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how much should ebooks cost?

How Much Would You Pay for an eBook?

First off, apologies for the lack of any sort of activity here. My degree has pretty much sapped all of my reading time – I study American and English Literature, which means I spent a significant part of my week reading stuff – and haven’t really found a way to balance pleasure with work. So … Continue reading

The Greatest Human Achievement is Fiction

The greatest human achievement is fiction, and here’s why: With fiction we escape worlds, we fall in love, we become part of families, of communities, of stories. We meet people like us or different, those who are more moral, those who hurt like we do, those that think those dark thoughts that we sometimes do … Continue reading

4 Space-Based YA Novels You Should Read

To celebrate the launch of the UK’s first official astronaut Tim Peake to the International Space Station, I’ve got four excellent young adult novels that will blast you off into new worlds! Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff Illuminae is the story of refugees being pursued from an illegal mining colony in deep space. … Continue reading

why mockingjay part 2 sucked

Why Mockingjay Part 2 Sucked

When I first read The Hunger Games trilogy, back in 2011, the Arab Springs were in full force. All over the middle east, a revolutionary wave of protests and demonstrations were lead against many dictatorships and cruel regimes. We’re still seeing the after effects of these clashes; Syria is overrun in a civil war between … Continue reading

I never read chapter extracts here's why

I Never Read Book Samples…Here’s Why

Here’s a confession: I never, ever read chapter extracts or samples when I receive them. Often, publishers will release these extracts in the run up to publication to get people excited. Unfortunately, I don’t get excited by them: the very idea of reading just one chapter, or a chunk of book, and then having to … Continue reading

Thoughts from Paper Towns

Because I’m currently in Australia, I was able to see Paper Towns on Tuesday 21st July, about 3 days before it gets released in most other places. Yay for Australia! I wasn’t actually anticipating seeing this film in cinemas at all; apart from the fact that I am out and about backpacking in the Southern … Continue reading

Things I want to see in LGBT YA

Things I Want to See in LGBT YA

(This post was actually written a long time before the USA gay marriage ruling – but I couldn’t let such a golden opportunity pass without posting something relevant!) #WeNeedDiverseBooks has been going for a while, which is great – but here are some things I’d LOVE to see in YA fiction, because I feel like … Continue reading

I went to bea and this is what I thought

I Went to BEA and This Is What I Thought

I walked into the Jarvits center and was staggered by its size. Here was a convention center, its atria clad in glass, that took a couple of minutes to walk from end to end. It was huge (but also probably just normal convention center size; I’d never been to one before). And all of it … Continue reading

Dear UKYA blogging community: don’t get your knickers in a twist.

I love you very much. Lots of you are great friends – we’ve had super times talking and reading and partying together. But recently, we’ve been going through a few existential crises. A few comments from authors, or by publicists in emails, have had us flustered. We feel like we’re being treated unfairly for something … Continue reading

Are John Green’s Books Better Read than Watched?

(And by John I mean his books, obviously!) Having just seen the first Paper Towns trailer – below – it’s an idea I can’t shake off. Now that the second adaptation is in the can, and the third – Looking for Alaska – ever likely, I can’t help but wondering if Green’s stories are better … Continue reading

Is Andrew Smith Sexist? (short answer: no)

I woke up this morning to find Andrew Smith, author of Grasshopper Jungle and The Alex Crow, completely eradicated from social media. A little more digging revealed the cause: he had been accused of being sexist following an interview in Vice, in which upon being asked about the lack of females in his book, he … Continue reading

5 YA novels with BRILLIANT WOMEN

To celebrate International Women’s Day, here are 5 YA novels penned by brilliant female writers with absolutely great female characters! To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before: forget the title, which exudes romance, this book is really about Lara Jean and her three sisters. The moral of the story? Being sisters isn’t always EASY but … Continue reading

ukyaba logo

Not Being the Best, or my UKYABA Declination Speech

For a long time at school, I was the best. Not because I was particularly intelligent – I am, but not off-par with my peers – but because I was relatively studious. I’m lazy, and I learned early on that if I listened to teachers and lessons the first time round, I wouldn’t have to … Continue reading

The #wikiYA Challenge

How many of us use Wikipedia? Everyone, I’d hazard – and I’d go further to say everyone, everyday. Wikipedia is one of the best resources to come out of the invention of the internet. It’s literally THE BEST. It’ll pretty much tell you everything about anything. That sudden interest you developed in fluid dynamics? You’d … Continue reading

The Next YA Trend: Science Fiction?

A few months ago I bemoaned on Twitter that there was not enough science fiction or space operas in young adult fiction: YA needs more hard sci-fi / space operas. Please. — Rhys (@FictionThirst) August 22, 2014 Of course, fiction publishing is full of speculation about the next genre people won’t be able to get … Continue reading

Deathly Hallows Poster

Film review: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

When Warner Brothers announced that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was going to be split into a two-part production, there was quite a buzz. Potterites (like myself) thought what a great idea it was- too long have we been suffering from bad book adaptations. Cynics decided this was just another marketing plot to pull … Continue reading