Wild Awake (Hilary T. Smith)

Title: Wild Awake

Author: Hilary T. Smith

Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books (HarperCollins)

Length: 375

Rating: 5/5

Seventeen year old Kiri has plans to endlessly practice the piano and water the azaleas while she is home alone and her parents are on a cruise. She does not plan on getting a phone call from a stranger who claims to have a bag of her dead sister’s stuff. With this call, Kiri embarks on a crazy adventure of love, loss, murder, music, and madness.

This cover is crazy, chaotic, and perfect. Also, there is an azalea etched on the front of the book and it’s amazingly perfect. (I’m a tiny bit biased because I know the designer but shhh that doesn’t change that it’s awesome).

I fell in love with Kiri two pages in- her quirky voice* made me want to be her best friend (come on, I’m way more deserving that her best friend and band mate Lukas!). Half way through (and with me obsessively picking this book back up every chance I got) I realized that she was my brand of crazy/compulsive/awesome.

Kiri is not your typical protagonist: she jumps into hot tubs fully clothed and befriends homeless people. And the boy she falls in love with is not your typical YA male lover: he’s got tattoos and a radio collection and is really good at fixing bikes.

Just as Kiri feels flawed and real, the book is real too. It deals with serious issues like family secrets, murder, mental illness, and self-discovery. With Kiri as your protagonist, you’re on this journey of discovery with her, and sometimes it’s hard and frustrating, and you just want to make things right. But overall, this book does a wonderful job of capturing just how messy, joyous, and heartbreaking life can be.

Check out Hilary’s Tumblr for the book: http://heyireadyourbook.tumblr.com/

And here's me in the store buying the book:

*Hilary and I were penpals for a year, and her voice is just as amazing as Kiri’s. She’s amazing, this book is amazing. Just go read it and save me the torture of trying to put the amazingness into coherent words! 

Reached (Ally Condie)

Title: Reached

Author: Ally Condie

Publisher: Dutton Books (Penguin)

Length: 512 pages

Rating: 4.5/5

Reached is the final book in the Matched trilogy (find reviews for Matched and Crossed here). Cassia has chosen to join forces with the Rising, a rebellion against society. But when things get out of hand, she finds herself paired with both Ky and Xander to find a cure for the disease that threatens to destroy everything.

Can we just pause for a second and love on the simple beauty of these cover designs? The green/blue/red symbolism continues to feature and shine in the final installment of the trilogy.

The first book started with the power of choice, and the question of what you could give up to have the freedom to choose. Cassia is swept up into something much bigger than herself when she makes her choice, and Xander and Ky make their own choices to be swept into the Rising as well. But nothing in this book is ever black and white, and there are some great moral dilemmas about choice, love, freedom, and who to follow.

I liked that this book was told from three narrative perspectives: Cassia, Ky, and Xander. I liked also that it wasn’t a simple love triangle. These characters were driven by more than just their love for one another, and Ky and Xander had their own significant relationship outside of their love for Cassia.

In the end, Reached was a satisfactory conclusion to an enjoyable trilogy. 

FFTF: Models, Greens, Trends, and Bookshelves

It's been so long since my last FFFT (Friday Food for Thought) that it was incredibly hard to choose what to share with you. My YA folder of web-awesome was overflowing. I've narrowed it down to the best (/weirdest/craziest) so that you too can stay in the YA know.

First up, celebrities modeling for book covers before they became famous. There are some really great ones over at the HuffPost, but here's my favorite:

As a supplement, if you follow the Kardashian bandwagon, you'll like this cover too.

Are you a John Green fan (TFiOS)? How about Hank Green (The Lizzie Bennet Diaries)? If you are, you already know all about the Night of Awesome. If you aren't, check it out, because they are literally the coolest EVER. I got to see the live rehearsal of the event the day before, and it made my jaw hurt from smiling so much.

TRENDS: past and present. Publishers Weekly wants to blow your mind with a very inclusive list of the YA Best of 2012. And then Scholastic tries to predict the future, with 10 Trends in Children's Publishing in 2013. Both seems like magic to me.

And finally, mind-blowing bookshelves. Real ones:

And interactive ones like this one from Scholastic that includes all sorts of great info and recommendations.

City of Lost Souls (Cassandra Clare)

Title: City of Lost Souls

Author: Cassandra Clare

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Length: 534 pages

Rating: 3.5/5

Book five of the Mortal Instruments series: Sebastian kidnaps Jace and threatens world destruction. Clary goes undercover, and Simon/Magnus/Isabelle/Alec provide back-up.

Jace is smoking on this cover.

In short: started like, eh? Ended with AHHH! And there were a few WTFs in the middle. Not the best yet, but definitely worth the read, because as readers, we ultimately need to know what happens!

I think my main problem was the time lapse between when this book came out, and when I had read the other books. I was confused for a large portion of the first half, trying to remember all of the characters and their convoluted relationships with each other. Not to mention piecing together where the Clockwork characters come in (I do NOT like what you’re implying Cassandra!). So fair warning, reread the other books in the series first.

And while it was also a little confusing how the narrative jumped time/space/place/narrator throughout the book without warning, I did like that this kept things interesting. Things certainly are heating up romance-wise with all these characters! One final thought: Cassandra, I love that in your novels, adults just seem to get in the way. Way to give your young characters some freedom- I love this about YA. 

Clockwork Prince (Cassandra Clare)

Title: Clockwork Prince

Author: Cassandra Clare

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Length: 498 pages

Rating: 4.5/5

Actual text from my friend Meredith: “Have you read Clockwork Prince? I just finished it and I almost died like twenty times ahhhhh I need the next one RIGHT NOW!!!!”

I went out and bought this book the day it came out. To do it full justice however, I didn’t read it for several days because I had to reread the first book in The Infernal Devices series, Clockwork Angel, before I let myself read the new book, hence the above text message. My response to Meredith after reading? “Just. Finished. The. Book. O.M.G. Dyyyyyyyyinnnnnnnnggggggggggggg. I now need to read everything I possibly can about the book online.”

If these girl-ish squeals won’t convince you to read the book, I don’t know what will!

How about a short summary (short because I dare not give anything away!): In Victorian England, Tessa continues to search for a way to destroy the evil Magister with the help of two handsome Shadowhunters, Will and Jem. But the cunning Magister always seems five steps ahead, and Tessa must also fight to save her home from falling into the wrong hands, as well as trying to sort out her confusing feelings for both Shadowhunter boys.

Some things to consider:

1.      Cassandra Clare loves love triangles. And bad boys with dark pasts. Win-win? Only if Jem and Will don’t kill me with their awesomeness first. The character growth in this novel is great.

2.      All the good people in this book are young, while the evil people are old. Youth power! I refuse to grow up!

3.      Anyone else feeling a love connection between Cyril and Gabriel? What? Don’t give me that look of exasperation. Everyone else is pairing off…

4.      The poetry. Clever, brilliant, beautiful, but so much of it that it comes across as just a little too pretentious for me. The only thing that actually bothers me about this series thus far is the excessive amount of poetry.

5.      The cover is beautiful, and the perfect darker compliment to those of the Mortal Instruments series.

Go read Clockwork Angel, then Clockwork Prince. You won’t be disappointed. 

Crossed (Ally Condie)

Title: Crossed
Author: Ally Condie
Publisher: Dutton Books (Penguin)
Length: 367 pages
Rating: 4.5/5

This sequel to Matched takes Cassia to the farthest reaches of society. But even in the Outer Providences, where she searches to be reunited with Ky, she can’t quite escape the long arm of society. Her search brings her to deep canyons that show the promise of a different life, and Cassia is drawn to the promise of a revolution, a revolution that pulls her away from Ky, and somehow, back to Xander.

Loved the first, loved the sequel just as much. Don’t you hate that moment when you’re reading a book, and you realize, it’s not a sequel, but only the second in a trilogy instead? You can’t for the life of you figure out how this will end positively, and then you realize you have to wait for another book to find out how it ends. Agony; sweet torture. Often in a trilogy, the second book seems to be a filler between first and third. Not this one.

This book is alternately narrated between Cassia and Ky’s point of view. I argued in my first book that I wanted more character depth, and the switching perspective between main characters allowed for this. My only complaint here is that I couldn’t distinguish between Cassia and Ky’s voices; I would be two pages in and still be confused as to who was narrating, and had to go back and a few too many times. However, I forgave this reading roadblock because the characters grew on me even more as they grew as people.

And the book cover? Did not disappoint!! If you’ve read the books, let me know what you think the third book cover will look like in the comments below. November 2012, I wait for you!

Note from an English major: I love that even though society may not be able to as closely monitor our characters in the far reaches of society, we (as the reader) still watch them. I’ve always loved/hated the idea of reader as voyeur. Cassia at one point says she’s never been this free from people watching, but really, we’re still watching her…cue intense, creepy music…

And finally, from Ryan Gosling Reads Young Adult, Happy Holidays everyone!

Matched (Ally Condie)

Title: Matched

Author: Ally Condie

Publisher: Dutton Books (Penguin)

Length: 366 pages

Rating: 4.5/5

In Cassia’s society, officials decide where you live, who you marry, what your work is, and when you die. Cassia never questioned this, seeing it as a small price to pay for safety and health. On her seventeenth birthday, she is shown her Match, and couldn’t be happier when her best friend Xander appears on the screen. But then another face she recognizes flashes by, and in that brief moment of seeing Ky’s face, everything changes. Cassie begins to question everything about her society and her life and must make the ultimate choice: whether to live without choices or to risk everything by choosing a life of her own. Safety or freedom? Xander or Ky?

Dystopias aren’t just THE big thing right now. Apparently they’re MY big thing too. Maybe it’s because I grew up on Ender’s Game, or maybe it’s because they take teenage rebellion to a whole new level, but I’m liking this trend in YA lit. Dystopias are all about personal growth. The more a character learns the imperfections of their seemingly perfect society, the more they learn about themselves.

Cassia has never really had the power to choose before. Everything has been determined by society, and there is little free will, and therefore little chance for rebellion. But it turns out that everyone in the novel has been rebelling in their own little ways. Everyone has a breaking point when they choose not to do what society tells them, and it’s always for the people they love. I really liked this about the book. There may not be a terrible evil to fight, but love is still the game changer.

Ky and Xander. Sigh. You didn’t think I was going to write a review without bringing up the love triangle did you? I loved them both, and Cassia too, but wanted more out of them. They’re all a bit surface level, and I wanted to see what makes them tick, making their love for one another even more believable. Perhaps in the next novel!

Some more things I liked:

1.      The character names! I’m a sucker for unique names and everyone in this novel has one.

2.      Eyes. Again, sucker for authors who focus on characters eyes (window to the soul and all).

3.      Poetry used in a different way!! Instead of epigraphs no one reads (cough so many other authors cough), this book presents a society in which only 100 poems have been saved. (Also only 100 paintings, history lessons, songs, etc). When Cassia’s grandfather gives her a poem thought to have been destroyed, its words become her song of freedom, its words the one thing society cannot take from her. Poetry used this way made me value words rather than curse the increased word count.

4.      The cover. So pretty! I love the simplicity and symbolism.

Confession of the day: I liked this book so much that I bought it!! (Gasp! Unheard of!) And its sequel, just so I could get my hands on it. 

So go read this book- you’ll like it!

FFFT 11/11/11

I have oodles of things to share with you on this Friday!

Put all of these on the TO-READ list: Publisher's Weekly and Amazon have both released their top YA books for 2011 lists.

Ever wonder how a book cover is created? See a sample of the process through Blood by K. J. Wignall. (This book will be reviewed on the blog soon. I mean, just look at the picture below!).

We all do it. We think, do teens actually act this way? Here about the "believability factor" from a YA author. 

Remember my obsession with Divergent (still the best book I've read all year)? If you loved it as I did, you might be interested to hear how Veronica Roth was inspired to write it.

And while I'm aware that it's no longer October, I found these pumpkin carving ideas and just had to share!

CONTESTS! I love them, you love them. Here's one to win free YA ARC's from The Young Adult Literature Review.

Okay finally, this is hilarious: Is YA Lit RUINING Our Children?? Mad-lib style.