Chloe Gong’s YA debut These Violent Delights is a fairly violent fantasy set in 1920s Shanghai with very deliberate and obvious echoes of Romeo and Juliet. The mix of influences and styles seems like an attempt to mash all of Gong’s loves into a single narrative. And when it is not too distracting, it works….
From The Hunger Games to Divergent, dystopian films aimed at tweens have made serious coin; so why wouldn’t producers keep pouring money into them? They follow a familiar storyline where youngsters are outcasts. And so to the latest incarnation, The Darkest Minds. Based on the popular YA novel by Alexandra Bracken, The Darkest Minds starts…
Between Us is Clare Atkins’ second young adult novel. Like her first novel, Nona and Me, Between Us uses personal stories to explore cultural politics in Australia. Three distinct voices tell the story of Between Us— Ana, Kenny and Jono. Ana, is a teenage asylum seeker from Iran. She lives with her pregnant mother and…
