readers advisory for all discussion

i heard this is goodDraw the Dark

from Carolrhoda, by Ilsa Bick

Draw the Dark was okay to me. The main character was a bit whiny.

Anna Dressed in Blood and
Sisters Red are probably my favorite YA I have read so far this year.

for me, the last great ones have been Ashfall, On the Jellicoe Road, The Piper's Son,and Divergent, but are you looking for anything specific, so i can get this RA train back on the tracks?

i read francesca first. i would definitely say it enhanced the reading experience, but is not, strictly speaking, necessary. i think piper's son is a much more resonant book, better in every way. characters' backstories are relevant, but not life-or-death to your understanding/enjoyment of the book.

yes, more specifically looking for YA that is "literary" or high quality writing. I am not a big ya reader so will compare in adult, so things like Ian McEwan but not jeffrey archer; like william gaddis but not larry mcmurtry; like benjamin black not cara black; ali smith not ann brashares, like Arthur Ransome but not jk rowling. could be any type of ya (cept novel in verse, not that please) and any genre within that age/reading level. preferably 2010-2012.
thanks. these short listed national book award ones seem like what i am looking for but need at least 4-5 more title suggestions:
Franny Billingsley, Chime
(Dial Books, an imprint of Penguin Group USA, Inc. )

Debby Dahl Edwardson, My Name Is Not Easy
(Marshall Cavendish)

Thanhha Lai, Inside Out and Back Again
(Harper, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers)

Albert Marrin, Flesh and Blood So Cheap: The Triangle Fire and Its Legacy
(Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books)

Gary D. Schmidt, Okay for Now
(Clarion Books, an imprint of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

Young People’s Literature Judges: Marc Aronson (Panel Chair),
Ann Brashares, Matt de la Peña, Nikki Grimes, Will Weaver

Tuck, you should try Nothing, but I like trying to push this book on people asking for literary YA.

Greg wrote: "Tuck, you should try Nothing, but I like trying to push this book on people asking for literary YA."

thanks greg and everybody
"When thirteen-year-old Pierre Anthon leaves school to sit in a plum tree and train for becoming part of nothing, his seventh grade classmates set out on a desperate quest for the meaning of life."

of the ones i suggested, Divergent is by far the least "literary." but, boy, was it fun. i would say that the marchetta ones are the most sophisticated in terms of shape and writing-density.

karen wrote: "of the ones i suggested, Divergent is by far the least "literary." but, boy, was it fun. i would say that the marchetta ones are the most sophisticated in terms of shape and writing-..."
from "jellicoe :)"
My father took one hundred and thirty two minutes to die.

I counted.

It happened on the Jellicoe Road. The prettiest road I’d ever seen, where trees made breezy canopies like a tunnel to Shangri-La. We were going to the ocean, hundreds of kilometres away, because I wanted to see the ocean and my father said that it was about time the four of us made that journey. I remember asking, “What’s the difference between a trip and a journey?” and my father said, “Narnie, my love, when we get there, you’ll understand,” and that was the last thing he ever said.

We heard her almost straight away. In the other car, wedged into ours so deep that you couldn’t tell where one began and the other ended. She told us her name was Tate and then she squeezed through the glass and the steel and climbed over her own dead – just to be with Webb and me; to give us her hand so we could clutch it with all our might. And then a kid called Fitz came riding by on a stolen bike and saved our lives.

Someone asked us later, “Didn’t you wonder why no one came across you sooner?”

Did I wonder?

When you see your parents zipped up in black body bags on the Jellicoe Road like they’re some kind of garbage, don’t you know?

‘Wonder dies.

For good YA books, I'd recommend 'The Immortal Rules' by Julie Kagawa:
To find out why, check out my review on my blog. Direct link:
http://readitnoworelse.blogspot.co.uk...
I don't know if this counts as annoying self-promotion as I'm new to this group, but I thought it would help to facilitate the needs of those looking for good YA books.

no, that is totally valid - we're just trying to prevent authors from coming in here and being all "read my boooook!!" but reviews are surely helpful to people. thank you!

karen wrote: "no, that is totally valid - we're just trying to prevent authors from coming in here and being all "read my boooook!!" but reviews are surely helpful to people. thank you!"

sure, anytime :)

John Green's books are generally smart and literary - I absolutely love The Fault in Our Stars. You might also try Split by Swati Avasthi, The Freedom Maze: a novel by Delia Sherman, Railsea by China Miéville, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, and anything by Margo Lanagan (her novel, Tender Morsels, is wonderful, but she also has great short fiction).

For you Dystopian lovers, apart from TIR, which I mentioned above, trilogy is good. trilogy is best for those of you more inclined to romance, is a mix of the three, I find and that's as far as my Dystopian exploration has gone so far. It's kind of hard core for me. Can't read it too often or I think I'll just get depressed. haha.

If you're looking for something that is literary, you should try out John Green.

His books are easy reads, but they are VERY smart if you look deeper. Like the one I linked. He is constantly using the color blue and water and drowning to paint a picture. I feel like he thinks about every single word before he puts it into the book. Hell, he wrote out an explanation of the two-word last sentence of the book that stretched into a long paragraph! Besides them being smart, they are hilarious and a blast to read. I read this one in one night!

Greg wrote: "Tuck, you should try Nothing, but I like trying to push this book on people asking for literary YA."

Nothing is good, but towards the end, I felt like the author was just thinking, hmm, how could I make this more screwed-up?! It just began to annoy me.

thanks, all the john green looks good. and janne teller's "nothing" was really good, now I"M recommending to one and all. i just get frustrated with YA because it's too easy to read. the older stuff like Arthur Ransome's "swallows and amazon" or hobbit seems "better" to me because the reading level seems higher. i can't turn the pages fast enough for stuff like umm wondergames, no, hunger games (or i can;t throw it out of my hand fast enough, whichever) Missee Lee: The Swallows and Amazons in the China Seas