Saturday, March 21, 2015

Eight YA novels that adults also should read

At the Guardian children’s literature expert Daniel Hahn recommended eight YA novels that adults also should read, including:
Revolver: Marcus Sedgwick

Sedgwick has written across the age ranges, from children to adults, but it is his dark and atmospheric YA-branded work that best shows off what he can do. In Revolver, all his skill is com­pacted into something small and potent, controlled and devastating. As it begins, 100 miles north of the Arctic Circle, in 1910, 15-year-old Sig discovers his father’s corpse; but how did he die? The arrival of a threatening stranger forces Sig to investigate his parents’ past and confronts him with big quest­ions about his own future. Set over just a couple of days, Sedgwick’s spare, crisply written narrative flips between the past and recent present, but the ten­sion never disappears, and as he creates this most hostile of environ­ments, it’s impossible not to be drawn in.
Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue