Five Friday Favourites [3]

Welcome to Five Friday Favourites! A regular blog feature where myself or another blogger share their five favourites of a particular bookish category, be that favourite books ever, favourite recent releases or favourite bad boys ;)

Today I have the lovely Sophie who has shared her Five Favourite controversial novels

One of our specialties in UKYA is our preference for gritty, controversial novels. I’m a big fan of them myself and here are my top five favourite controversial YA novels:

• FORBIDDEN byTabitha Suzuma took my breath away when I read it during the summer of 2010. I’d never read anything like it. Forbidden is the story of Lochan and Maya, a brother and sister who looks after their siblings in a horrible home situation. They fall in love with each other. I wanted them to be together so badly, but I also knew it was so wrong! Never have I had such a heart-head struggle. And that ending, wow.

One of my favourite books so far this year has been Isla J Bick’s DROWNING INSTINCT. I’m a big fan of her post-apocalyptic series and I wondered how she’d handle the change to contemporary: brilliantly, actually. Bick draws characters who are damaged and broken by things that most people wouldn’t want to think about all while juggling the relationship between a student and a teacher. Motives are questioned and feelings are expressed. But Bick never casts judgment, only depicts two damaged human beings who sought comfort in each other. Breathtaking.

Meg Rosoff’s debut HOWI LIVE NOW is one of my favourite books of all time and I couldn’t even guess how many times I've read it. Though Daisy’s story tackles war, eating disorders and a relationship between two first cousins, that’s not what makes it controversial to me; it's the narrative style and language. Daisy swears, Daisy shouts and she doesn’t use proper punctuation and sentence structure. It’s verging on stream of consciousness and it’s utterly perfect. Never has a character’s voice been so perfectly captured before. If you haven’t read this yet, what on earth have you been doing for the last eight years?

JUNK byMelvin Burgess is often regarded as the controversial YA novel. Sex, swearing, drugs, prostitution; think of a taboo, Junk covered it. I was fairly young when I read this and I didn’t really realise how controversial it was until I re-read it last year. Burgess doesn’t pull any punches and his sharp, clear prose does Gemma and Tar’s story justice. This really is a book you have to read if you love contemporary, or YA, or reading.

I would say that all thought these four are my favourite controversial novels, Philip Pullman’s HIS DARK MATERIALS trilogy is probably the most famous. I didn’t get around to read Northern Lights until last year and I still haven’t read the rest of the trilogy as I didn't love it the way I expected to, but I definitely understood why it made such a splash. Pullman’s take on religion shocked the media and outraged religious communities, causing it to be banned countless times. It’s an eye-opening trilogy and definitely worth a read.

So there you have it! My favourite controversial YA reads. Do you think I missed anything important? Disagree that any of these are controversial?

Thanks for hosting me Cait!

Thanks so much for sharing, Sophie! I LOVED Northern Lights, How I Live Now and Junk when I was a teenager! My favourite controversial book is probably Denial by David Belbin...what are yours?

Contemporary Summer Guest Post: Kapri's Top Ten Contemps

Today the wonderful Kapri from Book Fanatics is sharing her top ten contemporary reads with us!

Top Ten Contemporaries

I am here today to share my love for contemporary. It is my favorite genre and there are so many great contemps out there. And now I'm going to share my top ten favorites!

Girl at Sea by Maureen Johnson-This is one of my more recent favorites. This book has everything—an beautiful setting, steamy boy, teen angst, adventure, mystery, and of course (my favorite) a treasure hunt. You can't get much better than that. 

Willow by Julia Hoban- This book was so heartbreaking and beautiful. It sure can tug at your heartstrings one moment and uplift you the next.

Pushing Limits by Katie McGarry – Again, another recent favorite. My favorite part of this book is the characters. I love seeing their emotions and growth throughout the book. This one reminds me of Perfect Chemistry a lot.

Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta- I read this one quite a while ago and it earned a permanent spot on my favorites shelf. This is another that can be heartbreaking at times, but it was just so beautiful. It's one that I need to reread soon.

North of Beautiful by Justina Chen Headly- Just like the title suggests, this book is beautiful. It has an amazing message, awesome scenery, and completely relatable characters. 

Where She Went by Gayle Forman- If I Stay was a really good book, but Where She Went was amazing. I loved Adam as a character and I loved seeing what happened to the characters after If I Stay.

Amy And Roger's Epic Detour by Morgan Matson-Two words: road trip. This book started my obsession with road trip. Now if there is a book with any sort of mention of road trips, I'm reading it.

The Nature of Jade by Deb Caletti- I loved Jade's voice in this book. It was so unique and beautiful. And the story and other characters are pretty awesome, too.

She's So Money by Cherry Cheva-I thought I should add a light and fun book in the mix. I can't exactly pin-point why I liked this book so much, but I really enjoyed it. It was so funny! I just remember laughing so much when I read this book.

John Belushi is Dead by Kathy Charles- I loved the way that this book incorporated old movies and celebrities. It may seem morbid, but Charles created the story in such a tasteful way.

And those are only ten. There are so many other great contemporaries out there.

Honorable Mentions:

Anna and the French Kiss and Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins

Perfect Chemistry and Rules of Attraction by Simone Elkeles

Any Jennifer Echols book

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Thanks so much Kapri!! I looked up all the books I didn't know and well, they sound pretty awesome. I especially love the sound of John Belushi is Dead, it sounds soooo different!! And I am a HUGE fan of Amy & Roger and Anna!!! I'm also just reading Jellicoe Road now ;)

Have you read any of the books on Kapri's list, or do any pique your interest?

Guest Post: Keris Stainton

A couple of days ago, I talked about how as a reader, contemporary books are important I thought it would be pretty cool to get an author's view of this,  and the wonderful Keris Stainton rose to the challenge:

 My issue with issues. 

When Cait asked me to write about how contemporary fiction is a great way to talk about issues affecting teens, I said, "Yep. I can totally write about that." Then I went away and started to fret a bit. Because I always think about 'issue' books as 'On this very special episode of…', i.e. stepping out of the story to educate the reader about something. The idea of it makes the back of my neck prickle with embarrassment. 

On the other hand, when I see reviews of my books - and often they're otherwise lovely reviews - that call them "light" or "fluffy" it makes me wince a bit. Because what I try to do is address issues affecting teens with a lightness of touch… but that doesn't mean they're not there. And the thing is, the inclusion of "issues affecting teens" is kind of what makes a book a teen book, rather than an adult book, so they're always going to be there, surely? 

Actually, I did have a particular "issue" in mind when I started writing Della Says: OMG! I'd read that few YA novels feature female masturbation and so was determined to "feature" it in my book. But I didn't crowbar it in, it did actually fit the plot: Della's diary is stolen and someone starts circulating the most embarrassing bits and, as a teenager, I couldn't have imagined anything more embarrassing than people knowing I masturbated.

My next two books - Jessie Hearts NYC and Emma Hearts LA - were more about the adjustments teenagers have to make, often to things beyond their control. They both feature parental separation: Jessie has a difficult relationship with her mother and Emma has lost trust in her father (I didn't plan to address mothers in one book and fathers in another, that just happened). 

Jessie's parents split up after her dad accepts that he's actually gay - this has happened before the start of the book so once we meet Jessie, her dad is in a happy relationship with a man. This, I suppose, could be considered to be an "issue", but I didn't want it to be any more of an issue than if he was in a relationship with a woman (who wasn't Jessie's mum). In the first draft of the book, Jessie talked about adjusting to their relationship, etc., but it bugged me and I took it out. I actually expected my editor to ask me to address it, but, to her credit, she never did. A few reviews have commented that it's a bit odd that it's treated as if it's perfectly normal, i.e. Jessie's not all angsty about it, but since that's exactly the point I was hoping to make (er, the normal part, not the odd part), I'm happy with that. 

Talking of the point I was hoping to make, um… oh yes. I really don't want to write about issues, I want to write about people and people naturally have issues. Those issues may be things like self-harm, anorexia or bullying, or they may be about identity or change, sexuality or disability, but in my opinion, the issue shouldn't be the focal point of the book. Characters come first. Particularly in Della Says: OMG! (Sorry, couldn't resist.) 

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Thanks so much Keris!! And if you're intrigued by Keris' books...well, you're in luck! Thanks to the wonderful people at Hachette I have a complete set of Keris Stainton books (Della Says: OMG! , Jessie Hearts NYC and Emma Hearts LA) PLUS a copy of the fantastic Graffiti Moon by Cath Crowley.

Giveaway is UK only, simply fill in the form below. 

Today Liz is hosting author Julia Green on her blog, plus there's another giveaway to enter ;)