Previous SFF Author: John Wyndham
Fantasy Literature for Young Adults (over the age of 12).
The Invasion by Peadar O’Guilin
The Invasion (2018), a finalist for the 2019 Hugo Award for Best Young Adult Novel, is the sequel to Peadar O’Guilin’s The Call, which you’ll need to read first. (This review will spoil some of the plot of that first novel.) Once again I listened to the audiobook version (Scholastic Audio) which was nicely performed by Irish actor Amy Shiels.
At the end of The Call,
July 25th, 2019. Kat Hooper´s rating: 2.5 | Peadar O'Guilin | Audio, Horror, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
In a brutal, blasted country called the Yousay (USA, of course), hostile androids contend against regular humans and superpowered mutants against a backdrop of robot death matches, in a dystopian Mad Max type of world. DEV1AT3 (2019) is the sequel to LIFEL1K3, which should be read first. Obligatory warning: This review ― not to mention a helpful four-page glossary that author Jay Kristoff provides at the very beginning of DEV1AT3 ― contains a few major spoilers for LIFEL1K3.
July 23rd, 2019. Tadiana Jones´s rating: 4 | Jay Kristoff | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
I picked up Peadar O’Guilin’s The Call (2016) because its sequel, The Invasion, is a finalist for a Hugo Award this year (Best YA Fantasy Novel). Though I often enjoy Young Adult fiction, this book is probably not something I would have noticed had it not been for the Hugo nomination.
The Sidhe are finally taking revenge on the Irish for banishing them to The Grey Lands centuries ago. Ireland has been cut off from the rest of the world and every Irish teenager will,
July 22nd, 2019. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3 | Peadar O'Guilin | Audio, Horror, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
The Agony House by Cherie Priest
When she was too young to remember, Denise Farber’s father and grandmother died in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina. She and her mother fled to Houston. Now, with Denise about to enter her senior year in high school, her mother has just remarried and their new little family is returning to New Orleans. They have very little money, so they’ve purchased an old dilapidated Victorian style home that they hope to fix up and turn into a Bed & Breakfast.
After moving into the house,
June 11th, 2019. Kat Hooper´s rating: 4 | Cherie Priest | Stand-Alone, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
The Young Unicorns by Madeline L’Engle
Madeline L’Engle published The Young Unicorns in 1968. It features the Austin family, who were introduced in L’Engle’s 1960 novel Meet the Austins. In The Young Unicorns, the scientific, artistic Austin family has moved from a small rural Connecticut town into New York City. They live in Morningside Heights in Manhattan, a stone’s throw from the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, which figures prominently in the story.
June 4th, 2019. Marion Deeds´s rating: 4.5 | Madeleine L'Engle | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 5 comments |
The Cruel Prince by Holly Black
When they were young, Jude and her twin sister witnessed the murder of their parents by their older stepsister’s father, Madoc. Feeling some responsibility for the girls, Madoc took all of them to live with him in the High Court of Faerie. Bullied by the fae nobles, and made to feel like a worthless mortal, Jude learned that’d she’d have to fight to survive. Now she’s scrappy, ambitious, clever, and an opportunist. But she still has a soft side.
It took me a while to warm up to The Cruel Prince (2018),
May 29th, 2019. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3.5 | Holly Black | Audio, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Aurora Rising by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff
A lot of YA fantasy and science fiction works follow teenager characters as they attend magic or spaceflight school (I would take either!), but not nearly as many follow the characters’ lives after graduation. Aurora Rising (2019), a new YA space adventure from Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff, the authors of the well-regarded ILLUMINAE FILES trilogy, take the latter approach, following a diverse cast of older teens as they graduate from Aurora Academy in the year 2380,
May 28th, 2019. Tadiana Jones´s rating: 4 | Amie Kaufman, Jay Kristoff | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Half-Witch by John Schoffstall
Appropriately enough, I’m of mixed mind about John Schoffstall’s Half-Witch (2018), which is itself about a young girl who is part one thing, part another, moving through a world that is also a kind of collage, a strange admixture of building blocks.
For most of her 14 years, Lizbet Lenz has been forced to flee one home after another as her lovable con-artist father finds yet another way to turn the residents against them. But when he accidentally causes a rain of mice,
May 27th, 2019. Bill Capossere´s rating: 3.5 | John Schoffstall | Stand-Alone, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
The Everlasting Rose by Dhonielle Clayton
The Everlasting Rose (2019) is the sequel to Dhonielle Clayton’s The Belles, a novel that is a finalist for the Hugo and Locus Awards for Best Young Adult novel this year. I enjoyed The Belles despite some problems with characterization such as a boring romance and a totally over-the-top villain. If you haven’t yet read The Belles, but intend to, it’d be best to skip this review since I can’t help but spoil some of its plot here.
May 27th, 2019. Kat Hooper´s rating: 2 | Dhonielle Clayton | Audio, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Gone Away Place by Christopher Barzak
Because of a stupid fight with her high school boyfriend, Ellie Frame cut school one day to took sorrowful refuge in a nearby faux lighthouse, where she falls asleep. What wakes her is a series of devastating tornadoes that rip through her small rural Ohio town of Newfoundland, killing nearly a hundred people, including Ellie’s boyfriend Noah and several of her best friends. Not all the dead are gone, however; some remain behind, visible to many of the town’s residents and especially their loved ones as they hover “in the grey place” between life and death.
May 24th, 2019. Bill Capossere´s rating: 3.5 | Christopher Barzak | Stand-Alone, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Previous SFF Author: John Wyndham
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