YA Book Prize: Shortlist of the best Young Adult fiction nominations

Peter Carty

The world of Young Adult (YA) fiction is enjoying a long-running boom. Sales are consistently buoyant, with YA novels reaching a large number of mature readers as well as the more traditional teenage market. So, it seems apt that the on-trend literature form is celebrated as one of the book world's most exciting, malleable new genres.

Bookseller magazine's Young Adult fiction award - the coveted YA Book Prize - is currently in it's second successive year. 2016's shortlist of talent showcases incredible examples from across the wide-ranging genre and, in covering subject matter ranging from gritty social issues to entire fantasy worlds, there is plenty here to keep even the most avid of bookworms' synapses appeased.

Read on for IBTimes UK's

reviews of some of the finest YA titles available to buy now.

The Lie Tree, by Frances Hardinge (Macmillan Children's)

The Costa Book Award-winning novel is a multi-layered narrative which contains a broad appeal for readers of all ages.

Hardinge is a wildly original writer and The Lie Tree is arguably her best novel to date. It has already been awarded the Costa Book of the Year 2016 prize and is the first children's book to win since 2001.

The book is set amongst an alternative Victorian era and her protagonist Faith, a scientist's daughter, discovers a tree that feeds off lies and has the ability to alter reality. The Lie Tree turns into a sophisticated, multi-layered narrative dealing with feminism and evolution.

Asking For It, by Louise O'Neill (Quercus)

A gang rape in a small Irish town leads to online persecution - with terrible consequences.

Emma O'Donovan, 18, lives in the fictional Irish town of Ballinatoom. She wakes up after a party to discover she has been gang-raped but, instead of support, she finds herself as the victim of online humiliation and abuse: "Slut. Bitch. Skank. Whore. You were asking for it." O'Neill writes in the first person from Emma's perspective and her novel tackles the thorny issues of sexual consent, victim blaming and self-harm.

This is courageous, hard-hitting writing.

Concentrat8, by William Sutcliffe (Bloomsbury Childrens)

A satire about the havoc unleashed by a drug intended to control troublesome teenagers.

Sutcliffe's novel is set in a future London, in which the drug Concentr8 is prescribed for kids with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). A gang, led by Blaze and his sidekick Troy, have been using the drug for years. But, during rioting, they take a hostage and a stand-off with the authorities ensues.

Sutcliffe challenges the belief that we can control wayward teenagers through medication. His satire sits uncomfortably close to reality.

The Rest of Us Just Live Here, by Patrick Ness (Walker Books)

Ness attempts a parody of the whole young adult fiction genre and pulls it off in style.
Ness has taken a big risk in this novel, one that essentially mocks the entire teen fiction genre. Our anti-hero is Mikey and, while immortal beings have selected some of Mikey's classmates to be superheroes and save the world, Mikey is busy tackling exams and dating. In other words, as the novel's preface puts it: "What if you aren't the chosen one?" Ness pulls off this witty parody with panache as he makes the mundane realities of Mikey's life more compelling than any fantasy tale.

The Curious Tale of the Lady Caraboo, by Catherine Johnston (Corgi Childrens)

A contemporary look at a historical story of deception and cross-cultural confusion.
Catherine Johnston has fictionalised a real historical incident in this new novel. During the early nineteenth century, a working class girl called Mary Willcocks convinced an affluent rural family, the Worralls, that she was a Japanese princess called Caraboo, with it taking a while for her deception to be exposed. But in Johnston's version, Willcox is attacked by a band of men before deciding to transform herself into an aristocratic warrior, in a story of poverty and cross-cultural confusion.

The Sin Eater's Daughter, by Melinda Salisbury (Scholastic)

A dark alternative world featuring strange mythology, illicit romance and death.
Salisbury has created a dark, alternative world, replete with strange mythologies. Seventeen-year-old Twylla is our heroine, but she is also a monster — an executioner who can kill when in contact with her poisonous skin. Her mother, meanwhile, is a Sin Eater: when people die she consumes food which is symbolic of their transgressions. Salisbury's characterisation and plot line are both strong and let down only by a limp romantic strand. This is the first of a trilogy, containing oodles of promise for the series' further instalments.

Am I Normal Yet?, by Holly Bourne (Usborne Publishing)

The complexities of teenage life are made ten times more difficult by OCD.

Sixteen-year-old Evie's usual day consists of endless hand-washing and obsessive thoughts. In the story's recent past, she has endured heavy medication and confinement in a hospital. But now, in the present day, she's about to go to college and she's worried that her secret might slip out. She has two friends, Lottie and Amber, but she also yearns for a boyfriend too.

Bourne's novel explores the complexities of OCD, as well as the stigma that surrounds the condition. The key message here is that nobody is 'normal'.

The remaining three novels of the ten-strong shortlist have already been reviewed by IBTimes UK, which include Unbecoming, by Jenny Downham (David Fickling Books); One, by Sarah Crosnan (Bloomsbury Childrens); and The Art of Being Normal, by Lisa Williamson (David Fickling Books).
You can read more on The Art of Being Normal, and other select titles, in our 2015 book gift guide.