#teen fiction

[notdxbya]

when i say i have "main character energy," i mean the nerdy introvert with anxiety and a general distaste for humans

[littleeyesofpallas]

I have always loved Molly Knox Ostertag's work, in particular the really cute, heartwarming tact of the Witch Boy trilogy's trans allegory and the way it feels so well built to walk that fine line of appropriately nuanced but still perfectly digestible for its intended teen audience.

Well The Deep Dark is more of precisely that style of writing and it blows me away just as much now as Witch Boy did the first time I read it. It's exactly the kind of book I wish I'd had as a kid, and the sort of thing that lights a little hopeful flame in the jaded dark corners of my heart. It's the sort of thing that helps me feel optimistic about a generation of kids who will grow up with this kind of story as their formative personal mythos.

I know I don't usually do reviews or recommendation on this blog so I dunno who this is for really, and it certainly won't have any particular reach, but if you find yourself with the chance to, I really can't recommend The Deep Dark enough. And of course everything else Molly Knox Ostertag has had a hand in, even the one's she's not been the sole author on.

[hadesoftheladies]

FEMALE MOVIE/TV RECS (PART 7 / YA & COMING OF AGE)

got inspired from a recommendation post so decided to make a list of movies and shows with female-centric stories/female protagonists. since i can't post all of the genres in one post, i'll split it into multiple posts and y'all can save or add to the list as you wish. (disclaimer: i have watched most of these, but i only know about the existence of others. not every movie/show on these lists will be my recommendation. my recommendations will be beneath the list with reasons. also some of these are way better than others in terms of storytelling/performance--which is why i'll list my faves separately):

Common Themes/Tropes:

-Girls fighting with their parents

-Crushes and romance (and love triangles)

-Strong friendships

-Exploring sexuality (most of these have scenes of a sexual nature)

-Finding herself (or learning how to grow up)

-A lot of (oftentimes comedic) blunders

-Enemies/rivals to lovers

-Girls getting up to no good (or girls getting up to good but getting derailed)

ONES I HAVEN'T WATCHED:

Darby and The Dead

Girlhood

Blood & Water

Eighth Grade

I Am Not Okay With This

Skate Kitchen

The Sisterhood of The Travelling Pants

Ladybird

We Are Lady Parts

ONES I'D RECOMMEND

Derry Girls (9/10) (GOATED SHOW!)

Bottoms (9/10) (hilarious and insane in the best ways!)

Paper Girls (7/10) (the chaos that happens when adult you meets preteen you)

Everything Now (8/10) (actually deals with eating disorders appropriately, the most humanizing teen show i've ever seen)

Booksmart (8/10)(a calmer version of Bottoms, but still pretty unhinged and witty)

PERSONAL NOTES

The Miseducation of Cameron Post is the more sober version of But I'm A Cheerleader, where two lesbians get sent to conversion therapy camps. I found both entertaining and refreshing, full of nuance and oftentimes clever about the writing. The performances were also quite good.

I remember My First Summer being bittersweet, but I think there was one scene that made me a little antsy (because the girls in this are pretty young). If it was done tastefully is better left interpreted by those who decide to watch it.

Do Revenge is a whole bag of everything. Mean Girls meets Bottoms. Funny, cruel and unhinged (yet also a little sweet). It was overall fun stuff.

Skate Kitchen has a spin-off show by HBO called Betty.

I barely remember the one episode of Blood & Water I watched, but I know there were things I found to raunchy too be tasteful, yet there was also quite a bit that was still pretty solid and sweet. Not sure I can recommend because I don't know enough except it's about sisters.

If you like sweet and simple teen love stories, Rafiki and The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love are right up your alley.

I only watched one season of Never Have I Ever to emotionally support my sister who had started it. I have never felt such visceral second-hand embarrassment in my LIFE.

First Kill is Romeo and Juliet with vampires and monster hunters. I liked the actors/actresses but you can tell that the budget for this show wasn't that big. If you like Warrior Nun, though, you may like First Kill.

[lakecountylibrary]

LCPL WRAPPED 2024

Ok DON'T PANIC, this post is still true - it just broke containment a bit so we don't know how many people saw the original tags and might therefore be a little concerned to see THIS post.

We don't know what you, personally, checked out.

We have to track total circulation stats to make sure we're doing our job correctly and keeping a healthy collection (and to defend our budget), but these stats are anonymous!

Is one person responsible for every single One Piece check out? Is James Patterson artificially inflating his numbers by visiting our library constantly? Who knows! The only thing we know is that kids(?) really, really like Jeff Kinney books.

And so without further ado, here are the most checked-out items of 2024:

Want to compare to 2023? Here's 2023 wrapped

(ID: Images are lists of books; each list is typed out in the post under the image. /ID)

Most Checked-Out Adult Books:

Adult Fiction:

James Patterson was #3 last year, too, though with a different book.

1: The Women by Kristin Hannah 2: First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston 3: The #1 Lawyer by James Patterson 4: A Calamity of Souls by David Baldacci 5: The Exchange by John Grisham

Adult Nonfiction:

Prince Harry and Matthew Perry dropped a rank from 2023 to make way for Britney!

1: The Woman in Me by Britney Spears 2: Spare by Prince Harry 3: Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing by Matthew Perry 4: The Demon of Unrest by Erik Larson 5: I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy

Adult eBooks & eAudiobooks:

Format doesn't matter - people were reading The Women however they could!

1: The Women by Kristin Hannah 2: Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros 3: Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros 4: Funny Story by Emily Henry 5: First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston

Most Checked-Out YA Books:

Teen Fiction:

Welcome back reigning champ Suzanne Collins!

1: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins 2: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins 3: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling 4: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling 5: Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

Teen eBooks & eAudiobooks:

Major gains from Sarah J. Maas in this format - she didn't make the list with teens last year!

1: Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas 2: If He Had Been With Me by Laura Nowlin 3: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins 4: Powerless by Lauren Roberts 5: Crown of Midnight by Sarah J Maas

Teen Manga:

This is the first year we're sharing the top check-outs in this category!

1: One Piece by Eiichiro Oda 2: Bleach by Tite Kubo 3: Skip Beat! by Yoshiki Nakamura 4: Naruto by Masashi Kishimoto 5: My Hero Academia by Kōhei Horikoshi

Most Checked-Out Kids' Books:

Kids' Fiction:

AKA Mr. Kinney's House

1: No Brainer by Jeff Kinney 2: Diper Överlöde by Jeff Kinney 3: Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney 4: Big Shot by Jeff Kinney 5: Rowley Jefferson's Awesome Friendly Spooky Stories by Jeff Kinney

Kids' Graphic Novels:

Return of Babymouse! It was popular in 2022 but didn't rank in 2023. (Though, we also didn't separate out kids' graphic novels in 2023.)

1: Babymouse by Jennifer L. Holm & Matthew Holm 2: Wings of Fire by Tui T. Sutherland 3: Dog Man: The Scarlet Shredder by Dav Pilkey 4: Cat Kid Comic Club: Influencers by Dav Pilkey 5: Dog Man: Twenty Thousand Fleas Under the Sea by Dav Pilkey

Kids' eBooks & eAudiobooks:

Rick Riordan with the steel chair?? I suspect we have Disney to thank for this revival.

1: The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan 2: Claudia and the Bad Joke by Ann M. Martin 3: Twenty Thousand Fleas Under the Sea by Dav Pilkey 4: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling 5: No Brainer by Jeff Kinney

[trexalicious]

❤

[promptsforpoemproseandplay]

Every sentence must do one of two things—reveal character or advance the action.

Kurt Vonnegut

[with-our-hearts-in-it]

Out-of-context quotes from TWM

[somedeadbeatloz3r69]

HEY U!!! do u like reading? u do?? WOW!!! read my super cool yet tragic [mlm] book!!! give it a shot trust 🙏🙏🙏

its HOPEFULLY gonna end up being atLEAST 200 pages In google doc units its about two opposites who end up becoming friends in like the WORST circumstances ever. it's still in the works but chapter 1 is out :3 TRIGGER WARNING : substance abuse, addiction, suggestive discussions. the link :

Always opposites. - br4akcorexxdoxy - Wattpad

[22240-1]

OUR SECRET DIARY (2023)

[mantimae]

I wanna take a sec to talk about Lucky Penny.

If you haven’t been lucky enough to have heard of Lucky Penny before now: it is my favorite graphic novel. It has been since junior year of High-school. I am now a senior in my final semester in college (and accounting for my Covid style gap year) Lucky Penny has been my #1 fave graphic novel for six years and counting.

It’s funny, it’s raunchy, the characters feel real, the story is well paced and takes some very fun and unexpected twists! However, the story and art aren’t the only reason I love Lucky Penny. I originally found Yuko Ota and Ananth Hirsh via their autobiographical book of daily life comics Johnny Wander: Our Cats Are More Famous Than Us, which I had picked up from the local library and was absolutely thrilled to find out was a webcomic that at the time was still actively updating. On their website (linked here!) you can actually read Lucky Penny and their Autobiographical comics completely for free as well as their current (still updating) work, Barbarous.

For me Lucky Penny acts as a bridge and a love letter to middle school me, who avidly read webcomics on solo hosting sights, many of which have been lost to time or have simply stopped updating. Self published webcomics outside of companies like Tapas (formerly Tapastic) and LINE Webtoon have ensured that solo host websites are far and few in between and routinely get looked over. Despite existing in the face of these big companies Johnny Wander lives on.

Lucky Penny is like warm soup. It’s comforting and every read feels different depending on where I am emotionally and just in my life in general. You can find Lucky Penny free to read on Johnny Wander here and even grab a physical copy for yourself here if you prefer paper. Updates on Yuko Ota and Ananth Hirsh’s current work and activities can be found on their respective tumblrs @aidosaur and @ananthhirsh

If you choose to read Lucky Penny I hope you love it. I’m sure you will. :)

[bethly126]

Weekend Reads: Red, White, and Blue

This is a day late because a cold has sidelined me, but it is a long weekend here in the US because Monday is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, which is a federal holiday. Monday is also Inauguration for the U.S. President. So, with that in mind, here are some “American themed” (very broadly speaking) suggestions for your next read. Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie This is the story of…

[maliha-lili]

A Kiss for Maya by Katherine Key

"I was so confused about how I feel about her, but in this moment, my heart knows. It knows how I feel, and it wants her to know. I love her."

[aclaywrites]

Here’s my butch/femme (kinda) skater ballerina romance. I’d love to hear anything anyone has to say!

[arconinternet]

4 Fantastic Novels (Book, Daniel Pinkwater, 1979/1981/1985/1992, collected in 2000)

You can digitally borrow this collection here.

You can find free audiobooks of two of them on the author's website here.

[elowenbaudelaire]

"That's the secret. We do nothing. Or as close to nothing as we can."

-Jerry Spinelli, Stargirl (2000)

[thirteenandahalfcrows]

Did anyone else eat up the Harley Merlin books cuz I’ve never heard anyone talk about them and the author was pumping that shit outttttttrr

Or was this an original experience