Five Things I Want from YA in 2015

In 2014, I fell in love with The Winner’s Curse by Marie Rutkoski, The Kiss of Deception by Mary E. Pearson and A Thousand Pieces of You by Claudia Gray. I adored debuts by Anne Blankman and Emery Lord. I went to theaters for the big screen adaptations of John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars, Veronica Roth’s Divergent and Suzanne Collins’ Mockingjay. There was a new Scott Westerfeld book (Afterworlds!) and I’m still struggling to let go of Leigh Bardugo’s Alina, Laini Taylor’s Karou and Stephanie Perkin’s Anna, Lola and Isla. Also in 2014, I discovered #WeNeedDiverseBooks and vowed to read more diversely.  

Basically, 2014 was awesome. Here’s what I’m excited/desperate/hoping for from 2015!

Fantastic Debuts

Right now I’m reading All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven and I’m loving it! Technically, she’s not a debut author, but this is her YA debut, and that counts in my book! I’m excited for other debuts like Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard, An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir, The Night We Said Yes by Lauren Gibaldi and The Conspiracy of Us by Maggie Hall (which I’ve already read and loved and it comes out next week!).

 

Sequels/Series Continuations

The Winner’s Crime, The Heart of Betrayal, Conspiracy of Blood and Smoke, Throne of Glass #4, The Heir, Winter. SO MUCH WANT! 2014 was a great year for series beginnings and I can’t wait for their sequels and other series continuations!
 
 

More Diversity in Books and Movies

Well, I pretty much want this always. More diversity on the shelves and at the theaters. And it'd be nice if (particularly in the case of YA books) their covers reflected their diversity. One of my goals for 2015 (see last week's post) is to read more diversely. I even made a list of seven diverse books I want to read this year and hung it behind my desk!

 

Books from My Favorite Authors

All Fall Down by Ally Carter, A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas and A Royal Wedding by Meg Cabot. I’ve sampled all these and WOW! I can barely wait a couple weeks for the start to Carter's new series (I've already pre-ordered the signed edition, thank you very much!), let alone wait until May and June for the other two! Now just give me a new J.K. Rowling fantasy series and I’m set for life!

  

Things I mentioned last January that I’m still waiting on

This includes: a new John Green book and the Next Big Thing. The former is self-explanatory, but the latter… well, maybe John Green is the next big thing? Vampires, then dystopia, and maybe now it’s realistic fiction? (I refuse to call it ‘sick lit.’) It’s been argued that realistic fiction isn’t a trend, as it’s always there and it's always popular. But maybe the John Green/Rainbow Rowell/Gayle Forman brand of realistic fiction is the next trend? Or maybe if Stephenie Meyer was the forefront of the vampire trend, and Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games was the kick-start to the dystopian trend, maybe John Green is the beginning of the next trend? I suppose this remains to be seen.

 

Here's hoping for an awesome 2015!