What YA book are you reading RIGHT NOW?

eyeblink · Jun 16, 2011

After a beta-read and an adult novel, I'm now on to White Crow by Marcus Sedgwick. It's the last of the Carnegie Medal shortlist and I should have it read by the 23rd when the prize is awarded. (First time I'll have read all the shortlist before the day - it did help that there were six instead of eight this year and I'd read three of them before the shortlist was announced.)

White Crow is not very long - around 50k words at my estimate. As I was very impressed by the same author's Revolver (on last year's Carnegie shortlist) I'm certainly looking forward to this one.

DonnaDuck · Jun 16, 2011

Love me my Christopher Pike.

About to start Alyxandra Harvey's Haunting Violet for a blog tour at the end of the month.

wavy3 · Jun 17, 2011

adktd2bks said:
I don't think it's ground breaking either or else I would have read the whole series by now. Just that it's better than MV. I do like the MC though. She reminds me of Faith from Buffy - only less psychotic.

I enjoyed Rose immensely for the first three books, and then I started not to like her so much. I don't like users.

Momento Mori · Jun 17, 2011

I've finished THE ICARUS GIRL by Helen Oyeyemi, which is literary fiction rather than YA but I'm mentioning it here because the author was 18 when she wrote it.

It's not a bad book and I particularly liked the culture clash between Nigeria and the UK, but the central themes of twinning and mirroring was really overdone at times and my biggest problem was that I didn't believe in the central character, Jess, as an 8 year old girl because on the one hand she's supposed to be insightful and precocious (complete with reading Shakespeare) but on the other, she never seems to understand what TillyTilly is until really late on and after some very obvious sign posting. Also, the pacing really drags at times and the tension didn't start to build until the last quarter, by which point events seemed to me to be quite rushed.

All in all, it's an interesting read and one I'd particularly reccomend to any of the teen writers here or to anyone interested in Nigerian culture.

I'm currently half way through ODD AND THE FROST GIANTS by Neil Gaiman, which is more MG than YA, but I'm enjoying it immensely and then I'm going to read BLOOD RED ROAD by Moira Young.

MM

Lizzy · Jun 17, 2011

I'm almost finished with STARCROSSED by Josephine Angelini. I've heard both good and bad things about it, and so far I'm enjoying it. Pretty much anything having to do with Greek mythology will suck me in.

Lnlee · Jun 18, 2011

It's been a while since I posted here, and while I was away I finished Divergent, which I loved, and Red Glove by Holly Black (who's one of my favorite authors). Both were really awesome books that I was waiting forever for (because I get my books from the library and the system has REALLY long hold lines). But it was totally worth the wait.

I could see why there is so much hype about Divergent. Veronica Roth is just so amazing. I loved the world she created with all the factions and the simulations and the action and the politics and...everything. lol. I was also okay with Tris, even though she did come across as rather callous sometimes. Then again, this is coming from the girl who got Dauntless on the Divergent Faction Quiz. So I might be a little biased, lol. My only complaint is that I didn't think the romance was as "unexpected" as the inside cover said it was, but that has nothing to do with the book itself. (The romance kind of reminded me of the one in Vampire Academy (Rose and Dmitri), so it was rather predictable for me. Predictable, but still good.)

Red Glove, in my opinion, did not disappoint (despite it being a sophomore book). I love how she further expanded on the Curseworkers' world and the relationships in Cassel's family. My only complaint for this one was that the angsty romance between him and Lila got annoying at times but I was still able to be forgiving about this one by sort of putting myself in Cassel's shoes. (Ugh. SO glad my mom's not an emotion worker.)

Now starting on The Demon's Surrender, which I had the honor of receiving a free,signed copy from the author herself. And it's fantastic so far! I'm sure I'll love it!

live.love.write · Jun 18, 2011

I'm re-reading 'City of Bones' by Cassandra Clare at the moment. Not because I love it, but because I'm writing an Urban Fantasy story and have decided to brush up on the genre.

Momento Mori · Jun 18, 2011

I finished ODD AND THE FROST GIANTS by Neil Gaiman, which is a charming story and a delight from beginning to end.

Have started BLOOD RED ROAD by Moira Young, which is a YA dystopian. It's got a distinctive first person voice, which I'm not currently short about - mainly because the bad spelling seems to be a little too selective but also because the foreshadowing is a bit too heavy handed. But it's early days and I've heard good things about it from other people.

MM

DonnaDuck · Jun 18, 2011

Momento Mori said:
Have started BLOOD RED ROAD by Moira Young, which is a YA dystopian. It's got a distinctive first person voice, which I'm not currently short about - mainly because the bad spelling seems to be a little too selective but also because the foreshadowing is a bit too heavy handed. But it's early days and I've heard good things about it from other people.

MM

Is that the one that's written phonetically? I think I read an except of it and I couldn't get past all the literal spellings. I have a hard enough time reading a stream of consciousness/phonetic short story let alone an entire novel. It slows my reading down immensely.

Momento Mori · Jun 18, 2011

DonnaDuck:
Is that the one that's written phonetically?

Some of it's phonetic, some of it isn't. That's kinda my problem with it.

MM

TudorRose · Jun 18, 2011

DonnaDuck said:
Is that the one that's written phonetically? I think I read an except of it and I couldn't get past all the literal spellings. I have a hard enough time reading a stream of consciousness/phonetic short story let alone an entire novel. It slows my reading down immensely.

I think I might try an audiobook for this one, as I found the excerpt laid the voice on a bit thick too. Very distracting to read, but I imagine it will be very effective to listen to if they get the accent right.

pixydust · Jun 18, 2011

Momento Mori said:
Some of it's phonetic, some of it isn't. That's kinda my problem with it.

MM

Yeah, I heard the same thing. THE KNIFE OF NEVER LETTING GO was written in a similar way, but Ness did such an amazing job of streamlining it, I barely noticed, and it just became a voice in my head. Consistency is key if you're gonna do that sort of thing. I couldn't do it--it looks so tough to write like that.

pixydust · Jun 18, 2011

I just finished THE SKY IS EVERYWHERE and was SO SO SO amazed. I lovey-loved it! So sad and beautiful and even funny. It was one of those that yanks your heart in a million directions. Highly recommended!

Tried my hat at Strang3 Ang3ls, and maybe that wasn't the best follow-up to such an amazing book. So, I wasn't really able to finish...

AlishaS · Jun 18, 2011

I am suffering through Alyson Noel's Everlasting, the 6th and final book in the Immortal Series. It painful, granted the last 4 books have been that way, so I really expected no less.
The first two were great, but then, I don't know if it was just lack of direction, lack of planning or just forcing a series just to make money, but either way, I'm happy to see this series end. And gosh darnit there better be some reslove--that makes sense--or I'll be pissed.

live.love.write · Jun 18, 2011

AlishaS said:
I am suffering through Alyson Noel's Everlasting, the 6th and final book in the Immortal Series. It painful, granted the last 4 books have been that way, so I really expected no less.
The first two were great, but then, I don't know if it was just lack of direction, lack of planning or just forcing a series just to make money, but either way, I'm happy to see this series end. And gosh darnit there better be some reslove--that makes sense--or I'll be pissed.

I gave up on that series half way through the first book. I finished the first book, but knew long before I wasn't going to continue on with it. Shame, because it had such an amazing concept, but everything else about it was just...blah.

live.love.write · Jun 19, 2011

pixydust said:
I just finished THE SKY IS EVERYWHERE and was SO SO SO amazed. I lovey-loved it! So sad and beautiful and even funny. It was one of those that yanks your heart in a million directions. Highly recommended!

I want to read that one. It's got a lot of good reviews.

Have you read 'Before I Fall'? They're often lumped together. I think it's really amazing.

chocowrites · Jun 19, 2011

Yay for THE SKY IS EVERYWHERE love! I heart that book.

Hmm. I've been reading a lot lately and I can't access goodreads so I'm resolving to post here instead. In the last week or so, I've read:

DELIRIUM--prose is butter smooth, but the word-building wasn't great & the plot/ romance/ damsel-in-distress narrator just didn't do it for me. Lovely harrowing ending though

DEMON'S LEXICON + DEMON'S COVENANT: I really like this series--it's clever and action-packed and full of well-drawn characters. I mean, I enjoyed the second book even while hating the MC, so that's something. I've read a few bad reviews of DEMON'S SURRENDER so I'm holding off from reading it as of now.

THE ASK AND THE ANSWER: not as good as the THE KNIFE OF LETTING GO, IMO, but I love the voice.

POISON STUDY + MAGIC STUDY: The first was a lot better than the second. I started the third book, but I gave up because I couldn't wade through anymore of the MC's perfectness/idiocy or the many plot & character improbabilities. Plus, kinda disturbed by the mass-murderer love interest (who later turns into a teddy bear sort) 0.o

BEFORE I DIE: I liked the voice, but was a bit disappointed by the book overall.

SHIP BREAKER: I read this for the awards (it has a pile of them). The world building was extremely excellent and it was my favorite of my recent reads.

THE ADORATION OF JENNA FOX: Incredibly heavy handed & a bit slow-paced. Had a hard time finishing this one.

Moving on to MONSTERS OF MEN, the conclusion of the Chaos walking trilogy.

Kitty Pryde · Jun 19, 2011

Currently reading Boyfriends With Girlfriends by Alex Sanchez, about a gay boy and a bi boy falling in love, and their respective BFFs a straight girl and a gay girl falling in love at the same time. Despite his habit of frequently bringing the narrative to a screeching halt to deliver a helpful infodump about sexuality, I'm rather enjoying it. The cover is cool because it has a really butch lesbian on it (and 2 of the 4 cover models are people of color). Imagine that! I was trying to think of a single other book I've read with an "obviously" gay character on the cover, and I couldn't really. Maybe they went for it because she looks like a boy? http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781416937739 (the character at the very top)

Opal · Jun 20, 2011

I just finished reading Like Mandarin. I'm not quite sure how I feel about it.

adktd2bks · Jun 20, 2011

Didn't do much reading this weekend, for the first time in about 3 months I actually spent most my time writing! Go me.

But I did finish the second book in Scott Westerfeld's Midnighters series. It's weird, it was 300 pages long (on my ipad at least) and yet it felt so much shorter than that. When I look back , it seems like very little actually happened. I do enjoy the characters though, especially Dess, who's the math whiz. She rocks. I haven't read the third book yet, but I still highly recommend this series for younger readers (MG range).

Esmeralda · Jun 20, 2011

Just finished Enclave by Ann Aquirre. Good book. I read it straight through this weekend. Kinda like Hunger Games, but darker.

Windcutter · Jun 20, 2011

Reading Lips Touch: Three Times. I'm still confuzzled over the first story in the collection: whether it's over (it has no ending, literally, it's like it just stopped) or we'll get back to it later because the whole book has a circular design. Well, we'll see.
I totally love the writing voice, it's so vivid and lyrical.

zolambrosine · Jun 20, 2011

I... cannot... finish... City of Bones.

There's just something about the ending that feels disconnected to the rest of the story. I'm not enjoying it as much as the beginning. It almost feels like it just got too big for its own good. I've got to finish it, though, because I'm eager to get to a new book.

Sage · Jun 20, 2011

I am reading HOUSE OF MANY WAYS by Diana Wynne Jones.

But tomorrow I will put it aside to read A NEED SO BEAUTIFUL by Suzanne Young.

tcllnsfmly · Jun 20, 2011

I started Shiver a few days ago but I couldn't finish it (I posted why somewhere on here, I'm to lazy to re-type it lol). I also read Jessicas Guide to Dating on the Dark Side which I really liked in the beginning and hated at the end (the ending and last chapters should've started earlier). Now I'm reading Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson but I can't finish because I'm so busy working on my 3rd draft of my MS!

(I'm liking Speak so far! Her writing pulls me in...it's changing my life.)

What YA book are you reading RIGHT NOW?

Barbara says hi

My Worlds Are Building

figuring it all out

Tired and Disillusioned

Quiet but observant

Reading and writing

Tired and Disillusioned

My Worlds Are Building

Tired and Disillusioned

not napping... brainstorming!

Mother Flippin' Rhymnosorous

Mother Flippin' Rhymnosorous

Is swimming with creativity frogs

scaredy cat

i luv you giant bear statue

The Designated No-Stress Friend

addicted to books

Snowman...on the job

Supreme Guessinator