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Books! (Again).
Town, by James Roy
This won a whole bunch of awards last year, but was ridiculously hard to track down. (Thanks, Australian YA fiction industry, for making things so hard to find.) It's a series of interconnected short stories, told from the point of view of 13 high school students in the same town over one year (Feb to Feb). It's very, very good, and at times I felt like I was reading stories from my own high school years. There's characters in here that I swear I grew up with. The short story format means you get a great deal of different perspectives, but the connecting style means you don't lost touch with the characters - in one story at beginning, a boy and a girl casually flirt, by the end of book, we find out they've just broken up, and without ever seeing the relationship, we know just how it progressed.
Airhead and Being Nikki, by Meg Cabot
Newest (? I think) series by Princess Diaries author, which is basically the same story (ordinary girl becomes extraordinary), but it's a little more modern and a little more scifi. Instead of becoming a princess, Emerson Watts has a freak accident, dies, and has her brain transplanted into the body of Nikki Howard, teen supermodel, who happened to have a freak death at the same time as Em. It's total 13 year old girl fantasy trash, but it's cute and appealing.
Stolen, by Lucy Christopher
Story of a British girl kidnapped from Bangkok Airport and taken to outback Australia by her captor. Told in second person, as a letter to her captor, it is suitably creepy and frightening. There's definite horror, and the sort of gothic-creepy-romance Twilight should have been as the girl develops Stockholm Syndrome.
Along For The Ride, by Sarah Dessen
Very good new book from my favourite 'realistic' fiction author. In fact, it probably comes very close to toppling "Just Listen" off the top of the pile as my favourite. Uptight perfect student type Auden goes to visit her father, his new wife and their new baby for the summer and finally (a) lets herself grieve for her parents' breakup, (b) have some fun and (c) learn to ride a bike.
Town, by James Roy
This won a whole bunch of awards last year, but was ridiculously hard to track down. (Thanks, Australian YA fiction industry, for making things so hard to find.) It's a series of interconnected short stories, told from the point of view of 13 high school students in the same town over one year (Feb to Feb). It's very, very good, and at times I felt like I was reading stories from my own high school years. There's characters in here that I swear I grew up with. The short story format means you get a great deal of different perspectives, but the connecting style means you don't lost touch with the characters - in one story at beginning, a boy and a girl casually flirt, by the end of book, we find out they've just broken up, and without ever seeing the relationship, we know just how it progressed.
Airhead and Being Nikki, by Meg Cabot
Newest (? I think) series by Princess Diaries author, which is basically the same story (ordinary girl becomes extraordinary), but it's a little more modern and a little more scifi. Instead of becoming a princess, Emerson Watts has a freak accident, dies, and has her brain transplanted into the body of Nikki Howard, teen supermodel, who happened to have a freak death at the same time as Em. It's total 13 year old girl fantasy trash, but it's cute and appealing.
Stolen, by Lucy Christopher
Story of a British girl kidnapped from Bangkok Airport and taken to outback Australia by her captor. Told in second person, as a letter to her captor, it is suitably creepy and frightening. There's definite horror, and the sort of gothic-creepy-romance Twilight should have been as the girl develops Stockholm Syndrome.
Along For The Ride, by Sarah Dessen
Very good new book from my favourite 'realistic' fiction author. In fact, it probably comes very close to toppling "Just Listen" off the top of the pile as my favourite. Uptight perfect student type Auden goes to visit her father, his new wife and their new baby for the summer and finally (a) lets herself grieve for her parents' breakup, (b) have some fun and (c) learn to ride a bike.