Summer isn’t over yet and AudioFile Magazine is here to share some must-listen unique young adult audiobooks for those last days of summer.
…
A Curse So Dark and Lonely By Brigid Kremmerer
496 pages | Bloomsbury YA | Fantasy | Release Date: 01/29/2019
The big marketing push for this book in the blogosphere totally put this book on my radar. Brigid Kremmer is a veteran YA author and the premise of this book sounded pretty intriguing; Harper, a modern teen girl, teams up with Rhen a prince from another world, to end a curse. While the ending is quite the cliffhanger I generally found that this book wasn’t for me
I want to preface this all by saying I’m sort of fascinated by YA Fantasy and the tropes it often inhabits. Tropes that I think are so prevalent that the YA Fantasy novel Damsel purposefully turns them on their head. Some things I keep an eye out for are :
No Boys …. Unless They’re Cute
YA Fantasy has no shortage of brooding cute boys. Usually royalty. If there isn’t one just wait until book 2
Capitan of The Guard
In a YA fantasy world, you can usually count on a high ranking bodyguard or royal protector. 9 times out of 10 this character is secretly in love with their charge. I feel like this character’s existence is an easy way to create an emotional bond between the main (usually royal) protagonist and the secondary character. Kremmer turns this concept on its head during the last few chapters which was pretty interesting.
Rebel
There is always a rebellion. A lot of YA fantasy has a fight-against-the-machine-tear-it-down mentality. This is one of my favorites tropes in YA fantasy because whether or not I will read the second book in a series depends on how much the rebellion has changed the status quo.
…
Interview With Award Winning Audiobook Narrator Bahni Turpin
For more than a decade actress Bahni Turpin has dazzled audiobook listeners with her vibrant performances. This year, Turpin received a lifetime achievement honor and has become one of AudioFile Magazine’s Golden Voices. I had an opportunity to interview Turpin about her life as an award-winning narrator, actress and community organizer.
…
Book Review : The Care and Feeding of Ravenous Girls by Annisa Gray
304 pages | Berkeley | Adult Fiction | Release Date: 02/19/2019
I like a book with a really long title. Just throwing that out there.
The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls is this blend of African-American, Women’s and Literary fiction that I’m starting to find myself drawn to more.
This is a very human story of the Butler siblings who are brought together after their seemingly perfect elder sister, Althea, and her husband Proctor are convicted of a crime that shakes up their small lakeside town.
…
Spin By Lamar Giles
Rating: unrated | 10 hours 50 minutes | Scholastic | YA Thriller | Release Date: 01/30/2019
Last weekend Virginia Beach hosted something In The Water Festival and they honestly should have just started throwing these books out at the audience. Spin is a love story to the underground music scene and the tradition of Tidewater musicians.
DJ ParSec started from the bottom with nothing but her best friend Kya’s tech skills, mismatch DJ equipment and a passion for music. After blowing up online and gathering a rabid fanbase DJ ParSec was on her way up— until she is found dead– now it is up to Kya and ParSec’s estranged social media manager, Fuse, to find justice.
Giles knows how to write a solid thriller, he keeps the stakes high and has his characters face danger at nearly every turn, especially from DJ ParSec’s most devoted fans whose intense network is keeping tabs on Kya and Fuse. Along the way Kya and Fuse, who have never seen eye to eye, begin to bond through their shared grief. It was great reading a story about complicated female friendship.
Giles does not hold back when it comes to violence and peril his characters face, but I’ve always found it interesting that the language remains fairly tame.
Spin really taps into the world of social media fandom with a dash of action, and suspense that will keep you guessing until the end.
Check out the audio review on Audiofile
Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo
358 pages | Henry Holt and Co, | Fantasy | Release Date: 06/05/2012
Wow, reading this book was a blast from the past. Shadow and Bone was first published in 2012, which was our first full year of blogging. The then-unknown Bardugo was part of a group of debut YA/MG authors called the Apocalypsies that included several other YA fantasy powerhouses like Zoraida Córdova, Sara J. Maas, Brigid Kremmer and Marissa Meyer.
On to the book!
Shadow and Bone takse place in the Russian-inspired land of Ravka that has been divided by a dark shadowy wasteland known as The Fold. Wars have broken out at the borders leaving devastation in its wake.
Childhood friends Mal and Alina are soldiers in Ravka’s First Army, which is nothing compared to Ravaka’ Second Army—made up of Grisha, individuals who have mastered the small science (magic) and can wield elements in mind-bending ways. When Alina discovers she maybe one of the most powerful Grisha of all time, she is thrown into the opulent Grisha world and at the arms of the Grisha’s charming leader The Darkling.
…