Category: Spectacular Speculative Fiction
Science fiction and Fantasy Reads for Teens
Before the Devil Breaks You by Libba Bray
SPOILER ALERT! THIS IS THE THIRD BOOK IN A SUPERLATIVE SERIES. IF YOU HAVEN’T READ THIS ONE AND THIS ONE, STOP NOW AND COME BACK WHEN YOU HAVE! THANK YOU!!
Now that THAT’S out of the way, let’s talk turkey, my equally obsessed Diviner fan peeps! The voluminous third volume of Libba Bray’s 1920’s fantasy/horror epic pulls together the disparate threads of the first two books while setting the stage for a sumptuous conclusion. Here, our intrepid Diviners begin formal training to sharpen their spooky skills for a showdown with the King of Crows (aka the man in the stovepipe hat) who finally introduces himself and reveals that he is mostly responsible for letting all those murderous ghosts into New York City. (I say mostly because, well, it’s complicated. You’ll see.)
Drawing strength from finally coming together, the united Diviners force Uncle Will and Sister Walker to reveal what they know about the mysterious Project Buffalo and the role of the US government, and… are immediately sorry they did. Because in this instance, knowing the truth not only doesn’t set them free but just might get them killed. And individually, they are wrestling with personal demons that are every bit as scary as the supernatural baddies they do battle with. Evie, Sam and Jericho are trapped in an impossible love triangle, Theta’s ugly past comes home to haunt her (and how!), Mabel is forced to decide between peaceful activism or rebellious violence, Memphis has his trust broken by two of the most important people in his life, Ling struggles with her sexuality and Henry hides a broken heart beneath his carefree swagger. Meanwhile, the Shadow Men are knocking off anyone and everyone who knows anything about Project Buffalo, Blind Bill is NOT who he seems, someone dear dies and someone we THOUGHT was dead may actually be alive. In addition, there are roller coaster romances, sexy encounters, ghosts with teeth and secret assassins with piano wire. And of course, Bray also manages to make some timely, thought provoking parallels between the 1920’s and the emotionally fraught, oppressive, deceptive time we’re living in now. I mean, come on. It really doesn’t get any bigger, better or more badass than this. Get all caught up and then grab this latest volume toot sweet!
Spill Zone Vol. 1 by Scott Westerfeld & Alex Puvilland
Addison Merrit is used to taking risks. Ever since the toxic Spill transformed her hometown of Poughkeepsie, New York into a mutant wasteland three years ago, Addison’s been taking her life in her hands to take illegal photographs of the Spill Zone. She only rides her motorbike in after dark, and the photos make enough money on the black market to keep her and her little sister Lexa together after their parents disappeared in the Zone. But the local authorities are starting to ask dangerous questions, Lexa’s stopped speaking, and her photo dealer has betrayed her. So when an enigmatic underground art collector offers her a cool million to take one last ride into the heart of the Spill Zone and drop off a mysterious package, she reluctantly agrees. But what she doesn’t know is that she just may have become an unknowing operative for the North Koreans, who have has Spill Zone issues of their own and are looking for answers. Full of wicked cool mutant monsters and out-of-this-world action, this freaky, fast paced graphic novel will please the pants off sci-fi and horror readers alike.
Berserker by Emmy Laybourne
Thornhill by Pam Smy
The Girl In Between by Sarah Carroll
Scythe by Neal Shusterman
Nimona by Noelle Stevenson
In this raucous medieval-ish fantasy turned upside down and sideways, Nimona is a sassy shape shifter who offers her slick sidekick services to professional villain Ballister Blackheart. In turn, she wants nothing more than to take out a few good guys. But that’s not the kind of villain Blackheart is. In fact, he’s kind of…kind, more like a Robin Hood than Sheriff of Nottingham. So when Nimona’s unstoppable powers attract the attention of the deadly Director of the mysterious Institute, Blackheart does his best to keep things from getting too heated between Nimona and the Institute’s champion, Ambrosius Goldenloin. But for sad and terrible reasons of her own, Nimona is out for blood, and soon Blackheart finds himself trapped between his arch enemy and his closest ally, no longer able to tell which is which. This inventive graphic novel was originally a web comic that earned oodles of raves, all heartily well deserved. Stevenson’s small scale art and text is packed with big universal truths about corruption, morality and heroism while also delivering some hardcore giggles along the way. You’ll find yourself wanting a Nimona of your own after finishing this delightfully subversive tome.
Lair of Dreams by Libba Bray
SPOILER ALERT: Before launching into this luscious sequel of epic proportions, please do yourself a BIG favor and read the utterly delicious first book in this planned four volume series. And if you’re already a fan of the fabulous paranormal Roaring Twenties tome, then by all means, READ ON! Picking up right where The Diviners
SO. MUCH. HERE. TO. LOVE, so I will spare you too many gushy particulars and just say that as a librarian I was delighted that Ling did research on the abandoned subway station at the Seward Park library with the help of fictional librarian Mrs. Belpre, and as a New Yorker I appreciated what seemed like a heartbreaking reference to 9/11 when the 1920’s train entrances were papered with handmade signs of people who have gone missing since the subway ghost started haunting. Finally, I laughed aloud with nerdy glee when the historically real Carl Jung made an appearance to talk dreams with Evie and Theta. Author Libba Bray’s ability to infuse a paranormal thriller with such nuanced and layered themes of bias, identity, and culture and how they are all integrated messily into the fabric of our collected American history is completely amazeballs. This rich, detail-packed second book does not disappoint with its deepening of the characters and relationships we came to know and love from the first book, and tantalizing hints of the horror to come, including additional references to the mysterious Project Buffalo and the enigmatic crow-coated man in the stovepipe hat. While it was definitely worth the wait, it’s going to be hard drumming our nail bitten fingers as we anxiously anticipate the next chapters in the newly formed Diviner crew’s supernatural adventures. Coming to a library, bookstore, e-reader or pillow near you August 25 2015.
Sweet by Emmy Laybourne
Laurel should be grateful that her best friend Viv’s wealthy dad footed the bill for the two of them to join the SOLU luxury cruise. After all, the producers of the brand new sweetener promise that anyone who sprinkles it on their cereal will drop 5% of their body weight in the first week, and even though Laurel has come to terms with her size 14 jeans, Viv is convinced that they both need to lose at least a dress size. So Laurel agrees to go, even though she secretly thinks that she and Viv look just fine the way they are. Soon they are partying with the likes of Tom Fiorelli, a hot teen celebrity spokesperson who wants to become the next Ryan Seacrest, and downing SOLU like water at every meal. Well, at least Viv is. Laurel is too seasick to eat anything for the first few days and by then, it’s clear that SOLU works, maybe a little too well. Laurel notices that within hours, Â all newly thin Viv wants to eat is SOLU. In fact, the fake sweetener is so addictive that soon everyone that has been eating it craves more. And when there isn’t any more, they begin to turn on each other in order to get their fix–in blood. The only ones who remain sane are those who never developed the craving, including Laurel, Tom and a few smart crew members. Now it’s up to them to ditch the cruise and warn the world that the greatest weight loss drug ever created has fatal side effects. There’s only one problem: the passengers are hungry. And the chance that Laurel and Tom will escape the ship with their lives is slim to none. But they have to try, because when it comes to SOLU, slim is better than DEAD! This highly entertaining dietary horror story manages to be compulsively readable while also imparting serious messages about identity, body image and the drug industry. If you like humor/horror mashups like Scream
The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black
“Food tasted better in Fairfold, people said, infused as it was with enchantment. Dreams were more vivid. Artists were more inspired and their work more beautiful. People fell more deeply in love, music was more pleasing to the ear, and ideas came more frequently than other places.” For the people of Fairfold, living alongside fairies is normal, and the many blessings they receive as a result helps soften the blow when an occasional foolish tourist disappears or turns up dead. Fairfold is where Hazel and her brother Ben have grown up, with artist parents, friends who are half fey, and the eerie presence of a horned prince who slumbers eternally in a glass coffin in the woods behind their house. Along with the rest of the Fairfold locals, they think they know how to navigate the strange waters of their town, know the right charms to mutter and the wrong places to stay away from. But then someone or something smashes the unbreakable glass coffin, and everything changes. The horned prince has awakened. Sorrow is suddenly stalking the homes and schools of Fairfold. No one trusts anyone anymore, especially those who have ties to the Folk who live under the hill. And guilty Hazel knows that it’s all her fault for striking that bargain with the fey so long ago. Now she’s going to have to try and make it right the only way she can–with a magic sword and just a little help from a new friend with a hard head and a soft heart. This captivating offering from renowned fantasy author Holly Black charms and beguiles at every turn of the page. Black drops clues like breadcrumbs that lead to a “holy crap!” twist about halfway through, revealing whole new layers to Hazel’s initial quest. Black also plays havoc with gender stereotypes, giving us new and  improved versions of knights, monsters and damsels in distress while still paying homage to the myths and legends of old. Boys fall in love with boys, girls fall in love with swords and heroes emerge from unexpected places. Prepare to be completely, utterly, thoroughly enthralled.
The Ghosts of Heaven by Marcus Sedgwick
After fleeing a murderous sneak attack from a rival tribe, a prehistoric girl stumbles upon a spiral marked on the wall of a forgotten cave. A grieving psychiatrist is deeply moved by a mentally ill poet who fears nothing except the tall spiral staircase that rises in the middle of the sanatorium. After being accused of witchcraft, a medieval cunning woman is thrown into a river where she glimpses a spiral carved into the rocky underwater bank. A lonely astronaut alters his course when his ship discovers signs of intelligent life in the form of a broadcast signal of the number phi, which is also the ratio of the Fibonacci Spiral. Each lyrically wrought quarter of this multi-layered novel, which author Marcus Sedgwick claims can be read in any order, revolves around this mysterious shape that appears over and over in human history, folklore and nature. Figuring out how each story relates to the others is a puzzling treat and I can’t imagine any reader not giving a gasp of delight and satisfaction when reading the very last paragraphs, which cunningly come around full spiral. As cleverly constructed and delightfully complex as Sedgewick’s award-winning Midwinter Blood, I predict Ghosts of Heaven will score just as much critical love in 2015!
Belzhar by Meg Wolitzer
“Reeve was the most special thing that every happened to me. Now I’m just an apathetic, long-haired girl who doesn’t care about anything but my own grief.” Jam Gallahue loved a boy named Reeve. Now he’s gone and Jam can’t figure out how to live her life without him. So her parents have sent her to the Wooden Barn in Vermont, a boarding school for “emotionally fragile, highly intelligent teenagers,” in hopes that a new environment will shake Jam out of her depression. But Jam isn’t very optimistic. “…supposedly a combination of the Vermont air, maple syrup, no psychiatric medication, and no Internet will cure me. But I’m not curable.” Then Jam attends her first Special Topics in English class, an exclusive elective with only five members taught by the mysterious Mrs. Quenell. She learns they are going to study Sylvia Plath, another long haired girl who suffered from depression and wrote a now classic book about her experience called The Bell Jar. She learns that each student is required to keep a special journal that the must turn in to Mrs. Q by the end of the semester. The last thing Jam wants to do is record her misery. But when she opens the pages and begins to write, she finds the process to be transformative…in more ways than one. She discovers her classmates are having the same experience, that the journals have become portals to another world where they can fix the issue that brought them to the Wooden Barn and in that moment, forget their current problems. But one by one, they each painfully come to understand that it is impossible to live in the past if they ever want to move forward. Jam is the last one to learn this lesson, and when she finally faces her fear and loss, the results are both devastating and enlightening. Critically acclaimed adult author Meg Wolitizer has penned a strong, spare, magically real YA novel about the power words and books can have over despair that will no doubt inspire a wave of new interest in the prose and poetry of Sylvia Plath.
Through the Woods by Emily Carroll
Three sisters left alone for three days in a wintery cabin, each visited by a mysterious stranger who lures them into the snow. A beautiful young bride who makes a grisly discovery in the walls of her new husband’s grand house. A jealous man who commits murder in the dark of the forest and then is visited by the victim of his crime. These are a few of the deliciously creepy, folklore-gone-wrong stories written and illustrated by the incredibly talented Emily Carroll. Â Mostly inked in red, black and a chilly cobalt blue, these graphic vignettes about love, death and revenge ooze with tension until they quietly detonate, usually in a silent moment of terrifying realization or a shocking splatter of crimson blood. Though I have read through the collection over half a dozen times by now, I just can’t stop poring over the gorgeously gory pages in fear and fascination. This assemblage of gothic-themed dread is a boon to my YA horror peeps who are always looking for a good literary scare, and to any nervous reader who’s ever been convinced that they just missed being snatched on the way back to bed by the something that lives under it. Because as the fanged shadow warns Red Riding Hood at the end of her journey through the forest, “You must travel through these woods again & again…and you must be lucky to avoid the wolf every time…but the wolf only needs enough luck to find you ONCE.” Here’s hoping that the wolf never gets lucky and you relish these darkly delightful tales as much as I did. Want a taste of Emily Carroll’s disturbing visions? Read this interactive horror story and try not to shiver uncontrollably at the end.
The Graveyard Book Graphic Novel, Vol. 1 by Neil Gaiman, adapted and illustrated by P. Craig Russell et. al.
Neil Gaiman‘s Newbery award winning novel about a boy being raised by ghosts and a kindly vampire guardian has been transformed into an edgier, sophisticated two-part comic that captivates and surprises on every page. Haven’t read the novel yet? No worries, you can easily pick up the full story from Russell’s lavish adaptation (He’s the same artist who created the Coraline GN). This time Russell invited a small army of talented illustrators to join him, and the results are phenomenal. I especially loved Tony Harris and Scott Hampton‘s version of The Hounds of God, which was my very favorite chapter from the novel and stars the stalwart, secret canine Miss Lupescu. The full color spreads bring the busy graveyard and surrounding community to glorious, riotous life and quickly help readers differentiate the living from the dead. The beautifully wrought Danse Macabre chapter that finishes off the first volume is not one you will forget anytime soon. Don’t wait too long to dig it up at a library or bookstore near you.
