Want to read some books good enough that they should be on the silver screen? Check out this book list...
1) "City of Ashes" by Cassandra Clare
In
City of Bones (2007), normal teenager Clary discovered she was a Shadowhunter, long-lost daughter of murdering megalomaniac Valentine—and therefore the sister of her new boyfriend Jace. Now she’s caught up in the dangerous politics of the Downworld, where Jace is suspected of treason, non-human kids are being ritually murdered and best friend Simon is transforming into a werewolf. Clary must protect Simon, save Jace from a vindictive Downworlder Inquisitor, prevent Valentine from building an unstoppable demon army and fight her undiminished passion for Jace. The prose is exceedingly purple: Eyes are always paint chips, black pits or jewels in a spider’s web; ichor-leaking demons have voices like shattering glass; fairies have hair like autumn leaves or poison green skin. But this action-packed tale uses melodrama and florid descriptions to good effect, crafting emotional tension and heart-wrenching romantic dramas. Readers of urban fantasy will devour this deliciously overwrought adventure. Despite hints that Jace’s parentage is in question, the incestuous overtones might be too disturbing for some. (Fantasy. YA)
Book Two of Six
2) "Evermore" by Alyson Noel
Shallow stock characters barely mar the breathless allure of this formulaic supernatural romance, the first in the Immortals series, though feeble explanations wreck the ending. Ever (her very name a clue to immortality) lives the life of the wealthy in Orange County. Sister Riley visits daily in ghost form, having died with their parents in an accident that Ever perplexingly survived. Deluged by everyone’s thoughts and auras, Ever wears hoodies and iPod earbuds as shelter from psychic clamor, until mysterious hottie Damen silences it. This genre’s core ingredients are all present: a new school, paranormal events the heroine doesn’t understand and a deadly enemy fought by an irresistible, possibly-dangerous boy. Ever’s vernacular voice (description via negation: “it’s not like I haven’t had my hand touched before”) and amorous fixation will gratify romance fans. However, Noël’s metaphysics makes no sense. Manifestations are “simple quantum physics,” Ever is murdered lifetime after lifetime but escapes this time due to the serial murderer’s “lack of love” and the narrative never explains the prime ontological poser of how Ever reincarnates with a new body and consciousness yet remains herself. (aura color chart) (Fantasy. YA)
3) "The Summoning" by Kelley Armstrong
After seeing a ghost in her school, Chloe Saunders arrives at the Lyle House, a home for troubled teens, but specters keep surfacing, causing her to question both her sanity and supposedly safe surroundings. Readers of Armstrong’s Women of the Otherworld series for adults will recognize a familiar landscape, occupied by a strong female narrator and tightly drawn supernaturals. Revelations come at a wonderfully measured pace, pulling readers deep into Chloe’s psyche and a world where necromancers, werewolves and sorcerers struggle with humanity. All the Lyle House teens grapple with emerging supernatural powers, but the narrative discloses little, keeping readers guessing at their conditions until the heart of the novel. Difficult supernatural transformations align perfectly with teen experiences; after all, uncontrollable bodily changes and a fearful recognition of one’s own power both comprise the scary journey to adulthood. Terrifying ghosts, smatterings of gore and diverse teen voices will prompt young adults to pick up the next in this series. Armstrong’s nail-biter ending will, too: A failed escape attempt leaves Chloe imprisoned and attracted to two supernatural brothers. Teen readers might scream loud enough to raise the dead.(Fiction. 14 & up)
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4) "A Great and Terrible Beauty" by Libba Bray
Had Gemma but known what occult horrors would await her, would she still have wanted to leave India? Sixteen-year-old Gemma is sent to her long-desired London when her mother commits suicide. In a terrifying vision, she sees her mother attacked by a vile supernatural force. Would revelation of her own strange mental powers cause more scandal than her mother’s outré death? A sexy but suspicious young man has followed Gemma from India, and cryptically warns her to muffle her visions. Such constraint seems the goal of Gemma’s proper finishing school as well. With corsets, deportment lessons, and rules, Spence Academy shapes prim young ladies. But the seemingly proper girls of Spence reveal various sexualities, passions, and hopes that strain the seams of their strict Victorian education. Mysterious continued visions, dark family secrets, and a long-lost diary thrust Gemma and her classmates back into the horrors that followed her from India. A Gothic touched by modern conceptions of adolescence, shivery with both passion and terror. (Fiction. YA)
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5) "The Iron King" by Julie Kagawa
Paranormal romance in the style of Melissa Marr and Cassandra Clare. Meghan Chase loves her family, but she doesn’t love living on a pig farm in the Louisiana swamps. At least she’s got one friend—spindly prankster Robbie Goodfell. On Meghan’s 16th birthday, everything changes: Her four-year-old brother is replaced by a changeling, and Robbie admits he is a faery (Puck, of course). Robbie escorts Meghan into the Nevernever on a dangerous rescue mission, where she unsurprisingly discovers she is more than your everyday bayou schoolgirl. Good thing she’s got a crew of helpers: Puck, who seems awfully affectionate; Grimalkin, a vanishing cat with motives of his own; and Ash, an Unseelie prince of cold, unearthly beauty. Though Kagawa’s faeryland initially appears decorated with the stock set dressing of the genre, the novel’s eponymous villain adds a clever, unexpected twist. Genre fans won’t be disappointed, and surely the rest of the series will reveal the truly important answer: Team Ash or Team Robbie? (Paranormal romance. 12-14)
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6) "Wicked Lovely" by Melissa Marr
This steamy faery story reads like a torrid girl’s fantasy and will produce some swoons. Aislinn’s spent her life terrified of the faeries (“fey”) all around her, invisible to other humans. They smack and trip each other, leer and wound; to remain safe, she can’t let them know she sees. Her only safe space is inside the funky train-car home of sexy friend Seth. Fey can’t enter because steel hurts them—or does it? The old rules are changing. Two faeries stalk Aislinn, paying unprecedented and disturbing personal attention. Readers know early that Aislinn’s destined to become a faerie monarch and rule as Summer Queen beside Keenan, the Summer King, whom readers may find obnoxious or dreamy. Marr’s consistent labeling of the situation as a “game” doesn’t match the dire possibilities: The earth will freeze if Aislinn isn’t Summer Queen, but she wants to live a regular life, including college, cell phones and tattoos. Meanwhile, it’s Keenan’s job to woo Aislinn, but his old love (currently the lonely holder of winter’s chill) may die if he’s successful. Overlong wish-fulfillment, but enjoyably sultry. (Fantasy. YA)
7) "Blue Bloods" by Melissa de la Cruz
A juicy, voyeuristic peek into the lives of rich Manhattanites—who happen to be vampires. As shown by a diary in a handwritten font, vampires came to this country on the Mayflower. In contemporary Manhattan, the ensemble of protagonists attends an elite prep school. They’re old souls, because vampires return in new shells (bodies) indefinitely; however, until mid-adolescence, they don’t know it. Fifteen-year-old Schuyler, intelligent and vaguely Goth, has no idea she’s a vampire. Neither does Bliss, newly arrived from Texas. Mimi and Jack, glamorously haughty twins with a suspicious bond, already know the scoop; the adults know too. The others are meant to learn slowly and keep strictly to the Code (for example, never suck so much blood that a human dies). Name-brand clothing and luxuries abound, but a mysterious danger lurks: Someone is killing the supposedly immortal. Schuyler’s destiny is to bring the vampires—cast out of heaven with Lucifer—back into a state of grace, but her immediate goal for the next installment is to find the murderer. Delightfully trashy. (Fantasy. YA)
Book One of Seven
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