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Science Fiction & FantasyYA FictionYAScience Fiction

A ragtag group of teens take on time itself

Review by Annie Metcalf

Farway Gaius McCarthy is on the verge of becoming a Recorder like his mother—a time traveler who records history in digital data streams—when something goes wrong. His final simulated test is sabotaged, and he’s expelled from the Academy. Becoming a time traveler means even more to Far since his mother, Empra McCarthy, and her mission team disappeared years ago: He’s determined to find Empra somewhere in time. So when the opportunity arises to time travel outside of the law, smuggling historic objects for a wealthy dealer, Far doesn’t think twice.

A year later, Far and his team have pulled off multiple heists in their time machine, the Invictus. But on their latest mission to retrieve an invaluable book that sank with the Titanic, they’re waylaid by a girl who already has the book, and she's demanding a place on the squad. Far immediately recognizes her as Eliot—the saboteur from his simulated test—but he’s forced to agree to her terms. With the mysterious and determined Eliot on board, Far and his crew are pulled into a literal race against time that could change—or even erase—their past, present and future.

Invictus is a meld of historical fiction, sci-fi and heist story rolled into one thrilling tale. Graudin (The Walled City) brings readers into the heads of all five members of the Invictus’ crew, revealing sweetness and insecurity in the face of epic events. While the novel at first appears to be the story of one exceptional boy, much of the action is carried out by the female crew: Imogen, Eliot and Priya. Perfect for teen readers eagerly awaiting the next season of “Doctor Who,” Invictus is a head-scratching, fast-paced adventure with surprising emotional heft.

Farway Gaius McCarthy is on the verge of becoming a Recorder like his mother—a time traveler who records history in digital data streams—when something goes wrong. His final simulated test is sabotaged, and he’s expelled from the Academy. Becoming a time traveler means even more to Far since his mother, Empra McCarthy, and her mission team disappeared years ago: He’s determined to find Empra somewhere in time. So when the opportunity arises to time travel outside of the law, smuggling historic objects for a wealthy dealer, Far doesn’t think twice.
Mystery & SuspenseYA FictionYAMystery

‘Mean Girls’ with a dash of murder

Review by Sarah Welch

Natasha has been dead for 13 minutes when a local man rescues her from the freezing river and revives her. When she wakes up in the hospital, she has no memory of how she wound up there, but she knows it couldn’t have been an accident. Natasha is the queen bee at school, but when her most devoted followers begin acting suspicious, she leans on her childhood best friend, Becca, to get to the bottom of things.

Bestselling author Sarah Pinborough (Behind Her Eyes) delivers a psychological thriller perfect for fans of Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train. 13 Minutes takes a haunting look at the dark side of teenage friendships and all the bullying, backstabbing and betrayal that go along with them. The novel’s two main characters, Becca and Natasha, are as vulnerable as they are conniving, and their need for belonging motivates their ploys and manipulations in a fascinating look at the impact high-school politics has on young psyches.

Pinborough’s sharp prose drives the novel through a series of incredible twists and turns. Just when readers think they’ve got it all figured out, she pulls the rug out from under them, reminding them that the right answer isn’t necessarily the obvious one.

Though marketed to young adults, this book will appeal to adults of all ages. Any reader will surely recognize some aspect of Natasha and Becca’s dynamic in their own social circles.

Natasha has been dead for 13 minutes when a local man rescues her from the freezing river and revives her. When she wakes up in the hospital, she has no memory of how she wound up there, but she knows it couldn’t have been an accident. Natasha is the queen bee at school, but when her most devoted followers begin acting suspicious, she leans on her childhood best friend, Becca, to get to the bottom of things.
Science Fiction & FantasyYA FictionYAFantasy

Of miracles and magic

Review by Kimberly Giarratano

Maggie Stiefvater returns with her matchless style in a standalone novel set in the Colorado Desert in 1962. Bicho Raro is a mystical ranch where the Soria family has resided for generations, performing miracles for pilgrims who seek help in banishing their darkness. At the center are three cousins—Beatriz, Joaquin and Daniel. When Daniel, the eldest cousin and saint, breaks the cardinal rule (you can help the pilgrims once, but not twice), he runs off into the desert to await his dismal fate. But generations of curses and darkness will not keep the Soria cousins from saving one of their own.

While reminiscent of Isabel Allende’s The House of the Spirits, a classic of magical realism, there are elements of storytelling here that feel unique to Stiefvater: unusual metaphors, sharp prose, unexpected humor and a deft ability to mesh the eerie and fanciful into one seamless description. Thoughtfully paced with intriguing characters, ill-fated romance and complicated family relationships, All the Crooked Saints will satiate fans who are always eager for new Stiefvater work, while bringing new ones into the fold.

 

Kimberly Giarratano is the author of Grunge Gods and Graveyards, a young adult paranormal mystery.

This article was originally published in the October 2017 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Thoughtfully paced with intriguing characters, ill-fated romance and complicated family relationships, All the Crooked Saints will satiate fans who are always eager for new Stiefvater work, while bringing new ones into the fold.

YA FictionYA

Together they stand

Review by Justin Barisich

The small town of Prescott, Oregon, has a dark history of assault that it likes to keep hidden. But in The Nowhere Girls, three young women have had enough of the predators roaming the halls of their high school.

Grace Salter, Rosina Suarez and Erin DeLillo sit at what everybody in the Prescott High lunchroom knows is the weirdo table. Grace is the new girl who just moved to town because her preacher mom is too liberal and radical. Rosina is the queer, punk girl in a conservative, Mexican-American family. And Erin, though a genius, deals with the social struggles of her extreme Asperger’s every single day.

Together, they anonymously organize the Nowhere Girls in order to push back against the overt sexism, victim blaming, slut shaming and outright rape culture running rampant at Prescott. Their first move: withholding sex of any kind from the boys at their school. And as the Nowhere Girls continue to meet and grow in numbers, they begin to find strength in their own voices, take control of their own bodies and discover that they are far stronger and more capable than they’d ever been allowed to imagine.

Borrowing from the ancient Greek play Lysistrata, author Amy Reed crafts a powerful, moving and nuanced set of characters who experience the same abuse that far too many girls suffer. Reed’s The Nowhere Girls shows readers the power each woman possesses—and she lets her characters serve as examples of how young people can take care of each other while simultaneously demanding and effecting real change in their communities.

 

Justin Barisich is a freelancer, satirist, poet and performer living in Atlanta. More of his writing can be found at littlewritingman.com.

 

This article was originally published in the October 2017 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

The small town of Prescott, Oregon, has a dark history of assault that it likes to keep hidden. But in The Nowhere Girls, three young women have had enough of the predators roaming the halls of their high school.

YA FictionYA

A stunning story of a single day

Review by Jill Ratzan

BookPage Teen Top Pick, October 2017

It’s a regular summer’s day for Adam Thorn. It begins with picking up gardening supplies for his mother (even though his brother, Marty, ran over her chrysanthemums). Later, he’s off to run with his cross-country team, and then he clocks in at what he calls the Evil International Mega-Conglomerate warehouse. After that it’s a brief stop to see his best friend, Angela, followed by his boyfriend, Linus. That evening, Adam helps at his preacher father’s evangelical church and ends the night at a going-away party for Enzo, an ex for whom Adam still yearns.

Adam’s day alternates between the mundane and the extraordinary: Angela and Marty both have revelations to share; Linus needs more from Adam than his heart is ready to give; and Adam’s tenuous truce with his father may be coming to an end. But as Adam’s day progresses, so does someone else’s: that of a mysterious presence who might be the ghost of a murdered girl—or perhaps the embodiment of an ancient water queen. Adam’s story and that of the drowned spirit run parallel for a time, but when they overlap, both could find some kind of release.

Drawing inspiration from Judy Blume’s Forever . . . and Virginia Woolf’s classic circadian novel Mrs. Dalloway, this new novel from Carnegie Medal winning-author Patrick Ness features diverse characters, unique religious perspectives (Adam’s father’s strict rules don’t hold a monopoly on spirituality) and just enough honest talk about sex to make it a good choice for older teen readers.

 

This article was originally published in the October 2017 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Drawing inspiration from Judy Blume’s Forever . . . and Virginia Woolf’s classic circadian novel Mrs. Dalloway, this new novel from Carnegie Medal winning-author Patrick Ness features diverse characters, unique religious perspectives (Adam’s father’s strict rules don’t hold a monopoly on spirituality) and just enough honest talk about sex to make it a good choice for older teen readers.

YA FictionYA

Can a single moment destroy a lifelong friendship?

Review by Anita Lock

Difficult life choices lay ahead for one senior who holds onto deep secrets about her crush in bestselling author Jennifer L. Armentrout’s latest.

Lena Wise has mixed emotions about her friends splitting off and heading to various colleges after high school. She wants nothing more than to make the most of her senior year and the time she has left with all of them, especially Sebastian Harwell, her best friend and next-door neighbor. Lena and Sebastian have known each other since childhood, and she is secretly in love with him. During a summer outing to the lake, Sebastian and Lena innocently goof around, and their playful banter eventually leads to her giving him a peck on the lips. Sebastian, unfortunately, doesn’t return the kiss. A few days later, things seem to have blown over, and Sebastian invites her to come with him to a party, but the two get into a disagreement. What follows is not only unexpected but also throws Lena’s life off-kilter.

Although Armentrout opens with a bizarre scene and leans on some cliché dialogue, she steers the story back around and makes sure to lead readers to the crux of her plot. Through Lena’s first-person narration, Armentrout crafts a storyline that feels all too real. Without giving away any spoilers, Armentrout weaves several teen issues (crushes, sex, love and dysfunctional households) into her narrative that are sure to resonate with today’s youth. If There’s No Tomorrow is nothing less than a thought-provoking read, and Armentrout will keep readers hooked until the very end.

Difficult life choices lay ahead for one senior who holds onto deep secrets about her crush in bestselling author Jennifer L. Armentrout’s latest, If There’s No Tomorrow.
YA FictionYA

Wonder Woman’s early years

Review by Diane Colson

The timing could hardly be better. Readers looking for more Wonder Woman lore after the blockbuster summer movie will welcome Leigh Bardugo’s imaginative and witty interpretation.

In this coming-of-age novel, teenage Diana lives on the island of Themyscira, which is populated only by female Amazons. She is the daughter of Hippolyta, who created Diana from a clay pot. Diana is painfully aware that every other Amazon earned a place on the island through a noble mortal death and feels compelled to prove herself worthy. Her chance comes when she rescues a lone survivor from a ship explosion, a mixed-race teenage mortal named Alia Keralis.

Through an oracle, Diana discovers that Alia is a Warbringer, a descendent of Helen of Troy who is destined to bring absolute destruction. The only way to divert this tragedy is for Alia to bathe in “the spring where Helen rests” within the next two weeks. Diana accepts the quest. Alia, on the other hand, is wary of Diana’s formidable appearance and outlandish proposal. They arrive in New York, where Diana’s supermodel appearance, Amazonian strength and incongruous naivete form the basis for much of the 21st-century humor. Alia and Diana forge a bond of sisterhood that is tested as the two of them, along with Alia’s brother and her friends, make their way to Greece to locate Helen’s spring.

Fans of Bardugo’s Grisha series will be delighted with the action and romance in this story. Wonder Woman: Warbringer is the first novel in the highly anticipated DC Icons Series, which features popular superhero stories retold by bestselling authors.   

 

Diane Colson is a media specialist at a middle school in Gainesville, Florida.

The timing could hardly be better. Readers looking for more Wonder Woman lore after the blockbuster summer movie will welcome Leigh Bardugo’s imaginative and witty interpretation.
RomanceYA FictionYA

A quirky quest to break a curse

Review by Anita Lock

An awkward situation turns into a unique opportunity to face fears in Krystal Sutherland’s latest. Esther Solar and her household are reminiscent of the Addams Family: They are not only riddled with phobias but also cursed because of Grandpa Reg, who claims to have met Death. For the last six years, 17-year-old Esther has attempted to reverse their curse by avoiding pretty much anything that could kill her. She even created “A Semi-Definitive List of Worst Nightmares,” her sacred inventory that was kept under wraps until Jonah Smallwood, a former childhood friend, steals it from her at a bus stop. Although she demands that he return it, he cleverly counters with a challenge: If Death is a person, “we find him, we talk to him, we get him to lift the curse.”

Sutherland has a distinctive ability to combine extreme concepts and even wackier characters to create a story that is both uproariously funny and thought provoking. Deftly weaving irony within her narrative, Sutherland blends realities of teen life amid the strangest of circumstances. Full of surprises that culminate in an unexpectedly sweet romance, A Semi-Definitive List of Worst Nightmares is earmarked to be a classic.

 

This article was originally published in the September 2017 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Sutherland has a distinctive ability to combine extreme concepts and even wackier characters to create a story that is both uproariously funny and thought provoking. Deftly weaving irony within her narrative, Sutherland blends realities of teen life amid the strangest of circumstances. Full of surprises that culminate in an unexpectedly sweet romance, A Semi-Definitive List of Worst Nightmares is earmarked to be a classic.

YA FictionYAThriller

Danger beneath the surface

Review by Kimberly Giarratano

E. Lockhart’s latest novel opens in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, where 18-year-old Jule West Williams is spending a month at a luxury resort. She speaks with a London accent and makes friends with the bartender. She swims laps and studies Spanish. She’s friendly and outgoing, but always holds something back, and she always looks over her shoulder. She is also entirely alone. On the outside, it would appear that Jule is a wealthy heiress with time to kill and money to burn, but on the inside, Jule is a self-trained fighter with a shady past. Then, there’s Imogen Sokoloff, Jule’s charismatic friend who loves Victorian novels and global jaunts. Both Jule and Imogen are orphans, but one was adopted into money, and the other most definitely was not. And yet, somehow, their lives become impossibly intertwined.

To reveal anything else would spoil this deftly plotted and fast-paced narrative told in reverse-chronological order. However, readers familiar with Patricia Highsmith’s The Talented Mr. Ripley—which Lockhart, bestselling author of We Were Liars, cites as an influence—will sense the story’s chilling trajectory. This isn’t a typical teen novel with clear-cut heroines and antagonists, and yet young readers will identify bits of themselves in these complicated characters. Because, as Jule discovers, the biggest hurdle of adolescence is simply finding out who you are.

 

Kimberly Giarratano is the author of Grunge Gods and Graveyards, a young adult paranormal mystery.

This article was originally published in the September 2017 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

This isn’t a typical teen novel with clear-cut heroines and antagonists, and yet young readers will identify bits of themselves in these complicated characters.

Science Fiction & FantasyYA FictionYAFantasy

A dark, thrilling take on Snow White

Review by Jill Ratzan

Ever since Lynet’s mother, the last queen, hanged herself, the kingdom of Whitespring has been covered year-round in snow. Teenage Lynet, next in line for the throne, has never been cold; her Southern stepmother, Mina, has never felt warm. Lynet and Mina have always cared for each other, but when Lynet befriends Whitespring’s new surgeon, Nadia, secrets are revealed and relationships begin to unravel. Why does Lynet look exactly like her dead mother? Why does Mina believe no one can truly love her? What is this connection that Lynet and Nadia seem to share? At first, King Nicholas and Mina’s magician father make all the decisions. But the female characters triumph, not by playing by the male characters’ rules but by rewriting them.

This is “Snow White” as it’s never been told before. Fans of “Game of Thrones” will relish the loyalties and betrayals, but author Melissa Bashardoust sidesteps most of the violence that characterizes George R.R. Martin’s work. With elements of the medieval legend of the golem, echoes of the movie Frozen and plenty of magic, Girls Made of Snow and Glass is a feminist fantasy not to be missed.

 

This article was originally published in the September 2017 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

This is “Snow White” as it’s never been told before. Fans of “Game of Thrones” will relish the loyalties and betrayals, but author Melissa Bashardoust sidesteps most of the violence that characterizes George R.R. Martin’s work. With elements of the medieval legend of the golem, echoes of the movie Frozen and plenty of magic, Girls Made of Snow and Glass is a feminist fantasy not to be missed.

Science Fiction & FantasyYA FictionYAScience Fiction

A bounty hunt in virtual reality

Review by Kevin Delecki

Things are not going well for Emika Chen. A bounty hunter in an obsessively digital world, Emika is days away from being evicted from her run-down apartment with no hope of making enough money. Desperate, she decides to hack into Warcross, the immersive virtual reality game that has overtaken the world. Emika’s hack works, to a point. Unfortunately, during the heist, she also glitches into the International Warcross Championship in front of billions of viewers. Emika is convinced she’s going to spend the rest of her life in jail, but then she receives a call from the mysterious (and ridiculously wealthy) creator of Warcross, Hideo Tanaka. He offers Emika a chance to erase her debts and snag the biggest bounty of her life by chasing down a security threat to Warcross. But what Emika uncovers goes beyond the security of an online game.

Taking obvious cues from Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One and postmodern tech thrillers, Marie Lu presents an exciting, immersive world with interesting and developed characters the reader will care about. While definitely a can’t-miss for fans of Lu’s Young Elites series, Warcross offers something for readers across all genres.

 

This article was originally published in the September 2017 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Taking obvious cues from Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One and postmodern tech thrillers, Marie Lu presents an exciting, immersive world with interesting and developed characters the reader will care about. While definitely a can’t-miss for fans of Lu’s Young Elites series, Warcross offers something for readers across all genres.

Science Fiction & FantasyYA FictionYAScience Fiction

A snapshot of a world irrevocably changed

Review by Justin Barisich

The eternal beauty of science fiction is this: It takes readers to sometime or someplace else to show them the harsh truths of their own world. In Landscape with Invisible Hand, the vuvv—aliens who’ve come to Earth as benevolent colonizers—make way for humanity to destroy itself by the hand of its own greed.

High school junior Adam Costello enjoys painting landscapes of his deteriorating small town when he’s not on the clock earning his family’s sole income. For cash, he records his saccharine, 1950s-inspired dates with a girlfriend he can barely tolerate just to entertain aliens fascinated with “classic” earth culture. Because the vuvv have descended upon Earth, offering free advanced technology and medicine to the earthlings, the human economy has collapsed as a result. Now the rich hoard wealth behind massive pay walls, leaving regular people to suffer. However, when Adam’s teacher enters his paintings into an intergalactic art competition, he sees a way out. As Adam and his family flounder, he must decide what’s more important: painting pleasantries for profit or making art that captures the truth of humanity’s darkest hour.

In this novella, National Book Award winner M.T. Anderson writes a multilayered and scathing satire of callous economics, wealth disparity and the invisible hand of the market, as well as a metacritical discussion on the worth and value of art. It’s a bleak but necessary lesson in trying to find the beauty in the disastrous, all while learning to recognize when it’s time to dream a new dream.

 

Justin Barisich is a freelancer, satirist, poet and performer living in Atlanta. More of his writing can be found at littlewritingman.com.

This article was originally published in the September 2017 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

The eternal beauty of science fiction is this: It takes readers to sometime or someplace else to show them the harsh truths of their own world. In Landscape with Invisible Hand, the vuvv—aliens who’ve come to Earth as benevolent colonizers—make way for humanity to destroy itself by the hand of its own greed.

YA FictionYALGBTQ Fiction

Living fully in your final hours

Review by Sarah Welch

BookPage Teen Top Pick, September 2017

In an alternate present-day New York City, Mateo and Rufus both receive the same call from Death-Cast in the early morning hours, letting them know they’ll be dead by midnight. The two teens have never met, but when they connect on the Last Friend app, they set out to help each other pack the experiences of a lifetime into one last day and form a deep bond that soon goes beyond friendship.

Adam Silvera, bestselling author of More Happy Than Not and History Is All You Left Me, delivers a thought-provoking story about two boys who seize one final opportunity to change their lives. The premise—that we should embrace every day because we don’t know many we’ve got left—may be trite, but Silvera’s take on the cliché is anything but. He renders every moment of their last day with such honesty that readers will feel as though they’re experiencing the same terror, anger and even joy Mateo and Rufus feel as they prowl the city together.

It’s a risky move, letting the reader know from the get-go that the main characters won’t make it. But these protagonists are impossible to hold at arm’s length; Mateo’s crippling shyness and Rufus’ temper are sure to resonate with readers. Both boys are hyperaware of their own shortcomings, but they’re also bound and determined to overcome their insecurities and live as their ideal selves during their final hours. They Both Die at the End is impossible to put down, and it’s sure to inspire readers to think about the people they want to be.

 

ALSO IN BOOKPAGE: Read a Q&A with Adam Silvera on They Both Die at the End.

This article was originally published in the September 2017 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

In an alternate present-day New York City, Mateo and Rufus both receive the same call from Death-Cast in the early morning hours, letting them know they’ll be dead by midnight. The two teens have never met, but when they connect on the Last Friend app, they set out to help each other pack the experiences of a lifetime into one last day and form a deep bond that soon goes beyond friendship.

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