I've been reading a lot of Urban Fantasy lately. As I read books I like, I go and rate them on Amazon. Amazon then recommends books I might like to me and the cycle continues. Without Amazon, I never would have discovered Kelley Armstrong (books 1 and 2, the rest of the series is dead to me) Patricia Briggs, Ilona Andrews or many of my other favorites. In fact, I would be pretty comfortable saying that all of my favorite authors were recommended to me by Amazon. Anyway, getting back on topic, Amazon has been recommending a lot of YA fiction to me now that I've rated the Twilight books. I've been giving a lot of it a shot and here are some of the ones that I liked.
Raven, by Alison Van Diepen has a really interesting twist. It was kind of hard for me to get into the story though, since the main character, Nicole, is part of a break dancing crew. I know nothing about break dancing and would start to get bored when she discussed it. (Way more than necessary.) Zin kept me coming back to the story and I'm glad I stuck with it. It wrapped up way too fast, and way too easily, but it's worth a read.
The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins, was excellent. It takes place in the post-apocalyptic future. North America has been broken into zones. Each year, one boy and one girl from each zone is chosen randomly to compete in the Hunger Games. In essence, the Hunger Games is a televised battle to the death between 24 players, the last remaining player wins a life of ease for themselves and their families. The main character is Katniss. Katniss has been looking after her mom and younger sister since she was 11 years old. Katniss' little sister is chosen to participate in the Hunger Games, but Katniss volunteers to go in her place. This is a great book and I'm really excited for the sequel, out later this year.
Graceling, by Kristin Cashore, was fabulous. By far the best YA book I've read so far. Graceling takes place in a medieval time period where very occasionally a child is born with a special gift. Sometime in their puberty, the child's eyes turn different colors. Our main character, Katsa, has one blue eye and one green one. This indicates to their family that they are a graceling and they are sent to their king to determine what their grace (special gift) is and whether they might be of service to the King. Katsa's grace is that of killing. She kills quickly, easily, and doesn't require a weapon. She is forced to act as a henchman for her king, but to channel her guilt, she forms a secret council of like-minded citizens who carry out secret missions to promote justice over cruelty and abuses of power. This book twists and turns and is WONDERFUL. No sequel is planned, but a prequel will be out later this year.
Graceling, by Kristin Cashore, was fabulous. By far the best YA book I've read so far. Graceling takes place in a medieval time period where very occasionally a child is born with a special gift. Sometime in their puberty, the child's eyes turn different colors. Our main character, Katsa, has one blue eye and one green one. This indicates to their family that they are a graceling and they are sent to their king to determine what their grace (special gift) is and whether they might be of service to the King. Katsa's grace is that of killing. She kills quickly, easily, and doesn't require a weapon. She is forced to act as a henchman for her king, but to channel her guilt, she forms a secret council of like-minded citizens who carry out secret missions to promote justice over cruelty and abuses of power. This book twists and turns and is WONDERFUL. No sequel is planned, but a prequel will be out later this year.
Evermore, by Alyson Noel, was pretty good. Our main character, Ever, survived the car crash that killed her parents, younger sister, and their dog. Now she lives with an aunt in Southern California, plagued not only by survivors guilt but also by a new ability to hear the thoughts and see the auras of all around her. She tries to tune out all these distractions by keeping her hoodie up and her iPod cranked loud, until Damen, the cute new boy at school, convinces her to come out of her shell. Damen, however, is very mysterious. He produces flowers out of nowhere and always seems to disappear just when something is happening. The sequel is out this summer and I'm looking forward to it, even though Damen didn't hold my interest as our hero and was a little creepy all around.
