Trailer Tuesday: Elusion by Cheryl Klam & Claudia Gabel

Never fear! YA dystopic science fiction is alive and well.

Elusion by Cheryl Klam and Claudia Gabel





From the publisher:

The mind-blowing beginning of a futuristic series about the seductive nature of a perfect virtual world and how far one girl will go to uncover the truth behind the illusions.

A new technology is sweeping the country. To enter Elusion®, you need an app, a visor, and a wristband and you'll be virtually transported to an exotic destination where adventure comes without the complications or consequences of real life. When there are accusations that Elusion is addictive and dangerous, Regan is determined to defend it and is pulled into incredible new worlds to discover deeply buried truths and to make the ultimate choice between love and loyalty. . .

Full of thrilling mystery, romance, and intriguing technology, this Inception-inspired thriller is perfect for fans of dystopian and sci-fi novels such as Uglies by Scott Westerfeld, Matched by Ally Condie, and Partials by Dan Wells.

The LibrariYAn is an Amazon Associate. If you click from links on this blog to Amazon and buy something (anything!), I receive a small percentage of the purchase price.

Trailer Tuesday: Mila 2.0

MILA 2.0 by Debra Driza

It's like The Bourne Identity and The Adoration of Jenna Fox had a baby, and named it Mila...or at least that's what the publisher blurb and trailer make it seem like.

Here's what the publisher has to say:

Mila was living with her mother in a small Minnesota town when she discovered she was also living a lie.

She was never meant to learn the truth about her identity. She was never supposed to remember the past—that she was built in a computer science lab and programmed to do things real people would never do.

Now she has no choice but to run—from the dangerous operatives who want her terminated because she knows too much, and from a mysterious group that wants to capture her alive and unlock her advanced technology.

Evading her enemies won't help Mila escape the cruel reality of what she is and cope with everything she has had to leave behind. However, what she's becoming is beyond anyone's imagination, including her own, and that just might save her life.

A compulsively readable sci-fi thriller, Mila 2.0 is Debra Driza's bold debut and the first book in an action-filled, Bourne Identity–style trilogy.

The LibrariYAn is an Amazon Associate. If you click from links on this blog to Amazon and buy something (anything!), I receive a small percentage of the purchase price.

Trailer Tuesday: When We Wake by Karen Healey

January and February were so chock full of highly anticipated YA releases that I thought maybe when March hit, things would cool down. Nope!

This week brings the release of Requiem, the third book in Lauren Oliver's dystopic Delirium trilogy, Orleans, a science fiction/survival in the hurricane-ridden Delta adventure by Sherri L. Smith (It definitely had me thinking about Beasts of the Southern Wild from the description.  You too?) and When We Wake, an Adoration-of-Jenna-Fox-ish tale of a not-too-distant future by Karen Healey.

Alas, I could only find a trailer for the last of those three.  It looks good.



The LibrariYAn is an Amazon Associate. If you click from links on this blog to Amazon and buy something (anything!), I receive a small percentage of the purchase price.

Trailer Tuesday: Dualed by Elsie Chapman

Dualed by Elsie Chapman

Billed as Hunger Games meets Matched. Intriguing...





Publisher's Description:
Two of you exist.

Only one will survive.

The city of Kersh is a safe haven, but the price of safety is high. Everyone has a genetic Alternate—a twin raised by another family—and citizens must prove their worth by eliminating their Alts before their twentieth birthday. Survival means advanced schooling, a good job, marriage—life. 

Fifteen-year-old West Grayer has trained as a fighter, preparing for the day when her assignment arrives and she will have one month to hunt down and kill her Alt. But then a tragic misstep shakes West’s confidence. Stricken with grief and guilt, she’s no longer certain that she’s the best version of herself, the version worthy of a future. If she is to have any chance of winning, she must stop running not only from her Alt, but also from love . . . though both have the power to destroy her.

Elsie Chapman's suspenseful YA debut weaves unexpected romance into a novel full of fast-paced action and thought-provoking philosophy. When the story ends, discussions will begin about this future society where every adult is a murderer and every child knows there is another out there who just might be better.

The LibrariYAn is an Amazon Associate. If you click from links on this blog to Amazon and buy something (anything!), I receive a small percentage of the purchase price.

Trailer Tuesday: Pulse by Patrick Carman

Pulse by Patrick Carman



Publisher's Description:

In the year 2051, who has a pulse?

With the help of her mysterious classmate Dylan Gilmore, Faith Daniels discovers that she can move objects with her mind. This telekinetic ability is called a "pulse," and Dylan has the talent, too. In riveting action scenes, Faith demonstrates her ability to use her pulse against a group of telekinesis masters who are so powerful they can flatten their enemies by uprooting streetlights, throwing boulders, and changing the course of a hurtling hammer so that it becomes a deadly weapon. But even with her unusual talent, the mind—and the heart—can be difficult to control. If Faith wants to join forces with Dylan and save the world, she'll have to harness the power of both.



The LibrariYAn is an Amazon Associate. If you click from links on this blog to Amazon and buy something (anything!), I receive a small percentage of the purchase price.

Trailer Tuesday: The Madman's Daughter by Megan Shepherd

How did I miss this one that released on January 29th?  Inspired by H.G. Wells' The Island of Doctor Moreau? And a blurb from Carrie Ryan? That goes far in my book.

The Madman's Daughter by Megan Shepherd





Publisher's Description:
Sixteen-year-old Juliet Moreau has built a life for herself in London—working as a maid, attending church on Sundays, and trying not to think about the scandal that ruined her life. After all, no one ever proved the rumors about her father's gruesome experiments. But when she learns he is alive and continuing his work on a remote tropical island, she is determined to find out if the accusations are true.

Accompanied by her father's handsome young assistant, Montgomery, and an enigmatic castaway, Edward—both of whom she is deeply drawn to—Juliet travels to the island, only to discover the depths of her father's madness: He has experimented on animals so that they resemble, speak, and behave as humans. And worse, one of the creatures has turned violent and is killing the island's inhabitants. Torn between horror and scientific curiosity, Juliet knows she must end her father's dangerous experiments and escape her jungle prison before it's too late. Yet as the island falls into chaos, she discovers the extent of her father's genius—and madness—in her own blood.

Inspired by H. G. Wells's classic The Island of Dr. Moreau, The Madman's Daughter is a dark and breathless Gothic thriller about the secrets we'll do anything to know and the truths we'll go to any lengths to protect.

The LibrariYAn is an Amazon Associate. If you click from links on this blog to Amazon and buy something (anything!), I receive a small percentage of the purchase price.

Trailer Tuesday: Prodigy by Marie Lu

It's no secret that I was a big fan of Marie Lu's Legend from the second I began reading the ARC a few years ago.  Since then, I've booktalked it to my students as suspenseful dystopian science fiction, perfect for fans of Veronica Roth's Divergent and Collins' Hunger Games.

I squealed with delight when I was able to snag an ARC of the sequel, Prodigy, from the Penguin booth at Book Expo this past May.  Then this happened.

It was my fault for leaving it on the end table while I went off to trivia on the evening I returned home from my nine days in London.  I should have known Molly would be upset that I was abandoning her just a few hours after returning.  She looks sweet and adorable, but she is vindictive.

The point of all this is to say that I have been anxiously awaiting the sequel to Legend since approximately June 2011.  Today, the wait is over!

Prodigy: A Legend Novel by Marie Lu






The LibrariYAn is an Amazon Associate. If you click from links on this blog to Amazon and buy something (anything!), I receive a small percentage of the purchase price.

Friday Flashback: Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

Books don't have to be new to be deserving of a review! On Fridays I flashback to some of my favorite books of all-time.

Uglies by Scott Westerfeld



Tally Youngblood is Ugly. Everyone in her society is considered ugly until they turn 16 and have surgery to make them Pretty.  In addition to being beautiful, pretties live a life of full of parties and absent of responsibility. While Tally eagerly awaits the day of her transformation, her friend Shay has become convinced that there is a darker side to becoming Pretty, and runs away.  On the day of her operation, Tally is given an ultimatum: find Shay and bring her back for surgery or remain Ugly forever.  Tally heads out into the unknown on a search for her friend and the truth.  What she learns may change her life forever.

This was my first science fiction novel.  I put off reading it.  Science fiction was for out-of-shape men in their 30s who still lived with their parents.  It was space and aliens and time travel.  Then I put aside all of my misgivings and just read the darn book.  Did you know that science fiction can be cool?  It sounds silly now, with books like Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games as national best sellers and science fiction the "it" genre, but it didn't always used to be that way.  Scott Westerfeld's Uglies opened up a whole new world of reading to me.  And even in the day and age of row upon row of dystopias, this is still my go to.  The first pages of the book draw you into the world; even naming the place where newly operated teens live "New Pretty Town" doesn't seem a silly choice.  You're riveted by the action and gripped by the building suspense.  The naive and adventurous spirit of the characters and the connections that can be drawn between the materialistic values of their society and ours make for a story with which teens can identify.

Practically every student in my middle school has read all four books.  I trained the first generation of readers to act aghast if another student indicates that he or she hasn't yet read the books and to demand that the problem be rectified IMMEDIATELY.  It's kind of awesome to watch my 6th graders (particularly the ones who have done Hunger Games Camp with me over the summer and have heard my Hunger Games read-alikes book talks) providing reader's advisory to their friends.  It makes my day.

The LibrariYAn is an Amazon Associate. If you click from links on this blog to Amazon and buy something (anything!), I receive a small percentage of the purchase price.

Trailer Tuesday: Gone by Michael Grant

Sometimes trailers are so good that you need to drop everything and READ! THE! BOOK!

I didn't see the trailer for Gone until a few years after the book's release.  I think I was looking for trailers of books that were Hunger Games read-alikes and came across it during my search.  I knew what Gone was about and I knew that the kids loved Gone, but I'd never read it myself.  So I watched the trailer...



And I thought it was really good!  Don't you?  For reals.

So I immediately checked the book out of the library.  And read about half of it.  And got bored.  Or busy. And never finished it.  Wop wop. Haha. Oh well.  I still put it on my list of Hunger Games read-alikes.  And the kids still love it.  And maybe one day I'll finish reading it.

The LibrariYAn is an Amazon Associate. If you click from links on this blog to Amazon and buy something (anything!), I receive a small percentage of the purchase price.

Trailer Tuesday: Cinder by Marissa Meyer

So you read my review of Cinder last Wednesday and you're still hung up on the whole cyborg Cinderella thing, huh?  Get over it!  It's so good!  What do I have to do to convince you?  Direct you to some other reviews (like this one, or this one, or this one, or this one)? Give you the link to read the Chapter Teaser (scroll down a little)? Give you the link to get the first five chapters for FREE (on Kindle)? Show you the trailer?



I've done all I can do.  The rest is in your hands.

The LibrariYAn is an Amazon Associate. If you click from links on this blog to Amazon and buy something (anything!), I receive a small percentage of the purchase price.

Review: Cinder by Marisa Meyer

Cinder by Marissa Meyer



It's Cinderella.  Except she's a cyborg.  In future China.  And there are moon people (Lunars) who want to wage a war against Earth as a means to control all Eartherns.

I know what you're thinking.  I thought it too.  Cyborg Cinderella just doesn't sound like it's going to be good.  It sounds weird.  Really weird. But then I found myself in a reading slump, trying desperately to become engaged in either of the two books I was reading (The Traveling Restaurant and The Raven Boys) and finding it hopeless.  The assistant librarian kept telling me how awesome Cinder was.  It made the YALSA Teens Top Ten.  I figured it couldn't hurt, right?  390 pages and less than 48 hours later, I'm a convert.  This book is pretty darn good.

Each of the four "books" of the novel begins with a quote from the original Perrault tale that connects with the story focus for that section which I found to be a nice touch of respect and appreciation for the source material.  Even though I'd figured out the big plot twist/secret reveal by around page 115, just pages into the second book, that didn't make me want to read the story any less.  If anything, it deepened my investment in the characters and story and made me want to keep reading to learn just how the story would unfold and come together.  Cinder is the first book in "The Lunar Chronicles" and it was actually refreshing to see the book design not only acknowledge that the title was the first in the series, but to entice the reader to follow Cinder's story by announcing titles and general release dates for the coming installments.  And thus, when the ending (spoiler alert!?) made no bones about it's cliffhanger ending, I didn't feel shorted.  I was just amped up to read the second book, Scarlet, when it releases in February.

The LibrariYAn is an Amazon Associate. If you click from links on this blog to Amazon and buy something (anything!), I receive a small percentage of the purchase price.

Trailer Tuesday: Reached by Ally Condie

I'm not usually the girl who has it all together and plans ahead to show the trailer of a long-anticipated final book in a trilogy.  But I'm that girl today!  Aw yeah.

I really enjoyed Matched.  Crossed was a bit laggy and wandery (as middle books can be), but still left me willing and eager for the conclusion.  And today (pending the arrival of our Amazon shipment) we have it!

Reached by Ally Condie





There will be a hold list for this one.  And something tells me Matched and Crossed will be checked out for the foreseeable future as well.  Ooh, and my students love the trailer for Matched and always ask to see it again, even though they've read the book and seen the trailer multiple times.  I love that the purposefully patchy audio gets the kids who haven't read it mad, because they think something is wrong with the trailer, and I always have to explain that it's supposed to be like that.  And then we watch it again!

The LibrariYAn is an Amazon Associate. If you click from links on this blog to Amazon and buy something (anything!), I receive a small percentage of the purchase price.

Trailer Tuesday: The Adoration of Jenna Fox

The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson



Pearson's The Adoration of Jenna Fox was one of the first science fiction titles I ever read (Uglies by Scott Westerfeld was first).  Before I read either of these titles, I was pretty sure that sci fi was for geeks, nerds and other socially awkward types. It just wasn't cool. Then I became hooked on how the mix of technology, deceit and suspense came together to create something that I could. not. put. down. Now science fiction is practically all my students read.  And this trailer is another favorite.



P.S. The other day, while I was working on weeding the library's fiction collection, I came across Peter Dickinson's Eva (1990), which is about a girl who wakes up from a coma and can't remember her past.  She wakes up in the body of a chimpanzee, but I wonder if Pearson has read it and whether it inspired or influenced her.  It hadn't been checked out in many years and was a paperback in poor condition, so it wound up in the discard pile, but I've put it on my "to read someday" list. Anybody read it?

The LibrariYAn is an Amazon Associate. If you click from links on this blog to Amazon and buy something (anything!), I receive a small percentage of the purchase price.

A Few of My Favorite Things (Version 2010, Part One: Science Fiction)

As 2010 comes to a close I can't help but look back on the books I've read this year and think about which ones were my favorite.  With just 10 days left, my GoodReads account tells me I've read 74 books this year.  My goal was 100.  There's still time, but I don't think I'll make it through 26 books, even though I'm in the middle of at least 10.  Alas.  But I did read 74 books, and some were quite good!  Here is the first installment of my favorites.  I'll begin with my favorite science fiction read this year.

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins - It's the third book in the dystopic science fiction Hunger Games trilogy, and if I have to say anything more than that, you need to get yourself a copy of The Hunger Games and come back to me when you're finished.

Matched by Allie Condie - I can't remember who said it, but back in September(ish) some blog noted the recent rise of dystopian YA, citing Matched as an example.  I hadn't realized dystopias had EVER gone out of style, but perhaps?  Anyhoot, this is definitely a good one.  I was fortunate enough to receive an ARC at BEA last May and was immediately hooked by the story: It's the future (duh), and society has taken statistical analysis to the ultimate level.  All decisions - what you eat, what job you have, who you marry, and even when and how you will die - are made for you, based on data.  Coming from a background working with Teach For America, where ALL of our decisions are based on data, I found the premise enticing.  The story's twist - what happens if you play with the data in controlled experiments that involve real people - plus the romantic element, had me hooked.

Delirium by Lauren Oliver - Okay, so this one doesn't even come out until February of 2011, but this was another book that I read the ARC of over the summer and just absolutely devoured.  Another dystopia (surprise!), but in this society, love (aka delirium nervosa) is seen as a disease, and on one's 18th birthday he or she gets the procedure that prevents the illness.  It's just a few months before the main character's 18th birthday and she can't wait to get surgically altered and then matched up with her future husband.  She meets a guy, starts getting feelings for him, starts questioning her society, a page-turner ensues.

The LibrariYAn is an Amazon Associate. If you click from links on this blog to Amazon and buy something (anything!), I receive a small percentage of the purchase price.