Over the last few weeks I've read a couple of YA.
Life as We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer. I loved this book. I liked reading from Miranda's perspective in her diary. The voice was great and I loved seeing how she changed over the course of the book. It was fascinating to feel so in tune to one character with out a lot of action. This was a real emotion driven book. It felt so real to me, I was emotionally traumatized through out. Sometimes I felt like I was going to wake up to starvation and the world being changed so drastically!
The Gone Series, books 1-3 by Michael Grant. These are pretty good. The story is more MG almost, but the content is definitely YA. My 12 year old son would love them, but I'm a little worried about some of the themes, though I'm sure he'll do fine. Although I liked them and any time I read a book or a series I really want to finish so I can know the end of the story, they were only about a B- for me. I was all set to buy book 4 on my ipod because I thought it was the final, but there are two more to be written. Since it's not the end, I guess I can wait until book four is cheaper on Kindle.
Uglies, Pretties, Specials and Extras by Scott Westerfeld. Once again, I really got into this series, though I'd give it a B. I become invested in stories and charcters no matter how bad the book really is. Not that this was a bad book. Tally was a very interesting character and I felt for her, but some of the themes were a little redundant. I also thought they could have ended the series with Specials and resolved Tally's issues, or wrote the fourth book about how Tally resolved her issues. Instead, Westerfeld took a new direction with a new character and a weak plot. tally comes in eventually, but I could have done with out Extras. I didn't really want to see a future where despite solving the world's problems we are still dependent on a system where fame for no apparent reason makes you important. (Can we all say reality show stars?)
I was intrigued by Matched when I saw it at the book store and the title automatically made me think of what the book was about. I'm interested, but after the Uglies series, Twilight and a few others, I'm not sure how much more teen romance I can take. I actually liked how in Hunger Games the romance takes a back seat along with a lot of other superficial things. Give me some more substance is all I ask!