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Post by Deleted on Oct 24, 2011 13:16:51 GMT -8
I'm sorry if this is not the right place for this. My friends and I were talking about how most young adult authors can't write and how every new teen book is the exact same. I tried to argue that there have some well written YA books in the last ten years but I couldn't come up with anything. My goal is to find a YA book written in the last ten years with good written and characterization, and a good plot. Can anyone think of something? The best I could come up with is Gone by Michael Grant but even some of the characterization in that is pretty bad at times. If anyone can think of anything I will be very, very happy.
It's really sad though that the stuff teens are reading is awful. The last two YA books I read are: City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare and Iron Fey by Julia Kagawa. City of Fallen Angels reads like a bad fanfiction and the character don't develop. The Iron Fey series is a Harlequin teen book so I decided to ignore the cliche romance and sappy characters. It is a sad day when the books kids are reading are cringe worthy. My sister was reading a book about werewolves called Linger and I couldn't get past the first page, honestly, one of the lines was "they worried at my body." It made no sense. My friend and I are reading Hush Hush and we burst into laughter every two pages, one line was "you have a killer curvy mouth" and another was "say provoking again, your mouth looks provocative when you do". And both of these are books people find good. So help me on my quest to find good teen fiction or I could just stick to adult fiction and admit defeat to my friends.
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Aunt Dew
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Post by Aunt Dew on Oct 24, 2011 13:26:35 GMT -8
I almost exclusively read Young Adult Fiction, and boy are there some good writers out there.
Diana Wynne Jones (RIP); she wrote children and YA fantasy until she passed away earlier this year.
Scott Westerfeld; a bit of sci-fi fantasy. His most recent series is steampunk (I am still waiting for the final)
Sheryl Jordan; One of my all time favourite authors, she writes fantasy, but my favourite book by her is not fantasy, The Raging Quiet is about a recent widow and a deaf boy, set in sort of mideval times, and explores ostracization.
Terry Pratchett; he writes mostly adult books, but Nation is a YA book which is fabulous, and he had written a few series aimed at children/YA
Margaret Mahy; best NZ fantasy author ever! Her books combine real life with a strange fantastical twist, which lets her explore real life issues in an interesting way. READ HER NOW!!
Elizabeth Knox; she is a NZ author, mostly writes adult books (she has won awards). She has written one series for Young Adults DreamHunter and DreamQuake
Jaclyn Moriarty, she is an Australian writer, writes about two very different highschools and the interaction of the students. Brilliant writer, gets past all the cliches and shows teenage life as it really is. Every character is a full character, not a cardboard cutout.
That's what I can give you off the top of my head.
Oh, that other Australian writer! John Marsden! Hippie loves his series.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 24, 2011 13:32:13 GMT -8
Thanks, I completely forgot about Diana Wynne Jones, i loved Witch Week. I'll try Jaclyn Moriarty.
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Aunt Dew
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Post by Aunt Dew on Oct 24, 2011 13:34:36 GMT -8
I keep thinking up more.
Ann Rinaldi writes historical fiction, mostly around US history, but she has written a few UK ones as well. Highly recommend her books for anyone studying history in highschool.
Michelle Magorian- most well known for Goodnight Mister Tom but has written much more. Her books are all based either during the second world war or in the years after the war, and she really explores the impact the war had on children and teenagers.
Cynthia Voight; she writes a bit of fantasy, but she also wrote the Homecoming series, which is brilliant. Not sure if she has published anything recently
K M Peyton; this is a great author for the horse mad. Almost all her stories involve horses in some way or another. I think my favourite book of hers is Prove yourself a hero which is about a teenage boy who is kidnapped, and the psychological effects the kidnapping has on him after his release. With horses thrown in of course.
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Post by ladylillian on Oct 24, 2011 14:03:14 GMT -8
John Green.
That is all. (As in I'll write more later! But seriously, give John Green a try. He's fantastic.)
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Aunt Dew
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Post by Aunt Dew on Oct 24, 2011 14:22:47 GMT -8
John Green. That is all. (As in I'll write more later! But seriously, give John Green a try. He's fantastic.)
I'll look him up next time I am at the library. |
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Post by lacrimosadoll on Oct 24, 2011 16:04:31 GMT -8
It's really sad though that the stuff teens are reading is awful. The last two YA books I read are: City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare and Iron Fey by Julia Kagawa. City of Fallen Angels reads like a bad fanfiction and the character don't develop. I am a Mortal Instruments Fan... Though not because of Clary or Jace. I hate them beyond what words can describe. No, the only reason why I like it is because of Magnus and Alec. I find them so much more interesting than the two. Alec being the cute, shy, gay and self-councious shadow hunter he is, not to mention very protective of his siblings and everything, and Magnus just being Magnus, his glorious sparkly self... I love them, I'm clearly a Malec fangirl. XD I adore them! To be honest, I think the series would be much more interesting if it was about them. Alec has to go through so much character development because of his crush on Jace, then having to deal with his homosexuality and then having to face the Clave and everyone because of his relationship with Magnus... Then there is Max... Yeah... I think they are much more interesting than Jace and Clary. Clary just pisses me off (I was quite happy with Alec being a jerk to her) and Jace... Seriously, what kind of Parabatai is he?! *rants* Ok, sorry... But either way, I kind of see what you mean. I have tried to stay away from YA since Twilight. It seems everyone is trying to copy that fomula: Girl meets boy, supernatural stuff happens, girl is Mary-Sue, Boy never met anyone who he loved as much as girl, everything ends up okay in the end. It is annoying me, to be honest. I have, however, read a very good YA recently. It is called Frozen Fire by Tim Bowler. This girl, named Dusty, receives a call one night, and the boy on the other line says "I'm dying". As they continue to talk, Dusty finds out this boy is commiting suicide and just wants to talk with someone before he dies... And he starts to say some pretty weird stuff, things he couldn't possibly know, and that makes Dusty think he knows what happened to her missing brother, Josh. After he hangs up, she tries to find him. This is the end of Chapter 1. Though I may look up some of the books in this thread... They sound very interesting! I'm always looking for new books to read, and if some are as good as people here say, then maybe I shouldn't give up on YA so soon. |
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Aunt Dew
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Post by Aunt Dew on Oct 24, 2011 16:51:14 GMT -8
Thanks, I completely forgot about Diana Wynne Jones, i loved Witch Week. I'll try Jaclyn Moriarty.
Each book is stand alone, but they also have an order accoring to internal chronology.
The first book is Feeling Sorry for Celia
Synopsis
Life is pretty complicated for Elizabeth Clarry. Her best friend Celia keeps disappearing, her absent father has reappeared, and her English teacher wants to rekindle the "Joy of the Envelope," and now a complete and utter stranger will know more about Elizabeth then anybody else.
The second book is Finding Cassie Crazy (or The Year of Secret Assignments).
Synopsis:
The Ashbury-Brookfield pen pal program is designed to bring together the two rival schools into harmony and the "Joy of the Envelope". But when Cassie, Lydia and Emily send their first letters to Matthew, Charlie and Sebastian, things don't go quite as planned. What starts out as simple letter exchange soon leads to secret missions, false alarms, lock picking, mistaken identity, and an all-out war between the two school - not to mention some really excellant kissing
This book is really fun, and full of laughs.
The third book The Betrayal of Bindy Mackenzie (or The Murder of Bindy Mackensie).
Synopsis:
Bindy Mackenzie is the most perfect girl at Ashbury High. She scores in the 99.9th percentile in every class. She holds lunchtime advisory sessions for fellow students. And she's been Kmart casual Employee of the Month for seventeen months straight.
No wonder someone wants to kill her.
Bindy's perfect life begins to fall apart. [Blah blah blah] What could be the cause of these strange events? Is it a conspiracy? It is madness? Is it...murder?
Lots of people hate Bindy Mackenzie- but who would actually kill her? The answer is in Bindy's transcripts. Her classmates might help. But Bindy has made every one of them into an enemy and time is running out.
The fourth book is called Dreaming of Amelia (or The Ghosts of Ashbury Highand is my favourite story so far, though I have not finished it yet.
Synopsis:
This is the story of Amelia and Riley.
They're bad kids from the bad crowd at bad Brookfield High, and they've transferred to Ashbury.
Brilliant, mysterious and probably evil, they have the rich kids at Ashbury spellbound.
This is the story of ghosts and secrets, of passion, locked doors and femme fatales; of final-year-of-high school tension and intrigue.
This is the story of the PAST and the FUTURE that has come to get YOU.
If you have ever read Gothic Fiction you will appreciate Dreaming of Amelia very much. |
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Demeter
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Post by Demeter on Oct 24, 2011 18:44:50 GMT -8
The third book The Betrayal of Bindy Mackenzie (or The Murder of Bindy Mackensie).
Synopsis:
Bindy Mackenzie is the most perfect girl at Ashbury High. She scores in the 99.9th percentile in every class. She holds lunchtime advisory sessions for fellow students. And she's been Kmart casual Employee of the Month for seventeen months straight.
No wonder someone wants to kill her.
Bindy's perfect life begins to fall apart. [Blah blah blah] What could be the cause of these strange events? Is it a conspiracy? It is madness? Is it...murder?
Lots of people hate Bindy Mackenzie- but who would actually kill her? The answer is in Bindy's transcripts. Her classmates might help. But Bindy has made every one of them into an enemy and time is running out. Also, Bindy falls asleep on her laptop and her classmates replace it with a dictionary because they're worried about her getting face cancer. I need to reread the first three and see if the library has the fourth. |
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Post by watersheerie on Oct 24, 2011 20:00:44 GMT -8
Garth Nix has done some very good YA.
Robin McKinley also recently came out with a YA book, Pegasus, it was very good as well.
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Aunt Dew
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Post by Aunt Dew on Oct 24, 2011 20:05:24 GMT -8
Garth Nix has done some very good YA. Robin McKinley also recently came out with a YA book, Pegasus, it was very good as well.
Robin McKinley! How could I forget her! I have not read Pegasus though.
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Post by annaofcrazyland on Oct 24, 2011 21:01:33 GMT -8
Well, I really like The Secrets Of The Immortal Nicholas Flamel by Michael Scott. It's fantasy, but it also counts as YA.
Oh, and Cassandra Clare writes like it's a bad fanfiction because she once actually did write bad fanfiction. xD Look up "The Draco Trilogy".
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Post by watersheerie on Oct 24, 2011 21:26:21 GMT -8
Oh, and Cassandra Clare writes like it's a bad fanfiction because she once actually did write bad fanfiction. xD Look up "The Draco Trilogy". I've never read any of Clare's stuff, published or fanfic, but from what I've heard her published stuff is basically her famous fanfics re-written. Considering the huge drama regarding plagiarism surrounding her fanfiction, many people think that her published work is probably plagiarized as well...in addition to being simply awful. |
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Post by Admin on Oct 24, 2011 21:29:44 GMT -8
...weren't the last few Harry Potter books written within the past ten years?
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Post by kaynobi on Oct 25, 2011 3:10:09 GMT -8
I'm really liking Kristen Cashore's Seven Kingdom books right now. Graceling was really good and I've just started Fire. Bitterblue is due soon.
Tamora Pierce - I like her Tortall books far more than her Emelan ones though.
Hunger Games - Haven't rad them yet but they sound good. Same for the Gemma Doyle trilogy.
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Post by annaofcrazyland on Oct 25, 2011 5:07:14 GMT -8
...weren't the last few Harry Potter books written within the past ten years? Yeah, but I don't know if a series counts. >.< Oh, I forgot the Hunger Games, actually! Awesome series. xD There's also His Dark Materials. kaynobi, I'm not entirely sure Gemma Doyle is a YA series, though; yes, the characters are teens, but I always saw it as more of a feminist pagan fantasy. |
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Post by Admin on Oct 25, 2011 5:40:52 GMT -8
Yeah, but I don't know if a series counts. >.< HP is definitely YA. >.> |
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Post by annaofcrazyland on Oct 25, 2011 5:53:41 GMT -8
Yes, but I mean that the first book wasn't written in the last 10 years. It IS definitely YA, though.
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Post by Admin on Oct 25, 2011 6:57:11 GMT -8
They were asking about individual books, though, so I'd count the individual books that were written within the time span. >.>
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Post by candypants on Oct 25, 2011 7:44:20 GMT -8
This is awesome. I'm a bad judge when it comes to picking YA books to read...that's how I ended up reading Twilight.
Anyway, I just started reading Diana Wynne Jones. I haven't read the fanfic Cassandra Clare wrote. Is it really that bad?
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Heartless Hìppíe
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Post by Heartless Hìppíe on Oct 25, 2011 10:00:24 GMT -8
Keys to the Kingdom by Garth Nix (The Old Kingdom, and The Seventh Tower by him are good too)
The Codex Alera Series by Jim Butcher (New York Times Best seller repeatedly)
The Young Wizard Series by Diane Duane
The Bartimaeus Trilogy by Jonathon Stroud (this one is definitely new, and one of my Favorites).
I had a lot more, but upon investigating a lot of them were not published in the last 10 years, more like 20 years.
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Post by kaynobi on Oct 25, 2011 11:31:06 GMT -8
...weren't the last few Harry Potter books written within the past ten years? Yeah, but I don't know if a series counts. >.< Oh, I forgot the Hunger Games, actually! Awesome series. xD There's also His Dark Materials. kaynobi, I'm not entirely sure Gemma Doyle is a YA series, though; yes, the characters are teens, but I always saw it as more of a feminist pagan fantasy. I think His Dark Materials were all written in the 90s. I'd class Gemma Doyle as YA. It's always in the YA section of my local bookstores anyway. |
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Post by Jean-Thomas Renault on Oct 25, 2011 19:46:54 GMT -8
The Harry Potter series is a masterpiece, and fantastic on a number of levels. Rowling is simultaneously capable of maintaining a great blend of humor, mystery, magic, adolescent development, and a keen understanding of society. What's more, she avoids the trap of many YA writers of tunnel visioning in on the teen world. Unfortunately, decent YA fiction is often the exception, not the rule. Oftentimes, even when the teen characters in a YA novel are well portrayed with realistic care in a given novel, the author does a hatchet job on the adults.
Sometimes the actual women and men within a teen novel seem like caricatures, where you have the strict set of parents, or the "cool" mom, or what have you. Sometimes even in terms of dialogue, it can be hard to differentiate adults from teens. Some of the most shameless examples of such authors include Stephanie Meyer, Gossip Girl bestselling author Cecily von Ziegesar, and a host of others.
Such unmasks the myopia of particular authors, and I would argue to an extent, their own battle with immaturity. Aside from the difficulties in telling teen from adult, however, another problem is that parents quite often play a nearly passive role in many YA books (there are plenty of exceptions, of course.) It is far more interesting when the parents, if they do not play a significant role themselves, at least have some realistic degree of influence over their kids which reflects the typical experience of a healthy parenting relationship.
In this regard, a good author will not write 10 novels surrounding a plot about how a teenage girl and her mother are always fighting. That may be the plot of 2 of his weaker books, but hopefully not the subject of all 10. It appears that a good author stays away from always using the opposite extremes of the "hip dad," on the one hand, and the "strict parents ruling their rebellious kids with an iron fist."
Furthermore, I find that in my opinion the best YA fictional books, while maintaining their primary appeal to a teen demographic, tend to provoke substantial interest from some adults. Here it's crucial to give some clarification. On this site, numerous people have commented on the "twi-moms," who are captivated by the Twilight series. By the phrase 'substantial interest' I do not mean merely a vapid story which allows adults to relive youthful infatuations vicariously through other characters. Instead, I mean that the best YA books are substantive, and have an appeal to more than that specific teen demographic. The author should be able to present himself as someone familiar with youth culture, but who nonetheless is separate from it. He should show us a world through the eyes of the teen character or characters who are gradually maturing.
One of the things I view as most problematic about much of today's YA fiction is the near absence and significantly reduced role of the elderly. The temptation is to promote a youth culture almost wholly divorced from the wider culture. This "counter culture" movement gained wide acceptance in beginning in the 1990s, and was rooted ideologically in the Sixties. Characteristically, it embodies the theme of defying all authority and creating a distinct identity based almost solely on peer acceptance. This almost by definition necessitates a minimal role for older family members, who are often wedded to traditional mores which teen authors tend to frown on.
While there is something to be said for the exploration of adolescent angst (it is after all a universal experience in development to some degree or another,) I'm convinced that too many authors have only succeeded in making a hollowed out depiction of the world. I charge many of them chiefly with ignoring or glossing over the role of teen/adult dynamics, preferring to deal almost entirely with teen/teen relationship dynamics.
Parents, teachers, professors, grandparents, and older relatives are all too often background characters who appear once in a while as one a stage, and then are shoved aside for the stage light to be cast upon the young. When adults are featured, they are to often young and trendy. As an example, if there's a professor of philosophy on campus, he'll be hot, and all the girls are drooling over him. God forbid he should appear as a grandfatherly mentor who is admired for his life experiences. If there's a mother, she's a hot MILF who may need a crash course on parenting, if not someone in need of growing up herself. These are the most extreme of examples, but never underestimate how often YA authors and publishers underestimate the desire of teen readers for substance which is so much lacking in that genre.
In a similar vein, I contend that as a whole, there is too much focus on boyfriend/girlfriend relationships, and a lack of platonic love among young men and young women. Now, it will, perhaps, be stated that "when you're marketing to teenagers, you've got to keep in mind that hormones almost necessarily dictate that the books should be focused on the boyfriend/girlfriend-get together-break up situations." This is a cop-out, and a lousy excuse for being unwilling to undertake the admittedly difficult task of promoting greater depth and breath in terms of spheres of complex personal relationships.
Another defense that will be offered to justify why so few YA novels contain this platonic love is that such a notion is "dated" and unpopular. This is one of the worst statements which could be made because the facts of very modern human experience contradict this claim. When we really think about it, there are more situations in which people have platonic relationships than romantic ones. For every boyfriend or girlfriend, one will have had at least two situations which reflected a relationship bordering on romance, but which did not become romantic--a friendship which was more than friendship, but which also transcended romance in practice. These are some of the few consequential issues I have with many teen authors. But I'm not opposed to the genre completely.
As stated, I think well of Rowling, which isn't typical. Another author for whom I have some respect is Jude Watson, who is most known for her numerous Star Wars books for teens. Another author who seems to have some talent--albeit you have to shift through some of her more unimpressive books to really find--is Kate Brian, who wrote the series Private, as well as Privilege. Although Brian is unfortunately widely guilty of many of the accusations I've made in general about YA authors, she is one of the least guilty I have yet to run across thus far. Her prequel to the Private series called The Last Christmas is definitely worth a look, in my view. No doubt there are author YA authors out there also worthy of recognition.
Of course, every book will be different in terms of relationships. Some novels will require more of the teen/teen dynamics than teen/adult dynamics, and that is understood. But even so, YA novels and their authors reflect a notable issue: youth culture is itself in constant danger of becoming a parody of itself. It is a movement at risk of cutting itself off from reality and drifting from a justified escape of imagination into an unjustified escapism of absurdity.
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Aunt Dew
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Post by Aunt Dew on Oct 25, 2011 20:32:39 GMT -8
^ Some of the best YA novels I have read specifically explore the teenage/adult relationship.
The two that come to mind are both by Michelle Magorian, one is called Back Home and is about a girl who lived in the US during most of the war, and then was sent back to her parents afterwards. Much of the book is focused on the relationship between this girl and her mother and their struggle to reconnect after years apart. While this particular situation is unusual, many of the issues that arise will be familiar to many teenage girls.
Another one is Just Henry. This book is awesome, and examines many prejudices of the day, but one area of the story is the resentment Henry has towards his step-father, and the strain this puts on his mother. Actually overall one of the biggest issues in that book is children being judged because of things that their parents did. There is also an awesome teacher. I need to reread this book. It is just an exemplar in a story about a boy growing up, and finding out who he is.
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Post by annaofcrazyland on Oct 25, 2011 21:29:56 GMT -8
...Do visual novels count? Because I know of this awesome YA visual novel(there's a topic for it in the Games section)called "don't take it personally, babe, it just ain't your story" in which the main character is actually a teacher, and it focuses on his relations to the students. There's several endings, but it feels very novel-ish. If you don't mind the art, and the fact that both main couples(unless you start a relationship with Arianna)are gay, then I would definitely recommend it.
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Post by Jean-Thomas Renault on Oct 25, 2011 21:39:27 GMT -8
...Do visual novels count? Because I know of this awesome YA visual novel(there's a topic for it in the Games section)called "don't take it personally, babe, it just ain't your story" in which the main character is actually a teacher, and it focuses on his relations to the students. There's several endings, but it feels very novel-ish. If you don't mind the art, and the fact that both main couples(unless you start a relationship with Arianna)are gay, then I would definitely recommend it. I'd personally say that counts. : ) Whether someone chooses to convey a teacher/student relationship by means of words or pictures, I believe it substantively accomplishes the same purpose, even if the medium is different. |
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limelightqueen
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Post by limelightqueen on Oct 26, 2011 10:34:34 GMT -8
Sarah Dessen is a personal favorite of mine. She writes fantastic coming of age stories with characters who actually seem real.
Libba Bray. I cannot recommend her enough. Her Gemma Doyle trilogy is basically the anti-Twilight. Another way to describe it would be that it is the story that Twihards think Twilight is: a supernatural horror featuring a star-crossed couple and a strong, likable heroine with a good feminist message. Bonus points: it has a modern feminist story despite taking place in Victorian England.
Libba Bray's Beauty Queens is one of the funniest books I've ever read and an absolutely brilliant satire. The concept is really, really ridiculous (a plane full of teenage beauty pageant contestants crashes on a deserted island) but it's fantastic.
I just finished Maureen Johnson's The Name of the Star and I loved it. It's about an American girl who goes to a boarding school in Whitechapel, England. The night she arrives, a serial killer starts murdering almost exactly how Jack the Ripper did. I can't do it justice but it's great.
I'd also like to recommend the site foreveryoungadult.com which is for adults who love young adult novels and has great reviews.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 26, 2011 12:08:28 GMT -8
Hunger Games has a compelling plot but at times the writing is awful. I like both Graceling and Fire but I found them a bit predictable (with the exception of Leck) because of the way the foreshadowing is set up.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 26, 2011 12:51:30 GMT -8
I'd second Sarah Dessen, and add in Laurie Halse Anderson. From her, I'd especially recommend Twisted. Before I Fall, and Delerium, by Lauren Oliver. Both are rather sad stories, though, so be warned. Same goes for 13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher. Stargirl by Jerry Spineli is also quite good. And for a more lighthearted read (but still with the ability to get my teary) There's also Elsewhere, by Gabrielle Zevin.  Good YA novels are becoming a bit like good fanfiction- they exist, and there's a good amount of it, you just have to sift through all the shit first. |
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Post by Anya the Purple on Oct 29, 2011 9:58:36 GMT -8
John Green was recommended on the first page; mind if I add a bit about him?
While his novels aren't perfect-of the three novels he's published so far, the main character has basically been the same person: Nerdy guy totally in love with hot girl. The other characters and some of the themes do tend to be pretty similar, but the plots are very different. All three of his novels so far (oh my gosh his new book comes out in February and I'm SO EXCITED) have proven to be deep, relevant, and really enjoyable.
David Levithan's books can be fun for a quick read-much less deep than John Green's stuff, but still interesting. His tend to be more "romance novels," while John's stuff are more novels with a focus on romance. The nice thing about Levithan's stuff is that a lot of it focuses on LGBTQ youth, which you don't see in a lot of stuff.
Everything that's been said about Libba Bray is true; she's one of my favorite authors. Limelightqueen didn't mention her book "Going Bovine," though, which I think might be my favorite. It's snarky and quirky, with a very original premise. One of the things I love about Libba's more dystopian-style works is that rather than a socialist or dictator-based dystopia, it's actually a capitalist dystopia. This makes it seem much more plausible and immediate-there doesn't need to be an apocalypse for this to happen. She has a really unique writing style that I really, really love reading.
Someone also mentioned the Young Wizards series, which is also really good. I haven't read it in forever, but it's very enjoyable, and Duane's concept of wizardry is original and fun to read about.
I'd also recommend Chasing Vermeer by Blue Balliet. It's aimed more at the 9-12 range, but I still find it really enjoyable. Reading the sequels isn't necessary-The Wright Three is okay but not as good as the original, and I don't know about The Calder Game since I lost it when I was only a few chapters in-but the first one is definitely worth checking out.
Also, The Hunger Games. I loved the series, personally. But then, I do have a thing for dystopias. Speaking of which, I don't think The Giver is in the last decade, but it's really good.
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