Review: Buzz Books 2014: Young Adult by Publishers Lunch

SUMMARY FROM NETGALLEY.COM:

This inaugural edition of Buzz Books: Young Adult provides substantial pre-publication excerpts from more than 20 forthcoming young adult and middle grade books. Now everyone can share the same access to the newest YA voices the publishing industry is broadcasting for the fall/winter season. At the end of most excerpts, you will find a link to the full galley on NetGalley!
Excerpts include new work from established giants of the field (Ellen Hopkins; Garth Nix; Scott Westerfeld), authors best-known for their adult books (Carl Hiaasen; Michael Perry; Ben Tripp; Meg Wolitzer), and genuine newsmakers—including the first of James Frey’s attention-getting Endgame trilogy, which will include interactive elements developed in association with Google’s Niantic Labs.
You will find a full range of YA titles previewed here —dystopian, romance, fantasy, sci-fi, humor, literary and more — and you will even find some works for tweens and middle-grade readers (Vivian Apple and the End of the World, Zoo at the Edge of the World, and The Rogue Knight. As always, many are sure to make bestseller and “best of” lists.
We’re especially proud to announce that two of our titles will be featured at this year’s Book Expo America convention on their own YA Editors Buzz panels: Frank Portman’s King Dork Approximately, and Robin Talley’s debut Lies We Tell Ourselves. In addition, a grand total of 15 out of our 21 Buzz Books: Young Adult authors will be in attendance at BEA.
In addition to the excerpts, there’s a great round-up from Publishers Lunch of dozens of noteworthy fall/winter YA books to add to your must-have list.
Start reading some of the best future books right now, and then share the fun by telling your friends and family to download this free edition of Buzz Books for themselves at any major ebookstore or at buzz.publishersmarketplace.com.

MY TAKE:
I decided to request this book after requesting the Buzz Books Fall/Winter one.

Buzz Books 2014: Young Adult features excerpts from upcoming YA selections.

As with the other Buzz Books 2014 sampler, a number of the excerpts were just okay for me, with a few excerpts standing out.

I read the summary of Black Ice by Becca Fitzpatrick and thought that it would not be my cup of tea. As it turns out, the book was much more interesting than I thought it would be. I hope the later chapters are as good as the first ones.

Endgame by James Frey also intrigued me. It's a little bit of Hunger Games mixed with 39 Clues.

Another notable standout was I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson. The full version of the book alternates between the point-of-view of two characters, Jude and Noah. The excerpt only has Noah's point-of-view. That was fine by me because I found Noah to be totally engaging.

The only book I was able to download/request was Vivian Apple at the End of the World, because the other books I liked were only available to US NetGalley members. Vivian Apple feels like it could turn into a pretty dark book, but what I've read was enough to keep me interested and curious to find out what happens to Vivian and her friend.

One other book I liked was Afterworlds by Scott Westerfield. It alternates between the contents of a book and the life of the author so it might get a little disorienting, but I really liked reading the chapter that was supposed to come from the author's novel. It was pretty realistic and the writing style was poetic without getting too flowery and complicated.


Thanks to NetGalley and Publisher's Lunch for the e-copy.

FAVORITE QUOTE/S:

She used to say it like she was opening a door for him to walk through, not closing one in his face.

RATING: