Get Yer YA Recommendations Here!

Lillith1991 said:

Anyone have recs for some Steampunk YA. I'm going to be writing one sometime next year and I want to get started on reading in the genre. Well, the YA side at least. I'm already doing some reading in the Adult end of things.

Click to expand...

There actually isn't a big amount of YA steampunk out there- or steampunk in general (at least, not when compared to other genres). But my personal favorite is CLOCKWORK ANGEL (yes I'm a big Cassandra Clare fanboy). Also good are THE GIRL IN THE STEEL CORSET and ETIQUETTE AND ESPIONAGE. Try BONESHAKER too, which isn't technically YA but has zombies and steampunky things galore.

YA stories of Army Brats

YA fiction about Army brats seems few and far between, these days. I want to read more...I have one recommendation and one call for others (modern stories, not historical fiction): A.G. Russo's Our Wild and Precious Lives. LOVE the title. The story was even better - just what I'm looking for in a YA read about Army life from a YA perspective:

Tom and Melly worry about adjusting to a strange foreign country and entering yet another new school, but they also face problems at home with an abusive, controlling war veteran father and his domination over their lives.

It's rare to see a supportive, genuine love between brother and sister depicted against the backdrop of military life with all its challenges. It's also rare to find the events and feel of post-World War II woven into a story line that brings to life not only key moments in the international world of the 1960s, but the involvements of military families stationed abroad.

The ultimate power of Our Wild and Precious Lives lies in the evolution of the army brat protagonists into passionate people influenced by their parents' decisions.

More, please! Any look-alikes recommended?

I'm reading IMPULSE by Ellen Hopkins now and one of the three protagonists is an Army kid. It's a very small part of the story though so it probably doesn't fit what you want.

Joy Hensley's RITES OF PASSAGE is about a girl at a previously all-boys military academy/high school.

Hi, everyone. I'm thinking of reading one of Rainbow Rowell's YA novels, but I'm not sure which one to start with. Does anyone have suggestions?

xDream said:

Hi, everyone. I'm thinking of reading one of Rainbow Rowell's YA novels, but I'm not sure which one to start with. Does anyone have suggestions?

Click to expand...

I'd start with ELEANOR & PARK.

No! Start with Fangirl! This is an unanswerable question, xDream!

(I've been meaning to pick up E&P but recently I saw some excerpts of the fetishy, somewhat racist lines in it and now I'm feeling super weird about it. I should mention I'm a white woman married to a mixed Korean guy so it just REALLY hit a weird nerve. But damnit I loved Fangirl so much....)

Oh no, conflicting statements~ maybe I should go into a bookstore, put a blindfold on, and see which one I pick up first. Thank you for your input.

Read the first sentences of each and decide purely based on that

Becca C. said:

Read the first sentences of each and decide purely based on that

Click to expand...

Ah, a very good idea.

Hey everyone,

I have to do a book order for my kids and have a nice chunk of money to play with. I'm looking for book recommendations for my grade 6s.

It can't be too heavy on the romance (we've been allowed to get away with things like Hunger Games and Divergent, but anything too explicit would be banned).

I'm also looking for some MG recommendations for my lower readers.

Thanks!

I'm looking for comp titles for my MS. Can anybody recommend YA ghost/paranormal stories? Not paranormal romance, if possible. I'd love something with just traces of paranormal that don't overtake the whole story.

Niiicola said:

I'm looking for comp titles for my MS. Can anybody recommend YA ghost/paranormal stories? Not paranormal romance, if possible. I'd love something with just traces of paranormal that don't overtake the whole story.

Click to expand...

Paper Valentine, by Brenna Yovanoff, maybe?

Niiicola said:

I'm looking for comp titles for my MS. Can anybody recommend YA ghost/paranormal stories? Not paranormal romance, if possible. I'd love something with just traces of paranormal that don't overtake the whole story.

Click to expand...

Try Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake (male protag, FYI) or Possessions by Nancy Holder.

Mine. Let's comp each other, Niiicola.

I've actually been debating whether or not to use ANNA as a comp title for mine, since last I heard, it didn't actually sell that well. I'm not sure if that's true or not but I don't want to shoot myself in the foot.

What's a "comp title"? o.o

Miss Strawberrii said:

What's a "comp title"? o.o

Click to expand...

A comparable title. In the "if you like X, try Y" equation it'd be the X.

Sometimes when pitching/querying, people will say their book is for fans of X, as well.

Currently working on a futuristic sci-fi YA where people come back to a changed Earth. Can anyone think of any YA Sci-fi titles from the last 5-10 years? I've read The Lunar Chronicles, but can't think of anything else. I'm looking for Sci-fi that would be called Sci-fi and not Dystopia.

jtrylch13 said:

Currently working on a futuristic sci-fi YA where people come back to a changed Earth. Can anyone think of any YA Sci-fi titles from the last 5-10 years? I've read The Lunar Chronicles, but can't think of anything else. I'm looking for Sci-fi that would be called Sci-fi and not Dystopia.

Click to expand...

Only one I can think of is @cross the Un!verse, by Beth Revis.

lenore_x said:

Mine. Let's comp each other, Niiicola.

Click to expand...

Deal. Then we can coordinate our queries to the same agents at the same time so they're like "Um, WTF?"

Sage said:

Ooh, can I join in? (I totally wanted to say "mine" too). There's romance, but only between the humans.

Click to expand...

It'll be tricky to work out a comp title triangle, but I think we can manage it.

Thanks Casual and Sage!

lenore_x said:

I've actually been debating whether or not to use ANNA as a comp title for mine, since last I heard, it didn't actually sell that well. I'm not sure if that's true or not but I don't want to shoot myself in the foot.

Click to expand...

I always wonder about this with comps... Everybody seems to agree not to use the Really Big Sellers because agents are likely to just roll their eyes and assume you only read bestsellers, which doesn't really give you a whole scope of your genre and blah blah blah.... The general consensus, from what I've read [all over the Internet, so it must be true, right?] is that they want to know that YOU know where you fit in. But, yeah... What if you pick a comp that totally bombed, or whose sales were not that spectacular, no matter how good YOU thought it was? Is that counting against you? Or is it, in fact, just a matter of showing that you know your market and audience and whatnot?

The comps I've been using are not Super Duper Big Titles. So far, it hasn't seemed to make a difference for those who have expressed interest.