What are we reading in 2024?

I started the year with ...And a Happy New Year? by Holly Bourne, which might not have been the best choice since it's a tie-in to a series I haven't read. It did make me interested to seek out the rest of the series, though.

I'm reading Five Survive by Holly Jackson, a US-set thriller/survival story by the author of A Good Girl's Guide to Murder. Six friends travelling in an RV for spring break are trapped on a remote road at night by an unseen sniper. It soon emerges that the gunman knows exactly who they are, and wants at least one of them dead... but who is the target, and why? The main character, Red, has a form of ADHD, which seems to be linked to an earlier trauma.

>2 konallis: Are you enjoying? I liked the Good Girl's Guide series, but haven't read her more recent yet.

>3 Caramellunacy: It's a page-turner. Jackson is good not just at keeping the action moving but at complicating it, throwing in new problems and twists and layers. The characters are varied and have complex dynamics, making what happens inside the RV as important as the shooter outside. I don't think it's as subtle as A Good Girl's Guide to Murder, though. (There's a definite nod to all those 'teens get stranded in the woods without cellphone service' horror films.)

I haven't been reading a ton of YA this year, but here's my report so far:

- Illuminations by T. Kingfisher -- LOVED this one. Reminded me of The Magicians of Caprona in the best way.

- River Secrets and Forest Born by Shannon Hale -- solid end to the series. I liked both better than Enna Burning.

- Idol Gossip by Alexandra Leigh Young -- teen gets selected to be part of a K-Pop group. Fun, but no substance and doesn't stand up to much examination.

Planning on getting to The Cruel Prince and The Memory of Babel soon.

I'm reading The Supreme Lie by Geraldine McCaughrean. Fable about climate change, set in a fictional steampunk realm threatened by flooding, whose ruler lies about the seriousness of the disaster and then flees the country. The ruler's maid has to pretend that she's still in post and ends up running the government. So far, I'm finding it interesting but not that involving, but I'm only a few chapters in.

>5 curioussquared: The cruel prince! I love that one! Currently on The Stolen Heir!

Late to the party, but I'm reading Uglies by Scott Westerfeld. A post about the book on LT piqued my interest enough to finally get it from the library.

I'e read All out, a collection of LGBTQ+ themed stories with more-or-less historical settings (I refuse to accept that 2000 is historical!). Most were very good; a few felt too rushed; and two I actively disliked. That's not a bad ratio for a collection with 17 stories.

We all know what to think of spamming authors who give their own work 5 stars, but nobody else has entered it.

I read The Blue Book of Nebo by Manon Steffan Ros, a short, spare, post-apocalyptic novel about a mother and son surviving alone in a remote part of Wales. The author wrote it in both Welsh and English versions.
There's a BBC radio adaptation that's lightly abridged and gives the flavour of the book, with appropriate Welsh voices: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/series/m001xzqn

I've just read and loved Vespertine. It's a fantasy with elements of Red sister, Sabriel and Penric. Highly recommended!

>13 Sakerfalcon: Thanks for the recommendation. I need a V for my alphabet challenge this year, and I see it's available in my local library, too!

>14 konallis: Great! I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

>13 Sakerfalcon: I loved Vespertine, too! Sorcery of Thorns was more tailored to my specific loves in a book (magical library, etc.), but I think Vespertine was a slightly better novel overall.

Recently I've read and enjoyed Dragon's Bait, Didn't See That Coming, Solitaire, and Seafire/Steel Tide. I also reread An Abundance of Katherines and it held up for me.

I'm currently reading She is a haunting, which is set in Vietnam in a haunted house.

I just finished Vespertine. Thanks for the recommendation. It definitely owes a lot to Sabriel, in premise and tone, but does the world-building to create its own distinctive universe. I especially enjoyed the relationship between Artemisia and the revenant, and how the author handled Artemisia's social phobia.

I'm reading Laura Wood's latest historical romance, A Season for Scandal. It returns to The Aviary, the all-female detective agency from The Agency for Scandal, this time with a new case and a new protagonist. Has the usual Wood ingredients: humour, sensory detail, feminist women and impossibly handsome men.

I picked up Alexia Casale, House of Windows when I was looking for a book set in Cambridge, and it turned out to be really wonderful. Unusual plot, interesting characters, but especially the way it was written, like it wasn't talking down to the reader. It seemed very different from most current YA. I also read the latest Holly Jackson, The Reappearance of Rachel Price, which was about 100 pages too long and although the plot was ultimately fine, there were a lot of formulaic elements.

I've just read a Korean YA dystopian novel set in a future where temperatures on Earth have plummeted and the only warm environment is the domed city of Snowglobe, where life among the elite is broadcast 24/7 to the rest of the world. Chobahm longs to be in Snowglobe with her favourite star, Haeri, but when she is given the chance to achieve her dream she finds that the reality is not what she imagined. Of course. One review on here describes the book as "Truman Show meets the Hunger Games" which is pretty accurate. This is not a book to think too hard about. There are so many illogical and impossible aspects to the world building that if you consider them for more than a moment it all falls apart. But the plot is quite compelling and Chobahm is a sympathetic protagonist, so I kept reading.

>22 Sakerfalcon: I've been planning to read that one. I thought the plot synopsis sounded improbable (on paper) but the book seems to have been well received, so was interested to see your opinion.

>23 konallis: Just don't think too hard about the logistics! It's a fun read.

I’m halfway through
Devils Unto Dust by Emma Berquist.
Very unusual and enthralling. Old West setting, dystopia, rampant affliction that turns people into ‘shakes’ - a kind of zombie.

>26 nrmay: That sounds great (possibly because I'm watching The Walking Dead at the moment). It doesn't seem to be in print here in the UK (though available as an ebook), but I found a copy on eBay. Thanks for the recommendation!

>27 konallis:
I really liked it and l think you will too!
It’s like the American classic western True Grit meets The Passage, an eerie fantasy by J Cronin. You might these too if you haven’t read them.

>28 nrmay: Thanks. The Passage is another book I keep meaning to read someday.

Now reading Devils Unto Dust on Nancy's recommendation. Enjoying it so far. More 'realistic' than I expected; about poor, remote towns being left to decay and fend for themselves without help, except that their troubles don't just involve crop failures or factories closing but a plague of zombies as well.