Book of the Week 10/19

Here is the YA book you should be paying attention to, due in stores on Tuesday...

Nightshade (Andrea Cremer) - This book from debut author Andrea R. Cremer is getting a decent amount of buzz, about a female werewolf who has everything to look forward to, especially as she is destined to ride beside the alpha male of her pack come graduation.  But then she saves a human male from death and finds herself falling for him, putting that future in jeapardy.

Other Noteworthy Releases

The Dragon's Apprentice (James Owen)

Trash (Andy Mulligan)
Crescendo (Becca Fitzpatrick)
The Dragons of Noor (Janet Lee Carey)

Teen Retro: Fearless

One thing that has really changed over the years is how the young adult book is merchandised.  Content has changed somewhat, but not drastically, if the reprints of books like The Vampire Diaries and Thirst are any indication.  The categories in bookstores used to separate out "Teen Thrillers" from regular teen titles, and now Barnes & Noble has updated their layout of the teen sections to reflect the modern teen buyer, with a "Teen Fiction," section, a "Teen Paranormal Romance" and a "Teen Fantasy & Adventure" section.  And this is how people shop, so it's smart.  You can peruse a section containing just the sorts of books you like to read, without having to sort things out as you browse.

The format of books in teen is also drastically different than it was ten years ago.  When I was buying teen novels, the only format available was a mass market paperback.  Teen books were much shorter then.  If an author wanted to write a longer narrative, it was usually written as a trilogy, much like L.J. Smith's The Secret Circle and Dark Visions, or as a series like Sweep.  Obviously, teen books are much thicker now, and the packaging has changed with the times, and are released according to the regular adult fiction model.  Big releases are released in hardcover first (although some are released as softcover initially, as is the case with some adult fiction titles), then after a certain period of time, are released in a trade paperback format.  Rarely are teen books just released in mass market format, and even more rare is a teen title that eventually goes through the first two formats to end up in mass market.  The only example I can think of currently is The Twilight Saga, the books of which are released with movie covers in mass market around the time the films come out.  No - mass markets are mostly a thing of the past when it comes to teen books, while it used to be a matter of course.

The design of teen books is also much sleeker than what it used to be.  Teen books of the past boasted painted covers that looked retro, even well into the 90's, making them look much older than they were.  One of the first instances that I can recall of teen books starting to shift is with Francine Pascal's Fearless series.  Francine Pascal is the popular author of Sweet Valley High (an earlier version of a series like Gossip Girl), and when she made the leap to the action/suspense series Fearless, her books stood out on the shelves with its photographed covers and cleaner look.  It's what all teen books have come to mimic nowadays, but in the 90's, it was taken for granted what a teen book looked like, and it took someone with a vision to stray from that model.  I'm not sure if it was Fearless that paved the way for the look of the modern teen book, but it was certainly one of the pioneers experimenting with what could work.

The design on Fearless got even more sleek around #15 of the series, when the design was changed, and more space was given to the photograph on the cover (see below).  It was as if the publishers were experimenting to see just what could be done and how things would be received by their audience.  Fearless is also one of the first series that I recall seeing collected editions of.  I know that there were some thrillers that were also re-released with a few novels together under one cover around the time that I saw that happen with this series, but it's a testament to the forward-thinking behind this title in particular that "omnibus editions" were already being released of this series quite early on.

The teen novel has come a long way since its beginnings, but it seems that the category has hit its stride, perfecting its look and finding a comfortable place in the current book market.  It's the experimentation of merchandising on books like Fearless that has helped to shape what teen books look like today, and if the ravenous audience of teen books currently is any indication, then we owe a lot to the people who decided to break out of the mold and try something different with the category.  Talk about fearless.

Book of the Week 10/12

I've decided to change the format of new releases coming out each week, so I'll be choosing one title to highlight each week, with a list of other big releases beyond it.  So, here is the young adult book you should be paying attention to, due in stores on Tuesday...

Bright Young Things (Anna Godberson) - This new series from Luxe creator Anna Godberson takes place in the roaring Twenties, and follows two girls who leave their small town for the big city: New York.  Once there, they discover that the glitter and flappers aren't everything they'd ever dreamed, and its parties and seedy underside may corrupt the girls as well as tear them apart.

Other Noteworthy Releases

The Scorch Trials (James Dashner)

Beautiful Darkness (Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl)

The Curse of the Wendigo (Monstrumologist #2) (Rick Yancey)

Elixir (Hilary Duff & Elise Allen)

Revolution (Jennifer Donnelly)

Hold Me Closer, Necromancer (Lish McBride)

Stork (Wendy Dahl)

Ice Claw (David Gilman)

Jumpstart the World (Catherine Ryan Hyde)

Cate of the Lost Colony (Lisa Klein)

Alien Invasion & Other Inconveniences (Brian Yanskey)

The Secret of Ka

Christopher Pike

The first brand new novel from Christopher Pike in years, The Secret of Ka, is a departure from what most people think of when thinking of Pike.  It's much more innocent and more of a straight fantasy than his usual horror/slasher/paranormal books.  But that's not a bad thing.  In fact, I quite enjoyed this book.  It caught me off-guard a bit, and as such, took a little longer for me to get into, but once I was invested in the story, I tore through the rest of the book.  The Secret of Ka reads a bit younger than most young adult novels out there.  I'd almost recommend it for an advanced middle grade audience, but an early teen reader is probably ideal.  It's very chaste - even a kiss is a big deal, which is certainly different from the drugs and sex prevalent in many of his books.  But I liked that innocence.  It worked for this book especially since it takes place in Istanbul, which the protagonist, Sara, learns is very different from America.  The culture differences are part of what really work in this story, particularly when it comes to Sara's involvement with Amesh, a boy she has a crush on who's missing one of his hands.  In Turkey, women are seen as inferior to men (nevermind how non-Muslims are perceived), and the feisty nature in Sara's personality gets her into trouble often, but also puts a wall up between her and Amesh, especially when it becomes clear that she has more control in certain situations.  But beyond these tensions in the novel, the mythology that Pike weaves into the story, featuring djinn and flying carpets, are inspired, and are not the traditional genie nonsense seen elsewhere.  The mythology is obviously thoughtfully researched, if references to the Koran are any indication, and Pike has created some really interesting ideas when it comes to djinn possession and what their powers mean, and how they work.  Djinn are trixsters, and will stop at nothing to get their third wish used, which turns the tables on the wisher, and will often interpret wishes in ways that will cause the wisher to have to use another wish to fix.  One of the most suspenseful aspects of this book is the will between djinn and master.  They have to tread carefully with one another, thoughtfully arranging their words, carefully keeping one step ahead of each other, if they wish to be triumphant.  Whenever there is a confrontation between a djinn and a human, I'm always on the edge of my seat as the conversation plays out.  And once readers get past that first hundred pages that sets up the setting in Istanbul and introduces the key players of the book, the rest of the fantasy rushes along, coming to a head in a very satisfying way.  I'm very impressed with the mythology of this book and the subtle complexities of characters who come from very different worlds.  This is a riveting, exciting work of fiction.

I Am Number Four trailer

The first theatrical trailer for "I Am Number Four," based on the young adult novel by Pittacus Lore, is up!

New Releases 10/5

Here are the big teen releases due in stores on Tuesday:

Thirst (Volume 3): The Eternal Dawn

by Christopher Pike

Behemoth

by Scott Westerfeld



Sugar and Spice (L.A. Candy #3)

by Lauren Conrad

Birth of a Killer (The Saga of Larten Crepsley #1)
by Darren Shan

Pure Sin (Privilege #5)

by Kate Brian

It's Not Like I Planned It This Way

by Phyllis Naylor



Slayed

by Amanda Marrone

Dark Reflections

by Kai Meyer



The Unidentified

by Rae Mariz

Another Pan

by Daniel & Dina Nayeri

(This title is actually not scheduled to be in stores

until October 26th, but we already have it in stock.)

Link-Blogging

I saw this neat interview over at The Book Smugglers, with Carrie Ryan (The Forest of Hands and Teeth) and Diana Peterfreund (Rampant) talking about growing up on Christopher Pike novels and his influences on their writing.