![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
psocopteraGreg van Eekhout's The Boy at the End of the World is a charming middle-grade about a boy who wakes up from a vat, the only human alive in a post-apocalyptic future, and his adventures with a janitorial robot and a cloned pygmy mammoth. He has to figure out how to survive and what goals he might have; it touches on big questions like the meaning of life and the importance of community, but a little lightly, gently, middle-grade-appropriately. Boy, I thought, reading it, if Patrick Ness had written this it would be one hell of an angst-fest...
As it turns out, Patrick Ness's More Than This is an impressive YA about a boy who wakes up from a vat, the only human alive in a post-apocalyptic future, and his adventures with a janitorial robot... and yes, yes it was. This book is not the overwhelming powerhouse of the Chaos Walking books, or the sob fest of Monster Calls, but it was intelligent and interesting and sympathetic and would make a much more interesting movie than whatever run-of-the-mill teen dystopias they're actually filming these days. (Boy at the End of the World would make a *brilliant* movie, I was actually picturing it much of the way along starring Quvenzhane Wallis, who we know has the ability to carry a film and act against CGI, and is the right physical type, except for being a girl, which is entirely irrelevant to Boy at the End despite the title.)
Anya's Ghost, graphic novel by Vera Brosgol, girl is befriended by ghost. Well-drawn, well-written. Brosgol used to do Return to Sender, a million years ago; if I'm recalling that correctly, this is less wildly inventive but a lot more solid and fleshed out, also it, you know, goes somewhere and has a satisfying ending and stuff.
The Sea Serpent and Me, children's picture book by Dashka Slater and Catia Chien. I don't review every library book I get the kids because oh my god I would be here all day, but I thought this one was particularly sweet if you're prepared to get a little misty-eyed (I am a big sucker for this kind of thing).
Fangirl, Rainbow Rowell. You knew I was going to read this, right? Is anybody in fandom not going to read this? For the rest of you who may not have heard about this one yet, it's about a girl who is a BNF (uh, big-name fan) slash author in a fictionalized Harry Potter fandom ("Simon Snow", and it's *so* well done), and her first year of college, and her relationships with her family, and. I *loved* it. Primarily, of course, for the acute pleasure of seeing my culture portrayed (accurately and sympathetically) in a work of fiction, the way it's always exciting to see a place you've been in a movie, but also, I loved the romance, the family stuff was really good, the stakes here are quiet and real and personal (grades and relationships) but really powerful. I am myself closer to being a middle-aged parent than a college freshman but the nostalgia was intense. Highly recommended to anyone in fandom, or to anyone who loves someone in fandom; this would make a pretty good book to give someone who's just found out you write fanfic and wants to understand more about that.
As it turns out, Patrick Ness's More Than This is an impressive YA about a boy who wakes up from a vat, the only human alive in a post-apocalyptic future, and his adventures with a janitorial robot... and yes, yes it was. This book is not the overwhelming powerhouse of the Chaos Walking books, or the sob fest of Monster Calls, but it was intelligent and interesting and sympathetic and would make a much more interesting movie than whatever run-of-the-mill teen dystopias they're actually filming these days. (Boy at the End of the World would make a *brilliant* movie, I was actually picturing it much of the way along starring Quvenzhane Wallis, who we know has the ability to carry a film and act against CGI, and is the right physical type, except for being a girl, which is entirely irrelevant to Boy at the End despite the title.)
Anya's Ghost, graphic novel by Vera Brosgol, girl is befriended by ghost. Well-drawn, well-written. Brosgol used to do Return to Sender, a million years ago; if I'm recalling that correctly, this is less wildly inventive but a lot more solid and fleshed out, also it, you know, goes somewhere and has a satisfying ending and stuff.
The Sea Serpent and Me, children's picture book by Dashka Slater and Catia Chien. I don't review every library book I get the kids because oh my god I would be here all day, but I thought this one was particularly sweet if you're prepared to get a little misty-eyed (I am a big sucker for this kind of thing).
Fangirl, Rainbow Rowell. You knew I was going to read this, right? Is anybody in fandom not going to read this? For the rest of you who may not have heard about this one yet, it's about a girl who is a BNF (uh, big-name fan) slash author in a fictionalized Harry Potter fandom ("Simon Snow", and it's *so* well done), and her first year of college, and her relationships with her family, and. I *loved* it. Primarily, of course, for the acute pleasure of seeing my culture portrayed (accurately and sympathetically) in a work of fiction, the way it's always exciting to see a place you've been in a movie, but also, I loved the romance, the family stuff was really good, the stakes here are quiet and real and personal (grades and relationships) but really powerful. I am myself closer to being a middle-aged parent than a college freshman but the nostalgia was intense. Highly recommended to anyone in fandom, or to anyone who loves someone in fandom; this would make a pretty good book to give someone who's just found out you write fanfic and wants to understand more about that.
