Reviews: Best YA of 2017 Caraval

I read a fair amount of Young Adult fiction this year and have a couple gems to recommend.

Caraval by Stephanie Garber

This one is in the Fantasy genre and my favorite of the year. Scarlett lives on a tiny island in a fantasy land with a cruel father and dreams of escape. She longs for an invitation to the once a year extravaganza/contest that is Caraval. She gets her wish, but finds out once she arrives at Caraval that this year’s game revolves around finding and rescuing her beloved sister Tella. Scarlett is warned that everything within Caraval is a performance and part of the magic, but she begins to suspect otherwise.  Magic, mystery, danger and even a little romance unfold. The writing is gorgeous with beautiful imagery and vivid descriptions. I consistently wanted Caraval to be real, and to go there myself. It reminded me a little bit of the adult fantasy novel The Night Circus, which is also a gem. Go visit Caraval – you won’t regret it.

Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake

Another fantasy novel, Three Dark Crowns follows the lives of three young queens. Every generation on the fantasy isle of Fennbirn, female triplets are born. They are raised separately by their kinfolk. One will become a poisoner, one an elemental, and one a naturalist. When they come of age they will fight, to the death, for control of the crown. There is a lot of intrigue, deception, even some politics in this book. The POV shifts not only between the three queens, but to other characters at well. Initially, this felt too overwhelming and the characters didn’t get enough development. However, the story is fascinating and sucked me in…by the end I was pretty engrossed. This is the first book in a series and I look forward to more.

Review: Ready Player One

 

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

Wow. This is a fun book. Creative, original, with a disturbing view of the future where we live our lives through our avatars almost entirely in a virtual reality world. Despite the futuristic vibe, the whole book is a love letter to the 80’s and all the movies, games, video games, and music of that era. I was not familiar with the video games as much, but knew every movie. This book is a quest, with puzzles for our main character to figure out, and life lessons for him along the way. At times the programming or gamer info got pretty detailed and I really didn’t know what the author was talking about, but I just skimmed over those passages and moved along. Highly recommend for anyone who loves video games, but I don’t and I enjoyed it as well. I also recommend if if you were a child in the 80’s, or just a fan of 80’s pop culture, as you will get so many of the references. They are making this into a movie which comes out March of 2018.

Great fun!