Book-review post!
Four YA titles, one ‘new adult’. Books are shiny.
Elizabeth Wein – Rose Under Fire
Oh, this book. It is billed as a companion to Code Name Verity, rather than a sequel, and its main focus is a different character, but it is set later and does reveal a lot of key details about the first book, so do be warned. Its main focus is Rose, a barely-out-of-high-school American pilot who ends up in a women’s concentration camp during the Second World War, and writes about her experiences – not just the experience within the camp but also the difficulty of talking about it afterwards. The sharing it with others, who couldn’t possibly understand. This is a beautifully done novel and even more upsetting and harrowing than Code Name Verity – it is well worth reading but very intense.
Nicole Luiken – Angel Eyes
Angel and Michael return in the third instalment about the enhanced violet-eyed, this time featuring an escapade which draws on the historical immersion stuff that made the first book so fascinating and also the more recent growth of reality TV. (Elements of The Hunger Games, but very much doing its own thing as well.) This time the narrative splits between the two characters, and there are some nifty new characters and threads as well as some callbacks to previous books. Great to catch up with these characters – I really enjoyed the earlier books.
Rainbow Rowell – Eleanor & Park
Between this and Fangirl – oh, Rainbow Rowell, you write the pretty books of wonder. This is set in 1986, and is the story of two teenagers – Eleanor and Park – who sit next to each other on the bus and slowly, very slowly, become a couple. The tentativeness of this, the building up of a connection, the elaboration on all the little moments – it’s just gorgeous and teenage and perfect. It is also sad and astute at times, on social circles in high school and on the power that adults have over young people. I love this book. A lot.
Erica Lorraine Scheidt – Uses For Boys
Anna misses the tell-me-again times, when it was just her and her mother, before stepfathers and stepbrothers, before the loneliness, before the boys. This is a gorgeous, lyrical story about a girl leaving home and about what she expects from boys; it is painful at times but a marvellous read.
Cora Carmack – Losing It
A clumsy theatre-loving college senior and virgin hooks up with her new professor. Tension ensues. This was an okay read but not spectacular; the plot elements and development seemed quite formulaic and a little underwhelming. If this is ‘new adult’… hmm.
