What YA book are you reading RIGHT NOW?

Lydia Sharp said:

I'm quickly losing my faith in YA dystopia (is this even dystopia? I'm not sure, but that's what people are calling it). On the whole, as a genre, it's been vastly disappointing to me.

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I'm with you on this. It seems to me a lot of authors don't understand what dystopia even is. It's more than a vaguely futuristic setting + some (often nonsensical) oppression. What makes all the classic dystopias so great is how they magnify the flaws of our current world to a scary future degree. It's about more than just random oppression or crappy conditions bad things happening.

Chanelley said:

Every other book coming out with buzz is some kind of dystopian/apocalyptic setting with these 'high concepts' but most other things are lacking.

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This is true for me with YA paranormal too. I feel like too much focus is paid to "high concept" and a lot of these books (dystopian and paranormal) just don't have the depth of story and character to back the concepts up. I think it's publishing trying to make a quick buck -- YA is hot, and it's a lot easier to hype and market something that's high concept, especially if it's only marginally crappy. So sad.

Sage said:

Man, I couldn't even begin to name my favorite book of 2011

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Yeah... I'm thinking I might just have to list everything I marked as "favorites" this year and leave it at that. I can't decide.

cherita said:

I'm with you on this. It seems to me a lot of authors don't understand what dystopia even is. It's more than a vaguely futuristic setting + some (often nonsensical) oppression. What makes all the classic dystopias so great is how they magnify the flaws of our current world to a scary future degree. It's about more than just random oppression or crappy conditions bad things happening.

----

This is true for me with YA paranormal too. I feel like too much focus is paid to "high concept" and a lot of these books (dystopian and paranormal) just don't have the depth of story and character to back the concepts up. I think it's publishing trying to make a quick buck -- YA is hot, and it's a lot easier to hype and market something that's high concept, especially if it's only marginally crappy. So sad.

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Have you been hanging out in my head recently without my knowledge? Because seriously, it's like you took these comments right out of my head.

Parametric said:

This is why it's impossible to accept that these two 15-year-olds are the most genius geniuses of all time: One of the protagonists is locked in a cell. His genius strategy is to pretend to be sick so he can take a guard hostage when the guard approaches. And it works. Audiences were already rolling their eyes at that trick in the 1990s when the Evil Overlord List was first compiled (check out #95).

Seriously, people. Prodigies.

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I'm having the same problem with that one! The characters keep going on about how they're huge geniuses, but then their solutions to problems are so obvious I'm pretty sure even I could've figured them out. And I am no military strategist, nor child prodigy...

egoodlett said:

I'm having the same problem with that one! The characters keep going on about how they're huge geniuses, but then their solutions to problems are so obvious I'm pretty sure even I could've figured them out. And I am no military strategist, nor child prodigy...

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I'm glad it's not just me.

Finished L3GEND the other day. It did not improve.

KTC said:

Have you read The Near Witch. It has a gothic feeling to it. Quite a lovely read. I actually called it my favourite book of 2011 on my blog. Not really paranormal??? I never know how to classify now. So many witches this year!!!

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I've heard tons of good stuff about THE N3AR WITCH. Will definitely check it out!

Lydia Sharp said:

This is why I bumped it down on my to-read list (the crossed out words, especially). Read a sample of it on my Kindle and was annoyed just by that little bit (4 chapters, I think). Very interesting concept, though, so I didn't remove it completely. Just... in no hurry to read it anymore.

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I'm still reading it, two weeks later. Slowly, just reading a chapter now and then. Its own pace is also pretty slow, and I finally realized why: because of the crossed out words Juliette basically says/thinks everything twice. I still love the premise, but I think I expected something different, something like X-men movies: kiss kiss bang bang, lots of action and cool special abilities.

Cyia said:

I think I've finally figured out what that book reminds me of. Did anyone here ever watch Firefly? Reading Juliette's POV is like reading a book narrated by River Tam. Short bursts are interesting, but over long passages the skewed perception overtakes what's actually being said.

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I had the same impression, I have to pay too much attention to words, so the story itself gets pushed behind. But maybe she's meant to be an Unreliable Narrator. I haven't figured it out yet, but it might be a cool twist.

Cyia said:

And now... I am sadly bookless. I've got a stack of Amazon giftcards to upload and rectify this situation immediately. "Legend" is one I'm looking forward to reading.

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I have Legend on my list, too. Also Across the Universe, Corsets and Clockwork which is a steampunk anthology, Daughter of Smoke and Bone because I like to keep up with new releases, James Dashner's The Maze Runner and Maria Snyder's Inside Out. I think I'm a bit tired of modern + paranormal so I put other books away for now.

Right now I'm reading Po1son Eaters, which is a collection of short stories by Holly Black. I can't say whether it's because of the stories themselves or because I've been reading so much of this subgenre lately, but I only found a few of them exciting. Most of them are surprisingly anti-escapist. Stop dancing with fairies and reading books, get real, nothing good comes from fantasy--this kind of anti-escapist.

cherita said:

Currently reading The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer. Maybe I'm just going to be the minority that doesn't like it, because right now the false suspense and odd word choices are making it hard for me to get into (eyes do not "pillage" people, certainly not twice in less than 50 pages).

But, I'm still holding out hope that the paranormal will finally show up and/or there will be a kick-ass ending

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You won't. When I was posting my opinion about it, a lot of people were saying they didn't like it.
I liked it--mostly because I like the am-I-crazy kind of suspense and Noah was the second guy from YA fiction of 2011 who seemed really attractive to me. Others were so blah. (And the first one was from a novel published 15 years ago. xd) But I suspect our impressions of the ending will be similar, to avoid saying more.

Uhg...the dystopian thing has been driving me batty for the last 2 years. I keep hoping that the next one that comes out won't be blah or redux of another but I'm not finding any gold. It's all pyrite.

And it especially sucks cause I just finished my ms and guess what it is...d@mn thing took too long to write and now I'm a pebble in a bowl full of pebbles. Everyone and their mother wrote a YA dystopian last year. *sigh* Moving on...

I need to write faster.

I'm reading The Unbecoming of Mara Whaternot. I really like it. But then I've kind of been craving a mystery so I don't care if it's para or normal at this point.

Lydia Sharp said:

I'm quickly losing my faith in YA dystopia (is this even dystopia? I'm not sure, but that's what people are calling it). On the whole, as a genre, it's been vastly disappointing to me.

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I'm in the same boat. There's a serious lack of world-building in YA dystopia that leaves me very, very, very disappointed. I dislike it when authors throw around phrases like "books are being burned" and "there's no food for anyone", stops at that, and then expects the reader to believe the world they've created.

I've also been largely unimpressed with YA dystopias, but I'm currently reading Divergent and actually enjoying it quite a lot. I'd been avoiding it because I've become jaded, but it's pulling ahead. I haven't finished it yet, but so far so good, besides a few minor quibbles I have.

I'm a big dystopian fan. I loved 1984 and Brave New World in high school, and The Giver was a huge favorite. I feel like a lot of the latest "hot" dystopian craze hasn't stacked up to that level of... depth? I guess.

Reve:
There's a serious lack of world-building in YA dystopia that leaves me very, very, very disappointed. I dislike it when authors throw around phrases like "books are being burned" and "there's no food for anyone", stops at that, and then expects the reader to believe the world they've created.

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I agree with this. My main issue with dystopias is also that I need to understand how the world got to be that way (not in detail - but some kind of allusion to it) and many of the ones I've read don't seem interested in doing that and when you have books like, e.g. DIVERGENT, where society has rigidly reclassified itself, I find it difficult to buy in to why they'd do it.

MM

maybegenius said:

I'm a big dystopian fan. I loved 1984 and Brave New World in high school, and The Giver was a huge favorite. I feel like a lot of the latest "hot" dystopian craze hasn't stacked up to that level of... depth? I guess.

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All amazing dystopias that have survived the test of time. I don't think any of the current popular dystopias (besides The Hunger Games maybe) will be read or thought about in a few years. They don't comment or reflect on any current real-world problems. They try too hard at creating a shock-value society that doesn't get explained. Then the author focuses solely on who the main character is in love with. It's a shame because dystopias have so much potential.

I'm rereading The Giver just because maybegenius brought it up.

All the dystopian talk is making me want to work on mine! I have a great idea, but the timing never seems right to write it. Apparently nobody is buying dystopians any more anyway.

mac3910 said:

I'm rereading The Giver just because maybegenius brought it up.

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it's so good

Parametric said:

All the dystopian talk is making me want to work on mine! I have a great idea, but the timing never seems right to write it. Apparently nobody is buying dystopians any more anyway.

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Don't worry the world will go down the crapper again in twenty or so years. Have the book ready by then and publishers will be clawing their eyes out to get to you. Or we could be involved in a full scale war against the robots and no one will have time to read. It could go either way.

Lydia Sharp said:

Have you been hanging out in my head recently without my knowledge? Because seriously, it's like you took these comments right out of my head.

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That's so funny because in the library thread, your library sounded exactly like the library I described in a story I recently wrote! Oooh, creepy... We should probably write a half-assed paranormal *mystery*suspense* kind of thing (and make bank). Lol.

Then again, I think I'm just feeling bitter. I finished UboMD last night. And... yeah. I was unimpressed, which is the understatement to end understatements. I'm going to read A Monster Calls next, which is sure to be a fabulous book, or at least pretty good.

maybegenius said:

it's so good

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How have I never read that? After A Clash of Kings, it's on my list.

I am currently reading Bloodlines by Richelle Mead. Going well so far except I miss Rose and Adrian.

I am almost finished SPLIT by Swati Avasthi. Amazingly accurate portrayal of violent abuse (and its repercussions) in the family. I LOVE this book.

maybegenius said:

I'm a big dystopian fan. I loved 1984 and Brave New World in high school, and The Giver was a huge favorite. I feel like a lot of the latest "hot" dystopian craze hasn't stacked up to that level of... depth? I guess.

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The only two I can think of off the top of my head that I really enjoyed in the past year were DELIRIUM and MATCHED (and I know I might be in the minority with the latter). But I think that's because those were more focused on the ROMANCE than anything else, and I felt the romance was done well. <---- also hard to pull off

1984 was a fave high school read for me, too. I have yet to read DIVERGENT. I should probably bump that up my reading list...

Kind of distraught over how many 2011 books I meant to read this year that I didn't. January is too close now... I'm afraid some of these will NEVER get out from under my to-read pile.

F*ck you 2012, because you're full of stuff I want to read, too.

I read the first few pages of MATCHED on Amazon, and thought I would like to read it. How much do I love the "Look Inside" feature? A lot. But, I'm like you, my to-read pile exceeds my free time. Especially now that I'm trying to write!

@mac390: The Giver is the BEST BOOK EVER!

yellowhammer said:

How much do I love the "Look Inside" feature?

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I know, right? So cool to preview books in jammies

yellowhammer said:

How much do I love the "Look Inside" feature? A lot.

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I know, right? I feel kind of spoiled by it, especially when I pick up my Kindle JUST to browse sample chapters. But I guess it's no different than browsing a brick-and-mortar store and picking up books and reading them before deciding whether or not to purchase. Except you can't jump to the end...