1) Anne of Green Gables by L M Montgomery. I've never read this before, and I got the whole series either cheap or free on Kindle, so I thought I'd give it a go. I really enjoyed it; I thought its timespan was a bit strange though, but I did like it.
2) The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater. Oh god, I loved this. It is the next big thing in YA literature and it definitely deserves it. Blue - the daughter of a psychic - meets four boys who are pupils at a private school in her town, and gets entangled in their search for an ancient ley line. It's a really amazing mix of realism and fantasy, and I fell HARD for Blue and each of the boys. I have the sequel ready to read soon.
3) Hurting Distance by Sophie Hannah. This was my book club book, so although I've heard of the author I probably wouldn't have chosen to read anything by her before now. But I raced through it. One of Lee's brothers was visiting and I sat reading this while watching films with them. It is a bit unrealistic in parts, full of ridiculous coincidences and stuff, but I did like the pace and the story.
4) Where the Streets Had a Name by Randa Abdel-Fattah. I picked this up in a local library when I went to pick up my book club book, and thought it looked pretty decent. It's a middle grade YA book (by which I mean it's for younger teenagers/older tweens) about the Palestine/Israel conflict. I thought it told the politics in a sensitive and age-appropriate manner, while not shying away from the horrors of the war - for example, main character Hayaat has facial scars from being involved in a bombing which also killed her best friend. I cried at the end, and I'm NOT a crier.
5) Stephen King - The Body. I have read a few Stephen King novels but not many, but I wanted to read this as research for a project I have in mind, and it definitely helped. I liked it a lot, the narrative is good. I need to watch the film now! (I have seen it before, but not for years)
6) Finding Emma by Steena Holmes. I got this for free on Kindle and read it on holiday. Had I been at home I'd have probably given up on it. It was patchy, there were plot holes, the elder children's ages changed, editing was terrible, metaphors were strained, and the timeline made no sense at all (the whole thing could have taken place over three days or several months). It was awful. Sorry, author, but it was.
7) Boys Don't Cry by Malorie Blackman. As she's a YA author people always tell me to read her stuff, so I picked this up in the library too. I didn't hate it - I thought Dante was a likeable character and his brother Adam was really good - but I didn't love it, either. I think that to say Dante was 17 the maturity of the writing was for a teenager much younger. It was good enough, but I probably won't read anything else by her.
Wow, it was a YA kind of month!
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