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Kind of glad I wasn't the only one who didn't really enjoy Miss Peregrine's. I didn't think it was bad, necessarily, I just feel like there was a lot going on all at once it and it didn't feel...cohesive. There's kids with powers! And it's a period piece! Because of time travel! But also monsters! 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. I know they were kind of the book's gimmick but I felt like they were kind of just -there- and didn't really add much to the story. At some points they felt a little shoehorned in. I feel really bad because my friend absolutely loves them and lent her books to me. Read the first one flying to and from LA and just could not get in to the second one. Got to the part with the weird animals and just kind of checked out. I finally gave her back the books after almost a year and when she asked if I liked them I just kind of gave a vague, "Yeah, they were fun," and that was that. Anyone have any clue why they switched Emma's powers for the movie though?
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Nov 14, 2017 03:19
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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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The photos are genuine; the author is a photograph collector who was originally going to publish a photobook of weird and freaky photos from ye olde times but then got inspired/suggested by publishers to write a narrative surrounding them, so he picked out a bunch of the ones that featured freaky children and went hunting for some more. A bunch are from his own collection and some of the others are copies from other collections or exhibitions he looked into after he started searching for more that would suit the narrative, but they're all real, though mostly devoid of provenance.
MikeJF fucked around with this message at 11:04 on Dec 9, 2017 |
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Dec 9, 2017 04:29
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Drifter posted:You've probably read it several times through already, so just go with what you want? Young Wizards is the absolute poo poo and if you're reading anything else in this thread besides that you're weong and going to hell
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Dec 13, 2017 03:14
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Duane's also released a bunch of self-published intermediary stories between the mars book and Games Wizards Play. Some of them are fun, some are... worse, but the best of the lot is Lifeboats, which imo managed to recapture the feeling I got from the climaxes of the first couple books (I would say profoundness but that seems infuriatingly vague). I also think Lifeboats also could've used a stricter editor, but whatever.
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Feb 8, 2018 20:07
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I finished the new entry in Rick Riordan's Norse myth adventure series, and after thinking about it, I'm kinda disappointed with the book. The characters are still charming, and Riordan makes the very brave choice of making the big romantic kiss and declaration of love between Magnus and Alex happen while Alex is a guy, but for such a fast-paced book it feels like it never goes anywhere. The book feels like it was meant to be the start of a big new adventure ala the Argo II over in the Roman series, but for whatever reason quickly fizzles out. Adventures come and are dismissed on a whim with nary a chance to breathe or reflect on what just happened, even when it feels like they really should - Hearthstone's part in particular. And Blizten is barely present at all. I get the feeling wheels were changed significantly at the last minute when Riordan was writing this book, either from personal decisions or from his editors. It's still an enjoyable book, but I get the feeling that this is going to end up a book that you can say can be safely skipped.
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Feb 11, 2018 15:20
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kurona_bright posted:Duane's also released a bunch of self-published intermediary stories between the mars book and Games Wizards Play. Some of them are fun, some are... worse, but the best of the lot is Lifeboats, which imo managed to recapture the feeling I got from the climaxes of the first couple books (I would say profoundness but that seems infuriatingly vague). I also think Lifeboats also could've used a stricter editor, but whatever. And this is a good time to buy them. It seems that she and her husband both had some health problems over the last couple years, and they're in danger of losing their home. Here's her post about it, and here's a direct link to her e-book store. Everything is on sale, and it's all drat good, but I personally recommend Stealing The Elf-King's Roses. It's basically magical CSI, and it's awesome. Or just buy the Young Wizards collection as a present for friends. I don't want to come off as a shill, but I'm a huge fan of Duane's work, and I really hope she & her husband don't end up homeless.
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Feb 14, 2018 00:42
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Grendel posted:I don't want to come off as a shill, but I'm a huge fan of Duane's work, and I really hope she & her husband don't end up homeless. Seems like it's settled! Which is nice to know, I have loved her stuff since I was a kid, I would hate to see anything happen to them.
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Feb 14, 2018 22:52
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neongrey posted:Seems like it's settled! Which is nice to know, I have loved her stuff since I was a kid, I would hate to see anything happen to them.
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Feb 15, 2018 15:37
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Has anyone here read Katherine Arden's The Bear and the Nightingale? If not, you absolutely should because it's gorgeously written, blending Russian folk tales and historical realism. But I'm wondering if anyone can recommend something similar? Looking at my shelves I'm realizing how much YA I actually read. The Girl With the Ghost Eyes is similar in that it combines Chinese mythology with the drama of living in San Francisco's Chinatown at the turn of the last century. I'm also loving the new series by Kerri Maniscalco. Each book revolves around a murderer, starting with Jack the Ripper, being fooled by Audrey Rose, a girl struggling to be taken seriously as an apprentice anatomist. I figured out the villain fairly early, but was still surprised by the twist ending. And in a complete about face I have to recommend Scott Sigler's Galactic Football League series which is about football in space. It's an absolutely riveting read, even if you're not into football. I'm Australian, so if I did watch footy it would be a different code to NFL, and I was still totally into the lovingly written play-by-play of aliens tossing around a ball. Each chapter is week of the season, and the game play only makes up a couple of pages at the end of each week, but it's a great way of moving forward the story of a poor kid from a backwater part of the galaxy moving up to the big leagues and learning to tolerate aliens and eventually do whatever it takes to help his team.
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Apr 15, 2018 14:51
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Hey YA thread, thought I'd ask this here instead of the recommendation thread, since you generally have a better grasp on these things. I've been reading nonstop pretty much all of 2018, and was just in a phase were all my books were heavy crime/noir/mob/con stuff with lots of violence and murder. I started another book in the same vein, and just suddenly...couldn't read. I'm just exhausted from the heavy stuff. Last year when this happened (after I finished "IT"), the only thing that got me back into the reading groove was reading some classic YA novels. I was hoping this time you could recommend some good modern stuff? Some caveats, I'm not interested at all in a sprawling series with 10 books and 4 spin-offs. I'm totally cool with a fantasy or sci-fi YA, but would prefer it be stand alone. Maybe a good mystery? Or maybe just a normal book? But one without one of the main characters dying, please. I feel like this takes out two popular genres of YA literature, but I trust you all to guide me in the right direction. Thanks!
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May 10, 2018 05:55
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Ok so I read a fuckton of this stuff so I've got a few options for you, with some caveats: Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver is probably one of my favorite standalone YA novels but it is about the main character dying, and coming to terms with her death, but it's honestly not grim or anything. At Face Value by Emily Franklin is a cute lighthearted gender flipped retelling of Cyrano de Bergerac set in a high school. Don't Even Think About It by Sarah Mlynowski is a fun story about a class who gains telepathic powers, told in first person collective. There's a sequel but honestly I feel it works better as a standalone. Also if you don't mind LGBT stuff, here's my LGBT recommendations, which i have a ton of: If I was Your Girl by Meredith Russo is a story about a transgirl who moves in with her father after being bullied at her old school. Anything by Siera Maley basically but my favorite is Dating Sarah Cooper, about two girls who are mistaken for lesbians by a guy at their school, and once they realize this, they go with it to not embarrass their new friend. Tell Me Again How A Crush Should Feel is about an Iranian-American girl who develops a crush on the new girl at her posh school, and the issues that go along with that. It's Not Like It's a Secret by Misa Sugiura is about a Japanese-American Girl who moves to California and has to balance her budding romance with this cute Mexican girl with her worry that her father is cheating on her mother. You Know Me Well by Nina LaCour and David Leviathan is about a gay guy and a lesbian who become friends when they meet outside of school at a gay bar. 10 Things I Can See From Here by Carrie Mac is about a girl with anxiety spending six months in Vancouver with her father, while her step mother is about to have a baby. I got more but a lot of the ones I like either arent YA, or are part of a series, so these are the biggest ones I can recommend right now. Sorry it's so LGBT heavy, I've been on a kick for LGBT YA for like a year now.
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May 10, 2018 16:41
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No problem at all with LGBT recs. Actually, I'm always trying to include a healthy dose of it in my regular reading habits anyways. I'll check some of those out! Thanks.
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May 10, 2018 23:44
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A) just noticed your username and now I have that stuck in my head. B) as a heads up my stuff all have female protagonists in case that's a deal breaker.
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May 11, 2018 00:00
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Finished the third Trials of Apollo book. It's still an entertaining Riordan romp, you definitely get what you came for. Unfortunately, I have to say that this one is kinda marred by the fact that Riordan kills off a major series character here...and let's face it, Riordan does not know how to kill off a major series character and it really shows. So Jason Grace dies. The thing is? Jason Grace appears in...it's probably too generous to say it's a quarter of this book. It's more like a fifth of this book, maybe, and for the rest of the time it's just other characters talking about him a little. Also, this is book three of ToA. Jason has not appeared at all in the first two books. So, what functionally happens is that you dragged in a main character from a previous series of books, stuck him in halfway through the third book of your newer series, then just kill him off a couple chapters later to make everyone sad. It...does not work.  It's very mechanical. The only reaction I feel is annoyance, honestly.Also, the one character who Jason's death has obviously affected the most and will continue to affect going forward, Piper, ends this book by...moving off to Ohio with her dad, far from where the main storylines are taking place. Sooooooo...I guess we will just have to...imagine...her further responses to this tragedy 'cuz she's clearly not gonna appear again any time soon? lol thx for appearing in this series just to have terrible poo poo happen to you Piper, k bye now
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May 22, 2018 07:21
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So I've been listening to an audiobook of The Hunger Games while working on stuff, partly to see how well it holds up in my memory and with some perspective from reading the entire series years ago. While I remember Katniss being a badass, it's really hilarious to go through the book again and realize just how much she's a lovely teen/awful protagonist. She's moody and uncooperative, but somehow pulls a charming persona out of nowhere during the interviews. Her thoughts and plans boils down to "gently caress you, got mine!", but gets absolutely pissy when others makes plans and she's not in on it. She's comically paranoid about other people's intentions and always think people are out to get her or mock her when it's the exact opposite. When she thinks she's being mocked or fails at something, she gets super defensive. But then her attitude towards most people is her thinking she's better than them, with Katniss being super condescending towards her prep team. She's good at survival and during fights, but she's kind of dumb at everything else (though that might just be me remembering how Katniss doesn't have a single clue about the political stuff in the other books). Finally, Katniss taking several moments just to understand that someone is doing something to be kind makes her look a bit like a sociopath. If it weren't for her sacrificing herself for Prim or the entire time she spent with Rue, Katniss would be pretty unbearable. I'm still enjoying the book so far, though it's more of a "Wow, so this is what Katniss is really like when you're not biased towards her as the POV character" sort of way. 
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May 28, 2018 11:29
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The best teen protags are unlikable, but still lovable.
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May 28, 2018 17:36
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I'm reading Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi and am currently about a quarter of the way through it. I don't often read fantasy or YA in general but it's been pretty hyped up since its release earlier this year. So far, so good. It definitely hits a lot of standard fantasy benchmarks, i.e. here are a bunch of collectives of people assigned to specific elements or themes. The budding romances are kind of bothersome as well—one of them literally starts with a sort of "our eyes met from a great distance and even though we're total strangers I feel different already" romantic cliche. But it's probably important to take into account the fact that this is West African-inspired fantasy, so motifs that seem commonplace and maybe a little worn out in the sort of Tolkien-inspired fantasy I've been acclimated to still have yet to find footing and an audience with people with different cultural experiences. It's a long book, and first-person POV switching is annoying to me, but it's an easy read so far. A tentative recommend and I'll probably have more thoughts when I finish the book.
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Jun 3, 2018 16:23
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Just read a YA book called Kids Like Us by Hilary Reyl. About an autistic boy who falls in love with a neurotypical girl. As someone on the ASD spectrum, I thought it was an excellent read, and would recommend it to others.
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Sep 26, 2018 16:30
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Just finished Muse of Nightmares, the second book in Laini Taylor’s duology that started with Strange the Dreamer. I can’t recommend these highly enough; they have the fantasy and action elements of a lot of YA (Sarah J. Maas etc), but just this incredible sweetness and hopefulness that I really adored, even in the heartbreaking parts. Great world-building and character development too, and the ending of both books feels earned instead of rushed, which is a typical YA series problem imo.
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Oct 11, 2018 05:36
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Perhaps this thread can help me out. I work in a book store and I have a hell of a time recommending books for teenage boys 13 and up. I've got plenty to recommend for the 9-12s, but the moment I get into the upper years the variety drops off a cliff. I pretty much only have pittacus lore's books or Maze Runner to offer, while the variety of 13+ girls books is overwhelming. If anyone could give me some suggestions of stuff for boys it would really help. As an aside I find it amusing how I can tell exactly where each trend in teen fantasy started depending on which season of Game of Thrones was airing that year.
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Dec 26, 2018 22:12
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Arcsquad12 posted:Perhaps this thread can help me out. I work in a book store and I have a hell of a time recommending books for teenage boys 13 and up. I've got plenty to recommend for the 9-12s, but the moment I get into the upper years the variety drops off a cliff. I pretty much only have pittacus lore's books or Maze Runner to offer, while the variety of 13+ girls books is overwhelming. If anyone could give me some suggestions of stuff for boys it would really help. Darren Shan might be a little young but the Demonata is gross and gory. The vampire ones are good too, I'm female but remember enjoying them at 12-13 and they're short enough that it's not intimidating. Cirque du Freak is the first one.
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Dec 26, 2018 22:34
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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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That drat Satyr posted: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. I’m not sure if you tip more to realistic or fantasy YA, but people are loving Opposite of Always by Justin Reynolds and On the Come Up by Angie Thomas. I’m still awaiting both from the library.... long waitlists. I don’t think it’s officially classified as YA, but I just started Marlon James’ new fantasy book Black Leopard, Red Wolf and it’s awesome so far.
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May 1, 2019 18:56
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Black Leopard, Red Wolf is about the farthest away from YA there is. Its uh full of murder and violence and rape and gang rape etc! And he writes on a pretty advanced level. But yes it's awesome, can't wait for the next one. I saw that the lady who got threatened by YA Twitter out of publishing her book a few months ago is apparently going to push ahead and get it published anyhow. Good for her.
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May 1, 2019 19:21
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Sex and violence definitely doesn’t keep stuff from being YA. Sarah J Maas’ books are basically like reading porn sometimes. My thinking was that the line between fantasy as “genre fiction” vs YA fantasy gets blurred a lot.... with the main determiner being age of the character(s), basically? But I’m not that far into the book yet 
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May 1, 2019 19:33
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Oh yeah it's for sure a nebulous distinction at times (like all book genres) and YA books can of course have adult content. Compare to say A Song of Ice and Fire - which features several young POV characters, and isn't classified as YA - BLRW has even more hosed up stuff constantly happening, and on a literary level is written in a much more tricky and clever way. Some of its major themes are parenthood and the difficulties of adult relationships. My appreciation of the book has grown in the few weeks since I finished it, enjoy it! I'm spinning a lot of useless words to beat the dead horse of "genres are marketing" but mostly because the thought of someone picking up a Marlon James book for their 13 year old amuses me.
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May 1, 2019 20:53
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Weirdly enough, when I first read ASoIaF way back in the early 2000s, the books were in the teen section of my local library.
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May 1, 2019 21:50
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I've observed that the overwhelming majority of "teen" fantasy fiction is written by women. While you certainly have the likes of Jemsin and Lackey in the general fantasy section, teen fantasy is dominated by Clare, Maas and to some extent Cast. Their books don't necessarily have tropes exclusive to the teenage demographic, so I often wonder if it's just a marketing ploy and the authors or publisher's believe they can get a better return by marketing these stories as teen fiction so they don't compete with the general fantasy section that is still pretty heavily entrenched in old white dude authors with weird fetishes they insert into their edgy adult fantasy stories.
Arc Hammer fucked around with this message at 22:04 on May 1, 2019 |
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May 1, 2019 21:55
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The Rick Riordan books after Percy Jackson may be appropriate for that age range - the Roman series and Norse series both deal with much older protagonists than Percy Jackson, and with more mature topics. Of note, the Roman series involves a gay teenager as a major character, and the main love interest in the Norse series is genderfluid.
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May 2, 2019 04:19
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At Indigo we divide young adult between the 9-12 range and the teens as 13+, so Riordan's stuff is lower down. The 13+ range is absolutely flooded with female writers. It's a good thing but like I said in my post from a few months back, it can make it difficult to recommend teen books for boys if they don't want to read the latest major fantasy franchise.
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May 2, 2019 05:34
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Arcsquad12 posted:I've observed that the overwhelming majority of "teen" fantasy fiction is written by women. While you certainly have the likes of Jemsin and Lackey in the general fantasy section, teen fantasy is dominated by Clare, Maas and to some extent Cast. Their books don't necessarily have tropes exclusive to the teenage demographic, so I often wonder if it's just a marketing ploy and the authors or publisher's believe they can get a better return by marketing these stories as teen fiction so they don't compete with the general fantasy section that is still pretty heavily entrenched in old white dude authors with weird fetishes they insert into their edgy adult fantasy stories. To be fair Clare also inserts her weird fetishes into her edgy teen fantasy stories, so she would probably fit right in
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May 9, 2019 00:18
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Arcsquad12 posted:At Indigo we divide young adult between the 9-12 range and the teens as 13+, so Riordan's stuff is lower down. The 13+ range is absolutely flooded with female writers. It's a good thing but like I said in my post from a few months back, it can make it difficult to recommend teen books for boys if they don't want to read the latest major fantasy franchise. You can check the age range on the Ranger's Apprentice books. Their popularity probably has waned a bit so there might be teens that haven't read those yet and I think the spinoff series is still ongoing.
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May 11, 2019 21:44
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I read The Disasters by M.K. England recently and enjoyed it. It's a YA sci-fi adventure where a crew of wash-out students steal a space ship and have to save humanity from a terrorist plot. I saw a review that called it "The Breakfast Club meets Firefly" and yeah that's probably accurate.
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May 22, 2019 21:59
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I just finished The Rule of One and it was pretty good! I almost gave up on it when I was about two hours in. That was just the story setting though. If you can listen to two hours of ok but not amazing to get to the good part you should try it! Publisher's summary below. I put SOME parts of it behind the spoiler tag in case people don't want the first chapter of the book spoiled for them. In their world, telling the truth has become the most dangerous crime of all. In the near-future United States, a one-child policy is ruthlessly enforced. Everyone follows the Rule of One. But Ava Goodwin, daughter of the head of the Texas Family Planning Division, has a secret - one her mother died to keep and her father has helped to hide for her entire life. She has an identical twin sister, Mira. For eighteen years Ava and Mira have lived as one, trading places day after day, maintaining an interchangeable existence down to the most telling detail. But when their charade is exposed, their worst nightmare begins. Now they must leave behind the father they love and fight for their lives. Branded as traitors, hunted as fugitives, and pushed to discover just how far they’ll go in order to stay alive, Ava and Mira rush headlong into a terrifying unknown.
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May 26, 2019 15:48
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Can't find a better thread to put this in, but I just finished the Animorphs books. The first time I read them in middle school I petered out when it was still relatively light-hearted and the gang was doing things like blowing up barrels of instant oatmeal to foil the villains' plans. Carrying it through to the end, I see that they've progressed to full-blown war crimes and the psychological torture of being a child soldier. I came across a letter from the author (this is actually what made me go back and reread the series) where she says "yeah, the bleak outlook is intentional, war is hell, maybe think about all that when you get old enough to vote." The last book was published in the summer of 2001 which really makes me wonder what the series would have looked like if it had lasted just a few months longer, or a few years.
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Sep 7, 2019 22:15
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So there's now plans for a TV adaptation of Tamora Pierce's Tortall franchise, the lesser but more filmable of her two major series. It'll be interesting to see how they adapt like 6 different series into one single TV series
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Nov 1, 2019 20:53
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dordreff posted:So there's now plans for a TV adaptation of Tamora Pierce's Tortall franchise, the lesser but more filmable of her two major series. It'll be interesting to see how they adapt like 6 different series into one single TV series Oh drat the Lioness books were my faves back in the day. That is actually pretty exciting. I didn't read anything after the Kel trilogy though.
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Nov 1, 2019 21:04
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eating only apples posted:Oh drat the Lioness books were my faves back in the day. That is actually pretty exciting. I didn't read anything after the Kel trilogy though. Supposedly the Beka Cooper series is the best of em all.
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Nov 1, 2019 22:37
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I was listening to an audiobook of Holes and there's a lot of social commentary that flew over my head as a kid. Tbf, I'm not American and never had to read the book for school.
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Jul 17, 2020 20:03
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