Previous SFF Author: John Wyndham
Fantasy Literature for Young Adults (over the age of 12).
Bid My Soul Farewell by Beth Revis
Bid My Soul Farewell (2019) is the sequel to Beth Revis’ novel Give the Dark My Love. You need to read Give the Dark My Love first. There will be some spoilers for that novel here.
When we left Nedra and Grey in Give the Dark My Love, they had uncovered the treachery in their government and exterminated the culprit.
October 11th, 2019. Kat Hooper´s rating: 2 | Beth Revis | Audio, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Give the Dark My Love by Beth Revis
Nedra Brysstain is a new scholarship student at the Yugen academy in her country’s capital city. She comes from one of the rural villages in the north that have been suffering from the plague. She plans to study medicinal alchemy so she can learn how to heal people who’ve been infected with the plague.
Though most of the school’s wealthy students either ignore or attempt to ostracize Nedra, her talents and kind heart win her two important allies. One is the professor who takes her under his wing after he recognizes her potential.
October 9th, 2019. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3 | Beth Revis | Audio, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Lioness Rampant by Tamora Pierce
Tamora Pierce takes the best elements of the three preceding SONG OF THE LIONESS books and polishes them to a fine sheen in Lioness Rampant, the final book of the quartet. She manages to pack swords-and-sorcery, a quest narrative, kind-hearted nobles and charming scoundrels, dastardly villains, truly affecting emotional arcs, and Alanna’s never-ending journey of self-discovery into a single volume without it feeling over-stuffed or slowing the narrative. Pierce’s skills as a writer were visibly improving as she worked on this series,
October 4th, 2019. Jana Nyman and Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 4, 4.5 | Tamora Pierce | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 6 comments |
Maresi by Maria Turtschaninoff
THE RED ABBEY CHRONICLES by Maria Turtschaninoff is a young adult trilogy originally published in Finland. This first installment, Maresi (2014), won the Finlandia Junior Prize for children’s and young adult literature. It was translated into English by A.A. Prime.
The Red Abbey is an isolated island convent where a Mother Goddess is worshipped and a trove of secret knowledge maintained. No man is allowed to set foot on its shores. Some of its sisters were sent there because they were surplus mouths to feed,
October 1st, 2019. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 4 | Maria Turtschaninoff | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Star Wars: Kanan Vol. 1: The Last Padawan by Greg Weisman
The secret backstory of Kanan Jarrus, one of the main characters in the animated television show Star Wars Rebels, was ripe for comic book expansion. As a former Jedi Padawan who was only a teenager when the rest of the Jedi Order was wiped out, his past provides plenty of scope for exciting and bittersweet stories. After all, as a survivor of the purge, he was one of the lucky ones.
During an otherwise straightforward supply-run to Lothal,
September 28th, 2019. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 5 | Comics, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Poisoned Blade by Kate Elliott
Warning: may contain mild spoilers for the previous book, Court of Fives
In Poisoned Blade, the second novel in her COURT OF FIVES trilogy, Kate Elliott builds on the strengths of Court of Fives and expands upon it, weaving tangled webs of intrigue, deceit, and impressively multi-layered political schemes. Anyone who thinks Young Adult fiction can’t successfully handle themes like a culture’s endurance in defiance of colonialism,
September 27th, 2019. Jana Nyman and Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 4.5 | Kate Elliott | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
All the Bad Apples by Moïra Fowley-Doyle
On her seventeenth birthday, Dublin teenager Deena Rys accidentally comes out as gay to her father; he doesn’t react well. Later that day, she confides in her older sister, Mandy, who is also appalled — not because she’s gay, per se, but because she’s been researching the family history and has come to a frightening conclusion. Mandy believes there’s a curse on all the Rys women who don’t fit in, and that something terrible happens to all of these “bad apples” at the age of seventeen.
September 24th, 2019. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 4 | Moïra Fowley-Doyle | Edge, Stand-Alone, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
The Wicked King by Holly Black
The Wicked King (2019) is the second book in Holly Black’s THE FOLK OF THE AIR series. The first book, The Cruel Prince, and a supplementary novella, The Lost Sisters, introduced us to Jude and Taryn, mortal twin sisters who were brought to faerie after their parents were murdered by Madoc, a former general in the Court of Elfhame who is now raising the twins as his own daughters.
September 24th, 2019. Kat Hooper and Terry Weyna´s rating: 4 | Holly Black | Audio, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Enchantée (2019) is a young adult historical fantasy set in Paris, just before the French Revolution. Camille is a teenage girl whose family was ravaged by smallpox a few months past. Both of Camille’s parents died, her younger sister Sophie is still frail, and their brother Alain has descended into drink and gambling. Camille has one trick up her sleeve — her late mother taught her the art of turning scrap metal into coins by magic — but lately the magic hasn’t been working properly.
September 23rd, 2019. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 4 | Gita Trelease | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
The Lost Sisters by Holly Black
Twin sisters Jude and Taryn were taken to live in the Court of Elfhame after their parents were murdered by Madoc, a general in the land of faerie who is now their step-father and guardian. We witnessed how these mortal girls struggled as they came of age in the land of faerie in the first novel in Holly Black’s THE FOLK OF THE AIR series, The Cruel Prince, which was written from Jude’s perspective.
September 20th, 2019. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3 | Holly Black | Audio, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Previous SFF Author: John Wyndham
What a fascinating exploration of Edwige Fenech's contributions to the giallo genre! I love how the post highlights her unique…
Pretty challenging book. Cut by half, speed up the cadence. Trying to figure out the plot, the main point of…
Thanks for the kind words, Marion! Coming as they are from a professional writer, they are much appreciated!
Wonderful review, Sandy.
The "body count" bothered me a bit less because being dead seemed more like an inconvenience than anything else... unlike…