Short Stories: The Poison Eaters

Holly Black sticks to her strengths in this dark, edgy collection of short stories. Like her other teen titles, this collection explores the bleeding underbelly of urban adolescence, where faeries meet GBLTQ lust, vampires sweat out their infection on youtube, and werewolves consort with royalty at a bloodstained court.

Librarians will be particularly thrilled by the doubly-geeky tale of classification gone wrong, and fans of Black's elfpunk Tithe and Valiant will find some familiar characters in the bleak The Land of Hearts Desire.

The standout tale is clearly the last in the set. In The Poison Eaters, three sisters fulfill their destiny by bringing death to their hapless suitors. Merely weapons, the end of the story twists and turns in revealing the double and triple crossings of fate that brought kings and knights to a poisonous end at their hands.

For teens with a taste for supernatural horror, Holly Black is reliably disturbing. Those who love her should check out titles by Laini Taylor or Justine Larbalestier.

Short Stories (supernatural horror)
Grades 10-12
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Fantasy: Finnikin of the Rock

When Finnikin was born, he was already privileged. Son of the Captain of the Royal Guard, friend of the prince and princesses, his childhood was perfect. All he wanted was to grow up to protect the future king, just like his father.

But in 5 short days, the kingdom of Lumatere is shattered. The Royal family is slaughtered, an imposter seizes the throne, and many of Lumatere's citizens, including Finn, are locked outside the kingdom by a blood curse.

For years, Finnikin has wandered the continent seeking justice and protection for his exiled people. They live in sordid refugee camps, rife with illness and choked with filth. Every exile holds in their heart a desperate wish to return home: but nobody knows how to break the curse, and open the magically sealed borders of Lumatere again.

When Finnikin and his mentor meet Evanjalin, and novice of the Goddess Lagrami, they are shocked when she claims to be able to lead them to Prince Balthazar, presumed dead all these years. But Evanjalin has an agenda of her own: she lies and schemes to accomplish some end that Finnikin can't make out. It's clear that Evanjalin loves Lumatere, and that she too wants to return home: but how can he trust her, with her wild claims of sleepwalking inside the dreams of the Lumaterans inside the wall? How can he trust a girl who won't tell him even the simplest details of her past? Even as he falls in love with Evanjalin's courage and strength, how can he allow her to lead the exiles to what might be their doom?

Finnikin must find his faith, and untwist the tangled strands of the past in order to regain his kingdom. And to gain redemption for Lumatere, he and the other Lumaterans must confront their darkest, most shameful history.

Fantasy
Grades 11 and up
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Fantasy: Incarceron

Incarceron is a prison, but it's also a whole world. For those inside its enormous walls, escape is a legend, and freedom a myth. No-one knows how large Incarceron is: there is nobody who has managed to cross it's length. Inside, there are not only cells, but strange metal forests, crumbling cities falling into ruin, and twisted wildernesses. Throughout all of Incarceron, the unblinking eye of the prison watches...and waits.

Finn is woke up, years ago, inside a barren cell. Since then, he's been struggling to live in the hostile world of Incarceron: he threw his lot in with a band of thugs and murderers, but he's sure that he was born for something else. In fact, Finn is sure that he was born Outside...free. When he finds a mysterious key that links him what what could be Outside, Finn and his companions embark on a dangerous journey through the unknown wilds of the prison.

His link to the outside is Claudia, a girl whose father is the prison Warden. As the daughter of a high ranking official, she's doomed to a loveless marriage. She dreams of throwing off the chains of Protocol that bind her, and her most dangerous desire is to break into the fastness of Incarceron, and discover what lies inside the prison that no-one can enter or leave.

These two are fated to meet: prophecy and their strong wills demand it. But how will they breach the prison walls? Is it even possible?

Fantasy

Grades 10-12

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Steampunk: Leviathan

So you're probably wondering, What in the world is Steampunk?? Steampunk is a genre term for books that cross victorian technology (e.g. the steam engine) with fantasy or science fiction.

In this case, Scott Westerfeld has created an alternate universe set just at the beginning of world war I. Twelve year old Aleksandar Ferdinand, son of the Archduke, is spirited away into hiding when his father and mother are assassinated. Those who know their history will be able to anticipate the ponderous, inevitable clashing of nations that follows, as Austria-Hungary crashes against the forces of 19th Century Europe.

Aleksandar's desperate flight to safety is interspersed with accounts from Deryn, a plucky British recruit posing as a boy for a chance to fly on the great liveship Leviathan. Britain's technology is Darwinist: they use science to interbreed creatures into vast, machine-like ecosystems. Even enormous ships like the Leviathan are completely living: and no-one knows how they work better than the mysterious civilian passenger, Dr. Barlow.

The war pits Darwinist countries against Technologist counties, who prefer the power and reliability of hard steel and metal engines. When the Leviathan is downed by German planes, Deryn and Alek are forced to find a way to blend the two technologies, and find a way for two completely different concepts to work together.

This looks like the start of a complex and fascinating series. The elements of history will engage many readers, while the original and carefully realized steampunk technologies will fascinate scientific minds. An excellent read.

Steampunk
Grades 8-11
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Fantasy: Ice

Sarah Beth Durst brings us another fantasy tale based on the classic fairy story "East of Sun, West of Moon". Protagonist Cassie was raised by her father and grandmother in an arctic ice station, with scientific instruments as her toys and the deadly cold arctic icefields as her playground. She's a confident and experienced outdoorswoman: and for her 18th birthday, she's promised herself she'll tag a Polar Bear.

But the bear that Cassie corners isn't an ordinary one: he's a Munaqsri, guardian of a species and custodian of polar bear souls. Not only that, but he says that Cassie was promised to him in lieu of her long-lost mother. Cassie is incredulous, but she can't deny Bear's magic. In return for becoming his bride, Cassie forces him to promise to rescue her mother from the Trolls who live east of the sun, and west of the moon.

Once married, Cassie finds herself falling in love with her life in the barren arctic. Far from being a wasteland, the Bear lives in a fabulous castle of ice, with snowy gardens and magical powers that provide for her every need. But when Cassie can't resist peeking at Bear while he is in human form, she nearly loses everything to her impulsiveness.

This book provides a very mature perspective on the classic fable, but one that older teens will find challenging and engaging. Cassie experiences loneliness, pregnancy, captivity and even death in her quest to free Bear. Her success hinges upon one startlingly obvious observation, but the book will keep you guessing right to the last page.

Fantasy

Grades 10 and up

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Fantasy: Dragonfly

Author Julia Golding has created a fairly standard fantasy novel here, with a typical princess-in-trouble, endangered betrothal, eventual reconciliation storytline. Dragonfly would be a fairly run of the mill fantasy, except that there are many unique touches and original details that make the book worth reading.

Fourth princess Taoshira is sent off to marry a rude, uncouth princeling from a foreign land. Neither she nor the prince are pleased with the prospect: Prince Ramil calls her a "white painted witch", and Tashi has her formal sensibilities offended time and again when she arrives in the much more casual land of Gerfal.

Tashi sends a message to her co-princesses calling off the wedding, but before she can announce her intentions she and prince Ramil are both kidnapped by their mutual enemy, Emperor Fergox Spearthrower. Through their wits and perserverence, Tashi and Ramil escape, and find that their opinions of the other have changed drastically for the better during their ordeal.

The plot is quite predictable, but the details of princess Taoshira's complex and formal religion are standouts. Her prayer sequences and thoughts on religion will be of interest to any teen with an interest in philosophy or world religions.

grades 8-11

Fantasy

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Fantasy Thriller: Bones of Faerie

Nuclear war, disease, zombies: these are the standard premises around which most apocolyptic fiction books are built. Janni Lee Simner bucks the trend with this tense, horror-filled YA novel about the end of the world as we know it.

15 year old Liza can't remember a time when plants and forests didn't crave the taste of human blood. She lives in a small village, where the residents fortify their homes against the bloodthirsty faerie magic, and cast out anyone who shows any signs of magic of their own.

It's a tenuous, dangerous existence, and Liza finds out how close she is to disaster when her father casts out her newborn sister for having silver faerie eyes. Just a week after her sister's death, Liza's mother disappears from the village: everyone gives her up as lost, for surely no-one could survive in the sinister forests that surround the town.

When Liza discovers that the faerie magic is growing in her, she knows that she must flee the village for the safety of her friends and family. Matthew, a boy who also shows a glimmer of faerie magic, decides to go with her. Together, they decide to search for Liza's mother in the deadly forest: neither one knows anything about the world beyond their village's boundaries, and so their search is blind. Slowly they realize that finding Liza's mother may shed light on the origins of the cataclysmic war between humans and faeries, and that their hybrid faerie magic may be the key to finding a new way of life in a world where humans are no longer the peak species.

Fantasy/thriller
Grades 10-12
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You can't trust Micah. Eveyone believes that she's a compulsive liar, but that might be the only true thing her high school classmates will ever know about her.

Micah doesn't know why she lies, or if she does, she's not going to tell. Sometimes her lies seem so real that she's not sure herself what's true and what's false. But when her boyfriend dies horribly, Micah's history means that everyone suspects her: the police, her friends, her parents, even herself.

Micah isn't a likeable heroine, and you'll be wondering right up until the end whether or not she's responsible for Zach's death. That's ok: Micah's wondering too. The real mystery is what could possibly make a pretty, smart teenage girl into a pathological liar? You'll be absolutely surprised when you find out.





Science Fiction
Grades 10-12
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Fantasy: The Lost Conspiracy

Fantasy is a new genre for author Frances Hardinge. In this book, she's created a detailed and original world where some people are born with the ability to send their senses outwards. These people are revered as oracles, and called The Lost.

Arilou is one of these lost, or so everyone believes. Her sister, Hathin, is Arilou's attendant: it's her job to keep Arilou safe and happy while her senses wander the world. Both girls belong to a native tribe that is feared and oppressed by the ruling colonists: a clear parallel is drawn between British colonialism here, and all the usual stereotypes apply (stiff-necked, overly proper and ignorant colonials rule over the wise indigenous tribes)

The stereotype might be an old one, but Hardinge uses it to good effect. Her indigenous people are particularly original: Hathin's tribe (known as the Lace) have unique and interesting customs, including smiling all the time (even when deeply unhappy or stressed). Add in a couple of truly evil antagonists, and things get really interesting.

Tensions between the Lace and the colonials come to a head when the Lost of the island seems to be murdered, invisibly, all at once: only Arilou escapes, together with Hathin. The rest of the book is spent unraveling a sinister, island wide conspiracy, where telling friend from foe is difficult, and uncovering a path that leads to a better future seems impossible.

Fantasy

Grades 6-10

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Fantasy:Ash

New author Malinda Lo has written a haunting, atmospheric fairy tale based loosely on the Cinderella story. Ash is angry and confused when her merchant father remarries soon after her mother dies. To console herself, Ash spends time at her mother's grave, despite the local greenwitch's warnings. "They will come for her!" cautions Solanya, and Ash knows that "they" are the faeries who have lived in the wood since time began. Sure enough, they do come for Ash; but she is too young for the mysterious Sidhean, who sends her back to her dreary life.

When Ash's father also dies, the teenage girl is uprooted from her childhood home and village, and made a servant to her stepmother and stepsisters in the city. Torn between the mysterious and seductive world of faerie and a startling new friendship with the King's Huntress, Ash unwittingly bargains her soul for the one thing that could keep her from willingly leaving the mortal world: love. At the end, this fairy tale has a fresh, sweet love story between Ash and the huntress Kaisa. After finding her heart, Ash must discover a way to fulfill her bargain with the dangerous Sidhean, while being true to the only person in the city who sees her for who she really is.

Fantasy
Grades 9-12
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