What would you do if you were the last human on Earth? What if your new bestie was an M-16 rifle? What if you watched your mother die of a terrible virus and your father get shot in the head by a soldier you thought was there to save you? What if the enemy was impossible to detect and you didn’t know who to trust?
Rachel Cohn is best known for Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist and Dash and Lily’s Book of Dares, two popular contemporary and realistic young adult novels. When I saw she was coming out with a science fiction dystopian novel, I was intrigued.
Beta is set on the otherworldly island of Demesne, where the air is so full of oxygen, the environment so lush, it seems like paradise. The island is staffed by clones made from the bodies of those who have died, and these clones serve the elite humans who make Demesne their home. Elysia is one of the first teen clones, making her a Beta. Read More..
Do you like historical fiction? Science fiction? Fantasy? Then steampunk, which combines elements of all three, might be your new favorite genre.
But what is steampunk?
In its purest form, steampunk is fiction set in the late Victorian era (late 1800s through World War I) and usually in Great Britain, though it can be set in other locales (think the American Wild West). But instead of straight historical fiction, these stories are imbued with fantastical re-imaginings of steam era technologies. Think retro-futuristic weapons, transportation, and fashion. Though often set in the past, these stories offer alternative histories: a “what might have been” look at the future from the perspective of Victorians.
These novels all contain some aspect of steampunk. Whether you’re interested in science fiction, romance, fantasy, or historical fiction, steampunk has something to offer you.
So, there are a lot of dystopian YA novels out there, and a whole new crop of them this fall. In fact, there were so many I had to update my If you liked The Hunger Games” flowchart (and I still feel like I’m leaving some out).
Despite the seemingly endless supply of novels about a teen challenging the authority of their seemingly perfect yet obviously malicious society, none are quite like Crewel by Gennifer Albin.
Since I read A Wrinkle in Time, I have been fascinated with time travel. Whether it involved going back into the past or light-years into the future I was always intrigued by these kind of stories. Though I have never been much of a science nerd, I blazed through Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time, especially the chapter on wormholes and time travel.
But at the end of the day, what really draws me into a book is the love story, so I was interested to read Time Between Us by Tamara Ireland Stone. Read More..
Every time we get a new vampire book, I’m astonished someone is still publishing them. In the young adult section here at Lawrence Public Library, we have 198 books under the the subject heading vampires–fiction. I’m a fan of vampire books, but after some disappointing selections, I’ve become wary of new additions to this bloated genre.
But I decided to take a chance on The Immortal Rules, and I’m glad I did. Julie Kawaga has made a unique and gripping contribution to young adult vampire fiction.
Tomorrow we’re hosting Star Wars Read Day at the library! After you compete in a Wookiee yelling contest and make some Star Wars crafts, don’t forget to stop by the Teen Zone and check out one of these great Star Wars reads. We have an excellent selection of graphic novels, nonfiction, and novels that explore every aspect of the Star Wars universe. Travel to a galaxy far away with one of these books!
October is a month for all sorts of monsters: vampires, werewolves, and our favorite, ZOMBIES! This month we’re hosting a workshop to help you survive the zombie apocalypse (any disaster, really) and a clinic for you to get your hair, makeup, and clothes zombified before heading out to Lawrence’s Zombie Walk. Get in the spirit by checking out one of these zombie books! Whether you like your horror with a dash of romance, a dose of horror, or just plain gore, we’ve got something for you.
I’m a fan of fairy tale retellings. From classics like Robin McKinley‘s twists on folk tales, to Jackson Pearce’s updated versions of Hansel and Gretel, Red Riding Hood, or her forthcoming adaptation of The Little Mermaid, I never get tired of hearing a new spin on a fairy tale.
But nothing is cooler than Cinderella as a cyborg. In Cinder, the first in the Lunar Chronicles, Marissa Meyer has gone beyond a simple retelling and created a fantastical new universe by transporting the classic Cinderella story to New Beijing, a futuristic world where former Earth residents have colonized the moon. Read More..
To be fair, For Darkness Shows the Stars by Diana Peterfreund seems to have been written especially for me. I didn’t read much young adult literature when I actually was a young adult, but I read all of Jane Austen during high school. Now that I read (and love) YA, my taste tends to favor science fiction and fantasy, so this hit two of my sweet spots as a reader. A post-apocalyptic and dystopian retelling of Austen’s Persuasion? Sign me up.