It’s hard to say whether Ally Carter or Toronto gives the warmer welcome as she takes the stage at Indigo Yorkdale. "Hello, Canada! I feel like a rockstar," Carter says to a cheering crowd, who have gathered to meet the author of two best-selling Teen series: The Gallagher Girls and the Heist Society novels.
Part thriller and part mystery—with a dash of romance—Ally Carter's novels are all adventure. They're the kind of books you pick up and don't put back down; the kind that make you feel like our world is as mysterious and exciting as any found in a fantasy or science fiction title. Carter builds books around the troupe of teenagers taking on more than they can handle, and as a result her plots are driven by smart young women who get themselves in and out of trouble. "I write about teenagers. Those are my people," Carter says. "No one is more underestimated than a teenage girl."
The Heist Society series follows the daring adventures of Katarina "Kat" Bishop, whose family business is long cons and expert fakes. Think Ocean's 11 with teens, and you're headed in the right direction. Full of twists, double-crosses, and mysteries, the Heist Society…
Team Teen is made up of some serious lady bloggers. Not only do we blog ourselves here, but we are all addicted to other blogs and Tumblrs that we follow on our own. On a random Tuesday a few weeks ago, I came across a Top Ten Tuesday post (a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish) that asked which 10 authors you would you read anything by. I immediately got Team Teen talking about authors we are obsessed with. What a fabulous tie-in with our Get Obsessed posts this month! So each Team Teen lady has put together something for their author obsession. Enjoy!
Melanie: Libba Bray
All things that Libba Bray writes are made of awesome as they challenge our notions about the big questions related to god, life, sexuality, and love. She enthusiastically supports her peers, adores her fans, and (I know this from personal experience) is super fun to hang out with.
Kate: Kristin Cashore
Kristin Cashore is my Teen author obsession because her books are smart, fast, meaty, semi-profound, and fun. I want to befriend at least one kick-butt character in each book and not only do I remember characters and plots YEARS after reading,…
YA literature has a long history of thought provoking coming-of-age novels that are a reflection of the deeper philosophical, spiritual, and political questions that teens ask themselves.I believe that the power of teen fiction is rooted in the author’s ability to connect with the idea of the first time--first love, first kiss, the first time we are confronted with something that completely shifts our world view.
This week Team Teen honours the contemporary fiction books that we are obsessed about, books that ask real questions in a real world experience. Here are some of my personal favourites.
John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars. As I said in my review, this is definitely the kind of novel I would have loved as a teen, because Green subverts the often melodramatic teens-dying-from-a-terminal-illness genre and with compassion and humour. Hazel and Augustus’s love story contains all of passion of first love, but with an awareness of the importance of being present.
Rainbow Rowell’s Eleanor & Park. This one is quickly becoming a Team Teen obsession and with John Green’s latest endorsement, it won’t be long until this will be yours, too. The perfect love stories are the ones where both characters make…
It’s 2am. You shouldn’t be awake. You have school or work in the morning, and daylight savings has already robbed you of an hour of sleep. But even though you are curled up under the blankets, leaning toward the bedside light, you are really running through the forest, with the killer tight on your heels. You are so sucked into your book that when the old floors in your house squeak, or a neighbour’s feet from the unit above your apartment scatter across the floor, you jump in surprise. There is no escape. Sleep will not come until the killer is stopped – until you reach the safety of the last page and the end of the forest.
Sound familiar? Welcome to the world of Thrillers and Mysteries, my current obsession. Nothing compares to the adrenaline I feel during the last third of a thriller or mystery novel. As I read, hours feel like minutes and my blood pressure rises to a marathon-running rate.
What I love about these books is their ability to merge with many other genres. In Robin LaFevers' historical novel, Grave Mercy, an assassin nun protagonist, Ismae, serves the God of Death in the late 15th…
