Archive | Young Adult RSS feed for this section

Dazzling Diverse Fantasy: Fevered Star and The Gilded Ones

27 Apr

Myth, legends, and traditions have always worked their way into fantasy, but for years much of what was written in English drew from European history or if it looked elsewhere it was through an “exotic” outsider lens. It is exciting to see so many People of Color, especially women, writing and getting published fantasy works inspired by their own cultures. Here are two powerful works I enjoyed recently.

Fevered Star
Fevered Star is alive with strong willed characters that kept me turning the page. I was especially drawn to Xiala a Teek whose voice has power and Serapio who though literally now a powerful god still manages to have the complexity of a lesser man. This is a second book so the various strands of each main character are interwoven together, but they are distanced from one another. The series is set in a Fantasy American Continent drawing from native myths and legends. I would recommend to other readers starting with Black Sun and then reading Fevered Star to better understand the underlying political dynamics at work. The end of Fevered Star definitely left me hungry for the third book in the series. Rebecca Roanhorse is an African American and Indigenous author. I was provided an advanced copy of Fevered Star by Net Galley/SAGA Press.

The Gilded Ones
The Gilded Ones is the first in a series by Namina Forna. The next book, The Merciless Ones, will be coming out at the end of this month. Forna immigrated from West Africa as a child and her experiences there helped to inspire some of the novel’s story. In The Gilded Ones, women are considered impure if they bleed gold when cut. They must choose between death and becoming warriors whose service to the emperor will purify them. But all is not what it seems, in this inspiring work of feminist fantasy. Although it is listed as a Young Adult work, adults will also enjoy this book. We read it as part of our monthly HPL Science Fiction and Fantasy Book Discussion Group.

Both series are available from elibraryNJ and in print from BCCLS Libraries.

Written by:
Aimee Harris
Information and Digital Service Manager

Tags: , ,

A High School Classic and a Modern Debut: Catcher in the Rye and Boys of Alabama

12 Jan

Hi all! I’m Emily Sierra, and I am a new library assistant at Hoboken Public Library! With a degree in English with a focus on creative writing, being surrounded by literature and talking about literature is almost second nature for me at this point. But what I’ve enjoyed most since graduating (and since I’ve been able to wander the stacks again) is being able to finally catch up with contemporary fiction and not just be bogged down by all the literary “Greats.”

During the summer of 2020, I picked up a book on a whim: Genevieve Hudson’s debut novel, Boys of Alabama. The first thing that instantly caught my attention was that this would be a queer coming of age story based in a state I was unfamiliar with. The second thing that made me take it home was Hudson’s use of magical realism; weaving and blending the whimsical with the mundane until they are indiscernible. Being a fan of Gabriel García Márquez, I simply had to explore this contemporary addition of the genre.

Hudson’s debut novel is gripping and haunting while at the same time stingingly relatable with characters that effortlessly crack some of the best one-liners, all of which is painted in front of the backdrop that is the sticky Alabama heat. The story centers on shy teenager Max as his family makes the move from Germany to Alabama. His sense of otherness instantly suffocates the pages; he is not just a foreigner in a new land, there is also something just off about him than from the other boys. And yet due to his physical strengths, he is taken in–or perhaps better put dissolved into–his high school’s football team. Surrounded by good old fashioned American machismo, beer, and the Bible, Max adjusts and readjusts himself to mold into this new idea of manhood. However, upon meeting the school’s “witch” and openly gay student Pan, Max must see and confront aspects of himself he would rather have melt away in the Alabama humidity.  

Staring at my bookshelf, I could see a strange parallel to make with the ever classic and timeless syllabus-stuffer J.D Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye.

I had re-read Catcher during a rather bleak summer break my junior year of college (I even read the two books during the same season, look at that!). No longer a sneaky AP kid in high school relying on Sparknotes, I read the book for myself and just myself. And what difference it had made! I am sure Catcher needs no proper introduction. However, Holden Caulfield, the book’s contested and often (rightfully) ridiculed protagonist, no longer was an annoying, incomprehensible character for me to force a 5-paragraph essay on. He was a developed character filled with nuance, one that raised a magnifying glass to the many absurdities of forced masculinity, of what growing up too quickly and too soon can do to a kid. Holden tosses himself into problem after problem, loudly proclaiming the world to be full of phonies and yet bitterly aware that he may be the biggest phony of them all–a timeless conflict, really, and one even more compelling for a teenage boy to face. 

Both Max and Holden embark on their own personal odysseys, both literal and internal. Forced to face teens their own age who can be cruel while surrounded by adults who are even crueler, both young men reflect and re-reflect, contradict themselves and contradict themselves again as they struggle to catch a glimpse of who they truly want to be. Reading the two together, it is clear that even since its publication in 1951, the ripples of Catcher in the Rye and its haunting image of boyhood is still felt in the novels of today. Whimsical imagery coupled by the red hot anger of adolescent boys, both writers paint stark and gripping images of teens on the brink of adulthood. 

Thankfully, both Catcher in the Rye and Boys of Alabama are available in print through the BCCLS Libraries (and you can even score a Catcher in the Rye study guide if you have an upcoming assignment)!

Written by:
Emily Sierra
Library Assistant

Tags: ,

← Older Entries
Newer Entries →