New YA: April 15-21.

New hardbacks:

The Springsweet, by Saundra Mitchell:

If it was the slow build of The Vespertine’s pacing that got you down, know this: in The Springsweet, within less than 30 pages, 17-year-old Baltimorean Zora Stewart has already deliberately ruined herself (in the eyes of genteel society), headed off to the Oklahoma frontier to live with her aunt and been set upon by masked highwaymen. 

Mister Death's Blue-Eyed Girls, by Mary Downing Hahn:

I realize I may have gotten semi-overzealous with the quotes this time around, but Mister Death's Blue-Eyed Girls just begs for it. Mary Downing Hahn, I'm sorry for fangirling here, BUT OH MY GOD I LOVE YOU. And to those of you who still have any doubts at all about Mary Downing Hahn's capital-L Literary chops, LOOK NO FURTHER.

Liberator, by Richard Harland

The Last Echo: A Body Finder Novel, by Kimberly Derting

The Last Apprentice: Grimalkin the Witch Assassin (Book 9), by Joseph Delaney and Patrick Arrasmith

Kill Switch, by Chris Lynch

Gone, Gone, Gone, by Hannah Moskowitz:

There's just a whole lot there, and I feel that I'm not doing it justice. It deals with 9/11 from the perspective of a New Yorker and from the perspective of a DC resident. It's a love story about two boys, but their sexuality is never an Issue: they are who they are, they're fine with that, and so are other people. It's a story about family, about losing your first love and finding your second. It's funny and sad and sweet. Craig and Lio are hilarious and tragic and insensitive and hypersensitive and self-deprecating and profane and realistically politically incorrect and loving and angry and happy and sad and adorable and real.

Glimmer, by Phoebe Kitanidis

172 Hours on the Moon, by Johan Harstad

The Chaos, by Nalo Hopkinson

The Wicked and the Just, by Jillian Anderson Coats:

Although The Wicked and the Just is set in a very specific place during a very specific time and depicts very specific events, it's much more character-driven than story-driven, and much more Day-in-the-Life than Major Event. The author avoids platitudes or easy answers, and, in a move that might not be popular with some (especially younger) readers, stays true to the characters rather than taking Ye Olde Romance Cures All Ills route.

New paperbacks:

The Girl in the Steel Corset (Harlequin Teen), by Kady Cross:

The pages turn quickly due to the fast-paced plotting, but the prose is extremely repetitive. For instance, Emily the Brilliant Girl Scientist has red dreadlocks. Here’s how I know:

“...she pushed her ropey hair out of her face...” (p28)

“Emily tucked a chunk of bright red hair behind her ear...” (p29)

“Her bright, ropey hair...” (p49)

“...small girl with her strange red hair...” (p53)

“Her ropey hair...” (p103)

“...the ropes of her bright red hair...” (p151)

“Ropey red hair...” (p161)

“Little Emily with her ropey hair...” (p202)

“...impossibly red hair.” (p224)

“Locks of thick, twisted red hair...” (p293)

“...her ropey copper hair...” (p346)

She also has blue eyes (three times), and has a habit of saying “lad” (seven times) because she’s Irish (nine times).