Category: Junior Fiction

serum?

Posted on by Greig

Divergent

Veronica Roth

divergentThis is a very enjoyable slice of dystopian YA science fiction.
It’s Chicago in the future and after some unspecified calamity the city is isolated and people split up into five factions.
At sixteen children are tested for factional affinity and then have to choose which faction they want to join.
This is a very quick read and it’s an intriguing world the author’s set up that is begging to be expanded in later volumes.
Obviously it’s going to be compared to The Hunger Games books as it’s a first-person narrative book for teenagers set in a bleak future. Honestly it’s not as good but it’s still worth a read and I’m definitely reading the sequel.

Rating: B+

transient?

Posted on by Greig

The Song of the Quarkbeast

Jasper Fforde

Song of the QuarkbeastThe second of Fforde’s YA fantasy sequence sees our heroine plunged into a battle for the future of magic.
It’s a fun little romp – if a little disjointed feeling compared to the first book.
I’m looking forward to book three – which looks like it’s going to be very interesting.
Certainly recommended if you’re looking for an amusing YA fantasy.

Rating: B+

potato?

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This Lullaby

Sarah Dessen

this lullabyRemy is a cynical young woman about to graduate from high school and escape her home town to Stanford for college. Convinced love is a sham following her Mother’s many marriages she jumps from boyfriend to boyfriend without ever getting emotionally invested. Then she meets Dexter – the singer of an indie band newly arrived in town and things stop being so cut and dried.
This is an expertly constructed and very enjoyable slice of teen romance. Recommended by a fellow fan of The Lizzie Bennet Diaries I raced through this in a couple of days.
It nicely hits that funny, smart romantic tone that I’m sucker for in films and TV without ever getting too melodramatic.

Rating: B+

spackle?

Posted on by Greig

The Knife of Never Letting Go

Patrick Ness

the knife of never letting goIt was a surprise to hear that Mr Ness had become an award winner for YA fiction.
Back in 2005 I read a collection of his short stories and a future writing science fiction for teenagers didn’t look very likely at that point.
That said – this is a really good book.
Todd has grown up in a world filled with Noise – the thoughts that pour from the mind of every man since the war with the native aliens.
He’s the last boy in Prentisstown, just days away from his birthday and the ritual passage into adulthood when his world is changed by the discovery of a hole in the Noise. Forced to go on the run he learns the extent of the lies that have ruled his life.
Ness writes in a way that pulls you into the story, while also having really interesting things to say about the nature of identity and the drawbacks of psychic ability.
I’m looking forward to reading the sequels and I would definitely recommend this book.

Rating: A-

dumort?

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City of Bones

Cassandra Clare

City of BonesThe first book in the Mortal Instruments introduces the protagonist – Clary – to a world filled with demons, monsters and the humans who hunt them.
It’s a very readable piece of young adult urban fantasy with a slightly dodgy romantic triangle subplot.
I blasted through this really quickly and yet I really can’t see myself reading any further books in the series. There’s nothing really wrong with it – I just don’t think it’s for me.
Recommended if you’re looking for a solid piece of YA romantic fantasy.

Rating: B-

gutshot?

Posted on by Greig

An Abundance of Katherines

John Green

an abundance of katherinesThis is probably Green’s funniest and lightest book.
Colin Singleton is an ex-child prodigy who is addicted to anagramming and dating girls called Katherine. When the 19th of that ilk dumps him after graduating high school his best friend takes him on a road trip to stop obsessing over the break up.
I read it for the first time in 2009 and I enjoyed it then too (though I was apparently going through a phase of not actually reviewing and rating books at that point).
Recommended if you want a funny and sweet, sort of romantic, teen novel.

Rating: A-

quarkbeast?

Posted on by Greig

The Last Dragonslayer

Jasper Fforde

This is a young adult comic fantasy by the author of the Thursday Next books.
Jennifer Strange, a 15 year old foundling, runs an employment agency for magical practitioners. It’s all going relatively smoothly until a premonition of the death of the last living dragon causes chaos.
The comic approach in this book is so distinctively Fforde that even if you hadn’t noticed the author’s name on the cover you could tell this who the author is within a couple of pages.
I enjoyed it a fair bit – enough that I’m going to read the sequel – but it is a very slight tale.
Give it a go if you’ve liked Fforde’s other stuff.

Rating: B

pearl?

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Late Eclipses

Seanan McGuire

Toby finds herself under suspicion when friends and allies begin to be poisoned and she can’t prove that notorious murderer Oleander de Merelands is back and up to her old tricks.
This is another hugely entertaining entry in the series by McGuire. The main plot is very satisfying and the background plot arc grows ever more intriguing.
If you’ve read the earlier Toby Daye books – you have to read this one.

Rating: B+

nancy?

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Lemonade Mouth

Mark Peter Hughes

Lemonade MouthI came across the Lemonade Mouth film while looking for episodes of Phineas and Ferb (awesome kid’s cartoon) on the Disney channel. I gave it five minutes expecting to hate it and instead found it sweetly funny and filled with pleasant songs (well constructed teen pop, nothing revelatory).
So when I saw the book the film was based on for sale in the Kindle store on Amazon for a couple of quid I decided it was worth trying.
It differs from the film in that the characters less obviously photogenic and the music they play in the book sounds insanely off the wall, but most of the character’s themes and motivations are there.
In the book the story is told from the perspectives of the individual band members and some other people involved in the events related.
It’s a sweetly funny, very readable young adult book and I’m not surprised it translated so well into a tv film.
Recommended if you enjoyed the film or like charming young adult tales where misfits band together to become something greater. Personally I’m a sucker for that kind of thing.

Rating: B+

buttercup?

Posted on by Greig

Mockingjay

Suzanne Collins

MockingjayThe final volume of the trilogy puts Katniss and her loved ones through further horrors.
The onset of war burdens her with further guilt when she’s forced into unpalatable decisions from the resulting moral quandaries.
I raced through this book, desperate to find out how things turned out. While I’m happy with the ending, I felt that there were a lot things I would have liked to have known that were left out because we’re limited to only Katniss’ view of events.
Overall I think I’d recommend the series but I’m pretty sure that some readers will find a lot to annoy them about the books.

Rating: B+