Weekend Young Adult (and Crossover) Reviews

Hello Everyone! So this is the most tardy Weekend Reviews post ever.  Not only is it Wednesday, but this post actually covers the weekends of April 16-17 and April 9-10.  April in academia is crazy, so it's catch up time.  Here's what's been reviewed in the major media recently:

Rachel Pepper reviews Malinda Lo's Huntress for the Bay Area Reporter.  ("Lo's lush descriptions of the physical landscapes her characters reside in, and the perils they encounter on their journey, make the pages turn effortlessly. Her ability to populate these worlds with compelling young lesbian characters is an added bonus for LGBT readers.")


Joanna H. Kraus considers Brian Katcher's Almost Perfect in a series of reviews of recent award-winning titles for The Oakland Tribune. (Kraus calls Almost Perfect a "novel about a transgender teen is conversational, compelling and compassionate.")

Pam Norfolk reviews Maggie Stiefvater's Lament for Longridge News (U.K.): "Lament, a beautifully written and haunting story of good and evil, love and hate, the spiritual, the temporal and the power of emotions, is about as good as teen fiction gets."

Susan Carpenter reviews Akata Witch, by Nnedi Okorafor, for the Los Angeles Times. ("The book is similar in theme to many other coming-of-age fantasies, but the details are distinctly African, the language unrushed and elegant. The dresses the girls wear are crafted from traditional raffia ribbon. The sounds of Fela Kuti and other Afrobeat musicians are often playing in the background of the action.") And, Matthew Finch reviews Akata Witch for The Brooklyn Rail.

Looking for books for teens about London? Mary-Liz Shaw has a recommendation or two in The Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel.


Mechele R. Dillard reviews Jennifer Laurens's Overprotected in the Atlanta Examiner.

Karen MacPherson reads Gary D. Schmidt's Okay for Now and finds it a "truly remarkable book" for Scripps Howard News Service (here linked to The Detroit News).


Mary Harris Russell also reviews Gary D. Schmidt's Okay for Now in The Chicago Tribune.


Don't Miss Review of the Week/s: MacPherson contributes an excellent audiobook article--complete with YA-title recommendations--this week for Scripps Howard News Service (linked here to The Seattle Times).


John Stephens's The Emerald Atlas is a new Middle Grade fantasy that reviewers think might appeal to teens. Dana Stevens reviews it for The New York Times and Sonja Bolle reviews the title with reference to Diana Wynne Jones and Harry Potter in the Los Angeles Times.

Linda Sue Park reviews Ruta Sepetys Between Shades of Gray for The New York Times.

Phil Ness considers Aiden Chamber's YA short-story collection, The Kissing Game,  for The Guardian. ("Teenage readers will love this nastiness and the dark strangeness of all these stories." Sold!)

Also in The Guardian, Marcus Sedgwick reviews Phil Earle's Being Billy and finds it a "moving debut novel."

Mary Harris Russell reviews the last Alex Rider title for The Chicago Tribune.


Sarah Pereira reads Kelley Armstrong's The Gathering for Guleph Mercury. ("As in all of Armstrong’s books, the characters are endearing people that readers can related to. This is one of the traits that makes her books so addictive. And her young adult books are also great reads for adults.")

Ruel S. De Vera reviews Ally Condie's Matched for the Philippine Daily Inquirer. ("No action hero, Cassia is a far less tortured, far more intellectual protagonist than Hunger Games’ battle hardened Katniss Everdeen.")

Here's a review I missed a couple of weeks ago: Sonja Bolle reviews Maria Padian's Jersey Tomatoes are the Best in the Los Angeles Times.