Booknotized

If, like me, you love, love, love YA crossover fantasy, action-adventure, mystery and suspense, steampunk, dystopian, and ghost stories (any of the above contemporary or historical), this is the place to find out about an assortment of mainstream and indie titles that might just grab your attention…

As for me, I’m an avid reader of everything YA, animated writer and professional editor.

After spending most of my youth reading the kinds of books I’ll post about here, I tried in vain to become a more “serious” reader.

Blah, blah, blah.

Books like these are what got me started reading voraciously at a young age. Why change just because I’m taller? Honestly, I get enough misery from the news. I don’t need realistic fiction! (Well, maybe just sometimes.) For the most part, I want to be transported to another world, or in the least, another time. Besides, YA/otherworldly books tackle some heavy issues, social, emotional, political…if you’ve ever read one, you know what I mean.

So, I kept reading just as I had before. When the opportunity came up to write my masters thesis about Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, and Katniss Everdeen, I took it – no apologies to my critical theory-minded classmates. They can have their Derrida. I prefer J.  K. Rowling’s version of postmodernism-in-action.

I do think that critical opponents of this type of reading (you know who you are!) need to realize is that these kinds of books are BIG for a reason. They contain types of storylines, epic themes, universal issues, and entertaining plots and characters that have held the masses captivated for ages – we just used to call them myths and fairy tales. Half of my aim here is to continue diving into the historical roots of today’s BiGGEST crossover bestsellers. What were their influences? Where did this modern movement come from? Why has it always and does it continue to make such a big splash with so many people?

The other half of my goal is to expose some smaller names that I think deserve more attention. And, finally, the last half of it (warning: you have entered the NO MATH zone) is just to enjoy the books I love so much, in a different way.

Oh, and Appa, my Flying Bison, lives in my library, so you’ll see him spotlighted every once in a while with our favorite new (and old) authors.

So, I hope you find a few titles here that you can enjoy as much as I have – or a few warnings that give you pause before clicking the “buy” button. As LeVar Burton used to say, however, “Don’t take my word for it.”

**Just in case you wondered, all content, self-inflated opinions, corny jokes, spelling errors, and adoring and/or scathing drivel on this site is entirely my own, done on my own time, for my own reasons, and is unaffiliated with my company or (paid) work.**