Despite sometimes feeling a little embarrassed about this secret guilty pleasure, I have to admit that I do love YA books. Here are some of my reasons:
1) This was the genre I knew and loved right before I went to University and stopped reading for fun for 7 years. I used to binge read YA and now I just binge read so might as well throw in a few to bring me back to my past right?
2) You get Romance without the explicitness. Romance in teen years is full of cute encounters, Romeo and Juliette style forbidden love and PG-rated love making. I don't need to hear about the male and female anatomy in an excessive amount of detail.
3) Teens are easily distracted so YA writers need to work hard to keep the focus on their book and not the reader's instagram notifications, as a result, the writing and storyline are often very interesting and keep you hooked.
Have I sold you yet? Well here are a few of my recent favourites in case you're ready to give one a try.
Tiny Pretty Things
By: Sona Charaipotra & Dhonielle Clayton
I have always been intrigued by books that are set in exclusive schools such as intensive dance programs, and that is exactly what we've got with Tiny Pretty Things. The story revolves around Gigi, Bette and June, three ballet dancers who are attending a prestigious dance academy in New York. Grappling with love, backstabbing, anxiety, eating disorders, perfectionism and family drama, the girls struggle to focus on the most important thing in their lives: dance. I had a really hard time putting this one down, and quickly moved on to the sequel: Shiny, Broken Pieces which was equally enthralling.
I wasn't sure about the fact that there were two authors when I first picked up the book, but once I started reading I couldn't see any issues. However they did it, both authors worked together seamlessly. At about 450 pages its a nice length and left me wanting more (hence the second book). Also, with three main characters there was a lot of different storylines but they came together really well. I think it was the perfect number of main characters, more would have been too complicated and less wouldn't have given enough variety. There is also lots of foreshadowing and hype about an incident that took place before the start of the book and becomes very important for the sequel. At first I was kind of thinking: "Well if this is so important, why didn't you start at that point?" but it was actually a really great way to keep up the suspense and leave the reader eager to find out the rest of the story!
Tiny Pretty Things was exactly what I hoped it would be and I would definitely recommend it if you're a dance lover, a YA lover or just looking to try something new. I also read and reviewed Sona Charaipotra's other book Symptoms of a Heart Break in this blog post. It is another YA and is also a medical drama so it was best of both worlds for me for sure!
Breathe and Count Back From Ten
By: Natalia Sylvester
This YA novel tells the story of a young girl who has always had a connection with the ocean and dreamed of mermaids. Born in Peru, Veronica is very much the daughter of immigrants who have very firm beliefs about how she should behave, what she should do and where she can go, but at 17 she is beginning to test those boundaries and resent her parents for their controlling nature. During the summer before senior year, several opportunities to test these boundaries come her way including: auditions to be part of a mermaid performance group, medical-related decisions and a cute boy who just moved in near by!
It’s great to see more books feature diverse characters while still meeting all of the critical YA elements of a coming of age story full of attraction, risk and growing pains. At about 350 pages it was the perfect length. I love that her physical disability is a huge challenge that she faces but that the author was able to portray Veronica in a really positive way. Often characters with disabilities are portrayed as weak or incapable or different, but Veronica is a very strong and independent teen and the disability is a part of who she is not who she is.
It was a pleasure to read an advance copy of this book through NetGalley and the publisher, Clarion Books! If you’re looking for a new YA book definitely add this one to your list!
The Happiest Girl in the World
By: Alena Dillon
Oh man, I LOVED this book. Much like my love of YA books set in exclusive academies, I also love books that feature elite teen athletes. This novel tells the story of a fictional character Sera Wheeler who is a part of Team USA and is training to compete in the olympics. Despite being fictional, Dillon includes so many references to real athletes and real events. It is clear that she researched the gymnastics world thoroughly prior to writing this book! It feels very real and includes details related to the child molester on Team USA staff (again fictionalized but very realistic) as well as the training camps and selection process. While reading this book you can definitely live vicariously through Sera if you ever wished you did gymnastics, but you can also see the horrors that this elite world brings. At about 380 pages it is a great length. From there I went on to read Fierce by Aly Raisman which is a true story but had lots of really similar events to Dillon's book, which confirmed that Dillon did a really great job of capturing a world that only a few people are privy to. Definitely add this one to your list!
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