So how has this week fared for the YA publishing world? Mostly, and thankfully, it’s been quiet.
What’s coming out?
Susan Ee’s massive hit, Angelfall came out in paperback this week to the delight of fans.
Lauren DeStefano’s second book in The Chemical Garden series, Fever, came out yesterday.
Lauren Oliver’s Pandemonium, second addition to the Delirium series, comes out on the 28th Feb.
Author Awesomeness:
Neil Gaiman owned the fuck out of a commenter on his Tumblr this week.
Events:
It was the 50th anniversary for Madeline L’Engle’s masterpiece A Wrinkle in Time.
Scandalous Scandals!
Australian author Markus Zusak lies. Don’t let this suave, debonair looking, extremely talented person fool you. This is not his first offense.
Several months ago this callous, heartless person ruined someone’s life. Someone who had done glorious battle for months with Juliet Marillier for the top spot as Australia’s Most Followed GoodReader. That person had finally defeated Juliet Marillier for both the weekly and monthly spot. Then Zusak, without any formal declaration of war, swoops in and easily claims top spot – a position he has maintained since.
To that brave and courageous soul who had victory snatched from her talons by the whims of fate… be excellent.
Bad form, Zusak. Bad form! Just because you’re a brilliant author who writes moving, touching novels doesn’t mean you get to walk all over the little people, Zusak. For shame.
Promising Looking Titles on Netgalley
Mirabelle’s past is shrouded in secrecy, from her parents’ tragic deaths to her guardians’ half-truths about why she can’t return to her birthplace, Beau Rivage. Desperate to see the town, Mira runs away a week before her sixteenth birthday—and discovers a world she never could have imagined.
In Beau Rivage, nothing is what it seems—the strangely pale girl with a morbid interest in apples, the obnoxious playboy who’s a beast to everyone he meets, and the chivalrous guy who has a thing for damsels in distress. Here, fairy tales come to life, curses are awakened, and ancient stories are played out again and again.
But fairy tales aren’t pretty things, and they don’t always end in happily ever after. Mira has a role to play, a fairy-tale destiny to embrace or resist. As she struggles to take control of her fate, Mira is drawn into the lives of two brothers with fairy-tale curses of their own … brothers who share a dark secret. And she’ll find that love, just like fairy tales, can have sharp edges and hidden thorns.
Ninja Versus Pirate Featuring Zombies by James Marshall
In a world where ZOMBIES control banks and governments, only one young man sees the way things are and emerges from the CHAOS and destruction: GUY BOY MAN. While he tries to end human suffering worldwide and in his high school, Guy Boy Man meets a cute PINK-HAIRED girl named BABYDOLL15 who has a UNICORN that follows her everywhere. An EPIC ROMANCE begins, but forces BEYOND THEIR CONTROL are intent on keeping the young couple apart. One of those FORCES may–or may not be!–Guy Boy Man’s closest friend, a handsome African-American NINJA named SWEETIE HONEY; another could be four EXOTICALLY BEAUTIFUL, genetically engineered and behaviorally modified EASTERN EUROPEAN GIRLS; yet another, the principal of their HIGH SCHOOL . . . not to mention an impending standardized test known as the ZOMBIE ACCEPTANCE TEST! Will Guy Boy Man find a way to be with Baby Doll15 in a WORLD WHERE EVERYONE IS DOOMED to become either zombies or zombie food??!! Ninja Versus Pirate Featuring Zombies is part Napoleon Dynamite, part The Matrix, and ALL AWESOME. It’s the first book in the How To End Human Suffering series.
A Temptation of Angels by Michelle Zink
Even angels make mistakes in this page-turning epic romance…
When her parents are murdered before her eyes, sixteen-year-old Helen Cartwright finds herself launched into an underground London where a mysterious organization called the Dictata controls the balance of good and evil. Helen learns that she is one of three remaining angelic descendants charged with protecting the world’s past, present, and future. Unbeknownst to her, she has been trained her whole life to accept this responsibility. Now, as she finds herself torn between the angelic brothers protecting her and the devastatingly handsome childhood friend who wants to destroy her, she must prepare to be brave, to be hunted, and above all to be strong, because temptation will be hard to resist, even for an angel.
Michelle Zink masterfully weaves historical fantasy with paranormal romance to create a gripping tale of love and betrayal.
Steph @ The Night Bookmobile
This is a great idea for a post. Very helpful. I also saw the Gaiman thing on Tumblr. Love that man.
Lexie B.
Neil Gaiman wins at life.
Kat Kennedy
Thanks! Neil Gaiman is an awesome person – it seems. I’m not, however, really a fan of his work. I really wish I was though! Because he seems unbelievably cool.
Kate C.
Holy cow that was an awesome comeback. Also, I’ve always loved “A Wrinkle in Time”, but it’s pretty weird.