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Some time ago, I asked around if we had a YA thread here in TBB. Since one doesn’t presently exist, I thought I’d put this together for discussion of the genre! Let’s please try and keep the posting about newer books and those that might not be widely known – no Harry Potter or Twilight, please! Shouldn’t you be reading books targeted at your age group? Absolutely not! Don’t feel ashamed if you enjoy YA books – hell, currently one of the most popular book series in the USA is a YA series! And no, I certainly don’t mean Twilight. Why YA? Because it’s a fun way to read between longer and more ‘serious’ works! Reading nothing but War and Peace gets tedious after a while, and more often than not the Young Adult section of a bookstore will at least have a few decently written, well-thought out stories! Well ok, but can you recommend some books? Of course! That’s the purpose of this thread, after all! In the case of multiple books in a series, I’ll only touch on the first one.    The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games - Catching Fire - Mockingjay ( Amazon – Goodreads ) The first of a trilogy, The Hunger Games is set in a dystopian world where the United States has fallen and the great nation of Panem has risen to control on the North American continent. The Capitol has a forced-participation death match, called ‘The Hunger Games’ every year, in which they force each district (numbered, and scattered all about the continent) to have a random lottery for one boy and one girl to enter into the games and fight to the death, for the amusement of the Capitol citizens. The Hunger Games has it’s own thread in TBB, located here!    Chaos Walking by Patrick Ness The Knife of Never Letting Go – The Ask and the Answer – Monsters of Men ( Amazon – Goodreads ) Settlers have ventured out to a new planet, far away from the Earth that we know. They left in search of religious freedoms, and upon finally reaching this new planet everything seemed to be going well… until every male began projecting ‘Noise’, their every thought broadcast to the world. The entire planet is infected, and many of the inhabitants have evolved to use this Noise as their means of communication. The book stars Todd Hewitt, a young man that is just coming of age. He finds himself thrown in the middle of a civil war – and in the end a war for the control of the entire planet – when he discovers that the leader of the town he lives in is hiding a very dark secret.  Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs ( Amazon – Goodreads ) Now, before I tell you about this one, I do have to note that the author has some very badly photoshopped ‘vintage’ photos to accompany a lot of the story. They’re cheesy as hell, but I suppose they do add a little to the story to help you imagine what’s going on. Jacob’s grandfather always entertained him with stories of bizarre and often seemingly ludicrous tales from his own childhood – stories of invisible children, those that could levitate and many other strange things. When the old man dies quite unexpectedly, Jacob begins to think again of the stories his grandfather told him of growing up in the Welsh countryside – and he begins to search to see if there might have been any truth to what his grandfather told him. He begins digging – and perhaps begins to dig too deep as some strange creature begins stalking him, trying to stop him from learning the truth at all costs.    Maze Runner by James Dashner The Maze Runner – The Scorch Trials – The Death Cure ( Amazon – Goodreads ) Thomas has no memory of ‘before’. He awakens to darkness, and quickly finds that he’s on a lift that takes him to a strange place – a town populated by other young boys just like himself. This place is called ‘The Glade’, and it is enclosed in a sort-of maze, with walls 15 feet tall and strange doors that close every night at sundown only to re-open in the morning to the maze outside. The small community has a job for every person, and of those some are assigned to go out into the maze every morning to map it, as its walls shift and change every single night. However, after only a day of living in The Glade, Thomas’s life changes forever. The elevator begins to open, and it brings with it a girl – the only one that has ever come to The Glade in memory. With her, she brings a strange secret, and may even hold the key to remembering what happened to the boys before they were sent to The Maze.   Unwind by Neal Shusterman Unwind - UnWholly ( Amazon – Goodreads ) In this dystopian novel, the Second Civil War was fought over reproductive rights. The resolution: Life is inviolable from the moment of conception until age thirteen. Between the ages of thirteen and eighteen, however, parents can have their child "unwound," whereby all of the child's organs are transplanted into different donors, so life doesn't technically end. Connor is too difficult for his parents to control. Risa, a ward of the state is not worth enough to be kept alive. And Lev is a tithe, a child conceived and raised as a religious sacrifice be unwound. Together, they may have a chance to escape and to survive. The second book, UnWholly is due to be released on August 28th, 2012, however a third book in this series has already been confirmed.  Railsea by China Mievelle ( Amazon – Goodreads ) A highly anticipated release by Mievelle, only a little has been released about this book that's to be released May 15th 2012. I can't give my own summary of it, but here's what the publisher has released about it: On board the moletrain Medes, Sham Yes ap Soorap watches in awe as he witnesses his first moldywarpe hunt: the giant mole bursting from the earth, the harpoonists targeting their prey, the battle resulting in one’s death and the other’s glory. But no matter how spectacular it is, Sham can't shake the sense that there is more to life than traveling the endless rails of the railsea–even if his captain can think only of the hunt for the ivory-coloured mole she’s been chasing since it took her arm all those years ago. When they come across a wrecked train, at first it's a welcome distraction. But what Sham finds in the derelict—a series of pictures hinting at something, somewhere, that should be impossible—leads to considerably more than he'd bargained for. Soon he's hunted on all sides, by pirates, trainsfolk, monsters and salvage-scrabblers. And it might not be just Sham's life that's about to change. It could be the whole of the railsea. From China Miéville comes a novel for readers of all ages, a gripping and brilliantly imagined take on Herman Melville's Moby-Dick that confirms his status as "the most original and talented voice to appear in several years." We do have a general China Mievelle thread which is located here, but mind that most of his work is not YA.  Ready Player One by Ernest Cline ( Amazon – Goodreads If you are a child of the 80's, this book is almost overwhelming in the sheer amount of pop-culture that's crammed into it. I can't imagine that the target audience gets even a fourth of the references, but even without that it's a pretty decent book. Set in the year of 2044, the world has been trashed by pollution, over-population and war. Like most of humanity, Wade Watts spends nearly all of his waking hours logged into the OASIS, a sprawling virtual utopia that lets you be anything you want to be, a place where you can live and play and fall in love on any of ten thousand planets modeled individually after different themes. The creator of this virtual reality system, James Halliday, has hidden a series of fiendish puzzles that will yield massive fortune—and remarkable power—to whoever can unlock them. Upon his death, this bizarre 'contest' was released to the world. The problem, however, is that Halliday only left a short rhyme as a clue to where the first key is hidden. For years, millions have struggled fruitlessly to attain this prize, knowing only that Halliday’s riddles are based in the pop culture he loved — that of the late twentieth century. And for years, millions have found in this quest another means of escape, retreating into happy, obsessive study of Halliday’s icons. Like many of his contemporaries, Wade is as comfortable debating the finer points of John Hughes’s oeuvre, playing Pac-Man, or reciting Devo lyrics as he is scrounging power to run his OASIS rig. And then Wade stumbles upon the first puzzle. Suddenly the whole world is watching, and thousands of competitors join the hunt — among them certain powerful players who are willing to commit very real murder to beat Wade to this prize. Now the only way for Wade to survive and preserve everything he knows is to win. But to do so, he may have to leave behind his oh-so-perfect virtual existence and face up to life—and love—in the real world he’s always been so desperate to escape. That’s all I have for now, but I welcome any other suggestions/contributions! Have you read a good YA book that should have more attention? Then please share it with us! That Damn Satyr fucked around with this message at 05:56 on May 7, 2012 |
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May 7, 2012 05:32
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Reserved for any future stuff!
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May 7, 2012 05:33
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sighnoceros posted:
This sounds exactly like the kind of things I love! Also, thank you so much for sharing all of those! I haven't ever heard of most of them, so now I have tons of new stuff to put on my to-read list! =)
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May 7, 2012 19:30
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I remembered one I left out of the OP, but it was mentioned above! Here's a bit of a review! The Book Thief by Markus Zusak Narrated by Death himself, and set during World War II in Germany, this is the story of Liesel Meminger, a foster girl living outside of Munich. Liesel has very little in her life that she loves, until she encounters something she finds she can't resist - books. her accordion-playing stepfather teaches her to read and she finally finds joy in the pages of the books she steals and takes home to read. This book touched me in a way very few ever have. It's beautifully written, and deeply emotional. I dare you to read it and come out with dry eyes. That Damn Satyr fucked around with this message at 22:23 on May 13, 2012 |
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May 8, 2012 02:56
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Unwind really seems like one of those books that you give to really problem kids, and then tell their parents that things will be better, just wait... I can't wait for the sequel! =D ...or the supposed movie, but I really can not imagine how they can make this work as a PG-13 movie and not traumatize every child in America and half of the adults.
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May 11, 2012 16:04
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Dead Man Posting posted:Which books do you folks believe is best for teaching freshmen level American students in a conservative area but college-bound targeted students? Are we talking like... what, 10th or 11th grade? I would definitely nominate The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. I posted a short review a bit ago - it's a very poignant book, and maybe the students can take more from it since they're on a higher-education track. I do know a lot of teachers do The Hunger Games, as well.
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May 13, 2012 21:50
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'We' by Yevgeny Zamyatin is a great book - I don't think the content is too questionable, honestly. I mean.. hell in 11th grade they had us reading Great Gatsby and that was full of boozing and sex and crazyness. Also, if you're doing that one it might be cool to follow it with "A Brave New World" by Huxley - it's a different take on the same theme, and both books are the roots for Orwell's "1984" to the point where Orwell even admitted nearly plagiarizing.  I'm not sure how appealing that might be to younger people, but I found both books quite enthralling. Anyway, that's not YA, so back on track! I see you do have a bunch of the ones that were offered up in the thread here, which is pretty awesome. I know for sure that Unwind is taught, even though it's somewhat questionable subject matter (abortion/right to life) - I actually saw a while back on Youtube a video made by a highschool class where they literally made the WHOLE BOOK into a home-made movie. It was kinda  but at the same time, it was awesome that they all enjoyed it so much that they put that much effort into it.If you're on GoodReads, there's actually an awesome group for Literary teachers - YA Reads for Teachers. Their group bookshelf will probably have a ton more ideas for you! That Damn Satyr fucked around with this message at 22:19 on May 13, 2012 |
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May 13, 2012 22:13
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Kasan posted:I'm surprised you haven't selected The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. As far as I'm aware, that was the book that was considered the genre definer for young adult. Tho I admit I haven't read the story since I was in high school myself. I think all the books you listed are aimed at much, much younger children than what he's searching for, as well as what this thread is about. Hardy Boys is definitely children's / tween at best, and the same for Nancy Drew. 10th+ graders are not dumb children, and I'm sure would be bored to death with something as simple as that. As for Catcher, I don't know what the current norm is, but I was taught that in 7th or 8th grade... But I do remember being a bit  about it at the time, for what that's worth.
That Damn Satyr fucked around with this message at 22:54 on May 13, 2012 |
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May 13, 2012 22:49
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ungulateman posted:The Chaos Walking series is loving amazing and all of you except the OP are doing yourselves a disservice by not reading it. Yessssssssssss. Except, I have to admit I kind-of hated the ambiguity of the ending. If you didn't know, the author also released a (very short) story for free as a sort-of prequel thing for them called The New World (Amazon - Goodreads) that covers Viola before she arrived on the planet. Also, as Danger posted earlier in the thread, Lionsgate has announced that Charlie Kaufman is going to be adapting the films, so with luck that will draw a lot more attention to the series. I've actually got another Ness book in my 'to read' queue: A Monster Calls. I've heard quite good things about it, but no one I actually know has read it so I've not gotten any first-hand accounts.
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May 18, 2012 05:07
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Hef Deezy posted:It's possible for someone to write a book a month if the manuscripts aren't particularly long, but it's much more likely that this series has multiple people writing under one name. The billed author's name -- Adam Blade -- just screams packaged series pen name. A lot of YA serials are ghostwritten - look at series like Animorphs, Spooksville, Goosebumps et all from the 90's - there was a book out a month for years straight. It's a bit doubly suspicious as it doesn't seem the author has a Wikipedia page with a biography on it, and searching for his name just gives a few webpages with some canned facts. Edit: Actually, I could be wrong about Goosebumps and Spooksville, I can't seem to find any information about those - but Animorphs was for sure ghostwritten with the most terrible, formulaic outline possible. That Damn Satyr fucked around with this message at 20:33 on Jun 5, 2012 |
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Jun 5, 2012 20:21
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Lemony Snickett is forever on the run and in fear for his life, and nothing you say will change my opinion on this.  In all seriousness, though - that's actually pretty awesome, because boy were some of those Animorphs books horrendous. I won't lie, I read them religiously as a youngster and a few years ago I tried to go back and give them another go for nostalgia's sake and I just couldn't do it. I think it's kind-of interesting to see the sort of books that were popular for YA in the mid-90's contrasted with the things that are popular for YA now, like Hunger Games, Divergent, etc. Honestly I thought serialization was kind-of dead, but I guess Beast Quest is doing alright for itself.
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Jun 5, 2012 22:27
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Hef Deezy posted:EDIT: \/\/ Don't worry, Daniel Handler/Lemony Snicket is very real! Oh, yes I know he is. My internet sarcasm isn't very good sometimes. Actually - on the note of him, I've had his book The Basic Eight on my 'to-read' list for a while. I'm not certain if it's quite a YA read, but I think the main character in it is a high-schooler or something, so I guess it's probably close enough to qualify. Has anyone read that and maybe has an opinion on it? As for Animorphs... gosh, I think I stopped reading after the Hork-Bajir chronicles came out. Or the Andalite ones. Whichever came later, because I know I've read them both! I firmly blame that series for my fascination with monsters and such, I was seriously obsessed with hork-bajr and drew them constantly. I remember being SUPER pissed when they finally put one of the characters morphing into one on the cover, because they looked nothing like I imagined them in my head. That Damn Satyr fucked around with this message at 06:14 on Jun 7, 2012 |
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Jun 7, 2012 06:12
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I'm not sure I ever read the particular one you guys are talking about... but I'm seriously getting the heebies thinking about Cassie having to touch some of the particularly lovely wildlife that lives in Austrailia to acquire them. In retrospect though, once she got home that would be a totally awesome prank on the others. "Hey, has anyone seen Cas-- OH poo poo WHAT THE gently caress GIANT SPIDER SMASH." And these are all the reasons that Satyr will never be a writer. 
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Jun 7, 2012 17:44
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SassySally posted:Divergent / Insurgent stuff On the one hand, I did appreciate the way that sex/love/lust was handled in the books - it's a bit refreshing to read a book and not see the characters immediately going at it in a fit of 'passion' or what-have-you. I also appreciated that she did explain Tris' reasoning, and as you said also showed that Four was just as uncertain and not ready as she was. As for what you mentioned in spoiler, I did not get that impression from what was written.
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Jun 23, 2012 21:07
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Paragon8 posted:I think that's a huge problem with reading in general. It seems like when a lot of people ask for recommendations they want virtual photocopies. This is absolutely true. Also, on the other side of the spectrum, there are so many people out there that love 'good' (I realize that's subjective) YA books, but then also read horrible tripe like Twilight and love that too, so they recommend both books to people and (at least in my own experience) you get a preconceived notion that one book must be like the other since the person loves them both so much. I actually run into this on GoodReads a lot because of how it categorizes recommendations... and let me tell you, just because you like Hunger Games does not mean that you might like 50 Shades of Grey.
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Jul 29, 2012 00:57
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Rabbit Hill posted:The characters evolve naturally over time and although the first book is a little formulaic in retrospect, I could not predict where the second (and now third) book was going at any given moment. The series also avoids the "main character is the chosen one" syndrome (which I hate) by making him earn his place in the series of events through his decisions and actions. I can't wait to hear what you have to say once you've finished them up. =) On the one hand, I anticipated what came at the end... but on the other hand I was very " ". They are great books, though - everyone really does need to at least give the first a shot.
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Aug 24, 2012 02:53
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Violet_Sky posted:Unwholly, the sequel to Unwind, came out today. Aaaa thanks for the heads up about this! I totally forgot it was scheduled to be released this month! The first book was so hosed up, I can only imagine it's just as... well, bad-but-great if you know what I mean. Honestly though, I think in general with that 'genre' of books ("Kid in a dystopian society that does not really value the life of their children as much as they should", ie: Hunger Games as you mentioned, Maze Runner, Divergent, Maze Runner et all) only has so much ground it can cover before they start overlapping in terms of material. I don't necessarily think that makes any of them better (or worse) than another, just because one might have done it first. But, I get what you're saying - especially when, as it is now, one's been made so hugely popular as Hunger Games is. That Damn Satyr fucked around with this message at 00:15 on Aug 29, 2012 |
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Aug 29, 2012 00:12
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School has really bit into my free time to read, but finally spring courses are over and in just the four days since my last class I've destroyed The Fault In Our Stars and Daughter of Smoke and Bone. Just started The Perks of Being a Wallflower, and I have to say that I'm already loving it. Thanks to all the people that's been posting here for keeping this thread alive and well, and as well to all those that have posted most excellent books and reviews.
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May 7, 2013 23:43
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Pendergast posted:I keep hearing about her and plagiarism. It was one reason I haven't picked up her books after reading the first two. What did she do exactly? Witting harry potter fan fiction doesn't really bother me. Fan fiction is different than plagiarism though. I was curious too so I did some Googling... some tumblr blog posted:http://swingsetindecember.tumblr.com/post/47309687374/can-you-explain-the-cassandra-claire-plagiarism Seems quite the dramafest, really. :/
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Sep 1, 2013 05:22
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Oh uh.... Hey, thread, long time no see. I kind of burnt myself out for a while after doing one of those hundred-books-in-a-year challenges, but I reckon most of the stuff I was expecting follow-ups for must surly be out now. Hooray, a new pile of YA to burn through.
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Aug 2, 2015 07:37
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You know how sometimes you just have to read something bad, but you can't help yourself and then you can't put it down? Modelland by Tyra loving Banks. This book is so bad. It feels like satire, but it's definitely not. Here is the "official music video" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjC-L2O3I4g Here is a 3 part podcast of Sydnee McElroy describing the book to her husband, Justin, as he becomes more and more incredulous over it. http://satellitedish.libsyn.com/a-satellite-dish-special-modeland http://satellitedish.libsyn.com/a-satellite-dish-special-modeland-part-2 http://satellitedish.libsyn.com/a-satellite-dish-special-modelland-part-3 This does a far better job explaining this bizarre book than I ever could.
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Mar 11, 2017 21:11
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So, what's the hot summer reads right now for YA? I need something to distract me from how awful life is.
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Sep 2, 2017 04:58
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Senerio posted:Here's the books that came out this year from my reading list; it's a little rambly but it might have some distractions up your alley. I've been reading a buncha New Adult with my YA lately so there's a few of those in there, sorry: I'll give some of these a look! I checked out some of the Tamora Pierce books suggested earlier on this page and really could not get into the writing style / I guess level they were written for. I just came off of binge reading The Dark Tower series followed by the Clan of the Cave Bear series so I want something that's... short but still got some meat to it, I guess? None of this 8 books over a bajillion pages long junk I've been on for a few weeks. That Damn Satyr fucked around with this message at 03:14 on Sep 3, 2017 |
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Sep 3, 2017 00:35
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Happy Landfill posted:And yeah, I agree with the notion that it felt like he came up with the pictures first and tried to write the story around them. No one can sway me from the fact that the entire Miss Peregrine's series was just a vehicle for the author to show off his T0T411Y 1337 photoshopping skills.
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Dec 9, 2017 04:17
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It's spring novel season - anything good out lately? I need some good good YA in my life right now to cheer up from some yuckyness and am having a real hard time finding anything that I don't hate.
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May 1, 2019 02:36
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| # ¿ Apr 29, 2024 08:58 |
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Anything interesting been released lately? I've been reading through ACOTAR and I've heard it sometimes recommended as a YA series, but it has some very adult relationships and stuff, but they're quite good. I've ran out of things to read otherwise.
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Jun 21, 2023 01:27
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