Books shelved under “Young Adult”

I guess I review Buffy novels now … this is an unexpected perk of starting a Buffy rewatch podcast two years ago. Not only did we give away copies of In Every Generation to our listeners, but we actually interviewed Kendare Blake on our podcast. I received an ARC of One Girl in All the World. I’m happy to report that this sequel avoids the dreaded second-book syndrome. It builds on the success of…

Although not strictly speaking a romance by one definition of the genre (see the penultimate paragraph of my review for a minor spoiler as to why), Take a Bow, Noah Mitchell has many of the satisfying hallmarks of romance. The eponymous character is a seventeen-year-old boy with a serious crush on his online gaming buddy. When they get a chance to meet offline—but his buddy doesn’t know it—Noah takes it upon himself to launch an…

Truly I wish I had got my act together to read the eARC I received from NetGalley and Wednesday Books well before publication day so that I could then reread the copy I pre-ordered from my indie bookstore! Alas, procrastination got the better of me, so I dipped into the ebook the weekend prior and then finished I’m the Girl in all its hardcover glory. I braced myself for devastation, and I was not disappointed.…

Welcome to part two of my two-part review of this duology from Marie Lu. I’m glad I went with my gut and read both books in close succession. Had I waited, I’m not sure I would have enjoyed Steelstriker as much as I did—and as you read this review, you will see that I still liked it less than Skyhunter. My chief critique from that review is repeated here: this series is fine,…

There is a reason I write book reviews: I thought I hadn’t enjoyed Warcross, the first and only other book I have read by Marie Lu. Turns out I did like it! Skyhunter is a different genre, but a lot of the same tropes are present: you have male/female romantic leads paired up to fight against an authoritarian ruler. I definitely didn’t like this one as much as Warcross, and I debated reading…

This might be one of those books where I have had it on my to-read list almost since it came out … eleven years ago. Finally got around to reading it! Beauty Queens is a rollicking young-adult satire of reality television, beauty pageantry, and the corporate hostile takeover of feminism. Libba Bray brings a lot of humour and sweetness to these pages. I enjoyed it. Yet I also think it has a lot of limitations,…

Word on the street is that young adult books are “too woke” now. I chortle every time I hear such patently absurd allegations, for anyone who levels them clearly has spent little time around not only young adult literature but also young adults themselves! Adolescents and young adults are passionate and aware about social justice. They want to learn, want to share, want to act to make the world a better place. All too often,…

Well, turns out the destination is Canada, which isn’t quite the same as anywhere but certainly has enough range to come close.

Sara Barnard sneakily published this novel last year and didn’t tell me! Barnard’s young adult novels are inevitably, heartbreakingly poignant. Her most recent that I had read, Fierce Fragile Hearts, left an indelible mark upon my soul for the way that I, as an aromantic and asexual person, felt seen by…

Cherie Dimaline in her author’s note says she didn’t anticipate writing a sequel to The Marrow Thieves, and I understand why. French’s story of finding a new family in a post-apocalyptic world where Indigenous people’s bone marrow is being harvested to give non-Indigenous people back their dreams is quite a powerful tale on its own. There isn’t a need for a sequel … or at least, there wasn’t. Now that Dimaline has given…

This book perplexed yet also entertained me. The Glass Sentence feels like a novel from a different era, a pulpy young adult adventure story that would already have been turned into a movie of questionable quality by the time I was still too young to appreciate it. Perhaps this is appropriate for a story that is about different eras! S.E. Grove’s storytelling is rich and creative in many ways that I will be happy to…

Media tie-in novels aren’t my thing. I have a form of aphantasia that makes it nearly impossible for me to visualize events as I read, and as a result, novels about characters I know from screen tend to fall flat because I can’t imagine the actors portraying those characters. Nevertheless, I have long been a fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and in 2021 I started a rewatch podcast, Prophecy Girls with a friend.…

I have rather slept on Kendare Blake up until now. However, I applied to read her tie-in novel for Buffy the Vampire Slayer on NetGalley (because I have a Buffy rewatch podcast). Because I am generally more critical of tie-in novels, I wanted to try some of Blake’s original fantasy fiction to get a feel for her writing. Unfortunately, Three Dark Crowns left me wanting—not in a good way.

On the island of Fennbirn,…

Talk about a compelling narrative! Melissa Bashardoust isn’t fooling around. From page 1, Girl, Serpent, Thorn is a wild ride. Soraya is the twin sister to the new shah. She is also poison: her touch is deadly to all living things save plants. Her mother raised her to believe this was a curse from a div (a demon), and as a result, Soraya has been raised apart from the court. Different and distant, she discovers…

This book had me at its opening scene, set in a tea store, where Darius talks to us for the first of many times about his love for properly steeped looseleaf teas. But then it had to go and introduce frequent, detailed allusions to Star Trek: The Next Generation, complete with Darius declaring that Captain Picard is the best captain, and … reader, at that point, I would have hid a dead body for…

Hey, it’s your girl Kara, reading the sequel to a book four years after I read the first book, and the real tragedy is that this is not unusual for me! So when you hear me say that I struggled to get into Shadowhouse Fall, it’s not because of the book itself. Rather, I literally forgot everything about the plot of the first book and had to lean on my review and some…

I guess it’s the summer of Kara reading sequels to books she read 3 or more years ago! I just barely remember Nyxia, but the good news is that most of that memory is of how excited I felt after reading the book. It was good young adult science fiction. Scott Reintgen balanced an anti-corporation message with adventure, teamwork, the bonds of friendship and family. There was a lot to recommend about it, and…

Major spoilers in this review, because it’s more of an autopsy. I think After the Fall was dead on arrival for me.

The cover copy promises a kind of love triangle in which Raychel is sleeping with 2 brothers, Matt and Andrew. Now, I know that authors usually don’t write the cover copy, so I won’t blame Kate Hart for this. But I feel misled. Raychel is sleeping with Matt in the sense that sometimes…

I pre-ordered this based on how much I enjoyed Camryn Garrett’s first novel, Full Disclosure, and Off the Record didn’t disappoint. From beginning to end, Garrett catapults us into an adventure of racism, sexism, and the price of fame, all from the point of view of a teenager with social anxiety and a way with words.

Josie is a journalist. She’s still in high school, but she has published articles for actual magazines, and…

Every novel by Holly Bourne breaks me, yet each breaks me in its own unique way. And I never see the devastation coming. I expected The Yearbook to be more about, well, the creation of a school yearbook than anything else. But really this is a book about abuse. Whether it’s under the guise of high school bullying or parental or marital relationships, abuse is a pernicious monster, difficult to name and more difficult still…

All of you should know by now that heist novels are my jam, and a fantasy heist novel? Bring me the fainting couch and smelling salts, for surely, I swoon! Suffice it to say that when I discovered this hidden gem, the highly underrated Six of Crows by unknown author Leigh Bardugo, I was anticipating a good time.

Kaz Brekker runs with the Dregs, a group of street criminals in the slums of Ketterdam. Kaz…