[ SECRET POST #3329 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #3329 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 03 pages, 055 secrets from Secret Submission Post #476.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

YA recs!

[coffeeyoukai]

Inspired by secret #4.

Rec me some of your favorite YA books without a love triangle! I'm mainly into fantasy, but feel free to rec stuff of any genre!

My own rec: the Black Magician series by Trudi Canavan. Not actually sure if it falls under YA, but I like the way the romance is treated as a background to the cool action. Also, cute girlfriends in the sequel trilogy.

Re: YA recs!

[(Anonymous)]

The Raven Cycle series by Maggie Stiefvater (which has a love triangle in the vaguest sense of it - it's more like two slightly overlapping crushes) is wonderful and trades on the fact that you'll think it's dumb YA fantasy to get some good twists past you.

Anything Diana Wynne Jones has ever written, but especially the Dalemark Quartet and the Chrestomanci books.

The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak. All the tears.

I think Sarah Dessen's books have been subject to the law of diminishing returns, but This Lullaby is so, so good. It's a very sweet love and growing up story all set in the three months between graduating high school and leaving for college.

Re: YA recs!

[feotakahari]

Another Zusak rec: Fighting Ruben Wolfe.

Re: YA recs!

[loracarol]

Personally, I liked The Dark Lord of Derkholm by Diana Wynne Jones, and would definitely recommend it.

*spoilers for Derkholm but a strong rec nonetheless!*

[(Anonymous)]

I came into this thread to rec this! Well Derkholm and Year of the Griffin! Aaaahhh I love those books so much and the slow pacing (especially in the beginning) just makes you fall in love with ALL the characters that much more. Even Sukey, who I thought I hated, turned out to be sympathizable (and gungho!) in the end.

One thing I would add though is that the books (especially Derkholm, where you have teenagers from a relatively naive/untouched magical world leading convicted criminals from *our* world) have themes that might go over your head. Goodness knows I totally didn't realize how close Shona was to be assaulted when I read them in middle school (though I appreciate how she was more affected by her expellure than the threat of violence) even though it's really obvious now.

And I guess the magical hijinks in Year of the Griffin might upset some people... but I don't think it's any worse than Harry Potter.

...sorry I just wanted to gush orz

Re: *spoilers for Derkholm but a strong rec nonetheless!*

[loracarol]

I fucking love Derkholm. I wish that they'd make a movie of it, but I'm also terrified that they'd fuck it up. And it's sequel! I only didn't mention it because I'm not sure if it's YA or juvenile fiction, but I fucking love it!

Yeah, it completely went over my head the first time, and even now I wonder if she focused on the expulsion to hide how freaked out she was, you know?

Plus, I finally realized that the wizards are playing with game boys at the beginning of the book (I think they were calculators, at least?)

But, holy shit Querida! She's like, fucking Umbridge if Umbridge was genuinely working for the benefit of wizard-kind. I hate her so much.

I need to reread this book.

Ooh, did you ever read her The Tough Guide to Fantasyland? It's a parody, but I think it's supposed to kind of be the book that tourists in DLoD would buy, before taking a trip? It's a blast. :D

Re: YA recs!

[(Anonymous)]

Bartimaeus Trilogy by Jonathan Stroud

Please Don't Tell My Parents I'm a Supervillain (+sequels) by Richard Roberts. Technically, there's a love triangle in the first book, but it's mostly in the background and easily resolved by the end. I definitely also recommend the author's other stand-alone novels.

Re: YA recs!

[cakemage]

Hell, yes on Please Don't Tell My Parents I'm a Supervillain! Those books were awesome.

Re: YA recs!

[feotakahari]

John Marsden usually avoids love triangles. (I think there was one in Tomorrow, When the War Began, but not dying was a lot more important.) Same for Robert Cormier, if you don't mind his endless chasm of cynicism. Let's see . . . I don't think John Bellairs ever did a love triangle, did he? And what I've read of Garth Nix had only one-to-one shipping with no triangles.

Re: YA recs!

[shortysc22]

Magonia by Maria Dahvana Headley - I loved this book and couldn't put it down. It's about a girl who can't breathe only to find out she's not human and ends up in a world where she can finally breathe. There's romance but I didn't find it detracting from the plot at all. I am constantly recommending this book.

I also loved Partials by Dan Wells. It's post-apocalyptic taking place in NY but I really loved the characters.

Re: YA recs!

[dani_phantasma]

I read that last year! It was pretty good.

Truthfully I bought it because of the gorgeous cover but it was a really good story too.

Re: YA recs!

[shortysc22]

The cover was what sold me too, it looked too pretty on the shelf.

It's killing me waiting for the sequel.

Re: YA recs!

[loracarol]

I like Tamora Pierce's books, as well as the Enchanted Forest Chronicles. Tamora's books are sort of borderline, though? Some are for juveniles, some aren't, but I like them.

I also really liked the book Uprooted by Naomi Novik, though it made me feel unsettled.

Re: YA recs!

[(Anonymous)]

It's not a main plot, but the whole thing between Alanna, Jonathan and George is a recurring theme. I think the books are still worth reading though, and if I recall, Pierce does show you what an unreasonable dick Jonathan is about it.

Re: YA recs!

[loracarol]

Ooh, right! This is going to sound silly, but I completely forgot about that. /)=_=);

Still would recommend Kel's books, and the Emelan books, though.

Re: YA recs!

[(Anonymous)]

Uprooted was awesome but yeah, I totally see how it could creep people out. Definitely a horror undercurrent, but then, Baba Yaga.

Re: YA recs!

[(Anonymous)]

Willful Machines by Tim Floreen. It has romance but no love triangle, a gay main character, and lots of artificial intelligence. I'd call the setting pre-dystopia -- not quite dystopia yet, but leading in that direction. It's only one book right now and I haven't heard word of a sequel, but it seems likely there is one planned.

Re: YA recs!: Keys to the Kingdom, Garth Nix

[adustyspectacle]

I loved the Keys to the Kingdom series by Garth Nix. There's no romance at all, because the protagonist is pretty much to occupied with trying to survive, what with a lot of shit trying to kill him (like his asthma, ahaha).

Re: YA recs!: Keys to the Kingdom, Garth Nix

[(Anonymous)]

I'm rereading this series currently! I never thought about the lack of a romance the first time, but this time around it occurred to me that that's pretty cool considering the protagonist's two best friends are girls, a setup that almost always guarantees a love triangle.

Re: YA recs!

[kaijinscendre]

I remember loving the Amelia Atwater-Rhodes books as a teen. And her vampires were quite unique. I don't remember any love triangles going on in them.

Re: YA recs!

[iceyred]

A Court of Thorns and Roses.

It's a retelling of Beauty and the Beast. There are two men who love the MC, but she pretty clearly doesn't want anything to do with the second. A wise choice.

I'm going to second The Raven Cycle recommendation, with a caveat to stay away from the author online. She's an arrogant piece of work and all the pretty prose won't change that. -.-

Thirteen Reasons Why.

You'll cry your face off. Trust me.

Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass.

Features a Hispanic MC who deals with bullying, problems with her mother, and an absent father. Women supporting women! No love triangles! A happy ending! One of my favorites, and the author was lovely when I met her.

The Geography Club.

A book with a LGBT MC. No love triangle, no over the top angst about being gay, nobody dying at the end. And the author is very sweet.

Re: YA recs!

[(Anonymous)]

A Court of Thorns and Roses got a lot of recs from Beauty and the Beast loving friends, but I just couldn't get into it. It's probably one of my least favorite adaptations. Robin McKinley's Beauty and her Rose Daughter worked better for me, as well as Ursula Vernon's Bryony and Roses, which was written almost as a response to Rose Daughter. Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge is more Cupid and Psyche meets Tam Lin, but still sort of BatB-ish.

Re: YA recs!

[(Anonymous)]

Heir Apparent by Vivian Vande Velde --one of my face standalones (a rare bird!), about a girl who's playing a fantasy VR game when there's an equipment malfunction and she HAS to win the game before the system overheats and kills her. The story is fun, the 'restart' mechanic adds a fun element, and I like the main character--a lot of the characters are fun, actually. It plays with tropes in a fun way

Un Lun Dun by China Mieville --so amazing! The wordplay, the weird illustrations, the crazy worldbuilding, the trope inversions--one or my favorite YA novels. Urban-fantasy-ish.

Dragonback by Timothy Zahn --it's Timothy Zahn writing sci-fi YA! All the Zahn-y goodness of tight clever plots and cunningly integrated forshadowing and super cool sci-fi elements--the K'da are SUCH a neat species.

Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer --Disney owns it, HOW is the series not movies yet?? Crazy and colorful, with a 12-year-old criminal genius vs the technopunk fairy world.

So You Want to be a Wizard by Diane Duane --DD is amazing at creating alien cultures and this series is no mistake. The system of magic is very cool, and the whole series has an amazing fantasy/scifi fusion feel. I love the main characters and it has loads of amazing imagery.

A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket --how to explain?? just read. very strange. writing style is very stylized, but i love it. the gothic feel is the bomb.

Redwall series by Brian Jacques --anthropomorphic animals fightin' and friendshippin' and feastin' (I am always SO HUNGRY after he describes the food!!), there's more than 20 books so they start to get repetitive, but you can pick up any one and enjoy a good yarn. Mossflower is first, read that one. Long Patrol has the best battle/war scenes. The Legend of Luke made me actually cry tears like a human?? wizardry.

Re: YA recs!

[tcex28]

Chaos Walking trilogy farts on most cliché criticisms of YA, surely. Honestly just Patrick Ness' stuff in general. Love love love him.

Re: YA recs!

[(Anonymous)]

Nation by Terry Pratchett