Awesome YA novels

Dull Boy
By Sarah Cross

Avery has super powers -strength and flight, but he keeps them secret because he doesn’t want to be vivisected. The problem is that he accidentally causes a lot of property damage and his parents are running out of money. One night he crosses paths with some other teens with certain talents and things change. It’s a pretty straight forward story, actually, but something about the way it’s told is completely engrossing. I couldn’t put this book down. Avery is such a great character, an actual decent person who is just trying to his best.

The secondary characters were excellent too, and although it is a light hearted story it doesn’t shy away from darkness at all. It actually reminded me a lot of Hero by Perry Moore, while still being its own excellent book. I have my fingers crossed for a sequel.

Will Grayson Will Grayson
By John Green and David Levithan

Jackie told me that this book was amazing. It is amazing. I’m not sure if I loved *quite* as much as her, but I did like it a lot. It’s a collaborative novel told from two points of view: two different teenage boys called Will Grayson. The first Will we meet has a simple code for life involving not getting involved and shutting up. This is made difficult by his extremely large, extremely gay best friend Tiny Cooper who is putting on a musical based on his own life. The second Will is very emo, very angry and in love with a boy he met online. The two Wills meet each other a few chapters in and things are changed…it was cute and sweet. There is plenty of bad behaviour from all of them, some realisation and some funny stuff. It kind of reminded me of the movie Nick and Nora’s Infinite Playlist except less focussed on just two characters.

The Poison Eaters
Short stories by Holly Black

Holly is awesome, I completely love her stuff. She writes how I wish I could write. The Poison Eaters is a collection of her short stories which all read like new fairy tales. Some are set in the past, some in the present. There’s one that uses the characters from her Tithe series but the rest are stand alone, eerie stories. The very first one “The Coldest Girl in Coldtown” was a very spooky and unsettling vampire story, which I had trouble sleeping after. The other stories deal with (sexy) fairies, werewolfism, deals with the Devil…you know, the usual fairy tale fare. It really felt to me that these stories could stand the test of time and be remembered in a hundred years. Definitely recommend them.

Insatiable
By Meg Cabot

This is technically not a YA novel, it’s pretty much an adult romance/vampire novel parody but the way she writes and the way I read what she writes I think it can be crossover. In it there are descendants from characters in Dracula and the lead character Meena, really hates vampires and all the popular vampire fiction. There’s lots of romance and lots of action and suspense. I really liked the ending too.