Maybe you've noticed, Young Adult literature is on fire right now. It's been around forever, Nancy Drew and Sweet Valley High were certainly YA, but it feels like only in the last decade or so that YA has really come into its own as a subgenre of fiction. The credit can't entirely be placed on a certain boy wizard's shoulders, but his popularity certainly swung wide a door that had previously been open only a crack and I'm not even going to mention a certain vampire that has tweens, teens AND their mothers hearts afluttering.
Today the field is flush with interesting and complex stories. Novels that are as compelling to the expected younger audience as they are to a more mature reader. One of these is the evolving trilogy that began with the Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. I was immediately sucked into the dystopian world Collins created. Now, with Catching Fire, the second in the trilogy, we are drawn back into the desperation and horror of the Games, an event held each year that requires two "tributes" from each of the twelve districts to compete to the death. It is meant to remind the districts of the war that shaped their nation, Panem, years ago, but it is pure entertainment for the ostentatious ruling class of the Capitol. However, all does not go as planned by the Gamemakers and our heroine Katniss becomes the center of a growing rebellion among the districts.
There is action and romance, intrigue and compassion. It is a thoroughly engaging read that will have you on the edge of your seat.
My only complaint? That I have to wait a year for the third and final installment to be published.
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I LOVE YA fiction! It seems that a lot of the time, YA authors are telling good stories rather than trying to convince you of how intelligent they are. There are so many wonderful stories out there!!