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Book Reviews: YA in verse

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I have a great fondness for novels and memoirs in verse, which is not often indulged by the UK YA market (Sarah Crossan aside) but certainly catered to by the US one. And as soon as I read one I remember how much I love them and want to read more. So here are three I’ve read very recently:

  • Christine Heppermann’s Ask Me How I Got Here, which I had my eye on because I adored, adored her Poisoned Apples collection a couple of years back. This is the story of Addie, who has an abortion as a teenager and it changes her life – not that she regrets it, but that it shifts her view of the world and her own sense of identity. Her boyfriend seems much further away, while an old running friend offers the kind of understanding – and experience with sadness – that she needs. I particularly loved seeing Addie in her all-girls’ Catholic school – an environment I am very, very familiar with.
  • Samantha Schutz’s You Are Not Here is her follow-up to her memoir in verse, I Don’t Want To Be Crazy, and explores the grief of a seventeen-year-old who loses a boyfriend who wasn’t quite a boyfriend. It’s a thought-provoking deconstruction of teen relationships, and very readable.
  • Eireann Corrigan’s You Remind Me Of You is a memoir in verse about eating disorders and recovery from a suicide attempt, which was published more than a decade ago and has been on my to-read list for almost as long. The poetry is longer and a bit more intense than what we often see in these kind of books, but it’s still accessible and a way of softening – while also heightening – some of the intense topics covered here.

Next up in verse-land I will be delving into Lisa Schroeder’s work, and maybe revisiting Ellen Hopkins (I find her a bit hit-and-miss). Any other suggestions would be more than welcome…


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