Book recs?

[stillsostrange]

Pursuant to my last post, can I get some YA recommendations?

I'm fond of Justine Larbalestier's Magic or Madness trilogy, Holly Black's stuff, and Annette Curtis Klause, that I can think of off the top of my head. (And, if I'm being honest, L.J. Smith's Vampire Diaries, Secret Circle, and Forbidden Game.) I've heard enough about Twilight to think that I wouldn't like it.

Any suggestions?

Comments

[ultharkitty.livejournal.com]

Wow, I remember the L. J. Smith vampire books... *takes trip down memory lane*

You've probably already thought of her, but Diana Wynn Jones comes to mind immediately as author of some seriously excellent YA fiction (well, I've enjoyed every one of her books that I've read so far :P).

[lisamantchev.livejournal.com]

Ysabeau Wilce's Flora series.

[magicnoire.livejournal.com]

Stay away from Twilight. Dude. Stay far, far away!

[squirrel-monkey.livejournal.com]

Libba Bray's books are quite good -- moreove, Justine Larbalestier loves them, so they might fit your taste. I also second Diana Wynn Jones.

[batwrangler.livejournal.com]

YA I've enjoyed recently:
Skullduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy
Percy Jackson and the Olympians series by Rick Riordan
Matt Cruse books by Kenneth Oppel
The Extraordinary Adventures of Alfred Kropp by Rick Yancey
Nurk by Ursula Vernon
Ingledove by Marly Youmans didn't work for me, but might work for others
Almost anything by Nina Kiriki Hoffman
(You've presumably read all the Bull Shetterlies)
The Water Mirror by Kai Meyer
The Bartimeaus Trilogy by Jonathan Stroud
The Abarat books by Clive Barker
I, Coriander by Sally Gardner
The Eden Moore books by Cherie Priest
The Witch's Boy by Michael Gruber
Interworld by Gaiman and Reaves

[stillsostrange.livejournal.com]

You consider the Eden books YA?

[batwrangler.livejournal.com]

Eden's about the right age, I don't see anything in them that would disqualify them as YA, and I'd be happy to hand them to a YA skiffy/horror/mystery reader. (And Eden as YA makes more sense to me than the Redwall books moving from children's fiction to SF which they did.)

[batwrangler.livejournal.com]

MT Anderson's Feed.
PTerry's Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents.

[stillnotbored.livejournal.com]

The majority of YA bores me, so I don't read it.

But! At WisCon I bought Anna a book she almost didn't get. I started reading Zahrah, the Windseeker by Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu and fell right into the story. For a YA book to do that for me is very unusual.

[batwrangler.livejournal.com]

There's a lot of range in YA. I'm currently listening to a bunch of it that I wouldn't normally read, because I need audiobooks to keep me from goofing off at work, but they can't be too complex, and they need to be available from the NH D/L Audiobooks website.

YA teen books set in more-or-less the real world largely don't interest me*. Especially series books. Unless they feature teen detectives. Or were written by Arthur Ransome. But I also did lots of my YA reading when I was <12.

YA fantasy has a lot of gems. Of course, its a marketing category, so what goes in it is what publishers think will sell to YA readers or to teachers and parents.


*The Wanderer by Sharon Creech was surprisingly good. As was Creech's Love That Dog. Can't vouch for the rest of her work.

[kayselkiemoon.livejournal.com]

Or were written by Arthur Ransome.

*cheers* I wish more people knew of his work. I started the Swallows & Amazons books at age 9, but his work rings true for any age (and is also fun for reading aloud!)

I read a lot of middle grade and YA set in the more-or-less real world growing up, but the bulk of what's being published these days (in mainstream YA) holds no interest for me. I think there is good work still coming out, but it gets lost amid series like Gossip Girl and The Clique.

I second Sharon Creech. I really love Walk Two Moons, the first of her novels I read.

[martianmooncrab.livejournal.com]

YA's (and some middle readers)... Holly Lisle, Garth Nix, Alma Alexander, James Patterson, Esther Friesner, P Kerr, Daniel McManus Pinkwater, Bruce Coville, Diane Wynne Jones, Diane Duane, John Bellairs/Brad Strickland, Sneigoski, C Golden, Ewing, Rhiordan, MaryJanice Davidson, Gena Showalter, Holly Black, Kim Wilkins, Vivian Vande Velde.. oh my, the list goes on.

I am thrilled that LJ Smith is being reprinted, and hoping that the last book that I have been waiting, oh, 15 years for will finally see the light of day.

Twilight? my 14 yr old goddaughter loves the books, you dont have to finish it if you dont like it.

[tryslora]

I echo Scott Westerfeld (Peeps/The Last Days, and the Uglies/Pretties/Specials/Extras series) and Diana Wynne Jones and Diane Duane. Have you read Laura Anne Gilman's Camelot books? I think they might be intended for a slightly younger set but I loved them. Sherwood Smith and Tamora Pierce too, before I forget.

And I have very fond memories of LJ Smith. I was looking at some of the books on my shelf just last night and since I'm on a YA reading junket this summer I considered seeing if I could hunt them all down in my collection and reread.

I've heard that Twilight has good points and bad... so I'm going to brave reading it just to say I have.

[ex-kaz-maho.livejournal.com]

Melissa Marr's WICKED LOVELY and INK EXCHANGE.

[kayselkiemoon.livejournal.com]

I second Diana Wynne Jones. her most recent book, House of Many Ways, features Sophie & co. from Howl's Moving Castle (some years later, and as supporting characters), and is most scrumptious. ^_^ I also second Garth Nix's work, especially the Abhorsen trilogy (it has a talking cat, and necromancy!). ooh, and yes to Sherwood Smith and Tamora Pierce as well. ^_^

the reference to magic portals and talking cats made me think of Patricia C. Wrede's Enchanted Forest Chronicles - did you ever read those? Juliet Marillier's YA novel Wildwood Dancing is also most marvelous (it has a talking frog, *g*).

[katallen.livejournal.com]

Robert Westall - Devil on the Road, The Watch House, The Scarecrows...

[clarentine]

Nina Kiriki Hoffman's The Thread that Binds the Bones and The Silent Strength of Stones are favorites of mine. Her more recent A Stir of Bones is also very good, but not as good as the earlier two (and not, damn it, in the same universe).