YALSA's Top Ten Teen Texts of 2016

YALSA has also posted their 2016 Best Fiction for Young Adults. Of those many, many titles, they highlight their Top Ten:

Yay for TAYSHAS!

The Texas Library Association, earlier this month, released their list of high school recommended reads via TAYSHAS. Yay!

So far, I've read:

• The Steep and Thorny Way by Cat Winters (3/5 stars)
• And I Darken by Kiersten White (4/5 stars)
• The Way I Used to Be by Amber Smith (4/5 stars)
• If I Was Your Girl by Meredith Russo (4/5 stars)
• Replica by Lauren Oliver (4/5 stars)
• The Hired Girl by Laura Amy Schiltz (2/5 stars)
• Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys (5/5 stars)
• Highly Illogical Behavior by John Corey Whaley (3/5 stars)

You can see the full list of books on TAYSHAS 2017 here or you can feast your eyes on the list via infographic:

Book Review: The Assistants by Camille Perri

The Assistants is a dream novel for millennial readers. It features current internet jargon, the daily struggle of finances in a world where "Money buys less than it did a generation ago, while at the same time paychecks have dwindled" (Perri 191), nerdy-sweet love interests, pop culture and literature allusions, and stick-it-to-the-man-itis. And as someone who grew up in Texas, the Robert-isms that Tina's inner monologue quotes is spot-on with southern idioms. I definitely heard different people "saying" them in my head. The Assistants is a romp! 

Plus, I don't think I've ever felt so understood by the protagonist. Yes, I've identified with characters in books and movies before, but it really felt like Tina has experienced the same things that amalgamate into the humdrum of my everyday life: the endless scrolling, memes, and social justice plights of Tumblr; sprawled out in pajamas binge-watching Netflix; living the "comfort over style" wardrobe; the endless pop culture and literary references bouncing around in my head combining to make some weird Frankenstein tweet. I can't wait to see how other millennial authors depict us. I know I'm tired of being demonized by Baby Boomer media as lazy and unwise with my money.

5/5 stars