Young Adult Fiction

Little & Lion by Brandy Colbert

May 16, 2018 Leave a Comment

8 hours 12 mins | Hachette Audio | Contemporary YA | 08/08/2017

I’ll be honest, I’m not a big fan of “tough stuff stories about marginalized identities, so I’d been circling this book for a long time; assuming a book about a bisexual black Jewish teenager and her bipolar stepbrother would be a “the struggle” book. However, from the very first few lines of Alisha Wainwright’s narration, I was pulled into the vibrant world of 16-year-old Suzette as she returns to her artsy and eclectic West Coast community of friends and family after a year in boarding school. Colbert does an amazing job building Suzette’s world and I know it’s corny but Los Angeles is almost a character in this book.

But seriously, Imma need one of those LA street tacos.

Alisha Wainwright is a new narrator on the scene and her voice has this cool West coast vibe that brings Suzette’s first-person POV to life. Props to all the work Bahni Turpin and Robin Miles have been doing, but I ’m excited we are getting some newer and younger narrators for black characters to spice things up. Wainwright is probably best known by some YA fans as Maia in the Freeform show Shadowhunters. It’s so crazy to me that she fell into acting only a few years ago because she is so good in this, every line is filled with intention. Give her all the books. All of ’em.

The only thing I didn’t love about this book was the love triangle that shows up. It felt a little sloppy and out of left field but I do like how it all ended up.

Little & Lion is a quiet story brimming with compelling characters and a captivating audiobook narrator.

I don’t know if Colbert is taking requests but there is a character in here named Emil Choi and I need him to get his own book.

Book Review: Trell by Dick Lehr

May 6, 2018 Leave a Comment

Rating: Unrated| 354 pages | Candlewick Press | Contemporary | 9/26/2017

I study journalism in college, so I’m generally a sucker for any story about an actual journalist–so the premise of a young teenager teaming up with a seasoned investigative journalist to overturn a wrongful conviction completely intrigued me because I listen to waaay to much true crime wrongful conviction podcast.

14-year-old Trell Taylor is out to prove her father is innocent. She teams up with down-trodden journalist Clemmens Bittner and the two begin to re-investigate the case. As they re-interview witnesses Lehr is able to recreate the 1980’s Drug Wars in a way that will set the scene for younger readers. I also appreciated that Trell has to confront the fact that even though her father was not responsible for the murder of the little girl, that he did sell drugs that were responsible for harming other people’s lives.

Lehr is a distinguished non-fiction writer and his attempt at YA fiction was all over the place. The dialogue would occasionally get way too factual and there was a lot of literal telling not showing. I feel like everyone referred to Trell’s dad as “your daddy” to make the book appeal to a younger audience but it fell flat to me. Clemmens and Trell form this odd couple pairing and I could see what Lehr was trying to do, but the thing was I could see what he was trying to do. Clemmens sort of reminded me of this funny fandom thing called Pepper-jack cheese (See Author Appeal).The only person who seems to have a full arc on the page is this older former investigative journalist who at the end of the book gets his groove back and the attention of a young lawyer. Just sayin’.

With all that said I do think this book is a great way to introduce wrongful convictions and delayed justice. Would have much rather read this in middle school than Park’s Quest.

Check out the audiobook review at AudioFile Magazine!

American Panda by Gloria Chao

April 25, 2018 Leave a Comment

7 hours 32 mins | Simon & Schuster Audio | Contemporary YA | 02/06/2018

I’ll admit I didn’t mean to read this book. I was listening to audiobook samples on Scribd, trying to find something to listen to when I accidentally clicked on American Panda. By the time I started driving I couldn’t change it and before I was home… I was really into it.

At seventeen years old, Mei Lu is starting her first year at MIT. She is just a few steps away from completing her parent’s plans for her to become a doctor, marry a good Taiwanese man and have Taiwanese babies. But now that she is on her own Mei is starting to feel the tension between the Taiwanese and American cultures she straddles. She starts to question the things she’s always believed and to make things worse she’s falling for a spiky-haired Japanese co-ed named Darrin.

American Panda is a story about family, empathy and discovering who you are; it’s perfect for fans of Sarah Dessen, especially because of how the romance and mother/daughter storyline evolves. Darrin even has a little “manic pixie dream dude” in him. I have always struggled with YA romances but this one was perfectly executed.

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Audiobook Review : Scythe by Neal Schusterman

April 14, 2018 Leave a Comment

10 hours 32 mins | Simon & Schuster | Sci-Fi/Dystopian | 11/22/2016

I picked up Scythe when it was a daily deal on Audible. I didn’t know too much about it, I didn’t even know it was a YA book, I thought it was a middle-grade book or a graphic novel.When I dived in I found another one of Shusterman’s expansive worlds dealing with ethical and moral issues in an unconventional way.

Scythe takes place in a world much like our own…except everyone is immortal. With natural death a thing of the past, death now must be dealt out by the hands of a select few highly-trained individuals known as Scythes. It’s a daunting task because even though death comes in human form, fundamentals of death are still intact. When a Scythe comes for you it is swift, resolute and inescapable.

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Audiobook Review: Batman Nightwalker (DC Icons #2)

March 12, 2018 Leave a Comment

12 hours 36 minutes | Listening Library | 1/02/18

After getting caught playing vigilante on the streets of Gotham City, 18-year-old Bruce Wayne is sentenced to scrubbing the floors of Arkham Asylum as community service. There he crosses paths with Arkham’s newest inmate Madeline Wallace, who is believed to be the mastermind behind the notorious Nightwalker street gang. But Bruce thinks there might be more to Madeline than meets the eye.

When DC announced it was working with YA authors to write teen versions of their superheroes I knew Marie Lu would be a perfect choice. Her books are all about super capable teens fighting the system and saving the day. She’s an auto-buy author for me, but this book was just kinda meh for me. The plot focused so much on what is not said, that if I didn’t know this was a Batman prequel I would have DNF’d it. It does find its legs in the end but the middle section just dragged.

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Audiobook Review: The Cruel Prince by Holly Black

March 5, 2018 Leave a Comment

8 hours 39 minutes| Hachette Audio | Fantasy | 1/02/18

Jude and her twin sister Taryn were taken from the mortal world as children by their mother’s vindictive ex-husband and raised within the gentry of the Faerie world, where they have always been seen as outsiders especially by Cardan–youngest prince of Faerie–who delights in torturing them. Jude has had enough of being a victim and is ready to show she deserves a place in the Faerie courts. Her ambition gets her mixed up in a world of espionage, power plays, violence and oh so many plot twists.

I just ate this story up, which is saying something because I am def not the ideal reader for a book like this. I have always struggled with fantasy and have no base for Faerie mythology, but Holly Black draws the world so vividly I was able to put most of it together and quickly learn the rules of Faerie, If you like lush descriptions of fantastical beasts, clothes and greenery this is your book.

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