Iāve been writing middle-grade action/adventure novels since 2007. My first four books were fairly terrible, but I continued to write and learn the craft until I saw success in 2014 with my Minecraft-inspired novels. Throughout my entire writing career, I have read other middle-grade novels, many of them I loved and some of them I hated. I probably read 10 novels a year since I started writing (my bookcase in the basement is getting kinda full), and Iāve come to realize that there are some books that stand out far above the rest. Iām still writing, and of course, still reading, but I continue to read this genre that I love so much.
I found Edgeland after hearing an interview with the authors. Their book sounded so incredibly creative that I had to pick up a copy. The story is about an orphan, Wren, banished from the House of Aron and left to live on the streets. Wren struggles to find safety and security while her friend, Alec, both age 12, has risen from apprentice to a high-ranking position within House Aron. The comparison of their lives are in stark contrast from Alec living with safety and security, to Wren seeking to find her place with the banished and forgotten. But the really interesting thing about Edgeland is the Drain.
It is a large, circular waterfall where the dead are sent in hopes of an afterlife. The story starts to accelerate at a fever pitch when Wren and Alec end up going over the edge of the Drain. They will uncover secrets aboutā¦
The companion novel to the New York Times bestselling NIGHTFALL
Thousands of miles due south from the Polar North is is the island of Edgeland. Here, day and night last for 72 hours. And here is one of the natural wonders of this world: a whirlpool thirty miles wide and a hundred miles around. This is the Drain. Anything sucked into its frothing, turbulent waters is never seen again.
Wren has spent most of her life on Edgeland, watching people bring their dead to the island's famous bone houses to be blessed and prepared for the afterlife. There the deadā¦
I've always loved stories. After years of observing the importance of stories, and their role in creating our reality, the determination to write my own clicked into place. Storytelling is very much at the heart of my first novel, Strange Gods. Strange Gods features a multiverse of powerful gods, but humans still stand out for their ability to tell self-defining stories. From the inciting incident where Carcass kidnaps Spooky to be his storyteller, to the decisions she makes along her journey, the stories Spooky tells others and herself determine her outcomes. I hope the books on this list inspire you to reflect on the power of any stories you tell, as they've inspired me.
I read The Hazel Wood while writing my own book, and the vibe immediately struck me as similar. It takes the protagonist, Alice, on a journey between our world and a world of dark, original fairytales, where stories are the very fabric of the universe. The more entangled the story becomes in the fairytale world, the more the book itself reads like one...it feels like a dream, with events unfolding unpredictably as we learn the rules of the new world and what the characters from it want.
One of The Observer's Best Children's Books of 2018!
Fans of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children and The Children of Blood and Bone have been getting lost in The Hazel Wood...
"The Hazel Wood kept me up all night. I had every light burning and the covers pulled tight around me as I fell completely into the dark and beautiful world within its pages. Terrifying, magical, and surprisingly funny, it's one of the very best books I've read in years". -Jennifer Niven, author of All The Bright Places
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Seventeen-year-old Alice and her mother have spent most ofā¦
Iāve been fascinated with the paranormal since I was a little girl and used to talk to the old lady on the edge of my bed. That old lady turned out to be my grandma, who had passed when I was in my motherās womb. My entire family is touched by the curiosity and love that comes with the paranormal, so much so my mother is a working psychic medium. For years, I have spent every birthday attending haunted houses with a paranormal team to āinvestigate.ā For some strange reason, I love to be terrified, and I fear I will never stop chasing the thrill.
Natasha Preston got me into reading and I am no stranger to her books or her crazy endings. As much as I have a love-hate relationship with the ending of this bookā¦.it has been a year since I picked this book up, and I still think about it to this day. Constantly.
It gives slasher/scream movie vibes set during Halloween and I could not for the life of me put it down when I read it.
I will, in fact, be doing a re-read this spooky season because it truly sets the tone for Halloween.
#1 New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author Natasha Preston is back with another pulse-pounding, twisty read!
Haunted by the past . . . terrified of the present.
Penny knows she must forget about her ex, Nash. Ever since his father was revealed as the brutal serial killer who traumatized their small town last Halloween, Pennyās parents have forbidden her to have anything to do with Nash or his family. Itās hard not to think of himābut sheās trying.
That stops when she goes shopping with friends for a costume. What she finds instead is ripped from a horrorā¦
No matter the genre, I have always loved surprises in a story. I want characters to do the unexpected and plots to take me to, āOh, I didnāt see that one coming.ā Because thatās how life is, how my own life has been. Due to connections we didnāt understand and secrets people around us have kept (or we didnāt bother to uncover) the unexpected always jumps out in front of us. I also like characters who are either discovering or re-focusing their power in ways that are beneficial to themselves and others. Again, this has been my lifeās story and I want my characters to search for that same balance.
This is a classic āI Canāt Put It Downā book.
Ashley is lost in the woods, an emotional and physical wreck, and sheās got to figure a way out. The two things she has going for her are serious survival skills and a fierce determination to never give up. Some of her challenges border on the unbelievable, but then, so do so many real-life stories weāve all read about.
The reader gets to know and understand Ashley, with all her flaws exposed, as the worsening events force her to dig deep into who she is and what sheās capable of.The author might push the limit of what qualifies as YA, and as an adult I loved it, but when I was fifteen, I would have loved it even more.
Hatchet meets Wild in this harrowing YA survival story about a teenage girlās attempt to endure the impossible, from the Edgar Award-winning author of The Female of the Species, Mindy McGinnis.
The world is not tame. Ashley knows this truth deep in her bones, more at home with trees overhead than a roof.
So when she goes hiking in the Smokies with her friends for a night of partying, the falling dark and creaking trees are second nature to her. But people are not tame either. And when Ashley catches her boyfriend with another girl, drunken rage sends her runningā¦
I read and write lots and love doing so. So when I need a break, the last thing I want is another book, right? Wrong! I take a break with books, and I love fun books that are an escape from the normal day-to-day, ones that wonāt lull you to sleep, ones that end too quickly. Itās a sickness, I know, and Iāll deal with it as soon as I have worked through this pile of books on my desk.
Iām a huge Michael Crichton fan, you know, the guy who wrote Jurassic Park. He actually wrote lots of other books, every one a masterpiece, but this may be my favorite (and itās hard to pick a favorite Chrichton, I am second guessing myself as I wrote this!).
In this book, one of his longest, Crichton tackles climate change, and no, donāt roll your eyes, this is a face paced thriller that will have you struggling to discern science from fiction.
The Number One international bestselling author of Jurassic Park, Congo and Sphere takes on global warming in this gripping and critically acclaimed thriller.
In Paris, a physicist dies after performing a laboratory experiment for a beautiful visitor.
In the jungles of Malaysia, a mysterious buyer purchases deadly cavitation technology, built to his specifications.
In Vancouver, a small research submarine is leased for use in the waters of New Guinea.
And in Tokyo, an intelligence agent tries to understand what it all means.
I grew up in a small town full of ghosts. They broke plates in a doctorās office-turned-restaurant, feuded in a house built by twins, emerged from cornfields to stand in our headlights, and turned headstones blue in a cemetery where tombstones protruded from the ground like jagged teeth. The stories that surrounded me while I was a teen still bleed into my writing. And as reader, I gravitate toward books that are atmospheric, rich in moments of magic or the unreal, and riddled with stories of the past and long-forgotten.
As one of four sisters, I appreciate a good sister story because thereās always something going on under the surface. House of Hollow is no different. Thereās the complicated dynamic of the three sistersāthe model and fashion designer, the grunge musician, and the loner high school studentārevealed when the eldest goes missing and the two younger sisters search for her. And then thereās the twist of something otherworldlyāthe fact that the girls disappeared for a month as children, reappearing with black eyes, white hair, mysterious scars, and the ability to entrance others with their scent and touch. I couldnāt stop turning the pages.
'A gorgeous, grisly modern fairy tale.' - THE GUARDIAN
'Dark and delicious. House of Hollow hums with malice and mystery. I devoured it whole.' - KIRAN MILLWOOD HARGRAVE
** SHORTLISTED FOR THE YA BOOK PRIZE 2022 **
The Hollow sisters - Vivi, Grey and Iris - are as seductively glamorous as they are mysterious. They have black eyes and hair as white as milk. The Hollow sisters don't have friends - they don't need them. They move through the corridors like sharks, the other little fish parting around them, whispering behind their backs.
As a fantasy author, I love stories set within complex and unusual worlds. I especially enjoy worlds where the rules of physics and metaphysics are re-imagined, adding an extra dimension to the story. Most fantasy worlds are much like our own ā big, spherical, ordinary climactic zones, normal physics. Magic sort of exists around the edges. A handful of fantasy worlds are different: the world is flat, layered, hollow, has physical and metaphysical laws that change when you step across a political border ā or is wholly contained within an infinite House with oceans pouring through the lower levels. Those are worlds I find especially delightful to visit ā and to write about!
The world in Chalice isnāt flat. Or spherical. Or any particular shape. This is a world of little bubble domains embedded in surrounding chaos and the story is all about protecting one of those domains. This book is like a dream. Itās slow and graceful and, well, dreamy. I like the bees. And the honey. Iām not especially fond of honey in the real world, but I love the honey in this story. Some stories are instant ācomfort reads". Chalice is one of those. Itās like wrapping up in a fuzzy robe in front of a fire with a mug of hot chocolate. If youāre in the mood for a warm story, beautifully told, you could hardly do better.
The earthlines speak to Mirasol, but her family has lived in the demesne for centuries, and many of the old families can hear the land. She knows that the violent deaths of the last Master and Chalice have thrown Willowlands into turmoil; but she is only a beekeeper, and the problems of the Circle that govern Willowlands have nothing to do with herāalthough she wonders what will become of her demesne, because the Master and Chalice left no heirs to carry on their crucial duties.
And then the Circle come to Mirasol, to tell her that she has been chosenā¦
I'm also a sucker for a decent mystery, and Stateless is a historical and a mystery.
It's 1937, and European leaders are sponsoring a race for up-and-coming pilots to promote peace across the continent. As the only girl among them, immigrant Stella plans to keep a low profileļæ½ļæ½until she witnesses one pilot shoot down another. But all the planes look similar, and she was too far away to make a positive ID.
If she wants to survive, she must complete the multi-leg race without letting on that she witnessed the murder, even though one of her fellow pilots is determined to unmask the killer. My favorite of Elizabeth Wein's books since Code Name Verity!
A group of young pilots face intrigue and sabotage in a race around Europe in this thrilling murder mystery, from the bestselling author of Code Name Verity. Ideal for readers aged 12+
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It is 1937 and tensions are high. A spectacular air race around Europe seeks to promote unity among a group of young pilots, but distrust and animosity are rife. The British and sole female contestant, Stella North, is determined to prove not only her skill, but also her identity as her Nansen passport declares her 'stateless'.
However, barely a few hours in, Stella is witness to aā¦
As we watch the newsāthe increasing number of earthquakes, volcanoes, wars, inflation, the rapid progress of AI, unelected elites deciding they know best for the world, and moreāwe donāt know how to process it all, and it leaves us feeling anxious. My passion for helping my readers not just escape but actually live better fuels me. I created this retelling of the Book of Revelations from the POV of celestial warriors and fallen angels in the unseen realms of our world to allow my readers to āmake more senseā of the world and be at peace.
Talk about crazy experiments! Maze Runner is an epic quest combined with a nod to those who love solving puzzles on steroids. This is truly an end-of-the-world scenario, or I surely hope it is. While I can see some mad scientists excited about such an experiment today, it is still frowned upon. Thank goodness. But Maze Runner explores āscienceā gone rogue.
Indifference again plays a central role in the plot as those outside the experiment use a variety of psychological warfare techniques to keep the participants engaged in the game. The reader feels sorry for them having to overcome everything thatās thrown at them or die. I loved how the group of teens had to work together to figure out what was going on and then face the difficulty of extracting themselves from the maze. Ultimately, I loved that friendship and working together triumphed at the end of the day.
The first book in the New York Times bestselling Maze Runner series - now a series of major movies starring Dylan O'Brien!
SEE THE FILMS. READ THE BOOKS. ENTER THE MAZE ...
When the doors of the lift crank open, the only thing Thomas remembers is his first name. But he's not alone.
He's surrounded by boys who welcome him to the Glade - a walled encampment at the centre of a bizarre and terrible stone maze. Like Thomas, the Gladers don't know why or how they came to be there - or what's happened to the world outside.
During my childhood years, my wonderful aunt in Canada would regularly send me the latest American comics featuring superheroes and their incredible adventures. Later, I would come across old copies of King Solomonās Mines by H. Rider Haggard, The Time Machine and The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells, and soon I was captured by other writersā worlds of sci-fi and fantasy. My own historical interest in ancient cultures, exploring the Yucatan in Mexico, Sri Lanka, Egypt, Spain, Italy, and Newgrange in Ireland, was added to my other interests. This included aviation, the cosmos, and space exploration. With the possibility of other dimensions and new worlds, the idea for the Timecrack Adventures was born.
Pullmanās trilogy about parallel worlds gripped me after reading the first novel in the series The Northern Lights. As he has said, that like myself, he is not a scientist, but since childhood he has been an avid reader of popular science and the many good books linked to the subject.
When I discovered that his trilogy, like my own and many others, dealt with the mystery of a parallel universe and another world. I was hooked to find out more. He has two young people, a boy and a girl, and a host of other exciting characters throughout his story. Somewhat like my own stories, except there are two boys and a girl, and each book is a separate adventure.
Iām sure readers of the genre will be delighted with His DarkMaterialsand the mysterious new world Pullman describes.
This special collection features all three titles in the award-winning trilogy: Northern Lights, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass.
Northern Lights Lyra Belacqua lives half-wild and carefree among the scholars of Jordan College, with her daemon familiar always by her side. But the arrival of her fearsome uncle, Lord Asriel, draws her to the heart of a terrible struggle - a struggle born of Gobblers and stolen children, witch clans and armoured bears.
The Subtle Knife Lyra finds herself in a shimmering, haunted otherworld - Cittagazze, where soul-eating Spectres stalk the streetsā¦
