The 2011 Nebula nominees have been announced.
The YA titles are:
Chime, by Franny Billingsley:
It has romance. And it’s the best kind of romance, too, a romance between equals that’ll make you laugh and cry and swoon. But that’s not even close to all it’s got.
The characters, even the minor characters, are three-dimensional and fully realized. Billingsley’s prose is beautifully lyrical, musical and evocative, yet the story moves quickly and the dialogue snaps. Reinforcing that unusual dichotomy is Briony herself, who is savagely prickly—yet prone to humor and whimsy—and desperate to be loved.
Everybody Sees the Ants, by A.S. King:
Like the vast majority of books that appeal to me, Everybody Sees the Ants has a little bit of everything: Comedy, tragedy, sarcasm, frank truth, despair, joy, fantasy, realism, romance, violence, friendship and family. In it, King creates—though his voice is so believable that it feels like a capture, not a creation—a vivid, rich chronicle of a life-altering time for one guy: the internal, the external and his effect on other people.
The Girl of Fire and Thorns, by Rae Carson:
I picked it up on Friday morning, and I lost two hours. Like, I started reading, and then, what felt like five minutes later, Josh said something, and I realized that I'd read half of the book without even noticing the passage of time.
I WAS SO INTO IT THAT I FORGOT TO EAT BREAKFAST.
Akata Witch, by Nnedi Okorafor.
Amazon | Indiebound.
Daughter of Smoke and Bone, by Laini Taylor.
Amazon | Indiebound.
The Boy at the End of the World, by Greg van Eekhout.
Amazon | Indiebound.
The Freedom Maze, by Delia Sherman.
Amazon | Indiebound.
Ultraviolet, by R.J. Anderson.
Amazon | Indiebound.
Clearly, I have some catching up to do.