Young adult books: Is the genre getting stale?

So, what’s the slug in YA genre? Someone on Goodreads posed a good question: Is there any originality out there? There seems to be molds every writer is trying to fit into. Let’s name two popular  molds:

The Twilight Mold

The Hunger Games Mold

The Twilight mold has a basic plotline like this:

Girl meets boy

Boy turns out to be supernatural

Possible love triangle?

The Hunger Games Mold:

Dystopian present

Dystopian future

Fighting for survival(some supernatural slant possible)

I can not fault authors who write within the paranormal or dystopian lines. Their storylines are basically original and the characters are unique so I can not be mad. However if teens are feeling as if their reading choices have become stale,  what can we do to shake it up?

I crawled around on Examiner.com and Amazon to find some unique reviews. I will list some of the books here that will hopefully wake up your enjoyment to YA reading again.

Just Listen by Sarah Dessen

Crank by Ellen Hopkins

Halflings by Heather Burch(Twilight fans will love this, but at least it has the faith factor for Christian Readers)

River of Time Series by Lisa Tawn Bergren

The Bluford Series-recommended to librarians and schools)

Monster and other great books by Christopher Pike

I hear that another book, Divergent is swinging on the mountain of success as well.

*If you have read any of these books, please share here.  Feedback on this blog enables me to be sure I am putting out the right stuff, so comment, share, email, whatever. Let’s chat.

Review of Avatar: The Last Airbender-The Search Part 1, Who can you trust?

Avatar: The Last Airbender – The Search Part 1 by Gene Luen Yang

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

If you have not read “The Promise”, you should read it then begin The Search. These adaptations to the “Avatar: The Last Airbender” series are following a smooth order which ultimately leads to “The Legend of Korra” which aired last year on Nickleodeon. It is a fun way to learn what happened to Team Avatar all those years before Korra drops on the scene.

In Avatar: The Last Airbender-The Search Part 1, the novel starts immediately with a flashback to Hira’a- the Fire Nation land from many years ago. This was the year of Ursa(Zuko and Azula’s mom) falling in love. Not with Ozai. But with a childhood friend named Ikem. Unfortunately her parents allowed Firelord Ozai’s father to marry them because he was much richer and more powerful than Ikem. It is a tale too sad to bear but we must press onward to more mysteries in this book.

Read more of my review on The Norfolk Animation Examiner.

*Book received for my unbiased review from Netgalley.

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Uncomfortable characters in ‘The Thirteenth Sacrifice’ by Debbie Viguie

In “The Thirteenth Sacrifice” Samantha Ryan’s past haunts her-which manifests itself in her dreams complete with screams, blood, and cutting rituals  and now it is affecting her job and those she care about.

Samantha Ryan is a witch. From one of the most powerful coven. However, she is now a Christian and Boston cop by choice and refuses to use her powers for any reason.

Until people start showing up dead on college campuses and everywhere else.

Now, I am not really into Witchy books but after reading the “Crusade Series” by Debbie Viguie and Nancy Holder, I thought I’d try this one out. Also, Viguie’s Kiss Trilogy is good. The Thirteenth Sacrifice was fascinating with added suspense and the unexpected twist in the end. A couple of things made the book a page turner:

Uncomfortable characters.

Samantha Ryan is not a comfortable character, meaning she is like you and I but she is a witch and when she is asked to go undercover;  she  uses her spells and magic to try to capture the killer. She employs old sets of skills, rehash old nightmares to seek clues and do even more diabolical things I will not even mention here.

Eventually she meets Anthony who owns an Occult museum and he is handsome has intense green eyes…and hates witches with a passion. Samantha finds herself in a complex situation given that he hates witches and they begin liking one another. Samantha’s partner, Ed is a comfortable character and is married. However he handles Samantha’s secret will determine if he is a partner worth having.

Power sequences.

Since reading action filled books like Crusade, Halflings, and other novels, I find that scenes with people using powers requires imagination and maybe some science. I was thoroughly interested in how Samantha would get herself out of sticky situations. Is she stronger than the High Priestess? Is there more power she can tap into?

Was there more I wanted to see from The thirteenth Sacrifice?

Yes.

I wanted more than just a sprinkle of romance. It is quite there and a few pages do sizzle with possibilities but at least the book held my interest and I am definitely going to read Book 2: The Last Grave.

*To You: Are you more into action, romance or the perfect balance? Why?

Review of ‘Domino Falls’ by Tananarive Due and Steven Barnes

Domino Falls by Steven Barnes

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I wish I had a real chance to finish reading “Domino Falls” but for some reason the title was archived and my Nook couldn’t read the document any longer.

However, I can say that Domino Falls was becoming a nice follow up to Devil’s Wake, both by Tananarive Due and her husband Steven Barnes. A dynamic writing team has put together an apocalyptic world that is crawling with Freaks. These Freaks were once human and so far the cause is because of two reasons: A flu shot and some weight loss drug.

Kendra(16) and her pals Terry, Piranha, Ursalina, Sonia, Hipster(a dog) and the twins Dean and Darius have approached Threadville- what was once called Domino Falls and they seek sanctuary but at what cost? So far the cost is that the first night they had to get a full body check for bite marks, then relinquish their guns for twenty four hours and next, they had to be put to work. In this world, stores no longer carry price tags. They are labeled with what you can trade for.

Meanwhile, the crew begin to learn more and more about each other and Threadville/Domino Falls. It seems like a place where you can get a hot meal, take out Freaks, hang out, and work hard, but something is not quite right and Kendra’s clairvoyance leads her mind to going to Devil’s Wake to seek out her great aunt.

As I mentioned before, I am sure as to what the cost could have been because my eBook failed to open again and wouldn’t download from the site, but I imagine that Domino Falls will prove to be a false safe haven and that the crew will have to abandon that place as well.

If you like AMC’s The Walking Dead you’ll enjoy this series.

*I thank Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to post an unbiased review of Domino Falls

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Read ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender, The Promise’ and you’ll give it five stars too

Avatar: The Last Airbender: The Promise Part 2 by Gene Luen Yang

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Nicklelodeon’s The Promise, a continuation of Avatar Aang’s adventure as the Avatar is as colorful and captivating as the show itself. This book was downloaded from Netgalley as an eBook so I had to enlarge and scroll to each section of the picture. It truly was a joy to read this book which is broken down in three parts.

The Harmony Restoration Movement
Avatar Aang and FirelordZuko is trying to push for harmony in Yu Dao in the Earth Kingdom. This means kicking out the fire nation to restore balance. The problem is that citizens of Yu Dao have mingled and intermarried with each other, so you have new people with earthbending ability but who wear the fire nation colors! Such as Kori, whose father is fire Nation and mother is from the Earth Kingdom. I thought that was truly unique but it causes Zuko to debate within himself—again. Why should he kick his own people out for a movement? He consults with his father Ozai about this.

The Promise
In the beginning of the book, Zuko asks Avatar Aang to promise him something Huge. It is enough to destroy their friendship and all the Aang believes in. This is the hinge of the entire book.

Overall Reaction
My overall reaction to the book is that it was absolutely gorgeous storytelling. Gene Luen Yang and Gurihiru done an excellent job with the written story and artwork and I look forward to more on this series. A perfect book for all ages!

*The end leaves room for more books to come, hopefully.

This book was received for my unbiased review for Dark Horse Books courtesy of Netgalley

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‘A Song for Bijou’ is a sweet love story for middle grades

Image courtesy of Bloosmbury USA Children’s Books

Alex Shrader likes Bijou Doucet.

She is the new girl at St. Catherines’s.

There is only one(or two) major problems: Bijou is Black, well, Haitian to be exact. Alex is an American white boy, and one VERY important fact remains: Bijou comes from a strict family with an even stricter uncle. Boys are not allowed to call or be around Bijou and that goes for bad friends who are girls as well.

Through Alex’s helpful, but very unique and funny friends, he learns more about this girl with the braids who is from Haiti. It is fairly cute how Alex looks online to study her culture and the language(French) so he wouldn’t freak out and sound stupid once he speaks with her. Alex may be self-conscious, but Bijou sees something in him that is not in other boys. Alex is sweet, very kind, smart and tall with very pretty eyes.

Author Josh Farrar spent time researching and interviewing real Haitians while in Brooklyn, New York to give the book its spicy, but middle grade appeal. Bijou and Alex are the two speaking in the story(1st person POV), each taking a chapter or two so the reader can see their perspective. The book was full of fun, cultural and ethnic appeal, bullies, Spring dances and everything we all loved and hated about middle school.

Personal Reaction:       I feel that this story was clean and perfect for children, teens, and adults. I personally enjoyed the different ethnicity of each character and the city life was reflected very well. Alex was the typical boy and Bijou was an exotic girl with a past but admired very much by Alex. I recommend this book based off of the characters alone.

“Being Henry David” is a must read for teens who’ve lost their way…

Being Henry David by Cal Armistead

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

“Being Henry David” by Cal Armistead is an emotional ride through the mind of a seventeen year old and along the way it keeps you wondering what happened to him(with scattered symbols and icons) and how did he end up in Penn Station without a memory of who he is? The book requires a grain of patience.

A boy finds himself on the floor of Penn Station with nothing but a tattered book by Henry David Thoreau called “Walden”. He doesn’t know his name; he has no recollection of anything except the here and now. So waking up he encounters a homeless man who eats pages, wallets and anything else he can ingest, a couple of runaway kids who have been homeless for quite some times and eventually he lands himself in trouble with a thug named “Magpie” and finds himself escaping to Concord, Massachusetts where he finds a nice girl and more clues begins to unravel in his mind causing him to rethink what he really wants: A new, fresh unfamiliar start in life or to go back home where there is a family who is concerned about him?

Eventually, the boy calls himself “Hank” short for Henry David because he can quote Walden as if it’s locked in his blood. Throughout the book there are clues as to who he is:
“To calm my twitchy brain, I take a little internal inventory; try to piece together what I know about myself so far. Okay so I’m a teenage guy, probably somewhere between 16 and 18 years old. Hair: black; eyes gray. Not bad looking, either….and there’s a black beast inside me that doesn’t want me to know stuff. It guards my memory, clawing at my insides and going for my throat if I get too close” (Armistead, 2012, pg. 28: Being Henry David).

As a reader, you encounter morsels of icons and symbols to clue you in on what exactly is this “beast” that holds Hank’s memory hostage. However Hank relies on a few helpful friends to retrace his steps: Thomas the giant librarian and his nurse friend Suzzanne, Sophie the Janitor and his muse, Hailey- the red haired beauty he meets while in Concord.

His other reliance is on the words of Thoreau. It is a balm to his weary soul and he constantly seeks out the wilderness to get closer(or further?) from who he is. Because once Hanks learns what really landed him there at the Penn Station that night, will he even want to go back?

Book Details:
Being Henry David, Cal Armistead
Published: Albert Whitman & Company(March 2013)
ISBN: 978-0-8075-0615-8
Keywords: Amnesia, runaway children, thoreau, street children, family problems

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A christian whose versatile with choice of reading material-any harm in that?

 

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I promised in my last post to explain what it means to be versatile with genres of choice to read and write. I suppose there are many reasons why people choose the books they read- emotions and moods, curosity, work, school reports. anything.

My aunt one day handed me this thick, pink book of Inspirational Fiction with Christian themes- they were all romances and I read the book and actually loved it. I fell in love with Romantic CF but soon I fell in love with another genre- African American Romance/ Erotica while in college. After that I discovered YA books again with the introduction of Twilight in 2008.

Alright. That’s the watered down version and will be saved for a longer diatribe. The fact is I love to read. If there is a story I can relate to or wish to relate to then it is okay with me. I love storytelling and enjoy the many trips fiction has taken me on. I’m sure you know what I mean fellow reader/viewer/writer. It’s the best!

Different books have shown me different facets of my own heart:

R.L. Stine/Horror: showed me I can be spooked from the pen of an author and what power words can have.

Christopher Pike/Speculative-Horror: Christopher Pikes books took me to places where vampires can cry and young girls could be gods, and there is an answer to the afterlife if we search hard enough.

Christian Fiction/General: Helps me to see my life struggles and happiness are not my own. Some books have actually helped me with my prayer life!

African American Romances: Black women need love too Yeah thats all I got out of most of them…

So here I am,  a Christian Fiction Examiner who promotes these works to another kind of demographic. Am I a hypocrite for this? Aboslutely not! Books rooted in a certain theme or religion are not bad books if the writing is good. Period. However I am born human first with many sins and my color, culture and religion all come after that fact(singer Erykah Badu can explain this better than I can!) Anyhow, I have learned so much spirituality from secular fiction as I have from Christian Fiction. Put another way:

Secular Fiction= the reality of the need for a Savior.

Christian Fiction= needs to write more about the need for a Savior and not just those who are already saved.

For now I am comfortable in my skin, enjoy good music, books, and what I write about. All these things are me.

Question: Why do you like Christian Fiction/Secular/Both?

She’s a naive little girl in ‘The Heavenstone Secrets’

The Heavenstone Secrets by V.C. Andrews

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Heavenstone Secrets features the most naïve, easily controlled, not too bright protagonist and it took mental muscles just to move through the pages without too much grimace.

Semantha Heavenstone, 14 is trapped under her controlling sister’s watchful gaze and the whispers she hears through the dark mansion inherited from her grandfather holds more darkness and more mystery than what anyone could fathom.

Semantha’s sister Cassie Heavenstone is very critical of everyone has a reply for everytime Semantha says something dumb: “Christmas trees, Semantha. Christmas trees.”

But things gets worse for the lovely Heavenstone family and Semantha in particular.

Their mother gets pregnant at 42 and Cassie, the ever intelligent, super clever 16 year old, literally develops a hate for her mother but she vies for her father’s affections and cares not for her own mother’s health.

Second, Cassie begins to ask Semantha deeply personal questions about boys and sex and Semantha, in fear of her sister takes her crazy advice because “Cassie knows best”

Third, a tragedy happens and Cassie’s behavior gets worse. She manipulates the family with astuteness, her clever words and heavy knowledge(I swear, I never knew a sixteen year old could be so mature and scary!) Then she begins to wear their mother’s dresses, her jewelry, and fixes her hair like their mother too…

She thinks she is Semantha’s mother and things get even more weird for the Heavenstones.

Okay, I hate bringing up spoilers so I will say this: Semantha did have a way out from under her sister’s thumb and that could have been by telling someone the truth. But she didn’t and after reflecting on each character in the book, I find it is everyone’s fault why Semantha eventually ends up the way she does at the end.

For one thing, her father much like the one in the March family series was easily controlled by his older daughter’s words. The mother was simply weak- she was no backbone for Semantha. Their uncle Perry, although I liked him more than anyone else in the story- could have done sixty percent more to help Semantha. Then there’s Semantha- asking dumb questions to Cassie, defending her when Uncle Perry wants to know why she is afraid of Cassie, feeling in fear all the time and then she simply just does not think at all.

I hate to say this of a character in real life or fiction- but Semantha brought all of this pain on herself. Hopefully in Secret Whispers she will not be as weak or stupid.

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Guardians and Avengers, are you ready for more in the ‘Halflings’ world?

Heather Burch/Zondervan

If you have not read Book 1: Halflings yet, read the mini preview below and then I can get down to the “new” news featuring brand new book covers for Book 2: Guardian(Available this Fall) and Book 3: Avengers(Available April 2013)- Yay! Also, the mini graphic book ‘A Halflings Rescue’ will be available as a FREE ebook later this month!

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After being inexplicably targeted by an evil intent on harming her at any cost, seventeen-year-old Nikki finds herself under the watchful guardianship of three mysterious young men who call themselves halflings. Sworn to defend her, misfits Mace, Raven, and Vine battle to keep Nikki safe while hiding their deepest secret-and the wings that come with.

Mace, Raven, and Vine have a mission: Rescue Nikki Youngblood.  What Mace doesn’t realize is that Nikki isn’t just beautiful, she has studied karate for six years, is a gifted artist, and doesn’t realize just how special she is to him. He got a first glimpse of this while watching her run and face down some hounds from hell. Raven, declared as the “bad boy” of the group, finds himself wanting to be near Nikki as well, but perhaps for different reasons involving his very own soul. Vine, the youngest isn’t falling for any girls yet but during the book he consumes gummy candy all the time and may actually be wiser than his other two brothers at a mere 15 years of age.(Read more on Examiner)

*Click on either of the bookcovers to go to the Halflings Network. Read! Join! See what’s happenin’!

Heather Burch/Zondervan

Heather Burch/Zondervan