Tuesday, March 20, 2012

More...Hunger Games! (and Taylor Swift)

Ok, so last time I wrote a blog I was a little, let's say, misinformed about Hunger Games's upcoming release date. The long wait was not over, it turned out, but I am happy to say that in just a few more days it finally is!

In related news, I stumbled across this delectable Taylor Swift music video of a song featured in the movie. If you don't, A., love the Country Princess that is Taylor Swift, or, B.,  love this video, you have worse taste than Snooki's unborn baby. Just kidding. But seriously. T. Swift is great. If you're a serious fan, also don't miss out on THIS informative Salon.com article about the making of "the Blockbuster."

The other cool thing is that we've got another week to feature some more of our favorite dystopian themed YA books to fill the vacuum left by Hunger Games.

For starters...
Starters by Lissa Price (Delacourte, $14.39, 352 pgs) -- Not for the faint of heart (or young of years), Starters is one of my recent favorites and sure to be one of the hot new books of the summer season. Imagine a world where after a genocide spore has wiped out everyone but the very young and the very old, children 'rent' out their bodies to seniors who need to feel young again. For 16 year-old Callie, renting out her body through the Body Bank is the only way she knows how to survive -- the only stability she's had since she lost her parents. That is, until the day when Callie discovers that her renter is going to commit a murder with her body. When Callie's neurochip malfunctions and she finds herself living the dream life of her rich renter, things get even stranger. Life seems perfect...until she discovers what the Body Bank is really up to... A great debut that you won't want to miss!

Divergent by Veronica Roth (Katherine Tegan Books, $7.99, 512 pgs) -- In a dystopian Chicago, society is divided in to five factions -- each of which is dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue. Candor is for honesty. Abnegation, for selflessness. Erudite, for intelligence....you get the picture. On Beatrice's 16th birthday, like all other budding 16 year olds, she's forced to choose which faction she'll dedicate the rest of her life to. Choosing between her family and herself proves difficult and she surprises everyone -- including herself with her decision. In the extreme initiation that follows, Beatrice endures intense physical and psychological tests that check her will and threatens to transform her. Romance, dark secrets, and glimpses of the unrest that rules her seemingly perfect society ensues....Great fun.



Wednesday, March 14, 2012

HUNGER GAMES

The wait, the long wait, is over at last. Hunger Games -- featuring a fantastic cast and directed by the guy who brought us Big and Mr. Baseball (if you're under the age of 20, ignore that last part)-- is here at last!

To celebrate, we thought we'd run down a few of our favorite YA dystopian novels/series because, well, there's been a heck of a lot of great ones coming out lately. And on top of that, dark, foreboding books about how doomed we all are both awesome and freakishly interesting to read. So if Hunger Games kept you up late don't hesitate to consider one of the following which take up many of the same themes as the HG series and do really fun and interesting things with them.


For starters, you can't go wrong with Ally Condie's Matched (Speak, $7.99, 400 pgs) series. Set in a world where citizens wholeheartedly trust Society and what it tells them to read, watch, eat, and etc, everything is going just great for young Cassia until the fateful day of her Mate Matching ceremony, when so called 'computer glitch' and the cascading love that follows forces Cassia to rethink everything she's ever known.


Beth Revis' Across the Universe (Razorbill, $7.99, 416 pgs) -- Another crowd pleaser is Revis' Across the Universe series. In it, young Amy is a cryogenically frozen passenger aboard the voluminous spaceship Godspeed who expects to wake up 300 years in the future on a new planet. When she's woken up 50 years too early and nearly killed, Amy is startled to find herself in a strange, enclosed world where all power has been usurped by a tyrannical leader and his brilliant and seemingly kind son, named Elder. Action ensues.  A real page turner that you won't want to miss!

James Dashner's Maze Runner (Ember, $7.99, 400 pgs) -- One of my favorites! When Thomas is woken on The Lift he not only has no idea where he is, he has no idea who he's been. A name. That's what he calls his own. And the funny thing is that the rest of the so called 'Gladers,' in the new world he's found himself in are in the same boat. All they know is that every morning the stone doors to the maze around them open, every night they close, and that every 30 days another boy comes up the lift. When a girl with a strange message shows up on The Lift the day after Thomas's arrival, Thomas realizes he may be more important than he knows -- if only he could remember something. An exciting book and a quick read!

And of course that's only the tip of the ice berg! Write with more of your favorite suggestions or drop by to check out some others!