Active Voice

Tuesday is the release of the Mockingjay, the incredibly super highly anticipated conclusion of Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games trilogy. (But I don’t have to tell you that: let’s face it, if you like YA enough to read this blog, you already know that.) So here, have an open thread for discussing whatever you care to about the series. Who will live and who will die? Will Katniss have to go through a third round of games? Does Katniss end up with Gale or Peeta (and do you care who she ends up with)?

The only thing we ask is that, while spoilers for The Hunger Games and Catching Fire are fair game, no one spoils Mockingjay for 48 hours after its release (so all day Tuesday and Wednesday) so people will have a chance to read it for themselves. (I know I’m taking Tuesday off work to do so…)

Okay? Have at it!

By Jacklyn Dolamore [LibraryThing -- GoodReads]

Nimira left her home of Tiansher hoping to find fame and fortune in Lorinar, only end up a singing “trouser girl” in a low-class show. Then Hollin Parry, a well-to-do gentleman sorcerer, invites her to create a show with him, singing to accompany his fairy-made automaton piano player. Nim jumps at the chance — but when she arrives at his estate, she learns that it’s haunted by the ghost of his wife, and that there’s something strange about the automaton… In fact, it might just be alive.

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By Cressida Cowell [LibraryThing - Goodreads]

Even though Hiccup is the son of the Viking chief, he’s scrawny and not much good at Viking-type things. All the youths in the village have to catch dragons to train, but Hiccup only manages to get a tiny one, which he accurately names Toothless. Though Hiccup has taught himself to speak Dragonese, Toothless refuses to obey him, and eventually gets Hiccup and all the other boys banished from the village. That’s when they realize a monstrous Sea Dragon has washed up on their shore. It’s up to Hiccup and Toothless to defeat the Sea Dragon, save the village, and get themselves reinstated in the village, if they can only get along long enough to do it.

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By Cinda Williams Chima [Chima at LibraryThing]

Underlying the world we know is a world of magic users – a handful of lesser guilds, ruled over by the powerful and ruthless wizards. For centuries, the wizards have been forcing magical warriors into deadly tournaments to avoid confronting each other directly and starting an all-out wizard war. That all changes in The Warrior Heir, when Jack Swift, an ordinary high school student, discovers that he may be the last warrior alive – and every wizard in the world wants to use him or kill him. Jack is thrust into the wizard tournament, and wizard society is subsequently turned in its head. In The Wizard Heir, the immensely powerful young wizard Seph McCauley finds himself a pawn in the growing wizard war, thanks to a magical lineage he doesn’t even know about. And in The Dragon Heir, the fate of everything may just rest in the hands of the seemingly-unmagical Madison Moss, who is trying to fight both her growing attraction to Seph and the destructive power she holds over him. If the magical world is to be saved, Madison must figure out her place in the ancient legends before the other side gets their hands on her.

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By Karen Healey [LibraryThing - Goodreads]

High school student Ellie’s life is fairly normal, until she agrees to help out with a play at the local university, thanks to the urging of her best friend, Kevin. But someone else in the play has her sights set on Kevin – someone not quite human – and suddenly Ellie finds herself navigating the world of the New Zealand supernatural armed only with a magic mask and the help of the mysterious Mark (on whom Ellie just happens to have an enormous crush). As Ellie discovers that the mythology of her homeland is all too real, she finds that that selfsame mythology is threatening to destroy New Zealand – and that she may be the only person left who can stop it.

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By Garth Nix [LibraryThing - Goodreads]

Arthur has battled and defeated the first six trustees, but now he must face the most powerful of them all: Lord Sunday. To make matters worse, the House has almost completely collapsed into nothing, his best friends Suzy and Leaf have been pressed into dangerous military service against the Piper’s army, his mother is missing, and he is now completely, irrevocably a Denizen. As he struggles to overcome Lord Sunday and free the final part of the Architect’s Will, the Will’s true meaning is about to become clear, shaking the very foundations of the House and all of existence.

Since I can’t discuss my reaction to this book without talking about the end, major spoilers are unhidden behind the cut.

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By Bruce Coville [Goodreads -- LibraryThing]

The ancient and evil woman called Beloved has finally broken through into Luster, the land of the Unicorns, and brought the Hunt with her. As the Hunters start their genocide, the unicorns gather together and find allies of their own — but if they can’t find a way to get back their fighting fire, it could be the end of the unicorns forever. But Beloved’s mad Hunt has an unintended consequence: the gate she opened is right in the heart of Luster, destroying the great tree that holds the world together, and now not just the unicorns, but all of Luster, may be doomed…

General spoilers are unhidden after the cut.
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By R. L. LaFevers [LibraryThing – Goodreads]

Because Theodosia’s parents work at the London Museum of Legends and Antiquities, Theodosia spends a lot of time around quite a lot of very cool ancient artifacts. The only problem is that most of these items come into the museum with curses on them, and Theodosia appears to be the only one who can see the curses. When one particularly curse-heavy artifact is stolen from the museum, Theodosia must recover it, along with her brother Henry and her new pickpocket friend Will, before the whole country is flung into war.

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By James Dashner [LibraryThing -- GoodReads]

Thomas wakes up in the maze, the newest kid there. Before he has a chance to figure out why he can’t remember anything, or acclimate to life in the Glade and the Maze and its horrible Grievers beyond, bad things start happening. First, another newbie shows up — the first and only girl. Then supplies stop coming. And then the Ending: if the Gladers don’t solve the Maze soon, they’re definitely going to die there.

There are spoilers uncovered under the cut.
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By Susan Cooper [LibraryThing]

On his 11th birthday, Will Stanton learns that he not merely human; he is the last of the immortal Old Ones, destined to protect the world from those that would destroy it. Since time immemorial there has been a constant struggle between the forces of the Light and those of the Dark. Now the Dark is rising, gathering for a final push, and the chances of stopping it for once and for all rest with a small group of children: Will, youngest of the Old Ones; Simon, Jane, and Barney Drew, powerless but clever and resourceful; and Bran Davies the Raven Boy, with a secret magical heritage of his own.

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