We’ve always got our eyes open here at Indigo for what reading trends are coming next. Paranormals like ghosts and vampires and werewolves have all but been vanquished. Contemporary is making a comeback, and Dystopian futures are fading in favour of historical fiction.

We’ve seen plenty of Victorian Era novels: Libba Bray's A Great and Terrible Beauty, Y.S. Lee’s The Agency series, Anna Godbersen's The Luxe series, and Saundra Mitchell's The Vespertine. We’ve also got early twentieth century novels, like Scott Westerfeld’s Leviathan and Elizabeth Wein's Code Name Verity.

However, Kristin Cashore’s much anticipated fantasy Bitterblue (ok, it's technically not history) and Kenneth Oppel’s award-winning This Dark Endeavour herald a new interest in older settings. Here are three other historical YA novels on our radar:

The Royal Circle: Book One: Gilt by Katherine Longshore. Out this week, this debut novel and first book in a new series has been explained as Gossip Girl set during The Tudors.  Cat and Kitty, two friends who serve the Duchess of Norfolk, navigate the tricky court politics of Henry the VII after Cat becomes queen. You thought scandal originated in the Upper East End of NYC? Think again!

Order of Darkness: Book One: Changeling by Philppa Gregory. (May 22) Philippa Gregory is the Lady of Historical Fiction. Her adult novels, like The Other Boleyn Girl and The Lady of The Rivers, have a massive readership. Now, Gregory is trying her hand at YA fiction. What makes Changeling interesting is how it brushes against paranormal. Set during a time when people honestly believed in things like changelings or werewolves, the book features a cast of older teen characters who have been commanded by the church to “collect fears” for the church.

His Fair Assassin: Book One: Grave Mercy by R.A. LaFevers.  This historical novel set in France is rich with intrigue and romance. Ismae escapes an arranged marriage to the convent of St. Mortain, where the sisters still worship the gods of old. She becomes a handmaiden of Death, taking the lives of others in order to claim her new life. Her first mission takes her to the court of Brittany, where she must weigh her heart against her sworn duty.

Does this mark the start of a return to the past for teen books? If they’re all as good as these ones then we hope so!

After the cliffhanger of City of Fallen Angels, we’ve all been waiting for Cassandra Clare’s City of Lost Souls so we could find out what awaits Jace, Clary, Simon and…Sebastian? That’s right, my favourite homicidal rogue Shadowhunter, Sebastian Verlac AKA the real Jonathan Morgenstern, is back in City of Lost Souls and eager to settle the score.

Chills, am I right?

But you’re here for the first word in our #IndigoCOLS Scavenger Hunt. Five words have been scattered across the net that form a secret phrase. You'll find clues tweeted from @chaptersindigo throughout this afternoon (May 8, 2012) with the final clue coming at 5:00 pm ET. Then you have until 6:00 pm ET to tweet the complete secret phrase to @chaptersindigo with the designated hashtag #IndigoCOLS. Miss a clue? Check the hashtag! Want to see all the rules and regulations? Here they are.

Six people are going to win a prize pack including a City of Lost Souls t-shirt, a Shadowhunter family ring (various kinds - sorry,you don't get to choose which one), and the Indigo Exclusive Edition of City of Lost Souls by Cassandra Clare!

Are you ready for the first word?

It’s SEBASTIAN.

Your next clue will be on @chaptersindigo at 2:00 pm ET, so look for it then.

Good luck!

We are thrilled to have the following guest post from the award-winning author of Scars, Cheryl Rainfield. I first encountered Rainfield online during the #YASaves campaign last year, supporting YA authors who dared to write about real teen issues. We were so moved by what was happening that both Chandra and I blogged about this. Chandra even cited Rainfield as one of the greatest supporters of the initiative, who not only rallied readers and authors to come together, but also provided a hub of URLs for people to stay informed.

I am continually impressed with the passion and commitment Rainfield has not only to the YA community, but to her readers. Her new novel, Hunted, is a compelling and stirring piece of dystopian fiction, that is sure to be a favourite among fans of The Hunger Games (which Rainfield not only cites as one of her favourites as the books, but has a cameo role), Divergent, and The Maze Runner.  I know that this would have been one of those novels that I would have loved as a teenager because Rainfield has that special ability to authentically write from an emotionally raw and vulnerable place that very few writers can (and are willing) to go.  Here she writes about her inspirations for Hunted, why she wrote a dystopian teen fiction novel, and what she thinks is worth fighting for.

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YA dystopian novels can be incredibly appealing, gripping reads that not only entertain us and help us escape, but also help us reflect on our world and on what is not right. Many dystopians have strong-girl characters who fight against great societal oppression and some twisted worldview—like Katniss in The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins—who we can look up, root for, and love. The characters are usually strong moral heroes who see what’s wrong in their world and fight back against it, trying to right it—like Oscar in Candor by Pam Bachorz, and Tally in The Uglies by Scott Westerfeld. There are often high stakes involved—life and death stakes—and the heroes usually succeed, at least on some level. And all this happens in societies that seem different to ours, and yet they actually mirror back to us problems that exist in our society. Mix in a little romance, which usually exists in YA, add in high tension and characters we care about, and you have a gripping read.

The Hunger Games was one of the first YA dystopians I read, and it quickly became one of my favourite books—so much so that I mention it in my own dystopian, Hunted. Like Katniss, Caitlyn is a strong-girl character who fights back against incredible oppression and wins, at least for now.

In Hunted, Caitlyn is a telepath—a Para—in a world where having any paranormal power at all is illegal. Hunted is a dystopian or paranormal fantasy, but to me it’s pretty real. I based Hunted on my own life and trauma experience. I’m a ritual abuse survivor—my parents were part of cults—and they regularly abused me, tortured me, and threatened my life. For me, Hunted is an analogy of cults. I also see it as an analogy to other oppression that exists in our society—homophobia, racism, sexism. Take “Para” and replace it with an oppressed group in our society and I think you’ll find a lot of similarities. But I wrote it to be an adrenaline-rush read, because that’s the kind of book I enjoy reading, and I wanted to make sure I reached readers, entertained them.

Hunted was so satisfying for me to write; I’ve wanted to write a paranormal fantasy since I was a teen reading and re-reading Lois Duncan and Cora Taylor’s books so often that they became tattered. And I also wanted to help people see that cults do exist in our society, as well as other oppression, and Hunted became my way of having a voice. But sometimes it was hard to write—especially the scenes with electroshock used as torture, since I had that happen to me. But I loved writing about such a strong-girl character. I put so much of myself into Caitlyn—her desire to help and protect others, her standing up to oppression, even when it meant more danger for her, her needing to have a voice, as well as her vulnerability, and her getting overwhelmed by others’ strong emotions.

I love the fight to right a drastically skewed society, to try to make things better, to fight against oppression that exists in many YA dystopians. I love the hope and the courage. I think reading YA dystopians can inspire us to try to right what’s wrong in our own society, and help those who are oppressed, even while providing the escape of a good book. Dystopians can be powerful and ultimately uplifting reads. So if you haven’t tried one yet, I hope you will. And if you have, keep on reading! And let me know your favourites.

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A very special thanks to Cheryl Rainfield and Fitzhenry & Whiteside for their help with this blog post.

As we celebrate the release of one of our most highly anticipated reads of 2012, Veronica Roth’s Insurgent, we are excited to share some of our other favourite dystopian teen fiction books with you.  Below is an exclusive Q&A with bestselling author of Delirium and Pandemonium, Lauren Oliver.  Chandra and I have already blogged on this series, describing what we loved when it first released.

Once again, we give you, Lauren Oliver:

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Indigo Teen Blog: Pandemonium is structured a little differently than the first book in the series, Delirium. You really give a new definition to the word “flashback.”  What were some of the challenges you faced writing this second novel?

Lauren Oliver (LO): Sequels are difficult because they must be both familiar and unexpected. You must give the reader just enough of what they loved in the first book, but you must also subvert their expectations. So that was very difficult, but a challenge I really embraced.

ITB: You write both Middle Grade and Young Adult novels. Many writers have problems switching between these two genres. What advice do you have for them?

LO: The story, the narrative, is king. It’s important not to worry too much about genre; follow the narrative thread, listen to your characters, and I think you can’t go wrong. And, of course, it’s crucial to read widely—I still read as much middle-grade as I do anything else.

ITB: Before I Fall, Delirium and Pandemonium, all deal with first love, loss, and grieving so well.  I’m curious from where do you draw this from?

LO: I suffered a great loss in my mid-twenties, and went through a long period of grieving. I think I incorporate a lot of my own experience into my books.

ITB: On your FAQ, you mention that Pride and Prejudice as one of your favourite novels.  We’ve had this book boyfriend debate happening on our blog and in store. Darcy was actually picked by our customers as their number one book boyfriend.  I was wondering what aspects of Darcy do you think are in Alex and Julian? Or, have you drawn them from other influences and inspirations?

LO: I do love me some Mr. Darcy! But I think that for Julian and Alex I’ve pulled more from my own projections of an ideal man, and from my own boyfriends, than I have from other literary characters. In general, I tend to idealize men who are sensible and strong and mature, people who are kind and good and who know how to listen.

ITB: What do you think it is about Dystopian fiction that has attracted so many readers?

LO: In dystopian fiction, young people confront a landscape that has been scarred and/or permanently damaged by previous generations, and I think that many young people now can relate to and empathize with that plight. The world is underscored, now, with a constant rhythm of fear—the economy is in tatters, the environment is in tatters—and I think many young people feel they’ve inherited a broken world. So dystopian literature feels real and pertinent.

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We would like to thank Lauren Oliver and Harper Collins Canada for their help with this Q&A.