Contemporary YA

Audiobook: Dairy Queen by Catherine Gilbert Murdoch

I picked up these audio CDs at the library at random to listen to in the car and ended up really enjoying this story. 15-year-old D.J Schwenk, has been pulling the weight of her family’s dairy farm while her father is sick and the last thing she needs is more work. Then she gets asked to help train the rival team’s lazy quarterback and show him the value of hard work. Not really a traditional sprorts story, but a story about family, loyalty and growing up. D.J is this wonderfully full developed and faceted protagonist as she tries to figure out how to be both a teenager and a caregiver for her family. This novel has a lot energy as we explore football life in this small Wisconsin town.The audiobook narrator does a midwest accent that fits the story, but can be grating until you get used to it. This book is great for fans of Miranda Kenneally’s Catching Jordan–incidentally she is the first person I heard about this book from. I learned this is the first in a 3 part series, and will pick up the others when I need a good read. –★★★★

False Memory by Dan Krokos

This novel starts with a bang when Miranda wakes up in a shopping mall with no memory and with abilities she doesn’t understand. The story unravels as she learns she is part of a secret program where nothing is ever what it seems. This debut novel is an action packed and energetic thriller , it never stops to catch it’s breath. I was able to devour this book and was really into the plot as I was reading, but after a few days I’d forgotten most of the details.The story seems to shrug of some of the more serious implications and has to do some handwaving to make the plot work.-★★★+.5

Stupid Perfect World by Scott Westerfeld

This was my first foray into the world of the young adult e-novellas. When short story imprints like Harper Teen Impulsecame out I never thought I would pay for one, but I found myself snapping them up when I saw them on my local library’s Overdrive. I chose this one because it is one of the few that isn’t part of an established series. At just over 50 pages, it tells the story of a future where all human imperfections have been cured, but not forgotten. In a course called Scarcity every student must live two weeks with an ailment from before the world was perfect. Keiran Black decides to do something people haven’t done in years…sleep. An interesting concept, it was an enjoyable read and I think the length was perfect. Sometimes YA short stories seem like scenes that could be working towards book, but Westerfeld tells a complete story. I think too much of it would have been overkill. I’d really like to see more of these standalone novellas, they are perfect for when you have an hour to spare. -★★★+.5