New YA: December 7-13.
New hardbacks:
Boundary (Books of Eva), by Heather Terrell
Now That You're Here (Duplexity, Part I), by Amy K. Nichols
No Place to Fall, by Jaye Robin Brown
Suspicion, by Alexandra Monir
King Dork Approximately, by Frank Portman
Princess of Thorns, by Stacey Jay
Zodiac, by Romina Russell
Gathering Darkness: A Falling Kingdoms Novel, by Morgan Rhodes
New paperbacks:
Scowler, by Daniel Kraus:
I'm going to go ahead and warn you now: if Stephen King turns your stomach, Scowler will not be a good match for you. Seriously, just back away slowly.
If you're a fan of King, though, DO NOT MISS IT. Because Daniel Kraus is YA's answer to Our Mr. King. Not just because of the ultra-visceral parts, but because he recognizes that what regular people are capable of doing to other regular people is way scarier than any supernatural monster.
Red, by Alison Cherry:
Felicity is extremely self-absorbed—her only real concerns are keeping her secret under wraps and her popularity intact. In the age of Hermione Granger and Katniss Everdeen, it’s unusual to find a character who is quite as disinterested in social justice as our Miss St. John. Her cluelessness and her selfishness will drive some readers bananas, but for others (like me), her voice will ring true and feel refreshingly honest.
The Waking Dark, by Robin Wasserman:
Kirkus panned it as “skippable in the extreme”; I haven’t been able to stop raving about it since reading it. Kirkus found it “unrealistic,” “ludicrous” and “snooze-inducing”; I found it chilling, suspenseful, shocking and raw. Kirkus found it unsuccessful as an homage to Stephen King, while I felt that Wasserman shines in exactly the same way as King: in showing that true terror doesn’t stem from the paranormal, but from the normal. It isn’t vampires or werewolves or zombies that are truly terrifying, it’s what we human beings are willing to do to one another in the name of…well, whatever allows us to rationalize whatever atrocity it is that we want to commit.
Previously: