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📂 Category: Young adult,Books,Culture,Best books of the year
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Torch fire
Moira Buffini (Faber)
In her Songlight debut in 2024, Buffini immerses young adult readers in a dystopian landscape inspired by John Wyndham’s The Chrysalids, in which nations are bitterly divided by attitudes toward telepathy. The second part in the trilogy pits the Brightlands, who persecute those who use the Light of Song, against the Aelish, who value them – and the Terwans, spacefarers who see ordinary humans as disposable. While several meticulously drawn heroes—including Elsa, who is desperate for refuge, Nightingale, who is forced to appease a terrifying captor, and Ray, who is trying to make sense of an extraordinary discovery—struggle to find love, acceptance, and security, the book glows like its title, consuming the reader more powerfully with each page. Fans will find it difficult to wait for the final installment.
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We are your children
David Roberts (Two Hots)
“Words, when thrown like stones, cut deeply,” Roberts asserts, offering his colorful and fascinating history of LGBTQ+ community activism by describing his childhood experience with homophobic bullying. The power of words to wound, but also to speak to authentic life, courage and change, offered through sit-ins, marches and protests on every scale, is evident throughout this book, which chronicles queer activism in the UK and US from the 1950s to the early 2000s. Although it contains many stories of violence and suffering, from the assassination of Harvey Milk to the ravages of HIV/AIDS, the prevailing mood, underscored by Roberts’s bold, colorful and expressive works, is defiance, joy and proud hope – from Quentin Crisp’s glowering to the repetition of the Pride flag, and Julian Howes wearing a skirt as a London Underground worker in the 1970s to his first same-sex kiss. A remarkable achievement, presenting through accessible individual narratives the hard-won rights that remain constantly under threat.
No refuge
Patrice Aggs and Joe Brady (DFB)
This standalone sequel to the brilliant No Country is set in a horribly war-torn Britain, where a hostile bureaucracy preys on refugee children. Now that the Civil War has reached their home, Hannah, Bee, and their little brother Dom have fled, leaving their father behind; Following the plan, they hope to reunite, but hiding from the Free Kingdom’s soldiers and keeping themselves safe becomes steadily more difficult, even before they find themselves trapped in the Green Zone under oppressive police control on their way to their rendezvous. Aggs’s dynamic photographs, muted colors, and unsettling viewpoints create a pervasive sense of dread in this engaging, well-crafted, and compassionate graphic novel.
What happens online
Nathanael Lesueur (Quick Key)
Fred’s life is difficult. His father is working away, his mother is struggling to fit in, and at school he is a friendless trifle. Online, though, Fred’s alter ego Existor is a gamer and streamer with an off-the-charts following – the exact opposite of his unpopular creator. Two worlds collide when Fred is tempted to use the Existor’s influence to spread rumors about fellow bullies – but when his lies spread like wildfire, the ultimate consequences are devastating and painful. Who is truly unique, and who is willing to accept themselves offline? With his light touch of humor, award-winning Lessore explores self-esteem, identity, and realities online and off in a 13-plus landmark story that effortlessly blends seriousness with comedy, and tackles tough stuff without ever feeling preachy.
Feminist history for every day of the year
Kate Moss, illustrated by Sophie Bass (Pan Macmillan)
This inspiring compendium of ‘pioneers across time and space’ features a truly remarkable cast of famous women – anti-apartheid activist Lillian Njoy and bra designer Carys Cosby stand alongside Florence Nightingale, Mary Wollstonecraft and Boudicca – while offering thought-provoking essays on topics such as the climate emergency, male feminism, names and fashion each month. While acknowledging that the views of some of her chosen protagonists may tempt younger readers to “abolish” them, Moss argues persuasively for not simply “abandoning” them.[ing] “Extract those with whom we do not agree or do not like” – as “women, like men, contain contradictions.” A very interesting resource for anyone interested in justice.
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