, has that structure too.)

Patrick Ness's The Ask and the Answer will be next.

Momento Mori said:

Interesting. I've heard from a couple of editors about how the YA market is less sophisticated than the YA market in the US (in the UK, YA is treated as anything for readers over the age of 12), but the lines get blurred when publishers decide to release YA covers for classics like Pride and Prejudice or Wuthering Heights and more recently, YA covers for fantasy novels such as The Black Magician trilogy by Trudy Canavan and David Eddings's Belgariad series.

MM

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But on the other hand, there *are* UK YA books which are clearly 14-and-over - some of Melvin Burgess's and Kevin Brooks's novels are certainly not 12+. Before I Die isn't either. Nor by all accounts is Tender Morsels, though I haven't read it yet. Having said that, I've seen Before I Die in the adult fiction section of bookshops as well as the teenage section, Tender Morsels has had separate adult and YA editions, and the paperback of Burgess's Doing It was published as adult. So I'm wondering if some publishers are pushing the envelope and others aren't?

Reading Catching Fire, The Ask and the Answer and just finished The Forest of Hands and Teeth, followed by watching The Road, so it's been a very apocalyptic week.

The Magician of Hoad by Margaret Mahy.

The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner

eyeblink:
So I'm wondering if some publishers are pushing the envelope and others aren't?

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I suspect it's more a case that some publishers think there's more money to be had in cross-marketing to YA and adults than there is to be found in segmenting the YA market further. But I've been wrong before ...

I've just started Graceling by Kristin Cashore. Although the protagonist is 19, I'm not surprised it's on the adult shelves in the UK because there's a lot of violence and torture in it. I can see how the publisher might have been unwilling to risk it on a YA shelf. It's a shame though because so far the writing has been very good and it's just the type of book that would bring younger readers into 'straight' fantasy (i.e. that set in another world). The Pain Merchants by Janice Hardy is about the only 'straight' fantasy I can think of off the top of my head as having been released last year in the UK.

MM

oblivo said:

Reading Catching Fire, The Ask and the Answer and just finished The Forest of Hands and Teeth, followed by watching The Road, so it's been a very apocalyptic week.

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You're having the same sort of week(s) as me - I've started The Ask and the Answer and I've read the other two. I should be seeing The Road on Thursday.

Just started Uglies by Scott Westerfield. I'm already in love with this 'verse--very well done.

inukuzu said:

Just finished Cracked Up To Be by Courtney Summers. It was brilliant!

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I really enjoyed Cracked Up to Be too, I liked that the big reveal wasn't an obvious one. I'm currently reading Ash by Malinda Lo. The writing is beautiful but I'm not hooked by it so far.

I'm reading SOVAY by Celia Rees )

Kats said:

I really enjoyed Cracked Up to Be too, I liked that the big reveal wasn't an obvious one. I'm currently reading Ash by Malinda Lo. The writing is beautiful but I'm not hooked by it so far.

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It was a decent book and a really cook twist on the story. I wasn't OMG in love with it but it was good, I think. I don't feel the need to read it again but I'd recommend it.

Rereading "The Lightning Thief", because it is just too awesome