Catching up, part 2: YA

Some time ago, I started churning through my backlog of read but unblogged books. Here’s another installment. All YA this time.

Incarceron, by Catherine Fisher

I really, really liked this book. Really. A prison so huge that there is no apparent way of seeing the outside, or even confirming there is an outside, let alone escaping to it. Inside is Finn, a prisoner with no memory who is convinced he came from the outside. Meanwhile, Claudia lives outside in a world trapped in the 17th century, where progress and technology have been outlawed and time moves her ever closer to an arranged marriage. A truly wonderful story set in a cleverly constructed world. Did I mention that I liked it alot? 

Magic or madness, Magic lessons, and Magic’s child, by Justine Larbalestier

An enjoyable trilogy about a girl called Reason who is sent to live with her grandmother Esmerelda. Living in Esmerelda’s house, Reason learns a few things, like the fact that you can walk through the back door and end up in new York. Also, that Reason is magic. I really like the world of magic Larbalestier has created, where using magic has problematic consequences, as does refusing to use it.

Just in case, by Meg Rosoff

Meg Rosoff is fast becoming one of my favourite writers. Her books would probably be classified toward the literary end of the YA spectrum and I would have no hesitation in recommending them to adults as well. In Just in case David Case decides to change his name and his life to avoid the attention of fate. Rosoff intersperses chapters about Case with chapters from the perspective of Fate as she/he watches and toys with him. This really is a fantastic book that cannot be done justice in four sentences. So I’ll make it five.

What I was, by Meg Rosoff

Another by Rosoff. This one describes something of a journey of self discovery by the narrator who resides at a board school on the English coast. He meets Finn, a slightly mysterious young boy who lives alone in a fisherman’s hut on the beach. His relationship with Finn is an odd one and he is taken through a raft of emotions as he learns more about Finn and himself.

Solo, by Alyssa Brugman

MacKenzie is sent to a wilderness camp as a sort of rehabilitation, to improve her behaviour. Part of the camp includes a “solo” - 24 hours alone in the wilderness. While on her solo she goes through a psychological struggle, remembering the events within her family that led her to this point and grappling with them for the first time. 

The turning, by Gillian Chan

After his Mother dies, sixteen year old Ben is dragged to England by his estranged Father. It turns out that Ben has inherited the ability of his grandfather to see and communicate with Faeries and such. He is enlisted by a Green Man (half tree half man faerie type thing) to help fight against the bad faeries intent on taking over the human world. A good read with a very cool (if dark) kick at the end.