Between Writing Reading

Hey guys. It's been a whole month since my last review! Sorry about that, job applications and reading some more adult stuff again has cut into my teen reading and blogging time. Speaking of, I highly recommend the following! Saga by Brian K. Vaughan Vaughan, author of Y: The Last Man , Pride of Baghdad , Runaways , and many more is one of my very favorite graphic novel authors of all time. His characters are full of life, his dialogue is right up there with Whedon and Palladino, and his stories are all about real people (or, you know, lions) caught up in sweeping stories. Saga does not disappoint, and if anything the intergalactic scale just ups his game. The art, done by illustrator Fiona Staples, is gorgeous and enhances both the characterization and the action. It reminded me at different times of The Compleat Moonshadow , Firefly , and Vaughan's other stories. And this is only the first volume! (Apparently, Saga is currently topping several user-voted list on Goodreads ...

The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey After the 1st wave, only darkness remains. After the 2nd, only the lucky escape. And after the 3rd, only the unlucky survive. After the 4th wave, only one rule applies: trust no one. Now, it’s the dawn of the 5th wave, and on a lonely stretch of highway, Cassie runs from Them. The beings who only look human, who roam the countryside killing anyone they see. Who have scattered Earth’s last survivors. To stay alone is to stay alive, Cassie believes, until she meets Evan Walker. Beguiling and mysterious, Evan Walker may be Cassie’s only hope for rescuing her brother—or even saving herself. But Cassie must choose: between trust and despair, between defiance and surrender, between life and death. To give up or to get up. -Plot summary borrowed from Goodreads There's been a LOT of buzz about this one (the phrase "the next Hunger Games " has been tossed around, and for good reason), so by rights I should have posted this weeks ago. Ah well...

Geektastic: Stories from the Nerd Herd edited by Holly Black and Cecil Castellucci Acclaimed authors Holly Black ( Ironside ) and Cecil Castellucci ( Boy Proof ) have united in geekdom to edit short stories from some of the best selling and most promising geeks in young adult literature: M.T. Anderson, Libba Bray, Cassandra Clare, John Green, Tracy Lynn, Cynthia and Greg Leitich Smith, David Levithan, Kelly Link, Barry Lyga, Wendy Mass, Garth Nix, Scott Westerfield, Lisa Yee, and Sara Zarr. With illustrated interstitials from comic book artists Hope Larson and Bryan Lee O'Malley, Geektastic covers all things geeky, from Klingons and Jedi Knights to fan fiction, theater geeks, and cosplayers. Whether you're a former, current, or future geek, or if you just want to get in touch with your inner geek, Geektastic will help you get your geek on! -Plot summary borrowed from Goodreads This was a fun, fairly quick read that did touch on most aspects of fandom (cosplaying, con...

The Lost Girl by Sangu Mandanna Eva's life is not her own. She is a creation, an abomination--an echo. She was made by the Weavers as a copy of someone else, expected to replace a girl named Amarra, her "other," if she ever died. Eva spends every day studying that girl from far away, learning what Amarra does, what she eats, what it's like to kiss her boyfriend, Ray. So when Amarra is killed in a car crash, Eva should be ready. But sixteen years of studying never prepared her for this. Now she must abandon everything and everyone she's ever known--the guardians who raised her, the boy she's forbidden to love--to move to India and convince the world that Amarra is still alive. What Eva finds is a grief-stricken family; parents unsure how to handle this echo they thought they wanted; and Ray, who knew every detail, every contour of Amarra. And when Eva is unexpectedly dealt a fatal blow that will change her existence forever, she is forced to choos...

Ask the Passengers by A.S. King Astrid Jones desperately wants to confide in someone, but her mother's pushiness and her father's lack of interest tell her they're the last people she can trust. Instead, Astrid spends hours lying on the backyard picnic table watching airplanes fly overhead. She doesn't know the passengers inside, but they're the only people who won't judge her when she asks them her most personal questions . . . like what it means that she's falling in love with a girl. As her secret relationship becomes more intense and her friends demand answers, Astrid has nowhere left to turn. She can't share the truth with anyone except the people at thirty thousand feet, and they don't even know she's there. But little does Astrid know just how much even the tiniest connection will affect these strangers' lives--and her own--for the better. -Plot summary borrowed from Goodreads I was all set to love this book, and for the ...

The War at Ellsmere by Faith Erin Hicks Zombies Calling creator Faith Erin Hicks brings her manga-fueled art style and pop-culture sensibilities to girl's boarding schools in her latest book The War at Ellsmere. Jun is the newest scholarship student at the prestigious Ellsmere girls' boarding school - but to a lot of the privileged rich girls, "scholarship student" is just a code for "charity case." Fortunately, Jun has an ally in the quirky Cassie, who swears the stories about the mysterious white deer that lives in the forest outside of the school are true. Between queen bees and mythical beasts, Jun has quite the school year ahead of her. -Plot summary borrowed from Goodreads I've raved about Faith Erin Hicks here before , and will very likely continue to do so as I track down more of her graphic novels. I love her characters- unique, intelligent, layered- and I love the plots she comes up with- characters dealing with real world issues ag...

In the Shadow of Blackbirds by Cat Winters In 1918, the world seems on the verge of apocalypse. Americans roam the streets in gauze masks to ward off the deadly Spanish influenza, and the government ships young men to the front lines of a brutal war, creating an atmosphere of fear and confusion. Sixteen-year-old Mary Shelley Black watches as desperate mourners flock to séances and spirit photographers for comfort, but she herself has never believed in ghosts. During her bleakest moment, however, she’s forced to rethink her entire way of looking at life and death, for her first love—a boy who died in battle—returns in spirit form. But what does he want from her? Featuring haunting archival early-twentieth-century photographs, this is a tense, romantic story set in a past that is eerily like our own time. -Plot summary borrowed from Goodreads There is a lot going on in this book (a flu outbreak, WWI, spiritualism, photography, true love), and it covers a lot of ground genre-...