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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Fantasy: Moribito II: Guardian of the Darkness

Moribito is a very popular series that has been translated from the original Japanese. Balsa, our heroine, is a mercenary and bodyguard who has been fighting since she was spirited away from her home at the age of six. Exiled to a strange land, she was raised by her warrior mentor to be a fierce fighter. Now, nearly twenty five years later, Balsa is a mature and complex woman with strong morals and unparalleled spear fighting skills.

In book one, Balsa was charged with guarding a child prince whose spirit held the key to the country's rains. Balsa defended Chagum against assassins, disasters, and other threats; her skill saved not only Chagum, but the kingdom itself.

Now Balsa wants to return home, to the land beyond the mountains. She was driven from her homeland of Kanbal as a child, hunted by assassins and warriors; she watched her mentor die before her. When she finds that she was betrayed by the very warriors who should have protected her mentor and her country, Balsa swears that she will take revenge. With the help of two Kanbalese children, Balsa must uncover the conspiracy that threatens to destroy her kingdom.

Fantasy

Grades 9-12

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Fantasy/Short Stories: Lips Touch Three Times

New writer Laini Taylor has a gift for creating unique, mesmerizingly fallible characters. In this insipred collection of short stories, three strong female heroines navigate curses, goblin entrapments, and alternate worlds.

The three fantasy tales are each illustrated with short graphic prequels in rich reds and blacks. These graphic introductions give readers a backstory that can't be fully understood until they unravel the text of the tales.

The stories all have a thread of romance, and a chilling core of horror. The author has woven legends, zoroastrian myths, and victorian poetry into a compellingly dark series of tales where the good may not always come out on top.

Fantasy - Short Stories

Grades 10 and up

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Fantasy: Fire

Fire is a monster. She looks human, but she's part of a separate species; her kind appear similar to normal animals or people, but they are incredibly, irresistably attractive. Kings and paupers alike are drawn to them, and for Fire, this is a curse.

Fire has spent her entire life hiding her wild flame coloured hair, and trying to pass as normal. She fears that her monstrous gift - to read and influence the minds of men - will be used for evil by those in power. People fear her power at the same time as they adore her, and she lives under a constant threat of assassination.

But inside, Fire is a normal girl, with hopes, fears and desires of her own. When she is summoned to the King's palace to help uncover a plot against the country, Fire decides to go despite the risk to herself. She knows that many in the King's city will hate her for her power, and believe that she is a risk to the throne: nevertheless, Fire knows that she can't stay in seclusion forever, hiding her face and her gifts.

Fire's journey to the capital is fraught with danger and, strangely, romance. She struggles to understand her place in human society, and wrestles with the fears and joys that are part of every adolescent's experience.

This powerfully written fantasy novel is a gripping read, full of internal growth and struggles. It's a companion book to Kristin Cashore's other award winning book "Graceling", but does not need to be read as a sequel.

Fantasy

Grades 10 and up

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Suspense: Ruined

Rebecca isn't too pleased about being uprooted from her stylish New York City life, and transplanted to the middle of New Orleans. Sure, she'll be living with her aunt and cousin in the famous garden district, but what about all her friends, her school, her life? But it's not like she has a choice: her Dad will be working in China for a few months, and that means she has to go.

The Garden District shows no signs of the Hurricane Katrina disaster, but Rebecca begins to suspect that something even more destructive lies beneath the old money attitudes and southern manners of the girls and boys at her exclusive new private school. They hang out at night in the creepily elegant Lafayette cemetary, and there's talk of centuries-old curses and murder.

No one will tell Rebecca anything about what's going on, though they all seem to know something: so when she meets a honest to goodness ghost in the cemetary, she takes the opportunity to ask a few questions of her own. Pretty soon, Rebecca is caught up in the resolution of the curse...and she's far more involved than even she realizes.

A spooky and atmospheric tale that includes a fair amount of really interesting history about race relations and the foundation of fabulous city of New Orleans.

Suspense

Grades 10-12

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Fantasy/Horror: Malice

Malice is the perfect book for kids who aren't afraid of the dark. Believe me, there's plenty of darkness in this graphic novel hybrid! Part comic, part thriller novel, this book will keep middle schoolers on the edge of their seats with a mix of horror and suspense.

Everybody at Kady's school has heard of Malice. It's a secret comic series about an alternate world, full of deadly tricks and traps. The sinister Tall Jake is master of this alternate reality, and if you want to get in, you must say the rhyme six times: Tall Jake, take me away.

Kady is overcome by trepidation when her friend Luke says the rhyme. She's not sure why, but she knows that Malice is evil, and that Tall Jake is no fairytale meant to scare gullible kids. When Luke disappears the very next day, Kady and Seth are sure that something horrible has happened. There's only one way to help Luke, and that's to enter the nightmare world of Malice...and do their best to survive.

This wildly popular book is unique and original in it's darkly inventive descriptions (and pictures!) of Malice's beasts and monsters. Highly recommended for brave kids.

Fantasy/Horror

Grades 7-10

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Adventure/Thriller: Lockdown

Lockdown is the ferocious new title in Alexander Gordon Smith's new series, Escape from Furnace. For kids who like Anthony Horowitz's Alex Rider series, or Darren Shan's Cirque du Freak, this book will strike exactly the right balance of adventure and terror.

The trouble started when Alex got caught. Sure, he'd been stealing cars and breaking into houses since he was a kid, but he'd never been busted by the cops...until one night, the B&E seems just too easy. Sure enough, there's someone waiting inside...and they're not the police. Not even close.

Alex runs, but there's no escape. Soon he's in jail for a crime he didn't commit: murder one. And not just any jail, but the infamous Furnace Penitentiary, a state of the art prison for young offenders. Years ago, England decided to deal with the gang problems by building the most sophistocated prison ever. It sinks down miles underground, built into a deep crevice in the rock. No one has ever escaped: anyone who tries is executed with extreme prejudice. Alex can feel hope falling away from him with every metre the elevator drops, but he hasn't got a clue what's really going on in the guts of Furnace's tunnels.

Death is the least of Alex's worries when he reaches the bottom of the pit, for the boring mundanity of prison jobs and tasteless slop for meals is punctuated by the terror of being hauled away by the nightmarish prison guards, and turned into something horrible. Escape is the only option for Alex, because he knows that even in death there's no way out of Furnace.

Adventure/Thriller

Grades 8-12

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Graphic Novel: Orange

This graphic novel is definitely aimed at mature readers. With themes of violence, suicide, sex and drugs, it gives a teen perspective on a variety of shocking and disturbing topics.

This book tells the story of Orange, a teenager coming of age in the heart of a dense, gritty city. Orange has decided that she's got nothing worth living for: not her shallow friends, disengaged parents, nonexistent future: not even the empty promise of love. But just as she's poised to leap from a barren rooftop, a stranger enters her life, and changes everything.

This is a tale of discovery, growth, loss and redemption. There's no simple, happy ending to this tale; everything is complicated, and there's no easy answer to the terrible feelings of disconnection and isolation that drive Orange to her limits.

Readers will put down this graphic novel feeling confused, frightened, and inspired. The intense, brilliantly-hued art will captivate you; every page is a masterpiece, bursting with emotion and tension. Many teens will find some echo here of the confusion and isolation they feel as they make the difficult transition from childhood into adulthood. Orange's lesson - that life is worth living, even when painful - will inspire even as it hurts.

Graphic Novel

Grades 12 and up

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Fantasy: The Demon's Lexicon

This book will strongly appeal to teens who are tired of Twilight readalikes, but are still interested in titles that focus on werewolves, the occult, and other supernatural topics. This book is full of sinister magicians, secrets, an demons who long to possess the bodies of the unfortunate, and destroy the world.

Nick and his brother Alan are on the run. They've been running ever since their father was murdered by a circle of wizards, years before. Alan keeps trying to pretend that their lives are normal, but Nick knows that their family is anything but. They move everytime the witches catch up to them; they carry weapons everywhere; their mad mother hides in her room, and inexplicably hates the sight of Nick. The closest they get to normal is that Nick attends high school when he can...but only because Alan insists.

Things spiral out of control when two of Nick's classmates show up on the family's doorstep, begging for help. Jamie has been marked for death by a demon, and Alan takes a mark of his own defending them from an attack. Nick is furious: his only anchor in their chaotic life is Alan, and the only way to save his brother is to hunt down and kill the magicians and demons who are stalking them.

Nick is strong: he's always protected their family with his sword and his cold indifference for anything but their own future. When he discovers that Alan has been lying to him for years, the foundation of his strength is shaken, though not toppled. But then he discovers that the lie goes deeper than anything he could have imagined...right to the bottom of his soul.

This is a powerfully written book, with a totally unique main character. It's great to find a fresh and fascinating voice in a sea of books about vampires and other supernatural entities. I highly recommend this title.

Fantasy

Grades 9-12

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