Buzz Books Young Adult Spring/Summer 2017 is the sixth collection that’s been put together and contains excerpts from a number of upcoming books. The collection was released on Netgalley as a read now last week and is also available for download directly here from Publishers Marketplace.
I’m not the biggest YA reader at the moment, I read a lot as a teenager and then drifted towards other genres but there’s definitely a few books in this collection that caught my eye.
Buzz Books also do a separate general edition – I completed a post about this last night. You can read it here
The One Memory of Flora Banks – Emily Barr. Penguin. 12th January 2017
Seventeen-year-old Flora Banks has no short-term memory. Her mind resets itself several times a day, and has since the age of ten, when the tumor that was removed from Flora’s brain took with it her ability to make new memories. That is, until she kisses Drake, her best friend’s boyfriend, the night before he leaves town. Miraculously, this one memory breaks through Flora’s fractured mind, and sticks. Flora is convinced that Drake is responsible for restoring her memory and making her whole again. So when an encouraging email from Drake suggests she meet him on the other side of the world, Flora knows with certainty that this is the first step toward reclaiming her life.
With little more than the words “be brave” inked into her skin, and written reminders of who she is and why her memory is so limited, Flora sets off on an impossible journey to Svalbard, Norway, the land of the midnight sun, determined to find Drake. But from the moment she arrives in the arctic, nothing is quite as it seems, and Flora must “be brave” if she is ever to learn the truth about herself, and to make it safely home.
The description of this intrigued me and I’ve seen it talked about all over social media so I was a little concerned that I’d end up disappointed by the extract after all the hype. Luckily I really enjoyed what I read and can’t wait to get my hands on it.
Piper Perish – Kayla Cagan. Chronicle Books. 28th February 2017.
Piper Perish inhales air and exhales art. The sooner she and her best friends can get out of Houston and into art school in New York City, the better. It’s been Piper’s dream her whole life, and now that senior year is halfway over, she’s never felt more ready. But in the final months before graduation, things are weird with her friends and stressful with three different guys, and Piper’s sister’s tyrannical mental state seems to thwart every attempt at happiness for the close-knit Perish family. Piper’s art just might be enough to get her out. But is she brave enough to seize that power, even if it means giving up what she’s always known? Debut author Kayla Cagan breathes new life into fiction in this ridiculously compelling, utterly authentic work featuring interior art from Rookie magazine illustrator Maria Ines Gul. Piper will have readers asking big questions along with her. What is love? What is friendship? What is family? What is home? And who is a person when she’s missing any one of these things?
The cover really caught my eye while I was flicking through this Buzz Book. The extract was full of teenage angst and drama and I look forward to reading more. I also like the idea of the art dispursed through the book so I’d like to see how that works out.
Is This Really Happening – Erin Chack. Razorbill. 25th April 2017.
senior writer Erin Chack provides a collection of personal essays for the Snapchat generation.
Erin recounts everything from meeting her soulmate at age 14 to her first chemotherapy session at age 19 to what really goes on behind the scenes at a major Internet media company.
She authentically captures the agony and the ecstasy of the millennial experience, whether it’s her first kiss (“Sean’s tongue! In my mouth! Slippery and wet like a slug in the rain.”) or her struggles with anxiety (“When people throw caution to the wind, I am stuck imagining the poor soul who has to break his back sweeping caution into a dustpan”).
Yet Erin also offers a fresh perspective on universal themes of resilience and love as she writes about surviving cancer, including learning of her mother’s own cancer diagnosis within the same year, and her attempts to hide the diagnosis from friends to avoid “un-normaling” everything.
The extract shared is a personal essay describing the time Erin had her head shaved after she began a course of chemotherapy. The essay was a great combination of humor and emotion and I look forward to reading more.
Aftercare Instructions – Bonnie Pipkin. Flatiron. 27th June 2017.
In the tradition of Jandy Nelson and Rainbow Rowell, a big-hearted journey of furious friendship, crazy love, and unexpected hope after a teen’s decision to end an unwanted pregnancy
“Troubled.” That’s seventeen-year-old Genesis according to her small New Jersey town. She finds refuge and stability in her relationship with her boyfriend, Peter—until he abandons her at a Planned Parenthood clinic during their appointment to terminate an unwanted pregnancy. The betrayal causes Gen to question everything.
As Gen pushes herself forward to find her new identity without Peter, she must also confront her most painful memories. Through the lens of an ongoing four act play within the novel, the fantasy of their undying love unravels line by line, scene by scene. Digging deeper into her past while exploring the underground theater world of New York City, she rediscovers a long-forgotten dream. But it’s when Gen lets go of her history, the one she thinks she knows, that she’s finally able to embrace the complicated, chaotic true story of her life, and take center stage.
This powerfully immersive and format-crushing debut follows Gen from dorm rooms to diners to house parties to auditions—and ultimately, right into readers’ hearts.
This had a really interesting start and premise dealing with an important issue. I’m not 100% how the play interspersed throughout the book is going to work but I look forward to seeing how it turns out.
Do any of these interest you too? Are there any other extracts in the book that caught your eye? Are there any other YA books you’re really looking forward to the first half of 2017? Let me know below.
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