It’s not a surprise that I like young adult novels; half of the novels I read and review are YA. Here are some of the YA novels on my radar for 2012.
January
Cinder by Marissa Meyer: A dystopian retelling of the Cinderella story where Cinder is a cyborg in a world where humans, androids, and cyborgs interact. Throw in the plague and potential attacks from a group of lunar people, and this fairytale retelling could be really interesting.
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green: Hazel is sixteen and has terminal cancer, but when she meets Augustus in a kids-with-cancer support group, maybe her future isn’t so bleak. Like other books by Green, I’m sure this one will have the potential of making me laugh and cry.
Incarnate by Jodi Meadows: Souls are tracked in this future sci-fi/fantasy, but when Ana was born a soul went missing, making people believe Ana has no soul and is dangerous. Thus begins her journey to try to find a soul and make things right again.
Article 5 by Kristen Simmons: There is no New York, L.A., or D.C., the Bill of Rights has been replaced by the Moral Statutes, and soldiers have replaced the police. Ember remembers what it used to be like, but to survive now she just keeps a low profile, until her mother breaks Article 5 of the Moral Statutes.
February
BZRK by Michael Grant: Set in the not-too-distant future, The Armstrong Fancy Gift Corporation is out to create a utopian world by attacking unsuspecting people, but a guerrilla resistance group, BZRK, is out to stop them.
Dead to You by Lisa McMann: Ethan was abducted at the age of seven and at sixteen was returned to his family, but his memory of the years he was missing is gone and something about being back home just doesn’t feel right. I have a feeling this will be a mix of drama and psychological thriller.
March
Wonder Show by Hannah Barnaby: After escaping McGreavey’s Home for Wayward Girls to search for the last member of her family, Portia enters the Wonder Show, a circus attraction with gypsies and other curiosities. The description of this book reminded me of a mix between Erin Morgenstern’s The Night Circus and Kate Milford’s The Boneshaker, so I think it has a lot of potential.
April
172 Hours on the Moon by Johan Harstad: Three teens get the opportunity of a lifetime – setting foot on the moon. They all have different reasons for wanting to go, but none of them expected the trouble they would run into on the dark side of the moon.
The Chosen Ones by Tiffany Truitt: In the future in which Tess lives, the government creates Chosen Ones, artificial beings who are beautiful, strong, and deadly. When Tess starts working at a Chosen Ones training facility, she meets James and they start to uncover the dangers of the Chosen Ones.
June
For Darkness Shows the Stars by Diana Peterfreund: Inspired by Jane Austen’s Persuasion, For Darkness Shows the Stars follows Elliot who struggles with believing the world in which she lives, where most technology is outlawed, versus the ideas of her childhood love.
Fall
False Memory by Dan Krokos: A girl wakes up with no memory and discovers she is a genetically modified deadly weapon. Part action, suspense, and sci-fi, this is bound to be good.
The Diviners by Libba Bray: I don’t know much about this other than it’s a supernatural story set in the Jazz Age, and Bray has described the heroine as a mix between Zelda Fitzgerald and Dorothy Parker. She had me at Dorothy Parker.
Sequels and companions
There are a lot of sequels and companions coming out on 2012, and the ones I’m most interested in are:
The Broken Lands by Kate Milford: I loved Milford’s The Boneshaker, and this is supposed to be a companion to it, but I don’t know much more than that.
Legend #2 by Marie Lu: I’m not sure what the title will actually be of the second Legend book, but it’s scheduled to come out sometime in the fall and I’m excited to see what will happen next to June and Day.
Shadow by Ilsa J. Bick: This is a sequel to Ashes and since we were left with such a big cliffhanger at the end of Ashes, I can’t wait to see what will happen.
Insurgent by Veronica Roth: Okay, I admit, I still haven’t read the first in this series, Divergent, but everyone says I’ll like it so I’m going to try to read both of them this year.
Matched #3 by Allyson Condie: I’ve been meaning to read the Matched books, and I sometimes like to wait until all the books in a series are out, so since this is the last, this year they’ll be on my list.
The Kill Order by James Dashner: This is a prequel to Dashner’s Maze Runner trilogy, a trilogy that I’ve been recommending to people but that I still haven’t read. They’re all on my to-read list this year.
Now I just have to try to fit in all of these books. We’ll see how that goes since I’m still working on some of my anticipated reads for 2010 and 2011!