I’m going to preface this review with a complaint I have about YA fantasy fiction in general and about its authors specifically. Why do you have to announce a book as the “first of a series” before you even know… Read More ›
Fantasy
The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein
“To Be Weak Is Miserable” is the chapter heading that begins and totally summarizes this remarkable, fantastically-imagined literary-revisionist version of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s FRANKENSTEIN. Supposedly born to nobility but cast adrift when her mother dies and her father is imprisoned,… Read More ›
Ship It
I can’t think of a school library in Texas that can get away with putting a book with gay porn scenes in its collection but if that’s your school then by all means keep reading this review. SHIP IT tells… Read More ›
Toaff’s Way
On the book jacket, we read, “Sometimes Toaff wondered if he was the only squirrel on the whole farm who had questions. He hoped he wasn’t.” With that invitation, I delightfully read about the adventures and insights of a grey squirrel as… Read More ›
Fawkes
In England in the year 1604 teenager Thomas Fawkes is preparing to take the test that will determine his source of color power while also anxiously waiting to receive his hand-crafted mask from his father, Guy–both events that will mark… Read More ›
Like Never and Always
Sixteen-year-old Olivia (Liv) and seventeen-year-old Morgan are best friends driving home in a convertible late at night with their boyfriends, brothers Nathan and Clay. Neither of the girls is wearing a seat belt (since they’re only driving five miles after… Read More ›
The Door to the Lost
In time past the wizardly people of Vora established a portal into the normal town of Talhaven. They supplied “animus” (magic) to make life more comfortable for the Talhaven folks and in return received goods and resources Vora lacked. Things… Read More ›
Neverworld Wake
This fantasy/mystery/time-bending novel has some bad language, violence, and sex talk but not a lot of any of it. A small group of friends who are students at an exclusive high school fall out after the inexplicable death of one… Read More ›
Life Like
In a post-techno-nuclear apocalyptic world, seventeen-year-old Eve Carpenter, along with Cricket (her android assistant), Kaiser (her cyborg blitzhund), and Lemon (her fully-human friend) spends her time reconstructing robot fighters to compete in the War Dome for prize money. Adept at… Read More ›
Ash Princess
Lady Thora has been a ward of the Kaiser’s court since his Kalovaxian warriors conquered Astrea, her home country, and enslaved what survivors escaped the initial slaughter. As the daughter of the murdered Astrean queen, Thora is kept in a… Read More ›
Before You Buy YA 