The good people at Buzzy Mag have published another review I wrote for them. It is for Richard Kadrey's YA novel, Dead Set. The first bit and a link is below:
A certain amount of despair washes over me every time I think about the young adult book market. Though it really shouldn’t. The tired regurgitated plots and the trend following that is seemingly so transparent in YA fiction also exists in popular adult fiction. I just feel that there aren’t enough YA writers going for the jugular. Teens don’t need to be handled with kid gloves. And to see some authors kick them the real deal and not lob some slow-pitch at them is refreshing.
Zoe lives in two worlds: one world is the world of dreams she shares with her dream friend Valentine, the other is the real world, a world where her father has died and her life is falling apart. We start off with a bit of a cliché of the dead parent (or friend or other family member) that seems to plague YA fiction. Zoe has to move to a different school, without her friends, and her mother can’t find a job. Zoe wonders away from all of these tired plot points and finds a rare record store. She runs her fingers over all of the old punk bands that her parents used to work with before selling out to have a normal life. The owner, Ammut Emmett to people who don’t know him, shows her the secret room where for small sacrifices, Zoe can see and experience the dead including her father. More...
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