Monday, January 16, 2012

My favorites of 2011

For past three months, I've been reading science fiction and fantasy books for teens. A lot of them. Wizards, dystopias, magic, quests - they're coming out my ears, I tell you. These are my top four.

Ashes by Ilsa J. Bick - When a powerful electromagnetic pulse kills off two-thirds of the human race and knocks the rest back to the Stone Age, it's every man, woman, and child for himself. 17-year-old Alex was already living on borrowed time, what with the brain tumor and all, so she thought she knew about living life one day at a time. Along with Afghanistan vet Tom and eight-year-old Ellie, she discovers that it's a little more difficult when you have to fight wild animals and teen cannibal zombies for the privilege.


Blood Red Road by Moira Young - You know Katniss Everdeen? She has a soul sister in Saba, the heroine of this gritty, grimy, ferocious novel. When her twin brother is kidnapped, Saba sets off across a wild and dangerous post-apocalyptic landscape to find him. Seriously, this one is perfect for Hunger Games fans. It even has cage fights.

The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson - At birth, Princess Elisa was marked by God, chosen to render a special service to her people. Unfortunately, she grew into a shy, uncoordinated, overweight girl, and it's hard to imagine what she can do for anybody. When she's married off to the king of a war-torn country, she discovers that her great destiny is both more complex and more demanding than she could ever have imagined. If you loved Robin McKinley's classic The Blue Sword, you'll eat this up.

Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake - It's your usual sweet boy-meets-girl story, if the girl were a cursed, murderous ghost and the boy were hunting her. Cas Lowood makes it his mission to destroy destructive paranormal creatures, and he's very good at it, until he meets Anna Dressed in Blood. Beautiful, powerful, sad, and yes, somewhat homicidal, she makes him question everything he believes about ghosts. Horrifying and romantic at the same time, this book is above all memorable.

No comments:

Post a Comment

What can I post on your wall?
Commenting & Posting Guidelines

Welcome to your library on social media!

Pima County Public Library (PCPL) offers blogs and other social media tools such as Facebook and Twitter for educational, cultural, civic, customer service, and recreational purposes. They provide a limited (or designated) public forum to facilitate the sharing of ideas, opinions, and information about library-related subjects and issues.

By choosing to comment or post on our social media accounts, you agree with the following:

Comments and posts are moderated by library staff, and the library reserves the right to remove any that are unlawful or off topic. Posts containing the following may be deleted:
Copyright violations
Off-topic comments
Commercial material/spam/solicitation
Sexual content, or links to sexual content
Threatening or harassing postings
Libelous or other kinds of personal attacks
Conduct or encouragement of illegal activity
Content that reveals private, personal information without permission
Vulgar language or content
Comments in support of or in opposition to political campaigns or ballot measures
Content that degrades others on the basis of gender, race, class, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, disability or other classification

P.S. Protect your privacy. Don't post personally identifying information in these public spaces, including details like your library card number, phone number, or medical information, etc.

Young people under age 18, especially, should not post information such as your school, age, phone number, and address.