What YA book are you reading RIGHT NOW?

[ShadowyEclipse]

A lot of good book ideas to try reading.

Just finished Inkdeath. A pretty charming series. I enjoyed reading it.

[Senora Verde]

Originally Posted by PollyAnna

I am taking a deep breath, steeling my resolve, and starting in on Delirium.

Originally Posted by Parametric

I really, really liked that book.

Originally Posted by DrummerGirl

LOL, i couldn't even finish DELIRIUM.

i don't think this new wave of YA dystopia-romance is for me :/

I'm 100 pages into it, and I think I'll have to stop there. Nothing much has happened, I really can't buy into the Dystopian world, and the MC's emotions seem to be over-described and over-felt.

It's such a shame, because I LOVED Before I Fall

[Kathl33n]

Breaking Dawn, but hard to read with 4 and 6 year olds on their summer vacation

[PollyAnna]

Originally Posted by Senora Verde

I'm 100 pages into it, and I think I'll have to stop there. Nothing much has happened, I really can't buy into the Dystopian world, and the MC's emotions seem to be over-described and over-felt.

It's such a shame, because I LOVED Before I Fall

I'm in about the same number of pages, and I am a tad confused about the world, for sure. Fossil fuels are a rare commodity but I haven't seen any fallout on the MC's existence. ie. does she handwash her clothes? Maybe that's to come.

And I do love this concept, but already I've got an uncanny, and slightly skeptical, reaction to the BFF's desire-for-living-life-to-the-fullest-despite-the-fact-that-this-sanitized-dystopian-existence-is-all-we've-ever-known.
Where have I read this before?

I actually like the writing, though-- I don't find it too heavy-handed.

[DonnaDuck]

Originally Posted by chocowrites

Also read WITHER (terrible world building, interesting sister wive dynamics SPOILER: and unbelievable/ cop-outish that MC didn't sleep with him when she was kidnapped FOR HER WOMB), and TWENTY BOY SUMMER (really good contemporary).

I mentioned the same thing in my review for Wither. How did that not happen? I'm convinced the author just didn't want to write a rape scene, because that's what it would have been. I had many problems with Wither as a whole, though. World-building was a big one.

[Sage]

Originally Posted by chocowrites

I just finished WHERE SHE WENT, the sequel to IF I STAY. It read a bit like a very long epilogue, but it's about the most clearly cut example of New Adult I've read. The characters are 20/21 and college graduates/already on career paths, yet it's sold as YA. I know there's been a lot of discussion about NA on this board, and this book gives me hope for NA.

The problem with looking at this as an example of NA is that it's a sequel to a book that's firmly YA.

Originally Posted by adktd2bks

I was just so so with MUG. I just had a really hard time getting the hots for a guy who looked like a manequin/puppet. And the romance just didn't have much reason to be there imo. If she had shown more of why the MC was falling for him other than the fact that he was helpless, I would have bought into it more. I did think that she made the MC stand out though.

I was also just so so with Magic Under Glass. I liked the MC and the world and the story well enough, but it just felt like everything came so easily to the MC. Every challenge she needed to face was over practically before it began (except the main one, because it was TBC). She needs to meet with someone and it should be difficult to do so, and he finds her in the next scene just when she happens to be alone and hidden, for example. But I still enjoyed it.

[chocowrites]

Originally Posted by adktd2bks

Ah, those covers can be so hard to resist. *pats Hush Hush cover lovingly and then rips all the pages out*

hahhahaha. If only my favorite books had as pretty covers as HH or Fallen...

I think you'd like the Piper's Son by Melina Marchetta if you haven't read that already - it's also NA and is sort of a sequel to a YA book, Saving Francesca, but you can also read them separately.

PIPER'S SON is actually next on my TBR pile! I've been putting it off until now because I read SAVING FRANCESCA a while ago and mostly forgot what happened in it. Eek, I have such bad memory.

Originally Posted by DonnaDuck

I mentioned the same thing in my review for Wither. How did that not happen? I'm convinced the author just didn't want to write a rape scene, because that's what it would have been. I had many problems with Wither as a whole, though. World-building was a big one.

I really feel like it made the book less...unflinching, perhaps. Because if the MC had slept with him, it would have made the situation all that more harrowing and troubling (as it should be in a dystopian book). I mean, it's not like I wanted it to happen, but it just defied all the rules of the world for it not to. Wither wasn't a bad read, but I felt like the author was skirting around a lot of issues that she posed with the premise, but ended up not addressing in favor of describing parties and clothes. I had lots of problem with the logic as well. I mean, what's with the love interest not being auctioned/dead when the consequences for cheating are portrayed as DOOM and the Housemaster is supposed to be ruthless evilevilevil? Why would the Housemaster dissect the wives' bodies when I bet he could buy cadavers in droves/ get them from his hospital? I didn't really buy the whole Guardian thing, either--wouldn't there be plenty of girls volunteering to live a life of luxury/ families selling girls? How could six of the continents be blown up yet the climate and sea levels be about the same? How is society at all functional with the age gaps?

Sigh, I'm not sure if I want to read the second one.

Originally Posted by Sage

The problem with looking at this as an example of NA is that it's a sequel to a book that's firmly YA.

That's true. I guess the same thing applies to PIPER'S SON. But I like that the characters are over 18, out in the world, but still coming of age. Maybe right now in order to sell a NAish book it has to be a sequel by a well known author, but it'd be cool if these books paved way in the market a bit . I don't actually want to write NA, but I have a lot of interest in it as a reader.

[Alice Grace]

I've come to realize that I'm very much behind, because I discovered The Hunger Games in May. I've since read both THG and Catching Fire and just threw myself on Mockingjay. IMO, one of the best YA novels that is out there at the moment .

[vfury]

Started Sarah Alderson's HUNTING LILA yesterday, a YA thriller with romance, according to the ARC. The writing is very good so far.

[Chocolate Potato]

I'm reading The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing (the first one). I loved Feed, so I'm hoping the writing on this one will impress me, too.

[AlishaS]

I finished Ghost Town by Rachel Caine, and I am pleasantly surprised that it got better, way better and I acutually liked it.

However, like four pages into Bite Club I literally puked in my mouth. I know exactly how this is going to play out, and I am setting it down for now and will come back to it later. I think it's an overdone plot.

So, I'm think Sarah Dessen is on the list. I have two books by her waiting in my TBR pile, so I just have to close my eyes and pick one

[adktd2bks]

Originally Posted by Chocolate Potato

I'm reading The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing (the first one). I loved Feed, so I'm hoping the writing on this one will impress me, too.

They're both well-written, but so very different from each other. It's hard to believe they're by the same author.

[eyeblink]

I read Marcus Sedgwick's White Crow, my last of the six Carnegie Medal shortlistees, just in time for the awards ceremony last week. (It didn't win - see the Awards Nominations thread.) It was also shortlisted for last year's Guardian Children's Fiction Prize.

Last year I read Sedgwick's Revolver (itself shortlisted for the Guardian and the Carnegie), a very short novel, or long novella - 32k words - which did a lot with a very simple premise. Deceptively simple in treatment though, with a fairly complex flashback structure. White Crow is YA horror set in a town that's being slowly lost to the sea. Rebecca and her father relocate there. Bored and on her own, Rebecca befriends strange local girl Ferelith, but Ferelith has plans of her own. This is intercut with an account (told in diary entries) of an experiment in 1798 to find proof if God and the afterlife exists or not.

This is told in chapters comprising Ferelith's POV in first past, 3rd omni (present tense) mostly from Rebecca's POV and the diary entries (typeset on a grey background). It's pretty effective ane economically told story (around 50k words at my estimate). Sedgwick handles the continuing exposition very well, though in places this is a little contrived. (We're not told the reasons for Rebecca and her father's being in the village until about halfway through.) The 1798 sequences are a little slow to start, but build up nicely, especially when we learn the details of exactly what the experiment entails - and it's gruesome.

As for the central theme of whether or not there is an afterlife, Sedgwick leaves this open, though he provides an ending which subverts his narrative in ways I'll leave you to find out.

On the whole, impressed and I'd like to read more of Sedgwick's work.

Currently reading a YA by Joyce Carol Oates, Freaky Green Eyes.

[AlishaS]

I'm going with Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen.

[KTC]

Alexandria of Africa by Eric Walters.

[live.love.write]

Originally Posted by Alice Grace

I've come to realize that I'm very much behind, because I discovered The Hunger Games in May. I've since read both THG and Catching Fire and just threw myself on Mockingjay. IMO, one of the best YA novels that is out there at the moment .

I LOVE LOVE LOVE HUNGER GAMES

[Parametric]

Originally Posted by AlishaS

However, like four pages into Bite Club I literally puked in my mouth. I know exactly how this is going to play out, and I am setting it down for now and will come back to it later. I think it's an overdone plot.

The plot made you literally throw up? Wow.*

* this post brought to you by the Campaign to Stop Using the Word "Literally" to Mean "Not Literally"

[Alitriona]

I just finished A Need so Beautiful by Suzanne Collins. I loved it. It took me a few pages to get used to first person present tense. I did guess one part of the surprise ending but it in no way distracted from my enjoyment of the book. I'm looking forward to the sequel, A Want so Wicked, next year.

I'm also finishing up Passion by Lauren Kate. I thought this was a trilogy and Passion was the last book. It's not. It sort of reminded me of the old TV show, The Time Tunnel. I am so far enjoying the book but disappointed with the lack of resolution to the entire story at this point. I'm two chapters from the end.

[LadyA]

PENNINGTON'S HEIR by K.M.Peyton - Written in 1973 and I'm loving the period details like the mother of the 17yrold FMC assuming her boyf of 3 months will marry her. And the funniest bit was when they 'went all the way', but the description was just a page of philosophical ramblings about her feelings - it was hard to tell whether they actually did anything (although he got her pregnant so they must've done ). When I compare this prudery to modern YA it makes me laugh...but the book is still brilliant

[Sage]

Reading THE OFF SEASON by Catherine Gilbert Murdock.

And listening to PARANORMALCY again (it will probably only make me impatient for the sequel)

[DonnaDuck]

Just started Rot & Ruin by Jonathan Maberry. A coming of age story told in a zombie apocalypse aftermath. It's interesting so far. I'm liking it.

[adktd2bks]

Reading Five Flavors of Dumb by Antony John. I'm really enjoying it.

[dystophil]

Originally Posted by DonnaDuck

Just started Rot & Ruin by Jonathan Maberry. A coming of age story told in a zombie apocalypse aftermath. It's interesting so far. I'm liking it.

That one and the first of his Joe Ledger zombie books are sitting on my bookshelf waiting to be read, too. I met the author at a conference in May and he was really cool, here's hoping the books are, too.

Currently a bit stuck on what to read next. Guess I'll be browsing my Kindle and see what pops up

[Netz]

Recently finished Passion by Lauren Kate and have now started Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta.

This thread (& others like it in our YA section of AW) is a great place to pick up recommendations. (If only there were more hours in the day to fit in the reading along with the writing!)

[Smish]

Used bookstore was having a blowout sale - hardbacks for $1.00. So, I bought:

WHITE CAT, by Holly Black
THE MURDER OF BINDY MACKENZIE, by Jaclyn Moriarty
THE UNWRITTEN RULE, by Elizabeth Scott
THE SIX RULES OF MAYBE, by Deb Caletti
HUSH, HUSH, by Becca Fitzpatrick (and no, I'm not really expecting to like this one... but it was only a dollar!)

So, which one should I read first?