Emmy Laybourne is a novelist, screenwriter and former character actress. She is the author of MONUMENT 14, SKY ON FIRE and SAVAGE DRIFT (out May 6th). Both her first two books were YALSA Teens Top Ten Nominees.
Here are her picks for 5 YA titles to watch for.
The Winner’s Crime
By Marie Rutkoski
There are few books that I feel compelled to read again. Marie Rutkoski’s THE WINNER’S CURSE is one of them. Sensitively conceived and elegantly written, this fantasy series portrays a word where the impacts of slavery are deeply felt by servant and master alike. I eagerly await the sequel, THE WINNER’S CRIME, which Marie promises me is full of espionage and forbidden love.
Ages 12-18 | Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux | Mar. 3, 2015
Have you read HOLD ME CLOSER, NECROMANCER? It’s one of my absolute favorite YA reads. Funny and wry, it tells the story of a Seattle slacker who discovers he’s a necromancer when he pulls one too many pranks at the donut store where he works. FIREBUG is a companion novel to Lish’s first two books. I have no doubt it will be written with a similar hardscrabble, wise-ass POV and will be equally delightful.
Ages 14-18 | Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. | Sept. 23, 2014 | ISBN-13: 978-0805098624
Kalahari
By Jessica Khoury
Jessica writes dynamic, high-velocity novels that bring science and teen girls together. Isn’t that cool? I think it is. In ORIGIN, she wrote about a young woman bred in a secret lab in the Amazon jungle who is destined for immortality and not too psyched about it. Jessica’s upcoming novel KALAHARI takes us to the desert where a zoologist’s daughter discovers a deadly new life form, and stumbles across a high-stakes conspiracy to cover it up.
Ages 14-18 | Publisher: Razorbill | 2015
Paranoia
By J.R. Johansson
I loved reading INSOMNIA last year. The premise is fascinating—a high school boy is tormented by insomnia because every night, instead of sleeping, he enters the dreams of the last person he’s made eye contact with. The writing is lean and lanky—Johansson really knows how to write guys. As the author of a series narrated primarily by boys, I appreciate this! PARANOIA is the second book in the series and I can’t wait for it. Luckily, it comes out in June so I won’t have to for too much longer.
Ages 12 and up | Publisher: Flux | June 8, 2014 | ISBN-13: 978-0738740188
The Young Elites
By Marie Lu
I’m not the only one eagerly awaiting THE YOUNG ELITES, the first in a new trilogy by Marie Lu – half of Goodreads is on fire about it! It’s a fantasy series, set in a world where a fever of the blood has left many children with strange markings and super-natural powers. Most view them as abominations, but they come together in a secret organization called, you guess it, The Young Elites. Marie has described it as, “X-Men meets Assassin’s Creed 2 meets Game of Thrones.” I can’t wait to meet it, myself.
Ages 12 and up | Publisher: Putnam Juvenile | Oct. 7, 2014 | ISBN-13: 978-0399167836
In Monument 14: Savage Drift, the stunningly fierce conclusion to the Monument 14 trilogy, author Emmy Laybourne ups the stakes even higher for a group of kids who have continually survived the unthinkable. Can they do so one last time?
It’s over. Dean, Alex, and the other survivors of the Monument 14 have escaped the disaster zone and made it to the safety of a Canadian refugee camp. Some of the kids have been reunited with their families, and everyone is making tentative plans for the future. And then, Niko learns that his lost love, Josie, has survived!
Or is it? For Josie, separated from the group and presumed dead, life has gone from bad to worse. Trapped in a terrible prison camp with other exposed O’s and traumatized by her experiences, she has given up all hope of rescue. Meanwhile, scared by the government’s unusual interest in her pregnancy, Astrid–along with her two protectors, Dean and Jake–joins Niko on his desperate quest to be reunited with Josie.
Ages 12 and up | Publisher: Feiwel & Friends | May 6, 2014 | ISBN-13: 978-1250036421
Add this book to your collection: SAVAGE DRIFT, by Emmy Laybourne
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Bianca Schulze is the founder of The Children’s Book Review. She is a reader, reviewer, mother and children’s book lover. She also has a decade’s worth of experience working with children in the great outdoors. Combined with her love of books and experience as a children’s specialist bookseller, the goal is to share her passion for children’s literature to grow readers. Born and raised in Sydney, Australia, she now lives with her husband and three children near Boulder, Colorado.
Firebug
Paranoia
The Young Elites
In Monument 14: Savage Drift, the stunningly fierce conclusion to the Monument 14 trilogy, author Emmy Laybourne ups the stakes even higher for a group of kids who have continually survived the unthinkable. Can they do so one last time?