Previous SFF Author: John Wyndham
Fantasy Literature for Young Adults (over the age of 12).
Winter (2015) is the fourth and final novel in Marissa Meyer’s LUNAR CHRONICLES series for young adults. You need to read the first three novels, Cinder, Scarlet, and Cress first. There will be some spoilers for those previous stories in this review.
Winter, which is loosely based on the Snow White fairytale,
March 21st, 2022. Kat Hooper´s rating: 4 | Marissa Meyer | Audio, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein by Kiersten White
We all know Frankenstein: the evil genius, the monster, the frozen wasteland etc. But in The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein (2018), Kiersten White offers a new spin on the classic, through an origins story that traces Victor Frankenstein right back to his childhood, through the eyes of an unlikely heroine, Elizabeth Frankenstein.
We meet Elizabeth when her surname is still Lavenza. She is starved and bruised and about to be thrown out onto the streets,
February 25th, 2022. Ray McKenzie´s rating: 2.5 | Kiersten White | Stand-Alone, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
My teenage daughter and I have been enjoying the audio versions of Marissa Meyer’s LUNAR CHRONICLES. The third one is Cress (2014) and it follows Cinder and Scarlet, which you’ll need to read first. (There are bound to be some spoilers for those novels in this review of Cress.)
Each of the LUNAR CHRONICLES stories is a fresh and loose retelling of a classic fairy tale: Cinder = Cinderella,
February 8th, 2022. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3.5 | Marissa Meyer | Audio, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
Cytonic by Brandon Sanderson
Humanity has been on the losing end of a centuries-long war with the Superiority, the main organization of galactic races, for decades, trapped on a desolate planet called Detritus and fighting an ongoing war using outdated, small spacecraft to keep from being exterminated. In the second book in this series, Starsight, Spensa Nightshade, a young spaceship pilot who first distinguished herself in Skyward, found a way to leave Detritus and travel to Starsight, a massive alien space station where the galactic government is located.
January 18th, 2022. Tadiana Jones´s rating: 4 | Brandon Sanderson | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Scarlet (2013) is the second novel in Marissa Meyer’s LUNAR CHRONICLES. You’ll want to read Cinder first. There will be some spoilers for that novel in this review.
In Cinder we met the titular cyborg, an orphan who lives with her hateful stepmother and two stepsisters in New Beijing. Cinder is the best mechanic in town, which is how she meets the young and handsome Prince Kai.
January 12th, 2022. Kat Hooper´s rating: 4 | Marissa Meyer | Audio, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Aurora’s End by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff
Aurora’s End, the final book in the AURORA CYCLE YA science fiction trilogy by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff, begins and finishes with a bang — literally, lots of them — and sandwiches all kinds of wild events in between. (Note: this review includes some spoilers for the prior books in this series.)
When we left Squad 312, a group of young adult space academy grads trying to save the galaxy,
November 30th, 2021. Tadiana Jones´s rating: 3.5 | Amie Kaufman, Jay Kristoff | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale
With Book of a Thousand Days (2007), Shannon Hale offers a delightful retelling of the Grimm fairy tale Maid Maleen.
Dashti is a mucker, a low-born girl who was born on the steppes. When her mother dies, she goes to the city to take a job as a maid to Lady Saren. Right away she is locked into a tower with her lady because, in defiance of her father’s wishes, Saren has refused to marry Lord Khasar.
November 9th, 2021. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3.5 | Shannon Hale | Audio, Stand-Alone, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
If I told you that I’d killed a man with a glance, would you wait to hear the rest?
This question opens Jessie Burton‘s latest novel, Medusa (2021), a feminist retelling of the famous Greek myth. Told through the eyes of the snake-headed Medusa herself, the story reframes her tale as Burton uses myth to examine our own culture of victim-blaming, slut-shaming and toxic masculinity, provoking the question: Is Medusa truly a monster?
October 28th, 2021. Ray McKenzie´s rating: 4 | Jessie Burton | Stand-Alone, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
A decade-long war is finally over and the people who live on the planet of Beltane are relieved. During the war, Beltane, where many scientists lived, was recruited for the war effort and served, unwillingly, as an experimental lab. After the war, most of the scientists left the planet, creating a brain drain, and the people who remained were pacifists who looked forward to starting a new way of life without interference from the Confederation.
When a disfigured veteran named Griss Lugard is brought back home to Beltane,
October 15th, 2021. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3.5 | Andre Norton | Audio, Children, Stand-Alone, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Ace of Spades by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé
Ace of Spades (2021) is Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé’s first novel. It’s a YA thriller and doesn’t have any speculative elements, but if you like good prose, good characterization and high-suspense thrillers this book might be for you. I was not the target audience for this book, but after the first couple of chapters, I could not put it down.
Chiamaka and Devon are students at an upscale private high school called Niveus Academy. It’s senior year, and the two are each selected to be Senior Prefects (the school,
September 16th, 2021. Marion Deeds´s rating: 5 | Faridah Abíké-Íyímídé | Edge, Stand-Alone, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Previous SFF Author: John Wyndham
Aren't smart, feisty, sarcastic protagonists pretty much the default in genre fiction nowadays? From that baseline you move up to…
COMMENT My highest recommendation!
that's what I was thinking. It looks like an intriguing story, seriously.
COMMENT Ha! That's funny! Doing the ol' invisible box shtick, right?
I mean, he looks scared, but he could also be an apprentice mime.