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Young Adult Books: Discuss!


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On 4/5/2019 at 5:36 PM, lady narcissa said:

Although kair if you are really gung ho about the Torch Against the Night books I might try the first one as I think I got it cheap for my kindle a while back. 

Overall I enjoy the series. The first book was good enough to get my interest in what was going on. This third book was really very good. I recommend but you may not love it.

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On 4/8/2019 at 9:23 PM, kairparavel said:

Overall I enjoy the series. The first book was good enough to get my interest in what was going on. This third book was really very good. I recommend but you may not love it.

Well boooo I want a book I will love!  But alas it doesn't matter, I checked and I don't have it.  But I have it on my keep an eye out for it on the cheap wishlist.

Has anyone read The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon?  I have not read any of her Bone Season series about which I saw more negative than positive reviews.  But I've seen a lot of good reactions to the Orange Tree book. 

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 4/10/2019 at 4:19 AM, lady narcissa said:

Well boooo I want a book I will love!  But alas it doesn't matter, I checked and I don't have it.  But I have it on my keep an eye out for it on the cheap wishlist.

Has anyone read The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon?  I have not read any of her Bone Season series about which I saw more negative than positive reviews.  But I've seen a lot of good reactions to the Orange Tree book. 

It came up a rec for me on my Kindle but I just didn't feel in the mood for that type of thing. 

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  • 3 weeks later...

I see that Dread Nation is one of the Locus Award finalists for Young Adult Book.  The nominees are:

Of those, I've only read The Cruel Prince.  Shall have to consider looking into these others.  But for now waiting to see which of the Lodestar nominees I get in the Hugo packet whenever it comes out and will read those first.

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On 1/3/2019 at 11:50 PM, lady narcissa said:

I meant to post the other month to ask if anyone had caught the whole Tomi Adeyemi (brand new YA author of her first book Children of Blood and Bone) accusing Nora Roberts (i.e. one of the best selling and most prolific authors in the world) of plagiarism for the title of one of her most recent books?  It was utterly ridiculous and insulting and showed such a complete lack of knowledge about publishing on her part, that the whole thing really put me off reading Children of Blood and Bone.  I had actually purchased it but hadn't gotten around to reading it but I chucked it after this all went down.  I won't be reading it now.  Sometimes I can separate an author from their work but in this case I can't.  Some simple googling on her part would have informed her about Robert's own experience being plagiarized (and subsequent lawsuit over it) and how she would never in a million years do such a thing.  Never mind the fact she is such an incredibly prolific author that her stories are written way way in advance of publication and that story was written and with the publisher long before Children of Blood and Bone even came out.  Plus of course, she should know titles can't be copyrighted and there are quite a few other books with those same words in the title that came out several years ago.

I was just looking at some of the recent drama regarding this and just...yikes. Adeyemi is now on my will not read because author is asshat list.

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11 hours ago, Darth Richard II said:

I was just looking at some of the recent drama regarding this and just...yikes. Adeyemi is now on my will not read because author is asshat list.

Yay!  Honestly it put me off her so much.  Especially her very entitled non-apology tweet after she realized she was wrong.  She is up there with Cassandra Clare for my never buy their books because they are entitled non-apologist plagiarists.

Nora Roberts is such as class act.  If you like bookdrama! and haven't heard of it you should check out the whole #CopyPasteCris plagiarist drama that unfolded the other month on twitter.  Basically it turns out a woman in Brazil would just take sentences and paragraphs from a large number of romance authors novels, hire a ghost writer and turn assorted sentences and paragraphs over to the ghost writer representing them as her work, get the ghost writer to assemble them in some sort of romance novel, and then self-publish them as her own.  She sold pretty well on amazon.  Someone got wind of this and everyone started trolling through the novels and identifying what sentences came from what novels.  Of course the average writer would have no ability to go after the woman in Brazil legally but Nora (whose books were also plagiarized by this woman) has the means and ability and hired lawyers in Brazil to go after her since most who were plagiarized cannot.

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8 hours ago, Darth Richard II said:

Ohh I love bookdrama, particularly when the deserving person gets whats coming(Unlike Cassandra Clare, holy crap, I could rant about that ...person...for pages).

I'm tempted to give Nora Roberts fantasy books a shot now,

[Re Nora Roberts...at the risk of going off topic in the YA thread...well I'll just say I adore her as a person but have not read her books for several years now.  I used to really like her romance novels and her trilogies (romance with mystical elements) but have not liked her more recent stories.  I occasionally still read and enjoy her JD Robb books but I'll read maybe one every 18 months and she is churning out 2 a year, I can't keep up!  But I would never not want to encourage someone to give her books a try.]

Cassandra Claire/Clare ranting is totally on topic, however!  I will never get over the Bad Penny reveal.  And I will never get over the fact she got away with it.  She's like the Trump of YA.

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2 hours ago, lady narcissa said:

[Re Nora Roberts...at the risk of going off topic in the YA thread...well I'll just say I adore her as a person but have not read her books for several years now.  I used to really like her romance novels and her trilogies (romance with mystical elements) but have not liked her more recent stories.  I occasionally still read and enjoy her JD Robb books but I'll read maybe one every 18 months and she is churning out 2 a year, I can't keep up!  But I would never not want to encourage someone to give her books a try.]

Cassandra Claire/Clare ranting is totally on topic, however!  I will never get over the Bad Penny reveal.  And I will never get over the fact she got away with it.  She's like the Trump of YA.

HA!

I laughed so hard I inhaled my soda!

 

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 4/9/2019 at 11:19 PM, lady narcissa said:

Has anyone read The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon?  I have not read any of her Bone Season series about which I saw more negative than positive reviews.  But I've seen a lot of good reactions to the Orange Tree book. 

This was a Kindle daily deal over the weekend and looks to still be.

$1.99 at amazon.com

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19 minutes ago, kairparavel said:

This was a Kindle daily deal over the weekend and looks to still be.

$1.99 at amazon.com

Yes, I purchased it a couple of days ago.  At that price it doesn't really matter if it turns out to be my thing or not.

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On 5/9/2019 at 4:49 AM, Darth Richard II said:

I was just looking at some of the recent drama regarding this and just...yikes. Adeyemi is now on my will not read because author is asshat list.

I read the first book - it was for my book club. It didn't go down too well. We all agreed that it there was way too much telling and not enough showing.

On 5/9/2019 at 7:42 PM, Darth Richard II said:

Also, nothing pisses me off more then when an author uses their social media followers to do shady shit/ go after someone. Also see Catherine Valente

I muted Valente ages ago, although I can't quite remember what for now. Stopped reading her books too. Not as if there is any shortage of authors to read.

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  • 3 weeks later...

So I see there will be a 'Hunger Games prequel' coming out next year.

https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-book-news/article/80483-collins-to-pen-hunger-games-prequel.html

I was never able to read and enjoy this series.  I read the first one but ultimately it wasn't a story I wanted to continue reading.  It no doubt had a big influence on getting people to read YA and dystopia.  It will be interesting to see if the appeal of the series holds after a few years hiatus.  I like how Collins is going back in time so she has to work with all new characters.

Unfortunately, not much in YA is appealing to me these days.  I did pick up Margaret Rogerson's Sorcery of Thorns but if I'm being honest I'd say its solely because of the cover.  I actually have no idea what the story is about.  But I've liked watching the cover artist's career progress from doing fanart to getting actual covers for published books and my purchase was more about that and the pretty cover.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I finished The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo in two days worth of commuting and it was so excellent. It did not win all it's accolades and awards by accident. I highly recommend the audiobook, read by the author. I think I would have enjoyed reading it but would have missed out on the ebb and flow of the verse (that's how it's written, in verse) and the pronunciation and inflectionof some words and phrases. 

Sadly, the day I finished it was the same day that the cover art came into question. It's looking very much like the artist hired to do the artwork manipulated a photo they neither credited nor sought permission to use. It's doubly troubling because it's a photo of the the uncredited photographer. I hope she gets suitable compensation from the publisher. Probably seemed low risk for the cover artist - unknown author, unknown photographer, book written in verse, how popular could it be? But then it became one of the most talked about books of 2018, winning The National Book Award.  

https://www.forbes.com/sites/rachelkramerbussel/2019/07/03/photographer-accuses-cover-artist-of-elizabeth-acevedo-novel-the-poet-x-of-plagiarism/

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  • 2 months later...
On 4/3/2019 at 10:57 PM, kairparavel said:

I re-read A Torch Against the Night to prepare me for A Reaper at the Gates (Sabaa Tahir). Both were on audiobook and I do recommend. ARatG was probably my favorite because of Helene, who was a character I didn't enjoy in the first two books. I'm very interested in how the fourth book wraps it all up. 

I also re-read The Cruel Prince to get me back up to speed for The Wicked King. Again both on audiobook. I really enjoyed TWK. I really like Jude, even when she makes poor decisions. I was glad it took place away from her interacting with Taryn for most of it. And there's Cardan. Cardan. <sigh>

I also read On the Come Up by Angie Thomas. I didn't love it as much as The Hate U Give but it was still very good. 

I have Blanca & Roja by Anna-Marie McLemore on my Kindle. I'm several chapters in but I'm not sure what I think about it.

So, I've managed to get back to more YA this year. Most of it has been fantasy with a couple contemporary thrown in for good measure. Still reading Blanca and Roja because I kept putting it aside for other things.. and I've been reading it on my Kindle which I've only done sporadically. Most of my books completed this year have been audiobook format. 

So along with the above I've completed:

The Hazelwood which I really did not enjoy 

Grave Mercy which had a great premise: assassin nuns! and was ultimately a dud.

A Very Large Expanse of Sea which I highly recommend. It's set in the US in the early post 911 years. 

Muse of Nightmares which was almost as lovely as Strange the Dreamer.

The Poet X, which probably would have had less impact if I had read instead of listening. It's read by Elizabeth Acevedo and it is so good! I have With the High on Fire ready to go once I finish The Testaments. 

Kingdom of Ash which...ends Throne of Glass series. Meh.

The Thief which grew on me and hooked me in at the last third. The next book just came off hold for me.

Wicked Saints which felt like it really wanted to be Alina and The Darkling redone though the author says he's more Kylo Ren. I'll read the next one because yes, he's Darkling reminiscent, and I'm weak. 

We Hunt the Flame which felt like Throne of Glass and an Ember in the Ashes. It was particularly EitA reminiscent because the narrators were the same. An ok debut. I'll give the next one a shot.

My reviews are lacklustre *L* but I like what I like and can tolerate a lot. But the ones I love...The Poet X! I tell the world about.

 

Also I won an ARC of Serpent & Dove from Epic Reads (Harper Collins YA) that I need to dig into seeing as it came out last week. So much for the 'ARC' *L* Can't remember the last time I read an actual book.

Check out this book on Goodreads: Serpent & Dove http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40024139-serpent-dove

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One great discovery among YA fiction I've made is the Alexis Carew series that is a steampunk space opera set in the far future but with starships that still use sails as well as rigging. They also operate like Age of Sail Naval crews. I really love Midshipman Alexis and her adventures through the sexist and egotistical Navy of Her Majesty.

There's about six of them out and the series has kind of stopped but all of the books were greatly enjoyable. J.A. Sutherland has created a really great series here even if it DOES feel a little like Honor Harrington: The High School Years.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 9/13/2019 at 6:37 PM, kairparavel said:

Wicked Saints which felt like it really wanted to be Alina and The Darkling redone though the author says he's more Kylo Ren. I'll read the next one because yes, he's Darkling reminiscent, and I'm weak. 

Sold!  Well I added it to my watch list for the day it hopefully is on offer for $1.99...this tends to work for me quite well!

In fact it was a $1.99 offer the other week that caused me to read for my first and only YA book this year - Laura Weymouth's The Light Between Worlds.  It's an interesting premise - i.e. what was life like after The Lion, the Witch, and The Wardrobe?  Well, not really.  But it takes Lucy and Susan like characters, children who had been transported to a Narnia like place where they had similar adventures for years and then were returned right were they left off in the middle of WWII in London.  They both cope differently but it's pretty damn depressing.  One is constantly depressed and self harms and spends big chunks of their time trying to get back.  Another just throws themselves back into their old life as best they can but they have been greatly damaged by the experience and its impact on their sibling.  Makes those books a little less magical and makes me appreciate the fact that the children in the Dark is Rising were told they wouldn't remember their adventures.

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