Book review: Brave New Girls (Anthology)

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I'm always cautious about reading anthologies, because they can be a mixed bag--I much prefer collections by a single author. However, this anthology sparked my interest because of its theme, and the fact that the proceeds were being used to fund an effort to attract more young women to STEM fields.

Overall, the the quality of the writing was very good. A few stories fell prey to common issues like POV inconsistencies and a tendency to indulge in infodumping, but those could be fixed with tighter editing. Most of the stories portrayed realistic, gritty protagonists without pandering to common stereotypes and the dreaded love triangle that seems to pervade much of YA literature. For the most part, the stories showcased their characters' abilities to use their brains to solve problems, and that's the kind of science fiction I especially enjoy reading.

It's hard to pick favorites when there are so many good stories, but I enjoyed these the most: The Outpost by Paige Daniels; Blink by Kate Moretti; Graveyard Shift by Kimberly Giarratano; and Fledgling by Jason Kucharik. Overall, this anthology will appeal to most lovers of YA science fiction and speculative fiction.

Note: I received a free advance review copy of this book from the publisher.


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A tale of three trilogies

In the past year or so, I've read three trilogies that have redefined the world of YA science fiction. They have, each in their own way, made me rethink the first (or actually zeroth) draft of my own YA work in progress. The trilogies are all dystopic, brutally so. I enjoyed them all, for different reasons.

The first, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, was a cold, hard look at the effect of violence on children. The basic premise of the books is that children are thrown together in an arena and have to fight to the death until one emerges victorious. As you might expect, these books are extremely, graphically violent.

The second is the Cold Awakening trilogy by Robin Wasserman. These books deal with a future in which those rich enough to afford the procedure can have their consciousness downloaded into an artificial body, in the event of their death. It addresses issues of human identity and self-perception with a light touch, so that the characters never come across as preachy.

I just finished reading the Chaos Walking trilogy by Patrick Ness, and this is the one that made the greatest impression on me. The issues addressed are timeless: war and suffering, humanity's greed and cruelty to its own species and others. Like the Hunger Games, this trilogy is extremely violent, covering issues that range from the use of torture to interrogate prisoners to violent subjugation of women in a male-dominated society. Most importantly, it has realistic characters that are shaped by their choices--no-one is truly good or truly evil.

(I could add a fourth, the Gone trilogy by Michael Grant, but I only read the first book.)

Dystopic science fiction seems to be what's hot in the YA market at the moment. I wonder what that tells us about our present-day hopes and aspirations, and those of our children.