Cross My Palm 2013: YA Fantasy

The first Cross My Palm 2013 post took a look at trends in sci-fi YA, the second one analyzed contemporary YA. This week it's fantasy YA! This is just based on my own observations of books and what I've seen publishers/authors/other bloggers talking about. (Note: like last year, I'll be dedicating a separate post to paranormal YA.)

Trends from last year's post that are still going strong:

- Assassins, thieves, and things that go bump in the night. Well, something like that. If you're writing about these in the YA fantasy genre, you are in good company. Several series are on the go, including Robin LaFevers' His Fair Assassin series, Ari Marmell's Widdershins series, and Sarah Maass's Throne of Glass series. There are also upcoming releases like Deathsworn by Leah Cypess, Sea of Shadows by Kelley Armstrong, and Midnight Thief by Livia Blackburne.

- There's still a ravenous appetite for fairy tales. A fan of Bluebeard? Try Strands of Bronze and Gold by Jane Nickerson. Beauty and the Beast more your style? Keep an eye out for Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge. Prefer The Snow Queen? You're in luck: Jackson Pearce's Cold Spell releases in November, and Crown of Ice by Vicki Lemp Weavill is due out next year. There's also The Glass Casket by McCormick Templeman, Minnow by Stephanie Oakes, Feather Bound by Sarah Raughley, Mortal by Sarah J. Maass... and then if you want a little of everything, there are the books that mash up fairy tales: Far Far Away by Tom McNeal, Trail of Shadows and Blood by Bianca Ison, Banished by Liz de Jager, Stray by Elissa Sussman, and of course, the Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer.

- And not just "fairy tales" but tales of the fey. That's right, there are plenty of faerie stories alive and kicking in YA. From historical UK (The Falconer by Elizabeth May, the Faerie Ring series by Kiki Hamilton) to historical New York (Winterspell by Claire Legrand) to modern-day Boston (Breathless by Skylar Dorset) and modern-day London (All That Glows by Ryan Graudin), faeries are happening.

- Time travel – or in some cases, time manipulation. YA books featuring a traditional presentation of time travel are doing quite well; Julie Cross's Vortex was published earlier this year, Myra McEntire's Infinityglass and Kerstin Gier's Emerald Green come out in August and October respectively, and then there's the upcoming books The Fifty-Seven Lives of Alex Wayfare by M.G. Buehrlen and The Eighth Guardian by Meredith McCardle. But I think a broader notion of time alteration/manipulation is on the rise, with books like Gennifer Albin's Crewel World series, Gates of Thread and Stone by Lori M. Lee, and After You by Jessica Corra.

Hopeful trends that haven't quite gotten off the ground yet:

- Dragons. There's a smattering of dragon YA books — the Seraphina series by Rachel Hartman, the Newsoul series by Jodi Meadows, the Dragon King Chronicles by Ellen Oh — but I don't think this trend has yet, shall we say, taken flight.

- PoC characters. There are certainly at least a handful of recent and upcoming YA fantasy books featuring PoC characters — Vessel by Sarah Beth Durst, Ink by Amanda Sun, The Night Itself by Zoë Marriott, Gilded by Christina L. Farley, The Fire Wish by Amber Lough — but I would love to see more! I'd especially like to see a larger number where the protagonist is a person of colour, and also greater diversity generally in ethnicities represented.

New trends:

- Deserts. No, not desserts as in yummy chocolatey goodness, but rather those arid places lacking water. At the moment it seems very chic to give your YA fantasy novel a desert setting. Sarah Beth Durst did it with Vessel, Cassandra Rose Clarke with The Assassin's Curse, Rae Carson with Girl of Fire and Thorns, Moira Young with her Dust Lands series (admittedly, these probably fall more into the dystopian genre) and Amy McCulloch with The Oathbreaker's Shadow. I suspect we might get a desert-like atmosphere in Amber Lough's upcoming The Fire Wish, too. Let's face it: deserts are *hot* right now in YA fantasy. (See what I did there?)

 Vanishing trends:

- The power of touch. This made a brief appearance with books like Maria Snyder's Healer series, Holly Black's Curse Worker series, Corrine Jackson's The Sense Thieves series, Tahereh Mafi's Shatter Me series, Leah Clifford's A Touch trilogy, and Kim Harrington's Clarity series. But it seems like it was a rather short-lived blip, because besides upcoming books from the aforementioned series, I don't think I've seen very many new books that would fall into this category. Have you?

You also might want to check out Stacked's Get Genrefied: High Fantasy post if you're looking for suggestions of YA books to read in this genre!

So, what do you think of these trends? Love 'em? Hate 'em? Think I'm way off base? Let me know your thoughts!

Cross My Palm 2013: Contemporary YA

Last week I did my first Cross My Palm 2013 post, looking at trends in sci-fi YA. Now it's time to put contemporary YA under the microscope! This is just based on my own observations of books and what I've seen publishers/authors/other bloggers talking about.

Trends from last year's post that are still holding steady:

- Car accidents. Somehow, inexplicably, either teens love reading about car crashes or YA authors love writing about them, or both. I don't fully understand the obsession, but there you have it. With books like Golden by Jessi Kirby, Truly, Madly, Deadly by Hannah Jayne (admittedly, it sounds like the crash in this one was no accident), Far From You by Tess Sharpe, and The Truth About Alice Franklin by Jennifer Mathieu making their way into the reading world this year and next, it looks like there will be plenty of fuel for this trend for a while yet. (There's even a 2015 release already in this category: Rearview Mirror by Rachel Harris!)

- Road trips and other travel journeys. There are some coming up – How My Summer Went Up In Flames by Jennifer Salvato Doktorski, When You Were Here by Daisy Whitney, Right of Way by Lauren Barnholdt, Open Road Summer by Emery Lord – but not quite as many as last year, it seems. Hopefully there will still be more to come, because I think travel stories offer so much fodder for creativity!

Trends that seem to be on their way out:

- Books dealing with war and/or PTSD. There were several of these published last year, but it doesn't look like that's continuing into 2013 and 2014. Although I'm sure that several of the abduction stories (see below) will probably involve PTSD, and I know for sure that the recently published Bruised by Sarah Skilton does.

- Sister stories. I thought these would keep on going for a while when I wrote up last year's post, but now it doesn't look that way! Deviant by Helen Fitzgerald just released last month, and there's Jennifer Echol's Dirty Little Secret and Rainbow Rowell's Fangirl, both of which sound like they deal with sister issues to some extent, but apart from that I haven't seen a lot of upcoming contemporary books focusing on a sister relationship. (Am I just blind here or what?!)

New trends:

- Teens undercover and/or on the run: you might consider this Road Trip Trend's darker, wilder cousin. Examples of books falling into this category include Nobody But Us by Kristin Halbrook, Rules for Disappearing by Ashley Elston, Fake ID by Lamar Giles, Being Henry David by Cal Armistead, Leap of Faith by Jamie Blair, and Pretending to Be Erica by Michelle Painchaud.

- If I had a million dollars... (I'd buy a monstrously large library, of course, but that's besides the point.) It looks like several YA authors are exploring the dynamic of rich and not-so-rich teens. If you've ever wondered "how the other half lives", you might want to check out these books when they're released: What I Thought Was True by Huntley Fitzpatrick, The Distance Between Us by Kasie West, All the Rage by Courtney Summers, Crash into You by Katie McGarry, and The Secret Diamond Sisters by Michelle Madow.

- Girls in sports: I think we have Miranda Kenneally's Hundred Oaks series to thank for this trend, at least in part. In addition to the next upcoming book of hers, Racing Savannah, there's also Played by Liz Fichera, Wild Cards by Simone Elkeles, Out of Play by Nyrae Dawn and Jolene Perry, Riptide by Lindsey Scheibe, and Being Sloane Jacobs by Lauren Morrill. While I'm personally not a big sports enthusiast, it's nice to see YA offering these sorts of protagonists and stories, especially since this used to be viewed more as "boy book" territory.

- Abduction, because amnesia just wasn't good enough. There seem to be a slew of abduction stories permeating the contemporary YA section these days! From Pretty Girl-13 by Liz Coley, Panic by Sharon M. Draper and If You Find Me by Emily Murdoch to Where the Stars Still Shine by Trish Doller, Stained by Cheryl Rainfield and Emmy & Oliver by Robin Benway, apparently kidnapping is where it's at in YA.

There's even Leap of Faith by Jamie Blair, which as a twist features the teen protagonist as the abductor. And if you think girls are the only ones who get kidnapped, think again: Pointe by Brandy Colbert makes this very point (pardon the pun) by making the abductee a teen boy.

If you want to get caught up on the offerings in contemporary YA for 2013 and 2014, you might want to check out these two Goodreads lists. (Note that not all of the books on that first one are actually 2013 releases.)

So, what do you think of the trends in contemp YA? Love them? Hate them? Tired of them? See something I've missed? Let me know!

(P.S. To all my Canadian blogging friends: Happy Canada Day!!)

Cross My Palm 2013: Sci-Fi YA

Last year I did a series of posts called "Cross My Palm", looking at recent and potential trends in YA. It got a good response so I've brought it back for 2013! This is just based on my own observations of books and what I've seen publishers/authors/other bloggers talking about. Once again I'm divvying up the books by genre, and first up this time is sci-fi YA.

Trends that popped up in last year's post and seem to be holding steady:

- Let's not kid ourselves: dystopian (and dystopian-fantasy blends) are still going strong. Some readers, publishers and agents may think that the dystopian genre has been satiated, but there are still plenty of books on this bandwagon being churned out. What with the popularity of the Hunger Games film franchise, I can't imagine this ending anytime soon. We're talking books like The Testing by Joelle Charbonneau, The Program by Suzanne Young, Acid by Emma Pass, and Control by Lydia Kang. And those are just the new ones! There are also series still in progress, with their latest instalments having been recently released or soon to be: Breaking Point by Kristen Simmons, Champion by Marie Lu, Requiem by Lauren Oliver, Allegiant by Veronica Roth, Resist by Sarah Crossan, The Lives We Lost by Megan Crewe, Fractured by Teri Terry, Through the Ever Night by Veronica Rossi, Unravel Me by Tahereh Mafi, Deception by C.J. Redwine... I could go on but you get the picture.

I'm not sure if apocalyptic/post-apocalyptic stories have managed to distinguish themselves yet from dystopian (they seem to get lumped into the same category in many Goodreads lists). Whether or not they're still hanging on the coattails of ever-popular books like The Hunger Games and Divergent, though, new ones are getting written and published. A couple upcoming books that look like they have less of a dystopian angle and more of a straight-up post-apocalyptic one are Not a Drop to Drink by Mindy McGinnis and A Matter of Days by Amber Kizer.

- Hello, genetic and technological experimentation. Stories involving futuristic genetic abnormalities/mutations and experiments with technology seem to be enjoying a bit of a boost from the dystopian craze. (Makes sense: the society is controlling and dictatorial AND they want to put in a chip in your brain? Lethal combination!) If this is your style, you might want to check out books like Impostor by Susanne Winnacker, Uninvited by Sophie Jordan, The Rules by Stacey Kade, Mila 2.0 by Debra Driza, and Anomaly by Krista McGee.

- Spaced out from dystopian overload? Venture beyond the Earth's atmosphere. That's right, there's been a rise of YA sci-fi set in space, spearheaded chiefly, I think, by Beth Revis' Across the Universe series. Since then, we've had offerings from Amy Kathleen Ryan (the Skychasers series), Diana Peterfreund (For Darkness Shows the Stars), Anna Sheehan (A Long, Long Sleep), Johan Harstad (172 Hours on the Moon), Marissa Meyer (the Lunar Chronicles), Deva Fagan (Circus Galacticus), Janet Edwards (Earth Girl), and upcoming ones like These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman & Meagan Spooner and Starglass by Phoebe North. (Plus, there's a Goodreads list that's dedicated to this YA sub-genre.)

 New trends:

- Seeing double? Don't worry, it's just the latest in sci-fi YA. Be it clones, twins, or doppelgangers, two (identical) heads are better than one: Twinmaker by Sean Williams, Linked by Imogen Howson, Plague in the Mirror by Deborah Noyes, Impostor by Susanne Winnacker, and 3:59 by Gretchen McNeil are a few examples.

- For readers who ponder the "what-ifs" and "if onlys", you're in luck: parallel lives and alternate realities are all the rage. An abundance of books in this sub-genre has burst onto the scene, including Just Like Fate by Cat Patrick and Suzanne Young, Parallel by Lauren Miller, Pivot Point by Kasie West, Dissonance by Erica O'Rourke, Tandem by Anna Jarzab, and Relativity by Cristin Bishara. (Happily, this matches one of the "concept gaps" in my "Find the Gap" series from 2011!)

- Now you see me, now you don't. Maybe it's just coincidence, but has anyone noticed that invisible protagonists seem to be gaining traction? There's Silver by Talia Vance, Transparent by Natalie Whipple, and Invisibility by Andrea Cremer & David Levithan. I'm interested to see if this is just a fluke of timing, or if something more will come of this potential trend!

Thoughts on these trends — are there any you love/hate? Any I've missed? What books have you read recently that fall into one of these categories?