End-Of-Year Catch-up: Teen Fiction

 The Reformed Vampire Support Group by Catherine Jinks

• Very funny story about pathetic, spindly, whiny vampires with recurring gastrointestinal issues and no superpowers whatsoever.   

Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi

• Another near-future dystopia, this one in a post-oil world where sea levels have risen dramatically. Nailer is a desperately poor boy from a ship breaking yard trying to survive and escape his grim circumstances.  The story is well-written, with plausible characters, some good adventure, and a little social analysis.  Well done. 

The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson

• Jenna Fox awakes from a long coma with no memory of her previous life.  As she pieces her world together she begins to question her own humanity and the ethics of biomedical advancements. 
• I wasn't entirely satisfied with this book.  As a personal-identity exploration, it worked just fine, but the broader social issues were addressed shallowly.  I was also irked by a character being morally let off the hook for beating someone nearly to death just because he was a drug dealer.  

The Declaration by Gemma Malley

• This book peeved me so much I almost didn't finish it.  The characters were fairly flat and the premise is unconvincing.  Science has discovered a way for people to live forever, but due to overpopulation fears, childbearing is largely criminalized.  Plotholes abound.  People would not blindly accept this.