Are you ready to check out some of the 2013 YA releases I ache for with every fiber in this year? My wishlist is painfully long(I'm willing to bet yours is too) so in this post I had to restrain myself a bit and I narrowed the list down to eight titles, all in different genres.
The links will take you like a whirlwind over to Goodreads, just in case you find anything on the list that captures your interest.Contemporary:
Maureen Goo's debut novel Since You Asked sounds like so much fun but still addressing a serious subject. The main character of the story is a Korean-American girl who writes(and rants) a column for her high school newspaper all while trying to figure out who she is by finding a way to reconcile her heritage with the contemporary American culture she grows up in.
Contemporary romance:
Life in Outer Space by Melissa Keil is yet again another contemporary that does sound like so much fun, don't take my silly description of it but check it out on Goodread. Yeah, I tend to drift towards the more fun, yet that does not mean these books aren't addressing some serious themes. Sam is a geek and he likes it, he doesn't have to worry about girls until there is Camilla. Camilla is set to have Sam in her life, even if he's not interested.
Sam believes that everything he needs to know he can learn from the movies ... but now it looks like he’s been watching the wrong ones.
Fantasy:
I fell head over heels with the intro to the synopsis for Ink:
I looked down at the paper, still touching the tip of my shoe. I reached for it, flipping the page over to look.
Scrawls of ink outlined a drawing of a girl lying on a bench.
A sick feeling started to twist in my stomach, like motion sickness.
And then the girl in the drawing turned her head, and her inky eyes glared straight into mine.
I cannot think of any other fantasy novel I am more exited to read than Ink by Amanda Sun. Ink is the first novel in The Paper Gods series which is set in Japan in our time(at least I believe it is in our time). A young girl, Katie, have to move to her aunt after a family tragedy. If that isn't enough the move is to Japan, its almost like moving to a whole different world. Katie must attend school and there she meets Tomohiro, a boy who has connections to ancient Japanese gods. There is something about Katie that makes Tomohiro loose all control over his powers. If anyone notices they'll both be in big, BIG trouble.
Historical:
In this genre I wanted to steer clear of the historical fantasy novels and instead go for a story that solely belongs in the historical genre. My former blog partner, Nina, loved Ruta Sepetys' debut novel Between Shades of Grey(click to read Nina's review) and I have been meaning to check it out ever since. Now Sepetys has a new historical YA novel, Out of the Easy, coming out(February 2013) and it is already on my wishlist because it sounds just as amazing as her debut novel.
The story is set in New Orleans in the 1950's and the main character, Josie, is mostly known as the daughter of a brothel prostitute. Josie wants to make a better life for herself but a mysterious death makes life difficult for her.
Dystopian:
There is no secret that I do have a ton of dystopian novels on my 2013 wishlist and it was very difficult to choose just one of them to show to you guys. I am looking for a new, great dystopian read. A read that is original, but sadly it does seem like the publishers are struggling to find something truly original and keeps printing the same stories. New author and different book cover, the story is mediocre and reminiscent of its older dystopian siblings. But we'll see, there is still hope ;)
Anyways I choose to display to you Control by debut author Lydia Kang. In the year 2050 Zelia's younger sister is abducted in the foster care agency because of her DNA isn't pure. Zelia is staying in an underground foster home she falls in love and meets new friends(friends with illicit traits!) that's going to help her rescue her sister, the only family Zelia has left.
Well... look at me. Talking big stuff about originality and choosing a novel with a plot that sounds suspiciously like Blood Red Road by Moira Young. What can I say to defend my honor? It was the DNA part that captured my interest.
Science fiction:
My sci-fi choice for 2013 has to be The Planet Thieves by Dan Krokos. No cover has been released yet but the book is due to release in May. That is why I'll share the Goodreads synopsis with you guys(which by the way gives off a bit of Ender's Game vibes):
Star Trek meets Rick Riordan
When the crew of the SS Egypt gets massacred by an alien race, Mason Stark, a thirteen-year-old cadet in the Earth Space Command, must lead his fellow cadets in a daring surprise attack to retake the ship, and recover a stolen technology that could spell the end of planet Earth.
Thriller/mystery:
Well, this one was pretty easy although I have seen quite a few other interesting thrillers set to release in 2013 The Girl Who Was Supposed to Die by April Henry stands out among the "crowd".
Cady wakes up with a memory loss and a pillowcase over her face, in the background she hers someone barking out an order "Finish her off!". It does seem like it might be a tad too late for Cady to save herself but we'll just have to read the book and find out how she does it. Since this book is 244 pages long I think it is safe to say that she lives beyond page one. By the way I seem to remember having read something about an additional mystery in this book, a missing family but I might be spreading false rumors here.
Steampunk:
I assume it to be illegal to have any other YA steampunk novel higher on ones 2013 wishlist than Gail Carriger's Etiquete & Espionage, the first book in the Finishing School series. This story is set in the same world as Gail's adult series, The Parasol Protectorate, I adored the first book in this series however the second one was a bit of a let down for me. Still I have high hopes for her YA series.
How can one ever possibly resist at pitch like this?
It's one thing to learn to curtsy properly. It's quite another to learn to curtsy and throw a knife at the same time.
What do you think of my 2013 picks? Any of them on your wishlist?
Do leave a comment and tell me which books you are pining for this year.
