Mini book reviews: my YA reading binge

I don’t read a lot of young adult fiction, but I don’t dismiss it out of hand either, since I find it tends to pay more attention to the elements I like most in my reading (well-developed characters, humour, witty dialogue, romantic sub-plot and/or attention paid to relationships, some darkness but generally happy outcomes), which adult fiction trying to impress adult critics often doesn’t bother with. Recently, as I gradually clear my to-read list, I went on a binge of YA fantasy fiction, so I thought I’d run through a few.

The Demon’s Lexicon by Sarah Rees Brennan was by far and away my personal favourite of the batch of YA books. The main character, Nick, is a boy in his mid-to-late teens who has been on the run with his family since magicians sent demons to kill his father. The only person he has any connection with at all is his brother, Alan; his mother appears to despise him just as much as he her, and other people just confuse and anger him…especially when they come asking for help and end up getting Alan marked by a demon, which leaves him open to possession and then death. Only Nick can save him, but along the way he’s going to find out some nasty truths about his brother and his past.

It’s fast moving, it’s funny, it’s touching, it has twists and turns that are well played out even if you see them coming, and the central relationship between Nick and Alan is gorgeous — especially once you get to the end and see what Alan was really dealing with the entire time.

Rating: 5 stars (I will look up the backlist and/or watch for new releases by this author and actively seek out sequels to this book.)

Uglies by Scott Westerfeld is a SF set in a future where every teenage receives extensive plastic surgery on their sixteenth birthday to turn them from uglies into pretties for the sake of equality (since in our world, pretty people have an unfair advantage). Tally can’t wait for her operation, and to join her best friend on the island of New Pretty Town, where your only job is to party and have fun. But she meets Shay while she’s waiting for her birthday, and Shay has other ideas, about living outside the city, and free…and ugly. When Shay runs away, Tally learns about the dark side of being pretty, because she’s been given a choice — go after Shay or stay ugly.

I liked the set-up and the story; it doesn’t have the humour I like, but Tally is a good lead and the ending, though it means the book is not self-contained and the sequel must be read to find out what happens, does not feel overly contrived to force a cliffhanger; it was a logical move on Tally’s part.

Rating: 4.5 stars (I’m not particularly moved to read other books by this author but I would like to see how the series turns out so I will pick up the next book.)

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins features a bit of gladiator-Survivor-style fight-to-the-death arena action in a dystopic future America. That part’s not hugely original in SF terms, but the way it plays out is very satisfying. The lead is Katniss, who has been feeding her family since before she turned twelve, and is single-minded and pretty cold because of it. When her beloved sister is selected as tribute for the Hunger Games, a reality-TV spectacular meant to punish the once-rebellious Districts, Katniss doesn’t hesitate to volunteer to take her place. Her odds of survival are low but she means to try her damnedest to be the winner. The boy tribute from her District, Peeta, seems good-natured and resigned to dying…but is he just playing her to better his own chances? — only one can win.

Even before we got into the arena, I found this book compulsive reading, mainly because of Katniss’s single-minded strength (it’s unusual to have a lead who is this unsympathetic if viewed objectively and to still really like her) and the interplay between her and the seemingly-sweet Peeta. Part of the game is playing well to audiences, and Peeta does that, and helps Katniss do it too. What will that mean once they’re in the arena?

However, after all that set-up, the climax in the arena is a little over the top and the pay-off at the very end is a letdown. Since I was enthralled by the situation they were in, and that situation no longer applies, I’m not sure I’m all that interested in what happens next.

Rating: 4 stars (I enjoyed reading this particular book a lot, but am not driven to seek out the next in the series; but if someone handed it to me, I would read it.)

The House of Many Ways by Diana Wynne Jones sees bossy bookworm Charmain stuck looking after her elderly relative’s house while he’s ill. But he’s a wizard and this house isn’t normal, what with the extra rooms and the kobolds and the cute little dog…and when Charmain also starts working at the palace, she’s drawn into the mystery of where the king’s gold keeps disappearing to too. As with most books by Jones, all the chaotic ingredients are drawn together neatly at the end.

I really enjoy Diana Wynne Jones; this book only suffers in my rating because 1) it’s really meant for young teens, not older ones, and so some of the elements I enjoy are missing, and 2) like the other sequel to Howl’s Moving Castle (Castle in the Air), there’s not nearly enough Howl and Sophie in it for my liking.

Very Distracting Moment: Twice, Wynne Jones uses “Doh!” to represent that driven-beyond-the-point-of-reason-by-frustration noise (you know, kind of a cross between ‘Ooooh, I could smack you’ and ‘Oh, you are annoying!’), except of course I could only read it as the Homer Simpson “Doh!”.

Rating: 3.5 stars (I liked this book, though I wasn’t compelled to keep reading it to the detriment of all else in my life like higher rated books, and, if applicable, I won’t be following the series.)

I don’t have an example of a three-star rating:
Rating: 3 stars (This book was borderline; I liked it enough to finish it, but if I had consigned it to DNF [did not finish], I don’t think I would have missed not reading it.)

because the book that probably would have been a 3 star became a DNF:

City of Bones by Cassandra Clare is set in New York and follows Clary, a teenager who has just begun to see weird things…like demons and the Shadowhunters who kill them. When her mother disappears in suspicious circumstances, she has to plunge into that world to try to find her.

There’s nothing wrong with this book; it’s just didn’t quite gel with my particular tastes (for example, there’s humour and snappy dialogue, but I found it forced). I made it through 100 pages (a fifth of the book) before I asked myself: do I care if any of these characters die? No. Do I care if Clary rescues her mother? No. Is it pretty damn obvious it’s going to take Clary a good part of the book to work out something that is already obvious to me? Yes. Better left.

Rating: DNF (There was not quite enough here to make me want to keep reading to the end. I have dozens of books on my to-read list, and it’s time to move on.)

Of course, I don’t have any one- or two-star ratings, because if I’m disliking a book that much, it’d be a DNF by 50 pages.

Any of these books take your fancy? Buy it from Fishpond.com.au, Australia’s biggest online bookstore. All their book prices are guaranteed better than Amazon and they do free delivery for orders over $49.