Tag Archives: YA lit

YA Authors by Myers-Briggs Type

Posted on by
Reply

If you clicked on this post, you probably know what Myers-Briggs/MBTI is. But just in case: Myers-Briggs is a “personality inventory” that defines 16 personalities, described through 4 dichotomies. More at the Myers & Briggs Foundation. Free test at 16 personalities.

Now, I will be blunt. The usefulness/scientificality of MBTI is hotly disputed. I have no interest in arguing that. The MBTI has been immensely helpful to me personally in both understanding myself and others. So I will continue to champion it.

If you’re a little obsessed with MBTI, you find typing other people to be FASCINATING. So I started researching the MBTI types of authors. Continue reading →

Mini-Reviews: Female-centric Fantasy

Posted on by
5

Going through old pages of a journal, I found some review notes from 6 months ago. They were good books and I hate to lose a review, so here you go! 3 female-centric fantasies. Enjoy.

This Savage Song by V.E. Schwab

Honestly, I struggle to review Schwab’s books. I just like them so much! This Savage Song was my second Schwab read, and I savored it over Christmas vacation in sunny Florida, which was very much a contrast to the dark setting of the book. Here are my (nearly) unvarnished notes:

  • beautiful
  • each word crafted and carefully chosen
  • characters that both shine & bleed
  • a world that builds effortlessly through the chapters
    • feels at once both brand-new and almost familiar
  • variety of characters & emotions
  • introspection/theme/meaning with subtlety

…..I can’t offer a lot of expansion on what six-months-ago Lyse was thinking, except that she really liked the book! Also, she strong-armed her husband into reading it and he carried it around the house and read in every spare minute until he finished it.

Skylark by Meagan Spooner

Skylark is the first of a trilogy that I began on audiobook and have not yet finished. 😦 Not the trilogy’s fault–I just stopped listening to audiobooks when I didn’t have to commute anymore. (This one is maybe technically dystopian, not fantasy.) So! Old notes:

  • Love the monster/human story
  • information is legitimately limited & MC grows to full(er) understanding naturally
  • interesting world that requires more exploration
  • lacks some early nuance
    • I struggled for interest/understanding through the first several chapters. The world took a long time to build for me.
  • I thought the author’s opinions/agenda were a bit heavy, but that may not be fair.
  • I have questions about the MC’s parents, but maybe they were answered in future books? Not sure.
  • I read most of the first book while I was walking local parks, and it made a great accompaniment to nature.

The Girl Who Swallowed the Moon by Kelly Barnhill

I didn’t know much about this book when I read it, but the cover was fun and I think The Book Wars recommended it. It was quite different, but I enjoyed it. Notes!

  • The darkness of Grimm’s with the whimsy of Lewis Carroll or Tolkien
  • timeless universal themes (even dark ones) made palatable for MG and younger
  • fairy-tale tropes re-imagined & rewoven
  • information doled out slowly
  • love of stories (fairy tales, mothers telling legends, etc.)
  • joyful, but not happily-ever-after

Conclusion

There you have it! Old review notes that I should have written up months ago. Are these useful for you at all? Have you read these? Let me know in the comments!

30/30: Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock

Posted on by
2

Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock
Matthew Quick
YA
Trigger Warnings: Suicide/Depression

Summary

In addition to the P-38, there are four gifts, one for each of my friends. I want to say good-bye to them properly. I want to give them each something to remember me by. To let them know I really cared about them and I’m sorry I couldn’t be more than I was–that I couldn’t stick around–and that what’s going to happen today isn’t their fault.

Today is Leonard Peacock’s birthday. It is also the day he will kill his former best friend, and then himself, with his grandfather’s P-38 pistol.

Maybe one day he’ll believe that being different is okay, important even.

But not today.

Continue reading →

20/30 Book Review: Running Full Tilt

Posted on by
2

running.pngRunning Full Tilt
Michael Currinder
YA contemporary
Publishes September 5, 2017

Review copy via publisher on NetGalley.

Summary

Like most siblings, Leo and Caleb have a complicated relationship. But Caleb’s violent outbursts literally send Leo running. When the family is forced to relocate due to Caleb’s uncontrollable behavior, Leo tries to settle into a new school, joining the cross-country team and discovering his talent for racing and endurance for distance. Things even begin to look up for Leo when he befriends Curtis, a potential state champion who teaches Leo strategy and introduces him to would-be girlfriend, Mary. But Leo’s stability is short-lived as Caleb escalates his attacks on his brother, resentful of his sport successes and new friendships.

Leo can’t keep running away from his problems. But, with a little help from Curtis and Mary, he can appreciate his worth as a brother and his own capacity for growth, both on and off the field.

Continue reading →

17/30 Book Review: Hunted

Posted on by
1

IMG_1073Hunted
Meagan Spooner
YA fantasy

Plot Summary

Beauty knows the Beast’s forest in her bones—and in her blood. After all, her father is the only hunter who’s ever come close to discovering its secrets. So when her father loses his fortune and moves Yeva and her sisters out of their comfortable home among the aristocracy and back to the outskirts of town, Yeva is secretly relieved. Out in the wilderness, there’s no pressure to make idle chatter with vapid baronessas…or to submit to marrying a wealthy gentleman. But Yeva’s father’s misfortune may have cost him his mind, and when he goes missing in the woods, Yeva sets her sights on one prey: the creature he’d been obsessively tracking just before his disappearance. The Beast.

Deaf to her sisters’ protests, Yeva hunts this strange creature back into his own territory—a cursed valley, a ruined castle, and a world of magical creatures that Yeva’s only heard about in fairy tales. A world that can bring her ruin, or salvation. Who will survive: the Beauty, or the Beast?

Hooked

Spooner hooked a lot of people (including me) on the dedications page Continue reading →

16/30 Book Review: The Starbound Trilogy

Posted on by
3

brokenstarsStarbound Trilogy:
These Broken Stars
This Shattered World
Their Fractured Light

Amie Kaufman & Meagan Spooner

First Book Plot Summary

It’s a night like any other on board the Icarus. Then, catastrophe strikes: the massive luxury spaceliner is yanked out of hyperspace and plummets into the nearest planet. Lilac LaRoux and Tarver Merendsen survive. And they seem to be alone.

Lilac is the daughter of the richest man in the universe. Tarver comes from nothing, a young war hero who learned long ago that girls like Lilac are more trouble than they’re worth. But with only each other to rely on, Lilac and Tarver must work together, making a tortuous journey across the eerie, deserted terrain to seek help.

Then, against all odds, Lilac and Tarver find a strange blessing in the tragedy that has thrown them into each other’s arms. Without the hope of a future together in their own world, they begin to wonder—would they be better off staying here forever?

Everything changes when they uncover the truth behind the chilling whispers that haunt their every step. Lilac and Tarver may find a way off this planet. But they won’t be the same people who landed on it.

Expectations

I waited much longer Continue reading →