New Young Adult Mysteries

 Mysteries are arguably the most popular genre in fiction. In teaching the mystery genre, analyzing the author's use of classic mystery techniques: clues, suspects, red herrings, foreshadowing, and cliff hangers among others, can help students understand why mysteries are such page turners. I am recommending five new young adult mysteries this month. I'll Stop the World by Lauren Thoman is a genre-bending mystery which finds the main character traveling back in time to solve his grandparents' murder. Marie Lu's new series opener Stars and Smoke is a spy novel which teams up a pop star and his bodyguard. Three Drops of Blood by Gretchen McNeil is a Hitchcock inspired murder mystery where the protagonist witnesses a murder while looking out the window, but no one will believe her. Royal Blood, the first in a new trilogy by Aimee Carter, introduces Evan Bright, the illegitimate daughter of the British King, who becomes a murder suspect when she goes to Britain to meet her family.   The Night in Question, the second in the Agathas series by Kathleen Glasgow and Liz Larson, is a closed circle mystery, where Alice and Iris attend a party on an island where a murder occurs. 

In I'll Stop the World Justin Warren travels back in time to find out who set the high school fire that killed his grandparents and to try to stop them.  Justin's life has always been overshadowed by his grandparents' deaths.  His orphaned mother is now an alcoholic, who had him out of wedlock. Stan, her live-in boyfriend, is obsessed with the murders. When Justin drives off a bridge one rainy night and lands in 1985 prior to his grandparents' deaths, he has an opportunity to change the trajectory of his life.  He meets Rose Yin and together they attempt to solve the murders before it's too late. This coming-of-age second chances novel was published by Mindy Kaling's new book studio. Time travel books are tough to pull off and this one with a story line that unfolds both over the course of one week and 38 years has an amazingly satisfyingly ending. 

Stars and Smoke finds a secret agent teaming up with a pop star to bring down a crime syndicate boss. Winter Young, a Chinese American superstar, is recruited by the Panacea Group, an espionage organization, when he is invited to play at crime boss Eli Morrison's daughter's birthday extravaganza.  Winter and Sydney Cossette, a Panacea spy who is posing as his bodyguard, must infiltrate Eli's inner circle and find out about a chemical weapon he is developing.  Although Sydney dismisses Winter as just another pretty face, she soon discovers there is more to him than meets the eye. Their backstories and budding romance are secondary to the action adventure which spy novel fans will love.

In Three Drops of Blood plus-size actress Kate Williams lands a co-starring role on Dirty Pretty Teens, opposite former Disney star Belle Masterson.  Just as Kate makes the decision to skip college and pursue acting, Belle gets caught in a compromising position with the 38-year-old showrunner, and the series is cancelled.  Kate's parents are determined to change Kates mind about college and start charging her for food and rent, so she takes an evening job, filing at her best friend Rowan's dad's law firm. One night she is looking out the window and witnesses a double murder. Nobody wants to believe her except Rowan's brother Ty, whose heart she broke the previous year.  Kate  struggles to be taken seriously, both as an actress looking for roles other than the fat funny sidekick, and as the witness to a serious crime.  Inspired by Hitchcock's Rear Window, this is a page turning thriller and sweet romance with an unconventional protagonist. 

The first book in the Royal Blood trilogy introduces Evan Bright, the illegitimate American daughter of Britain's King Alexander.  After being expelled from her ninth boarding school for setting it on fire, the king's personal secretary spirits her away to Windsor Castle, where her half sister and stepmother greet her with cold shoulders. Evan wants to go home to her mother Laura, who is schizophrenic, but because of the disease, Evan is not allowed to live with her.  Her 18th birthday, when she can make her own decisions, is only a month away. But during her time in England, Evan is assaulted by Jasper Cunningham who ends up murdered with Evan being the prime suspect She and the king's nephew Kit attempt to clear her name.   Readers who enjoy everything royal will find this a unique take on the genre.

The Night in Question, the second book in the Agathas mystery series, finds Alice Ogilvie and Iris Adams attending a Sadie Hawkins dance at Levy Castle, the site of one of Castle Cove's unsolved murders.  Mona Moody, a classic film star, died in the island castle almost a century ago. Alice, who is wandering around looking for clues about Mona's death, walks into a new crime scene.   Rebecca Kennedy is lying in a pool of blood, and Helen Park is standing over her holding a letter opener, the presumed murder weapon.  Although the police think it is an open and shut case, Alice and Iris suspect that Helen is innocent and set out to prove it. Quotes from Agatha Christie's mysteries, as well as fictious quotes from Mona Moody movies, open each chapter. This book comes out May 4, 2023. 

New YA Fantasies: Realm Breaker, Steelstriker and Gilded

 Three popular fantasy authors have new books out that might be perfect for holiday gift giving. Victoria Aveyard (Red Queen series) kicks off a new series with Realm Breaker, which introduces a world where doors to other realms must be closed before an evil entity can seize power.  Marie Lu (Legend series) wraps up the Skyhunter series with Steelstriker, chronicling the battle to overthrow the Premier and dismantle the controlling Karensa Federation in a dystopian world. Marissa Meyer (Lunar Chronicles series) reimagines Rumpelstiltskin in Gilded, adding a romance between the miller's daughter and the magical being who spins the straw into gold. 

Realm Breaker is set in Allward, a world where Spindles - doors to other realms - are thought to be a myth, as are the Immortals and Elders, beings who can manipulate the Spindlegates that connect Allward to other realms.  The prologue details a disastrous battle which takes place when Companions of the Realm seek to stop Taristan, a rogue Immortal, and his wizard accomplice from using a Spindleblade to tear new spindles between realms to aid the evil entity he worships.  Half the companions are human and half are Immortals.  The only two who escape with their lives are Elder Domacridhan and Andry, squire to the knight Cortael, who manages to flee with Cortael's spindleblade.  When the story begins, Dom and Andry are heading to a Spindle temple to thwart Taristan's plans. They must engage the help of Corayne, secret daughter of Cortael and a pirate queen, who has the corblood required to wield the spindleblade.  Along the way they enlist the aid of assassin Sorasa and others to help their cause.  Shifting viewpoints and flashbacks detail the characters' backstories, setting up the quest to protect Allward and make sure the Spindles that can open destabilizing passages between realms are closed.  This complex tale will have readers spellbound as the ragtag band of heroes overcomes one challenge after another. 

Steelstriker, the final book in the Skyhunter duology, opens six months after the fall of Mara, as the Karensa Federation absorbs the formerly free nation into its empire.  Talin, an elite striker for Mara, has been taken hostage and turned into a skyhunter, a war machine complete with steel wings.  The story alternates between Talin's point-of-view and Red's, a skyhunter who escaped the Federation and bonded with Talin in the series opener.  Although held captive by Premier Constantine, who uses the threat of killing her mother to control her, Talin tries to aid her friends who are still waging a rebellion against the Federation.  As the Premier tries to harness a technology used by the "Early Ones," (presumably nuclear power) he is sabotaged by people in his inner circle.  Several of Mara's strikers have been taken prisoner and are awaiting execution or transformation into zombielike monsters called Ghosts.  Talin and Red communicate telepathically to orchestrate a rescue and a plan to overthrow the Premier in this romantic action-packed series closer.  I would recommend reading Skyhunter (see review in my October 2020 blog) prior to Steelstriker.

In Gilded, an inventive reimagining of Rumpelstiltskin, the sadistic Erlking and his undead followers appear every full moon to steal children and hunt magical creatures.  The miller's daughter Serilda knows to stay in on those nights, but she hears the hellhounds chasing two moss maidens and feels compelled to save them.  She hides them in their root cellar only to be confronted by the Erlking, whom she tells she's harvesting straw to spin into gold.  He departs but abducts her on the next full moon and takes her to his undead castle. He throws her into a cell piled with hay and threatens to kill her if she doesn't spin it into gold.  She assumes she is doomed until Gild, a redheaded undead teen, appears and completes her task.  She is immediately drawn to him and and looks forward to their next encounter.  Their star-crossed romance, as well as the suspense-filled conflict with the Erlking and the cliffhanger ending, will leave readers anxious to read the sequel Cursed, which comes out November 8, 2022.

YA Dystopian Novels - Skyhunter, The Other Side of the Sky, and Tinderbox: Soldier of Indira

 It's been quite awhile since I've read much dystopian young adult literature, but I have recently renewed my interest in it.  Dystopian refers to an imagined society in the future where there is great suffering or injustice.  Dystopian novels generally include themes involving morality, violence, lack of free will, lack of freedom, and/or government control.  Many adolescents can relate to these themes and in reading dystopian novels find hope that they too can make the world a better place like the characters do in the novels. Marie Lu's Skyhunter is set in a post apocalyptic world where Mara, the only free nation in the world, is fighting against the Karensa Federation to maintain its freedom. In The Other Side of the Sky by Amie Kaufman and Megan Spooner society is composed of two worlds: the primitive surface Below which has lost all advanced technology and is plagued by dangerous mists and the Cloudlands, a technologically engineered world in the sky founded by scientists who escaped from Below. Finally, Tinderbox: Soldier of Indira by Lou Diamond Phillips introduces a planet split in two after the Great Schism. When the remnants are finally deemed habitable, war breaks out between the two resettled colonies. 

Skyhunter, the first book in a new dystopian series, introduces Talin Kanami, a refugee turned soldier in war torn Mara, which is defending itself against the Karensa Federation. Her elite squadron of "strikers" battle the Federation's Ghosts, zombie-like monsters whose bites inflict transformation. When Talin protests the execution of a Federation defector, Redlen Arabes, her commander insists that she take Red as her fighting partner or shield.  As Talin gets to know Red, she finds out he is a Skyhunter, a half-man half-machine weapon created by the Federation.  Before the Federation can engineer his loyalty, like they have the Ghosts, he escapes, and becomes Mara's best hope for finding a way to defeat them.  After a plan to destabilize the Federation backfires, Talin, Red, and their fellow strikers are at the mercy of the enemy.  The first-person narration by Talin, who is mute, is facilitated by her signing and bonding with Red, who then communicates with her telepathically.  This action-packed thriller explores the ideas of immigration and imperialism and its ending will leave readers clamoring for the sequel.

The Other Side of the Sky, the first book in a new duology, is set in a post apocalyptic society composed of two worlds.  The Aciel archipelago known as the Cloudlands, was launched from the Surface Below into the sky, where enigmatic engines keep it aloft.  North, the heir to the throne, pilots a glider which crashes to the Surface after being sabotaged.  He is shocked to find there are people still living Below.  Nimh is their Divine Goddess.  She seeks guidance from ancient prophecies that predict the Last Star will fall, delivering the Lightbringer to save their world, which is ravaged by mist storms that leave people insane. When a prophetic dream, leads her to the site where North lands, she is sure he is her destiny.  Whereas his world is filled with science and technology, hers depends on superstition and magic.  It is forbidden for anyone to touch the Divine Goddess.  Nimh was chosen after the former goddess Jezara was banished when she fell in love and became pregnant.  As Nimh waits for her powers to manifest, she is threatened by Jezara's daughter, who claims she is the true Goddess.  The story is told from alternating perspectives, following North and Nimh's growing affection and the conflict they feel about the future. The cliffhanger ending sets up the sequel with readers hoping the two can bring together their two worlds.

I chose to read Tinderbox: Soldier of Indira primarily because the author is Lou Diamond Phillips ( La Bamba, Longmire and Prodigal Son) and ended up loving this retelling of Hans Christian Anderson's story set in space.  After the Great Schism splits a planet into two, war breaks out in the resettled colonies known as Mano and Indira. There is a prophecy that Princess Allegra, the daughter of Mano's king Xander the Firm, will marry a common soldier and end the king's reign.  He does everything he can to thwart the prophecy, including imprisoning Allegra.  Meanwhile, Everson, the prince from Indira, poses as a common soldier and gets stranded on Mano in a failed military operation.  He gets duped into retrieving ancient technology known as the Tinderbox.  Many young men have died trying to retrieve it, but Everson was clearly meant to be the one who succeeds. He is being used by traitors who are trying to overthrow Mano's king.  The Tinderbox allows him to communicate with Allegra, and although their people are at odds, they are immediately attracted to each other.  Their forbidden love could be the key to end the war and reunite their worlds.

New YA Fantasy/ SciFi Recommendations: Warcross, All Rights Reserved and Rosemarked.

It's time for holiday gifts and my thoughts turn to fun YA reads, which provide a break from assigned reading.  Fantasy novels immediately come to mind, so this month I will recommend three books that introduce new series that I think teens will enjoy. Warcross by Marie Lu (Legend series) focuses on Emi Chen, a bounty hunter who hacks into a popular virtual reality game tournament.  All Rights Reserved by Gregory Scott Katsoulis is set in a world where every word and gesture are copyrighted and must be purchased for use.  Rosemarked by Livia Blackburne takes place in a plague ridden world where Zivah, a healer, and Dineas, a rebel, join to fight a mutual oppressor.

Warcross is the first book in a new high tech sci/fi series by acclaimed author Marie Lu.  Emi Chen is a hacker who makes a meager living working as a bounty hunter, tracking down people who bet illegally on a popular virtual reality game known as Warcross.  When she hacks into a Warcross tournament game to scavenge, she is discovered by the game's creator, Hideo Tanka.  He flies her to Tokyo and hires her as a hacker spy in order to find a villain known as Zero, who is after him.  She poses as a player on one of the tournament teams, but in this virtual world filled with double crosses, it is hard to know who to trust.  A former video game artist herself, the author's attention to game detail makes this a very believable futuristic read. The bombshell revelation and cliffhanger ending will leave readers clamoring for the next book in this thrilling new series.

The clever premise in All Rights Reserved sets up a dystopian world ripe for rebellion.  In the future all words, gestures and sounds are trademarked, cataloged and monetized, and everyone over the age of 15 is required to wear a cuff that charges them for every word they speak, causing many to go bankrupt. When Speth is about to give her last day speech and be inducted into the paying world, her boyfriend commits suicide, rather than work off his family's crippling debt.  Shocked and distraught, Speth refuses to read her speech and elects to remain silent.  Her defiance of tradition incites a media frenzy and inspires others to follow her lead and rebel against the powers that be, who have a stranglehold on communication.  Speth is a reluctant hero, who pays a high personal price as the figurehead of  the "Silents" movement. The ending, although satfisfying, sets up the upcoming sequel. I would recommend this to fans of Scott Westerfeld's Uglies and other series about teen rebellion against a repressive dystopian society.

Rosemarked, the first book in a new fantasy series, introduces a plague ridden world where the authoritarian rule of the Amparans tyrannizes the people they subjugate.  The story is told by Zivah, a Daran healer, who has contracted the rose plague when she treats infected occupying Amparan soldiers, and Dineas, a Shidadi soldier rebelling against Amparan rule. He has survived the plague and is now umbertouched or immune, but she is highly contagious and can expect a shortened life span. Because Zivah saved the life of the Amparan commander, she is invited to live in the Capital to heal other plague stricken Amparans.  When the Darans ally with the Shidadi, the two are engaged as spies in order to find a weakness in the Amparan forces. Dineas infiltrates the Amparan military to learn the empire's plans for dealing with the rebels and then reports to Zivah in the Capital.  As they join together to fight a mutual oppressor, Zivah and Dineas develop a deep affection for each other. The detailed world building and complex characters will engage readers in this tension filled page turner.  The unresolved ending sets up the sequel Umbertouched, which will be released in 2018.

New Dystopian Series

Although there is an abundance of dystopian series available now, authors are still coming up with unique twists on the genre.  Marie Lu's Legend series, Gabrielle's Zevin's Birthright series, and Marissa Meyer's Lunar Chronicles all have something new and wonderful to offer teen readers.

Legend takes place in the not too distant future in a plague ridden America.   June, a  privileged daughter of the Republic, receives perfect scores at the Trial, a test administered to all teens. Her scores insure her a great future in the military. Day, who was born in the slums and supposedly failed the Trial, is a hero to the street people, because he fights injustice wherever he sees it. When Day tries to get plague medicine for his sibling, he kills June’s brother, and she vows revenge. However, when she finally captures him, she finds out all is not as it seems.

All These Things I've Done, the first book in Gabrielle Zevin's new Birthright series, introduces Anya Balanchine, the daughter of a deceased mafia boss, whose mafia family deals in contraband chocolate and coffee in 2083. When Anya falls in love with the new D.A.’s son, their star-crossed relationship is fraught with problems; especially when her ex-boyfriend is poisoned by her family’s chocolate and she is the number one suspect.

 Cinder, the first of four books in the Lunar Chronicles, retells the Cinderella story in a futuristic dystopian world. Cinder, a cyborg, who is a gifted mechanic, is hated by her stepmother and blamed for exposing her stepsister to the plague that is ravaging their world. Cinder gets involved with Prince Kai when she works on one of his droids. Little does she know that she is the key to dealing with the intergalactic struggle that threatens them all. Cinder will be available January 3, 2012.